All Humans Had A Past Life

Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!

This is a sequel to our previous article titled: The Righteous Do Not “Die”, They Go Straight to Heaven.

In that article, the key takeaways were:

The Quran says the believers experienced only one death, but disbelievers experienced two deaths.

The Quran defines death as being a state of unconsciousness that is exactly like sleep. When the life of the disbeliever is terminated on Earth, he or she will undergo this sleep-like state. But a believer will be alive, fully conscious, and in Heaven.

On Judgement Day, the disbelievers will be resurrected, and they would think they were dead for a day or part of a day. This is almost like when we are asleep or under anesthesia, we are unaware of the passage of time.

Thus, this “first death” that all of humanity went through was the death that ended our previous existence. All of humanity collectively experienced this death.

During the first death, before we humans are reborn on Earth, we are fully unconscious and totally unaware of the billions of years that pass by until we are born here in this world. Thus, the second death will be a similar experience for the disbelievers until the Day of Resurrection.

Some might say, “But doesn’t the Quran say in verses 40:11 and 2:28 that we have two lives? Isn’t the first life our current life, and the second life the Hereafter? If we had a previous existence, would this not be the third life?“

Actually, the Quran doesn’t say we had two lives. Verse 2:28 and 40:11 says we were “ahyaa” (brought to life) twice. Verse 2:28 says that we were dead, THEN we were “ahyaa” (brought to life), THEN we will be put to death again, THEN we will be brought to life again.

[2:28] How can you disbelieve in God while you were dead, THEN He brought you to life (ahyaakum)? Then He will put you to death, THEN He will bring you to life (yuhyikum), then to Him you will return.

So according to verse 2:28, the act of “ahyaa” (bringing to life) applies to entities that were given life after they have died. The verb “ahyaa” doesn’t apply to God bringing a living thing into existence that did not previously exist.

Our previous life was life number 1, our current life is life number 2, and our life in the Hereafter is life number 3.

Since people had only two deaths, this means that during life number 1, we were brought into existence from a state of non-existence. There was no death before life number 1, so we just did not exist until God gave us existence. Thus, the word “ahya” (brought to life) doesn’t apply us coming into existence during life number 1. The phrase that we should use instead to refer to life number 1 is “brought into existence” rather than “brought to life”.

But in life number 2 and 3, we were brought to life from a state of death. Life number 2 began after the first death, and life number 3 will begin after the second death.

So according to the Quran, we had three lives in total. We were brought into existence during life number 1, then we were put to death twice after that, then we were “ahyaa” (brought to life) twice after that.

But some might say, “Wasn’t our first death simply the state of non-existence? That means this life is life number 1, and the Hereafter is life number 2.“

No, because death was something that was created verse (67:2). If death was simply a state of non-existence, then there would be no need to physically create it, because nothing existed before God. That means things that are dead had a life, and the ending of that life is death.

[67:2] The one who created death and life…

Moreover, humanity took a pledge before God to not worship the devil and to worship God alone (36:60-61, 7:172). Humanity accepted the Trust from God (33:72). The fact that we do not remember any of those events today means they had to have occurred during a life before our current worldly life. And if there was a previous life, then what ended that previous life was the first death.

Humanity’s Previous Life

We used to have a past existence (life number 1) in God’s kingdom.

We committed serious sin during a previous existence in God’s kingdom, then we were given the chance to redeem ourselves in our current life, and our final fate is determined on Judgment Day. Hence, this life is like a redemption center.

All things that exist in this universe (living and non-living) are here because they used to exist in some way, shape, or form at God’s kingdom in Heaven, but during that past life they committed some type of transgression, thus were given a second chance and sent here.

This includes us humans.

The following verses give further proof that humans had a previous existence before they were all sent to Earth:

[33:72] Indeed, We have presented the Trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it, while the human being carried it. Indeed, he was unjust, ignorant.

[7:172] And when your Lord took from the Children of Adam their offspring, from their backs, and had them bear witness upon themselves, “Was I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes. We have borne witness.” Lest you say on the Day of Establishment, “Indeed, we were unaware of this.”

[5:7] And remember God’s goodwill upon you, and His covenant with which He has pledged you when you said, “We heard, and we obeyed.” And revere God. Indeed, God is Knowledgeable of the possession of the chests.

