Table Talk
by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Chapter 4: Life after Death
Resurrection: Continuity of Individuality: Spiritualism, etc.
Belief in life after death is an essential article of faith in every religion. It has a most wholesome effect in moulding human character, and is at the same time a source of consolation to the disappointed heart, and a treasure of happiness to one in distress; especially when the misery that comes to him is undeserved. It is moreover an efficacious check on wickedness and iniquity, even in cases where there is least chance of detection.
On the other hand, disbelief in accountability for his actions after his death will naturally weaken a man’s sense of responsibility. Morality, in the absence of such belief, will become only the soundest method of securing happiness in life, and, therefore, merely a matter of expedience. There will be no incentive to practice virtue for the sake of virtue, and no person will even shrink from committing wrong, if it serves his purpose, provided he can avoid, or disregard, public censure. But all this, as a sceptic would say, is an apology and nothing more. It does not, of itself, afford a ground for belief in a life beyond the grave.
Belief in life after death has always been a hard problem for teachers of religion to solve, and they have from time to time been hard pressed by scepticism. It confronted Jesus in the form of the Sadducees. They went to the Master for enlightenment on the subject, and the reply of Jesus was, that if there is no life after death, why did they style their God
“God of Abraham and Moses?”
By doing so, the Sadducees, so argued Jesus, did evince their belief in the life after death of those Patriarchs. The logic of the gentle philosopher from Galilee, however, was not without its flaws. It perhaps silenced the rationalists of his time, but the Sadducees of today will not fail to detect the fallacy of petitio principi, in the argument of Jesus. He started with the presumption, lacking in proof, that the Sadducees were believers in the life after death of the Patriarchs, if they styled their God the God of Abraham.
Though the belief in question is the cornerstone of every religion, yet the whole sacred literature of pre-Islamic days is wanting in its proof. It will be but waste of time and energy, to go, page after page, into the whole Bible record, or the Vedic and Zoroastrian Scriptures, in search of something logical to substantiate the theory of Resurrection and continuity of human individuality, after this earthly frame has once been disintegrated; and this paucity of logic is chiefly responsible for Materialism in Europe, and has raised up Atheistic tendencies everywhere in the Westernized mind. Were it not a wide digression from my subject, and perhaps somewhat out of place, I could give excellent reason to show that the recent conflagration into which the whole world has been dragged, was not kindled by zeal for the cause of right on the part of all belligerents, but was the outcome of the lustful and greedy disposition of European nations, hardened by their disbelief in life after death which is a natural consequence of the feebleness of Church theology in the face of Rationalism.
Spiritism, popularly called Spiritualism, has, however, arisen in modem days to combat Materialism of this kind. Spirits of dead persons have been seen and talked to, so the report goes, by some of the new creed, which has managed to secure support from certain of the luminaries on the scientific horizon, Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle amongst them. Some of my best friends are Spiritualists, and have had personal experiences of this sort; and I have not the least reason to doubt the veracity of their statements.
Besides, such experiences are not new to Muslim divines. The Church in the West may brand them as devilry and witchcraft, as she used to brand scientific researches in the days of Roger Bacon; but Islam has no need to question them for it has an extensive literature on the subject dating from very early days. I may observe, however, that such experiences, being personal, cannot afford a substantial proof for others to believe in the life hereafter. A sceptic would accept the story of the Spiritualist as a true statement of what the latter thought he had experienced, but might explain it away in a variety of ways — illusion, imagination, etc.
Again, people who claim to have such visits from the world beyond the grave, forget to note or tell all the circumstances which attended their spirit-experiences, and so make their case weak. Moreover, a good deal of swindling, unfortunately, is going on in the name of Spiritualism; though the creed in my belief is very opportune in these materialism-ridden days.
Finally, such a method of proving life after death, is not of permanent value. It is like the miracle of the olden days. A miracle might very well satisfy some of those immediately around its worker, but it became a mere story in subsequent times, and as such, could not command universal acceptance.
Beliefs, like that in question, which constitute basic principles of religion, should be founded on rational grounds. These, however, need not necessarily come within the scope of our senses, especially if the things to be proved lie beyond our normal comprehension. Reasoning by analogy may be helpful, but it is not sound logic and is often misleading. We may, however, safely refer to one class of phenomena in nature to prove another, if the principle underlying both is one and the same. Most of our knowledge, indeed, in the realm of science has come to us in this way.
