Reincarnation in Islam

[amardeep]

Ya Ali Madad

These last few days i have been reading the various debates throghout this forum regarding reincarnation. Although much has been said, i did not find it sufficient enough as much of it were based on logic rather than scrriptural sources.

The concept of reincarnation in Islam is very interesting for me, and i have been triying to find out how batin shias interpret the holy ayats of the Quran regarding punishment of the grave in relation to reincarnation.

also, what is the ta'wil of the following verse, which in its zahir completely rejects the notion of reincarnation.

When death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back again. so that perhaps I may act rightly regarding the things I failed to do!" No indeed! It is just words he utters. Before them there is an interspace until the Day they are raised up. (Surat al-Muminun: 99-100)


this verse says people only have one chance, and there is no new chance after this life.

[star_munir]

Ya Ali Madad

These last few days i have been reading the various debates throghout this forum regarding reincarnation. Although much has been said, i did not find it sufficient enough as much of it were based on logic rather than scrriptural sources.

The concept of reincarnation in Islam is very interesting for me, and i have been triying to find out how batin shias interpret the holy ayats of the Quran regarding punishment of the grave in relation to reincarnation.

also, what is the ta'wil of the following verse, which in its zahir completely rejects the notion of reincarnation.

When death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back again. so that perhaps I may act rightly regarding the things I failed to do!" No indeed! It is just words he utters. Before them there is an interspace until the Day they are raised up. (Surat al-Muminun: 99-100)


this verse says people only have one chance, and there is no new chance after this life.

Mowla Ali Madad
There are some real life stories as well as scriptural sources in the discussions there.

[amardeep]

there is one verse only, but no ta'will is given of it. the verse taken literally is not taking about reincarnation, as it says "you were dead".. People belivin in reincarnation identify their own self with the soul, and not the humanbody, and since the soul does not die, it must be talking about the body...

[kmaherali]

Islam acknowledges that there are non-physical planes of existence sometimes referred to as astral worlds and whose inhabitants are jinns. These jinns are souls in transition or in the interspace alluded in the ayat getting purified before the final meeting with Allah.

Sometimes the Koran addresses men and jinn together, as in the Surah ar-Rahman which is directed throughout to that duality. It says: "O ye two having weight" (thaqlain), meaning the two species of creation having form (55:31): and "O company of jinn and men, if ye are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass beyond! Ye shall not pass, except by authority. Which then, of the favors ot your Lord, do the two of you deny?"

The jinns also have to submit to authority. More on this you may want to go to:

Doctrines --> Difference between Jinn and Angel.

[Firukurji]

The verses of the great mystic, Hazrat Jalal-ud-Deen Rumi, describing the process of evolution through reincarnation - from mineral and plant to animal and man and then to angelhood and beyond. Take the verses from the world famous Masnawi by Hazrat:

I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man,
To soar with angels blest;
But even from angelhood I must pass on ...

Another great mystic, Mansur al-Hallaj, famous for his formulation, Anal Haq (I am the truth: Aham Brahmo Asmi) wrote:

Like the herbage
I have sprung up many a time
On the banks of flowing rivers.
For a hundred thousand years
I have lived and worked
In every sort of body.

The Koran itself seems quite clear: "And you were dead, and He brought you back to life. And He shall cause you to die, and shall bring you back to life, and in the end shall gather you unto Himself." (2:28). The words "you were dead" can only mean that they had lived before becoming dead. And the words "in the end shall gather you unto Himself" could very well mean the attainment of moksha (release) rather than an eternal life in heaven or hell.

[adnan.ali]

Eji Paantris ne pachavis,
sol ne aatth
vaar choraasi fari-o,
tune saan na aavi re
utth jaag man meraa 2

Eji Ettalaa jo feraa fariyo,
maankhaa janam dhariyo
aur jo tun janam dhariyo,
uski rabkun kal padde
utth jaag man meraa 3

Please translate these parts. I heared them today when my ginan class instructor was teaching it. It says that 84 rebirths were made o­nly in human form...

[ShamsB]

Eji Paantris ne pachavis,
sol ne aatth
vaar choraasi fari-o,
tune saan na aavi re
utth jaag man meraa 2

Eji Ettalaa jo feraa fariyo,
maankhaa janam dhariyo
aur jo tun janam dhariyo,
uski rabkun kal padde
utth jaag man meraa 3

Please translate these parts. I heared them today when my ginan class instructor was teaching it. It says that 84 rebirths were made o­nly in human form...

Adnan,

Check the ginan..if i am not mistaken it is Lakh Chorasi fario...

Shams

[adnan.ali]

Lakih chorasi are the total cycles that a human take to evolved. But the ginan i mentioned says that 84 cycles were o­nly in this rup (i.e. as a human). this ginan is translated by tariqa board. By reading the third part, i seems that it says that after that much cycles you finally evolved as human but the translation i saw in different books as i mentioned. (84 births are o­nly in the form of human, else in other forms)

[adnan.ali]

Here is the translation done by Kamaluddin, Abdul Nabi Halari, Shamim jindani in the personal publication of kamaluddin in volume 7.

3. Oh my heart! thirty five (35), twenty five (25), sixteen (16) and eight (8), (in total ) eighty four (84) times you incarnated (in human form), but still you have not understood.

4. Oh my heart! these cycles, which you have passed through, were human births. God alone knows about other births that you have taken.

[kmaherali]

3. Oh my heart! thirty five (35), twenty five (25), sixteen (16) and eight (8), (in total ) eighty four (84) times you incarnated (in human form), but still you have not understood..

Ginans are allegorical and can be interpreted in many ways depending upon the intellectual outlook and the prevailing circumstances. The above verse can also be interpreted as:

"Thirty five (35), twenty five (25), sixteen (16) and eight (8), (in total ) eighty four (84) times you transitioned in human form. "

I use the word transitions because in one of his Farmans MHI uses the word the phrase 'this life is in transitions' (the Farman was made in Uganda 2005)

4. Oh my heart! these cycles, which you have passed through, were human births. God alone knows about other births that you have taken.

Following from the previous verse, this verse can be interpreted as:

"These cycles which you have passed through have been in this human form, God alone knows how many other forms (evolutionary stages of life) you have taken."

[zubair_mahamood]

Ginans are allegorical and can be interpreted in many ways depending upon the intellectual outlook and the prevailing circumstances.

I agree with karim!

At the same time I want to add some points on reincarnation, I feel that reincarnation don’t only mean change in physical form but being in a particular form a soul can change it form on the bases of knowledge and action, the best plae a soul can find is in Human form, like change in the external behaviour (action) due to change in internal force of nature (knowledge and intelligence). True Knowledge with appropriate action may also bring changes in humans from animal nature to human and then to angelic nature which I feel can also be termed as reincarnation! You can find example of posibilities of these changes in both Mowlan Rumi’s and Nasir Khusraw’s philosophy! I think even in human form a soul reincarnates n number of times until it purifies and finds its final destination.

According to Rumi they are three kinds of creatures. First are the angles, who are pure intelligence. It is their nature to be constantly mindful of God, to worship and obey Him. This is what sustains them. It is both their food and their means of life. In this they are like fish who lives in water, whose life comes from the water, and whose bed and pillow are the water. Angels are under no obligation to do what they do. They are pure light and free from lust, so they do not have to struggle with sensual passions. Their obedience to God is not regarded as obedience, for it is in their nature and they cannot be otherwise.

The second kind are the beasts, who are pure lust and lacking in intelligence. They are like an animal grown fat from eating, who sees nothing but its stable and its fodder. They too are under no obligation to so what they do.

