A Consideration of the Compatibility of the Theory of the Immateriality of the Soul with Quranic Doctrines concerning the Afterlife

A majority of Muslim philosophers believe that the human is composed of an immaterial soul and a body, where his nature is constituted by the immaterial soul. The immateriality of the soul implies that after its death and detachment from the body, the immaterial soul will survive without a need for a body, on the one hand, and will need no external factors for its survival, on the other. What is implied by the Quran, however, is that the human does not survive by itself and is annihilated with death. Thus, the human posthumous survival depends on God who gives a new life to some or all people with His power or revives them after an interval. The method of this paper is a composition of a logical analysis of the implications of the theory of the immateriality of the soul and a consideration of the implications of central Quranic verses concerning death, as well as a comparison between the two. The paper aims to show that the philosophical theory of immateriality of the soul is not compatible with some Quranic doctrines concerning death and afterlife.