The Human Soul Is an Unknown Realm inside the Body

Published in June 1, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

 Introduction:

 We have received this question from a male sender via an email message; we quote most of it here followed by our reply.

 (... I'm a Quranist man like you, but I'm suffering recently from this weird feeling that has possessed myself: I feel I lost touch with reality as if I were a robot; I feel as if I lost my heart and emotions; I never laugh, weep, cry, etc. I never feel anything; I have no objectives in life, nor any ambitions or dreams ... I am wealthy and I have no wife and no children (and I never intend to have them, this is not the problem, I assure you); I feel icy coldness has crept into my heart. I have no responsibilities; I keep quarreling with my mother and younger siblings over trivialities; I feel they hate me and I feel I'm beginning to hate them; they've grown antagonistic towards me since I converted to Quranism, I thing. To make things worse, I can no longer feel the bliss and joy while praying and reading the Quran! I feel so pained! It's as if I'm cursed! I no longer feel any sense of value of anything in life. Strangely, I was a happier, ambitious person with goals and many friends when I was a polytheistic, misguided Sunnite man! I feel as if I've turned into a nihilist misanthropist! I left my job since I do not need money, because I'm wealthy, and I felt I'll never need people inside my life ... I feel that I am on the brink of sheer madness! I've lost my sense of taste, joy, and peace of mind! What is the use of life, then?! What am I to do? Any advice?! Any soothing words?! ...).

OUR REPLY:

Firstly: about the human soul:

1- Any given human being, from time to time, would suffer from a sense of mental void, tedium, existential crisis, or ennui d'existence. This is a normal part of the pains that may be suffered by the soul/mind and not the body.  

2- This has nothing to do with the physical hearts that pumps blood within human  bodies; the Quranic term ''heart'' refers to souls/minds and is synonymous with both ''mind'' and ''soul'' in the Quranic text. Of course, the soul controls one's body; we know very little about the soul from the Quran; the so-called psychology and psychiatry of materialists who deny the soul and the Hereafter focus on the body by drugs, hypnosis, etc. As for the physical brain, it is like the driving wheel to your body; it has nothing to do with the soul. Hence, the human soul is an unknown realm inside the human body; we cannot fully comprehend the aspects of the soul, which is a metaphysical, ethereal being that belongs to the Barsakh level; it cannot be studied by science at all; the facts about the soul are found exclusively in the Quran.   

3- All souls are stored within the Barsakh before they are born and take human flesh and they return to the Barsakh by death and temporarily during slumber. "And it is He who produced you from a single person, then a repository, then a depository..." (6:98).

4- Souls leave the bodies temporarily during slumber and visit the Barsakh, its original place, and this causes dreams we see as souls come across other souls (of the dead people or of those yet to be born) and other events that will occur later on, as such visions are memories of such visits. Of course, some dreams are expressions (using extinct languages in many cases) of one's desires rammed deep into our psyche and we would not dare to express in public.  For more details, we refer you to our book, in English, titled "The Book of Death", found on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=120).

5- Of course, souls get sick like the bodies which get sick in their turn; the sickness of souls affect the bodies negatively; e.g., anxiety and extreme worries bring ailments of stomach and heart and cause high blood pressure, etc. Ailments of the soul include depression, obsession, and schizophrenia, and this is not to mention phobias and bouts of madness. In your case, you are not depressed; rather, you only suffer tedium or ennui d'existence. We refuse the notion of taking pills or receiving sessions of shock therapy; the brain has nothing to do with the sickness of souls which are metaphysical beings; materialists of the West never recognize this fact: the brain is the control room of the body, but the brain is controlled by the soul and the opposite is not true. One's soul is one's true self, the bodies change during our lifetimes and turn to dust by decomposition after one's death; they are like clothes to the souls.      

6- Within backward societies controlled by obscurantism of clergymen, people assume that sick souls/bodies are touched with the evil influence of devils or jinn; this is not true. Devils cannot harm human being; they just whisper/inspire the souls of all people (even prophet's/messengers) to perform evil deeds; the way out of such evil whispers is seek refuge in God against Satan the outcast. Satan and devils control souls of misguided ones and make them never understand the Quran; a screen/veil is placed between the Quran on the one hand and their minds/souls on the other hand. Such misguided ones see the Truth as false and see falsehoods as truths. The misguided ones descend into lower levels of sin by misguiding others and by ascribing falsehoods to God and to His Religion; thus, they receive devilish revelations, not mere whispers, so that they see their sins as good deeds. The Quranic Light touches only the souls purified by monotheism and devil thus cannot control such souls. Monotheism entails that you accept the Quran as the Only Source of Islam and the Only Discourse in it. Satan and devils make the misguided ones obsessed with money, (straight, lesbian, or gay) sex, fame, stature, authority, power, etc. so that they forget the fact that they are mortals who will die later on and forget the Hereafter. The worse type of the misguided ones are those who make sex, injustices, killings, etc. as part of their religion; e.g., the enthroned tyrants in the Middle-Easts and Wahabis terrorists of today like ISIS. 

Secondly: psychiatry within the Quran:

1- We maintain here that the Quran contains a cure or a healing to the soul which is similar to, or better than, psychiatry or seeking help of psychiatrists.

2- cure/healing and ailment/illness are among the Quranic terminology.

2/1: This is mentioned within factual, direct style about illness/healing in terms of physical health: "And when I get sick, He heals me." (26:80); "...But whoever among you is sick, or on a journey, then a number of other days..." (2:184); "There is no blame on the blind, nor any blame on the lame, nor any blame on the sick..." (24:61 + 48:17); "...containing healing for the people..." (16:69).