The third kind are human beings, the descendants of Adam, who are combination of intelligence and lust. They are half-angle, half-ass; half-serpent, half-fish. Their as-half draws them toward what ever is low; their angelic-half draws them toward the light. Their fish-half draws them towards water, their serpent-half draws them towards earth. Angles and beasts are free of conflict and struggle – the angles because of their knowledge, the beasts because of their ignorance – and between the two lies the human being whose lot is to endure a constant tug of war. ‘He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than angles: He whose lust overcomes his lust is lower than the beasts”

According to Nasir Khusraw from The Ruby of Badakhshan, “performing acts without knowledge of their meaning is what animals do. Angles on the other hand, possess knowledge without action. The human task is to take middle road and perfect both knowledge and action. He further says Action is the lot of animals without knowledge. Knowledge is the lot of angles without action. knowledge and action are the lot of humans, for they correspond to animals by virtue of their bodies, but by virtue of their knowledge they do not correspond to animal; they are equivalent to angles. They are midway between beasts and angles so that, with knowledge and action, they can move from the rank of animals to that of angles”.

Zubair Mahamood

[adnan.ali]

That was good. Thats why wanted it to be translated by someone else's intellectual.

[star_munir]

I do agree Ginans can be interpreted in different ways.
As for reincarnation, I will still say yes I do believe in it. There are many clear references in Ginans, there are many incidents about it and it is very logical too.
____________________________________________________________

Reincarnation: Fact or Fallacy?
A Practitioner from Singapore
[PureInsight.org] Supernormal Capabilities - fact, fallacy, superstition or simply coincidence? Those stories of people with super-minds; minds that delve into the past, minds that have the power to move objects and perceive things the rest of us cannot with our ordinary senses; minds that operate independently of the body. Since ancient times, these enigmas have intrigued rational people but only back in the 70s are scientists - the Mind Detectives - beginning to understand something of the mysteries at work inside of us.

Do we have one life only or several? Have you ever experienced that feeling of déjà vu or a sense of "been here before"? According to mind detectives, we have experienced many previous lives in the past and we'll go on being born again, into other forms, until we reach an absolute state. Here are three interesting cases of experts' experience on the subject of reincarnation:

Case Number 1
Arnall Bloxham was a Welsh hypnotherapist from back in the 70s who, over a 20-year period, hypnotized a few hundred people and recorded what appear to be descriptions of previous lives. Do the Bloxham tapes prove reincarnation or can they be explained in some other way? Mr Arnall Bloxham is an expert in what hypnotists call 'past lives regression experiments.' Under hypnosis he can take a person back to the moment of his or her birth, and even beyond that. Mr Bloxham was the president of the British Society of Hypnotherapists then and he was using hypnosis to cure people of physical ailments, like smoking, for instance.

What happens during his experiments on hypnotic regression defies common human logic. His clients could relate, in meticulous detail, lives of people who existed hundreds of years ago.

As unbelievable as it may seem, Bloxham produced over 400 tape recordings of hypnotized subjects reliving their previous lives. In addition, many detailed records, cross references from these tapes, have been substantiated as facts. According to Bloxham, this strong evidence strongly supports the ancient belief of reincarnation as the truth.

One of Bloxham's high-profile cases is that of Jane Evans. Jane's regression into her past lives began in 1971 when she saw a poster that reads: "Arnall Bloxham says rheumatism is psychological." Jane, a 32-year-old Welsh housewife who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, found the statement incredible, so she decided to get in touch with the man responsible for this poster. Indeed she did, through a friend of her husband. And ultimately got in touch with six of her past lives as well. They were: as a tutor's wife in Roman times; as a Jew who was massacred in the 12th century in York; as the servant of a French medieval merchant prince; as a maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon; as a poor servant in London during the reign of Queen Anne; and as a nun in nineteenth-century America.

The story of Jane Evans and several other examples of reincarnation were brought to light by BBC television producer, Jeffrey Iverson in his book, "More Lives Than One?" In 1975, in pursuing verification of the theory of reincarnation, Iverson asked Jane's permission to let Bloxham hypnotize her again into regression, this time in the presence of a BBC television camera and tape recorder. Iverson then set out to uncover whether she did, in fact, have more lives than one.

Iverson researched the detail of these lives and verified that the details of Jane Evans' recorded regressions were indeed founded on fact. At the end of the book he considers that Bloxham's twenty years of work signify strong support for the concept of reincarnation. He also produced a BBC documentary film, called "The Bloxham Tapes" based on all these materials.
____________________________________________________________

(Another case from same article)

If the world's top experts on reincarnation were to be named, Dr. Ian Stevenson, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia would be on that list. He has traveled all over the world to investigate various reports of reincarnation and has devised a rigorous test to rule out fraud, cryptomnesia, etc, etc. Out of 200, only 20 cases survived this tough test by Dr. Stevenson to be suggestive of possible cases of reincarnation. Seven of these cases occurred in India, three in Sri Lanka, two in Brazil, one in the Lebanon and seven among a tribe of Indians in Alaska.

Take the case of a very young girl, born in 1956 in central Sri Lanka with a tongue-twisting name of Gnantilleka Baddewithana. Soon after she had started learning to talk, she began mentioning another mother and father in another place, where she said she also had two brothers and many sisters.

From the details the little girl gave, her parents were able to fit her descriptions to a particular family in a town some distance away. They found that this family had lost a son in 1954. When Gnantilleka was taken to visit this family, she said that she was their dead son and correctly identified seven members of "his" family. But until then the families had never met each other or even visited each other's town.

[kmaherali]

Reincarnation from Tom Harpur’s Book ‘Life after Death’

Reincarnation

"YOU CAN RELIVE YOUR PAST LIVES" THE TABLOID'S THREE-inch, black headline screams. "Expert gives step-by-step instructions ..." One of the most popular features of New Age thinking is the very ancient theory that we have already lived many lives and will continue to do so in the future. This process, it is believed, goes on until we have learned all the lessons God (or life itself) has to teach us and are sufficiently enlightened to be released from the cycle of rebirth. We are then fit for the Presence of God, union with universal Mind, or the oblivion of nirvanic bliss. The law of karma, the spiritual equivalent of physical cause and effect in the scientific world, governs the kind of sufferings or blessings experienced in each successive life. Free will enters into it, of course. According to the mainstream theory in the West - and there are many variations depending upon the particular religious or philosophical approach taken - there is free choice about how one deals with specific aspects of our karma. The matter of where, to which parents, and in what circumstances one is reborn is widely believed to be a matter of choice. Advice, however, may be given by exalted masters or other higher spiritual beings in the plane between lives.

Until quite recently, it was possible to think of belief in reincarnation as something rather exotic, belonging to the great religious traditions of the East but foreign to western thought. A visit to the nearest bookstore or a glance at the tabloids at the neighborhood supermarket will quickly dispel such a notion. Recent public opinion polls reveal some quite remarkable statistics. According to the 1981 Gallup poll on religion in the United States, some 38 million Americans (23 per cent) profess to be believers in reincarnation. A more recent Gallup poll of Canadian views on an afterlife shows that nearly one-third of the population (29 per cent) believe you are reborn into another life here on earth after death. Most of this can be seen as the result of the enormous impact over the past three decades of eastern religious ideas upon western society. But there are deeper causes, too. The decline of Christianity in the West and the spiritual vacuum created by this have provided a fertile ground for alternative answers to the most basic questions of all.

