Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

Introduction

Qur’an 39:42 presents a striking analogy between sleep and death, using the daily phenomenon of sleep as a miniature model of human mortality. The verse states: “Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for people who reflect.” In Islamic thought, this verse has inspired rich commentary on the nature of the soul (Arabic: rūḥ or nafs), the continuity of consciousness, and God’s agency in life, death, and resurrection. Classical Qur’anic exegetes like al-Ṭabarī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī analyzed this verse in detail, and modern scholars continue to reflect on its implications for theology and spirituality. At the same time, modern neuroscience provides new insights into what happens during sleep – such as the cycles of REM and non-REM sleep and phenomena like near-death experiences – raising interesting parallels with the Qur’anic description of the soul’s “temporary departure” during sleep. Philosophers, both Islamic and Western, have long been fascinated by the analogy of sleep and death, using it to explore consciousness, the mind-body relationship, and personal identity. This article will examine Qur’an 39:42 through these multiple lenses. We will survey Islamic theological interpretations of the verse, consider neuroscientific findings on sleep and their possible resonance with the idea of the soul’s partial separation, reflect on philosophical implications for consciousness and identity (drawing on thinkers like Ibn Sīnā and al-Ghazālī), and analyze how the verse illustrates divine agency over life, death, and the afterlife. Throughout, the focus remains on the Islamic tradition’s understanding of the verse, enriched by insights from science and philosophy.

Islamic Exegesis of Qur’an 39:42 and the Soul’s Departure

Classical Tafsīr Perspectives: Classical commentators unanimously view Qur’an 39:42 as affirming that sleep is a state akin to death. Al-Ṭabarī (d. 923) and other early authorities transmit reports explaining that during sleep God “takes” the soul in a manner comparable to death, albeit temporarily. For example, the early exegete al-Suddī (d. 745) is cited as saying that during sleep “their souls are taken… such that the souls of the living meet the souls of those who have passed away. They reminisce and remind one another [of events]” ​troid.org. According to this report – recorded by al-Ṭabarī and later exegetes – sleeping souls can even encounter the souls of the dead in a spiritual realm, until the living souls are returned to their bodies upon waking ​troid.org. The souls of those whose time has come (who die in their sleep) are “held back” by God and not returned to their bodies, whereas the rest are sent back to awaken and continue their lives until their appointed time arrives ​troid.org. This interpretation, attributed to companions like Ibn ʿAbbās, vividly illustrates the verse’s imagery: sleep is a minor death and death is like a prolonged sleep. Other Qur’anic verses reinforce this parallel – for instance, Qur’an 6:60 similarly says God “takes your souls by night (in sleep) and knows what you do by day, then He raises you up (wakes you) until an appointed term is fulfilled.”

Not all classical scholars elaborated on souls meeting in the dream state, but they agreed on the fundamental point: sleep involves a withdrawal of the soul’s faculties by God’s decree, a sign of His control over all living beings. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1209) in his commentary opts for the straightforward meaning without indulging in speculative details. He explains that Allah indeed withdraws the souls during sleep just as He does at death, then keeps those souls for whom death is decreed and restores the others to their waking bodies ​islamicstudies.info. Al-Rāzī emphasizes that this verse, coming in a passage about God’s power and guidance, underlines Allah’s exclusive agency over life and death​islamicstudies.info. He even cross-references Qur’an 32:11, which says “the angel of death…takes your souls”, noting that God may employ an angel to enact the soul’s collection, yet it is ultimately Allah who decrees and controls the process. In al-Qurṭubī’s (d. 1273) commentary, we find extensive discussion of the terminology in the verse. The Qur’ān uses the verb tawaffā (lit. “take in full”) for both death and the taking of the soul during sleep; as Muhammad Asad explains, this term literally means to take something entirely, hence its figurative use for causing death (when all vital faculties are taken away). Sleep is thus described as a partial wafāt (taking), because in sleep the person loses external consciousness and voluntary activity – a partial disappearance of the vital faculties – whereas in true death the loss is complete and permanent ​islamicstudies.info. Classical scholars noted this traditional likeness: “The likening of sleep to death is due to the fact that in both cases the body appears devoid of consciousness – partially and temporarily in the former, completely and permanently in the latter.”​

Soul (Rūḥ) vs Self (Nafs): Exegetes also debated the relationship between the terms nafs and rūḥ, both of which can be translated as “soul” or “spirit.” Qur’an 39:42 uses al-anfus (plural of nafs), leading some to wonder if a different aspect of the soul is taken during sleep versus at death. A report from the companion Ibn ʿAbbās suggested a distinction: “Nafs has the power of intellect and cognition while Rūḥ has the power of breathing and movement.” In this view, transmitted by the famous commentator al-Zamakhsharī, during sleep God withdraws the nafs (the conscious self) from the body, while the rūḥ (life-force) remains to keep the body alive; if God wills death, He then withdraws the rūḥ as well ​islamicstudies.info. Thus, one could say the personality or mind is taken in sleep, whereas the vital spirit leaves only at death. However, al-Qurṭubī and many others did not accept a strict nafs/rūḥ split, arguing that the terms in scripture are interchangeable. Al-Qurṭubī cites ḥadīth evidence that the Prophet ﷺ used nafs and rūḥ synonymously when speaking of the soul leaving the body at death ​islamicstudies.info. Indeed, in one narration the Prophet said, “When a person dies, the eyes follow the soul (nafs) as it leaves the body” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), while in another he said, “When a believer’s rūḥ leaves (the body), it is received by two angels…”. Even in a single incident, both terms were used: when Bilāl missed the dawn prayer because he fell asleep, he explained, “My nafs was taken by the One who took your nafs, O Messenger of Allah,” and the Prophet replied, “Allah held our arwāḥ (plural of rūḥ) in His hands and He returned them to us when He willed.”​ These reports led Qurṭubī to conclude that nafs and rūḥ refer to the same entity, the soul, from slightly different aspects. Ultimately, the Qur’an itself does not clearly differentiate the two in most contexts, and as another scholar remarked, “its knowledge is with my Lord” (17:85) – the precise nature of the soul remains a mystery known fully only to God ​islamreigns.wordpress.com.