[36:60] Did I not take a pledge from you, O Children of Adam, that you shall not worship the devil? Indeed, he is definitely a clear enemy to you.

To begin with, there is mention of the humans accepting a “trust” from God in verse 33:72-73. Of course, we don’t remember such an event because this occurred during our past life.

In verse 7:172 and 36:60, we took a pledge from God to worship Him, recognize Him as the Lord, and avoid the devil. This happened in our previous life because we don’t remember such a pledge today.

In verse 5:7. this verse is talking to the people at large, saying that we all took a covenant from God. We don’t remember this covenant because it occurred in the previous life.

So all of these are surefire signs of life number 1, the previous life before our current one.

Only Humanity Accepted The Trust

In verse 33:72, we took upon ourselves the Trust, and in this verse God called us ignorant and wrongful. God does not command or suggest anyone to do anything unjust (verse 7:28 and others)

That means we were not ignorant or unjust for accepting the Trust, but we humans were ignorant and unjust for whatever thing we did during our previous life that caused us to be offered the Trust by God in the first place.

That means all physical matter in existence in the seven heavens (including the mountains and trees, and the matter that makes up our own bodies) also did things during the previous life that caused God to offer them the Trust, but they refused to accept it.

The beings who accepted the Trust were destined to, in the second and current life, descend from Adam as humans. We accepted the responsibility of willingly submitting to God after His guidance comes down to the people (verses 2:36, 7:24, 20:123, etc.)

In other words, when we humans accepted the Trust, we accepted the responsibility of moral agency (doing the right thing, avoiding the wrong thing).

The ones who were too scared to take on this risky Trust instead were far wiser and took the safer option. They agreed to spend their entire second lives as physical matter until Judgment Day, a state of being that is without a will or moral capability of their own, in constant submission to God by always obeying His laws of physics.

As for the jinns, it is unclear whether they were offered the Trust or not, and why they were born as jinns instead of humans if so.

The opinion of Rashad Khalifa is that we chose this second option (the Trust) in our previous lives, unlike the vast majority that chose the first option, because of our ego. We were far too confident in our own selves. Either that, or we felt too prideful to be born as what we thought were “lesser beings” such as animals, plants, bacteria, or the physical non-living matter that make up the entire universe.

Rashad also believed that Satan (Iblis) claimed that he can be a god besides God, and his ideas spread throughout God’s kingdom. Rashad believed that falling for Iblis’s lies during the previous life and thinking he can be a god besides God was the crime that we committed. Rashad thought we were offered the chance of redemption with the second life to expiate for that crime, hence we were reborn as humans, animals, and physical matter.

Rashad also believed that unlike humans, jinns stood very strongly on the side of Iblis, and they never once begged God for a second chance. But due to God’s mercy, they were created as a different entity rather than humans and were given far more mysterious powers and longer life than humans because they are innately more inclined to being stubborn and disbelieving than humans are.

And Rashad also believed that because Satan claimed to be capable of being a god, he was given kingship over planet Earth, and was given subjects (human followers who rejected God) so that there can be an official “test” for his claims that he can be a god besides God. The logic is: if claim to be a pilot, the way to test you is to give you a plane and tell you to fly it. Though just to clarify, the term Rashad has sometimes used to describe Iblis’s position on Earth is “temporary god” which is an unfortunate lexical error on Rashad’s part, since this word choice does not convey Rashad’s intended meaning of Iblis being a temporary ruler on Earth over humanity (except the believers).

But all of this is not Quranically confirmed, it is just Rashad’s interpretation of what happened.

Living and Non-living Things

The Quran states that all physical matter and living things apart from humans are constantly prostrating to God, and in a state of Salat and sublimation (which is the recognition of God as pure, perfect, and sublime), but we don’t understand exactly how they do it.

This includes our own human bodies, which are in this state of submission alongside everything else.

We have made many advances in understanding the laws of physics that all matter follows.

Thus, from an Islamic perspective, studying science has a lot of spiritual meaning because it is essentially the study of the many ways that physical matter is in a state of constant worship, submission, and obedience to God, by following His laws of physics ceaselessly.

[50:6] And the stars and trees prostrate.

