Short answer
Not in this life. The Qur'an says, "Every soul shall have a taste of death", and it says this of everyone. Some Taoists sought to become immortals (xian), first by elixirs and later by inner alchemy, an inward refining of the self. The Taoist teacher Zhuangzi took another path. When his wife died, he came to see her death as a change, like the seasons. Islam shares the hope of a life that does not end. It says such a life begins after death, in the Home of the Hereafter: "that is life indeed". It is not won by any method of our own. It is God's (﷾) gift to those who believe and do good. The Qur'an asks you to weigh its words with care.
Full explanation
The search for the immortals
In Taoist tradition an immortal (xian) is a person who has passed beyond death. Ge Hong, a Taoist writer of the fourth century, defended the search in his book the Baopuzi. Someone asked him whether such immortals can really be reached. He answered yes. Not everything that has a beginning must end, he argued: heaven and earth have no end. He held that medicines and techniques could keep the body from dying. He also put virtue first. One who seeks to become an immortal, he wrote, must take loyalty, filial piety, kindness and good faith as the root. Without virtue, techniques alone bring no one long life. Of all methods, he ranked two elixirs highest. An elixir here is a medicine of transformation, made by long refining. Other medicines, he wrote, may help a little but can never make a person live for ever.
In chapter 2 (On Immortals) someone asks whether immortals who do not die can really be reached. A questioner laughs that whatever has a beginning must have an end. Ge Hong answers that this is not true of everything: heaven and earth have no end, and tortoises and cranes live long. He holds that immortals nourish the body with medicines and lengthen life with techniques, so that they live on without dying. In chapter 3 (Answering the Common Man) he says that one who seeks to become an immortal must take loyalty, filial piety, harmony, obedience, kindness and good faith as the root; if virtue is not cultivated and one works only at techniques, no one gains long life. In chapter 4 (Gold and Cinnabar) he says that the books he has read all make two elixirs, the reverted elixir and the gold liquid, the highest method of the way of immortals. Other medicines, he says, may help a little, but can never make a person live for ever.
The elixir turned inward
Later masters looked more and more within. Zhang Boduan, a Taoist master of the Song period, wrote the Wuzhen pian; his preface is dated 1075. He wrote that the teachings of Laozi and the Buddha opened a way to escape birth and death, by cultivating one's nature and life. Breathing exercises, giving up grain and minerals, he said, might ward off illness but could not bring lasting success. Only the true golden elixir could. Its fruit, he wrote, is a transformed spirit, whose name is written among the immortals. His poems say that seeking many drugs is not the true way. Nor, they say, is wearing out the body with exercises, or refining the breath. This inward way came to be called inner alchemy (neidan).
Zhang Boduan writes that the teachings of Laozi and the Buddha, through the learning of nature and life (xing and ming), opened a way to teach people to escape birth and death. Breathing exercises, giving up grain, massage and minerals, he says, are easy to come by but hard to complete: they may ward off illness, but cannot bring lasting success. Only the true golden elixir does. He ends with its fruit: the spirit transformed, the name written in the register of immortals, and the title of Perfected Person. In his poems he warns that to seek many drugs is not the true way, and that true lead and mercury are not common cinnabar and quicksilver (no. 8). Wearing out the body with exercises is not the Way, he says, and refining the breath is folly (no. 9).
Zhuangzi: death as a change of seasons
Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzŭ) was a Taoist teacher of the fourth century BCE. The book that bears his name is quoted here in Herbert Giles's English of 1889. When Zhuangzi's wife died, his friend Hui Shi (Hui Tzŭ) came to mourn. He found Zhuangzi singing and beating time on a bowl. Zhuangzi said he had been moved at first. Then he saw her death as one more change, "like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter". Guo Xiang, the book's classic commentator, says he was shaken until he understood, and then stopped. Guo Xiang also says Zhuangzi did not love death or hate life: he wanted to be at peace in both.
