Grades of man and substitutes of that which cannot be...

Grades of man and substitutes of that which cannot be dissolved Another reason of saying, “the like of them”, according to some researchers, is such that it requires a little foreword. It is that man has stages. His first stage is the material body: Flesh, bones and skin. Another stage is the facsimile body, which is devoid of matter. The third stage is breathing and the fourth is soul and intelligence. From these, some are in the same first stage, which is always subject to changes.

The rest of the stages are invariable. First when man is created, the food that man eats is digested and it assimilates into the body. The food, which is taken, takes its place. When one becomes ill one is unable to digest food and thus one becomes lean and thin. The body gets diluted and it has no substitute. In brief, food turns into blood and the foodstuff reaches every part of the body. In other words, the body, systematically and regularly, undergoes changes.

It gets diluted and is replaced by another thing. Thus this flesh and skin is in a state of constant change. That which grants it unity and synthesis is a soul or a spirit. Souls, intellect and the facsimile body are such that they never change. Rather they inch towards perfection. Our present body is like or similar to the body thirty or forty years ago, it is not ‘the same body’.

What is resurrected is ‘the similar body’ not ‘the body’ When man dies, the body made of flesh and skin turns into dust. But the similar body and its soul and spirit remain as they were. In Qiyamat the body with flesh and skin will appear with changes. The body of Hereafter will be a body that will not have impurities and its requirements.

In our present body, if we do not wash and shave for two or three weeks, or if it does not get sleep, if its impurities (excreta etc) are not driven out, it causes illness and trouble. In the body of the Hereafter there will be no such impurities and the body would be refined. About the refinement of body in Hereafter, Imam Sadiq (‘a) is reported to have said, “The body of a pious man is like gold mixed with dust. To make it arise, come rain.

Then those golden particles of a believer’s body get reconstructed and are brought to the Gathering Field.” The body of the Hereafter is like the worldly body, not exactly the worldly body. Hence, as explained earlier, our body of today is ‘like our body’ which was thirty or forty years ago, not exactly that body.