Its attachment to the body during sleep: in that state the soul is linked to the body in one respect while, in another, it is detached from it.

Its attachment in the barzakh (the intermediate realm): although the soul leaves the body and is stripped away from it, this is not a total severance that eliminates every connection. The hadiths affirm that the soul is returned to the body when the two angels interrogate it and whenever a believer offers it greetings of peace. Such a return is a special reunion that does not restore bodily life before the Day of Resurrection.

Its attachment when the bodies are raised on the Day of Resurrection. This is the soul’s most complete form of union with the body, and the previous kinds of attachment do not compare with it at all, for once this union occurs the body can no longer experience death, sleep, or decay.