The Mysterious Complexity of the Human Being

Why are humans an unexplained creature?
Some actions emanating from individuals cannot be rationalized by empirical sciences. Therefore, the question comes to mind, from where do these hidden powers originate within the human being? The following are sonic examples of the mysterious actions of  humans:

The mystery of dreams

In one of Pharaoh’s dreams, he saw seven thin cows eating seven fat cows, then seven cars of com being replaced with shriveled ones. Pharaoh summoned all of the dream interpreters to decipher his night vision, but they failed to provide any concrete explanation. Thereafter he called for Joseph and asked him to interpret his dream. Joseph said that its meaning is there will be seven wet years followed by seven years of drought and therefore in the first seven years a part of the produce should be stored so at the time of drought the people will not suffer from starvation.

This story appears in Genesis in the Bible and also in the chapter of Yusuf of the Holy Qur’an. Have you wondered what a dream actually is? Is it possible that humans can unconsciously be aware of the future? What truth lies behind these historical events?

In dreams, we go on journeys, deal with people, make friends and enemies, and gain or lose things. More or less, people witness these scenes in their dreams.
Some of our dreams are an interpretation of the future and what we have seen in our dreams takes place in the real world. Who causes future events to be shown in our dreams and informs us of happenings that we would never have imagined?

Discovering the reality of dreams can help us in understanding the human and present a new dimension to the life and existence of the human. The human has always experienced dreams and because it was found by experience that dreams cannot be unrelated to his life, he has always sought to discover their meaning.
Dreams seem to be an inseparable part of our existence.

The studies of academics have reached a conclusion that all people, even those who deny it, experience dreams. The existence of dreams is as obvious as the existence of breathing.

Neil Carlson, a famous psychologist, writes:
“Some people insist they do not experience dreams; these people are mistaken.
Everyone sees dreams but the majority of dreams are forgotten. If a person does not wake up during a dream, or immediately afterwards, the dream will not be remembered. When most people who imagine they have not experienced a dream for years are awoken in a laboratory whilst experiencing a dream, they are momentarily shocked at the vividness of their dream.”

Has it ever happened dial one of your friends has called you at the precise moment that you were thinking of them?
There are people who have testified to being; able to transmit and receive messages or images from remote locations without making use of the five senses. Although the transfer of thoughts or images is possible between normal individuals, this phenomenon occurs mainly between two people who have a strong emotional bond, such as a mother and child, or between very close friends.

Scientists have done a great deal of research on the subject of telepathy, or the sixth sense, particularly between twins. This research has shown that twins can be in communication with each other, even though there is a great distance between them.

The reality, that a human can understand things that is not possible through material means and the five senses, is confirmed by many eminent scientists of the world who interpret it as being inspiration and illumination.

Intellectual Proof for the Existence of the Soul

Many proofs have been offered by scholars to prove the existence of the soul, which include intellectual empirical proofs, such as from psychology. Philosophers have given more than ten intellectual proofs for the existence of the soul, only one of which we will mention here:

Argument: The Stability of Personality 

• Studying of the human body teaches us that many of the limbs and organs of the body, under the influence of two critical processes, i.e absorption of materials from the outside and transforming them into energy, renew and replace fully in some years and a constant change in molecules and particles of body organs is always undergoing. Old cells are destroyed and become replaced by other newly-made ones out of nutrition and make up for the loss of the old cells. From the particles and soft cells of the brain to hard parts of bones, this change is always undergoing, and during a life span, almost all particles and cells of the body are destroyed and replaced by new ones several times.
• Despite these changes happening in our material body, we are the same person we were in the past, and during our life, we can always say that. “I exist.” What we refer to as “I”, is the personality unchanging in us, even if we live for hundreds of years.
• Of the two premises, it can naturally be concluded that aside from changing materials in us, there is another consistent reality which never changes. This attribute of human being cannot be related with our body, because the material. body always changes, thus, it must be originated from a non-material source. constant and away from any material change. This immaterial source is what we refer to as “soul”.

  The name of this argument is the Argument of Consistency of the Personality: because it shows that during his/her life, a human being passes through different stages in childhood, youth, middle-age and old age and in each phase of life, his/her body undergoes many changes including natural changes in their cells or acquired changes such as illnesses; however, despite all these transformations, his/her personality remains the same.

  Some scholars believe that there are cells in the body which stay alive during the life of a person and no new cell replaces them and the knowledge the person has about himself is preserved in them. Therefore, consistency of personality is due to consistency of these cells and cannot be a reason for an immaterial aspect of human beings. They say so, ignorant about the fact that even if such cells as mentioned above are in (he brain for example, the argument of the consistency of personality could not be rejected, since it is based on two factors: 1. Change in matters, and 2. Consistency of personality.
  The point is that even with some cells (if proved by empirical sciences) remain alive during the life of a person, they change from inside themselves. They are fed. they grow and even might reproduce; while, the personality of the person
  and what he call it as “I” always remains the same, and is ascribed by all tendencies, perfection and whatever human belongs to. We say expressions such as, “I feel”, “my life”. “I am grown up” and “my body cells”. Therefore, if we assume that even one body cell does not die during his life, still the above argument cannot be rejected, because, the point to be noted is that changes do not occur in his personality.

Some say that the human being does not have a soul and his being is confined to this body, and justify their argument by saying that, biologists and physicians have proven that the body’s cells and organs are always changing and that a person at any hour is different from the hour before. Thus, at any moment, he is a different person and what you refer to as Consistency of Personality is nothing but an illusion, because at any moment, all of the cells in one’s body are growing and changing and no physical cell remains unchanged. Therefore, the existence of the human being at any moment is different from his existence in the next moment.

What would be the problem if the human being did not have a soul? One of the problems, which could happen, is an increase in injustice emerging in court decisions. For example, if a person commits a crime at the age of 20 and police arrest him at the age of 40, no court would be able to punish him, because during these 20 years, all his body cells have changed and at this age, according to them, he would be a different person who has not committed any crime and cannot be punished in the place of someone else. That human being has a unique personality and identity referred to as “I” is an evident issue all people understand. What people using justifications as above try to prove is in contradiction with the plainest human understandings.

According to the Qur’an, there is no doubt regarding the existence of the human soul. God, in honouring this creation, has attributed it to Himself. 

The Qur’an in regards to creation of the soul states:

So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him. (15:29)

In another place it also states:

Allah takes the souls at the time of their death (39: 42)

We understand from this verse that the death and destruction of the body does not harm the survival of the human soul and the soul can exist independently of the body.