speaks openly, and he who hides himself by night and (who) goes forth by day. For him are (angels) guarding the consequences (of his deeds), before him and behind him, who guard him by Allāh’s command” (13:10, 11). It is first stated that to God all are alike, those who conceal their words and those who speak them openly, and those that do a good or evil deed in the darkness of the night and those who do it in the light of the day; and it is then added that there are angels before and behind man that guard him. The guarding of the man and the guarding of his deeds are thus one and the same thing. In fact, this has been made clear in an earlier chapter — earlier in point of revelation: “Nay, but you give the lie to the Judgment, and surely there are keepers over you, Honourable recorders, they know what you do” (82:9-12). Here the angels that are called “keepers over you”, being undoubtedly the guarding angels (13:11), are plainly described as the recording angels who know what man does. Thus both these verses show that an inner self of man is being developed, all along, through his deeds, and that is what is meant by guarding man in one case and guarding his deeds in the other. It is the inner self that assumes a shape after death and forms first the body in barzakh and is then developed into the body in Resurrection.

Elsewhere, a similar denial of the Resurrection is rebutted by saying8 that God knows that the body becomes dust, and is followed by the words: “And with Us is a book that preserves” (50:4), i.e., there is with God a writing that preserves what is essential to growth in the next life. That ‘preserved writing’ is the record of good and evil deeds kept by the guardian angels, so that, here again, we are told that while the outer garb of the soul, the body, becomes dust and goes back to the earth, the inner self is preserved and forms the basis of the higher life — life in the Resurrection.

Spiritualities materialized

This materialization of spiritualities — not a materialization in the sense in which it is accepted in this life, but a materialization of the new world to be evolved from the present world — is spoken of frequently in the Holy Qur’ān as well as in Ḥadīth. For instance, those who are guided by the light of faith in this life shall have a light