While 100 years ago all scientists were convinced to the contrary, there is today a scientific consensus to recognize that complex life presupposes adjustments of the laws of nature. astounding precision, statistically totally improbable, and scientists are now also unanimous in recognizing that the Universe is expanding, that it had a beginning and that it will have an end.
If time, space and matter had a beginning and if the Universe implies a setting of such complexity, so it should be a being behind the origin of everything, a transcendent, intelligent, timeless and immaterial being, whom religion calls God.
Science in all cases is a shifting foundation; new discoveries are made every day which negate previous theories,. Therefore, it is not relied upon for anything.
The truth that the Islamic religion brought fourteen centuries is:
- The existence of a Creator of the universe.
- He does not come to earth in a human form or animal form.
- He has no son or partner.
- Worship Him alone. Not through any priest or saint.
- The inevitability of meeting the Creator after death for Judgment.
Which refutes the philosophy of reincarnation.
The reincarnation is the religious or philosophical belief that the soul or spirit, after biological death, begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life’s actions).
In fact, all what exist in the universe is under God’s possession and domination. He has comprehensive knowledge, prevalent power and absolute control. Everything is subjected to His Absolute Knowledge and Will. The Sun, planets and galaxies operate in precision, without fail since they were created.
This same precision applied to the humans’ creation. Perfect harmony and order between body and soul show that God never puts souls of human being into bodies of animals and never let him wander between plants and insects (reincarnation), in case which the person will never know what his past was in his last life.
God made the human being civilized innately and gave him mind and knowledge and assigned him vicegerent for Earth and commander over other creatures.
God will never humiliate human beings. Day of Judgment, Heavens [Paradise] and Hellfire represent the Justice of the Creator, when sins and good deeds of humans are weighed as The Holy Qur’an says:
Whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it. (Qur’an 99:7-8)
Therefore, the worldly life is the beginning of an eternal journey that a person resumes after death.
Islam considers that our existence in this world is for a supreme goal and purpose: God Almighty’s knowledge and to worship Him by having a direct connection with Him.
Everyone shall taste death. And only on the Day of Resurrection shall you be paid your wages in full. And whoever is moved away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. (Al-Imran:185).
In an interview with a group of Buddhist youth who adopt the concept of reincarnation.
I told them:
No school or university administration accepts that anyone else but its students to complete the exam for themselves when the time of the exam is over. Life is your exam paper.
Why are infants not born with the same mental abilities as adults?
Why are the numbers of beings constantly increasing? Isn’t it supposed to prove the numbers of beings based on the concept of reincarnation?
Why does no one remember his past life?
- Wasn’t there a period of time without a universe?
- Wasn’t there a period of time that contained a universe without beings?
- Wasn’t there a period of time that contained a universe of few beings?
Why does a Hindu perform religious rituals to calm the souls of the dead (shrada) as long as the soul moves from one body to another?
Does not the doctrine of reincarnation justify committing crimes, because man will inevitably be saved in a second birth, and he has to enjoy this birth claimed?
Tree spirits are different from human spirits, so how does the human spirit choose the image of trees?
If we accept that the human souls chose the bodies of the animals, and became changeable in their origin, then the torment would be for the changed image, not for the souls of erring human beings.
Trees and animals are a blessing from the Creator for man to benefit from in his worldly needs. If they were a penalty for the sins of people through the incarnation of human souls in them, then it is as if human sins have become an inevitable necessity to invest trees and animals.
The doctrine of reincarnation necessitates that the poor, the sick, and the handicapped be misunderstood, as if they had reached this bad state because they had committed sins in the previous life, which leads to social cast.
Where was the starting poit: birth, human or animal?
If it is the first, then what is the good deed that he brought at the beginning of childbirth?
And if it was the second, what was the evil that he committed?
This life is not suitable to hold the criminal accountable, as the maximum punishment for him in this life (which is: capital punishment) is nothing but retribution for one victim. Then, what about the rest of the victims?!
When a person exposes himself to death in order to save another person’s life (defending him), it is a good and commendable behavior. Is a person’s good manners enough to make him put himself to death in order to save another person?
Is it logical for a person to lose his life just to adopt good manners, without being rewarded? Or that man sacrifice himself for the sake of the Creator and awaiting His reward, because the Creator has urged man to do so.
There is no doubt that the logical answer is that a person sacrifices himself and in accordance with what God Almighty has urged him to do.
So, witnessing the defects in this life and injustice between people, makes it unbelievable that this life will end with the unjust people getting away with their actions and the oppressed not being paid back. There is a comfort in the idea of the existence of resurrection and the Hereafter and retribution. No doubt that the person who knows that there will be a judgment on actions won’t be left without guidance, encouragement, and intimidation. This is the role of religion.
From the book: A Universal Religion
Faten Sabri