Belief in some form of reincarnation or in the transmigration of souls is one of the oldest, most universal religious phenomena known. It came to the West originally from India by way of Pythagoras and Plato, but it is found in almost every culture and tribe on earth, from the Inuit of the Arctic to the Aborigines of Australia. Since a significant portion of the whole of humanity throughout history has held it, including some of the best minds, both ancient and modern, ever to address the mysteries of human existence, reincarnation is not something to be lightly dismissed. I have some sympathy with those, for example, who have criticized Hans Kiing, the renowned Roman Catholic theologian, for doing precisely this in his otherwise clever book, Eternal Life?1 On the other hand, the fact that many millions of people still believe in reincarnation - or any other doctrine - or that celebrities such as Shirley MacLaine cite it as a definite ingredient in their obviously successful life philosophies doesn't prove it to be true either.

Speaking of proof, or at any rate of evidence, for reincarnation, one of the things which makes this whole matter particularly interesting at this time is the large number of people coming forward to report that under hypnosis they have actually revisited and relived their past lives. Serious hypnotherapists as well as innumerable quacks make a lucrative living by counselling and guiding people today on the basis of what is alleged to have happened to them in previous existences. In response to invitations in my column, readers by the score have written to me giving firsthand accounts of their own experiences in this regard. For example, a hypnotherapist, who says this story is only one of more than thirty cases he has on record, wrote the following:

A young married woman once came to see him about her dread of sleeping in the dark. She had been to many doctors but to no avail. Under hypnosis she regressed to a previous life where she was known as Anna. She lived at a specific address in Heidelberg, Germany. She was then thirteen years old. The year was 1943 and her family was Jewish. She vividly recalled the Nazis coming, putting her in a van with many others, then pushing her along a narrow corridor into a very dark room. "She became hysterical under hypnosis and cried bitterly saying, 'What are they going to do with us?'" The therapist was then able to assure her that although she had been killed and her body destroyed, her soul was indestructible. She would soon be living in another body. She described her in-between life - known in The Tibetan Book of the Dead as taking place in "the Bardo" - as very peaceful and surrounded by angelic beings of light.

The therapist went on to write: "Having found the ground of her fear of darkness, I suggested that this fear belonged to Anna, Anna was in the past, and the past was no longer with her. She was then able to sleep in the dark with no further fears."

Incidentally, this same hypnotherapist claims to have written to the Heidelberg address and to have confirmed that a Jewish family had indeed once lived there. The father was a music teacher, there were children, and the teacher's name was Arthur, just as the patient (as Anna) had said.

The occult or New Age sections of bookstores now overflow with books detailing similar narratives. However, although one is assured, as in the case of Anna, that proper research was done and that the record confirms things were exactly as described in the trance, a truly objective outsider will find nothing but endless frustration in trying to pin any of it down satisfactorily. I have read and examined as many of these as I could, and while one encounters some quite unusual stories I have seen nothing yet that amounts to convincing evidence or proof of a single incident.
Certainly the work of Dr. lan Stevenson, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia Medical School, must be mentioned wherever reincarnation is discussed today because of what he has to say about contemporary hypnotic regression into past lives. For an enthusiastic review of his research the best and most concise source is the 1984 book Reincarnation, A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society, by Sylvia Cranston and Carey Williams.2

Cranston and Willams, to their credit, quote some remarks of Dr. Stevenson's from the October 1976 newsletter of the American Society for Psychical Research.' Stevenson notes that many people write to him asking for hypnotic regression to previous lives or to investigate material arising from such experiences. He then comments: "Many persons who attach no importance whatever to their dreams . . . nevertheless believe that whatever emerges during hypnosis can invariably be taken at face value. In fact, the state of a hypnotized person resembles in many ways - though not in all - that of a person dreaming. The subconscious parts of the mind are released from ordinary inhibitions, and they may then present in dramatic form a new 'personality.' If the person has been told by the hypnotist, either explicitly or implicitly, to 'go back to another time and place,' the 'new personality' may be extremely plausible both to the person having the experience and to others watching ... In tact, however, nearly all such hypnotically evoked 'previous personalities' are entirely imaginary [my italics], just as are the contents of most dreams."

Stevenson goes on to say that such experiences may include some accurate historical details, but these are usually derived from information the person has acquired through reading, from radio and television programs, or from other sources. "He may not remember where he obtained the information, but sometimes this can be brought out in other hypnotic sessions designed to search for the sources of the information used in making up the 'previous personality.'"

Coming from such a prestigious source and from one who himself seems convinced, for other reasons, of the reality of reincarnation, this is a powerful antidote to many of the often bizarre claims made in the name of past-life regression. It should be noted as well that Stevenson has some words of caution for those who experiment with this kind of hypnosis: "There are some hazards in this procedure of regression to 'previous lives.' In a few instances, the previous personality has not gone away when instructed to do so, and the subject in such cases has been left in an altered state of personality for several days or longer before restoration of his normal personality."

Professor Geddes MacGregor, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California and an Anglican (Episcopalian) priest for over forty years, believes in reincarnation. His 1978 book, Reincarnation in Christianity, is one of the most reasonable I have read on the subject. However, MacGregor, though friendly to the doctrine, also has major reservations about using alleged past life recall as a proof. He notes that many such cases have turned out to be completely bogus and says, "The literature on the subject is considerable; the results, though they leave many unsolved puzzles, are inconclusive."4

More and more doctors and psychologists are expressing concern over the uncritical acceptance by some members of the healing professions of alleged past life recall as a means of healing. Mark Albrecht, in Reincarnation, A Christian Critique of a New Age Doctrine, quotes Alexander Rogawski, former chief of the Los Angeles County Medical Association's psychiatry section: "Indeed, the past-lives movement is cashing in on the disillusionment with conventional therapies, fear of death and the current interest in the occult. But all the therapy's popularity proves is that suckers are born every minute and customers can be found for anything."5

The doctor's blunt words were originally spoken to reporters from Time magazine, and appear in the October 3, 1977, issue. In the same article, Dr. Lucille Forer, a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, said that most of her contemporaries were sceptical about hypnotic regression to past lives as a therapy. She warned that a good therapist may be able to use material brought up from a patient's subconscious, but that leading a person to believe that past lives were being tapped could be dangerous: "A person could develop psychosis if the fantasy material was extreme. He could feel guilt about what he thought were past acts. I would warn anyone who wants to do this sort of thing to do it with a trained person who can handle any problems that might arise . . . People are looking for shortcuts that don't exist."

Professor Ernest Hilgard, director of the Hypnosis Research Laboratory at Stanford University, views claims of past-life regression as complete nonsense. He is on record saying that hypnosis is a very dangerous tool in the hands of amateurs. He adds: "New identities claimed during trance are not uncommon and are very easy to produce. Invariably they're related to long buried memories, and anybody who makes claims to the contrary has not based them on scholarly judgements."6
One possible explanation for those cases where the contents of the hypnotic trance do seem particularly vivid or can be checked out in some detail is the phenomenon of cryptoamnesia. There are millions of details stored in our subconscious minds and many, if not the majority, became stored there without our having been aware of them. The British psychiatrist Anthony Storr contends that recall of past lives is actually an example of this cryptoamnesia, a purely imaginary construction using subconscious memories of some long-forgotten historical novel, film, or magazine article. He comments that "most of us have a grade B movie running in our heads most of the time."7

The famous, or if you prefer notorious, Bridey Murphy affair of the 1950s still stands as an additional caveat to those who wish to gallop off in this particular direction. For a full account of this apparent hoax I refer the reader to Colin Wilson's book, Afterlife.1* It is a long, complicated, and in many ways fascinating story. In essence, Virginia Tighe, the wife of an insurance salesman in Pueblo, Colorado, was persuaded to undergo hypnotic regression by Morey Bernstein, a Pueblo businessman who had found he was naturally proficient at putting people into a hypnotic trance. Under hypnosis, Tighe began to speak in Gaelic and said she was Bridey Murphy, born near Cork, Ireland, in 1798. In a series of tape-recorded sessions, she talked in great detail of her life as the wife of a Belfast lawyer who taught at Queen's University in that city. She had died in 1864. Bernstein wrote a book, The Search for Bridey Murphy, and it became frontpage news. Mrs. Tighe appeared on national television in the United States.

