Reincarnation
in Christianity & Islam : Life In Hell As A Demon Orc Uruk Hai!
“ Furthermore
in one of the shorter chapters it states clearly " Jaheem
ummuhu" meaning Hell is his mother denoting that contrary to the
tortuous image of Hell that many people have , the Quran teaches that
Hell is a Nursing Mother after you have been confronted with your
deeds in its most objective form ”
- Demon Orc In Hell
But he whose
balance (of good deeds) will be (found) light,
Will
have his mother as hell!
And
what will explain to thee what this is?
(It
is) a Hell Blazing fiercely!
You
will be born in hell as a demon Orc Uruk Hai!
"Do
you know how the Orcs
first came to be? They were
Elves
once, taken by the Dark
Lord,
tortured and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life. And now,
perfected. My fighting Uruk-hai."
—Saruman
In
The Lord of the Rings
movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, Saruman appeared to be the only one
who created the Uruks. In The
Fellowship of the Ring,
Gandalf mentioned of Saruman breeding the Uruks to possess the traits
of orcs and goblin men without the two races' weaknesses. However,
the book Lord of the
Rings: Weapons and Warfare
cleared up this discrepancy by explaining that he is in fact only
replicating the method that had already been used by Sauron. Sauron's
uruks, seen in The
Return of the King,
have noticeably rougher features than Saruman's. They are shown in
the movie as being released from a kind of membrane in the mud deep
under Isengard (special commentary on the DVD edition explained that
they were trying to base the scene on an early description of
Tolkien's that orcs "worm their way out of the ground like
maggots").
Reincarnation
In Early Christianity
In
December, 1945, early Christian writings containing many secrets of
the early Christian religion were found in upper Egypt, a location
where many Christians fled during the Roman invasion of Jerusalem.
Undisturbed since their concealment almost two thousand years ago,
these manuscripts of Christian mysticism rank in importance with the
Dead Sea Scrolls. These writings affirmed the existence of the
doctrine of reincarnation being taught among the early Jews and
Christians. These Christian mystics, referred to as Christian
Gnostics, were ultimately destroyed by the orthodox Church for being
heretics. Their sacred writings were destroyed and hidden with the
belief that they would be revealed at an appropriate time in the
future. The discovery in 1945 yielded writings that included some
long lost gospels, some of which were written earlier than the known
gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Brian A. Bain, M.A., has
this to say about the 1945 discovery:
"Long
considered to be heretical, ancient Gnostic Christian texts unearthed
this century display compelling similarities between Gnostic
conceptions of life and death and modern near-death experiences. The
Gnostic texts devoted extensive tracts to what readers could expect
to encounter when they died. Other passages make numerous allusions
to near-death-like experiences that can be realized in this life,
most notably the human encounter with a divine light. The Gnostic
Christian literature gives us one more example of NDEs and similar
experiences in the ancient world."
Another
interesting fact comes from Edgar Cayce (a near-death experiencer)
who affirmed that Gnosticism is the highest form of Christianity.
The
Christian Gnostics were regarded by some as a new Jewish sect who
believed they had finally found the long-awaited Messiah and not a
new religion. Some of the apostles became Gnostic and because of
this, Christianity could well have grown up as a Gnostic religion had
it not been for their eventual persecution by the organized Church
centuries later.
An
important Christian Gnostic teaching was the "Logos" which
in Greek is translated as "the image of the Word." It is an
important concept found in the gospel of John:
"In
the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God." (John 1:1)
Logos
is the part of God that acts in the world. It is the perfect unity of
the human and the divine. This is affirmed by John when he wrote that
"the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." When John
stated that Jesus is the Logos, he is stating that Jesus became the
Logos, the Christ. The Logos is the divine "spark" of God
within humans that needs to awakened. Everyone has the "image of
the Word (Logos)" within them and it is for this reason that
Genesis describes humanity as created "in the image and likeness
of God."The Logos is the divine Spirit in humanity. By using the
Christian Gnostic idea of the Logos, John is not only affirming the
preexistence and divinity of Jesus, but he is affirming that all sons
of God created in the "image of the Word" as Jesus was,
preexisted in spirit before being born. In other words, every human
is an incarnation of the Logos and every human has to potential of
becoming like Jesus, a manifestation of the human-divine unity. Every
human can be a "Christ" and because of this, every soul
will eventually be drawn back to God.
The
Roman Church misunderstood what the Logos was in John and incorrectly
concluded from this that only Jesus is divine - the Word made flesh.
The orthodox Church either rejected or ignored this Christian Gnostic
concept found in John. This may have been a factor when the gospel of
John was almost rejected from New Testament canon when it was being
put together. This was during a time when Christian Gnosticism became
an enemy of the organized Church. Nevertheless, it was the idea of
the preexistence of the soul and its corresponding doctrine of
reincarnation that the Roman Church had great difficulty with.
The
Christian Gnostics emphasized spiritual knowledge rather blind faith
as the road to salvation. They indicated that they possessed secret
knowledge (i.e., "gnosis" in Greek) concerning the hidden
meaning of the "resurrection." This was a part of the
secret teachings of Jesus handed down to them by the apostles. This
special knowledge was restricted to people who were given the public
teachings of Christianity before qualifying to be initiated and
receive the secret teachings. In contrast, the very term "Catholic"
means "universal", implying that anyone could become a
member of the Church by adhering to the public teachings of faith and
rituals. The Christian Gnostics were harsh critics of the orthodox
Church. The Christian Gnostics accused the Church of watering down
the gospel in order to popularize it for the masses. The orthodox
Church stressed salvation through faith alone and by the rituals of
the Church.
This
secret gnosis emphasized spiritual "resurrection" (i.e,.
spiritual rebirth) and physical "resurrection" (i.e.,
reincarnation) as opposed to a resurrection defined as people
sleeping in their graves until it is time their corpses to crawl out
of their graves at the last day. Christian Gnostics held the view
that if spiritual resurrection was not attained in one lifetime, then
the soul would be subjected to as many reincarnations as it takes
until spiritual rebirth is attained.
One
of the great Church leaders was Clement of Alexandria in Egypt
(150-211 A.D.) who indicated that he possessed the secret teaching
handed down from the apostles.
In
the Gnostic text entitled The Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the
Christian Gnostic texts discovered in 1945, describes Jesus
performing secret initiation rituals. Before the discovery of this
secret gospel, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by
Clement. Clement quotes from this secret gospel and refers to it as,
"a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being
perfected." He also states, "It even yet is most carefully
guarded [by the church at Alexandria], being read only to those who
are being initiated into the great mysteries." Clement mentions
elsewhere that Jesus revealed a secret teaching to those who were
"capable of receiving it and being molded by it" He also
affirmed that, "The gnosis (secret knowledge) itself is that
which has descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted
unwritten by the apostles." (Miscell. Book VI, Chapter 7)
The
existence of a secret teaching can be found in the New Testament:
"He
told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.
But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but
never understanding.'" (Mark 4:11-12)
"He
replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven
has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given
more, and he will have an abundance." (Matthew 13:11-12)
"We
do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the
wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to
nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been
hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began."
(1 Corinthians 2:6-7)
"This,
then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as
those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed." (1
Corinthians 4:1)
"At
that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and
learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this
is what you were pleased to do.'" (Matthew 11:25-26)
Paul
wrote about teachings which are taught to spiritual "babies,"
teachings about righteousness for the more mature, and then teachings
for the spiritually mature. Paul reveals this fact immediately after
equating Melchizedek to Jesus by stating:
"We
have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you
because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time
you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the
elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk,
not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is
not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food
is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to
distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
According
to tradition, after the Roman invasion of Jerusalem, the author of
the Gospel of Mark established a church in Alexandria, Egypt. Mark
may also have been the author of a "secret gospel"
containing more advanced teaching for those being initiated into the
Christian mysteries. This secret gospel contains passages portraying
Jesus teaching secret doctrines.
2.
Origen: The Champion for the Secret Teachings of Jesus
As
the orthodox church in Rome gained more and more political power the
more it viewed secret teachings as a threat to their own public
teachings. But the Church leader who made the final and greatest
attempt to revive the secret teachings of Jesus within the orthodox
teachings was the first Church Father named Origen (183-253 A.D.) of
Alexandria in Egypt who was a disciple of Clement of Alexandra.
Origen was the first person since Paul to develop a system of
theology around the teachings of Jesus. His effort was the first
within the orthodox church to systematize a theology on so vast a
scale. Although Origen defended orthodoxy, he included in his system
the wisdom of the Christian Gnostics. His theology was a perfect
synthesis of "orthodox" and "gnostic" teachings
and came the closest to reviving the "Lost Christianity" of
the original sects, communities and schools, at a time when the
Christian Gnosticism was falling into disrepute. Unfortunately,
hundreds of years later, the Church declared him a heretic and his
teachings as heresy mostly because they affirmed preexistence and
therefore reincarnation.
