Short answer
No. Islam teaches that each person lives once on earth, dies once, and is raised once to be judged. Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains teach that we are born again and again, and that each birth repays the deeds of earlier ones. The idea tries to explain why lives are so unequal. But it leaves hard questions open. No one remembers the life he is said to be paying for. A blind child is treated as guilty of an unknown crime. And the faiths that teach rebirth do not agree on what is reborn. The Qur'an says the dead do not return. When a dying man asks to be sent back, the answer is, "By no means!" (23:100). Every child is born clean. Hardship is a test, not a sentence. So this life is your one chance, and it is enough.
| Question | Rebirth | Islam |
|---|---|---|
| How many lives on earth? | Many | One |
| How is a child born? | Carrying the deeds of earlier lives | Clean |
| What is hardship? | Repayment for a former life | A test |
| Does the person know the deeds he answers for? | He remembers nothing | He reads his own record |
Full explanation
What the faiths of rebirth teach
Four faiths born in India teach rebirth. Hindus read in the Bhagavad Gita that the self casts off old bodies and goes to new ones, as a man changes his clothes. The Pali canon holds the oldest Buddhist scriptures. In it beings are called "heir to their deeds", and those deeds bear fruit in later lives. Sikhs honour the Guru Granth Sahib as their living Guru. It tells its listener of many births as a worm, an elephant, a bird and a serpent. A Jain scripture speaks of karma, by which "the soul turns round and round in the Circle of Births". All four hold that deeds decide the next birth. All four also hold that the wheel is not good in itself. Each teaches a way out of it. So rebirth is not offered as a happy promise of more life. It is a problem to escape.
“As a man, casting off old clothes, puts on others and new ones, so the embodied (self) casting off old bodies, goes to others and new ones.”
“Student, sentient beings are the owners of their deeds and heir to their deeds.”
“'I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge. I shall be the heir of whatever deeds I do, whether good or bad.'”
“In how many births wert thou a worm or a moth! In how many births an elephant, a fish, or a deer! In how many births a bird or a serpent! In how many births wert thou yoked as a horse or an ox! Meet the Lord of the world—this is the time to meet Him. After a long period this human body hath been formed for thee.”
“I shall now in due order explain the eight kinds of Karman, bound by which the soul turns round and round in the Circle of Births.”
Why the idea draws people
Rebirth answers a real question. One child is born healthy and loved, and another is born blind or poor. People ask why. Rebirth says each is getting what an earlier life earned. It also seems kind, because it offers another chance to those who waste this one. Islam takes the same question seriously, and it also says that no deed is lost. So the two agree that the world is moral and that deeds follow their doer. They differ on when and how the account is settled. The rest of this page tests the answer rebirth gives.
“They wander through many births on account of their destiny writ from the beginning. As man soweth, so shall he eat.”
“Neither his kinsmen, nor his friends, nor his sons, nor his relations will share his suffering, he alone has to bear it; for the Karman follows the doer.”
“Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.”
No one remembers the charge
A punishment teaches only if the person knows what it is for. On the teaching of rebirth, a person suffers now for deeds he cannot recall, done by someone he cannot recall being. He cannot regret them, repair them or learn from them. A court that sentenced a man without telling him the charge would be called unjust. This matters because the whole purpose of rebirth is said to be justice. Islam's picture is the opposite. On the Day of Judgement each person is handed his own record and told, "Read thine (own) record". His own hands and feet bear witness to what he did. He knows every deed, and he knows it is his.
“Every man's fate We have fastened on his own neck: On the Day of Judgment We shall bring out for him a scroll, which he will see spread open. (It will be said to him:) "Read thine (own) record: Sufficient is thy soul this day to make out an account against thee."”
“That Day shall We set a seal on their mouths. But their hands will speak to us, and their feet bear witness, to all that they did.”
“And the Book (of Deeds) will be placed (before you); and thou wilt see the sinful in great terror because of what is (recorded) therein; they will say, "Ah! woe to us! what a Book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but takes account thereof!" They will find all that they did, placed before them: And not one will thy Lord treat with injustice.”