Modern and Spiritual Insights: Contemporary Muslim scholars continue to draw lessons from 39:42 about the soul and God’s power. Many highlight how the verse gives a spiritual understanding of sleep beyond its biological aspect. For instance, Tafsīr al-Mīzān and Tafsīr-e Namūneh (by the Shiʿi scholar al-Makarim Shirazi) describe three gradations of the soul’s connection to the body: (a) complete connection when a person is awake (the soul actively animating all faculties), (b) partial connection during sleep (the soul has withdrawn from active control of the senses, leaving the body in a state “between life and death”), and (c) complete disconnection at death ​academyofislam.com. In sleep, the soul “leaves the body but there is some connection to it” – enough to maintain life – whereas in death that connection is fully severed ​academyofislam.com. This perspective echoes what classical Sufi thinkers often said: that the sleeper’s state is an intimation of how the soul departs the body at death yet may return. A saying attributed to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib encapsulates this: “People are asleep; when they die, they wake up.”​ hadithanswers.com Al-Ghazālī cites this aphorism to explain that most humans are heedless of ultimate reality during worldly life, as if dreaming, and only upon death do their eyes open to the true reality ​imamghazali.org. Thus, life itself is likened to a dream-state and death to awakening – a dramatic inversion that underscores how limited our ordinary perception is.

The verse also reinforces the idea of God’s continual sustenance of life. As Mufti Muḥammad Shafīʿ notes in Maʿāriful Qur’ān, the daily cycle of sleep and waking is a reminder that our souls are always in God’s grasp and at His disposal. The soul (rūḥ) departing and returning is not under our control; it is by Allah’s command. One classical commentary relates that ʿAlī (ra) described the process vividly: during sleep the soul “goes away from the body, but a beam or ray of the rūḥ stays behind” to keep the body alive ​quran.com. Through that subtle connection “one sees dreams,” he said, and when Allah wills, the soul returns to awaken the person “faster than the blinking of an eye.”​ This poetic description conveys the fragility of the barrier between life and death: every single night, by stepping into sleep we experience a minor separation of soul and body, and but for God’s grace, that separation could become permanent. The Qur’an says “He keeps [withholds] those [souls] for which He has decreed death and releases the others for an appointed term” ​surahquran.com. Thus, each morning’s awakening is effectively a return of the soul and a small resurrection granted by God’s mercy. Many Muslims are taught to recite a prayer upon waking: “Al-ḥamdu lillāh alladhī aḥyānā baʿda mā amātanā wa-ilayhi n-nushūr” – “All praise is for Allah who gave us life after He caused us to die, and unto Him is the resurrection.” This prophetic duʿā’ explicitly calls sleep a kind of death and connects waking with the hope of nushūr, being raised up again​. Daily rituals such as the recommended ablution and prayers before sleep also reflect the recognition of sleep as a state of vulnerability akin to dying.

In sum, Islamic theology derived from Qur’an 39:42 holds that the soul’s departure in sleep and its return in waking are a sign (āyah) of God’s power over all souls ​surahquran.com. The classical exegetes saw the verse as both comforting and cautionary: comforting, in that the One who returns our souls to us each day is surely able to return them to new bodies in the Hereafter, and cautionary, in that we should never take for granted the gift of waking up. As Yūsuf Ali wrote, our nightly sleep “gives us a foretaste of what we call death, which does not end our personality; and the Resurrection is not more wonderful than our daily rising from Sleep, ‘twin-brother to Death.’” ​islamicstudies.info. In other words, bodily life and death are but one part of our existence; the soul’s journey continues, and the God who “takes” and “sends back” souls in this life can surely restore life in the hereafter.

Neuroscience of Sleep and Consciousness: Modern Insights and Parallels

From a modern scientific standpoint, sleep is a complex physiological state in which consciousness and bodily functions enter an altered mode. Neuroscience confirms some intuitive ways in which sleep mimics a “partial death” of awareness – while also providing detailed understanding of brain activity in sleep that ancient commentators lacked. Qur’an 39:42 invites believers to “reflect” on the signs of God in this phenomenon, and indeed contemporary knowledge about sleep can deepen that reflection. In this section, we review key findings about sleep stages and phenomena like near-death experiences, asking whether they offer any insight (or at least an interesting analogy) into how consciousness might be partially separated from the body during sleep, as the verse suggests.