It is not the question of Resurrection, but that of the continuity of the individual personality of every man removed from this world to the next, that arouses scepticism. If birth, death, and resurrection, may be taken to be nothing more than terms for the combination, disintegration and re-combination of various elements and atoms that go to create different organisms in the course of nature, the whole thing becomes clear as it unfolds itself under our daily observation, each year, in the vegetable kingdom. Death overtakes the tree each autumn, while spring comes unfailingly to give it life anew. Deeper observation, by a scientific eye, will also show that every tree has all its distinctive features restored at this spring resurrection. In winter we find trees stripped of all their foliage, flowers and fruits. All their constituent elements become disintegrated, mixing confusedly with the rest of the elemental and atomic world in the universe. The dry and dead trunks, though still enveloped by the same mass of matter that nourished them in the past spring, can no longer assimilate it, since the vivifying principle has gone from them. Then comes spring, with its showers, and the water from the heavens brings new life to every member of the vegetable kingdom. All the elemental components that clothed and constituted the individual entity of each particular tree, rush back to it again; spring winds, rain and sunshine, bring new life; the whole of dead Nature springs up again in resurrection, and every tree resumes its own individuality, with all its distinctive features. The last Book of God, revealed to man to create in him an intelligent belief in all religious truths, has not failed to refer to the spring- phenomenon, when dealing with the doctrine of Resurrection, in the following words:
قٓ ۟ۚ وَ الۡقُرۡاٰنِ الۡمَجِیۡدِ ۚ﴿۱﴾ بَلۡ عَجِبُوۡۤا اَنۡ جَآءَہُمۡ مُّنۡذِرٌ مِّنۡہُمۡ فَقَالَ الۡکٰفِرُوۡنَ ہٰذَا شَیۡءٌ عَجِیۡبٌ ۚ﴿۲﴾ ءَاِذَا مِتۡنَا وَ کُنَّا تُرَابًا ۚ ذٰلِکَ رَجۡعٌۢ بَعِیۡدٌ ﴿۳﴾ قَدۡ عَلِمۡنَا مَا تَنۡقُصُ الۡاَرۡضُ مِنۡہُمۡ ۚ وَ عِنۡدَنَا کِتٰبٌ حَفِیۡظٌ ﴿۴﴾ بَلۡ کَذَّبُوۡا بِالۡحَقِّ لَمَّا جَآءَہُمۡ فَہُمۡ فِیۡۤ اَمۡرٍ مَّرِیۡجٍ ﴿۵﴾ اَفَلَمۡ یَنۡظُرُوۡۤا اِلَی السَّمَآءِ فَوۡقَہُمۡ کَیۡفَ بَنَیۡنٰہَا وَ زَیَّنّٰہَا وَ مَا لَہَا مِنۡ فُرُوۡجٍ ﴿۶﴾ وَ الۡاَرۡضَ مَدَدۡنٰہَا وَ اَلۡقَیۡنَا فِیۡہَا رَوَاسِیَ وَ اَنۡۢبَتۡنَا فِیۡہَا مِنۡ کُلِّ زَوۡجٍۭ بَہِیۡجٍ ۙ﴿۷﴾ تَبۡصِرَۃً وَّ ذِکۡرٰی لِکُلِّ عَبۡدٍ مُّنِیۡبٍ ﴿۸﴾ وَ نَزَّلۡنَا مِنَ السَّمَآءِ مَآءً مُّبٰرَکًا فَاَنۡۢبَتۡنَا بِہٖ جَنّٰتٍ وَّ حَبَّ الۡحَصِیۡدِ ۙ﴿۹﴾ وَ النَّخۡلَ بٰسِقٰتٍ لَّہَا طَلۡعٌ نَّضِیۡدٌ ﴿ۙ۱۰﴾ رِّزۡقًا لِّلۡعِبَادِ ۙ وَ اَحۡیَیۡنَا بِہٖ بَلۡدَۃً مَّیۡتًا ؕ کَذٰلِکَ الۡخُرُوۡجُ ﴿۱۱﴾
“Almighty God and the glorious Quran. Nay, they wonder that there has come to them a Warner from among themselves, so the unbelievers say: What when we are dead and have become dust? That is a far (from probable) return. We know indeed what the earth diminishes of them, and with Us is a writing that preserves. Nay, they rejected the truth when it came to them, so they are (now) in a state of confusion. Do they not look up to heaven above them how We have made it and adorned it and it has no gaps. And the earth, We have made it plain and cast in it mountains and We have made to grow therein of all beautiful kinds; to give sight and as a reminder to every servant who returns frequently (to Allah). And We send down from the cloud, water abounding in good, then We cause to grow thereby gardens and the grain that is reaped; and the tall palm trees having spadices closely set one above another. A sustenance for the servants, and We give life thereby to a dead land; thus is the rising.” (The Holy Quran, 50:1–11).
A thing once come to life, never meets destruction, as long as the universe is existing. It contains in it inherent qualities that must come to perfection through one or more shapes or stages. Death is but the name of its passing from one stage to another. But in this translation and transformation, everything manages to maintain its individual entity up to its final development. In the course of evolution, whenever things reach a certain stage of perfection, they begin to lose all those accessories which contributed to their existence in that particular stage; then they die and disappear, but they never become annihilated; they assume a new shape of a size imperceptible to human senses. Their further potentialities remain in abeyance for a time — a period called Barzakh in Muslim theology, i.e., the period intervening between death and resurrection — then they rise again for further progress, with every favourable circumstance to aid them.