“"Not at all," replied Chuang Tzŭ. "When she died, I could not help being affected by her death. Soon, however, I remembered that she had already existed in a previous state before birth, without form, or even substance; that while in that unconditioned condition, substance was added to spirit; that this substance then assumed form; and that the next stage was birth. And now, by virtue of a further change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And while she is thus lying asleep in Eternity, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of these natural laws. Therefore I refrain."”
On the divine man of the Miao-ku-shê (Gushe) mountain in chapter 1, Guo Xiang says that all of this is figurative speech: the divine man is what we now call the sage, who may sit in the court yet keeps a mind as free as in the mountain forests. Cheng Xuanying adds that it is a parable, and there need be no real Gushe mountain. On Zhuangzi's wife in chapter 18, Guo Xiang says that before he understood he was shaken, and once he understood he stopped. Cheng Xuanying explains that life comes from non-being and death returns to it, as the four seasons follow one another. On the skull story Guo Xiang says the old view, that Zhuangzi loved death and hated life, is wrong: his point is to be at peace in life while alive, and at peace in death when dead.
The divine man of the far mountain
In Zhuangzi's first chapter a speaker repeats a tale he has heard. On the Miao-ku-shê mountain, it says, lives a "divine man" who "eats no fruit of the earth, but lives on air and dew". "Divine" here means spirit-like: he is not a god. He "roams beyond the limits of mortality". The speaker calls it "nonsense". Another man, Lien Shu, rebukes him for blindness of the mind. Guo Xiang read the divine man as a picture of the sage, not as a report about a real mountain. Giles's English often writes "God" in this book. The Chinese behind it varies: Heaven (Tian), the maker of things (zaowuzhe), or in chapter 18 the Siming, the Arbiter of Fate, a spirit. "God" there is the translator's word, not Zhuangzi's.
“"He declared," replied Chien Wu, "that on the Miao-ku-shê mountain there lives a divine man whose flesh is like ice or snow, whose demeanour is that of a virgin, who eats no fruit of the earth, but lives on air and dew, and who, riding on clouds with flying dragons for his team, roams beyond the limits of mortality. This being is absolutely inert. Yet he wards off corruption from all things, and causes the crops to thrive. Now I call that nonsense, and do not believe it."”
On the divine man of the Miao-ku-shê (Gushe) mountain in chapter 1, Guo Xiang says that all of this is figurative speech: the divine man is what we now call the sage, who may sit in the court yet keeps a mind as free as in the mountain forests. Cheng Xuanying adds that it is a parable, and there need be no real Gushe mountain. On Zhuangzi's wife in chapter 18, Guo Xiang says that before he understood he was shaken, and once he understood he stopped. Cheng Xuanying explains that life comes from non-being and death returns to it, as the four seasons follow one another. On the skull story Guo Xiang says the old view, that Zhuangzi loved death and hated life, is wrong: his point is to be at peace in life while alive, and at peace in death when dead.
“"Not at all," replied Chuang Tzŭ. "When she died, I could not help being affected by her death. Soon, however, I remembered that she had already existed in a previous state before birth, without form, or even substance; that while in that unconditioned condition, substance was added to spirit; that this substance then assumed form; and that the next stage was birth. And now, by virtue of a further change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And while she is thus lying asleep in Eternity, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of these natural laws. Therefore I refrain."”
Every soul shall taste death
The Qur'an says, "Every soul shall have a taste of death". It says this of everyone, with no exception. It says it even to the Prophet (ﷺ) himself: "We granted not to any man before thee permanent life". It says all that is on earth will perish, and "the Face of thy Lord" abides. Islam also asks for calm in the face of death. It does not ask for dry eyes. The Prophet (ﷺ) wept when his infant son was dying, and said the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord. Those struck by loss say, "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return". Death is not only a change, like the turning of the seasons. It is a return to the One who made us, to give account.
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.”
“We granted not to any man before thee permanent life (here): if then thou shouldst die, would they live permanently?”
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. to Us must ye return.”
