Someone from India sent the following questions to Hazrat Amirul Momineen, Khalifatul Masih Vaa:
1. Who is Allah and what is His nature?
2. If the universe started with the Big Bang and has been expanding on its own ever since, does that mean that the entire universe is God?
3. It is said that after we die, we go to Allah. How does this happen? What is the reality of the soul, and can it travel between different parts of the universe where heaven and hell exist? In other words, can the soul move from one place to another?
Huzoor-e-Anwaraa, in his letter dated 10 March 2022, provided the following response to these queries:
“[…] Your second question is about human death. So, the reality of death is that when Allah the Exalted breathes a soul into the human body at the time of birth, that soul leaves the mortal body at the time of death. And the body remains in this world, whether the person dies by drowning in water, is buried or cremated, or is exposed to predators and scavengers. And the human soul moves to the other world, which is called the world of barzakh, where it is given a new body of light or darkness according to the person’s deeds in this world.
“The Promised Messiahas, while explaining the relationship between soul and body, states:
“‘Barzakh is a state in which the mortal condition of man is dissolved and the soul and the body are separated. The body is buried in a pit and the soul also falls into a sort of pit. […]
“‘On death, the soul departs from this mortal body, but in the intermediate state, every soul is invested with a body in order to enable it to react to the conditions of that state. That body is not like this physical body, but is prepared from light or from darkness, according to the quality of the person’s actions in this life, as if a man’s actions serve as a body for the soul in that state. In the Word of God, it is repeatedly mentioned that some bodies will be bright and some will be dark. They will be prepared from the light or from the darkness of human actions. This is a fine mystery but is not opposed to reason. […] Those who have some experience of the state of vision will not regard such a body as is prepared from human actions as a matter of surprise and improbability, but will duly appreciate this phenomenon.
“‘In short, this body which is acquired according to the condition of one’s actions, becomes a source of the recompense of good and evil in the intermediate state.’” (Islami Usul Ki Filasfi, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 10, pp. 403-405)
“The Promised Messiahas refers in this passage to a type of pit in which the soul is said to fall, which is actually a reference to the following verse of Surah ‘Abasa:
ثُمَّ اَمَاتَهٗ فَاَقۡبَرَهٗ
“‘Then He causes him to die and assigns a grave to him.’ (Surah ‘Abasa, Ch.80: V.22)
“It is evident that not every human being in this world is blessed with a grave adorned with a mound of dirt, as millions of dead are cremated and not buried. Hundreds of thousands of people perish in drowning or are consumed by wild beasts. Therefore, how can it be asserted that every human being is placed by God in a grave? Here, the term ‘grave’ refers to the spiritual abode where a person’s soul is kept after death and before undergoing the perfect and final reckoning. […]”