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ISLAM
Interview of Mr Ahmed Azzouz, a practising scholar of Islam.
1. Does your religion believe in the soul? If so: a. What does the soul mean? b. Who created the soul? c. Where does the soul come from?
The Islamic faith believes in the existence of the soul that is divine. God has created the soul. However, it should not be mistaken as a part of Him, as that would equate every individual to Him. The soul is a sole entity, individually residing in a separate body. God is eternal and has been there since the inception of time as the source of life. No one can trace the start. He is the Creator of the world, the body and the soul. The holy book of Islam, the “Quran”, states no correlation between the soul and animals. Since God does not judge animals, they are neither categorised into heaven nor into hell. The Islamic faith believes that animals and plants are created by God to serve humans and should not be used for pleasure, sport or over-consumption. The "Hadith” is a report of the teachings and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It informs the community forming behaviour of animals, asking humans to be merciful towards them.
2. Where do people (souls) come from and where do they go when they die?
As humans approach death, the body is destroyed and angels take the soul from the body to the “World of Dead”. There, they wait for the "Judgement Day". As souls wait, the good ones get a glimpse of heaven while the others don't. A tiny, invisible part of the body remains intact so as to be used to recreate it on Judgement Day. On Judgement Day, God reunites each soul with its respective body. At the moment of Judgement, God questions the doings of the human through his life, his youth, his finances and its usage, his knowledge and its usage, his body and how he took care of it. (Islamic faith believes that since the body is a gift of God, hurting or killing it is a cardinal sin.) Judgement Day is supposed to be a long day as everyone's deeds are evaluated. Good souls are comfortable waiting as compared to the sinners who find it extremely painful and tiring. Islamic faith believes that God is merciful if the balance of deeds is good and in contrast punishes those who have been bad. To receive His judgement each person has to cross a narrow bridge that is built over hell towards paradise. Those who have done well, easily reach their destination; others fall off the bridge into hell while waiting for paradise.
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