Various events then occurred to debunk her story, not the least of which was the coming forward of Tighe's Irish nanny who had helped care for her to about age two. She recognized the baby-game songs she had sung to Mrs. Tighe as an infant, some even including the name "Bridey."
As we have already had occasion to observe, there is nothing stronger than the will to believe, which is such a prominent characteristic of our time. Far from being an age of unbelief, this is an age of unmatched credulity and willingness to accept almost anything, from the significance of numbers in one's life (numerology) to healing with crystals to contact with aliens on UFOs. Evidence is the last thing on many people's minds.
I had a remarkable example of this recently in a lengthy interview with a successful businessman. This was a man who told himself at the age of twenty that he would be a millionaire by the time he was thirty-five. He is now just over fifty and a millionaire several times over. However, he has become deeply involved in reincarnational belief over the past few years and now believes he has had a succession of past lives. Even though he is aware of the warnings of Stevenson and others in the field, he nevertheless remains unshaken in his conviction that, for example, he was a young man in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, that Christ once touched his head as he stood at the front of a crowd as He passed by, and that he was crucified soon after Jesus himself. This person is totally reasonable in every other way, yet he is adamant in the belief that every major figure in his life today - both friend and foe - has been connected to him in a repeated cycle of previous lives. In this respect, he is typical of many hundreds of thousands of North Americans today.

Stevenson, who is, as we have seen, extremely sceptical of claims about most hypnosis-induced, past-life experience, nevertheless is impressed by the phenomenon of children who suddenly and quite spontaneously speak in some language other than that spoken in their home or immediate background. He is equally impressed by the more than two thousand cases he has investigated of young children in both East and West who seem to have spontaneous and fairly precise "recall" of places, people, and even incidents that it would appear they could not have experienced. This phenomenon seems to defy normal explanation.9
There is little to be gained by reproducing specific examples of this from Stevenson. Some of the cases he relates are quite extraordinary and I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of what he reports. But, as with the case of that common experience called deja vu, or the case of child prodigies such as Mozart, who wrote a sonata when he was four and an opera when he was only seven, the theory of past lives is by no means the most obvious or most plausible explanation. There is a whole range of possibilities.

Dr. Stevenson himself admits that in addition to reincarnation there could be several other explanations for the detailed, spontaneous recall he has been able to observe in the children he has studied. For example, it could be caused by telepathy, clairvoyance, or even spirit possession, the influence of some discarnate personality. This has been suggested by none other than an orthodox Hindu Swami, Sri Sri Somasundara Desika Paramachariya of South India. The swami, a believer in reincarnation, has written an open letter to Stevenson denying that the hundreds of cases from India the doctor cites are any proof whatever of the reincarnation doctrine. He wrote: "All the 300-odd cases reported by you do not in fact support the theory of reincarnation . . . They are all spirit possessions, ignored by the learned in south India."10

Whatever one may think of that particular approach, it is undoubtedly true that the full mysteries of the human mind, particularly human memory, remain largely uncharted territory. Some of the most recent discoveries of neurologists and other researchers, however, point to the probability that memories reside in the "soft disks" of our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). In other words, along with the rest of our genetic coding, perhaps tracks or imprints of experiences of the family, clan, or tribe are also stored. These DNA impressions, especially in our youth, can flash into consciousness much as do the images of dreams.

There is also the matter of RNA (ribonucleic acid), which our DNA uses to direct the activities of individual cells. One thoughtful reader of my weekly columns responded to the incident of "Anna," which I have already quoted, with an interesting letter. She is a registered nurse and not long ago attended a conference on prenatal psychology. At one lecture, a professor who has been studying the nature of our inherited RNA and its role in long-term memory storage put forward a theory.

Nobody," he said, "knows where long-term memory, body memory of movements needed to perform tasks, or a baby's pre-verbal memories are stored." Using the analogy of silicon chips and their use in computers, he suggested that "protein chips" in the RNA could hold much more information, extending back through one's ancestors and eventually linking all humanity in a unified family. Bits would be inherited from all sides - some verbal, some visual, some perhaps pre-verbal - which might explain those times when we experience vague feelings of having been somewhere before but are unable to express where or when. Perhaps just hearing or seeing a certain sound or image, or smelling a particular scent could trigger this information and bring it to consciousness.

Other explanations for what now seems to masquerade as past-life recall would include Carl Jung's concept of the "collective unconscious," which he postulated is common to us all and holds the great archetypes of our memories as humans. And then there is the whole phenomenon of extrasensory perception, ESP, with which some seem more endowed than others but which may well operate at times unconsciously in us all.

Some Problems with Reincarnation

Despite what may be said by either the supporters or the opponents of reincarnation in general, there is absolutely no way of proving or disproving the theory at this time. One can simply look at all the various arguments for and against and come to a reasoned stance of acceptance, disbelief, or open-minded scepticism. If it is true, then of course there obviously is life after death - many lives in fact. If it is not, we would have to look elsewhere in our search for clues. Having given it much thought ever since first encountering the theory while reading Plato at Oxford as an undergraduate, and having read as widely as possible in the current literature, I have become personally convinced that the arguments against it weigh more heavily than those for.

First, the theory does not deliver at the very point where it is most highly touted as the most satisfactory explanation. I am referring to the moral issue of divine justice, or theodicy. The argument that the law of karma - "As a man soweth so shall he surely reap" - explains all the manifest injustices of life is one that is made repeatedly in the reincarnational literature I have studied. We keep coming back, or rather our souls do, in thousands of rebirths until all the necessary lessons are learned. The good news, in this view, is presumably that this one life here and now is not our only chance. Each of us gets another, and another - in fact, as many chances as we need to "get it right." Nobody will ever be lost or damned, because there are endless opportunities to atone for past misdeeds and to learn true virtues.

There is a surface appearance of plausibility about this that has attracted many, including some very bright people. I think in particular of the late Reverend Leslie Weatherhead, of London, England, who to my mind was one of the greatest preachers of this century, and who came to accept reincarnation in his later years. When one thinks about it at length, however, it seems to me that some rather large contradictions arise.
In spite of all the recent emphasis on past-life recall, it is central to the orthodox theory of reincarnation that one forgets one's previous lives. "The cumulative pain might be too great otherwise," we are told. In the Platonic myth, for example, souls drink from the river of forgetfulness (Lethe) before they can be reborn. But if the vast majority of us cannot remember our previous incarnations, where is the justice in having to suffer for mistakes committed in them, or in benefitting from good deeds we cannot know? If I have absolutely no memory of a particular action, punishing me or rewarding me for it accomplishes nothing.

The problem is made worse by the fact that in certain versions of reincarnational thought the personality of the individual does not survive each death and rebirth; only the soul goes on from body to body. But if there is no memory and no continuity of personality, what sense does it make to say that any one of us actually survives death at all? If you die as one person and come back as another, why should the second have to pay for the sins of the first? If Hitler, for example, were to come back as John Jones the farmer, with no memory of his abominations and a wholly different personality, how is justice served by the said John Jones having to endure untold hardships or horrors?

