The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2422 page)

Tan
sukh
.

Islamic word for rebirth of souls. Although it would apparently contradict the orthodox description of the
afterlife
, it was nevertheless held to be true by some
Sh
‘a
sects. Some
Ism
‘
l
s
believe in rebirth until the
Im
m
is recognized. More elaborately, the
Nu
air
s
have seven levels of rebirth: a sinner among them will be reborn as a Sunn
(or Jew or Christian), a
k
fir
will be reborn as an animal. These beliefs can be reconciled (theoretically) with orthodox views, by pointing out that God bestows the soul (
nafs
,
ruh
) to, and takes it away from, the body; in principle this could happen several or many times. But, in fact, it is rejected in mainstream Islam.

 
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