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RECONCILIATION.
1013
Does it not strike our brethren of Islam that unless the doctrine of transmigration be an integral part of the teaching of their Prophet, their creed renders, it absolutely unnecessary that there should be such a thing as soul ? Their belief in the resurrection of the physical body on the Judgment Day would be quite inconsistent with the survival of the soul on the death of the individual, as well as with its existence prior to his conception and birth in this world of ours. The former, because it has no function to perform during the period intervening between its death here and the resurrection at the place of Judgment, and the latter, because it would directly lead to an admission of our claim. In short, they must altogether deny the existence of such a thing as soul and take the body to be the man. But in doing so they will find that they not only contradict the sound conclusions of reason, which, in the passage quoted from the 'Sayings of Muhammad,' is so highly extolled by the Prophet himself, but also attribute injustice and want of dignity to the Godhead, in addition to rendering a number of passages in their Scripture of no effect.
If the soul be by the command of God (Al Qur'an, chap. XVII), and created, for the first time, to inhabit the body of flesh, by an Almighty God, he must be the author of its existence. If so, he must be blamed for creating differences in the circumstances of different souls, so that one is bořn ignorant, while another enjoys the light of wisdom, and so forth. If emphasis were needed on this last observation of ours, it is not wanting, for the Qur'an itself records :--
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