Question 51: How does a person’s hitting his head somewhere affect the spirit, which is a being independent of the body? This question made philosophers think a lot in the previous centuries.

Question 51: How does a person’s hitting his head somewhere affect the spirit, which is a being independent of the body? This question made philosophers think a lot in the previous centuries. No system of thought that regards the spirit as independent from the body has answered this question consistently. Science explains it because science states that the properties attributed to the spirit are the functions of the brain. How will creationists answer it?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Answer: First of all, it should be known that such questions are not new. Those questions and similar ones have been asked since before Christ, and philosophers who do not accept the existence of Allah either deny the existence of the spirit or regard it as a material being. However, heavenly religions and especially Islam brought satisfactory explanations about the spirit. The Muslim should act upon the view of Islam in the first place and should not follow wrong and atheistic philosophers.

The strangest thing is the lie that the spirit is material and that science has settled it. That is completely the view of atheist philosophers; it has nothing to do with scientific knowledge.

There is no life and spirit in the elements such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen that form the living beings. However, each animal and human have their own spirits. “Psychiatry” or “Mental Science” now serves as a branch of science that is accepted and active all over the world, as well as a treatment and health center. Therefore, there is no hesitation about the existence of the spirit in the world of science. However, there are differences in understanding and recognizing its nature.

While some accept the spirit as a pile or accumulation of energy, Islam describes the spirit as a command of Allah and defines it as a luminous and conscious being with a body. For example, the law of gravity is also a command of Allah. If this law of gravity were conscious, and if it put on a body, it would be like the spirit. If the spirit takes off its consciousness and body, it would be a law like the law of gravity.

Each spirit is eternal. The death and separation of the bodies do not affect the spirit. The spirit remains eternal. In the resurrection in the hereafter, the spirit of each individual will come and settle in the body that is recreated.

The spirit is not a being made up of material elements such as carbon and oxygen; therefore, it will not disintegrate and decay. A light bulb disintegrates and decays over time as its fragments are material. However, can it be claimed that the electricity in it also decays? In fact, the spirit has gained a higher degree of luminosity than the electrical energy.

It is possible to liken the human spirit to a person sitting in the house. The house can be likened to the human body and the human inside the house to the spirit in the body. The changes made in the window and chimney or door of the house do not affect the existence of that person; similarly, the changes made in the teeth, head, feet or liver of a human being or animal do not affect the spirit in it just like the changes made in the window and door of the house.

However, the person inside the house sees outside through the window of the house. When you close the window, that person cannot see outside. In fact, it is not the window that sees the outside, but the person in the house. However, that person cannot see outside without a window. Similarly, it is not the eye that sees in man or animal, but the spirit in the body. What hears is the spirit, not the ear. What understands is not the brain, but the spirit.

Nevertheless, that spirit sees the outside through the eyes, which are like windows. When the eye is somehow deactivated, the spirit can no longer see the outside. Similarly, the spirit hears through the ear, understands and realizes through the brain. A malfunction to occur in these organs does not affect the spirit. However, the spirit will be unable to perform the task it performs through those organs.

In conclusion, there is a spiritpeculiar to each individual in both animals and humans. The death and disintegration of the body do not affect the spirit. Each spirit retires into the realm of spirit appropriate for it when the body to which it belongs dies. It returns to its body that is recreated in Resurrection. When the lung or kidney of a living being is transferred to another living being, the spirit is not transferred; even when the head is transferred, the spirit is not transferred to that living being. If the animal dies when its head is cut off, its spirit goes to the realm of the souls to which it belongs.

For more detailed information regarding the issue, please refer to Risale-i Nur Collection.

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