Origen
had this to say about the secret teachings of Jesus:
"[Jesus]
conversed with His disciples in private, and especially in their
sacred retreats, concerning the Gospel of God; but the words which He
uttered have not been preserved, because it appeared to the
evangelists that they could not be adequately conveyed to the
multitude in writing or in speech and they saw what things were to be
committed to writing, and how this was to be done, and what was by no
means to be written to the multitude, and what was to be expressed in
words, and what was not to be so conveyed." (Contra Celsus,
Chap. VI. 18)
Concerning
these secret teachings, Clement stated:
James
the Righteous, John and Peter were entrusted by the Lord after his
resurrection with the higher knowledge. They imparted it to the other
apostles, to the seventy (Outlines Book VI)
3.
The Theology of Christian Gnosticism
According
to Gnostic theology, a series of "falling away" from the
Whole that is God occurred in eternity which resulted in all that
there is today. After the first "fall", the divine
consciousness descended to the level of the divided consciousness;
now after another "fall", it has fallen even further, into
the depths of the unconscious; it has been "forgotten." It
is now humanity's privilege to discover the potential realms of human
existence and face the great challenge of the "ascension of
consciousness" through the Man-God-Spirit transformation.
Once
souls fell into the lower levels of consciousness, they became
enamored of it and burned with the desire to experience the pleasures
of matter. The souls then no longer wanted to disengage itself from
these lower levels. Thus the world was born. From that moment souls
forgot themselves. They forgot they original habitation, their true
center and eternal being.
Gnosticism
proceeds from one fundamental insight: this world in which we find
ourselves is thoroughly and irretrievably less than holy. The soul is
trapped in a prison of flesh, and the flesh is intrinsically less
than divine. According to Gnostic theology, the creation of the
cosmos came about as the result of a tragicomic mistake: the fall of
the soul from God. Thanks to the advent of Christ in the lower realms
of consciousness, the power of reconciling the fallen souls has been
given to restore the One-ness and usher in the kingdom of light over
the kingdom of flesh and matter. The unity of the Godhead is assured
thanks to the introduction of the new uniting force, the Logos, the
part of God who acts in the flesh and the material. It is important
to distinguish the Logos (Christ) from the soul named Jesus. Any
person has the potential of becoming a Logos but it was the soul
known as Jesus who actually incarnated as a Logos and therefore
became a Christ on Earth.
We,
as humans, cannot comprehend the omnipotent power available to us
until we utilize the Christ power. When we effectively use the divine
"Christ awareness" we have the ability to help in the
liberation of the imprisoned "sparks of divinity" from
flesh and rejoin them to the Source. The divine plan of creation will
become complete as the divine outpouring of Christ gnosis liberates
humanity from ignorance. The result of this will be the redemption of
all human beings.
The
Christ power can only liberate souls through the call and revelation
of Christ gnosis to, "Awake, remember who you are and where you
come from!" But since the soul cannot by itself hear the gnosis,
the Christ power resorts to elaborate strategies to create the
conditions for which all souls will be saved.
Christian
Gnostics felt that initiation into the Cosmic Christ gnosis is
inseparable from "the light which lighteth every person coming
into the world." It is this light within, our Higher Self, which
each individual must bring to at-one-ment with the divine Source if
liberation is to occur.
As
more and more people hear the call to "Wake up!" and attain
the Christ gnosis and become liberated, their souls are received back
into the bosom of Divine Consciousness. The soul becomes free from
unholy flesh and the cycle of birth and rebirth. Christian Gnostics
seek to achieve this by cultivating the Higher Self within people to
seek reunification with the Godhead. But each soul returning to its
divine source must, after death, pass through the various levels of
consciousness. Sometimes Christian Gnostics describe seven of these
heavenly realms, other times ten.
4.
Christian Gnostic Writings
The
following quote from Jesus from the Christian Gnostic gospel, the
Book of Thomas the Contender, describes Jesus teaching reincarnation:
"Watch
and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that you may
leave the bitter bondage of this life." (Book of Thomas the
Contender 9:5)
In
another part of the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells the
disciple Thomas that after death, those people who were once
believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory
beauty," will be consumed "in their concern about life"
and will be "brought back to the visible realm."
The
following quote from Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas affirms Jesus
teaching reincarnation to his disciples:
"When
you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images
that came into being before and that neither die nor become visible,
how much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas, saying 84)
More
excerpts from this very interesting gospel will be profiled later.
In
the Secret Book of John, written by 185 A.D. at the latest,
reincarnation is placed at the center of the discussion concerning
the salvation of souls. The following is a summary of the Secret Book
of John's perspective on reincarnation.
Everyone
has drunk from the water of forgetfulness and lives in a state of
ignorance. Some people are able to overcome ignorance by having the
life-giving Spirit descend upon them. These souls "will be saved
and will become perfect," that is, escape the cycle of birth and
rebirth. John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain
salvation. They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and
thrown into "prison," the Christian Gnostic symbol for a
new body.
Jesus
says the only way for these souls to escape is to acquire knowledge
after coming from forgetfulness. A soul can accomplish this by
finding a teacher who can lead the soul in the right direction:
"This
soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells,
because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be
thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John 14:20)
Another
Christian Gnostic book, the Pistis Sophia (Greek for "Faith
Wisdom"), outlines a system of punishment and rewards that
includes reincarnation. The book explains the differences in one's
fate as a result of past-life actions. A "man who curses"
will be given a body that is continually "troubled in heart."
A "man who slanders" will be given an "oppressed"
body. A thief will be given a "lame, crooked and blind body."
A "proud" and "scornful" man will be given "a
lame and ugly body" that "everyone continually despises."
From this, we can see how this Earth, as well as hell, is a place of
education through suffering.
According
to the Pistis Sophia, some souls experience hell as a place of
shadows and torture. However, after these souls pass through hell,
they return to Earth for further experiences. Only a relatively few
extremely evil souls are not permitted to reincarnate. These souls
are cast into "outer darkness" until a time when they are
"destroyed and dissolved."
The
Pistis Sophia combines the ideas of reincarnation and divine union in
a verse beginning with the question:
"[What
happens to] a man who has committed no sin, but done good
persistently, but has not found the mysteries?" (Pistis Sophia)
The
Pistis Sophia reveals such a soul will receive "a cup filled
with thoughts and wisdom," allowing the soul to remember its
divine origin and pursue the "mysteries of the light" until
it finds them and is able to "inherit the light forever."
To "inherit the light forever" is a Gnostic term for union
with God.
In
the Gospel of Phillip, Jesus makes a clear distinction between the
resurrection of the spirit (i.e., spiritual rebirth) and the
resurrection of the body (i.e., physical rebirth, reincarnation):
"People
who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken. If they do
not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have
died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip 73:1-4)
In
the Apocryphal book, Wisdom of Solomon, recognized as canonical by
the Catholic Church, is the following verse:
"I
was given a sound body to live in because I was already good."
(Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)
This
verse raises the following question: How is it possible to get a body
after you have already been good, unless reincarnation is true?
Among
the works of the Christian Gnostics are some of the early gospels,
including secret gospels which were not preserved in the New
Testament. The Gospel of Thomas was the first gospel ever written and
is considered by scholars to be the most reliable gospel. Much of
this gospel contains sayings of Jesus that are contained in the four
New Testament gospels.
The
Christian Gnostic gospels reveal a clear and strong vision of the
resurrection as a past and present event. Below is a verse from the
Gospel of Thomas that shows the "resurrection" to be a past
event:
"His
followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead take place,
and when will the new world come?' He said to them, 'What you look
for has come, but you do not know it.'" (Gospel of Thomas,
saying 51)
In
the verse above, Jesus says the resurrection and the kingdom are
already here. In Gnostic terms, this quote from Jesus refers to a
person's past "resurrection" (i.e., physical rebirth,
reincarnation) and the fact that we are already living in the kingdom
of God which exists within us. Only through the Christ gnosis can
this kingdom be realized and the cycle of resurrection end.
5.
The Gospel of Thomas
The
sayings that are presented below are excerpts of the Gospel of Thomas
that are not present in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
"These
are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas
the Twin recorded.
Jesus
said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will
not taste death."
Jesus
said, "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds. When
one finds, one will be disturbed. When one is disturbed, one will be
amazed, and will reign over all."
Jesus
said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Behold, the kingdom is in
the sky,' then the birds in the sky will get there before you. If
they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get there
before you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you and outside you. When
you know yourselves, then you will be known, and will understand that
you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know
yourselves, then you live in poverty, and embody poverty."
Jesus
said, "Know what is within your sight, and what is hidden from
you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that will
not be revealed."
Jesus
said, "I have thrown fire on the world and, behold, I am
guarding it until it is ablaze."
Jesus
said to his disciples, "Compare me with someone, and tell me
whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a
just angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise
philosopher." Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is
utterly unable to say whom you are like." Jesus said, "I am
not your teacher. You have become intoxicated because you have drunk
from the bubbling spring that I have tended." And he took Thomas
and withdrew, and told him three things. When Thomas came back to his
friends, they asked him, "What did Jesus tell you?" Thomas
said to them, "If I tell you even one of the things he told me,
you will pick up rocks and stone me. Then fire will come forth from
the rocks and devour you."