[17:44] The seven heavens and the earth, as well as whoever are in them, sublime God; there is not anything except which sublimes Him with His praise, but instead, you do not understand their sublimation. Indeed, He has been Forbearing, Forgiving.

[24:41] Do you not see that whoever in the heavens and the earth sublimes God, as well as the birds which line up? Each certainly knows its Salat and its sublimation, and God is Knowledgeable of what they do

[22:18] Do you not see that to God prostrates whoever is in the heavens, as well as whoever is in the earth, including the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the creatures, and many of the people? But the word has been due upon many; whomever God humiliates, then there will not be any giver of honor for him. Indeed, God does what He wills.

The spiritual importance of science as the study of how the physical matter and living things in the universe worships God is probably one of the reasons why God in the Quran tells the people to study science. The Quran says to travel in the earth and find out how God began the creation of everything. The command to find out how God began His creation requires studying all the fields of science that we have today, such as biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and more.

[29:20] Say, “Travel in the earth and observe how He began the creation. Then God will produce the creation of the Hereafter. Indeed, God is Capable on everything.”

Just as non-living things worship God by following His laws of physics, the Quran states living things worship God ceaselessly by following their God-given natural instincts.

The souls inhabiting living things are given much more freedom than the souls inhabiting non-living things, because after satisfying the natural instincts given by God and dictated in their genetics (hunger, thirst, sleep, reproduction, etc.), they are given freedom to do whatever they please.

It’s in a way similar to us humans being free to do what we want on Earth after satisfying the moral codes that God has dictated.

The Quran uses the honeybee as an example of that, showing God dictating to the honeybee its natural instincts:

[16:68-69] And your Lord revealed to the honeybee: “Take houses from the mountains and the trees, and what they (people) construct. Then eat from all the fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord tamely…”

And needless to say, the souls inhabiting physical matter or animals and plants are no less than the souls inhabiting human bodies; in many ways they are better than us because they lacked our ego and chose to “play the game” in easy mode.

If your soul was transported to the body of a cat, you will have only the reasoning capabilities of a cat. The same applies to dogs, plants, bacteria, and fish. If your soul inhabited physical matter, you would not be conscious or able to do anything willingly.

Adam, Eve, and Jinns

Adam was the first soul to be reborn as a human being after accepting the Trust, and his wife Eve was the second one.

Iblis was the first soul to be reborn as a jinn.

Who are the jinns? Were they even offered the Trust? Why were they not made into humans if they too accepted a Trust from God? Did they reject the Trust, but God chose to grant them a second life out of mercy anyways? Why endow jinns with long life, mysterious powers, and the ability to whisper suggestions? Only God knows these answers.

We learn a lot of things about the jinn in the fist 15 verses of Surah 72. We learn that the jinn are an intelligent, invisible species. We learn that the jinn have males and females, and they have believers and disbelievers. Just like today’s Christians, Surah 72 teaches that many of jinn too believe in ideas such as God had a son.

We learn from Surah 72 that the jinns are able to travel far and wide throughout the universe, and they are in some degree able to eavesdrop in issues related to God’s metaphysical realm because they themselves are metaphysical creatures, but they get pursued by flames if they try to do so (thus condemned only to our universe.

The jinns have many strange powers that are unknown to us. Perhaps they even have their own parallel, invisible societies.

In verse 6:130, we are informed that just like humans, jinn have their own messengers sent to them personally to inform them about God’s signs and warn them about Judgment Day (6:130). Or the other view of this verse is that jinns are supposed to respond to whatever portion of the revelations from human messengers they can apply to them.

[6:130] O assembly of the jinn and the human being, did not messengers from among you come to you, relating upon you My signs, and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours? They said, “We have borne witness against ourselves.” And the life of the World deceived them, and they bore witness against themselves that they were disbelievers.

In verse 2:30, God announced His intent to put Adam on planet Earth as a ruler even before his body was created. This indicates that Adam’s descent to Earth from Paradise was intended from the very start because the Trust had to be carried out. It was not a punishment or consequence of Adam’s failure to abstain from the forbidden fruit.

[2:30] And when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will place a ruler in the earth.” They said, “Will you place therein he who will spread corruption therein and shed blood, while we sublime You with Your praise and sanctify You?” He said, “Indeed, I know what you do not know.”

