Dear Mukto-mona Editor:

I would appreciate very much for your publishing the following in your
forum for the above subject:

DOES SOUL EXIST?

In my writing ¡§Each Individual is Responsible for the Results of His/Her
Actions¡¨ I brought a few questions, unfortunately no one dealt with my
questions while many of the readers brought several other irrelevant
questions. In my writing I brought some scenario wherein the issues of the
¡§Human Soul¡¨ and some other aspects of human beings that exist as
intangible things which can be perceived were discussed.

In human beings there are many aspects/things that are similar in
characteristics but quite different in shape, color, texture, etc., which we
can see, measure and quantify them. Also there are many intangible things in
human beings that may not be similar but we can perceive them. Mr. Asghar
said that what he perceived as life in
brain was a perception of those animals which could move, talk, and do some
kind of actions. However, the point I am bringing is that in human beings
there are many aspects such as love, fear, envy, hate, intelligence, etc.
that exist, are intangible and we can perceive these. Modern science have
not given any clue to measure any of these, weigh these, or analyze these.
Such things cannot be scientifically quantified. ¡§If you have something
which you can express it in numbers, you have some knowledge about
it¡¨¡K..This is science.

The intangible things exist in our human body and we can perceive these. The
way we perceive these and amount of our perception also cannot be quantified
by any scientific means as far as I know. If any one of you know any
scientific methodology to quantify any of those aspects of a human being I
would love to learn them. I know I get angry and my wife gets angry too. But
her anger is much less than mine and so she can control her anger while I am
angry. I have not heard of any scientific method by which I can measure my
anger, her anger, and control that anger. But the ¡§anger¡¨ exists and you
cannot deny that. Where is that anger? Where is my hate? Where is my love?
How can we measure and quantify these? How can we control these? Can you
answer all these questions? This way your or our own ¡§Self¡¨ exists. This
intangible thing that exist in human beings which cannot be scientifically
quantified is the thing that is ¡§Nafs¡¨ in Arabic or ¡§Ruh¡¨ and ¡§Soul¡¨
in English. It exists and there is no doubt about its existence but some
people deny its existence. Depending on the amount of perception an
individual human being has, the understanding of the existence of ¡§SOUL¡¨
would vary and as such its idea of existence would vary.

Modern science has not given any methodology of quantifying anger, hate,
love, etc. so is in the case of ¡§Nafs¡¨. My anger can come and go; so my
hate and love. So also my ¡§Nafs¡¨ or ¡§Ruh¡¨. When the ¡§Ruh¡¨ goes away
from the body, everything remains in tact which are tangible but all the
intangible things go away. We have no way of measuring them and only way we
can understand is by our intangible thing perception. However, the most
uncorrupted book of the ¡§Revealed Knowledge¡¨, the ¡§Qur¡¦an¡¨ explains
this ¡§Ruh¡¨ very clearly:

¡§And they ask you concerning the ¡¥Ruh¡¦, Say: ¡§The ¡¥Ruh¡¦ is from an
order of my Rab (i.e. Allah). And you (i.e. mankind) have not been given of
knowledge except a little.¡¨ (17:85). [A little knowledge is given about
this ¡§Ruh¡¨ to human beings].

From the above verse we understand that ¡§Ruh¡¨ is something from an order
of Allah (swt). In Arabic it is ¡§¡¦Amr¡¨ i.e. ¡§Order¡¨ and is also
intangible which we cannot see. Suppose I order my son: ¡§Go to your room¡¨.
We do not see that order but it existed. So is the order of the Creator,
Allah (swt). It existed when it was given and continuing to exist for all
the time. This ¡§Ruh¡¨ is different from the ¡§Biological life¡¨ that exist
in human beings or any other biological thing. We can perceive this or even
see this in biological cells under electron microscope. That is why when a
person dies his several body parts can be transplanted and used in any human
body which has the ¡§Ruh¡¨ and these parts can function. While these parts
would not function in the body from which the ¡§Ruh¡¨ has left. How the
¡§Ruh¡¨ leaves? Where does it go? Where does it stay thereafter? Modern
science has not yet developed to that extent to explain all these. May be
one day such development would come and we will be able to see such things
even we may see our order. Until then we will have to depend on our
perception i.e. capability of our perception to understand the existence of
¡§Ruh¡¨ and the ¡§Revealed Knowledge¡¨. Most of us have experienced some
kind of dream. In the dream while a person is asleep can do, move about, and
see many things but the body remains at the same place. I may be sleeping at
Maryland but in a dream I can go to Dhaka and do many things while I am
asleep. When I was in Nigeria, I was dreaming a few things on a continuous
basis for about five years and after five years when I came to USA I found
some of my dreams coming true. How does such thing happen? Can science
explain these? The Biological life aspects continue while I am sleeping but
I am not in my body as I have gone to USA while my body is in Nigeria. So
the biological life aspect can continue to remain in a human being by life
support system but such life has no ¡§nafs or souls¡¨ to the truest sense as
such a human being cannot control many of the intangible things in his/her
body. For explanation of ¡§nafs¡¨ please continue reading.