REM vs. Non-REM Sleep: Modern sleep research has identified different stages of sleep broadly categorized into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and NREM (Non-REM) phases. In NREM sleep (especially the deep stages of NREM), the brain’s electrical activity slows down into high-amplitude, low-frequency waves, indicating greatly reduced conscious activity​ teachmephysiology.com. In deep NREM, people typically have no mental imagery or memory of experiences; in effect, one’s consciousness is “offline,” which is why a person might later say “I was completely out,” with no awareness of the passage of time – a state metaphorically akin to temporary non-existence. By contrast, during REM sleep the brain becomes highly active – in fact, on an EEG scan, REM brain activity looks somewhat similar to wakefulness​. This paradoxical combination of an active brain with an immobile body (muscle tone is almost fully inhibited during REM sleep) allows for vivid dreaming. In REM, the sleeper’s eyes dart beneath closed lids and they experience complex narratives or sensations in dreams, yet they remain completely disconnected from the external environment. The body is effectively in a state of paralysis (called REM atonia) while the mind roams free in a dream world. From the perspective of physical neuroscience, what differentiates sleep from wakefulness is this “reduced responsiveness to the environment”, inhibited sensory input, and loss of voluntary control. In other words, the person’s link to the outside world is severed or minimized. This aligns well with the Qur’anic notion that during sleep, one’s perceptive soul is taken by God – meaning the person’s awareness and will are cut off from the body and surroundings for that period. As one physiology text puts it, “Sleep is a state of altered consciousness… a physiological state of reduced consciousness” ​teachmephysiology.com. While neuroscience does not describe this in terms of a soul leaving, it does confirm that the integration of the self with the body is partially suspended: the brain creates an internal reality (dreams) and the person is largely oblivious to their physical existence. We might say that in deep, dreamless sleep, subjective consciousness is at its lowest ebb – from the sleeper’s perspective, it is as if no time passed between falling asleep and waking, a blank interval much like a small death.

Interestingly, despite a century of research, science is still unraveling why we sleep and what exactly sleep does for the brain and body. Many theories have been proposed – memory consolidation, clearing of metabolic waste in the brain, energy conservation, etc. – but no single theory fully explains all aspects of sleep. As one commentator noted, “a century of intense research has failed to yield any data explaining sleep… If anything, the mystery has deepened.” ​islamicstudies.info. We now know that sleep is essential; chronic sleep deprivation severely impairs bodily and cognitive functions ​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Yet the mechanism by which sleep refreshes the mind is still being studied. In the Qur’anic view, the ultimate cause of our falling asleep is Allah’s design – “And it is He who makes you sleep by night and [thus] know rest” (10:67) – and the spiritual significance of sleep is to remind us of our dependence on God. Modern biology’s exploration of the triggers and regulators of sleep (like the circadian rhythm, melatonin, and the brain’s reticular activating system) reveals the intricate secondary causes in this process teachmephysiology.com. But from an Islamic perspective, these mechanisms do not diminish the deeper reality that sleep, like death, occurs by God’s permission (“By His permission, souls are taken”).

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): Particularly fascinating in the modern context are so-called near-death experiences – episodes reported by people who were clinically dead or close to death and then revived. Many NDE accounts describe a sensation of the consciousness separating from the body: people report feeling as if they floated above and watched their own body, or traveled through a tunnel, or entered some otherworldly realm. They often speak of encountering deceased relatives or spiritual beings, seeing vivid landscapes, or having a life-review, all while their physical brain was in crisis. Such reports uncannily mirror the Quranic idea of the soul leaving the body at death – except that in NDEs, the person lived to tell the tale, suggesting their soul departed and then returned. Scientists have taken great interest in NDEs, debating whether they indicate anything beyond the brain or are purely neurochemical hallucinations. In the 1970s, the consistency of many NDE reports led some researchers to hypothesize that “maybe people really do have minds or souls that exist separately from their living bodies.” ​theguardian.com In other words, NDEs were considered by some as potential evidence that consciousness can continue even when the brain has flatlined – a scenario that, if true, would strongly support the idea of a soul independent of the body. An entire field of near-death studies emerged to investigate this, with cardiologists and neurologists collecting cases of patients who reported awareness during cardiac arrest​ theguardian.com. However, decades of research have yielded intriguing but not conclusive results. Some studies have found that NDE memories are “recalled with greater vividness and detail” than even real life memories – subjects often say their experience was “realer than real”​scientificamerican.com. This subjective profundity suggests these are not ordinary dreams or hallucinations. Moreover, a recent study in 2023 detected a surge of organized brain activity (especially gamma waves, associated with intense conscious processing) at or shortly after the point of clinical death in some patients who were being monitored via EEG during their passing ​michiganmedicine.org​. This “surge of activity correlated with consciousness in the dying brain” offers a possible neurophysiological explanation for how vivid experiences (NDEs) could occur in a person who is technically dying ​michiganmedicine.org​. As one neuroscientist remarked, “How vivid experience can emerge from a dysfunctional brain during the process of dying is a neuroscientific paradox.”​ michiganmedicine.org.

