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Where were the souls before this world and the blowing into bodies, and did they have an existence, or were they with Allah, and is it possible to remember anything from that stage?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

One should busy themselves with matters of this world and the Hereafter that benefit them, and not delve into unseen matters such as inquiring about the soul, for Allah, the Almighty, says: "And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul. Say, 'The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And you have not been given of knowledge except a little.'" (Quran 17:85). Souls are created and not pre-existent; they were created after bodies. Adam, peace be upon him, his body was created first, then the soul was breathed into him. Man, before his creation, was nothing worth mentioning. Allah alone existed, and there was nothing before Him. The claim that souls were with Allah before the creation of bodies is the statement of the proponents of incarnation (hulul) and heretics (zanadiqa). Our inability to remember a previous life indicates that our souls did not exist before our bodies. It is obligatory to busy oneself with what benefits the servant in their religion and their worldly life.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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