Some Answered Questions: The Immortality of the Soul

Among the most often quoted of the table-talks in *Some Answered Questions* is the chapter in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá addresses Laura Clifford Barney's question on the immortality of the human soul.

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Miss Barney had asked, in the simple form she habitually used, whether the soul of the human being continues to exist after the death of the body, and if so, what the nature of its further existence might be.

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The Master's answer was substantial. He began by affirming the immortality of the soul as a foundational teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. The soul is *not* extinguished at the death of the body. It continues, in the further worlds of God, the journey that began at its first creation and that will continue through the progressive worlds of God *infinitely.*

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He then addressed, in turn, several specific aspects of the post-mortem existence.

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*The relation of the soul to the body.* The soul is not, in the Master's framing, dependent on the body for its existence. The soul is the *essential* reality of the human being. The body is its *temporary instrument.* The death of the body is the laying-aside of the instrument. The essential reality continues unaltered.

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*The nature of the further worlds.* The Master is careful to specify the limits of human language in this matter. The further worlds of God are not, in His framing, geographical places that one travels to. They are *conditions* of the soul's existence that the soul enters upon. Their character cannot be fully described in the vocabulary developed for the present material world. The present world's language can give only intimations.

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*The progress of the soul.* The soul, the Master emphasises, does not enter the further worlds in a completed condition. It continues to *develop* — *its progress is infinite.* The journey of the soul is not ended by physical death. The journey is, in some sense, just beginning. The development of the soul through the further worlds is the principal occupation of its eternal existence.

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*The relation of the further worlds to the present life.* The present earthly life is, in the Master's image, the *embryonic* condition of the soul. As the embryo in the womb develops the eyes and the limbs that it will need in the further world it is to enter, so the soul in this present life develops the spiritual qualities — the faith, the love, the patience, the wisdom — that will constitute its instrumentation in the further worlds. The spiritual qualities are not merely commendable in the present life. They are the essential preparation for the further existence.

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*The relation of the soul to its earthly relationships.* The Master addresses, with particular care, the question of whether the soul retains, in the further worlds, the specific personal identities and relationships of its earthly life. His answer is affirmative. The mother, in the further worlds, knows her child as her child. The husband knows his wife. The friend knows the friend. The relationships are not erased. They are continued in the new condition.

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The chapter closes with a brief practical exhortation. The believer, knowing what has been disclosed about the further worlds, is asked to live the present life in light of the destination. The small choices of the present day — for the spiritual life or against it — are the choices that, accumulating, prepare the soul for the condition it will, in time, enter.

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