From the Islamic perspective, if we frame this in Qur’anic terms, we might say that God can show the departing soul a glimpse of the hereafter or other realities even as the body is dying. Some Muslim writers have indeed likened NDEs to the experiences described by souls in the Barzakh (the intermediate realm after death). Classical Islamic literature has stories of people who temporarily died and came back to life, sharing what they saw – these are seen not as mere hallucinations but as real perceptions by the soul. Modern NDE research adds a layer of scientific interest: it shows that consciousness (or at least the subjective experience of it) can manifest even under extreme physiological conditions (anoxic brain injury, etc.), hinting that mind is not strictly limited to normal waking brain function. This does not prove the soul’s independence – many scientists argue that NDEs are still a product of the brain’s last gasps – but it is at least consonant with the Islamic belief that the soul may experience things beyond the confines of the body. As a Guardian article on the new science of death notes, the common elements of NDE reports “beg the question of whether there is something fundamentally real underpinning them – that those who have managed to survive death are providing glimpses of a consciousness that does not completely disappear, even after the heart stops beating.”​

Islamic Reflections on Science: Some contemporary Muslim scholars have engaged with these scientific findings to illustrate Qur’anic truths. They point out, for instance, that while sleep has clear physical benefits (detoxifying the brain, consolidating memory, etc.), these explanations alone do not capture the full reality of sleep as described by revelation​ academyofislam.com​. The Academy of Islam reflection on 39:42 notes that “physical explanations” (like the body rejuvenating itself) are valid, but the Qur’an provides a spiritual understanding: “Sleep is a time when the soul leaves the body and is only partially connected to it… It is a form of minor death.” This view encourages an integrative approach: appreciating the biology of sleep while also being aware of the metaphysics. For instance, neuroscience tells us our conscious self can be suspended (as in deep sleep or anesthesia) and then resume, suggesting continuity of identity despite an interval of “non-function.” Islam would add that this continuity is due to the soul, which persists through those states. The daily transition of consciousness – from wakefulness to the oblivion of deep sleep and back – can thus be seen as an analogy for the soul’s journey from life to death to resurrection. Just as one’s mind fades into darkness each night and is miraculously reignited each morning, so will our personhood be restored by God after the deeper “sleep” of death ​islamicstudies.info.

In summary, modern science deepens the awe one feels toward the phenomenon referenced in Qur’an 39:42. It confirms that in sleep our connection to our body and environment loosens dramatically – a state in which, to use the Qur’an’s language, our selves are under God’s custody rather than our own. It also shows that consciousness is not a simple on/off switch tied to a physical substrate; rather, it can gradate, flicker, and even endure extraordinary states. For believers, these discoveries are seen not as challenges to religious belief but as Signs (āyāt) of the wisdom of the Creator: “Indeed in that are signs for people who reflect.” ​

Philosophical Reflections: Consciousness, Identity, and the Sleep-Death Analogy

The analogy of sleep and death has profound philosophical implications, especially regarding the nature of consciousness and the relationship between mind (or soul) and body. Islamic philosophers and theologians, in dialogue with broader philosophical traditions, have used the sleep/death parallel to explore questions of personal identity and the immortality of the soul. Here we will reflect on how sleep as a “mini-death” informs these discussions, incorporating insights from figures like Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, as well as connecting to the perennial mind-body problem.

Ibn Sīnā’s View of the Soul: Ibn Sīnā (980–1037), one of the greatest polymath philosophers of the Islamic world, held a dualistic view of human nature in which the rational soul is an immaterial substance distinct from the body. Although Avicenna doesn’t explicitly connect his famous “Floating Man” thought experiment to sleep, the thought experiment is highly relevant to the idea that consciousness can exist independently of bodily inputs – much as it seems to in sleep and especially in dreams. In the “Floating (or Flying) Man” scenario, Avicenna asks us to imagine a human being created fully formed but suspended in air, isolated from any sensory experience (no sight, sound, or touch, even unaware of his own body parts). The question is: would this person be aware of anything? Avicenna answers yes – he would be aware of his own existence, even though he is not aware of his body ​aeon.co. The floating man “will be aware of the existence of his essence,” Avicenna argues, proving that the soul’s awareness of itself does not depend on the physical senses or the body ​en.wikipedia.org. This thought experiment was intended to “establish the incorporeality of the human soul” – to show that the self (nafs) is a substance that can be conceived in isolation from the body ​edwardfeser.blogspot.com. Now, consider sleep: when we are in deep sleep and not receiving any input from the senses, we typically are not self-aware in the moment (it’s more like an unconscious state than Avicenna’s floating man scenario). However, in dreaming (especially lucid dreaming), one can have self-awareness in a mental world completely cut off from the physical world. That demonstrates, on a phenomenological level, that the mind can operate within itself without direct bodily sensation – not unlike Avicenna’s hypothetical man. Even more strikingly, people who have out-of-body experiences during dreams or NDEs report observing their surroundings without using their physical eyes, again suggesting the soul/mind can in some sense perceive independently of the body. Avicenna’s philosophy provides a framework for these phenomena: the soul is the locus of consciousness and can exist apart from the body, even if normally it works in tandem with the body’s senses. His insistence on the continuity of self-awareness – he claimed the mind never truly ceases being aware of itself, even in sleep or unconsciousness ​en.wikipedia.org – is debatable, but it stems from the idea that the soul, by nature, is always cognizant of its own existence. This is a philosophical echo of the theological notion that the soul persists undiminished through states like sleep; even if our waking memory has a gap, the soul’s essence remains intact.

