off topic: Rebirth: Surah 39:42 Al Zumar (Crowds)

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Rebirth: Surah 39:42 Al Zumar (Crowds)

 

It is Allah that takes the souls at death: And those that die not

during their sleep:

Those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back, 4308

but the rest He sends for a term appointed.

Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.

surah 39:42 Al Zumar (Crowds)

 

4308. Sleep being twin-brother to Death, our souls are for the

time being released from the bondage of the flesh. Allah takes them

for the time being. If, as some do, we are to die peacefully in

sleep, our soul does not come back to the physical body, and the

later decays and dies. If we still have some period of life to

fulfill according to Allah's decree, our soul comes back to the

body, and we resume our function in this life.¡¨

 

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur¡¦an, Amana Corporation, 1989, p.

1193.

 

 

This explanation makes no sense if there is no acceptance of rebirth:

 

1. How will our soul come back to the body?

2. Why must the soul come back to this body?

3. When will the soul come back to this body?

4. How will this remaining period of life be fulfilled?

5. Why is there some remaining period of life to be fulfilled?

6. How is it possible to have only one life if the soul comes back

into another body?

 

The Qur'an explains that Allah takes back all souls, whether the

owner dies in sleep or while awake. Those who have sinned are marked

for Death and kept by HIM, to be given the appropriate punishments.

The rest, who have committed only minor sins, are sent back for an

appointed time. They are neither sent to heaven or hell. The Kingdom

of Heaven is only inhabited by pure souls who have completely rid

themselves of all ignorance. The vast majority of humans are far

from being spiritually purified to enter the Promised Paradise.

Their souls are again sent back to redeem themselves and remove all

lingering ignorance and impurities. This cycle goes on and on until

their souls get purified enough to enter His Kingdom.

 

The Qur'an directs that " verily in this are Signs for those

who reflect. " God is informing humans to reflect, as there are far-

reaching and profound Revelations for those who think and ponder.

Allah has given a clear direction for this surah 39:42 to be

examined as it holds priceless spiritual treasures for those who

look for the Signs. Then, is this Sign the mundane single life

theory of spiritually retarded Islamic scholars, or is it the mind-

boggling burst of Cosmic Evolution? Why do fools and fundamentalists

reduce the Intelligence of Allah down to their primate levels?

 

Abdullah Yusuf Ali and his eminent scholars downplay the importance

of this surah into obscurity, even though Allah has directed

that " verily in this are Signs for those who reflect. " The

Muslims are supposed to find the Signs by having deliberations as to

the meanings of these beacons of spiritual Truth, and guide

themselves higher towards Cosmic Consciousness. Instead the Islamic

Defrauders (Al-Mutaffin) conveniently refrained from any further

explanation.

 

1) Why this indifference to a deeper interpretation of this

surah?

2) Why this abrupt end to the interpretation of a verse that

Allah had directed to be reflected for Signs?

3) Why this lack of enlightenment in the narration of a verse

that reflected a profound Truth?

4) Why are so many minor surahs examined in detail, while vital

ones left mutilated and unrecognizable?

 

The answer is as simple as it is sinister: It would force them to

admit reincarnation, a pristine Knowledge that Allah had revealed to

Hindus and Buddhists millenniums earlier. Accepting rebirth would

open the floodgates of a vast and pristine spiritual Knowledge of

the East that would reduce the stature of the Qur'an, exposing the

Muslim masses to superior spiritual Scriptures. It was far safer to

obscure the Truth and keep the religious herd captive with

relentless empty rhetoric of religious superiority and triumph.

 

" Mohammedans are, in the main, not reincarnationists. A text from

the Koran, much quoted by those who believe in rebirth, runs,

God generates beings and hence they return over and over again,

until they return to him. . . . In the early days of Islam, however,

there was widespread belief in reincarnation in each of three forms.

