Islam for Non-Muslims

• RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
• 1 The Present State of the World Religions
• 2 Religious System as a Historical Reality
• 3 The Evidences of God across the Universe
• 4 The Absolute Oneness of God
• 5 The Reality of the Afterlife
• 6 The Growth of Irreligious Ideas
• 7 Worshipping Natural Elements
• 8 Worshipping Imaginary Idols
• 9 Worshipping Human Beings
• 10 Inventing Relationship to God
• 11 Inventing the Idea of Reincarnation
• 12 Inventing the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism)
• 13 Inventing ‘Nature’ as the Creator of the Universe
• 14 Importance of Religion in this Secular World
• ISLAM AS A RELIGION
• 15 Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
• 16 Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
• 17 The Quran as the Original Divine Book
• 18 The Quranic Reality in Archeological Findings
• 19 Muhammad (pbuh) as the Great Prophet
• 20 Islam as the True Religion
• 21 Islam as the Universal Religion
• 22 Islam as the Eternal Religion
• 23 Islam as a Practicable Religion
• 24 Islam as an Enjoyable Religion
• 25 Islam as the Peaceful & Savior Religion
• 26 Islam as the Progressive & Rational Religion
• 27 Islam in Health & Hygiene
• 28 Islam in Promotion of Science
• 29 Muslims in Practices of Science
• 30 Islam & Other Monotheisms: Similarities & Differences
• 31 Islamic Tolerance for Other Religions
• 32 Islamic Rights for Non-Muslim Citizens
• ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
• 33 Islamic System vs. Human Ideologies
• 34 Moral & Social Impacts of Islamic Rituals
• 35 Moral Discipline in Islam
• 36 Sinning of 3 W’s: Women, Wine and Wealth
• 37 Dignity & Equality of Man in Islam
• 38 Human Rights in Islam
• 39 Social Duties in Islam
• 40 Dignity & Rights of Labor in Islam
• 41 Dignity of Women in Islam
• 42 Rights of Women in Islam
• 43 Marriage & Family Life in Islam
• 44 Political Philosophy in Islam
• 45 Economic Principles in Islam
• 46 Islamic Economy vs. Capitalism & Communism
• 47 Patriotism & Internationalism in Islam
• 48 Understanding Controversial Issues in Islam
• 49 Conversion to Islam: Problems & Prospects
• 50 Conclusive Message to the Non-Muslims

11:  INVENTING THE IDEA OF REINCARNATION (REBIRTH)

Introduction: Some religions (ex: Hinduism, Buddhism) adhere to the idea of reincarnation.  This idea suggests that the soul of living beings are reborn and come back  to this earth in different body forms in order to face good or bad consequences for what they did during their past life.  This means a person or animal performing good deeds in this life will be born again as a fortunate person to enjoy his reward in next life. Likewise, a wicked person will be reborn in next life as a suffering person or animal.  Now follows an attempt to review this idea.

(1) Conflict with Monotheistic Reality of Afterlife: All 3 monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) share some basic beliefs about the Afterlife. Accordingly, all human beings will eventually enter the Afterlife phase through the gate of death which happens only once for all.  You “shall not taste death except the first death”, through which you (the righteous) will “enter therein (Hereafter) in peace and security; this is a Day of Eternal Life” (44:56; 50:34). Obviously, this reality of the Afterlife closes the doors on rebirth or reincarnation. 

    By contrast, the reincarnation theory does not put any limit to the number of times your birth and death will alternate. Now the question is: would you believe the concept of Afterlife that is well-documented and highly-detailed in the holy Books of God or the reincarnation idea that does not have documentation of comparable reliability and also does miss too many essential details? 

(2) Reincarnation Supports Class System: The concept of rebirth appears to be complementary to the essence of rigid caste (class) system as a tradition of Hinduism. Accordingly, if you are born to a lower caste, you cannot move up to higher class during your life time even if you may have a Ph.D. degree, billion dollar fortune or model character.  You can however take comfort in the prospect of being reborn into higher class by means of present good behavior. The idea of rebirth thus plays well to the system of caste which may be a design or “plot” of the corrupt “leaders” from upper class minority (6:123). On the negative side, deprivation of the vast majority of the lower class goes on without any social protest as they patiently wait for their better rebirth when they aspire to be rewarded.  Differently for Islam, people are born on this planet only once, without relevance for liability of past life and with honorable social standing in the eyes of God.

(3) No Hint on Afterlife: The theory of reincarnation considers only or mainly the earthly life as a place for receiving your return for good or bad deeds. Accordingly, it arranges a comeback to this earth through rebirth to receive your return. It therefore does not contain any clear idea on the existence of Afterlife, which is the center piece of monotheism and undoubtedly the better place for reward (in Paradise) and penalty (in Hell) than earthly life. This results in the loss of benefits from Afterlife system in the form of powerful incentive for promotion of virtues inspired by heavenly reward and strong deterrence to vices on pain of hellish punishment.

(4) Animal Past is Disgraceful for the Mankind: All divine religions see Adam as the first man from whom all human beings have been multiplying without any basic change of form. Islam in particular honors him as a prophet and knows his human descendents as superior to animals. This long-standing status quo has been disturbed by the reincarnation assumption that an honorable man of today took shape from a lower animal or man of yesterday by means of good behavior.  This theory of possible animal past really deprives humanity of their due honor and dignity.

(5) Can Animals Act Morally?  According to this theory, a good behaving animals of today are also among those who will be reborn into a rewarding life (e.g. priest) in the next life. However, it is not understandable how an animal is able to perform moral actions equating the standard of man particularly in the absence of any divine inspiration through holy books or messengers for them.   

(6) No Clue to the First Creature: This theory poses a classical quandary of ‘chicken or egg: which comes first?’ It does not give any clue to the first creature: man or animal from which the birth recycling process had started.  If we assume man to be the beginner, then it means he was formerly an animal that was upgraded to humanity as a reward for good deeds. On the other hand, if we consider animal as the first creature, then we cannot avoid the idea that it was reborn from a previous sinful person.  Thus, the idea puts us into a perplexing vicious circle without any clear way out. Conversely, Islam in conjunction with its monotheistic cousins puts forward the fact in a straightforward and convincing manner that man are always reproduced from its kind without any exceptions.

(7) Faulty Assumption about Punishment:  The reincarnation theory keeps provision of being reborn into suffering position as a low caste man, or even an animal, tree etc. as a consequence of past bad behavior.  However, rebirth into an animal does not necessarily mean a punishment.  For example, the life of a pet (a dog or cat) sharing cozy bed with a rich merchant barely seems less fortunate than that of the hungry millions from poor countries. The reincarnation theory is therefore based on shaky assumptions.

 (8) Human Souls Tend to Act Humanly: An original human soul no matter what body it wears (as man or animal), is likely to behave in almost the same rational way.  Sometimes a man may show exceptional behavior of cruelty like an animal, but overall he may have a comfortable edge over an animal in respect of rationality, possibly with a higher tendency to perform good deeds. 

Conclusion: The theory of reincarnation, therefore, confuses our thinking by posing more questions than it answers and it has so many conceptual flaws that make it unworkable.  The Afterlife concept of Islam, on the other hand, is so clear that it does not lend itself to any such problems; rather it becomes more and more evident as we think more and more about it. Thus you can secure your future by switching your belief from reincarnation theory to true Islamic concept of Afterlife.