The
disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us about the end." Jesus
said, "Have you already discovered the beginning, that now you
can seek after the end? For where the beginning is, the end will be.
Blessed is one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the
end, and will not taste death."Jesus said, "Blessed is one
who came to life before coming to life."
Jesus
said, "If you become my disciples and hearken to my sayings,
these stones will serve you."
Jesus
saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These
nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said
to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus
said to them, "When you make the two into one, when you make the
inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like
the lower, when you make male and female into a single one, so that
the male will not be male and the female will not be female, when you
make eyes replacing an eye, a hand replacing a hand, a foot replacing
a foot, and an image replacing an image, then you will enter the
kingdom."
Jesus
said, "Blessed are those who are alone and chosen: you will find
the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there
again."
His
disciples said to him, "When will the final rest for the dead
take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to them,
"What you look for has already come, but you do not know it."
Jesus
said, "I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of my
mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing."
Jesus
said, "Whoever knows everything but lacks within lacks
everything."
Jesus
said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will
save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have
within you will kill you."
Jesus
said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: all
came forth from me, and all attained to me. Split a piece of wood,
and I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me there."
Jesus
said, "Whoever is close to me is close to the fire, and whoever
is far from me is far from the kingdom."
Jesus
said, "Images are visible to people, but the light within is
hidden in the Father's image of light. He will reveal himself, but
his image is hidden by his light."
Jesus
said, "When you see a likeness of yourself, you are happy. But
when you see your images that came into being before you, and that
neither die nor become visible, how much you will be able to
tolerate!"
Jesus
said, "When you make the two into one, you will become sons of
man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move!' it will move."
Jesus
said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will be like me, and I shall
be that person, and what is hidden will be revealed to that one."
Jesus
says, "Whoever finds self is worth more than the world."
His
disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It
will not come by looking for it. Nor will it do to say, 'Behold, over
here!' or 'Behold, over there!' Rather, the kingdom of the Father is
spread out on the Earth, but people do not see it." (Gospel of
Thomas) Return to Top 6. The Apocalyptic Texts
Among
the Christian Gnostic writings were no less than five separate
apocalypses. Here they are:
The
First Apocalypse of James contains the secret teachings of Christ
that were given to James the Just, the Lord's brother. In it, James
refers to Jesus as "rabbi." Jesus warns James to leave
Jerusalem, for the city is a dwelling place of a great number of
"archons" or evil angels. Jerusalem is stigmatized as the
city which "gives the cup of bitterness to the sons of light."
Jesus coaches James on what to say when he is judged and challenged
by the "toll collectors" of heaven in order to pass through
the gates of heaven.
The
Second Apocalypse of James.
The
Apocalypse of Adam.
The
Apocalypse of Peter is a record of the vision of Peter the apostle in
which he speaks with Christ in the spirit. In this, Peter is clearly
seen as the true successor to Christ and the founder of the Gnostic
community. In the vision, Peter first sees hostile priests who seem
to be intent upon stoning him and Christ to death. Next, Peter
recalls the crucifixion during which Jesus stood nearby talking with
him.
Peter
asks, "Who is this one glad and laughing on the tree (i.e.,
cross)? And is it another one whose feet and hands they are
striking?"
Christ
replies, "He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this
is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they
drive the nails is his fleshy part, which is the substitute being put
to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. But look at
him and me." (Apocalypse of Peter)
Peter
seemed to realize that it would be a long time before his book was
read and understood, for he writes:
"These
things, then, which you saw you shall present to those of another
race who are not of this age." (Apocalypse of Peter)
He
seems to be right, as this apocalypse has only just seen the light of
day before we enter the age that many believe will begin with the
second coming of Christ.
7.
The Apocalypse of Paul
The
Apocalypse of Paul is an account of the apostle's ascent into heaven
and what he found there, with instructions for other souls on how to
conduct themselves during judgment. One of the most interesting
aspects of this text is that it corresponds to events found in the
New Testament and includes references to reincarnation. Several
Christian Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and union
with God.
As
Paul passes through the fourth heaven, he witnesses a soul being
punished for murder. This soul is brought "out of the land of
the dead" (i.e., Earth) by angels where three witnesses charge
the soul with murder. The soul looks sorrowfully down and is cast
down into a body that has been prepared for it. The book describes
Paul's journey through the heavens, which is also symbolic for the
Gnostic process of union with God.
The
New Testament contains a letter by the apostle Paul to the Christians
in the city of Corinth, Greece, where he had founded a church on his
first visit there. The Christians at this church were being divided
by the teachings of so-called "false teachers" that were
infiltrating the church there and Paul wrote a letter telling them to
not forget what they were taught by Paul. These "false teachers"
were trying to get people to follow their teachings and not Paul's.
In order to put these false teachers to shame, Paul rebukes the
Corinthians by using false pride and boasting about himself and
telling the church why he is more qualified than the false teachers.
He tells them of his sufferings and how he was once stoned and left
for dead (2 Corinthians 11:23-26). The letter goes on to say:
"I
must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will
go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a person in
Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God
knows. And I know that this person - whether in the body or apart
from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to
paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that humans are not
permitted to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)
In
the above passage, Paul continued his "boasting" by telling
about visions and revelations he had received from the Lord. "I
know a person in Christ" means that he was speaking about
himself. He explained that he didn't know if he was taken up in his
body or in his spirit, but he was in paradise ("the third
heaven"). This incident cannot be positively identified with a
recorded event in Paul's career, although some think this may have
been when he was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:19-20). Paul told
about this incident to show that he had been uniquely touched by God.
Many
people are unaware of this passage of the Bible and that it is a
near-death experience which Paul had. The person who wrote most of
the New Testament, the sacred writings of orthodox Christianity, had
a near-death experience which he based his authority as an apostle of
Christ to the Corinthian church. It can even be argued that his
near-death experience directly or indirectly inspired his epistles.
The
Apocalypse of Paul reveals how each soul must rise as best it can
after death through a hierarchy of heavens and face the increasingly
difficult challenges posed by the guardian angels of each heaven. The
journey begins with Paul meeting a child on the mountain of Jericho
on the way to heaven (symbolized by Jerusalem). This child turns out
to be the Holy Spirit, who takes Paul first to the third heaven.
The
Holy Spirit warns Paul to keep his wits about him for they are about
to enter the realm of "principalities ... archangels and powers
and the whole race of demons." The Holy Spirit also mentions
that they will pass "one that reveals bodies to a soul-seed,"
that is, the being that takes souls and plants them in new bodies for
reincarnation. For the soul who wished to ascend to the highest
heaven, reincarnation was to be avoided.
When
Paul reaches the fourth heaven, the Holy Spirit encourages him to
look down upon his body which he has left behind on the mountain of
Jericho. As Paul ascends, he witnesses in the fourth heaven the
judgment and punishment of another soul. He says, "I saw the
angels resembling gods ... bringing a soul out of the land of the
dead." The soul has been resurrected so that it can be judged,
one of the four events promised for the end of the world. The angels
were whipping it.
The
soul spoke, saying, "What sin was it that I committed in the
world?" The "toll collector" of this heavenly gate
accuses the soul. The soul replies, "Bring witnesses! Let them
show you in what body I committed lawless deeds." Three bodies
rise up as witnesses and accuse the soul of anger and envy, and
finally murder. When the soul heard these things, it gazed downwards
in sorrow ... It was cast down.
At
this point we expect the soul to be cast into hell, as in later
Christian doctrine, but no: "the soul that had been cast down
went to a body which had been prepared for it," and was
reincarnated.
Paul,
somewhat shaken by this experience, was beckoned forward by the Holy
Spirit and allowed to pass through the gate of the fifth heaven. Here
he saw his fellow apostles and "a great angel in the fifth
heaven holding an iron rod in his hand." This angel and three
other angels, with whips in their hands, scourge the souls of the
dead and drive them on to judgment. Paul remains with the Holy Spirit
and the gates to the sixth heaven swing open effortlessly before him.
In
the sixth heaven, Paul sees a strong light shining down on him from
the heaven above. He is motioned by the "toll collector"
through the gates of the seventh heaven. Here, he sees "an old
man filled with light and whose garment was white. His throne, which
is in the seventh heaven, was brighter than the sun by seven times."
This old man bears a striking resemblance to Jehovah as he is
described in the vision of Ezekiel.
The
old man asks, "Where are you going, Paul?" Only
reluctantly, after some encouragement from the Holy Spirit, does Paul
speak with him and give the Gnostic sign he has learned. The eighth
heaven then opens and Paul ascends. Here he embraces the twelve
disciples, most of whom he has not met before, and together they rise
to the ninth heaven. Finally, Paul reaches the tenth and highest
heaven, where he is transformed.
8.
The Suppression of Christian Gnosticism
The
Christian Gnostics believed in reincarnation and the preexistence of
the soul. They refused to believe in a resurrection of corpses at the
end of time. They emphasized meeting Jesus on a spiritual level to
become liberated and attain permanent citizenship in heaven. The
Church of Rome of the second century A.D., on the other hand,
declared that those who deny a Last Day resurrection of corpses are
heretics.
