or fire through coal; so long as these organs remain capable of receiving the overflow of influences from that subtle entity, the entity continues to interlock with the organs, endowing them with perception, movement, and volition. When the organs decay and lose the capacity to accept those influences, the soul parts from the body and moves to the realm of spirits.

This is the correct view; every other opinion is false. It is attested by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the consensus of the Companions, and by reason and innate human nature.

Thus the soul is the locus of moral responsibility, the pivot of command and prohibition, of rectitude and corruption, whereas the body is nothing but its garment and outward form; the soul is the kernel and essence. End of his words.

The editor—may Allah pardon him—writes: The linkage between soul and body that the eminent Imam Ibn al-Qayyim has described is pointed to by the noble hadith before us. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When the soul is taken, the gaze follows it,” and so the eyes of the deceased are raised. Exalted is He whose knowledge encompasses all things.

His words “when it is taken” and “the gaze follows it” are conclusive proof that the soul is a body, for seizure can apply only to a body, and sight follows only something visible—that is, a body.

Dr. Hasan al-Sharqāwī states: Modern spiritists are highly confused. Driven by their false claims, they draw forth entities through mediums, alleging that they have summoned the soul, and they use material means to do so. It may therefore be said that this type of contact occurs between humans and the jinn; the soul has no share in these material experiments, for the soul belongs solely to Allah and lies beyond human capability. However far science may progress, it will always be powerless to grasp the essence of the soul. These experimenters have conflated the realm of the jinn with that of the soul; their endeavors are but frivolity. Allah knows best.

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