I have serious doubts about the value of a belief that tells me I have lived many times before when I haven't the slightest glimmering of a memory of any of it. It's fine to say we're in a kind of cosmic school, where we learn successive lessons about life and gradually purify ourselves. But if I can't remember a single thing from all of this, of what use are these lessons and who is the "I" who is supposed to be the student? I know it is argued that while we forget the details of past lives (unless there is a hypnotist around) the really important lessons are retained as changes in the inner nature of our souls themselves. But since memory is an essential part of what makes me me and you you, I cannot see in what sense we remain the same person through repeated reincarnations, or what possible good it does us to be told that we have lived before.
I spoke about this criticism to Dr. Joel Whitton, a noted Toronto psychiatrist and author of the popular book Life Between Life, a study of "the Bardo," or in-between state of those who have died and are about to be reborn." Dr. Whitton noted there are various views of karma, all the way from the older "an eye for an eye" belief, where one gets back in successive lives exactly what one has handed out, to that of the alchemists who taught that it simply refers to the process whereby the point of any given event or experience in each incarnation is, What am I supposed to learn from it for my overall growth? Whitton subscribes to the view that for the most part the lack of memory of previous lives is a good thing, because "with an average of twenty or so lives behind us, as some authorities hold, there would be just too much pain involved in remembering it all." He added that most exponents of reincarnation in the West – and the Lamaist Buddhists of Tibet - believe that while names, out-ward circumstances, and so forth do change, the essential per-son remains throughout each life lived. "Tom," he said, "would continue to be recognizable as Tom for those with the proper discernment."

My second reason for rejecting the theory of reincarnation is that, as adapted and reinterpreted in the West, it is linked inextricably to a myth of inevitable and eternal progress. But there is nothing to guarantee that the collective karma of the human race will ineluctably improve. On the contrary, given the way in which evil seems to be increasing rather than decreasing at present-the ecological crisis, the AIDS epidemic, the increase of torture as a state weapon, the growing gap between rich nations and poor nations, drugs, terrorism, and many other crimes against humanity-one could make a powerful case for the exponential growth of bad karma. The blithe belief that every day in every way things eventually get better seems wholly lacking in any reasonable foundation.
Third, I am quite aware that in the great world religions that hold reincarnation as a key doctrine it is accepted not because it suits their fancy but because of deep insights and convictions that this is the way the universe operates. But I must confess that the working out, over countless millions of years, of this cold, impersonal force called karma seems to me, at any rate, to reduce the cosmos and the "wheel of life" to a chilling, heartless kind of machine. Since it will all end one day in an equilibrium of the universe leading inevitably to another cycle of cosmic rebirth, one has to ask: What is the point of it all? If we have done it all and seen it all before, not once but perhaps a myriad of times, can anything be more boring or ultimately meaningless? One can agree with the advocates of reincarnation when they argue that surely one lifetime is too short to learn all the spiritual truth of which the human soul is capable. But that does not constitute proof of reincarnation. It only adds to the evidence already before us that belief in some form of existence beyond our life span on earth is truly universal.

Notes » 275
Chapter 4: Reincarnation
1. Hans Kiing, Eternal Life? (New York: Image Books, 1985).
2. Sylvia Cranston and Carey Williams, Reincarnation, A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society (New York: Julian Press, 1984).
3. Ibid. pp. 106-7.
4. Geddes MacGregor, Reincarnation in Christianity (Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books, 1978), p. 118.
5. Mark Albrecht, Reincarnation, A Christian Critique of a 'New Age Doctrine (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 1982), p. 65.
6. Ernest Hilgard, San Francisco Examiner, 17 March 1977, p. 24.
7. Albrecht, Reincarnation, A Christian Critique, p. 69.
8. Colin Wilson, Afterlife (London: Grafton Books, 1987), pp. 2 Iff.
9. Dr. lan Stevenson, Xenogloss;y (Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia, 1974), and Unlearned Language (Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia, 1984).
10. Sri Sri Somasundara, quoted in Albrecht, Reincarnation, A Christian Critique, p. 129.
11. Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher, Life Between Life (New York: Doubleday, 1986).

[kayjay]

YAM.I am still not clear.......what does our Ismaili philosophy say,do we believe in reincarnation in the zahir (physical form) or just in the batin form.......well even in the batin form is kind of confusing to me,as reincarnation in batin form would mean rebirth of the soul ??......but the soul is eternal so where is the possibility of a rebirth.....can someone please explain.
also, what I am not clear about is, the resurrection in physical form ,as most muslims believe in,after death....do we as ismailis agree with that,can some one please give references of Imams farmans or ginans.

[ShamsB]

YAM.I am still not clear.......what does our Ismaili philosophy say,do we believe in reincarnation in the zahir (physical form) or just in the batin form.......well even in the batin form is kind of confusing to me,as reincarnation in batin form would mean rebirth of the soul ??......but the soul is eternal so where is the possibility of a rebirth.....can someone please explain.
also, what I am not clear about is, the resurrection in physical form ,as most muslims believe in,after death....do we as ismailis agree with that,can some one please give references of Imams farmans or ginans.

There are 27 different verses in the Quran that talk about reincarnation.
There are numerous farmans of the Imams - including Hazar Imam - Lahore November 24th 1964 comes to mind immediately.
Look all over our ginans - you will find the concept of reincarnation...

Is Fera Mahe Jo to Bhul Jayese to Bahut Kayesi Fera......from Maal Khajina is one example.

Kmaheraili has his interpretation and I have mine..and we've agreed to disagree...

Once again - we believe in the Law of Karma - every action has an equal and opposite reactio (pharaphrased). Am actually at an airport - will add more later.

Shams

[kayjay]

Im sorry,shamsB...... but I don't seem to find the answer to my question,could you please reply to the points mentioned in my question,specifically about the reincarnation in Zahir (physical form) and resurrection in phisical form after death......and I would also like to know the views of kmeharali, in respect to the points mentioned in my question.

PS.I would request both of you to quote imams farmans as the ginans can be interpreted in different ways.

[ShamsB]

Im sorry,shamsB...... but I don't seem to find the answer to my question,could you please reply to the points mentioned in my question,specifically about the reincarnation in Zahir (physical form) and resurrection in phisical form after death......and I would also like to know the views of kmeharali, in respect to the points mentioned in my question.

PS.I would request both of you to quote imams farmans as the ginans can be interpreted in different ways.

I pointed you to the date of the farman - it's in the white farman book that's available in most jamatkhanas. Admin forbids quoting farmans on the forums.

In my view in Ismailism there are 2 distinct things that make up a person/a being..one is Lifeforce - jeev and the other is the spirit - ruh (i am staying away from using the word soul as it has been used interchangeably and confuses folks) - btw..this is from the ismaili point of view (in my opinion - Karim has a different interpretation i think)..
now your lifeforce is what takes rebirths - that is what suffers the pain and is unhappy and is sad (there are some KIM and BUK farmans of MSMS that talk about this)...the spirit is what is eternal and is what is Allah - that is what we seek in Bandagi....
All Bandagi is; is the journey of the jeev to the ruh and the jeev merging with ruh much akin to a chemical reaction - the conversion of supermatter(jeev) into energy(rooh)..for lack of a better terminology...
Now as per our ginanic literature - parts of Karim's view points do hold true - as also demonstrated in the Autobiography of a yogi - where there are distinct and vivid descriptions of astral planes where a jeev can be given a metaphysical body to complete his ibadat - however to be assigned to those realms - one needs to have completed one's physical karma. (sorry am on my blackberry and at times i do tend to ramble - still waiting for my connecting flight)
as for resurrection in physical form after death - in my view..not going to happen - as we are a batini faith..and to us the body is just a vessel for the jeev and the soul - sort of a plane of Karma - MSMS often said that after death we can throw the body to the dogs..it has served it's purpose..what matters to us is the kernel - not the shell....it is jeev that has to answer - the rooh is Allah - therefore the jeev will come forth on the day of judgement and be accountable..
In all the ginans which talk about Pir Sadardeen and Pir Hasan Kabirdeen being Bar Karodi and Anant Karodi - the phrase used is Jeev ne Tariya..not Rooh ne Tariya - but Jeev ne Tariya - that is very key to keep in mind.