Many
Christian Gnostics regarded themselves as part of the organized body
of Christians of the early church. However, as the organized Church
gained political control of the Roman Empire, the Christian Gnostics
were persecuted by the organized Church and many were martyred. The
Christian Gnostic tradition is one of many branches of early
Christianity labeled as heretical by the early Church fathers. The
Gnostic influences and writings were cut out of official Church
doctrines as heresy. Because of their suspected Christian Gnostic
origins, the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation was almost
rejected from the New Testament. Nevertheless, the organized Church
succeeded in hiding its Christian Gnostic doctrines.
It
is not surprising that the orthodox Church bishops edited out the
practical spiritual knowledge which was once an integral part of
Christianity and was known and practiced by the apostle Paul. For
these fathers, it was far more convenient and gratifying for their
egos to assert that spiritual grace could only be attained through
them as Christ's representatives on Earth. To control the masses, the
political organization of the church declared that salvation was
attained only through the church rituals and through the priesthood.
Salvation through a personal mystical experience with Christ apart
from the organized church was cast away. In a move that is very
likely to have met with the disapproval of Christ himself, the
worldly political aspirations of a few priests won out over the
spiritual enlightenment of the many.
And
as it is with any religion or movement, the successors of its founder
decided which things to keep and which to throw out. The organized
Church discarded the spiritual knowledge of Christian Gnosticism as
being too dangerous and kept the concept of blind acceptance of
church doctrine.
Ultimately,
the organized Church declared Christian Gnosticism a heresy and began
killing those who adhered to its doctrines. Thus the powerful Roman
Church began its crusade of eliminating all rivals to its authority.
Christian Gnosticism was obliterated and relatively little historical
and theological information was left to fully understand early
Christian history. This all changed in 1945 with the discovery of the
Gnostic Christian scriptures discovered in Egypt. Then in 1947, the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls of early Jewish Gnostic writings
occurred. Today, with many Christians wondering if the Second Coming
of Christ is soon to happen, it may not be a coincidence that these
secret writings have come to surface after two thousand years of
being hidden. Finally, after two thousands years, the secret is
finally out again.
"The
soul has neither beginning nor end. [They] come into this world
strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of their
previous lives" - Origen, 183-253 A.D.
Do you think a
belief in reincarnation is becoming more mainstream among Americans?
I
think very much so. The Gallup polls taken in the mid-1970s and
mid-80s show that approximately 24% of the American adult population
believes in reincarnation. This is a remarkable statistic, given that
medical, academic, and scientific institutions generally have not
supported that belief.A
fairly recent Gallup poll--I believe in 1999--indicated that over 20%
of the people who self-identify as Christians believe in
reincarnation. What do you think is going on?Several
things. One thing is that people are slowly becoming aware of the
high caliber of evidence that supports reincarnation. Not only Ian
Stevenson's extraordinary studies with children, but also therapeutic
evidence and the large number of clinical psychologists who are doing
past life therapy. That discipline has matured a great deal over the
past twenty-five years.Another thing is that reincarnation opens up a
new avenue within which to view the problem of suffering.You're
saying a belief in reincarnation helps us understand the existence of
suffering and evil?
What
it does is expand exponentially our understanding of how much time we
have to refine and perfect the life process. As a teacher, how much
knowledge I can expect a student to demonstrate on a test or paper is
directly related to how much time I give them to perform it. If it's
a one-hour test, I can expect a certain caliber of response. With a
two-hour exam, I have higher expectations. If by reincarnation you
expand the idea that we have not a hundred years, but millions of
years--To become good
people?
I
think that's too narrow. By expanding our temporal horizon, it
expands the horizon of what the creative project is all about.
Clearly there's the problem of suffering and the sense that life
somehow can get twisted along the way. If we approach that phenomenon
within a reincarnation perspective, we can see that some challenges,
wounds or hardships leave such a mark on the soul that they contract
or twist the soul in a way that might not be fully resolved within
one lifetime. It might take several lifetimes to resolve and work
that out.
What's
an example of such a soul wound?Traumas
of the heart, of romance. Traumas of war. Traumas of an Auschwitz.
They can leave a devastating mark or wound on the soul, one which the
person might have to spend an entire next life working out.
Why
doesn't the Christian idea work--the idea of living a good life and
God being able to heal that soul wound right after death, when the
soul reaches heaven?Because
it leaves unanswered the more fundamental question of why God gave
you that wound in the first place. The unresolved problem of
suffering, even if it can be resolved in a compensatory afterlife,
even if justice is persevered, leaves unresolved the question of why
God designed the system to open you up to some much suffering in the
first place. How does
reincarnation solve that? Even if you work through your scars in a
future life, how does that make you feel better about the war you
suffered through?
The
invitation that reincarnation offers is to begin to focus less on the
individual personality of one lifetime and to look more deeply into
the refining and self-evolution of the soul across many lifetimes.
After
refining the soul, after millions of lifetimes, what would be the
goal?
I
don't think it's worthwhile even to speculate on end goals. The only
things we might be able to see are the next few twists around the
bend. From one perspective, everything that Christ, or the Buddha, or
Lao-Tzu has shown us is not the ultimate end goal, but might be the
next interim goal of human spiritual evolution. Surely once we move
forward a few thousand years towards becoming a planet of Christs or
Buddhas, that will unlock new evolutionary potential that may take us
another million years to actualize.
Some
people say they're tired and just want to finish up after 80 years.
Sure,
you're supposed to feel that way. A college senior is supposed to
feel tired of college. You're supposed to feel tired at the end of a
day well spent. So there has to be built into the cycle periods of
deep replenishment. A return to the source. Rejuvenation.All
spiritual traditions say there is such a period. A return to the
realm of soul, a time to digest all the accomplishments of one's
previous life and return to a more intimate relationship with the
divine. A time of healing and reunion. All spiritual traditions agree
that people's experiences in the after-death state are not uniform.
There is a differentiation according to one's capacity and level of
spiritual development. People who have lived badly and made harmful
choices encounter all the unpleasant circumstances that mirror back
to them the bad quality of the choices they've made, not out of
cruelty but out of an intention to teach them. Those who have made
reasonably good choices have mirrored back to them those positive
choices. There are many orders of heavenly bliss to participate in
between lifetimes.
If
someone has lived well, made good choices, and reached some sort of
heavenly realm, why would the Divine want to chuck them back into
physical earthly existence?Why would the Divine want to create the
relatively difficult world of time-space in the first place? There's
an adventure. The spiritual traditions uniformly say the divine did
not create out of necessity or a sense of deficit. The divine created
out of a sense of fullness, sportiveness, adventure, and compassion.
The
Divine invites us to participate in the challenging circumstances of
time-space existence in order to become more than we were, so that
when we return to the world of spirit, we return as more than we were
and capable of knowing greater joys. We have greater participation
than we could earlier in our evolutionary journey. In the process of
evolving ourselves we also participate in the self-evolution of God,
of the Divine itself.
How
do Christians who believe in reincarnation reconcile the two
theologically?
When
I wrote Lifecycles,
I included a chapter on the compatibility of Christianity and
reincarnation. I first thought Christians would have to change a lot
of their theology to incorporate reincarnation. But I gradually
realized there is actually very little a Christian has to change. I
defined a minimum option and a maximum option. At a minimum, all you
have to change is the definition of the soul that says the soul only
lives one time. You can keep a very conservative understanding of
Christ and Christology, of ecclesiology, even of revelation,
especially since the New Testament never rebukes reincarnation.
What
about the verse from Hebrews that's often quoted when discussing
reincarnation: "It is appointed for men to die once and after
this comes judgment"?
You
have to place that verse in its context. The author of Hebrews is not
addressing the question of reincarnation. He's addressing the
relationship between the individual and the temple's priestly cult.
There are passages in the Bible which suggest Jesus may have believed
in reincarnation.
Like
Jesus' words in Matthew 11:14? Some say it means that John the
Baptist could have been a reincarnation of Elijah.
That's
one. Or when he's about to heal a man who's been blind from birth.
Jesus says, "Whose sin is this, the man's or his parents'?"
How can it be the man's sin if he was blind from birth? Personally,
however, I think the evidence has not been established that Jesus
taught reincarnation. There have been arguments that it was edited
out of the texts by the early church fathers, and that may be, but we
don't have compelling historical evidence for that. We do have
provocative evidence for the existence of the belief reincarnation in
a number of early Christian communities dating back as far as the 2nd
century, and in a number of various gospels that did not make it into
the canon. Many Christians found the belief in reincarnation
compatible with the teachings of Jesus.
Many
Christians say Jesus saves your soul and you go to heaven. What's
Jesus' role if it doesn't work like that?