As indicated above a human being consists of some tangible things and some
intangible things. The tangible things we all can see: our body and all its
parts. The intangible things we cannot see but we have these and we can only
perceive them, these are: passion, greed, anger, hatred, envy, pride,
intellect, humbleness, modesty, sincerity, kindness, faithfulness,
truthfulness, etc. That is, all the good and bad attributes that exist
within our human bodies. All these exist and no human being can deny their
existence. No science has yet developed to express these in a measurable
quantity in numbers that their knowledge can be learnt yet these intangible
things exist in human beings. Can any human being say that I do not have
intellect? I do not have pride? You cannot deny their existence. Similarly
can you tell me where is the anger in your body or our body? But it exists
in your/our body. So the ¡§Soul¡¨ exist in your/our body.

So we all have to agree that a human body has two aspects of things because
of the existence of tangible and intangible things. Many people say that
many of the attributes mentioned above that exist in human beings are in the
heart. So they say ¡§He is kind hearted¡¨. Where in the heart, the
¡§kindness¡¨ exists? We all know that heart is a piece (of flesh) in the
left side of our breast. Heart is the center or main source of blood
circulation for our body and it is called ¡§Qalb¡¨ in Arabic. It has two
attributes: one is physical and is the source of blood circulation. In this
respect it keeps the life of the body in tact and how it functions are all
given in Anatomy. The other attribute of ¡§Heart or Qalb¡¨ is related to
¡§Soul¡¨. It is a formless immaterial thing (intangible thing) which has got
connection with the material heart. It is just like unseen electricity. It
is the principal thing in a human being. The connection of soul with heart
is the connection of human attributes with the bodily limbs.

The word ¡§Soul¡¨ mentioned above which is also referred to as ¡§Ruh¡¨ also
has two aspects: the first is a material thing within the heart which
vibrates the whole body like the current of electricity and which runs
through the veins of the body. It is called ¡§Life¡¨. It has got the power
of touching, hearing, sight, smell, and the power of other limbs of the
body. It is just like a radiation of light of a lighted lamp pitched in a
corner of the house. It is a subtle thing which creates the heat of the
heart. The second aspect of ¡§Soul or Ruh¡¨ is an immaterial subtle thing
and not life. As God says: ¡§They ask you about ¡¥Ruh¡¦. Say: It is a
command from my Lord¡¨¡K..(17:85). As explained earlier this command cannot
be seen but it exist.

The human attribute ¡§passion¡¨ that exists in a human being is a
comprehensive word consisting of greed, anger, and other evil attributes.
These are present in a human being as ¡§Nafs¡¨ and they are connected to the
human ¡§Soul¡¨ as ¡§Ruh¡¨ and ¡§Qalb¡¨ are connected. So another aspect of
¡§Nafs¡¨ is also called ¡§Soul¡¨. When ¡§Nafs¡¨ assumes calmness and has
removed its passion, it is then termed ¡§Nafs Mutmainna¡¨ or ¡§Satisfied
Soul¡¨ as Allah says: ¡§O Satisfied Soul! Return to your lord satisfied and
satisfying Him¡¨ (89:27-28). There are two other stages of ¡§Nafs¡¨. When
the calm nature of the ¡§Nafs¡¨ is not reached but it tries to reach that
stage, it is at ¡§Nafs Lawwamah¡¨ (75:2) or ¡§Self accusing soul¡¨ stage
which rebukes the soul any time it would be prone to do passion addicted
things/actions. The lowest nature is ¡§Nafs Ammaraah¡¨ or ¡§Soul addicted
to passion¡¨ (12:53).

The human brain physically controls many tangible and intangible aspects of
human beings. In Arabic sometimes it is called ¡§Aql¡¨. This has several
meanings. One aspect of ¡§Aql¡¨ is intellect with which true nature of
things of this material world is known and its seat is in the ¡§Soul¡¨. One
other aspect of ¡§Aql¡¨ is power to understand the secrets of different
subjects. It is a subtle essence called knowledge which is an attribute. The
attribute and the thing which contains it are two different things.
Intellect is the name of both. Knowledge is the content of intellect.