“All that is on earth will perish: But will abide (for ever) the Face of thy Lord,- full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour.”
Anas reports that the Prophet's (ﷺ) infant son Ibrahim was in his last breaths, and the Prophet's eyes filled with tears. Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf asked in surprise whether even he wept. He answered that this was mercy. Then he wept more and said that the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord, and that they were saddened by Ibrahim's parting.
“Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, Who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return":- They are those on whom (Descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance.”
“"Did ye then think that We had created you in jest, and that ye would not be brought back to Us (for account)?"”
The life that does not end is God's (﷾) gift
Islam does not call the hope of endless life wrong. It says where that hope is met. "The Home in the Hereafter", the Qur'an says, "that is life indeed". Of the people of the Garden it says, "Nor will they there taste Death, except the first death". So the endless life comes after death, not instead of it. It is not won by any method of our own. God (﷾) gives it to "those who believe and work righteous deeds" (18:107). The Qur'an says that the one who purifies the soul succeeds. Yet purity too is His gift: "Allah doth purify whom He pleases" (24:21). The soul at rest is called back: "Come back thou to thy Lord".
“What is the life of this world but amusement and play? but verily the Home in the Hereafter,- that is life indeed, if they but knew.”
“Nor will they there taste Death, except the first death; and He will preserve them from the Penalty of the Blazing Fire,-”
“As to those who believe and work righteous deeds, they have, for their entertainment, the Gardens of Paradise, Wherein they shall dwell (for aye): no change will they wish for from them.”
“Truly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it!”
“O ye who believe! follow not Satan's footsteps: if any will follow the footsteps of Satan, he will (but) command what is shameful and wrong: and were it not for the grace and mercy of Allah on you, not one of you would ever have been pure: but Allah doth purify whom He pleases: and Allah is One Who hears and knows (all things).”
“(To the righteous soul will be said:) "O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction! "Come back thou to thy Lord,- well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him! "Enter thou, then, among My devotees! "Yea, enter thou My Heaven!”
Care for the body, and hope beyond it
Islam also cares for the body. A man fasted every day and prayed all night. The Prophet (ﷺ) told him to fast on some days and not others, and to sleep as well as pray. Your body has a right over you, he said. So a healthy life is good. But a long life still ends. The Qur'an asks to be considered with care. It says Muhammad (ﷺ) was sent to all people, the Seal of the Prophets. Islam is a deen, a complete way of life: belief, worship, law, family and character together. God (﷾) says He has perfected it (5:3). The Qur'an tells believers to enter it whole-heartedly. The page "What is Islam?" shows the whole in one place.
Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As used to fast every day and pray all night. The Prophet (ﷺ) told him not to do so: he should fast on some days and not on others, and pray at night and also sleep. He said that his body has a right over him, his eyes have a right over him, and his wife has a right over him.
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.”
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
“Say: "O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided."”
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.”
“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
“O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy.”
Four replies answered
Ge Hong, Baopuzi, Inner Chapters 2, 3 and 4
In chapter 2 (On Immortals) someone asks whether immortals who do not die can really be reached. A questioner laughs that whatever has a beginning must have an end. Ge Hong answers that this is not true of everything: heaven and earth have no end, and tortoises and cranes live long. He holds that immortals nourish the body with medicines and lengthen life with techniques, so that they live on without dying. In chapter 3 (Answering the Common Man) he says that one who seeks to become an immortal must take loyalty, filial piety, harmony, obedience, kindness and good faith as the root; if virtue is not cultivated and one works only at techniques, no one gains long life. In chapter 4 (Gold and Cinnabar) he says that the books he has read all make two elixirs, the reverted elixir and the gold liquid, the highest method of the way of immortals. Other medicines, he says, may help a little, but can never make a person live for ever.
Cited for
Ge Hong answered this long ago. Not everything that begins must end: heaven and earth have no end. So a person too can pass beyond death.