You
can still attribute to Jesus a significant role in the history of the
salvation of the human race, but that history is an evolutionary
spiritual process.I think there is an invitation in reincarnation to
a deeper enrichment of Christianity. The minimum option is to keep
everything the same but see the salvation process enacting itself
over multiple lives instead of one.The richer, "maximum"
option is to broaden the categories and see Jesus as a prototype
rather than a singular creation. Instead of seeing his divine Sonship
as unique in human history, never to be repeated either before or
since, we would see him as a prototype, someone who had brought his
own divinity into manifest awareness ahead of his time, sooner than
anyone else. Therefore the difference between Christ and us is one of
degree, not a difference in kind.
Why
do some people resist the idea of reincarnation? Is it just what
they've been taught?
In
great part, yes. But there are other reasons why people get hung up
on reincarnation. People are afraid reincarnation will deny them the
opportunity to be reunited with their loved ones. They're afraid that
if reincarnation is true, they won't get to meet their long-lost
child who died when he was really young, or their husband who died
before them. But if we properly understand the magnitude of the soul,
it's very easy to understand how even if the soul chooses to send
another aspect of itself into another incarnation, it would still
hold within itself the form of its previous incarnations. Let's say
Sue and Joe love each other deeply, and Joe dies. Sue is afraid that
she won't see him in the afterlife, because he has reincarnated. But
who was Joe before he was born? Let's assume he's had 100 lives.
Joe's soul is the consciousness that integrates all of those lives.
Joe on the earth was really an emanation of that greater soul. The
bulk of Joe's soul is much bigger and doesn't incarnate. It stays in
the world of spirit, nurturing Joe while Joe continues to live and
grow. When Joe dies and returns to his soul, he becomes life #101.
When Sue dies, she encounters Joe's soul, perhaps with Joe sort of
"standing at the front door." But since Sue is also
returning to Sue's broader soul, now she discovers that she herself
is part of a beautiful, exquisite, much larger being. When she is
reunited with Joe, she might initially relate to him as Sue-on-earth
related to Joe-on-earth. But over time it would be Sue's soul
relating to Joe's soul, which is a much deeper, more exciting
relationship. She might even come to an understanding of how many
times they'd lived together in previous incarnations.
Much
has been written about how brothers and sisters, or parents and
children, reencounter each other in subsequent lives. It's very
common in past life therapy. If you're going to travel in and out of
time, what would be more natural than to develop traveling partners?
What's
the most compelling Christian case against reincarnation?
There's
just this general cultural habit of thinking salvation has to be
worked out in a single lifetime. And yet many of the early Church
fathers, such as Origen, believed in reincarnation. It's a habit we
can overcome. For most of Christian history, we thought the world in
front of us was the same as it was when it emerged from the hand of
God. Now we've made the transition to seeing the universe as an
evolving universe, and with that a transition from classical theology
to process theology. We've had to develop new habits of thinking that
are informed by the facts. The Christian has always had a deep
commitment to following the facts wherever they go, because their God
is not simply a God of history, but of nature too. Whatever is
factually true of nature must be compatible with revelation.
Christians have always been able to make that transition, even though
they may kick and fuss a bit in the beginning.
So
you think in 100 years many Christian churches will accept
reincarnation?
Absolutely,
because the empirical evidence is getting stronger and stronger.
They'll come to accept that it's simply a fact of life. Once they
make that transition, they'll find there are any number of ways that
a Christian can affirm all the fundamental tenets that Christianity
holds dear and make it compatible with reincarnation. Just as at
first we thought evolution would be incompatible with the Christian
faith, but now there are many theologians who have comfortably
reconciled the two.
Reincarnation,
a religious belief in essence, is adopted by millions of people
worldwide. The concept promotes cyclic rebirths based on the
transmigration of the human soul from one physical body to another.
The dictionary meaning of the word reincarnation is 'coming back in
the flesh'. The process of reincarnation allegedly continues until
the soul reaches its full maturity and perfection when it joins its
source - God or the 'Universal Soul'.
The
Karma is defined as a kind of debt that one incurs as a result of
his/her actions during a lifetime. If the actions are good, the
person will have good karma and will be born again in a desirable
state. Conversely a bad karma would result in a miserable rebirth.
Thus one's condition in life is a direct effect of his/her actions
during his/her past life dictated by the law of Karma. Therefore it
is a simple case of cause and effect.
The
roots of this religious belief can be traced back to ancient Greek
and Egyptian philosophy. The Hindu and Buddhist teachings are also
centred around this concept. The main idea is the same except for
minor variations, that being the constant evolution of the soul until
it reaches through trial and error, a state when it can merge back
into the 'Universal Soul'. The ancient Egyptians on one hand believed
that the dead person returns back to this earth for another life as
the same person he/she used to be. Consequently, the pharaoh was
buried with all his treasure and wealth intact so that he can claim
them back upon his re-birth. The Hindu version of reincarnation is
slightly different, whereas the dead pharaoh would return to life as
the same person he used to be (the pharaoh), the Hindu version
believes that a dead person would not return as the same person
he/she used to be, but return as a completely different person but
with the same soul. The idea of this paper is not to go into the
depth and details of the various beliefs regarding the reincarnation
theory, but to present a Quranic perspective of the concept and its
validity.
Reincarnation
is refuted by all the main Monotheistic religions of the world. The
reason for this is that it is against their basic teachings of a
finite life for the human upon which he/she is judged and rewarded
accordingly. If the human is to go through numerous lives, on which
life is he/she to be judged? The first life? The last life? The Holy
Quran, the last and proven word of God, unequivocally rejects this
false religion of reincarnation.
Numerous
Quranic verses confirm this position regarding the reincarnation
concept, they can be classified as follows:
First
: The 'barzakh' (barrier)
When
death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back so
that I may do good deeds regarding what I have neglected." But
no! These are just words which he utters. A 'barzakh' (barrier) is
placed behind them until the Day they are resurrected. 23:99-100
The
above words confirm that when a person dies, God takes his/her soul
while he is still in the process of imploring God for another chance.
As soon as the human dies a barrier is immediately in place. This
barrier prevents his/her soul from returning to earth. This barrier
is maintained until the Day of Resurrection.
Second
: Number of death's (two death's or one death?)
The
mention of two deaths and two lives in 40:11 may cause some
interpreters to somehow connect the Quranic teachings to the concept
of multiple births, however on closer examination we realise that the
opposite is true.
They
said, "Our Lord, twice You have put us to death and twice You
have brought us to life; now we have confessed our sins, is there any
way out?" 40:11
The
truth of the matter is that this very verse serves as another solid
proof against any such theory. 40:11 traces the progress of our
course from the feud in the Heavenly Society (38:69) to the Day of
Judgement. We made a covenant with God (5:7) and then we were put to
death. That was our First death.
The
fact that we were all living in a previous life before being brought
to earth is well confirmed in the Quran, for more information on this
topic please visit:
Consequently,
the first death ended our life in the previous life which was in
God's Kingdom and not here on earth. The second death ends the life
of the disbelievers here on earth, hence they say to God:
Twice
You have put us to death and twice You have brought us to life.
The
believers on the other hand do not taste the second death, after the
end of their life on earth the angels invite them to enter Heaven,
they do not die but move straight to Heaven. For more info on this
topic please visit:
Upon
our first death, we were brought to this life to be given a further
chance to redeem our souls and submit to God's absolute authority.
This is our first and only
life on earth. The 'one death' for the believers and the 'two deaths'
for the disbelievers set the rule that all humans have only one life
on earth and that no one returns to earth after their death. This is
clearly different from reincarnation which implies multiple lives and
deaths for each individual.
Third
: Apportioned share in life
In
this life every human being is apportioned a share in accordance with
God's will. The Quran explains this concept in the following verse:
And
seek, through what God has given you, the abode of the Hereafter, and
do not forget your
share in this world.
28:77
This
means that God has decreed for each human a share in this earthly
life, which is entirely dependent on His will, and has nothing to do
with one's actions in previous lives.
A
concession for multiple lives would violate the concept of a fixed
and preset share in this life, this is because each different life
would encompass a different share, and not a set share as we read in
28:77.
God
provides for whomever He wills without count. 24:38
Once
again this verse points to the fact that there is no such thing as a
Karma or debt. God out of His infinite mercy gives to whomever He
wills without any count.
There
are always some case studies which may influence one's thinking
causing some to believe in such multiple life theories. Many
observations and beliefs are based on so called 'past life recall' or
'dejas vu'. Many interpret such occurrences to having been living in
a different place and time in a previous life. However, there are
many plausible explanations to such phenomenon. One such explanation
is the unseen contact with the jinn who could be transferring such
visions to us and tricking us into believing that we were alive in a
previous life and place. The stories of jinn and their interactions
with humans is well documented in the Quran. It is worth noting here
that the majority of the jinn are disbelievers, and it is
understandable that they would try to trick us into thinking that we
have numerous lives, and thus impale the urgency to strive for
righteousness in this only life we are given.
To
conclude, the Quranic evidence against the concept of reincarnation
leads us to reject this theory. This life on earth is our only chance
for redemption. We should set our goals and priorities straight and
seek God's approval through righteousness and good deeds. Contrary to
what the devil may want us to believe, we will not get another
chance.