With intellect and above explanations of ¡§Qalb¡¨, ¡§Ruh¡¨, ¡§Nafs¡¨, and
¡§Aql¡¨, clearly shows the existence of ¡§Soul¡¨ as an intangible thing in a
human being. The ¡§Soul¡¨ is principal thing in a human being. It catches
knowledge of the God and the spiritual world. It is this soul that does not
die and leaves the body when death occurs. This is the soul that travels
from one station to another. During the life of a human being in this world,
a person can modify his/her ¡§Soul¡¨ to be good or bad depending on how the
¡§Nafs¡¨ was controlled.

It is because of soul that man is the Lord of the creation as it is by means
of soul that man acquires the knowledge of the God and His attributes and by
no other organs of the body. Soul has two armies. One army can be seen by
the external eye and another army cannot be seen except by the internal eye.
These two armies are necessary to upkeep the dominion of this king. The
hands, feet, eyes, ears, tongue and other outward and inward organs are the
armies of soul. They are all servants of soul which rules over them. They
cannot go against the soul. When the soul orders the eyes to open, they
open. When it orders the feet to walk, they walk. These armies are necessary
for soul for its journey to God, as conveyance and food are necessary for
body. It has to cross many stations to meet God for which it has been
created. Body is the conveyance or carrier of soul and its food is
knowledge. In order that it can acquire its food, the ingredients that are
necessary are good deeds. To reach God is impossible till the body does not
remain sound.

To keep the body with sound health, two sets of armies are necessary. i)
Take the food which keeps the health of the body and ii) avoid those foods
which is harmful to the body. It is necessary to approach two armies, the
hidden army of greed for food and drink, and the open army of bodily organs.
So greed for food and drink have been created in soul as they are necessary
for the upkeep of the body, and the other organs are the arms of the greed.

The ¡§Soul¡¨ has three armies: i) One army does benefit to soul, the army of
greed. It can also be termed as ¡§Will¡¨. ii) The second army is anger which
moves the bodily organs to give the object of greed power and strength. iii)
The third army works like emissaries¡Xpowers of sight, hearing, smell,
taste, and touch. These defined powers are entrusted to different organs.
For those armies, there are open arms--- fingers to catch/touch, eyes to
see, etc. This third army is again divided into two parts. One army lives
openly, such as attributes of five organs¡Xhearing, sight, smell, taste, and
touch. Another army lives secretly in the horizon of brain. They are
five¡Xi) power of idea, ii) power of thought, iii) power of memory, iv)
power of retention, and v) power of consolidating them together. These five
powers are in the brain and they secretly stay therein. MODERN SCIENCE
CANNOT MEASURE THESE THINGS BUT THESE THINGS EXIST. THAT MEANS ¡§SOUL¡¨ MUST
EXIST TO CONTROL ALL ITS ARMIES. To emphasize again the modern science has
not yet developed to that extent that it can explain all these powers in
some measurable terms, but all these exist in a human body.

The above mentioned powers are the armies of ¡§Soul¡¨ for which human body
has been framed for its accommodation, the soul being the house of
knowledge. He who makes efforts for superior qualities and engages all his
limbs, thoughts and actions to please God is like an angel. He who makes
efforts only for physical comforts comes down to the class of an animal. He
becomes then envious like an ox, greedy like a pig, biting like a dog, eats
like a camel, takes revenge like a leopard, cunning like a jackel, and
clever like a devil¡Xthe embodiment of all the evils. There is no such
limb, organ or senses which do not help a human being to uplift
himself/herself from these evil things to reach God. A person is successful
who walks in that path of avoiding evil things and the one is unsuccessful
who gets misguided.

There are four natures in each human being: i) beastly nature, ii) animal
nature, iii) devilish nature, and iv) angelic nature. Anger is a sign of
beastly nature along with enmity, hatred, rebuke, attack on people, etc. The
animal nature is seen when sexual passion becomes strong. The devilish
natures are like deceit, fraud, conspiracy, etc. Angelic natures are doing
good deed, divine service, helping others, etc. The roots of these four
natures are in a human being and are centered in human soul. Depending on
the qualities acquired by a person he/she could be of various kinds. A
person dictated by anger may acquire heinous conducts such as haughtiness,
pride, love of power, self-praise, contempt for others, etc. If a person is
dictated by devilish nature may acquire deceit, deception, treachery, fraud,
etc. When a person controls the above evils, he/she is endowed with divine
qualities such as wisdom, knowledge, sure faith, kindness, patience,
merciful, etc.


