The Confiscation of the Soul

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The eternal life of the soulThe Punishment of the people of the pharaoh in purgatory

In the fourth (and similar verses) we find another specialty. It says, “Say, “The angel of death put in charge of you shall take away your life, and then to your Lord you shall be brought back.”

A very beautiful and modern interpretation has been used and it is the word “yata-waffaakum” which is derived from the word “Tu-waffi” which means development.

Raghib in Mafuradat says “Wafi” means something that has reached perfection and “Tu-waffi” means to catch something strongly.

This interpretation tells us the reality that death is not destruction and obliteration but is a complete confiscation or taking of the human soul into custody. This in itself is a living example that proves that human soul remains alive after a person’s death. Many great commentators have dealt this problem and reminded others about it because the complete confiscation is not connected with destruction at all.

We should note that this verse is the answer to those who deny the Qiyamah. In the previous verse (Sajdah 10) they had said, “When we have become lost in the earth, shall we, even then, return as a new creation?”

In answer this verse says, “ Your existence is not just you body that you will be lost in earth after death but the main thing is you soul which the angels of God will confiscate and you will return to God on the Day of Judgment. (Your body will be resurrected with your soul). As we have said earlier this idea has been repeated in many verses of the Qura’n and has been emphasized too.

This verse tells us not to look at death the way the materialists do because they think of it as the end and the destruction of mankind. They say “There is only this worldly life and nothing after death” while death is the transfer from this lowly worldly life to a greater one and that too through God’s angels who facilitate it.

In some place this confiscation has been attributed to God.

Verse 42 of Sarah Zumur says: “It is God who takes away their souls at the time of death.” And then verse 104 of Sarah Yunus says: “But I worship God who causes you to die.”

There is no contradiction between the three premises (God takes away your souls, the angel of death takes your soul, and the angels confiscate the souls) because all are obedient to Him; the real doer is God. The angels who confiscate the souls have a leader called the Angel of Death and he sends the angels that do the work.

In the 5th verse the same thing is said with some addition. Human sleep has been compared with death and the word “Tuwaffa” has been used twice. Verse 42 of Sarah Zumur:

Says:

“It is God who takes away their souls at the time of their deaths and those that die not during their sleep.” And adds:

“He keeps back those (souls) for whom death has been decreed and sends the rest for a term appointed” It further adds:

“Verily in this are sign for the people who think deeply.”

The word “Anfusa” here is the plural of “Nafs” meaning life and here life means the soul. We learn that in both the cases the soul is taken away, in sleep and in death. The difference is that the confiscation is not complete in sleep and the soul is returned to the body but in case of death there is no scope for return. (There have been some people who have died while in sleep and never woke up and we have referred to them in the first verse)

Some commentators say that the soul has three conditions. It is sometimes dominant both in the manifest and unseen conditions, sometimes it rules only in that which is evident; and at other times leaves both the manifest and the hidden condition.

The first is the condition in which a person is awake, the second is when he sleeps and the third is death. (1) For more clarifications we should remember that human life has three conditions: the life of plants in which the development from a drop of sperm to a full human child takes place. (Like in plants)

The second is the animal life which has sensation and movement though the movement may be involuntary like the throbbing of the veins or voluntary like walking or using the hands.

The human life is the highest form and is full of responsibilities for understanding, judging, and determination, analyzing different problems, and discovering things or creating them.

It is absolutely certain that the first two conditions are not taken away in sleep and it is only done in the third condition.

We learn from this verse that sleep is an incomplete form of death or in other words death is the complete form of sleep. We further learn that man consists of the body and the soul. The body is from the material world and the soul is a gem that is from above this material world and its laws.

So this is why how he discovers new truths from time to time is solved. Since in sleep the human soul leaves the body and is free in its movement it discovers new worlds.

Amirul Mumineen Ali Ibn Abi Talib has said:

“The soul departs from the body when it sleeps but its rays remain and this is why he dreams and the soul returns in the twinkling of the eyes when he awakens. (2)

These verses can not be explained but as the eternal life of the soul because nothing can be discerned in death let alone be it physical. The plant and animal life ends with death so they cannot be confiscated. So we conclude that “Tuwaffa” (the complete confiscation is about the soul only which is the real motivator of human life.

 

The eternal life of the soulThe Punishment of the people of the pharaoh in purgatory
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