So, everyone already knows the story from the Quran. Iblis (Satan), who was the first jinn at the time of Adam’s creation, refused a prostration order from God. This was Iblis’s “test” before he was sent to Earth, which he failed. Due to Iblis’s sheer arrogance, God was about to send him straight to Hell, but at the last minute, he asked for a delay so that he can continue his goal of misleading humanity, which God granted.

Then Adam and his wife was allowed to stay in Paradise until they ate from the forbidden tree and was evicted from Paradise. This was Adam’s “test” before he was sent to Earth, which he failed.

The question is, why not send Adam, Eve, and Iblis down to Earth right away? Why wait for them to mess up in Paradise first?

One reason is to draw a contrast between Adam and Iblis. Both failed their pre-initiation tests before their destined descent to planet Earth. But Adam turned towards God and repented, while Iblis only grew more arrogant and defiant.

Another reason is likely to demonstrate God’s mercy, due to having forgiven Adam and Eve for their mistake. Thus, it is a form of reassurance that God will be there to forgive our misdeeds.

The last reason is to exemplify to the future generations of humans how the devil is humanity’s worst enemy, and to be a warning that the devil is not operating in the best interests of mankind. Just as Adam and his wife were tempted with lies and deception, the devil will always try to tempt humanity into doing wrong things by lying to them and deceiving them.

Every Human Has a Jinn Companion

Unlike the human beings, the jinn did not accept any sort of trust or take a pledge with God that they will worship Him alone. They remained unrepentant to the very end. However, due to God’s mercy, a pathway for redemption has been opened up for the jinn.

The plan for the redemption of humans and jinns is that they would inhabit this world as companions of one another. The jinns (or whatever they call themselves in their native languages) would inspire humans to do either good or evil, and the humans will do the same to their jinn companions.

If any jinn manages to be guided, then he or she will have earned God’s redemption.

The Quran mentions that every person has a jinn companion with them from birth to death, who will be the primary witness for or against a person on Judgement Day. Our jinn companions instinctively have a tendency to promote doing bad things, and inspiring bad thoughts to people, but they have potential to be guided.

[41:25] And We designated for them companions who adorned for them what was before them and what was behind them, and the word among communities of the jinn and the human being that certainly have passed on before them was due upon them. Indeed, they were losers.

[43:36-38] And whoever should turn from the reminder of the Almighty, We designate for him a devil, who thus is a companion for him. And indeed, they (the jinn companions) definitely hinder them (the disbelieving humans) from the way, while they reckon they are guided. Until when he came to Us, he said, “Oh, I wish the distance of the two easts was between me and you!” Thus, wretched has been the companion.

[50:21-27] And every self has come with a driver and a witness (the jinn companion). Certainly, you definitely were unaware of this. We thus removed your obscurant from you, so your sight today is sharp. And his companion said, “This is what is ready with me.”…His companion said, “Our Lord, I did not make him transgress, but instead, he was in far straying.” He (God) said, “Do not contend with Me, while certainly, I sent forth to you the promise.”

According to Surah 72 and others, jinn can travel far and wide throughout the universe easily, only being stopped from going too far outside the universe by special flames that can affect only them. Those jinns aren’t attached to any human companions, so this indicates that when their assigned human companions die, the jinns become unbound and live on for a period of time.

Rashad Khalifa believes that the jinn companions inhabit the human body alongside the human soul since birth, and become almost like a second version of oneself during the duration of the companionship. Like for example, a human named John Doe has a jinn companion in them who also identifies as John Doe, and knows everything that the human John Doe knows.

Rashad believes that while the jinns have a strong natural bias towards Iblis’s point of view, both you and your jinn companion mutually influence each other’s personalities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, everything in existence in this life (humans, animals, plants, physical matter, etc.) had a previous existence before the worldly life, and were all sent down here for redemption according to the Quran.

This adds a layer of depth to the question of why we are here and why suffering and evil exists. God didn’t simply create the humans to live on Earth just because He felt like it. This is something we asked for, and we got what we wanted.

Now the question is, will we uphold our end of the deal or not?

For the sequel, or Part 3, of this article, click here:

Adam and Eve Were Not the First Humans