Some theologians have supposed that the human soul is...

Some theologians have supposed that the human soul is annihilated after death and then restored, but this is contrary both to reason and to the Koran.

The former shows us that death does not destroy the essential individuality of a man, and the Koran says, "Think not that those who are slain in the path of God are dead; nay, they are alive, rejoicing in the presence of their Lord, and in the grace bestowed on them." Not a word is said in the Law about any of the dead, good or bad, being annihilated.

Nay, the Prophet is said to have questioned the spirits of slain infidels as to whether they had found the punishments, with which he had threatened them, real or not. When his, followers asked him what was the good of questioning them, he replied, "They hear my words better than you do." Some Sufis have had the unseen world of heaven and hell revealed to them when in a state of death-like trance.

On their recovering consciousness their faces betray the nature of the revelations they have had by marks of joy or terror.

But no visions are necessary to prove what will occur to every thinking man, that when death has stripped him of his senses and left him nothing but his bare personality, if while on earth he has too closely attached himself to objects perceived by the senses, such as wives, children, wealth, lands, slaves, male and female, etc., he must necessarily suffer when bereft of those objects.

Whereas, on the contrary, if he has as far as possible turned his back on all earthly objects and fixed his supreme affection upon God, he will welcome death as a means of escape from worldly entanglements, and of union with Him whom he loves.

In his case the Prophet's sayings will be verified: "Death is a bridge which unites friend to friend," and "The world is a paradise for infidels, but a prison for the faithful." On the other hand, the pains which souls suffer after death all have their source in excessive love of the world. The Prophet said that. every unbeliever, after death, will be tormented by ninety-nine snakes, each having nine heads.

Some simple-minded people have examined the unbelievers' graves and wondered at failing to see these snakes.