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attract each other, and those that were unacquainted, repel" ("Sayings of Muhammad,' p. 81).
Since this is not contradicted anywhere by the text of the Qur'an, but, on the contrary, is strictly in agreement with it, we may lay down the following propositions, as established from the scanty material of the Prophet's word:
RECONCILIATION.
(1) every soul is a living 'idea,'
(2) souls existed prior to their being born in the world, and
(3) all souls contain the Essence of God, and may be said to arise from one soul.
Our first proposition compares well with:
"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (St. John, I. 14).
These points furnish conclusive evidence of the fact that the teaching of the Qur'an is not at all different from that of Hinduism, in respect of the existence of souls prior and subsequent to their life on earth.
The Muslim idea of predestination, which has brought upon Islam the stigma of fatalism, itself suffices to prove the theory of transmigration, if investigated philosophically.
"Taqdir, or the absolute decree of good and evil," says T. P. Hughes in A Dictionary of Islam,' "is the sixth article of the Mahomedan creed, and the orthodox believe that whatever has, or shall come to pass in this world, whether it be good or bad, proceeds entirely from the Divine Will, and has been irrevocably fixed and recorded on a preserved tablet by the pen of fate."
This preserved tablet is the Perspicuous Book, the Book of God's decrees, called lauh-i-mahfuz (b) in Arabic, and is said to contain all that has happened in the past and all that is to happen in the future.
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