SPIRIT OF ISLAM JUNE 2O18

29 Spirit of Islam Issue 66 June 2018 RELIGION AND THE LIFE HEREAFTER Points to Ponder The crux of religion is indubitably the belief in the life Hereafter. S O says Allama Shibli Nomani (1857-1914) under the heading ‘Life after Death’ in his famous book, Al Ghazzali. He goes on to say that it is because of this belief that religion has had an impact on human activities. Yet, despite it being the single most important belief in religion, it has been open to question. He quotes a Bedouin poet who, addressing his wife, expresses this most succinctly: Death, rebirth, My dear: it is all nonsense. Shibli feels that the first and most difficult hurdle to be surmounted is acceptance of the fact that the spirit survives as an entity in its own right, quite independently of the body. The materialists for their part think of the soul as being just one more ingredient in the body, in the way that a chemical element is inextricably a part of a compound, or they regard it as being a particular property of the faculties of thought and sense perception on a parallel with the melody which results when notes of a musical instrument are struck in a particular sequence. Drawing extensively on two of Imam Ghazzali’s books, he observes that the description of the soul and the arguments which Ghazzali has mentioned are all derived from Greek philosophers. Aristotle in his Theology has said the same and Avicenna has reiterated this in his own language. But the strange thing is that Ghazzali has left out the point which is of prime importance in the discussion of spirit or soul. Soul has no body. It is an essence. It being purely non-material, makes it of the first importance to prove its existence. As Shibli himself observes: The existence of the soul is a matter of intuition. After pondering over it, we come to know that the faculty of reason is not merely a property of matter. Matter is a lifeless thing. Without reason, you cannot find sublime ideas, arts and sciences and scientific disciplines in matter. These are delicate substances, quite other than matter, which account for creativity in the fields of the arts The existence of the soul is a matter of intuition. After pondering over it, we come to know that the faculty of reason is not merely a property of matter. Matter is a lifeless thing.