among the scholars of hadith and the Sunnah and the practitioners of speculative theology. There are also aberrant views on this matter that are not among the positions of the people of the Sunnah and hadith.

One is the view of those who say that bliss and punishment affect only the soul, and that the body experiences neither bliss nor punishment. This is maintained by the “philosophers” who deny bodily resurrection; they are unbelievers by the consensus of the Muslims. It is also maintained by many “speculative theologians” among the Muʿtazilites and others, who say that this does not occur during the intermediate state between death and resurrection, but only upon rising from the graves.

Another is the view of those who say that the soul, on its own, experiences neither bliss nor punishment, and that the soul is simply life itself. This is maintained by groups of speculative theologians among the Muʿtazilites and the followers of Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī, such as Judge Abū Bakr and others. They deny that the soul continues to exist after departing from the body. This is a false view, opposed by the scholar Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī and others. Indeed, the Quran, the Sunnah, and the agreement of the early generations of this community establish that the soul continues to exist after departing from the body, and that it experiences either bliss or punishment.

The theistic “philosophers” affirm this, but deny bodily resurrection. Those theologians acknowledge bodily resurrection, but deny the resurrection of souls and their bliss and punishment independently of bodies. Both views are erroneous and misguided. Yet the philosophers’ view is further removed from the positions of the people of Islam, even though they may be joined in it by someone who believes that he adheres to the religion of Islam—indeed, someone who considers himself versed in spiritual knowledge, Sufism, rigorous inquiry, and speculative theology.