The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 408
408. Essence of Islām II natural qualities of things can only be determined through correct experience. Reason is a guide only in respect of inductive matters. Thus there are diverse methods of arriving at the reality. Man is misled when he depends only on one method for the determination of diverse matters. We have experience of it every day. The departure of the soul from the body, or the relationship of the soul with the body are matters which cannot be determined by reason. Had that been possible philosophers and thinkers would not have fallen into error. Thus the relationship of the soul with the grave is a verity, but it cannot be perceived by the physical eye. It can be perceived only through the eye of vision. It cannot be perceived by mere reason, for reason cannot determine even the existence of the soul. This matter is the subject of a thousand contentions and there are thousands of atheistic philosophers who deny the existence of the soul. . Had it been a matter of pure reason there should have been no difference. . The function of the eye, for instance, is to see and we cannot expect that the eye of X should behold a white object and the eye of Y should determine the taste of that white object. Mere reason cannot determine for certain even the existence of the soul let alone its nature and its relationships. Philosophers consider the soul to be like a green piece of wood. To them the soul has no external or independent existence. Whatever we know about the soul and its relationships is gathered from the spring of. Prophethood. Some philosophers have written something about it but their knowledge is borrowed from that spring. . The fact that the souls do have a relationship with the graves should be viewed through the eye of visions which indicates that the soul has a relationship with that heap of