YAM.
I have heard and read the analogy of the soul being a drop of water returning to the Ocean while at the same time hearing Farmans about becoming an Angel. If one reaches the pinnacle of spirituality and becomes “one” with Allah, then does this soul mix in with God and essentially become Allah? Or does this becoming “one” mean returning to God and being in his presence for eternity? Because if becoming one means to be in Allah’s presence for eternity then we would reach a status that like that of an Angel. However, becoming “mixed in” with Allah - becoming part of the “Ocean” - means that we would surpass any and every creation of God, even Angels. Our souls, body, the world, and everything that can be seen and not are all created by the will of Allah. So if we return to Allah it is like that we never existed. I remember, but cannot remember who, has their signature as “whatever is is Ruh” and “whatever is is Ali”, which says that we do not even exist and that everything is God. So could it be that we are already one with God, but just have not realized it? Perhaps, could it be that, like Mansoor, we must engage in a spiritual search to find out who we really are and in doing so we realize that we are part of God? I meant in the spiritual sense and not in the physical sense in the sentences above. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Soul and returning to Allah
Soul:
Hard to define, due to it's many concepts in the understanding of what a soul can be. One way to define this word is as follows: A life force of an individual, as distinguished from the individual's physical body and sometimes spirit.
The Soul is the Essence of self, the part of self that exist after death, and during after life separate from the physical vessel, also the soul exists with the spirit and body in a trinity during life.
The spiritual component of the human being. According to Plato, the soul is a spiritual principle of thought that should govern human choice and action. According to Aristotle, each living thing is composed of "matter and form," the soul is the human "form," the organizing principle that shapes the chaos of matter into a human creature rather than some other kind. ...
Hard to define, due to it's many concepts in the understanding of what a soul can be. One way to define this word is as follows: A life force of an individual, as distinguished from the individual's physical body and sometimes spirit.
The Soul is the Essence of self, the part of self that exist after death, and during after life separate from the physical vessel, also the soul exists with the spirit and body in a trinity during life.
The spiritual component of the human being. According to Plato, the soul is a spiritual principle of thought that should govern human choice and action. According to Aristotle, each living thing is composed of "matter and form," the soul is the human "form," the organizing principle that shapes the chaos of matter into a human creature rather than some other kind. ...
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nashvelshi
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Imam SMS in his 'Memoirs' talks about the concept of monorealism as opposed to monotheism as being the right way to look at it. In other words, there is only one reality, which is Allah. Everything is nothing more than a weak reflection of that One Absolute Reality.
That is what we affirm when we recite the 'Sura-tul-Ikhlas' at least 4 times
daily in our daily prayers: 'Allahu samad'-The Absolute, The Self-Sufficient, The Independent, The One Absolute Reality.
Interesting you should mention Plato's and Aristotle's ideas of soul. One of Plato's ideological successors was Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century CE. He developed the idea of Universal Soul, which emanated from the Universal Intellect. His ideas formed a body of philosophy called Neo-Platonism. One of our pre-eminent Ismaili philosophers from the 10th century CE, Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, came under the influence of greek philosophy that was being passed down to Islam via the Byzantine empire.
He cleverly used Plotinus's ideas of the Universal Intellect and Universal Soul and integrated it with the concepts of Prophethood and Imamat to create a cosmological doctrine that became one of the chief intellectual stimulants for the successful formation of the Fatimid empire.
In Al-Sijistani's cosmology, each individual human soul is part of the Universal Soul and can link up with the latter in its quest to reach the Universal Intellect.
That is what we affirm when we recite the 'Sura-tul-Ikhlas' at least 4 times
daily in our daily prayers: 'Allahu samad'-The Absolute, The Self-Sufficient, The Independent, The One Absolute Reality.
Interesting you should mention Plato's and Aristotle's ideas of soul. One of Plato's ideological successors was Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century CE. He developed the idea of Universal Soul, which emanated from the Universal Intellect. His ideas formed a body of philosophy called Neo-Platonism. One of our pre-eminent Ismaili philosophers from the 10th century CE, Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, came under the influence of greek philosophy that was being passed down to Islam via the Byzantine empire.
He cleverly used Plotinus's ideas of the Universal Intellect and Universal Soul and integrated it with the concepts of Prophethood and Imamat to create a cosmological doctrine that became one of the chief intellectual stimulants for the successful formation of the Fatimid empire.
In Al-Sijistani's cosmology, each individual human soul is part of the Universal Soul and can link up with the latter in its quest to reach the Universal Intellect.