The response
Islam agrees that endless life is possible, because God (﷾) can give it. The Qur'an says the people of the Garden will not taste death there, except the first death (44:56). The question is who gives that life, and when. The Qur'an says all on earth will perish, and the Face of your Lord abides (55:26-27). So the endless life is given after death, not instead of it (3:185).
Where it lands — Endless life is real, but it is God's (﷾) gift after the first death, not a state reached in this world.
Zhang Boduan, Wuzhen pian (1075), preface and verses
Zhang Boduan writes that the teachings of Laozi and the Buddha, through the learning of nature and life (xing and ming), opened a way to teach people to escape birth and death. Breathing exercises, giving up grain, massage and minerals, he says, are easy to come by but hard to complete: they may ward off illness, but cannot bring lasting success. Only the true golden elixir does. He ends with its fruit: the spirit transformed, the name written in the register of immortals, and the title of Perfected Person. In his poems he warns that to seek many drugs is not the true way, and that true lead and mercury are not common cinnabar and quicksilver (no. 8). Wearing out the body with exercises is not the Way, he says, and refining the breath is folly (no. 9).
Cited for
The true elixir is inner. The perfected one refines his spirit, and that spirit lives on. Your verses about death speak only of the body.
The response
The verse does not say every body. It says "Every soul shall have a taste of death" (3:185). No one passes by death, however refined the spirit. Islam agrees the soul lives on after it. But in Islam every soul lives on, not only the refined one. What no training can decide is where it goes. The Qur'an says the one who purifies the soul succeeds (91:9-10), and that purity too is God's (﷾) gift (24:21). The soul at rest is called back: "Come back thou to thy Lord" (89:27-30).
Where it lands — Every soul tastes death, and every soul lives on after it. Where it goes is God's (﷾) to decide, and purity is His gift.
Zhuangzi 18 — chapter 18, "Perfect Happiness", paragraph 16
“"Not at all," replied Chuang Tzŭ. "When she died, I could not help being affected by her death. Soon, however, I remembered that she had already existed in a previous state before birth, without form, or even substance; that while in that unconditioned condition, substance was added to spirit; that this substance then assumed form; and that the next stage was birth. And now, by virtue of a further change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And while she is thus lying asleep in Eternity, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of these natural laws. Therefore I refrain."”
Cited for
Zhuangzi was wiser than both the alchemists and you. Death is a change like the seasons. To weep and wail is to be "ignorant of these natural laws".
The response
Islam shares his calm, and Zhuangzi too was moved at first. But Islam never counts tears as ignorance. When his infant son Ibrahim was dying, the Prophet (ﷺ) wept. He said the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord (Bukhari 1303). The Qur'an praises those who say at a loss, "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return" (2:156). It also uses the earth's return to life as a sign. God (﷾) "gives life to the earth after it is dead: and thus shall ye be brought out" (30:19), that is, raised from the dead. The Qur'an says we were not created in jest, and that we are brought back to God (23:115). Each soul is paid in full on the Day of Judgment (3:185).
Where it lands — Calm and tears both have their place. The earth's return to life points to our own: a return to God (﷾), and a Day of Judgment.
Tao Te Ching 33 — Daodejing, chapter 33
“He who does not fail in the requirements of his position, continues long; he who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity.”
Cited for
The Tao Te Ching already promises it: "he who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity".
The response
Read it as its own commentators read it. Wang Bi says the body is gone, but the Way by which the man lived remains. Heshang Gong says a blameless life brings long life. Neither reads the line as a promise that the person himself lives on. The Qur'an makes that promise plainly: we are brought back to God (23:115), and the Home in the Hereafter is "life indeed" (29:64).
Where it lands — Chapter 33, as its commentators read it, praises a way that outlasts the body. The Qur'an says the person himself is raised.
Perspectives
Taoist: the immortals can be reached
In one strand of Taoist tradition a person can pass beyond death. Ge Hong held that elixirs and techniques could bring it, and the Zhuangzi tells of a divine man beyond mortality.