But apart from all the question of the preservation of our personal individualities after death, even our actions and movements, though lost sight of when once performed, remain intact in that great repository of Nature, and may be brought before us when needed.
Miss …. sings in America, but her melodies are recorded in Paris and heard in Berlin. It would have been an impossibility for her to do so, if her utterances had not been first recorded on the big disc of Nature, before the Parisian disc was prepared. Similarly, wireless telegraphy could not have come to our aid if there were no provision in Nature for the permanent preservation of every note and sound that once receives utterance; Cinema pictures have come to prove that all our other movements will likewise remain preserved in the film of nature, and can be brought to us at any time, as a witness to our past conduct. God-given Science has stepped forward after all to establish the very Quranic truths that, only the other day, aroused ridicule from ignorant Christian Missionaries. The Holy Book, emphasizing the accountability of our actions on the Day of Judgement, says the following:
اَلۡیَوۡمَ نَخۡتِمُ عَلٰۤی اَفۡوَاہِہِمۡ وَ تُکَلِّمُنَاۤ اَیۡدِیۡہِمۡ وَ تَشۡہَدُ اَرۡجُلُہُمۡ بِمَا کَانُوۡا یَکۡسِبُوۡنَ ﴿۶۵﴾
“On that day we would set a seal upon their mouths, and their hands shall speak to Us, and their feet shall bear witness of what they earned” (The Holy Quran, 36:65).
The Book of God makes mention also of another interesting natural phenomenon that has recently come within the ken of science, and goes to prove still further, the continued existence of individuality, after whatever may be its present form has been lost.
The fire which comes from ignited wood is not the product — the child of the tree. It derives, in the first instance, from the world’s great luminary, in the form of sunlight; then, clothing itself with hydrogen and carbon, which it separates from water and carbonic acid gas, it assumes the shape of a tree — sometimes called, for this reason, “bottled sunshine,” by way of popular explanation of a scientific process. What we call the “burning” of fire, or rather the burning of the tree, is only the process of separating the fire from the tree’s other components — that is — hydrogen and carbon, and here we find continuity of individual entity, not of fire only, but of other things too, with mathematical exactitude.
Suppose therefore, one unit of fire to be spent in one unit of water, and another in one of carbonic acid gas, with a view to separating their respective components, the result would be — two units of fire from sunlight producing between them two units of hydrogen from water, and one unit of carbon from carbonic acid gas. And suppose that the two units of hydrogen, and the one unit of carbon, combined to produce one cubic inch of wood in a tree, then that piece of wood, when ignited, will give back exactly two units of fire, two units of hydrogen and one of carbon. They will all go back to make units of sunshine, water, and carbonic acid gas of the same magnitude as those from which they originally came. Look at it how you will, it is a circumstance — a problem that cannot well be passed over. How did the Holy Prophet of God [Muhammad] (Peace be upon him) divine these, and a hundred similar secrets of Nature, which have taken many centuries to come to our knowledge — how is it that they are actually mentioned in the Quran to explain and illustrate its teaching, if the Book itself was not revealed to him from God?
This phenomenon of fire, which is perhaps the best illustration of the continuity of entities when they lose one shape and assume other forms, has been thus beautifully referred to in the Quran in elucidation of the subject under discussion. It says:
اَوَ لَمۡ یَرَ الۡاِنۡسَانُ اَنَّا خَلَقۡنٰہُ مِنۡ نُّطۡفَۃٍ فَاِذَا ہُوَ خَصِیۡمٌ مُّبِیۡنٌ ﴿۷۷﴾ وَ ضَرَبَ لَنَا مَثَلًا وَّ نَسِیَ خَلۡقَہٗ ؕ قَالَ مَنۡ یُّحۡیِ الۡعِظَامَ وَ ہِیَ رَمِیۡمٌ ﴿۷۸﴾ قُلۡ یُحۡیِیۡہَا الَّذِیۡۤ اَنۡشَاَہَاۤ اَوَّلَ مَرَّۃٍ ؕ وَ ہُوَ بِکُلِّ خَلۡقٍ عَلِیۡمُۨ ﴿ۙ۷۹﴾ الَّذِیۡ جَعَلَ لَکُمۡ مِّنَ الشَّجَرِ الۡاَخۡضَرِ نَارًا فَاِذَاۤ اَنۡتُمۡ مِّنۡہُ تُوۡقِدُوۡنَ ﴿۸۰﴾
“Does not man see that We have created him from the small life germ? then lo! he is an open disputant. And he strikes out a likeness for Us and forgets his own creation. Says he: Who will give life to the bones when they are rotten? Say: He will give life to them Who brought them into existence at first, and He is cognizant of all creation. He who had made for you the fire (to bum) from the green tree, so that with it you kindle (fire)” (The Holy Quran, 36:77–80).