Another aspect that I brought in my writing was the ¡§Life Hereafter¡¨
which I explained in relation to understanding ¡§Islam¡¨. As explained
above science cannot explain these issues even with modern advancement
except denying the truth and we have to go to the ¡§Revealed Knowledge¡¨ for
their full understanding. Many of the questioners on my writing brought out
several of the same age old illusionary questions about Islam with some
touch of modern scientific knowledge that has been gained from the time the
human being started inhabiting this world. All these illusions and questions
are clearly dealt with in the ¡§Qur¡¦an¡¨, the only ¡§Uncorrupted Revealed
Knowledge¡¨ now available to the human beings. Further explanation is not
necessary, however, I would give a further try to let people come to
understanding to a certain extent.

Let me relate one famous story: the story of ¡§Nine Blind People¡¨. There
were nine blind persons living together and one non-blind person (say his
name is John) was helping them in their day today affairs. One day they all
went to a market where a person was showing an elephant riding. John told
the blind people about the elephant riding and how the elephant was. The
blind persons became very inquisitive and wanted to learn and get the
feeling of how the elephant was. John arranged with the elephant keeper and
took all the nine blind persons to the elephant. Each blind person moved
around the elephant, touched it at several places and learnt/understood how
the elephant was. Everybody was satisfied that they all have the knowledge
of an elephant. When they returned home John asked how they thought the
elephant was. Each person replied in their own way: One said: ¡§the
elephant was like a pillar (he felt the elephant¡¦s big leg)¡¨, another said
¡§It was like a pipe (he felt the long nose of the elephant)¡¨, another one
said. ¡§it was like a tray (he felt the ear of the elephant) and so on¡K.
They all tried to explain how the elephant was by ¡§Cut and Paste¡¨ method.
So all of their descriptions together did not even make John understand how
the elephant was as he saw the elephant.

In understanding Islam many people are doing the same thing like seeing the
elephant by the blind persons. Most of us are trying to understand Islam
from the Qur¡¦an by ¡§Cut and Paste¡¨ method and also using the Hadith the
same way. The Qur¡¦an has be taken in as a whole and Islam has to be seen as
a whole like that with a full ¡§Faith or Iman¡¨ (belief) in it, i.e. with
clean ¡§Iman¡¨ in the heart which is a part of Islam. This has been clearly
explained in several verses of the Qur¡¦an when it says: ¡§Ya a¡¦uhal lazina
¡¥amano¡K¡¨ [O! you who have believed i.e. have ¡¥Iman¡¦..]. To understand
the Qur¡¦an, having ¡§Iman¡¨ is an essential ingredient. ¡§You can make to
hear only those who believe (have iman) in Our Ayats (proofs, evidences,
verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.), and (have submitted to Allah in
Islam) so they are Muslims¡¨ (30:53). So Islam without ¡§Iman¡¨ is no
Islam. And Islam cannot be seen and understood properly without ¡§Iman¡¨.
This ¡§Iman¡¨ in a human being is also another intangible thing which we
cannot see and measure but it exist. The ¡§Iman¡¨ basically means ¡§Belief¡¨
i.e. believing something, some aspect, some material thing, some immaterial
things, and what not. This ¡§Iman¡¨ can be ¡§Islamic Iman¡¨ or ¡§Any other
kind of Iman¡¨. The ¡§Iman¡¨ whenever is said in most times is referred to
as ¡§Islamic Iman¡¨. It has four aspects: i) feeling in the heart, ii)
declaration by tongue the Oneness of God (Allah), and believing in the four
aspects of ¡§Tauhid¡¨, iii) obeying and following the revealed aspects of
human way of life to the messengers (i.e. messergership), and iv) believing
in the ¡§Life Hereafter¡¨.

The most important aspect of understanding Islam is believing in ¡§Towhid¡¨
of Allah with its four aspects. This is the foundation of ¡§Iman¡¨: i) Unity
of Lordship, ii) Unity of Worship, iii) Unity of Names and Attributes of
Allah, and iv) Unity of following Allah¡¦s Messenger Muhammad (SAS). Most
people have some vague idea about all of these aspects particularly about
the Attributes. I would explain here only two Attributes: i) ¡§Allah is the
Rab¡Xthe Creator, Sustainer, maintainer of the Universe and controller of
the Universe¡¨. He is the Creator and everything else is created. Nothing
can be compared with Him. As we cannot compare any of the created things by
human being with human being itself e.g. a computer ¡V created by human
being cannot be compared to a human being. ii) Allah is ¡§¡¦Alimul Ghaib¡¨
i.e. he knows what is going to happen in the future. Many people do not
understand this feature of Allah while this is explained in the Qur¡¦an very
clearly. To Him everything is past. To Him the whole universe is like a
movie/video play or a cinema play. As you can see any video play in a video
player by putting in the cassette and turning on to ¡§play¡¨, the video

=== message truncated ===