Not everything that has a beginning must end: heaven and earth have no end. So a person too may pass beyond death (Ge Hong, Baopuzi 2).
Rebuttal
Granted: God (﷾) can give life without end, and the Qur'an says He will, in the Garden (44:56). But it says all on earth perishes, and the Face of your Lord abides (55:26-27). Endless life comes after death, not instead of it (3:185).
The Zhuangzi tells of a divine man on the Miao-ku-shê mountain who "lives on air and dew". He "roams beyond the limits of mortality" (Zhuangzi 1).
Rebuttal
The tale is told at second hand, and Guo Xiang read the divine man as a picture of the sage. Read either way, it is a story, not a promise. The Qur'an says even to the Prophet (ﷺ): no man before thee was granted permanent life (21:34).
Taoist: inner alchemy and long life
Inner alchemy turned the elixir inward. Zhang Boduan set breathing exercises, drugs and minerals below the true golden elixir, whose fruit is a transformed spirit. Others, with the Heshang Gong commentary, say the aim is a long and healthy life.
Inner alchemy is not a drug or a drill of breath. Zhang Boduan set those below the true golden elixir, and its fruit is a transformed spirit (Wuzhen pian).
Rebuttal
Then its aim is the spirit, not the body, and Islam agrees the soul is the real aim (91:9-10). But the Qur'an says purity itself is God's (﷾) gift: "not one of you would ever have been pure" without His grace and mercy (24:21). And no soul passes by death (3:185). The fruit comes after it, when the soul at rest is called back to its Lord (89:27-30).
The real aim is a long, healthy life, not a body that never dies. The Heshang Gong commentary reads Tao Te Ching 33 this way: a blameless life brings long life.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees the body has a right over you (Bukhari 5199). But a long life still ends: "Every soul shall have a taste of death" (3:185). The question that remains is what comes after it.
Taoist: be at peace with death as a change
Zhuangzi taught calm in the face of death: life and death follow each other like the seasons. The Tao Te Ching speaks of one who "dies and yet does not perish".
Zhuangzi saw his wife's death as one more change, "like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter". So he stopped weeping (Zhuangzi 18).
Rebuttal
Islam too asks for calm: "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return" (2:156). The Qur'an also uses the earth's return to life as a sign. God (﷾) "gives life to the earth after it is dead: and thus shall ye be brought out" (30:19), that is, raised from the dead. The change ends in a return to God (23:115), and we are paid in full on the Day of Judgment (3:185).
"He who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity" (Tao Te Ching 33). There is a life that death does not end.
Rebuttal
Wang Bi reads it as the Way a man lived by, which remains after his body is gone. Heshang Gong reads it as long life won by a blameless life. Neither reads it as the person himself living on. The Qur'an says he does: he is brought back to God (23:115).
The Islamic perspective
Every soul tastes death, and no one in this world is given permanent life. The life that does not end begins after death, in the Home of the Hereafter. It is God's (﷾) gift, not the fruit of any method of our own. He gives it to those who believe and do good. Islam cares for the body and asks for calm in the face of death. It asks you to weigh the Qur'an with care. Islam is a whole way of life.
The Qur'an says every soul shall have a taste of death. It says even to the Prophet (ﷺ) that no man before him was granted permanent life.
The Qur'an says the Home in the Hereafter is "life indeed". It is for those who believe and work righteous deeds, and they will not taste death there, except the first death. The one saved from the Fire has truly succeeded.
The Qur'an says the one who purifies the soul succeeds, and that purity itself is God's (﷾) gift. The soul at rest is called back to its Lord.
Death is a return to God (﷾), to give account. Those struck by loss say, "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return".
The Prophet (ﷺ) taught that the body has a right over you.
The Qur'an asks to be considered with care, and says Muhammad (ﷺ), the Seal of the Prophets, was sent to all people. Islam is a whole way of life, which believers are told to enter whole-heartedly.