Religion and Science
4. Religion and the Life Hereafter
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they regard it as being a particular property of the
faculties of thought and sense perception, on a
parallel with the melody which results when notes
of a musical instrument are struck in a particular
sequence. Drawing extensively on two of Imam
Ghazzali’s books, he observes that the description
of the soul and the arguments which Ghazzali has
mentioned are all derived from Greek philosophers.
Aristotle in his
Theology
has said the same and
Avicenna has reiterated this in his own language.
But the strange thing is that Ghazzali has left out
the point, which is of prime importance in the
discussion of spirit or soul. Soul has no body. It is
an essence. Its being purely non-material makes it
of the first importance to prove its existence. As
Shibli himself observes:
The existence of the soul is a matter of
intuition. After pondering over it, we come to
know that the faculty of reason is not merely a
property of matter. Matter is a lifeless thing.
Without reason, you cannot find sublime
ideas, arts and sciences and scientific
disciplines in matter. These are delicate
substances, quite other than matter, which