Once again - these are my views from what I've read and researched.
Kmaherali has a different approach and a different view - I'd say please read both and then follow what your intellect tells you to follow.

Shams

[kayjay]

ShamsB,I thank you, very kindly,that was beautfuly explained,I will try and read the farmans,refered by you,and get back to you if I need some more help in understanding this topic further.thanks again.

[kmaherali]

There is a parallel thread on this subject at:

Doctrines --> Farmans of MHI (1957 to 2004) Reincarnation & Rebirth

You may find it helpful.

[kmaherali]

This is an interesting reflection on the concept of reincarnation as a moralising concept and not as a doctrine per se.

http://www.livingimam.net/home/2009/1/4 ... evers.html

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Kitab al-Haft
The Fifty-First Chapter
Concerning the True Knowledge of the Lack of Believers and the Abundance of Unbelievers

Mufadhal said: I asked my master Al-Sadiq, "Why have the Believers become such a small number and the Unbelievers such a large number in the world?" Al-Sadiq replied, "Because the Believer looks at the world and its essential non-existence (zawaliha al-fani), and so does good deeds, and thus becomes impoverished in this material world, but inwardly an angel. When his years come to an end he indeed becomes an angel in the Hereafter. So it is that the Believers are in this world, their thoughts and intellects in the Hereafter. When the Believer purifies himself he ascends to the heavens and becomes one of the angels. For that reason there is an abundance of Believers in the heavens, and a lack of Believers upon the earth. And when an Unbeliever descends to a certain level of unbelief he becomes unjust. Then he is reincarnated and becomes rebellious, and he continues to return until he becomes a means of producing a like kind, until finally he becomes a Satan. He thus returns again and again by reincarnation in base forms, remaining upon the earth and not ascending to the heavens. For one cannot be incarnated in base form in the heavens, and indeed upon the earth the one incarnated in a base form is imprisoned. He changes from form to form. With each new physique he receives another kind of punishment, a punishment that is ever-intensified as those punished for all eternity. So this is the cause of the abundance of Unbelievers and the lack of Believers in this world. May peace be upon the Messengers and praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds."

Commentary: A literalist point of view would say that the Believers are reborn in the heavens as Angels, and the Unbelievers are reborn here on earth in animal forms, again and again. It explains the reason for injustice in this world and thus serves an aetiological function with regard to the relative unpopularity of the writer's creed. That is an important point to emphasize: the writer is not lamenting a lack of sages and devoted religious people in the world, he is lamenting the lack of people who accept the Alawite creed. Again, on the literalist level, Al-Sadiq's response dichotomizes the material world and the intellectual/spiritual one. The text strongly implies that it is because of this dualism and the antagonism between these two aspects that the material world will necessarily become an ever-worse place. I also think it's interesting that the Believer is not only beatified by his contemplation of the essential non-existence of the world but he is also impoverished by it.

As regards the doctrine of reincarnation, the Alawite/Mufdhalite doctrine is not alone in the Islamic tradition in positing reincarnation. The Druze and Ismailis of various stripes have all professed reincarnation, though Alawism is distinguished in its doctrine of reincarnation in animal form (maskh) for the unbelievers and unjust. In this way Alawism seems to be following a Quranic notion. After all, orthodox Islam admits reincarnation, albeit in one form only, that being one's body upon the Resurrection. The arrogant being reincarnated as an ant, for instance, being an ironic kind of punishment that reflects an earthly misdeed. Along those lines, Alawism seems to say that one who thinks or acts like a beast will be reincarnated as one later on. Worthy of note as well is the final statement by Al-Sadiq that the Unbeliever would be punished again and again in novel ways as they are reincarnated in different forms "as those punished for all eternity." This is an unanswered question for me: Is there in Alawism a notion of the "Day of Judgement" a single and universal temporal event, or do they profess the eternity of the world? In light of the similarities of these doctrines to Ismailism, I would imagine that a cyclical universe is the model being applied and that one is ever-reborn whether in higher or baser levels.

On a personal level, what does this mean? By looking at these eschatological models side-by-side, we are reminded of the essential features common to both: the most important of these is that one's inner condition is reflected in the outer condition, and so we are ultimately responsible for our beliefs, thoughts, and actions, and finally the forms which we inhabit in this world. Even if one does not subscribe to the notion of reincarnation, one can think of each successive self as a "reincarnation" of he who came before, and the individual's condition in each of those incarnations as a manifestation of previous beliefs, thoughts, and deeds or misdeeds. In that way an intense and inescapable responsibility is the purport and moral of this narrative. There is a lesson in akhlaq being taught here using theology/cosmology rather than direct moral discourse, and this is something characteristic of most Ali-based or ghulat religions, and frankly the very reason I obsess over them. In my personal journey I have found that moral commandments and lessons directly rendered are often fruitless, mere verbage. This Alawite approach beautifully interweaves morality into an organic system of thought within the fabric of religious doctrine.

Lesson for today: Think about how your thoughts, words, and actions today are quite literally building the world you will inhabit tomorrow.

[enzuru]

Just to add very briefly to what was said earlier, we should keep in mind that the Druze tariqah of Ismailism, which formed during Fatimid times, also believes in literal reincarnation. This makes it less historically accurate to write a belief in literal reincarnation off as a Khoja innovation. I'm not saying however that reincarnation cannot have a symbolic take as well.

I personally am a Nasriyya from Afghanistan. Whilst I have not found any specific thing referring to reincarnation in Nasriyya works yet, I have found loose ends that can only be understood through the concept of reincarnation.

[kmaherali]

Exploding the notion of an all-access heaven

By Daniel Goldbloom, Canwest News ServiceMay 17, 2009

Most of us have asked, "Why am I here?" Few have countered with, "Why not?"

David Eagleman, an American neuroscientist, has gone even further, developing 40 coherent --often provocative, always captivating--versions of the afterlife in a slim unusual book, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.

In a vignette titled "Angst," for example, we learn that, after life, we become 10,000-kilometre-tall, nine-dimensional beings tasked with maintaining the cosmos in the face of imminent collapse. We may spend our lives searching for "big, meaningful experiences" but, as it turns out, Earth is a holiday resort, an escape from the travails of our momentous true calling. After we wear out our human bodies, resume our multi-dimensional form and return to another terrible 300-year term of cosmic labour, "it is not uncommon to see us lying prostrate in the breeze of the solar wind, tools in hand, looking out to the cosmos, wet-eyed, searching for meaninglessness."

Eagleman, who works at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine, is clearly at ease standing our most deeply held beliefs about life and death on their heads. Sum explores a staggering array of post-death potentialities in essays of five pages or less--refreshingly undidactic versions of the beyond that are variously unsettling and reassuring, godly and godless.