Al-Ghazālī and the Dream Analogy: Al-Ghazālī (1058–1111), both a theologian and a mystic philosopher, frequently uses the analogy of dreams to explain the relative reality of this world and the next. In his cosmology, the sensory world we experience in life is not the ultimate reality; it is more comparable to a dream in relation to the higher reality of the afterlife. He cites the Prophet’s saying (or, as we saw, ʿAlī’s saying) that “people are asleep, and when they die, they wake up.” ​imamghazali.org This means that what we take to be real and important now will upon death appear as insubstantial as a dream, whereas the spiritual truths that we were heedless of now will appear vividly true – just as a dreamer, upon waking, realizes his concerns in the dream were fleeting illusions. Ghazālī, in works like The Revival of the Religious Sciences, interprets this to encourage detachment from worldly obsessions (since they are as trivial as dream-money or dream-fame) and preparation for the “real life” to come, which is everlasting. Philosophically, this raises the issue of levels of consciousness: one can be “awake” in a lower sense but “asleep” to a higher reality. In modern terms, one might say that a person could be neurologically awake but spiritually unconscious. Ghazālī would agree – a person might be up and about, yet utterly heedless of God, effectively sleepwalking through life. Conversely, someone might physically die (which looks to us like “eternal sleep”) but in fact their soul has awakened to a more intense consciousness in the afterlife (the Qur’an describes the martyrs as alive with their Lord, even though we perceive them as dead, 3:169).

In line with this, Ghazālī and other thinkers (including Sufis like Rūmī) view the experiences in dreams as hints of the soul’s capabilities when partially free of the body. For example, dreams can sometimes bring true visions or information the person had no way of knowing – Islamic tradition terms such dreams ru’yā ṣādiqa (true visions) and regards them as 1/46 of prophecy. How is it that in sleep one’s mind can access truths or meet other souls? The explanation given is exactly what 39:42 implies: the soul during sleep is in a higher realm (‘ālam al-mithāl, the imaginal realm or intermediate world) and can mingle with other souls or receive messages more freely ​quran.com. Ghazālī, in his Mishkāt al-Anwār (Niche of Lights), compares the states of the soul to light filtered through glass: in waking life, our perception is constrained by the “glass” of our body and senses; in dreams, that filter is partly lifted, so the soul experiences more freely; in death, the filter is removed entirely, so the soul experiences truth directly. This metaphoric framework again reinforces personal identity residing in the soul rather than the body. If you meet a deceased relative in a dream, Islamic philosophy would say it is genuinely an encounter of souls – thus your identity in the dream is your soul’s identity, not your physical one, yet it is still truly you. This adds a layer to the mind-body problem by suggesting the mind (soul) can not only exist without normal bodily input, but interact with other minds in non-physical ways.

The Mind-Body Problem and Continuity of Identity: The fundamental philosophical question underlying all the above is: what makes you “you”? Is it your living body, your brain, your memories? Or something more intangible like a soul? The sleep-death analogy offers a test case for this question. During deep sleep, one loses continuity of memory and conscious thought – yet upon waking, we assume we are the same person who went to sleep. What guarantees this continuity of personal identity? One could answer in materialist terms that it’s the continuity of the brain’s existence and the eventual continuity of memory (since memories typically resume after sleep, barring conditions like amnesia). But in a spiritual framework, it is the persistence of the soul that guarantees identity. The Qur’an implicitly supports this by saying that when God returns the soul to the body upon waking, the person resumes life until their decreed term ​troid.org. There is no suggestion that it is a “new” person; it is understood to be the same soul reanimated in the body. By extension, on Resurrection Day the very same souls will be returned to (new, recreated) bodies, so that individuals can be judged as themselves. Qur’an 39:42 thus has been cited by theologians to counter skepticism about bodily resurrection: if one wonders how a person turned to dust can live again, consider that every night our consciousness disappears and yet is restored by God’s will ​islamicstudies.info. The continuous identity of the person is maintained by God safeguarding the soul. In scholastic kalām terms, some argued that the soul is a subtle substance that “carries” personal identity through the break in bodily continuity. Even Imam al-Ghazālī, who was critical of the philosophers on some points, affirmed bodily resurrection but also believed in a soul that survives death. He used the sleep example to illustrate how at death one’s perception shifts, but the one perceiving (the soul) remains the same entity that was once in the world. This is why, for instance, the Qur’an often addresses the dead in the hereafter as the same people who lived – there is continuity of self.

Ibn Sīnā’s floating man argument also feeds into the personal identity discussion. If one is aware of one’s self without bodily ties, it implies the core of identity is this immaterial self that is directly known. Later Islamic philosophers like Mullā Ṣadrā would propose more complex views (e.g., the transubstantial motion of the soul, which grows and evolves from material to immaterial), but the basic dualistic view remained influential in theology: the soul is the bearer of identity. The mind-body problem – how an immaterial mind interfaces with a material body – was not deeply problematic for most Islamic theologians because they posited it as part of God’s created order (they did not require a mechanistic explanation; it was by divine command “Kun”). The sleep state was simply one mode of that interface: normally the soul-body connection is tight, but in sleep it loosens. In modern philosophy, one could liken this to property dualism or emergent dualism, but traditional Islamic thought was more substance-dualist (the soul is an independent substance).

