The soul is one of the creatures of Allaah about which there is very little knowledge available to all of humanity.
The information about the soul is a miracle of the Qur'aan that all the scientists up till now do not know about the spirit; that is; how life comes to a body and how it goes away at its death.
What is the soul? Where is the soul? What part of the body is it and what are the functions of the soul in the body? These and many other questions have become subjects of interest to mankind. These questions were also used to test prophets and messengers!
Abu Abdur-Rahmaan, Abdullah bin Mas'ud (RA) was one of the greatest of the companions of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessing be upon him) with respect to his virtue, knowledge arid closeness to him.
He was one of the first to embrace Islaam (actually, he was the sixth person to become a Muslim) and was the first to publicly recite the Qur'aan in Makkah at the side of the Ka'abah. After the Prophet's death, he was in charge of the public treasury of Kufah in Iraaq. He died in Madeenah in 32 A.H at the age of 65.
He narrated as follows: "While I was going with the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) through the ruins or farms of Madeenah and he was reclining on a date-palm leaf stalk, some Jews passed by.
Some of them said to the others:
"Ask him (the Prophet) about the spirit." Some of them said, "What urges you to ask him about it?" Others said, "(Don't) lest he should give you a reply which you dislike."
But some of them insisted on asking, and so one of them stood up and asked, "O Abul-Qasim! What is the spirit?"
The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) stood up for a while waiting and remained quiet. I realized that he (peace and blessing be upon him) was being inspired Divinely.
So I stayed till that state of the Prophet (while being inspired) was over. The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) then said:
"And they ask you (O Muhammad) concerning the spirit --Say: The spirit -- is from the command of my Lord and its knowledge is with my Lord. And of knowledge you (mankind) have been given only a little)." (AI-Israa [17]: 85)
On that some of the Jews said to the others, "Didn't we tell you not to ask?"
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited