The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 396
396. Essence of Islam II ter those alone are revived who used to work for life. . No soul possesses the capacity to continue alive on its own. Have you the capacity to control your qualities and circumstances and knowledge during sleep as you are capable of doing in your waking hours? As soon as you sink into sleep your soul undergoes a change and suffers a type of non-existence whereby God Almighty has said about the soul in the Holy Qur'ān: اللهُ يَتَوَى الأَنْفُسَ حِيْنَ مَوْتِهَا وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَا مِهَا فَيُمْسِكُ التي قضى عَلَيْهَا الْمَوْتَ وَيُرْسِلُ الأخرى إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لايت لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ 169 (Part Number 24, Surah Al-Zumar). This means that at the time of death the souls pass wholly under the control of God and lose all choice and self-consciousness. That is to say, they are deprived of the qualities of life and become as if they were nonexistent. Such of them as do not die in fact, but pass into a condition resembling death in a state of sleep, also pass under the control of God Almighty and undergo a change in which they lose all worldly consciousness and feeling. Thus, both in death and during sleep, God takes possession of the soul in such manner that it loses all choice and consciousness which are the signs of life. . Then such souls upon whom death has in fact been imposed are retained by God, so that they cannot return to the world, and He restores to the world those souls upon whom death is not imposed. In this phenomenon there are signs for those who reflect. . This verse shows that the soul undergoes death as well as 169. Al-Zumar, 39:43 [Publisher]