One ethical or existential reflection from this: If every time we sleep our soul is effectively taken by God and then returned, every new day is a gift and an extension of our life that could have ended. Philosophers like al-Ghazālī would say this should humble a person and reduce their attachment to material things, realizing how easily life can be severed. It also has implications for consciousness. If we think of each day’s waking as a reboot of the soul-body connection, then maintaining one’s moral and spiritual integrity (one’s fitra or innate disposition) is crucial, because that is what you carry with you beyond the states of consciousness. In fact, some Sufi practices aim to achieve wakefulness in sleep (through lucid dreaming or certain meditative states) as a way to remain aware of God even when the body is dormant – a reversal of the usual situation of being “spiritually asleep” while physically awake.

In conclusion, the metaphor of sleep as a small death has provided Islamic philosophers with a powerful tool to illustrate the soul’s independence and the primacy of consciousness/soul in defining the human person. It has reinforced the view that the true self is not the physical form (which regularly enters a death-like state and could eventually perish) but the immaterial soul that can persist and be reawakened. This dovetails with and strengthens Islamic doctrines of the afterlife: what dies is the body, but the soul lives on, experiencing Barzakh (perhaps like an extended lucid dream until the Resurrection) – just as a sleeper lives on in a dream state after the body lies inert. Personal identity, therefore, is safeguarded by the soul, and divine agency determines when the soul’s partial separations (during sleep) become permanent separation (at death). As the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) reportedly said, “Sleep is the brother of death.” This familial analogy implies they share a common essence – and indeed, in both, the human soul is in the hands of God.

Divine Agency, Resurrection, and the Afterlife in Light of Qur’an 39:42

Qur’an 39:42 not only describes a phenomenon but drives home a theological message: God is the ultimate agent in life and death. The verse’s phrasing – “Allah takes the souls… He keeps those… and releases the others…” – attributes every aspect of these processes directly to God. This has several implications for Islamic beliefs about divine agency, the afterlife, and how personal identity endures by God’s will.

God’s Sovereign Control over Life and Death: In Islamic theology (ʿaqīdah), it is a fundamental tenet that Allah alone gives life and causes death (muḥyī wa mumīt). Qur’an 39:42 illustrates this vividly. Even though from a worldly perspective we speak of natural causes or human causes of death (e.g., an illness, an accident), the verse reminds us that on a deeper level, it is Allah who “takes the soul” at the moment of death. A historical anecdote recorded in Muslim tradition highlights this doctrine: When ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (the great-grandson of the Prophet) was imprisoned after the tragedy of Karbala, the tyrant Ibn Ziyād mockingly asked him who he was. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn said his name was ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. Ibn Ziyād retorted, “Did Allah not kill ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (your brother)?” The Imam responded by reciting Qur’an 39:42, implying that yes, God takes souls at death, but that does not exonerate the killers who did the deed. “Allah takes the souls when death comes, but it is people who are responsible for the death (in terms of outward cause),” he explained ​academyofislam.com. This story underscores that while humans may have a role in causing someone to die, the ultimate decree of the soul’s departure is Allah’s. Thus, in Islamic thought, every death is “on time” according to a divine decree (ajal musammā – a specified term), and no one dies even a moment before or after their appointed term (cf. Qur’an 3:145). The same holds for sleep: each person’s cycles of sleep and wakefulness are in a sense micro-managed by God’s mercy, which is why supplications before sleep entrust the soul to God (“If You hold my soul, have mercy on it; if You send it back, protect it…” as mentioned in a hadith ​islamicstudies.info). Muslims are encouraged to be conscious of this every night, recognizing their soul might not return in the morning.

Resurrection Foreshadowed: The verse concludes, “Indeed in that are signs for people who reflect.” Exegetes like al-Māwardī and Ibn Kathīr mention that one of these signs is an argument for resurrection: the One who can disengage and re-engage the soul daily is surely able to do so after the long “sleep” of death​. The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn succinctly paraphrases 39:42 and adds: “Verily, in this are signs… that the one who does this is able to resurrect people after their death for reckoning and recompense.” ​surahquran.com. In essence, our ordinary experience of going to sleep (losing consciousness) and waking up (regaining it) is like a proof by analogy that reanimation is possible. The Arab poet and companion Al-Khansāʾ once asked the Prophet, “How will Allah bring back those who have turned to dust?” The Prophet replied by asking her, “Is not each night a death and each morning a resurrection?” to which she agreed. This pedagogical use of the sleep metaphor helped early Muslims grasp the concept of al-baʿth (resurrection). The Qur’an itself in several places draws on similar analogies – for instance, reviving dead earth with rain is a sign for how God will revive the dead, and here, releasing souls after sleep is a sign for how God will release souls after the intervening state of death​.

Yūsuf Ali, in his commentary on 39:42, beautifully itemized the spiritual truths: (1) Our bodily life and death are not the whole story of our existence; (2) it is possible to be “dead” to the spiritual realm while alive physically, and conversely to come alive to spiritual reality after physical death; (3) our nightly sleep, besides resting the body, gives us a foretaste of death – yet importantly, that “little death” does not end our personality; and (4) therefore our rising from sleep every morning foreshadows the Resurrection, which is no more miraculous than this daily occurrence. ​islamicstudies.info The phrase “twin-brother to Death” that he uses is apt: if sleep and death are twins, understanding one sheds light on the other. For believers, this twin relationship is comforting – it suggests death is not annihilation but a temporary phase before a re-awakening.

