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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Resurrection Judgement and the Hereafter Lesson Eight: The Autonomy of the Spirit as a Proof of Resurrection The existence and independence of the spirit can also be adduced as a decisive and convincing proof of life after death.

Numerous theories have been put forward by scholars concerning the riddle of the spirit, and the greater becomes the scope of philosophical inquiry and the more carefully use is made of human knowledge, the clearer and more convincing become the proofs for the existence of the spirit and its independence from the body. Of course, we cannot be completely successful in clarifying the quiddity of the spirit, nor can we can lift the veil from the numerous complex mysteries of this eternal entity.

For this reason, the Qur'an depicts the essence of the spirit as an unknowable truth the complete cognition of which lies beyond man's reach. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, was asked concerning the essence of the spirit, the Qur'an told him to answer as follows: “O Prophet, they ask you concerning the nature of the spirit. Tell them: The spirit is an affair of God, and its essence is unknowable to man.

Whatever understanding of it has been given to you is extremely slight” (17:85) . Fourteen centuries have passed since the Qur'an gave this answer. The scope of human knowledge is today very much greater than it was in the time of the Prophet, but very little has been added to this aspect of man's awareness. The essential nature of the spirit still eludes man's grasp, and nobody has been able to clarify it.

Just as the Qur'an proclaimed, it remains veiled in a halo of obscurity, and it is highly probable that it will always remain so. * * * * * Henri Bergson, the well-known philosopher, says: “We can conform to Plato and offer a definition of the spirit that is antecedent to experience. We can say that the spirit, being simple, is indivisible, and that because it is indivisible it is also incorruptible, and that it is therefore eternal in its essence.

“For two millennia men have reflected on this concept of Plato, but it has not advanced our knowledge of the spirit in the slightest.” ( Du Sarchishma-yi Akhlaq va Din, pp. 388-389) Dr. Chesser, an English scholar, writes: “Some people say that the mechanical operations of our brain form the ego or the self.