Lecture by Reza Akbari Professor of Islamic Philosophy & Theology

Exploring Theories of Corporeal Afterlife in Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Emphasis on Reassembling of Dispersed Body Parts and Recreating the Non-Existent Body

In Islamic philosophy and theology, “corporeal life after death” refers to various theories, each of which must be distinctly understood to avoid intermixing them. Some of these theories acknowledge the existence of a disembodied soul. Among these, we find: 1. the reconnection of the disembodied soul with the earthly body; 2. the soul's association with a new body, distinct from the earthly one; 3. the continuation of human life through the soul's association with an astral body from the imaginable world (‘ alam al-mithal); 4. the continuity of human life via the soul's linkage to an astral body originated from the soul. While proponents of these four theories have accepted the soul's existence as an abstract entity, they vary significantly in their conceptualizations of the soul. [...]