The Final Doom.
There are two classes of travellers, the noble and the wicked. Each class has its peculiar speed, path, and doom.
Noble souls are divided into ordinary noble ones, and the more advanced. The former attain heaven and the heavenly ranks by following the ascetic practices prescribed by Religion. The more advanced approach Purity by following the path of Devotion.
The wicked, too, are divided into ordinary wicked ones, and the more degraded. The former include some of the believers, leading a sinful life, disobeying the divine injunctions, and addicted to sensual pleasures. They tread the path of transgression and go to hell. The latter are the unbelievers, solely attending to sensual pleasures and earthly gains, and wholly disbelieving in Religion and the disembodied life. They risk the permanent for the sake of the transient, and finally lose this world as well as the next. The former suffer in hell temporarily, but finally escape it by virtue of their faith, albeit imperfect. The latter eternally suffer in hell owing to total absence of faith.
There are different gradations in hell, as there are grades of unbelief or hypocrisy. There are thinkers and blind followers amongst unbelievers as well as amongst believers. As the faith of a thoughtful believer is superior to that of an ordinary believer, so the sufferings of a thoughtful unbeliever are intenser than those of an ordinary unbeliever. Ordinary unbelief is inherited from ancestors and surroundings, and is punished in the first infernal region. Intellectual unbelief does not rest upon tradition, but upon researches carried on for long years, self-denial and discipline of the lower nature, all intended for and ending in scepticism and atheism.—Letter 68.
The Soul (Rûh).
People differ in their opinions on the Soul—some call it a body, some an essence, some an accident; some regard it as eternal, others as created. Orthodox Islâm declares its existence, but is silent on its nature and quality. God says: "If questioned on the Soul, say, 'It is from the Will of God.'," Abû Bakr Qahatî, however, holds that the Soul is beyond the category of created objects. [The Author does not subscribe to this view, and enters on a controversy to show its heresy.—Trs.]—Letter 79.
[The following notes from The Series of 28 Letters, may be added as bearing on the subject.—Trs.]