2006, IV - The Muslim Sunrise

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What is the impact of the soul and thebody on each other?As the soul is affected by physical conduct, in the sameway sometimes the soul affects the body. For instance, when aperson experiences sorrow his eyes become wet, and a personwho feels happy, smiles. All our natural actions like eating,drinking, sleeping, waking, moving about, resting, bathing etc.,affect our spiritual condition. Our physical structure is relatedintimately to our total humanity. If a certain part of the brain isinjured memory is immediately lost. An injury to another part of the brain causes loss ofconsciousness. Poisonous air affects the body and through it the mind, and the whole inner system,to which the moral impulses are related, is impaired and the unfortunate victim passes out quicklylike a madman. Thus physical injuries disclose that there is a mysterious relationship between thesoul and the body which is beyond the ken of man. Reflection shows that the body is the motherof the soul. The soul does not descend from outside into the womb of a pregnant woman. It is alight that is inherent in the sperm which begins to shine forth with the development of the embryo.The Word of God Almighty conveys to us that the soul becomes manifest from the frameworkthat is prepared in the womb from the sperm, as is said in the Holy Quran: Then We develop itinto a new creation. So blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators (23:15).In old age a person arrives at a stage in which, after having acquired much knowledge he loses itall. (22:6) All this observation of ours is proof enough that the soul without the body amounts tonothing. This is reinforced by the thought that if the soul without the body had amounted toanything, it would have been without purpose for God Almighty to set up a relationship betweenit and a mortal body. Further it is worthy of note that God Almighty has created mall for limitlessprogress. Then if the soul is not able to achieve the progress possible in this brief life without thecompanionship of the body. How can we expect that it would be able, by itself, without thecompanionship of the body, achieve limitless progress in the hereafter.All this shows that according to Islamic principles, for the soul to act perfectly it is necessary forit to enjoy the companionship of a body at all times.16 MuslimSunrise
Defining the Soul: Perceptions in World Religions•The Jewish Soul•The Christian Soul•The Muslim Soul•The Hindu and the Buddhist SoulBy Aisha Husain AhmadThe Oxford EnglishDictionary defines thesoul as “the spiritualelement of a person,regarded as immortal.”The Merriam-Webster dictionarydefines it as “the spiritual principleembodied in human beings, allrational and spiritual beings, or theuniverse.” And the CambridgeInternational dictionary defines thesoul as “the spiritual part of a personwhich some people believe continuesto exist in some form after the bodyhas died.” In all three definitions, theuse of the word “spiritual” is thecommon thread. All three draw acorrelation between “soul” and“spirit”, and in fact, the line betweenthese two is so faint that they areoften used interchangeably. But whatexactly is the soul? Where did theconcept come from? In a societyobsessed with materialism, there ismuch to be said for the enduringpresence of this ethereal entity.Almost every religion contains somesort of ideology in reference to thesoul. By exploring these ideologies,one may begin to gain some insightinto this widely acknowledged yetrarely understood concept.The concept of the soul arose from thehuman need to feel some sort of connectionto the divine. In studying the ancientpolytheistic philosophies, such as Greek andthe Egyptian, it becomes clear that theafterlife played an extremely vital part inthese people’s earthly lives. The view thatone should be judged by one’s earthly deedsis not a new one. The ancients viewed thebody as a vessel for an intrinsic energy thatlived on even after death. Whatever deeds aperson did in his lifetime, whether good orevil, these deeds had an impact on whathappened to the person after death. As theancient philosophies died out and themonotheistic religions began to emerge, therelationship between humans and the divine,and thus the concept of the soul, becamemore pronounced.The Jewish SoulJudaism is the oldest of the three majormonotheistic religions prevalent today. Itdefines the soul as a reflection of God inhuman beings. Therefore, a spiritual realmexists beyond the individual that sustainsand energizes the soul. Jewish belief statesthat the body is from the earth, but that thesoul is from God. The Torah itself, however,does not make any distinction between thesetwo and does not even acknowledge themas different parts in a human being. Ahuman being is viewed as a unifiedbeing, described in Hebrew as nefesh.This word encompasses two ideas. Itrefers to human life in general and tohuman character in particular. Indescribing human life, there are a fewmore terms that are utilized. The wordruah means “spirit” and neshamahmeans “breath.” In the Torah there areno differentiations made among allthese terms. They all roughly define thesoul. In the Book of Job, it states, “Inwhose hand is the life [nefesh] of everyliving thing, and the breath [ruah] ofall mankind” (Job 12:10). Theunderlying and fundamental principleidea in Judaism in regards to the soulis that the soul comes from God. Thisview is underlined in one of the Jewishdaily prayers:WINTER 2006 17
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Page 33 and 34: Kalamazoo GazetteNovember 12, 2006
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2006, IV - The Muslim Sunrise

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