How Does Reincarnation Relate to Religious Teachings and the Afterlife?

The doctrine of transmigration of souls has no place in religious teachings, the mission of the great prophets, or the established belief in the Resurrection. In the Holy Quran, numerous verses clearly refute it.

Those who advocate transmigration have no evidence for their claim in the revealed scriptures. The doctrine calls into question the Resurrection, the gathering of the dead, the reckoning, and Paradise and Hell.

In truth, transmigration is a satanic alternative to the Resurrection and a vile deception intended to undermine God’s servants in their deeds.

As for people who speak of repeated lives in the past on Earth, the following explanations may be offered:

1. Human devils devise scenarios to deceive their audiences. Fabricating such stories is no harder than performing a magic trick: even in stage magic, trained participants in the audience play their parts in deceiving the spectators.

2. Devils may place particular people under specific suggestions and present the past of certain deceased people as if it were the past life of those individuals. This is easier with people of weak character, whose souls are readily taken captive by Satan.

Advocates of transmigration have existed since ancient times. In the present era, they have split into disparate sects with varied beliefs.

فقال المأمون یا أبا الحسن فما تقول فی القائلین بالتناسخ فقال الرضا ع من قال بالتناسخ فهو کافر بالله العظیم مکذب بالجنه و النار
عیون أخبار الرضا علیه السلام، ج‏2، ص: 202

Al-Ma’mun said, “O Abu al-Hasan, what do you say about transmigration and those who believe in it?”

Imam al-Rida (peace be upon him) replied, “Whoever believes in transmigration disbelieves in Almighty God and denies Paradise and Hell.”

A reference to advocates of transmigration in the early days of Islam:

Someone asked Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, peace be upon him: “If God were to return one of the dead to us once every hundred years, we could ask him about those who came before and those who will come after, and find out what they saw after death and how they were treated. Then people could act with certainty, every doubt would disappear, and all rancour and resentment would be removed from their hearts.”

He replied: “This is the view of those who deny the prophets, reject them, and refuse to accept their scriptures. For God has made known, through the words of His prophets in His Book, what became of our dead. What testimony could be truer than God’s own words and those of His prophets?

“Many people have returned to this world after death. Among them are the Companions of the Cave, whom God caused to die for three hundred and nine years, then raised them in the time of a people who denied resurrection, so that He might establish the proof against them and show them His power—and so that they might know that resurrection is true.

“God also caused the Prophet Jeremiah «1» to die. When he looked upon the ruins of Jerusalem and its surroundings, laid waste in the war waged against its people by Nebuchadnezzar, he said: ‘How will God bring these people back to life after their death?’ God caused him to die for a hundred years—Quran 2:259—then restored him to life. He watched as his limbs came together, as flesh covered them, and as his joints and veins were reconnected. Then he stood and said: ‘I know that God has power over all things’—Quran 2:259.

“God also caused to die, for a long time, a vast multitude who had fled their city for fear of plague, until their bones had decayed, their bodies crumbled and they had become dust. Then, when He wished to show His creatures His power, God sent a messenger named Ezekiel. He called them, and at once all their limbs and bodies came together, their spirits returned to their bodies, and they stood as they had on the day they died. They lived for a long time, and not one of them was missing.

“God also caused to die the people who went out with Moses and said: ‘Show us God openly’—Quran 4:153. Then He brought them back to life.”

The heretic asked: “Why do some people believe in the transmigration of souls? How did they come to believe this, and what proof or argument do they offer for their doctrine?”

He replied: “Those who believe in transmigration have turned their backs on the path and way of religion, and made error seem fair to themselves. They have let their souls graze in the pastures of desire. They claim that heaven is empty, that it contains nothing contrary to what has been described, and that the ruler of this world takes the form of these very creatures. Their proof is the report, ‘God created Adam in His own image’ «1». They believe there is neither Paradise nor Hell, neither resurrection nor rising from the dead. For them, the Resurrection is simply the soul leaving one body and entering another. If a person was virtuous in the first body, the soul enters a body at the highest level of this world in virtue and excellence. But if the person was wicked or lacking in spiritual insight in the first body, the soul enters, in keeping with that character, either an animal’s body or that of some repulsive creature in this world.

“They do not believe in prayer or fasting. They practise no worship beyond knowing the One whom it is obligatory to know, and they regard every worldly pleasure as permissible to them—from intercourse with their sisters and daughters to their maternal aunts and married women. They also consider carrion, wine and blood lawful. Every religious community disavows them, and every people has cursed them. When asked for proof or argument, they turn away and flee.

“The Torah rejects their doctrine, and the Furqan curses them. Yet they also believe that their god passes from one body to another, and that the souls are eternal: the very soul that was in Adam has continued to pass from one person to another until it reached our own time. If, then, the Creator takes the form of the created, how can either of the two be established as the Creator?

“They also believe that angels are descended from Adam: whoever reaches the highest rank in religion leaves behind the place of trial and purification and becomes an angel. In some respects, Christians have come to resemble them—for example, in their belief in divine indwelling and in the idea that souls, upon reaching perfection, become joined to celestial bodies. The materialists, meanwhile, believe that things have no creator or governor. Yet on their own belief, they should not eat meat, since all animals are descendants of human beings into whom they have entered by assuming their form. It would therefore be impermissible to eat the flesh of one’s own kin and relatives!”

The heretic asked: “And what of those who believe that God is eternal and that alongside Him there was a harmful substance—”

Al-Iḥtijāj, translated by Jaʿfari, vol. 2, p. 227

“…And God caused to die the people who went out with Moses, peace be upon him, when he set out to meet God. They said, ‘Show us God openly,’ so God caused them to die and then brought them back to life. Now tell me: those who believe in the transmigration of souls—what do they say the souls come from? And what proof do they offer for their doctrines?” He said: The proponents of transmigration have cast the path of religion behind them, adorned themselves with errors, and plunged headlong into lusts. They claim that the heaven is empty and contains nothing of what is described, and that the governor of this world is present in the forms of created beings, citing as proof the report that God, mighty and majestic is He, created Adam in His image; and that there is no paradise, no fire, no resurrection, no gathering, and no Day of Judgment—for in their view, the Day of Judgment is simply the departure of the spirit from its mould and its entry into another mould. If one was virtuous in the first mould, one is returned in a mould better than it, in the highest station of this world; but if one was wicked or lacking in knowledge, one becomes one of the burdened beasts of this world, or a deformed creeping creature. They are not obligated to fast, prayer, or any act of worship beyond knowing the one whose knowledge is incumbent upon them; and every lust of this world is permitted to them—the private parts of women, and likewise sisters, daughters, maternal aunts, and married women; and similarly carrion, wine, and blood. All the sects have deemed their doctrine repugnant and all the nations have cursed them. When they were asked for proof, they swerved and turned aside; the Torah gave the lie to their doctrine, and the Criterion (the Qur'an) cursed them. They further claim that their god passes from one mould to another, and that the eternal spirits…