The film All Dogs go to Heaven notwithstanding, we usually imagine the afterlife as occupied by a human population. But what if everything--people, places and things--has an afterlife of its own. In "Ineffable," Eagleman explores the afterlives of platoons, theatre productions and congresses--not the people who comprise them, but the organizations themselves. "Although it is difficult for us to imagine how these beings interact," he writes, "they enjoy a delicious afterlife together, exchanging stories of their adventures. They laugh about good times and often, just like humans, lament the brevity of life. The people who constituted them are not included in their stories. In truth, they have as little understanding of you as you have of them; they generally have no idea you existed." And this includes the structures within us. "When you die," posits Eagleman, "you are grieved by the atoms of which you were composed," before they drift off to find other organizational formations. The particles don't mourn you as a creature with a life of its own, but rather as an arrangement or a project in which they all took part.

By giving spirits and afterlives to all the entities --from atoms to infinity-- Eagleman frees the afterlife from its human shackles, opening the door on a slew of imaginative possibilities.

At times, Eagleman takes some of our more widely cherished versions of the afterlife and subjects them to logical scrutiny. When our loved ones die, for example, we like to think they are "up there" watching us. Indeed, most of us would like to be up there keeping an eye on things after we pass. But what would such celestial voyeurism entail?

"Will-o'-the-Wisp" describes "a vast comfortable lounge with leather furniture and banks of television monitors" from which you can watch the world unfold. Despite unlimited options, the occupants "all watch for one thing: evidence of our residual influence in the world, the ripples left in our wake." At first, and for a long time, we watch with pleasure the progress of our descendants and the organizations we started or led. But, ultimately, everyone's lounge membership expires, leaving them stuck outside the building, petulant, asking what they did to deserve this.

As it turns out, being barred from the lounge is a reward, not a punishment.

"Locked outside, they miss seeing their organizations lose members. They miss watching their favourite people melt away from cancer. . . . They miss the drift of social mores, their great-great-grandchildren changing religions, their lines of genetic descent petering out.

In this version of the afterlife, only sinners have a lifetime (that is, an afterlife-time) membership, forced to endure the pain of eternal omniscience.

Implicit is the notion that the traditional story of the afterlife is just a fantasy for the living rather than a realistic version of what the future might hold. That is, the benefits of being watched over pale in comparison to the terrible responsibility of eternal watching.

Another comforting belief among the living is that everyone goes to heaven.

Again, Eagleman has exploded the intoxicating notion of an all-access Heaven merely by letting it play itself out. And he does it with a sense of immediacy and excitement that pervades the entire volume. He refuses to make a clean break between the earthly and the divine, dragging the mayhem and confusion of human life through death's door, making the hereafter invitingly uncertain.

David Eagleman is a scientist/ author to watch. He is co-author of Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia (MIT Press), a guide to a rare neurological condition that causes people to blend their senses. It came out in April.

Sum will excite true believers, agnostics and atheists alike with its bold postulations. These 40 heavenly constructions may leave you feeling somewhat bleak, but you'll be considering the afterlife with a curiosity you thought you'd lost long ago.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Life/Explo ... story.html

[hungama25]

23:99 (Y. Ali) (In Falsehood will they be) Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: "O my Lord! send me back (to life),-

23:100 (Y. Ali) "In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected." - "By no means! It is but a word he says."- Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up.

The above words of God are clear and unambiguous. 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 till the Day of Resurrection.

40:11 (Y. Ali) They will say: "Our Lord! twice hast Thou made us without life, and twice hast Thou given us Life! Now have we recognised our sins: Is there any way out (of this)?"

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 Qur'an.

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: "You have put us to death twice, and You gave us two lives."

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.

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

"Use the provisions bestowed upon you by God to seek the abode of the Hereafter, without neglecting your SHARE in this world." (28:77)

In this life every human being is apportioned a share in accordance with God's will. The Qur'an explains this concept in this verse.

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 limits." (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 limits.

There are always some case studies which may influence one's thinking causing some to believe in such multiple life theories. Many TV programs 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 phenomena. 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 Qur'an. 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, and since we are given clear Qur'anic evidence against the concept of reincarnation, we must submit to such truth and discard this concept without any hesitation. 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.

[hungama25]

HOLY QURAN says :

"From the (earth) did We Create you, and into it Shall We return you, And from it shall We Bring you out once again. (The Noble Quran, 20:55)"

" 'And Allah has produced you from the earth, Growing (gradually), And in the End He will return you Into the (earth), And raise you forth (Again at the Resurrection).' (The Noble Quran, 71:17-18)"

"Nor will they there Taste Death, except the first Death; and He will preserve Them from the Penalty Of the Blazing Fire. (The Noble Quran, 44:56)"

" 'Is it (the case) that We shall not die, except our first death, And that we Shall not be punished?' Verily this is The supreme achievement! For the like of this Let all strive, Who wish to strive. (The Noble Quran, 37:58-61)"


Islam doesn't agree with the reincarnation theory

[hungama25]

Karma (what comes around goes around) in Islam:

Let us look at what Allah Almighty said in the Noble Quran:

"Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of (the meed) that the hands of men have earned, that (God) may give them a taste of some of their deeds: in order that they may turn back (from Evil). (The Noble Quran, 30:41)"

"And indeed We will make them taste of the Penalty of this (life) prior to the supreme Penalty, in order that they may (repent and) return. (The Noble Quran, 32:21)"

The idea that life is a "circle", and that what goes around from good and evil doings does eventually come around to the person is all supported in the Noble Quran.

For instance, when a dominant person, who used to deal with people unjustly, loses all of his power by the Will of GOD Almighty, and becomes weaker than everyone else, it would be GOD Almighty's Message to him that he should repent and amend to his GOD Almighty, and make up for those whom he harmed, or else meet the Ultimate destruction.

Some people Allah Almighty would accept their repentance, and some He wouldn't. It all depends on the person, and what kind of evil he did to others.

One thing we must know for certain: There is no reincarnation in Islam!

[Admin]

One thing we must know for certain: There is no reincarnation in Islam!

Only Imam can say what is and what is not in Islam. And the pluralism in Islam has room for all the possible interpretation of the Quran, which Hazar Imam says there are thousands of interpretations. So yours is but one of the thousands. We respect that fact. Sure, why not.

Ismailis have that tolerance for other peoples' interpretations even those which sometimes are borderline on intolerance of other peoples' ideas.


Mansur al-Hallaj, [who was killed by intolerant and ignorant so called Muslims for saying Anal Haq] wrote:

Like the herbage
I have sprung up many a time
On the banks of flowing rivers.
For a hundred thousand years
I have lived and worked
In every sort of body.

[ShamsB]

Karma (what comes around goes around) in Islam:

Let us look at what Allah Almighty said in the Noble Quran:

"Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of (the meed) that the hands of men have earned, that (God) may give them a taste of some of their deeds: in order that they may turn back (from Evil). (The Noble Quran, 30:41)"

"And indeed We will make them taste of the Penalty of this (life) prior to the supreme Penalty, in order that they may (repent and) return. (The Noble Quran, 32:21)"

The idea that life is a "circle", and that what goes around from good and evil doings does eventually come around to the person is all supported in the Noble Quran.

For instance, when a dominant person, who used to deal with people unjustly, loses all of his power by the Will of GOD Almighty, and becomes weaker than everyone else, it would be GOD Almighty's Message to him that he should repent and amend to his GOD Almighty, and make up for those whom he harmed, or else meet the Ultimate destruction.

Some people Allah Almighty would accept their repentance, and some He wouldn't. It all depends on the person, and what kind of evil he did to others.

One thing we must know for certain: There is no reincarnation in Islam!

Allah has also said - You were dead and I gave you life, and I will kill you again and give you life again and I will kill you again and you will die again.

Hazar Imam in Nov 1964 has also made farmans attesting to Life being a short passage through eternity - please read the whole farman.

