The answer in regard to the soul feeling pain or pleasure after death is quite simple.


When we have dreams, we feel pain or pleasure within them, although we don't be doing the exact acts in reality. We may taste something or feel something within a dream, however - we never really tasted it in the physical aspect of the body. Rather it is a concept which is quite unexplainable, and even if it is explainable - then it shows that this kind of thing can occur and is a reality.


The same can be applied to issues of the soul. I.e. what people go through in the grave will occur to their souls, however - what occurs after that - i.e. in the hereafter of the Day of Recompense, the Paradise and the Fire will be physical.

There is a fatwa about snakes in the graves, I cant remember what it said, search islamqanda and insha'Allah it will be there.

I remember seeing pictures here in LI of exhumed bodies, who showed facial expressions akin to pain and/or fear. Those were presented as proof of the pain and suffering experienced in the grave - which sounds much more like a real physical experience, rather than an experience of the soul as you describe.
At least it would appear to be a 'soul experience' with physical effects - on a body that is long dead and beyond the working of muscles or nerves.

Peace

In many cases when people posted them pictures, there were brothers like Ansar Al-'Adl who posted fataawa on the issue and explained how many of these claims aren't true, and that the trials of the grave are to the soul, and there are many clear verses from the Qur'an to prove that the punishment of the hereafter is physical (which would include the soul.)

Like barney explained, the faces of the people in the fire will be burnt and replaced with new skins etc. and we ask Allah to save us from doing evil and to accept our good.



Here's what brother Ansar posted;
http://www.islamicboard.com/aqeedah/...-distinct.html (Al-Barzakh and our Physical world: Seperate and Distinct)




Peace.

Thank you for the clarification, Qatada.

Peace

Its ok, here's also another link which explains the concept of the soul in Islam;

http://www.islamicboard.com/aqeedah/1058-ruh-soul.html (The Ruh (Soul))

As Salaam Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu

Everyone has a particular age, when his predestined time is over (Hadrat) Izraeel visits him and takes soul out of his body. This is death.

At the time of death one sees plenty of angels at his right and left sides to the extent of his sight-range. The believer observes the angels of mercy whereas the angels of torment look-on to a disbeliever.. They take the soul of believer with respect and of disbeliever with disdain and hatred.

There are different places where the souls are kept. The souls of virtuous believers have their different places than those of disbelievers and sinful believers. Some souls of Muslims live at their graves, some at sacred well of "Zam Zam"(blessed water), of some in between the earth and the heavens and of some in the 1st sky, second and also upto the seventh heaven and even higher than that.

The impure and wretched souls of unbelievers live in their graves, cremation ground, from 1st layer of the earth to the lowest one and even deeper than the bottom of the earth, after death the soul has a link with the body. If the body is comforted or tormented the soul feels it. Death means separation of the soul from the body. It does not mean that the soul is annihilated. Who believes in perish of soul is a disbeliever and misguided. Grave squeezes believer with affection like a mother who hugs her loving child and squeezes an unbeliever so much so that his ribs and bones get intertwined.

The Frozen in death look can occour when death is sudden. When death is sudden its usually frightning. Hence the peaceful looking dead people are the ones who died peacefully.

You could be the most generous pious, gentle loving human in the world. If you die from a car crash or during a battle, your face will probably look a bit in pain.
It's not neccesserily that their earthly face is all screwed up from being tortured with pointy fiery sticks in a extra dimensional plane.

Thats not scientific, but ive seen enough dead people to see it.

Thank you for your interest!

it seems that the hereafter section has been reduced in size? I have had this discussion with Bro. Ansar Al' Adl before, and he did a fantastic job answering it (more evidence based and scholarly) basically punishment is of the soul not the body, until the day of resurrection.. perhaps if you rummage through his old posts you might find it... didn't want to reply to you until I'd found the thread, but I need to resign to the fact that after forum crashes it is floating in cyber space some where?

Be that as it may.. the one who created you in the form of a morula, a gastrula a zygote which bares no resemblence to what you are today, can and will find ways to punish those who deserve it..

I suggest you listen to this sura, it might have some of the answers you are looking for

[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=VlgC5CKh26U[/media]

Hye Skye

Thank you for joining.

I was hoping for a medical explanation from you, as to what happens to the physical body after death, and whether this could or could not relate to the punishment of the soul (as discussed in previous posts in this thread)

Thank you.

Allahu a3lam , certainly no living being can Answer this from the top of his head without using the Quran and Sunnah .

Certainly it Might be like b4 you were born , Nothingness .

But dont forget there is punishment of the grave and the Questions in the Grave , how ?

Is left as Allah knows best .

I would love if anyone can create a thread on journey after the death...and explain it in very detail as it can be...

not that i'm suggesting to make an e-book or something...

wassallam.

Nobody Knows...

oh.. I thought what happens to the physical body is obvious?
When you are under anesthesia do you feel anything while being operated on?
I don't think you need a medical opinion for that..
carry that over to the physical body after death.. there are people who cremate themselves all together and are still punished..

Allah knows best how punishment is like beyond our physical world.. further, I have enclosed the sura, if you follow it through to verse 60 or so, you'll realize that we can be created in any form Allah swt wishes..

When you go to sleep at night, are you not sometimes in a state of nightmare that is so horrfying and seems very real to you? Can you not find yourself in tudor society England punished by the Qeen? or in La forêt de Fontaine- bleu enjoying the scene?

Your physical body can go on being grafted to live on in another after your death, even skin can be used for grafting.. a host of things can happen to the physical body.. what happens to the soul however is a matter of Allah swt..
but make no mistake.. there will be punishment!

peace

Not necessarily, there are many situations in which mujahideen have been killed and they be dying with smiles on their faces. Infact, these can even be found on the net - but i'll let you do the research on that.

However, the expression on a face at the time of death isn't sufficient to explain whether the person is successful or not, but it is based on their beliefs and actions. And that is for the Lord of the Worlds to Judge.




Peace.