Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 310
310 in the womb distil from the body a delicate essence which is called the soul. As soon as the relationship between the soul and the body is completely adjusted, the heart begins to function and the body comes alive. The soul has then a distinct existence of its own apart from the body, which henceforth serves it as a shell. Islam, therefore, teaches that the soul is created and comes into being during the period of gestation. On the other hand, Islam also teaches that once the soul is created it is never destroyed, but is granted an unending period of time for its development. What is called death is merely the severance of the soul from the body, as the result of which the heart is stilled and the body ceases to be of any further use. According to Islam, the soul manifests its powers always through a body, and whenever the body becomes unfitted for this purpose, the soul quits it. This flight of the soul from the body is called death. Hence when we say so and so is dead, we simply mean that his soul has quitted his body, but the soul never dies and goes on living for ever. Islam, therefore, teaches that there is a life after death, and it also teaches that that life is a continuation of the life which a man leads on earth. There is no one interval during which the human soul must remain in a state of inactivity or suspense, being revived thereafter and consigned to a place, pleasant or unpleasant, according to its deserts. The human soul possesses inherent faculties which repudiate even the suggestion of a state of inactivity; it is vouchsafed an eternal existence which is protected by the attribute of God which is expressed by the term, Qayy u m , i. e. , the