Shams

[From_Alamut]

Ya Ali Madad

These last few days i have been reading the various debates throghout this forum regarding reincarnation. Although much has been said, i did not find it sufficient enough as much of it were based on logic rather than scrriptural sources.

The concept of reincarnation in Islam is very interesting for me, and i have been triying to find out how batin shias interpret the holy ayats of the Quran regarding punishment of the grave in relation to reincarnation.

also, what is the ta'wil of the following verse, which in its zahir completely rejects the notion of reincarnation.

When death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back again. so that perhaps I may act rightly regarding the things I failed to do!" No indeed! It is just words he utters. Before them there is an interspace until the Day they are raised up. (Surat al-Muminun: 99-100)


this verse says people only have one chance, and there is no new chance after this life.

Mowla ALI Madad

Here is this book by the name of Resurrection Judgement and the Hereafter
Lessons on Islamic Doctrine by: Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari and translated by: Hamid Algar........ I have not read this book yet but I have heard a little about it, I will print and read it later on Inshallah. This book deals with incarnation and the resurrection judgement in hereafter.
"Amardeep" you will too find your verse in this book with its allegoric interpretation and with some other verse of holy Quran related to incarnation in Islam. I will quote some verse as soon I read this book Inshallah, I apology for I do not know yet any.

Here you may feel free to read the book online or print it before you read it.

http://www.najaf.org/english/book/15/

http://www.al-islam.org/Resurrect/index.htm

[hungama25]

bro shamsB

thank you for sharing your thoughts


heres why i believe that there is no place of reincarnation in islam, i request you to please kindly read what iam about to write very very carefully


bro shamsB do you believe in angels appointed by allah[swt] who write you good deeds and bad deeds ?????

1] Belief in Islam requires belief in (both bodily and spiritually) Resurrection and Judgment, when justice is meted out to each individual soul according to that individual’s record in life. If the individual soul passes into different lives, in which form or personality will it be resurrected, commanded to give account, and rewarded or punished?


Despite its darkness and density in contrast to water, air, and light, earth is the means and source of all the varieties of the works of Divine art, in meaning it has some superiority to the other elements. Also, despite its density, on account of being comprehensive and provided it is purified, the human selfhood gains some kind of superiority to his/her other senses and faculties. Likewise, the human body is a most comprehensive and rich mirror to the manifestations of the Divine Names. It has been equipped with the instruments to weigh and measure the contents of all of the Divine treasuries. For example, if the sense of taste in the tongue was not the origin of as many measures as the varieties of food and drink, it could not experience each and recognize them; it could not measure them. Furthermore, the instruments with which to experience and recognize the manifestations of most of the Divine Names, and the faculties for experiencing the most various and infinitely different pleasures are also in the body. Since, as is understood clearly from the conduct of the universe and the comprehensiveness of humanity, the Maker of the universe wants through the universe to make known all the treasuries of His Mercy, and all the manifestations of His Names, and to make us experience all the varieties of His bounties, for sure, the world of eternal happiness, which is a mighty pool into which the flood of the universe flows and a vast exhibition of the products of the loom of the universe and the everlasting store of the crops produced in the field of the world, will resemble the universe to a degree. The All-Wise Maker, the All-Com-passionate Just One, will give as wages for the duties of the bodily organs and in reward for their services and particular types of worship, pleasures particular to each. To think otherwise would be contrary to His Wisdom, Justice and Compassion. So, if the individual soul lives in several, different bodies, in which one will it be resurrected, commanded to give account, and rewarded or punished?


2] This world is created to test and try the soul so that it may benefit thereby. One focus of the test is belief in the ghayb (the Unseen). According to reincarnation, those who live a bad life pass into a lower form of life (animal, tree, etc.) after death. After undergoing cycles of suffering, their lives will end in some way, which means the end of the cycles of reincarnation. Therefore, by its very nature, reincarnation is not a final end and its cessation means contradicting the world’s final destruction and the Supreme Judgment.


To get round this, believers in this doctrine have a doctrine of forgetfulness─the soul “forgets” its past existence. In that case, for all practical purposes, having had (or not having had) a past existence is of no consequence. Plainly, the doctrine contradicts itself and has no bearing on the “current” life ex­cept to make the individual accept his or her condition, whatever it may be, without actively striving for salvation.


3] If each individual is supposed to go through a painful cycle of transmigration to ac­quire eternal bliss, then God’s promise to punish the wicked and the sinful, and to reward the good and the righteous, has no meaning for the indi­vidual life. This is unacceptable for Providence, for God is neither vain nor futile in His actions.


The Qur’an and other Divine Books state that sins will be forgiven (if truly repented). This proves how unnecessary and cumbersome a doctrine reincarnation is. How much better do the concepts of mercy and forgiveness befit God, the Beneficent, Merciful Creator.


In Islam, there is no sin that God will not for­give, as He wills. God, the All-Mighty, reveals and promises in the Qur’an that He will forgive those who repent and sincerely intend to abandon such behavior. In this respect, God does not see how great or little your sins are, nor how late your penitence is. This may mean that a sinner who disobeys and rebels against God throughout his or her life can be for­given by a single act of true repentance, done with absolute sincerity and a profound understanding of servanthood and dependence on God. Due to his/her very nature, every sentient person feels the pain of committing sins in his/her conscience and is given during his/her life-time so many opportunities to repent for them and reform himself or herself as there will be left no requirement for another, painful life cycle. As for those whose hearts have been hardened and sealed so that they will no longer be able to awake to the truth, it would mean nothing to them even if they were to pass through innumerable cycles of life.


Long and tiresome cycles of rebirth are contrary to the mercy, favor, and grace of God, the All-Compassionate. If He wills, He takes ordinary, worthless, inferior things and turns them into what is purest, best, and be­yond price. His blessings and munificence are Infinite

Many followers of the Prophets led wicked lives but then reformed within an incredibly short time and became revered models of vir­tue for later generations. After meeting the Prophets and embracing the Divine Message, some surpassed previous followers and came to be even more revered. This in­dicates that, by the favor of God, one can rise easily and quickly to the summit, even if one seemed to be destined for the pit. It shows, again, how unnecessary the doctrine of souls “graduating” into higher levels of being is. Indeed, the doctrine may have the effect of lessening incentives to moral effort.


To believe that God, the All-Mighty, has created a soul for each individual is part of belief in His Omnipotence. To believe that a limited number of souls migrate from body to body argues the illogical proposition that the Omnipotent is not Omnipotent.

The sheer abun­dance of life, its infinite variety, its refusal of mere repetition of form, is everywhere evident: God is indeed All-Mighty. There are approximately 6 or 6.5 billion or may be more people in the world. In recent times, we have learned how to prove that each individual is absolutely unique─an idea urged by many verses of the Qur’an by looking at fingerprints or genetic codes. These facts are so reliable that they are used in forensic science to identify criminals. Another example is the observation, over 30 years, of millions of pictures of snowflakes not one of which is ever exactly like any other. We cannot even imagine how many snowflakes fall in one season on one mountainside, let alone all that have ever fallen. How foolish to imply, then, that the Omnipotent could not create an infinite number of individual souls and supply each with a unique body.


Could not a few million people out of the billions now living have at least some marks, signs, evidence, or something convincing to tell of their memories, adventures, and experiences in different forms and bodies? Has there not been an accumulation of knowledge, experience, and culture in some of those reincarnated beings or those who have completed their cycles? If this happened in only one out of a million people, should we not expect to see a great number of people now living with extraordinary virtue and competence? Should we not have met a few of them even in our own countries? If so, where are they?


If reincarnation educates souls so that they become pure enough to attain salvation, would it not be logical for those returning to the world to remember their former, sinful lives and draw lessons from them?