There was hulul, the periodic incarnation of the perfect man or

deity; rij'at, the return of an imam or spiritual leader after

death; and tanasukh, reincarnation of the souls of ordinary men. As

with other faiths, rebirth was said to have been taught by the

leaders of Islam who succeeded the Prophet to select inner circles,

but not to the masses ¡X though no ordinary Moslem who accepted

the belief in it or favoured it would be regarded as heretical.¡¨

 

David Christie-Murray, Reincarnation: Ancient Beliefs and Modern

Evidence, Prism Press, 1988, p. 46-7.)

 

 

" Edgar Cayce, the greatest American clairvoyant of the twentieth

century, didn't believe a word he was saying. The date was August

10, 1923, and Cayce, deep in a self-imposed hypnotic trance, was

asserting, contrary to his conscious belief that people

are reborn in different bodies. Listening subsequently to a

transcript of his words, Cayce was shocked and confounded. For

incarnation was alien and repulsive to the sensibilities of this

devout Presbyterian who taught a Sunday school and read the Bible

daily. "

 

Joe Fisher, The Case for Reincarnation,

Collins Publishers, 1984, p. 160-61.

 

 

" Hindus generally accept the doctrine of transmigration and

rebirth and the complimentary belief in karma, or previous acts as

the condition into which a being, after a stay in heaven or hell, is

reborn in one form or another. The whole process of rebirth is

called samsara. Any worldly process is viewed as cyclic, and all

worldly existence is subject to the cycle. Samsara has no beginning

and, in most cases, no end; it is not a cycle of progress or a

process of purification but a matter of perpetual attachment. Karma,

acting like a clockwork that, while running down, always winds

itself up, binds the atmas (selves) of the beings to the world and

compels them to go through an endless series of births and deaths.

This belief is indissolubly connected with the traditional Indian

views of society and worldly life, and any social interaction

(particularly those involving sex and food) results in the mutual

exchange of good and bad karma. It has given rise to the belief that

any misfortune is the effect of karma, or one's own deeds, and to

the conviction that the course of world history is conditioned by

collective karma. . . .

 

Although unlimitedly expansive, God is conceived to be essentially

different from everything material, the absolute opposite of any

evil, free from any imperfection, omniscient, omnipotent, possessed

of all positive qualities (such as knowledge, bliss, beauty, and

truth), of incomparable majesty, the inner soul of all beings, and

the ultimate goal of all religious effort. The universe is

considered a real transformation of brahman, whose 'body'

consists of the conscious souls and everything unconscious in their

subtle and gross states. The karma doctrine is modified as follows:

the Lord, having determined good and bad deeds, provides all

individual souls with a body in which they perform deeds, reveals to

them the scriptures from which they may learn the dharma, and enters

into them as the internal regulator. The individual acts as his own

discretion but needs the Lord's assent. If the devotee wishes to

please him, God induces him, with infallible justice and loving

regard, to intentions and efforts to perform good deeds by which the

devotee will attain him; if not, God keeps him from that goal.¡¨

 

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 1992

 

 

" Many of the so-called new religions of Japan include

reincarnation among beliefs which have been laid down over the past

140 years. Tentikyoi, a religion that boasts more than two million

adherents teaches that man is reborn many times and that children

inherit the consequences of their parents' previous lives. "

 

Joe Fisher, The Case for Reincarnation, Collins Publishers, 1984, p.

125.

 

 

" The most important point to remember is that at the individual

level, reincarnation becomes not a question of proof or faith but of

personal experiences that give meaning and dimension to our present

life. "

 

Rosicrucian Digest (October, 1979)

 

 

" If you want to know the past, look at your present life. If you

want to know the future, look at your present. "

 

Gautama Buddha

 

 

" Rebirth is an affirmation that must be counted among the

primordial affirmations of mankind. "

 

Carl Jung

 

 

" We all return; it is this certainty that gives meaning to life

and it does not make the slightest difference whether or not in a

later incarnation we remember the former life. What counts is not

the individual and his comfort, but the great aspiration to the

perfect and the pure which goes on in each incarnation. "

 

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)