Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 314
314 soul adjusts its knowledge and its reason to its new surroundings. The soul is now better developed than it was when it emerged from the tomb, but is perfected only after the experiences of this day, at the end of which it is like a youth fully developed and fully pre- pared to experience different aspects of life. On the termination of this period which is called the Last Judgment man is translated to that condition of life which is expressed in terms of heaven and hell. Throughout these three stages man experiences pain or pleasure in accordance with his spiritual devel- opment, that is to say, he realizes the joys of heaven or the tortures of hell even during its period of gestation, its period of infancy and finally after its complete development; only its realization is defective or less perfect during the two earlier stages, becoming perfect in the last. In this stage man’s realization of pleasure and pain becomes perfect, and this stage is termed heaven or hell. This stage is unending. There is no interval between death and the feeling of pleasure or pain; only the soul in its effort to adjust itself to, and equip itself for, the new conditions of life must pass through two preparatory stages which are inferior to, and less perfect than the last stage. The human soul is continuously pressing forward and pass- ing from one stage into the next higher. The Holy Quran says: