The Physical, Moral and Spiritual States of Man (part 3)

(continued)

The soul is created

 After this digression I revert to my earlier discussion. It is absolutely true that the soul is a fine light developed inside the body and which is nurtured in the womb. To begin with it is hidden and imperceptible and later it is made manifest. From the very beginning its essence is present in the sperm. It is related to the sperm in a mysterious manner by the design and command and will of God. It is a bright and illumined quality of the sperm. It cannot be said that it is a part of the sperm as matter is part of matter, nor can it be said that it comes from outside or falls upon the earth and gets mixed with the matter of the sperm. It is latent in the sperm as fire is latent in the flint. The Book of God does not mean that the soul descends from heaven  as a separate entity or falls upon the earth from the atmosphere and then by chance gets mixed with the sperm and enters the womb with it. There is no basis for such  a notion. The law of nature rejects it. We observe daily that thousands of insects infect impure and stale foods and are generated in unwashed wounds. Dirty linen secretes hundreds of lice and all sorts of worms are generated inside a person’s stomach. It cannot be said that all these come from outside or can be observed as descending from heaven. The truth is that the soul is developed in the body and this also proves that it is created and is not self-existent.

 The second birth of the Soul

Now what I mean to emphasise here is that the design of the Almighty  Who has created the soul from the body with His perfect power appears to be that the second birth of the soul should also take place through the body. The movements of the soul follow the movements of the body. If the body is drawn in a particular direction the soul automatically follows it. It is, therefore, a function of the Book of God to direct itself to the natural state of man: that is why the Holy Quran pays so much attention to the reform of the natural state of man and gives directions with regard to everyone of his actions, his laughing, weeping, eating, clothing, sleeping, speaking, keeping silent, marrying, remaining celibate, walking, standing still, outward cleanliness, bathing, submitting to a discipline in health and in illness etc. It affirms that man’s physical condition affects his spiritual condition deeply. I cannot undertake a detailed   exposition of all those directions  as time  is  not available  for such  an undertaking.

Gradual Progress of Man

 When I reflect upon the Holy Word of God, it becomes  clear  to me  how He  bestows  on man, through His teachings, rules for the reform of his natural condition  and then gradually lifts him upwards  and  desires  to raise  him to the  highest spiritual state, I realize that the principle of profound spiritual insight [underlying the following Divine Scheme] is that first God desires to teach man the rules of social behaviour like sitting, standing, eating, drinking, talking etc., and thus to deliver him from a state  of barbarism  and  distinguish  him from the animals and thus bestow upon him an elementary moral state which  might  be described as social culture. He then desires to regulate his elementary moral habits so that they should acquire the character of high moral qualities. Both these methods are part of the same process as they are related to the reform of man’s natural condition. There is between them a difference only of degree. The All-Wise One has so arranged the moral system that man should be able to rise from a low to a high moral condition.

The true meaning of Islam

 The third grade of progress is that a person should become wholly devoted to the love of his True Creator  and to the winning  of His  pleasure.  The whole of his being should be committed to God. To remind Muslims constantly of this grade their religion has been named Islam, which  means to devote oneself wholly to God and to keep nothing back. As God, the Glorious, has said:

 (9). Nay, whoever submits himself completely to Allah, and is the doer of good, shall have his reward with his Lord. No fear shall come upon such, neither       shall they grieve. (The Holy Quran, al-Baqarah 2:113)

     Say, ‘My  Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah,  the  Lord of the  worlds.  ‘He  has  no partner.  And so  am  I commanded, and I am the first of those who submit.’ (The Holy Quran, al-An‘am 6:163-164)

     ‘This is My path leading straight. So follow it; and follow not other ways, lest they lead you away from His way. (The Holy Quran, al-An‘am 6: 154)