According
to this method of the interpretation, the Qur’an is such a “Text”
that different verses of it, interpret each other. This is actually
in harmony with the unique character and status of the Qur’an which
I explained in the part 2. That’s why the Qur’an itself has
brought up the general issue of it’s context and Interpretation;
و
لقد
صرفنا
فی
هذا
القران
للناس
من
کل
مثل
و
کان
الانسان
اکثر
شئی
جدلا
الکهف
– 54
و
لایاتونک
بمثل
الا
جئناک
بالحق
و
احسن
تفسیرا
الفرقان
– 33
And
surely We have brought up and explained
issues of
every subject for humanity in this Qur’an. Yet, Man is disputing it
in most cases!
The
Cave – 54
So
they will not bring up an issue which We didn’t send to you based
on the Truth (in the Qur’an), which is also the
best and most beautiful interpretation.
The
Criteria – 33
However,
this modern interpretation, despite being the right method of
interpretation and a genuine
one,could not afford
significant understanding of the Qur’an. Because, this method was
unfortunately used to a limited extent. Besides, it was mostly used
in order to support the presumption
and pre-understanding
of the verses by the commentators (مفسرین)
rather than to discover the true meaning of the words, and eventually
new realities in the Qur’an.
The
purification of Mind
So
in order to understand the Qur’an it needs a purification of the
interpretation. This means, we should purify us from ALL presumptions
and pre-understandings.
We are not allowed to impose
any idea on the Qur’an.
Ideas would naturally appear in the Qur’an. We are not allowed to
guide the Qur’an towards our own
presumptions or
pre-understandings.
Simply because it will not work with the Qur’an.
انه
لقران
کریم
فی
کتاب
مکنون
لایسمه
الا
المطهرون
الواقعه
– 77
الی
79
Surely
this is, THAT Blessing of the Qur’an, in Sacred and Secure Form
which nobody is able to touch without being pure.
The
Reality (Event) – 77 to 79
But
this is, in no way, an easy task. Surely some of the commentators
(مفسرین)
tried to do that. However, the power of Mind is so strong that it
makes it in some cases almost impossible to get rid of the
presumptions or
pre-understandings.
But,
in general, nobody confesses and even knows this. The problem is how
to meet the
Qur’an? We believe that we meet the Qur’an, merely because it is
there.
But in reality we meet our own presumptions or pre-understandings
through the
Qur’an. And because that will not work, the Qur’an will remain a
mystery.
So
in order to meet the Qur’an, it needs a serious and profound
purification.
This will lead to the liberation
of the Qur’an from
our perceptions and imagination.
The
next task is to know “what
kind of book the Qur’an is“?
Due to our perception
and imagination,
we consider the
Qur’an as simply a “book“,
although a divine One. But yet, in reality, we basically consider
this “book”
like other man-made books.
For
instance, we consider this “book”
as a “text“.
And its Arabic language as a “human
language“. Don’t
we? These two important elements are enough to consider the Qur’an
like other human books.
The
Unique Language of the Qur’an
The
language of the Qur’an is “Arabic”. But WHY ?!
It
is said that obviously because Muhammad was an Arab and the
environment of Revelation was Arabic. And, also due to the
perfection of the Arabic language. Finally, because of the
Sacred Divine Energy of the Arabic language.
I
agree with all of them, yet there is one important consideration
concerning the perfection
the Arabic language. In my opinion, despite the high
quality of the Arabic
language and its crucial
role in the creation
of the Qur’an, yet the Arabic language, like other languages in the
history of humanity, has its own debility and weaknesses.
The
Qur’an has chosen the Arabic language. However, in order to create
the Master-Work,
the Qur’an came with an initiative
and invented its own
unique language based
onArabic as the material.
This has
made the language of the Qur’an as a specific “Divine
Language“.
The
outcome is; the “Qur’anic
Arabic” and the
“Classical Arabic”
as two distinguishable languages. (“Classical Arabic” means the
traditional or
conventional Arabic).
This is of crucial
importance regarding
the understanding of the Qur’an. That’s why the Qur’an itself
emphasizes its Own Arabic Language;
قرانا
عربیّا
غیر
ذی
عوج
لعلهم
یتقون
الزمر
– 28
The
Arabic of this Qur’an is unambigious, direct, clear and explicit.
Hopefully you hold onto the principles and disciplines (of this
Arabic).
The
groups – 28
The
Arabic word « غیر
ذی
عوج
»means;non-crookedness
and non-deviation or non-devious.
This
show that this is a new
and different
“Arabic” in comparison with the “Traditional Arabic” which
like most other derivative, man made languages are « عربیّا
ذی
عوج»,
i.e the opposite to « غیر
ذی
عوج»
as it is mentioned above.
و
هذا
لسان
عربّی
مبین
النحل
– 103
And
this is the Clarifying and Enlightening Arabic!
The
Bee – 103
Even
here the verse indicates that there must exists a different
Arabic which is «
عربی
غیر
مبین
»
i.e non-clarifying
and non-enlightening.
Otherwise,
why did Muhammad mention this repeatedly and emphasize it to fellow
Arabs. The divine teaching of « لعلهم
یتقون
»
which asks us to hold
onto the
principles and disciplines
regarding this Qur’anic language, is also a clear indication of
this.
This
divine guidance tells us to keep these
two Arabic languages distinguished,
separated and to not mix them. Yet, we, due to our ignorance and
human weakness, fail to hold onto these Rules. Once we do that, we
will be guided in the right way;
ذلک
الکتاب
لاریب
فیه
هدی
للمتقین
البقره
– 2
This
is THAT Book which undoubtedly guides those who hold onto the
principles and disciplines.
The
Caw – 2
In
a way, it is concerning THIS Arabic language, that the Qur’an ask
us to think about;
انا
جعلناه
قرانا
عربیّا
لعلکم
تعقلون
الزخرف
– 3
We
have changed it into an Arabic Qur’an in order to make you to think
about it.
The
Gold Adornment – 3
In
conclusion, both the conventional
and invented
(artificial)Arabic,
together have made the language of the Qur’an A
Unique Divine
Language.
The
Formless Language
One
of most important characteristic of the Qur’anic Arabic is, the
lack of pattern
in comparison with all other languages. That makes the very
language of the
Qur’an formless.
This
formlessness of the language provides the Qur’an huge potentiality
for various interpretations. That’s why the prophet Muhammad said
that in this material world everything
will be old fashioned
except the
Qur’an! Or, in any
circumstances, the
Qur’an has something new
to tell you! Why?
Because of it’s formlessness.
Now
this new and unique language of the divine; based on a human language
with Arabic on one side, and our ignorance and habits on the other
hand; caused enormous misunderstandings and wrong-understandings of
the Qur’an.
We
failed to liberate ourselves from not only the pattern of the
classical Arabic, but of any human language as well. That’s why we
should NEVER understand the Qur’an by the pattern of any
traditional and classical language; above
all with Arabic with
regards to it’s grammar and the meaning of its words.
However,
the Qur’an has its own unique pattern which is still far from being
easily known and understood, despite some progress having been made.
Now,
in order to understand the Qur’an, there is only ONE way, and that
is to return to
the Qur’an thoroughly in searching for the real meaning of it’s
Arabic words. At the same time, it is to refuse imposing any other
meaning from outside onto the Qur’an. This is surrendering
to the Qur’an or
the way of being Muslim.
We
should not even turn to dictionary books in order to understand the
Qur’an. Because the
most reliable dictionary book
in order to understand the Qur’an, is the Qur’an itself.
Nor is there another reference book to the Qur’an than the Qur’an
itself.
In
our time, as it has always been, some fellow Muslims consider verses
to reject Re-incarnation and support Resurrection. Ironically some
other fellow Muslims consider exactly the same verses to show
completely the opposite!!
And
nobody dare say; “wait a minute, something is WRONG here! We just
cannot go on with this circle forever! Which part understand the
verses correctly and WHY?”
The
Qur‘an
as
A
Complex Living Organism of Words!
In
my opinion, this is the biggest discovery in the history of Islam but
also in the history of the religions and divine books in general.
This discovery is hard to explain. But it can be understood best by
experience.
However, I will do my best to shed some light on it.
According
to my opinion, the Qur’an is not a ” text ” but “The
Texture“, or it is
not a ” book ” but “The
Book“. This means,
the Qur’an is a “literary
unity” regardless
of its contents.
And
its “structural
design of literature”
is essential .
That makes the body of the Qur’an in which each “word”
is as a “living
cell” . In other
words, the Qur’an should be considered a “living
organic system of words“,
a living
Book, a new creature!
That
makes the Qur’an a “Unique
Masterwork” in the
history of literature and art, in general.
With
a “Living Book“,
this means the Qur’an, due to its formless
language and its
complex texture of
literature, both
combine to always give new answers to new circumstances, and also has
a completely independent existence in itself.
The
Meaning and the Role of Words
This
means we have to find not only the meaning of the Qur’anic words,
solely within the Qur’an as the body, but more important the ”
Role ”
of the words in the design
and literary
texture of the
Qur’an. Which is so far an unknown concept!
