Life Supreme — Page 85
88. LIFE SUPREME. Lord send me back that I may do righteous deeds in the life that I have left behind'. " (23:100-101) "Oh that we might be sent backı And then we would not treat the signs of our Lord as lies and we would be of the believers. " (6:28). The following verses also show that departed souls will hold memories of this life: "On that day man will remember, but of what avail shall be his remembrance. 22 (89:24) ""The dead think they only tarried a short time in this world. " (17:53). In addition to the aforesaid verses there are also many other similar passages in the Holy Quran. . TRANSITION OF THE SOUL. The soul is the nucleus of our eternal being and manifests its powers always through a body in this world and in the Hereafter. As the soul always needs to operate through a body the question now arises in what kind of body does it dwell after it quits the human frame and enters the spirit world. The answer may well be the etheric body or soul body which varies in degree of radiance or dullness according to the condition of the soul at the time of death. Nevertheless it does not serve the soul as a permanent body. . Islam teaches that following the death of the physical body the soul undergoes a transformation. It may be likened to a drop of sperm which grows and develops in the womb from whence it emerges as a new creation in the form of a fully developed child. Similarly, after death, the soul may be likened to a sperm drop and its temporary body to a womb in which it undergoes a transformation eventuallly to emerge on the Day of Resurrection as a new spiritual creation. . This body now possesses a new soul. The general physical and mental features of a child much depends upon the multifarious inherent characteristics locked within the sperm drop cell. Similarly the condition of the new spiritual body depends much upon the state of the soul when it quitted this world. The new body now develops and matures as the child grows and matures in adult age; and when this process is completed on the Day of Judgment, the gateways of heaven and hell are opened wide.