Pages: 1-9

Abstract

What happens to a human being after death? This is the question that has always obsessed the mankind’s mind. In between, there are those who believe in the life after death as a principle that is accepted by all the heavenly religions and some others deny it inter alia whom the individuals believing in transmigration can be pointed out. The present article tries to investigate Sadr-ol-Mote’allehin Shirazi’s perspective regarding transmigration to the extent possible. One question raised in this regard is that “what is Sadr-ol-Mote’allehin Shirazi’s perspective concerning transmigration?” In his idea, transmigration is of two types: 1) corporeal (real transmigration): the transferring of soul from a body to another; 2) ethereal: the emigration of soul from an earthly body to an otherworldly physique that will be in proportion to the characteristics and deeds a human has acquired and performed, respectively, in this world. The type accepted by him is the angelic transmigration which is also confirmed by the AYAT and Narratives; the people will be reincarnated on the Judgment Day in shapes of their own intentions; this is a statement by His Highness Muhammad (may Allah bestow him and his sacred progeny with the best of His regards). Besides drawing on AYAT and Narratives, he uses reasonable proofs to invalidate transmigration, one of the most important of which is the quintessential emigration. The other question is that do his ideas conform to the AYAT and Narratives or not? From religious viewpoint, transmigration has been defined as stated in the following words: “resurrection from their (the ones believing in transmigration) perspective is the very emigration of soul from a body to another” and this definition corresponds to Sadr-ol-Mote’allehin’s. In his mind, such a type of transmigration is invalid because it necessitates a body having two souls (egos). On the other hand, it is quite opposite to the perspective of several AYAT in Holy Quran that explicitly emphasizes the resurrection. Thus, transmigration is invalid from both of the foresaid perspectives. So, our objective, i.e. adjusting Sadr-ol-Mote’allehin’s perspective to the Holy Quran’s AYAT as well as the Narratives, was found accomplished. The current research paper was conducted based on an analytical-descriptive method and the materials were collected through library research and internet sources.