In
a text, the meaning of the words are important. However, in a
texture, not only the meaning
of the words is
important, but the role
of their very
physical usage in the structural design of literature, may also be
crucial.
We
are neither allowed to perform a surgery on the body of the Qur’an
by changing or replacing the physical words, nor to change or replace
or impose the meaning of the words, except according to the rules and
principles considered by the Qur’an itself.
Any
transplantation in the form of words or ideas from outside influences
to the Qur’an would prevent the “body of the Qur’an” to work
properly. And the result may even lead to chaos in the meanings of
the entire Qur’an.
That’s
why we do not have the right to make a presumption, nor to take any
position on it at all. The
only responsibility we have is to be a witness to the appearance of
ideas in the Qur’an.
After
more than 1400 years after the birth of the Qur’an, we Muslims, in
general, have not realized, nor recognized the Qur’an as a
“Literary Machine
System” or an
“Independent Living
Creature“.
Realizing
this fact, will revolutionize our understanding of the Qur’an which
leads us to discover new realities.
The
Structural Interpretation of the Qur’an
Based
on this new discovery, an idea for a new kind of Interpretation has
been born. The
structural interpretation of the Qur’an.This
new kind of Interpretation is actually the evolution of the current
kind of Interpretation, which is Interpretation of the Qur’an
through the Qur’an(or تفسیر
القرآن
بالقرآن).
However,
in my opinion the structural design of literature of the Qur’an
needs some kind engineers
or architects,
rather than the traditional commentators, to be understood!
In
the upcoming parts, you will develop a deeper understanding of this
extraordinary discovery and its new interpretation. The final proof
of Re-incarnation in the Qur’an is based on this new unique
interpretation. So please be patient!
Rejection
of Re-incarnation by Reason
بِسْمِ
اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
بَلْ
كَذَّبُوا بِمَا
لَمْ يُحِيطُوا
بِعِلْمِهِ وَلَمَّا
يَأْتِهِمْ تَأْوِيلُهُ
كَذَٰلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِن
قَبْلِهِمْ
یونس
– 39
Of
course they denied it. Because they didn’t have comprehensive
Knowledge about it. And the realization of it has not come to them
yet. Similarly those before them, denied because of the same reasons.
Yunus
– 39
Some
people insist that it is not sufficient to have an understanding of
some verses of the Holy Qur’an such as the concept of
Re-incarnation, without being able to rationalize it. In other words,
before such as understanding of the Divine
Book, we have first
to prove that Re-incarnation is, at least, possible to Human
Reason.
In
the history of the Muslim world, many Islamic philosophers and
theologians disputed the idea of Re-incarnation based onHuman
Reason. Ibn Sina and
Mulla Sadra were the two most famous amongst them. Let us first give
a very short description of these two personalities, which I have
selected from Wikipedia;
Abū
ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā
(Persian پورسينا
Pur-e
Sina [ˈpuːre ˈsiːnɑː]
“son of Sina”; c. 980, Afshana near Bukhara– 1037, Hamadan,
Iran), commonly known as Ibn
Sīnā or by his
Latinized name Avicenna,
was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide
range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular,
150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of
them concentrate on medicine.
His
most famous works are The
Book of Healing,
a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The
Canon of Medicine,which
was a standard medical text at many medieval universities.The Canon
of Medicine
was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Leuven
as late as 1650.Ibn Sīnā’s Canon
of Medicine
provides a complete system of medicine according to the principles of
Galen (and Hippocrates). His corpus also includes writing on
philosophy,
astronomy,
alchemy,
geology,
psychology,
Islamic
theology,
logic,
mathematics,
physics,
as well as
poetry.
He is regarded as the most famous and influential polymath of the
Islamic
Golden Age.
Ṣadr
ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī
also called Mulla
Sadrā (Persian: ملا
صدرا;
also spelt Molla
Sadra, Mollasadra
or Sadr-ol-Mote’allehin
Persian: صدرالمتألهین;)
(c. 1572–1640) was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian
and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th
century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the
single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world
in the last four hundred years.
According
to these people, the very mechanism of Re-incarnation is impossible.
In other words the question is; “how
would the
re-incarnation of a soul (after
death) take place?“
Ibn Sīnā
believed that once a certain human body has reached the stage of
getting a soul, by the divine law of creation, a certain soul would
be created to that
particular body. Now,
if another soul would re-incarnate, that means a certain body would
have two souls
and this is impossible.
Mulla
Sadrā, on the other
hand, disputed the view of Ibn Sina, regarding the creation of a
separate soul for the
body at the same time. According to Mulla Sadrā, the human soul and
the human body, are the SAME from the beginning !
” The
relation between the body and the soul, as supposed by most people,
is not like a relation between a
man and a
place or his
dress that can
be taken off and dropped in time.
Thus,
Mulla Sadra believes that soul evolves gradually in a body; its
relation to body is not the same as the relation between one thing
and another, and soul
and body are intertwined as a real unit.
For example, the relation between soul and body is not like the
relation between carpenter and saw, but it is like the relation
between form
and matter of a chair,
which manifest themselves in one and the same existence. There is
such a union, for example, between matter
and form
in a natural
composition consisting of matter and form, and therefore it is
impossible to retain one of them and to destroy the other. For, as it
is known, the form of everything is its completeness and perfectness.
The relation of each soul with its body is the same.”
In
conclusion, regardless of Incarnation or Re-incarnation, there is no
soul
outside
to enter the body. Rather, the soul will appear in the body, in the
same way, as the “meaning” appears within a “word”. However,
after the evolution of the soul, the soul will be independent of the
body.
That
means the very idea of Transformation of Soul doesn’t exist.
Therefore, Re-incarnation is impossible.
My
answer
Regarding
the view of Ibn Sina, it would mean that the “human
being” is basically
the “body”
which needs a “soul”
at a certain degree of its developing. In other words, the” soul”
is created because of
the “body”. So if there would be no “body”, there would be no
“soul” either.
So
two physical bodies, regardless of their different occupation in Time
and Space, are completely two different human beings, in ALL
conditions and circumstances.
On
the other hand, it is not possible for a certain “body” to have
more than one “soul”. So for every single “body”, Allah
created a certain “soul”. But this means Man is the
body! And this is a
reasonable outcome of his understanding in general.
Is
this,
the Great Message of the Qur’an to Mankind?! If it is the case,
then what was the view of those disbelievers (Kafereen الکافرین
)
on this issue?! And why were they DIS-believers
?!
However, if we look at it from the other side i.e the “soul”, and
consider it as the basic definition of (the existence of) the “human
being” which needs
a certain “body” at a certain Time and Space, then the outcome
will be completely the opposite. For the “body” will come and go.
Whiles the “soul” will remain.
This
means the idea of Re-incarnation is, at least, possible. Because it
is possible to an ever-existing
“soul”
to have several temporary
bodies in different
times and spaces.
In
conclusion, Allah didn’t created a certain “soul” to a certain
“body”. Rather, He created a certain “body” to a certain
“soul” in a certain time and space.
Unity
of body and soul
The
revolutionary creation of the idea belongs to Mulla
Sadrā. The outcome
of his theory is;
” As
pointed out above, there is a special connection between body and
soul, and this combination is a natural
and unitary integration.
They are inseparable
in an
essential and substantial movement. The soul and the body emerge from
potentiality
to
actuality
together,
and that the degrees, powers and acts of the soul are at the same
level with those of the body during the process of substantial
movement.”
In
such a case, Re-incarnation would means that the actual
soul
would return
back
to its original
stage
as a potential
one.
And this is impossible. Because this is opposite to the substantial
movement
of the soul which is the cause
of
its potentiality
and evolution,
and
even its very
existence.
For
instance, a seed by
thesubstantial motion
will develop and progress from potentiality
to actuality
which is a tree.
In this stage, it is impossible for the tree ( the actual state) to
return back
to the seed (the potential state).
According
to Mulla Sadra, this is exactly what the meaning of Re-incarnation
is. Because the body and the soul at the beginning are ONE and the
SAME. He says further that this is a reactionary
movement which is
opposite to the progressive
movement of the
entire universe.
The
Rules of Debate
But,
regarding rejection of Re-incarnation, the way of his reasoning is
unreasonable.
Because you should always hold onto the basic
rule and principle of
a scientific debate.
The
theory of Mulla Sadrā, may include
the rejection of
Re-incarnation, however, it is not intended to be a specific
rejection of Re-incarnation. In order to do that, he would have the
same
presumption as
the believers of Re-incarnation in order to have a common
background.
Otherwise, they would never meet each other.
In
other words, with such a position that body and soul are ONE, Mulla
Sadra, already ended the debate before it could be started!
Therefore, there is NOTHING left to discuss! And this
is against Human
Reason!
Besides,
Re-incarnation
doesn’t mean “returning
back“, but
“Returning“.
The tree will return to its previous
state. But it will
not return back to
its original seed
which is the
potential state.
Rather the tree will cause
its NEW seed
which is actually the final part of its actuality.
And all the attributes of the tree, as its soul, will appear in that
new seed. This is actually the Rotation
or Circulation which
Mulla Sadra believes to be the only
movement in the
universe. If Mulla Sadra’s description of the reality would be
correct, then Re-incarnation would means the returning of the soul to
its previous semen (or body)! Whereas according to the idea of
Re-incarnation, the soul will “Return to the Earthly Life”
through a “new body” which is a
product of the actuality
of the soul.
This is called Karma.
However, it is Resurrection
which means the
“returning back“.
I will show this in the Qur’an, in the near future. In a way,
Mulla Sadra is right, based on his own presumption,
accordingly the body
and the soul are ONE. That’s why it is crucial to have a debate
based on the same
presumption and
common
background, in order for a debate to take place. By the way, what is
the law of this Material
World compared to the
law of Spirit World?
The law of this Material
World has nothing to
do with the law of Spirit
World. And we just
don’t know
how the Unknown World
works! That’s it. Many others opposed Mulla Sadra because according
to his doctrine not only Re-incarnation is impossible, but also
Resurrection would be impossible. And in my view, even the spiritual
evolution of human beings would be impossible.
***************
Human
Reason or Mind?
My
intention, here, is not to discuss about their theories. My point is
to dispute their claiming that not only Human
Reason should go side
by side the Divine
Book, but rather goes
before it!
It
must be said, here, that this is about divine
beliefs and faiths.
Of course, I believe in Human Reason which according to Islam is one
of the greatest Messengers
of Allah, provided
that it is REAL Human Reason, not a false
prophet!
The
real Human Reason is, as the Divine Book. However, what they
call Human Reason, is actually the imagination
of the Human Mind
which is against the Pure
Human Reason!!
That’s
why they are disputing in most cases with each other. Because of
different people, Minds are many. However, the
Human Reason is ONE.
The REAL Human Reason
isthe Heart
لهم
القلوب
یعقلون
بها
الحج
– 46
They
have such a Heart
that they
think wisely
by it !
The
Pilgrimage – 46
فهم
قلوبهم
لایفقهون
بها
الاعراف
– 179
So
they have such a Heart
that they
cannot understand
by it !
Those
Known – 179 They say; “the
idea of Re-incarnation is against the Human Reason“.
And they are right! However, the Human Reason is not against it!
The
difference, is due to their considering
of a FALSE
Re-incarnation which is, of course, against the Human Reason. But
because of the Human Reason is pure, it would never be against the
TRUE Re-incarnation.
Human
beings perception and knowledge are a mixture of realities and
unrealities. It is no doubt that most of our perceptions and
knowledge are nothing but our imagination
and ignorance.
We don’t encompass everything in our knowledge of the Universe and
Life. Then how can others’ theories, perception and imagination be
accepted by the Human
Reason as the
“Knowledge”
and accordingly judge
what is the Truth
and what is the Untruth?! This itself, is against Human Reason.
قل
هل
من
شرکائکم
من
یبدأ
الخلق
ثم
یعیده
قل
الله
یبدأ
الخلق
ثم
یعیده
فانی
تؤفکون
قل
هل
من
شرکائکم
من
یهدی
الی
الحق
قل
الله
یهدی
للحق
افمن
یهدی
الی
الحق
احق
ان
یتبع
امن
لایهدی
الا
ان
یُهدی
فما
لکم
کیف
تحکمون
و
ما
یتبع
اکثرهم
الا
ظنّا
ان
الظنّ لایغنی
من
الحق
شیئا
ان
الله
علیم
بما
یفعلون
و
ما
کان
هذا
القران
ان
یفتری
من
دون
الله
یونس
– 34
الی
37
Ask
them; “who, among your companions (the false gods), can begin the
creation and later on return it?” Answer; ” it is Allah Who
begins the creation and later afterwards returns it”. Then why are
you taking it the wrong way?!
Ask
them now;”who, among your companions (the false gods), can guide
one to the Truth”? Answer;” it is Allah Who guides to the Truth”.
So
shouldn’t you follow the One Who guides to the Truth, rather than
the one who not only doesn’t guide to the Truth, but he himself
must be guided?
Then
what is wrong with you?! Look, how do you argue and judge?!
The
majority of them just follow their own imagination. Whiles the
imagination will not enrich you without needing the Truth at all.
Surely
Allah knows exactly what you are doing. And this Qur’an is, in no
way, something which will teach you the lies of the others.
Yunus
– 34 to 37
So
concerning the Beliefs
and the Faiths,
we must ONLY listen to and follow the Divine
Guidance; for
example, the Holy Qur’an, the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and also the
True Human Reason (the
Heart !).
و
تومنون
بالکتاب
کلّه
آل
عمران
– 119
And
those who believe in ALL divine books.
The
Family of Imran- 119
Thus,
the Human Reason
cannot accept that we judge a concept
surrounding a belief
or an idea which belongs to The
UnKnown World, like
the concept of Re-incarnation.
We
cannot even encompass the Known
World which is the
Material Nature. Then
how can we trust our dark
Mind?! Such a trust
is opposite to Human Reason and the Divine Books.
کذلک
یبیّن
الله
لکم
الایاته
لعلکم
تعقلون
البقره
– 242
In
such a way, Allah enlightens you His Signs in order to make you to
think wisely.
The
Caw – 242
امن
یبدأ
الخلق
ثم
یعیده
و
من
یرزقکم
من
السماء
و
الارض
اله
مع
الله
قل
هاتوا
برهانکم
ان
کنتم
صادقین
قل
لایعلم
من
فی
السموات
و
الارض
الغیب
الا
الله
و
ما
یشعرون
ایان
یبعثون
بل
ادراک
علمهم
فی
الاخره
بل
هم
فی
شک
منها
بل
هم
منها
عمون
و
قال
الذین
کفروا
أ
إذا
کنا
ترابا
و
آباؤنا
ائنا
لمخرجون
لقد
وعدنا
هذا
نحن
و
آباؤنا
من
قبل
إن
هذا
الا
اساطیر
الاولین
النمل
– 64
الی
68
Is
there any other god than He Who beings the creation and later returns
it and the One Who supplies you from the Heaven and the Earth? Tell
them; ” if you are honest, then bring your logical reasoning“.
Tell
them; Nobody, neither in the Heavens nor on the Earth knows about the
Unknown
but Allah. And they don’t know when they will be raised up again.
Of
course, there is nothing left of their knowledge. Of course, they are
in doubt about it. Of course, they are blind to it.
And
the disbelievers asked;”once we and our fathers are turned to dust
(after death), are we going to turn up again?! In fact, we and our
ancestors have been promised of his idea before. Indeed this is
nothing but of Ancient Myths and Legends”.
The
Ants – 64 to 68
HOW
or WHO?
The
other point is why would it be for us (believers of the Qur’an)
that important to know HOW re-birth can be possible and take place,
in order to believe in it at all?
Is
this the way of having faith, according to the Qur’an and Islam, in
general? Or as I explained, in the part one, we have to have TRUST in
the divine messages and teachings?
Because
the same case would also concern the idea of Resurrection. Did you
believe in that
because you first
got to know HOW it will take place according to human logic and
knowledge? Of course NOT! Did the early believers ask the prophet for
explaining HOW such a thing would be possible before
they would make a dictum to believe it? Of course NOT!
However,
those disbelievers, THEY did that !! Yet, not in order to believe,
but to discredit Muhammad (peace be upon him)!! And this has always
been their way of refusing, in history;
بل
قالوا
مثل
ما
قال
الاولون
قالوا
ء
اذا
متنا
و
کنا
ترابا
و
عظاما
ء
انا
لمبعوثون
لقد
وعدنا
نحن
و
اباؤنا
هذا
من
قبل
ان
هذا
الا
اساطیر
الاولین
المومنون
– 81
الی
83
They
asked questions like what the first ancient people asked;
“once we are dead and turned to dust and stones we will rise
up again?! In
fact, we and our ancestors have been promised of this idea before.
Indeed, this is nothing but of Ancient Myths and Legends”.
The
Believers- 81 to 83 That’s why we never see such a single verse
from those believers. This itself is an “Ayah” i.e a message!
Interesting enough those disbelievers never asked “HOW” but “WHO”
!
قال
من
یحی
العظام
و
هی
رمیم
قل
یحییها
الذی
انشاها
اول
مره
یس
– 78
الی
79
(The
disbeliever) asked; “WHO will bring life to the bones while they
are scattered like ash”? Answer; the One WHO created that at the
first time, will bring life to them again.
Yasin
– 78 – 79
و
قالوا
ء
اذا
کنا
عظاما
و
رفاتا
ء
انا
لمبعوثون
خلقا
جدیدا…فسیقولون
من
یعیدنا
قل
الذی
فطرکم
اول
مره
الاسراء
– 49
, 51
And
they asked; will we be raised up again in a new creation (body), once
we are bones or nothing left?!…then they will ask; but WHO will
return us? Answer; the One WHO created that at the first time.
The
Mystical Journey in the Night – 49 to 51
قالوا
یا
ویلنا
من
بعثنا
من
مرقدنا
یس-
52