It makes the sufferer guilty
If every birth is a repayment, then the child born blind or disabled is paying for a crime. The Hindu law book of Manu says so in plain words. It says people are born blind, deaf or deformed from "a remnant of (the guilt of former) crimes". It adds that they are "despised by the virtuous". Many Hindus today would not speak that way of a disabled child, and that is to their credit. But the teaching leads there. Islam says the opposite. The Qur'an says, "It is no fault in the blind nor in one born lame". God (﷾) said that if He takes a servant's eyesight and the servant is patient, He will give him Paradise in its place. This matters because it changes how we look at every person who suffers. In Islam he is not a criminal serving time. He is a person being tested, and so are we in how we treat him. The page "Is karma just?" looks at this more closely.
“Thus in consequence of a remnant of (the guilt of former) crimes, are born idiots, dumb, blind, deaf, and deformed men, who are (all) despised by the virtuous.”
“It is no fault in the blind nor in one born lame, nor in one afflicted with illness, nor in yourselves, that ye should eat in your own houses, or those of your fathers, or your mothers, or your brothers, or your sisters, or your father's brothers or your father's sisters, or your mother's brothers, or your mother's sisters, or in houses of which the keys are in your possession, or in the house of a sincere friend of yours: there is no blame on you, whether ye eat in company or separately. But if ye enter houses, salute each other - a greeting of blessing and purity as from Allah. Thus does Allah make clear the signs to you: that ye may understand.”
Anas ibn Malik heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say that Allah said: when I try My servant through his two beloved things, meaning his eyes, and he is patient, I will give him Paradise in their place. Al-Bukhari placed it under the heading "the merit of one who has lost his sight".
Who is reborn? The faiths do not agree
The four faiths give different accounts of what passes from life to life. Hindus say an eternal self moves on. The Pali texts say that nothing in a person is a lasting self. Of body and mind they teach, "This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self." A classic Buddhist text is asked whether the one reborn is the same person or another. It answers, "Neither the same nor another." Jains say a soul wanders, weighed down by karma, with no Lord over the process. Sikhs say God's (﷾) own order decides it. Some Hindus say the Lord gives each deed its fruit, and others say deeds bear fruit by themselves. These are not small differences. They decide whether the one who suffers is the one who sinned. This matters because rebirth is often spoken of as one shared truth of the East. It is four teachings, and they cannot all be right.
“As a man, casting off old clothes, puts on others and new ones, so the embodied (self) casting off old bodies, goes to others and new ones.”
“This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.”
“The king said: 'He who is born, Nâgasena, does he remain the same or become another?' 'Neither the same nor another.'”
“I shall now in due order explain the eight kinds of Karman, bound by which the soul turns round and round in the Circle of Births.”
“They wander through many births on account of their destiny writ from the beginning. As man soweth, so shall he eat.”
“From him (i.e. the Lord, there comes) the fruit (of works); for (that only) is possible.”
“Now it is clear that a deed cannot effect a result at some future time, unless, before passing away, it gives birth to some unseen result; we therefore assume that there exists some result which we call apûrva, and which may be viewed either as an imperceptible after-state of the deed or as an imperceptible antecedent state of the result. This hypothesis removes all difficulties, while on the other hand it is impossible that the Lord should effect the results of actions. For in the first place, one uniform cause cannot be made to account for a great variety of effects; in the second place, the Lord would have to be taxed with partiality and cruelty; and in the third place, if the deed itself did not bring about its own fruit, it would be useless to perform it at all.—For all these reasons the result springs from the deed only, whether meritorious or non-meritorious.”
| Faith | What is reborn | Who decides the next birth |
|---|---|---|
| Hindu | An eternal self | The Lord, or the deeds themselves |
| Buddhist | No lasting self; neither the same nor another | Deeds |
| Sikh | The soul | God's (﷾) order |
| Jain | The soul | Karma, with no Lord |
Where did the first life come from?