All the illustrations I have as yet taken from the Quran, refer, no doubt, to things material, and may not perhaps satisfy those who seek proof of the continuity of individual consciousness after death; this being, one may say, ultra-material. Consciousness in the first place shows itself in the animal organism. It becomes individualized in the human frame. One man differs from another, not only in physique and outward appearance, but in his moral, mental and spiritual attainments. In short, every person possesses a marked and distinctive personality in his passions, morals and the other components of his consciousness; whether he will possess the same at his resurrection, is the question which lies at the root of the whole doctrine of life after death and that of the Day of Judgment. Individual accountability after death for actions done in life can scarcely be imagined, if there be not a continuation of the consciousness which inspired those actions. The Quran could not give a better illustration in proof of this doctrine than the following, which we find in Surah “Tariq” (Chapter 86).
اِنۡ کُلُّ نَفۡسٍ لَّمَّا عَلَیۡہَا حَافِظٌ ؕ﴿۴﴾ فَلۡیَنۡظُرِ الۡاِنۡسَانُ مِمَّ خُلِقَ ؕ﴿۵﴾ خُلِقَ مِنۡ مَّآءٍ دَافِقٍ ۙ﴿۶﴾ یَّخۡرُجُ مِنۡۢ بَیۡنِ الصُّلۡبِ وَ التَّرَآئِبِ ؕ﴿۷﴾ اِنَّہٗ عَلٰی رَجۡعِہٖ لَقَادِرٌ ؕ﴿۸﴾ یَوۡمَ تُبۡلَی السَّرَآئِرُ ۙ﴿۹﴾
“There is not a soul but over it is a keeper. So let man consider of what he is created. He is created of water pouring forth; coming from between the back and the ribs. Most surely He is able to return him (to life). On the day when hidden things shall be made manifest.” [The Holy Quran, 86: 4–9]
The life-germ, microscopic as it is in its size, is the repository of all the physical, intellectual and moral features of its source. In a word, sperma [sperm] is the vehicle by which the individual consciousness of the father is carried to his children. It becomes effected when combining with the ovum, and receives a tinge of the mother’s peculiarities. Sometimes the genital seed brings the traits of forefathers from generations far removed, thus proving conclusively that the essential constituent parts of a thing can be epitomized in something microscopic; that leaving their source in a form that is imperceptible, they straightway become the nucleus for yet further development. Death, as I have before said, does not mean annihilation. Death is but the separation of a member of a particular species from the rest of his class, his translation to another and higher state of existence, itself ever progressive onward to the goal. Man has rightly been called
“a miniature of the universe.”
His heart represents the earth, in its shape as well as in its qualities. It contains within itself the essence of the whole earth. As the Quran says:
وَ لَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا الۡاِنۡسَانَ مِنۡ سُلٰلَۃٍ مِّنۡ طِیۡنٍ ﴿ۚ۱۲﴾
“And certainly We created man of an extract of clay” (The Holy Quran, 23:12).
A new world of passions becomes created in man’s heart called human consciousness; there they must attain to a certain stage of perfection in this life, that is to say, must be sublimated into high morals, philosophy and spiritualities, before leaving this world for further progress in the life to come. In some cases, they reach the required perfection in the human frame, but, in general, their success is only partial and must, for their future development, wait for the inevitable accident in life that is popularly termed death. At death, at the moment of dissolution — something gaseous in form, visible in trance to those alone in whom the spiritual faculties of their nature are developed in an exceptionally high degree, may be observed to rise from the human body, through the head, and ascend heavenward. Herein is contained the whole of the individual consciousness possessed by the dead man in this life. It remains in the ethereal world suspended, with all its faculties for progress preserved, but in abeyance, during that period of waiting which Muslim theology calls Barzakh. It will remain so till the day of resurrection, when it will take on a new garb for the furtherance of its progress, which is limitless and knows no bounds.
لَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا الۡاِنۡسَانَ فِیۡۤ اَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِیۡمٍ ۫﴿۴﴾ ثُمَّ رَدَدۡنٰہُ اَسۡفَلَ سٰفِلِیۡنَ ۙ﴿۵﴾ اِلَّا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَ عَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ فَلَہُمۡ اَجۡرٌ غَیۡرُ مَمۡنُوۡنٍ ؕ﴿۶﴾
“Certainly We created man in the best make; then We render him the lowest of the low, except those who believe and do good, so they shall have a reward never to be cut off”. (The Holy Quran, 95:4–6)