According to the Qur’an, the truth of human is in his soul. If there is no soul, human becomes a motionless and dead body. Just as the soul is separated from the body at death, the soul is also separated from the body during sleep, only in death it is completely disconnected and does not return to the body, but during sleep it is not completely disconnected; Rather, it decreases and the system of understanding and consciousness stops working, and because its connection is not completely cut off, for this reason, part of the activities that are necessary for the continuation of the body’s life, such as heartbeat, blood circulation, activity of the respiratory system, etc., continue.
Death and sleep are so much alike, but there is a major and fundamental difference between them that distinguishes them from each other; God takes the human soul both in death and in sleep, but in the other death, the soul does not return to the body. A little meditation on verse 42 of Surah al-Zumar clarifies the answer. Allah Says:
اللّهُ یَتَوَفَّى الْأَنْفُسَ حِینَ مَوْتِها وَ الَّتِی لَمْ تَمُتْ فِی مَنامِها:
It is Allah Who takes away the souls of people at the hour of their death, and takes away at the time of sleep the souls of those that have not died
As such, “sleep” is the brother of “death” and a weak form of it; Because the soul`s connection to the body is reduced to a minimum during sleep and many of the links between the two are severed. And then He adds:
فَيُمْسِكُ الَّتِي قَضَىٰ عَلَيْهَا الْمَوْتَ وَيُرْسِلُ الْأُخْرَىٰ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ:
Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death (in such a way that they never wake up) and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.(1)
This verse is used well in the following matters:
1- human is a combination of soul and body, soul is a non-material gem whose connection with the body is the source of its light and life.
2- At the time of death, God breaks this relationship, and takes the soul to the world of spirits, and during sleep, he also takes this soul, but not in such a way that the connection is completely broken, therefore, the soul has three states regarding the body: complete connection (the condition of life and wakefulness) incomplete connection (the condition of sleep) complete disconnection (the condition of death).
3- “Sleep” is a weak face of “death”, and “death” is a perfect example of “sleep”!
4- A dream is one of the reasons for the independence and originality of the soul; this meaning becomes clearer especially when it is accompanied by true dreams,.
5- Paying attention to the fact that a person is on the verge of death every night when he “sleeps”, is a lesson that if he thinks about it, it is enough for him to “wake up”. (That is, just as he enters the world of sleep after s/he sleep and lives there, after death s/he also enters the world of the afterlife and there the struggle continues, but either in heaven or in hell, and in reality there is no destruction for human (2)
So it becomes clear that sleep is the brother of death and a weak form of it. Therefore, the Holy Prophet says:
Sleep is the brother of death (3)
And they also asked the ninth successor of the Prophet, Imam Javad, (pbuh): What is death? His majesty said: “Death is the same dream that comes to you every night, except that it is long and a person will not wake up from it until the Day of Resurrection.” (4)
It is understood from the above narrative that as a person sleeps and enters the dream world and his soul continues to live in the dream world, he also enters the purgatory world (purgatory in the sense of intercept between two things and the world of purgatory is the world between the life of this world and the world of resurrection) at the moment when a person dies.
And he is continuing his life or life until the Day of Judgment, when he is resurrected again, (but this point must be known that the scenes of life in the afterlife are determined by faith in God, the Prophet of Islam, the Ahl al-Bayt (the Household), and righteous deeds, for we will be in heaven or with disbelief and abominations for we will be in hell)
1-Surah al-Zumar verse 42
2- Tafsir Nemooneh, volume 19, p. 498.
3- Kanz al-Ummal (Fee Sunan al-Aqwal wa al-Af’al), hadith 39321
4- Bihar al-Anwar,volume 6, page 155.
6- http://www.makarem.ir/
7- https://www.tebyan.net/ (Qur`an`s part)