2/2: This is mentioned within figurative, metaphorical style: when souls are ill/sick, this means they are misguided hypocrites/disbelievers/losers, and they are cured/healed when they are guided as believers by God's Word: "O people! There has come to you advice from your Lord, and healing for what is in the hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers/winners." (10:57); "We send down in the Quran healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss." (17:82); "...For those who believe, it is guidance and healing. But as for those who do not believe: there is heaviness in their ears, and it is blindness for them..." (41:44); "In their hearts is sickness, and God has increased their sickness..." (2:10); "You will see those in whose hearts is sickness racing towards them..." (5:52); "The hypocrites and those in whose hearts is sickness said, "Their religion has deluded these people."..." (8:49); "...So do not speak too softly, lest the sick at heart lusts after you, but speak in an appropriate manner." (33:32). 

3- This means that the Quran is a source of healing to one's soul when one reads it (as this is the best manner of remembering God) and applies its sharia legislations within one's life: "Those who believe, and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of God. Surely, it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find comfort." For those who believe and do righteous deeds-for them is happiness and a beautiful return." (13:28-29). Those who shun and reject the remembrance of God's Word will experience life-torment; i.e., psychological suffering and pains, as we know from this Divine Law made when Adam descended on earth; God says the following to the progeny of Adam: "He said, "Go down from it, altogether; some of you enemies of some others. But whenever guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance, will not go astray, nor suffer. But whoever turns away from My Remembrance, for him is the life-torment. And We will raise him on the Day of Resurrection blind."" (20:123-124). Of course, this type of life-torment has nothing to do with being rich/poor or within any standard of living or stature; since these sinners rejected the Quranic Guidance, Satan and the devils cause misery to them by doubts, anxiety, fears, obsessions, confusion, etc. until this would cause harm to the psychological and physical health.      

4- To be cure and healed from this life-torment, one must distance oneself from its direct cause; namely, vying and competing against others for amassing money and the transient possessions of this temporary world until one's moment of dying when one realizes that one's lifetime has been wasted in pursuing vanities and illusions. God teaches us this here within direct discourse addressed to all human beings: "Know that the worldly life is only play, and distraction, and glitter, and boasting among you, and rivalry in wealth and children. It is like a rainfall that produces plants, and delights the disbelievers. But then it withers, and you see it yellowing, and then it becomes debris. While in the Hereafter there is severe agony, and forgiveness from God, and acceptance. The life of this world is nothing but enjoyment of vanity." (57:20)

4/1: What is the alternative? To vie and race for good deeds to earn one's place in Paradise: "Race towards forgiveness from your Lord; and a Garden as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who believe in God and His messengers. That is the grace of God; He bestows it on whomever He wills. God is the Possessor of Immense Grace." (57:21).

4/2: What about the cases of hardships and adversity? God tells us the answer here: "No calamity occurs on earth, or in your souls, but it is in a Book, even before We make it happen. That is easy for God." (57:22). This means that all fates of adversity and prosperity which are imposed on human beings are preordained and written in a Book before one is born; God has commanded Muhammad to say the following: "...Nothing will happen to us except what God has ordained for us..." (9:51). 

4/3: What are we going to do within the cases of hardships and adversity? God tells us the answer here: "That you may not sorrow over what eludes you, nor exult over what He has given you. God does not love the proud snob." (57:23). This means that since fates of adversity and prosperity are inevitable, we should be neutral in our stance and reactions to them; we are to be thankful and adhere to patience in both cases as we are tested by them through the course of our life.  

4/4: Hence, satisfaction and contentment with the inevitable fates God has decreed on us are realized, leading to psychological relief and well-being a part of guidance from God's Word, the Quran, as this guidance is granted only to those monotheists who are never among the polytheists, because they never sanctify/deify things/items and/or mortals.

Lastly: we assert the following to the male sender of the above email message (may God bless and protect him):   

1- What you are passing through is not something serious; please focus on the bounties bestowed on you from the Lord God; your status is better than the weak, innocent ones who are chased by tyrants and surrounded with frightening civil wars, terrorists, suicide bombers, etc. and those who are incarcerated and tortured in prisons though they are honorable people, because they live in the modern era of lies, heinous crimes, and atrocities. 

2- The greatest bounty ever is guidance within the Quran; you should try to heal and cure your soul with the Quran in the following ways.

2/1: You should watch scientific documentaries about outer space, nature, seas and oceans, cells, atoms, etc. while feeling amazed by God's Omnipotence as the Creator of the universe Who perfected everything He created; this will make you recite the Quran and praise/glorify the Holy Name of the Lord God within a renewed sense of reverence and piety that will fill your heart/mind and soul; this is the best healing you can receive and it will increase your faith/belief. Very few people glorify/praise the Lord God all the time with all their might and all their minds/hearts and souls.  

2/2: Real, pious monotheistic believers are those whose hearts/souls/minds are alert and active with the remembrance of God, glorifying His Holy Name within piety and deep faith in all cases and situations and within all what they see and experience; they contemplate and ponder on God's Signs in the universe of the heavens and the earth, in nature, and in their bodies and souls; see 3:191, 18:101, 12:105, 21:30-33, and 51:20-21.  

2/3: Real, pious monotheistic believers get busy with the Truth all the time, and their souls never have spare time to be preoccupied with the many falsehoods of this transient world.

3- These are our pieces of advice addressed to you.