Continuity of Personal Identity: A question often posed in philosophy of religion is: how can the person resurrected on Judgment Day be the same person as the one who died, especially if their body has disintegrated? Islamic theology answers that it is by virtue of the enduring soul and God’s preservation of one’s essence. Qur’an 39:42 can be seen as supporting this: the anfus (selves) that Allah takes are what truly define the person. When He returns the soul to the body (whether after a night or after centuries in the grave), it is the return of the same self. As Muhammad Asad noted, “man’s soul does not ‘die’ at the time of his bodily death, but, on the contrary, lives on indefinitely.”​ The popular translation of anfus as “souls” in 39:42 is critiqued by Asad because of potential misunderstanding – he prefers to think of it as “persons” or “selves” being taken​. In any case, the soul in Islamic thought is the repository of personhood. Therefore, divine agency in keeping or releasing the soul directly ensures the continuity of identity. If God keeps a soul (causing death), He will hold it until the Day of Resurrection and then release it into a new form. If He instead releases it the next morning, the person resumes their earthly life. Both are explicitly mentioned in the verse. We can almost view it as two outcomes of the same process – like a conditional: if death has been decreed, the soul is kept; otherwise it is sent back until the appointed time.​ ​islamreigns.wordpress.com.

This raises a subtle theological point about time in the intermedial state. The souls that are “kept” by God at death do not return to this world, but Islamic eschatology says they continue to experience the passage of time in Barzakh, until the trumpet of resurrection. From our perspective, they are “asleep” (as the Quran sometimes describes the dead), but from their perspective, there is an awareness in the grave. This asymmetry is again comparable to sleep: to a sleeper, time may pass oddly – an entire night can feel like a moment (or sometimes a single night can contain what feels like days of dreaming). The Qur’an in 39:42 does not delve into the experience of the retained souls, just as it doesn’t describe what sleepers dream; it simply states the outcome (kept or returned) as evidence of God’s power. But Muslim theologians have inferred that Allah’s custody of the soul entails complete knowledge of it and ability to return it precisely as it was. Thus, personal identity in the afterlife is guaranteed by God’s amanah (trust) in holding our souls. As one contemporary scholar put it, “When the soul leaves the body, during sleep and at the time of death, it is God who receives the soul… Although an angel is appointed to draw out the soul at death, this is under the command of Allah. Ultimately, ‘to Him we return’ (Q. 2:156) – the soul returns to its Source.”​ academyofislam.com. The famous phrase “Innā li-llāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn” (“Surely we belong to Allah, and to Him we return”) is often recited at death, but it can just as well be applied to sleep: every night the soul returns to Allah (in a manner of speaking), and if our belonging to Allah is remembered, we trust He will return it in the best state.

Moral and Spiritual Agency: Finally, understanding divine agency in life and death has moral implications. If God is in charge of our lifespans, humans should neither become arrogant in health nor despair in illness. The Prophet taught that we should not even say “so-and-so died because such-and-such (illness) killed him,” but rather say “Allah caused him to die because of such-and-such” – to always attribute the ultimate event to God while acknowledging the apparent cause. This perspective fosters reliance on God (tawakkul) and patience. Additionally, the sleep-death analogy encourages regular repentance; since sleep is a daily death, one is advised to end the day with prayers and seeking forgiveness (as one would before dying). There’s a practice of reciting the Shahāda (testimony of faith) before sleep in case one’s soul is not returned. This intertwining of practice with theology shows how seriously Muslims take the idea that life and death are a breath away.

Moreover, God’s intimate involvement in the fate of souls underscores divine mercy and justice. He “holds back” the souls whose time has come – in Islamic belief, this happens not a moment too early or late, and for believers, the moment of death is when God’s mercy envelops them (hence Muslims pray to die in a state of faith). The verse can also be read in a slightly allegorical sense (as Asad and some modern commentators suggest) in the broader context of Surah al-Zumar: that guidance and misguidance are being compared to life and death, or wakefulness and sleep ​islamicstudies.info. In the verses preceding 39:42, the Quran discusses the folly of idolatry and ignorance; then comes the sleep/death verse; and then it speaks of the power of intercession belonging only to God (39:43-44). Muhammad Asad notes that the mention of sleep and death here may also allude to spiritual sleep (heedlessness) versus spiritual awakening ​islamicstudies.info. If so, then the line “He withholds [the souls of] those on whom He has decreed death” can hint that some people never “wake up” to the truth in this life (their spiritual death is sealed), whereas others are given renewed chances to find guidance (their soul is returned to them figuratively, so they might yet awaken to faith). While this allegorical layer is subtle, it complements the literal meaning rather than contradicting it. In both cases, the message is that nothing – not even the very ebb and flow of our consciousness – lies outside of God’s control.

Conclusion

Qur’an 39:42 invites us to contemplate a profound reality: every time we fall asleep, we undergo a process akin to dying, and every time we awaken, it is a small resurrection. Classical Islamic theology has thoroughly explored this verse, affirming that the soul (rūḥ/nafs) is taken by God in sleep and returned by His decree, and that this daily miracle is a sign of His power to raise us up after the final sleep of death. The verse has been a cornerstone for discussions on the soul’s nature – whether examining the fine line between nafs and rūḥ, or considering how dreams result from the soul’s sojourn in a different realm. We saw that scholars like al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāzī focused on the literal implications (God’s custody of souls), while others like al-Qurṭubī gathered hadiths to clarify terminology, and modern commentators drew ethical and spiritual lessons (e.g. being in a state of purity and repentance before sleep, trusting God with one’s soul).

