Tanasukh in Islam

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CHAPTER XIX Re-incarnation (Tanasukh) 1. Tanasukh (re-incarnation). Some believe that human soul is not dependent by itself; and that degeneration and annihilation do not overtake it. Hence necessarily when one physical body on which it depends decays, it is in search of another; so that without cutting off its previous connections, it manifests itself in that body whether it be of a lower kind or of a higher; it is like the .transcription of a book from one paper to another. The author of Gulshan-i-Raz (Shaykh MahmQd Shabistari) says: Tanasukk zan sabab shud kufr wu batil, Ki aan az tang chashmi gasht hasil. "Transmigration has become kufr and false, Because it is based on a narrow outlook." The narrow outlook of the Re-incarnationists consists in their confining themselves to physical bodies, and ignoring the mithal-woild ; and also in not believing in soul's progress in the soul-world by good actions such as visualized by the prophets. Secondly, they say that souls are eternal and are a limited number, and are to rotate in different bodies. They do not know that every moment there is a new 'tajalli' and manifestation; and God's 'tajalliyat' are beyond calculation and do not repeat themselves. Thirdly they do not understand that souls are independent of bodies. The Mathnawi says : Aan taugy ko baybadan dari badan. Pus char a tarsi zijan bay run shudan. "Thou art that, that has a body without a body; Why art thou afraid of coming out of life." Fourthly, soul is not a thing that comes out of a body or goes into it which are physical qualities, Soul is not a body, to

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eotne out of another body. Fifthly, soul is operator, and its operation is confined to one body whether for good or for evil. "Laha ma kasabat wa alayha maktasabat." 1 (For you, what you have earned of good; and upon you what have earned of evil.) Hell and heaven are forms that one sends out for himself from this world, and that await him in the mithal-world. One never returns to this world to reap fruits thereof. The Muslims, (certain sects of the Shl'ahs excepted), do not believe ia 'Tanasukh' (passing of the soul from one body to another), or in Rij'at (the return of a departed soul in a new tabernacle of flesh) or in Hulul (the passing of God into human form). These are an "abomination to them," as Dr. Nicholson has put it. The Quran says : Wa maal hayatu'd dunya ilia laibun wa lahaw, wa lad dar ul akhiratu khairu HI ladhina yattaqun. (vi: 32) "And the world's life is naught but a play and an idle sport, and certainly the abode of the hereafter is better for those who guard (against evil)." Rabbana akhrijna minhafain udnafa inna zalimun. Qal akhsau fiha wa la tukallimun. (xxiii: 107-108) "O Our Lord ! Take us out of it (the hell mentioned in verses 103 and 104 of the same Sura), then if we return (to evil), surely we shall be unjust. He shall say: Go away into it, and speak not to Me." From this, it is plain that there is no return to earth to. improve one's prospects of securing heaven. The reward is meted out according to the merits of one's actions. Fa man saqulat muwazinuhu fa wulayika humul muflihun. Wa. man kaffat muwazinuhu fa wulayikal ladhina khasiru anfusahumfi iahannama khalidun. (xxiii: 102-103) "Then as for him whose good deeds are preponderant, these are the successful. And for him whose good deeds are light, there are they who have lost their souls, abiding in hell." The Re-incarnationists in Islam are the Ghulat section of the 1, Sura Baqara, 11:286,

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THE SECRET OF ANA'L-HAQQ

Shi'ah (Abu Muslim of Khurasan, Ahmad ibn Zakariah,1 v/