Bringing in modern neuroscience, we found intriguing parallels: the brain’s behavior in sleep – toggling between quiescent and active/dreaming states – underscores how consciousness can be suspended or enter worlds of its own, much as the Quran depicts the soul being held or released. Near-death experience research, while not “proving” the soul, at least opens scientific minds to the possibility that consciousness might not be entirely produced by the body, since it can manifest under extreme conditions when the body is shutting down. These scientific perspectives do not replace the theological narrative but rather enrich it, showing the wisdom in the Quran’s analogies. If even some neuroscientists now speak of consciousness in terms that accept “disconnected consciousness” or a “unique mental state” during NDEs ​cnn.com ​scientificamerican.com, it resonates with the Islamic view that the soul has its own reality that can transcend the bodily state.

Philosophically, the sleep/death comparison has reinforced the belief in an immaterial soul and has provided a experiential metaphor for the mind-body relationship. Thinkers like Ibn Sīnā argued for the soul’s independent existence and self-awareness, a view echoed by the independence of the dreaming self from physical constraints. Al-Ghazālī and others used the idea that “the world is a dream” to convey that only with death will we truly awaken to the ultimate reality – a notion that has striking agreement with certain themes in contemporary philosophy of mind that question the “reality” of perceived experience (though coming from a very different angle). The continuity of personal identity, so central to afterlife doctrines, is illustrated by the fact that we feel the same self wake up that went to sleep, even though we were unconscious in between. In Islamic thought, this is because the soul, the bearer of identity, was there all along, and God safeguarded it.

Finally, Qur’an 39:42 powerfully highlights Divine agency: life and death are not accidents, but acts of God. This awareness fosters a worldview where trust in God’s decree and hope in His mercy take center stage. When a believer lies down to sleep, they say a prayer surrendering their soul to God’s care ​islamicstudies.info; when they rise, they thank God for giving them life once more ​academyofislam.com. This daily cycle habituates the soul to reliance on God – so that when the time comes that one sleeps and does not wake up, it is not a terror but the next step in a journey with God. The Qur’an says, “He it is who takes your souls by night and knows what you have done by day; then He raises you up by day so that a term appointed may be fulfilled. Then to Him will be your return, and He will inform you about what you used to do.” (6:60). In the end, return to Him is our destiny, and 39:42 assures us that return is in the most literal sense: the soul that came from God returns to Him, and will be sent back once more in a new creation. Thus, sleep is not only a metaphor for death – it is a gentle introduction to the reality of resurrection and accountability. It is a daily proof that the God who created us can cause us to die and live again, and that our souls are ever in His grasp. For those who reflect, as the verse challenges us to do, there are indeed many āyāt (signs) in this – signs of Allah’s wisdom, power, and mercy operating in the very rhythm of our mundane lives.

Sources:

• Qur’an 39:42 and classical commentaries (al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Kathīr, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī) ​islamicstudies.info​.
• Maʿāriful Qur’ān (Mufti M. Shafīʿ) on 39:42 ​quran.com; Tafsīr al-Māẓharī and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s saying on soul’s “beam” during sleep ​quran.com.
• Tafsīr al-Kashshāf (al-Zamakhsharī) and Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī on nafs vs. rūḥ ​islamicstudies.info.
• Tafsīr Ishrāq al-Maʿānī (al-Alūsī/modern) notes on modern science and sleep mystery ​islamicstudies.info.
• The Academy of Islam – Quranic Reflections on 39:42 (modern Shi‘i perspective, Makarim Shirazi’s 3 stages)​ academyofislam.com.
• Muhammad Asad’s Message of the Qur’an (commentary on 39:42) ​islamicstudies.info.
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s Qur’an Commentary (note on 39:42) ​islamicstudies.info.
• Scientific references on sleep stages: TeachMePhysiology (2023) on REM vs NREM sleep ​teachmephysiology.com; Wikipedia on REM sleep (characteristics of paradoxical sleep) ​teachmephysiology.com.
• Scientific American & Guardian articles on Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): enhanced memories and paradox of conscious experience during clinical death ​scientificamerican.com ​michiganmedicine.org; Borjigin et al. 2023 study on gamma waves surge at death ​michiganmedicine.org.
• Hadith and Athar: Bilāl’s statement and Prophet’s reply about souls during sleep​islamicstudies.info; Bedtime duʿā’ (Bukhari/Muslim) invoking God’s will in taking/returning the soul ​islamicstudies.info; ʿAlī’s statement “people are asleep…” (referenced by al-Ghazālī) ​imamghazali.org.
• Philosophical sources: Avicenna’s floating man (Peter Adamson, Aeon article) ​aeon.co; summary of Avicenna’s argument for soul’s incorporeality ​edwardfeser.blogspot.com; al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ (via ImamGhazali.org) explaining “people are asleep…” ​imamghazali.org.
• Islamic eschatology: Ibn al-Qayyim’s Kitāb al-Rūḥ (via troid.org) on souls meeting during sleep and two opinions on 39:42 ​troid.org​troid.org.