If this life is explained by the one before, and that by the one before it, the chain needs a start. In the first life there were no earlier deeds. So the first unequal births had no cause. Hindu thinkers saw the problem. The Brahma Sutra raises it, and answers that the world has no beginning. Then the chain is endless, and no first free act ever earned the first sentence. An explanation that is always put one step further back never arrives. Islam gives a beginning. God (﷾) created each soul, and each person starts his one life with nothing against him.
“If it be objected that it (viz. the Lord's having regard to merit and demerit) is impossible on account of the non-distinction (of merit and demerit, previous to the first creation); we refute the objection on the ground of (the world) being without a beginning.”
“But—an objection is raised—the passage, 'Being only this was in the beginning, one, without a second,' affirms that before the creation there was no distinction and consequently no merit on account of which the creation might have become unequal. And if we assume the Lord to have been guided in his dispensations by the actions of living beings subsequent to the creation, we involve ourselves in the circular reasoning that work depends on diversity of condition of life, and diversity of condition again on work. The Lord may be considered as acting with regard to religious merit after distinction had once arisen; but as before that the cause of inequality, viz. merit, did not exist, it follows that the first creation must have been free from inequalities. This objection we meet by the remark, that the transmigratory world is without beginning.—The objection would be valid if the world had a beginning; but as it is without beginning, merit and inequality are, like seed and sprout, caused as well as causes, and there is therefore no logical objection to their operation.”
“How can ye reject the faith in Allah?- seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return.”
What the Qur'an says: the dead do not come back
The Qur'an speaks to this directly. It tells of a man at the point of death. He says, "O my Lord! send me back (to life)", so that he may do the good he neglected. The answer is: "By no means! It is but a word he says." Then it says that before the dead is a barrier until the Day they are raised. Of the generations that have passed, it says, "Not to them will they return". It counts the stages of a person. He was without life, and God (﷾) gave him life. God (﷾) will cause him to die, and will bring him to life again. That is one life here and one rising. The Qur'an also answers the hope of a second try. It says that if people were sent back, they would return to what they were forbidden. Those who beg for it will be asked: "Did We not give you long enough life so that he that would should receive admonition?"
“(In Falsehood will they be) Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: "O my Lord! send me back (to life),- "In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected." - "By no means! It is but a word he says."- Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up.”
“See they not how many generations before them we destroyed? Not to them will they return: But each one of them all - will be brought before Us (for judgment).”
“How can ye reject the faith in Allah?- seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return.”
“Say: "It is Allah Who gives you life, then gives you death; then He will gather you together for the Day of Judgment about which there is no doubt": But most men do not understand.”
“If thou couldst but see when they are confronted with the Fire! They will say: "Would that we were but sent back! Then would we not reject the signs of our Lord, but would be amongst those who believe!" Yea, in their own (eyes) will become manifest what before they concealed. But if they were returned, they would certainly relapse to the things they were forbidden, for they are indeed liars.”
“Therein will they cry aloud (for assistance): "Our Lord! Bring us out: we shall work righteousness, not the (deeds) we used to do!" - "Did We not give you long enough life so that he that would should receive admonition? and (moreover) the warner came to you. So taste ye (the fruits of your deeds): for the wrong-doers there is no helper."”
- Before
Without life
- Birth
God (﷾) gives life
- Death
A barrier stands, and no one is sent back
- The Day
Raised to life again and gathered for judgement
Every child is born clean
Islam does not explain a birth by a past life, because there is none. The Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra, the pure nature God (﷾) gave mankind. He compared it to a young animal that is born whole. So no baby arrives with a debt. No one carries another's sin either: "no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another". This matters because it frees a person from guilt for things he never did. He answers for one life only, the one he remembers living.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra, the true faith, and it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal gives birth to a whole young one: do you see any of them born mutilated?
“Say: "Shall I seek for (my) Cherisher other than Allah, when He is the Cherisher of all things (that exist)? Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another. Your goal in the end is towards Allah: He will tell you the truth of the things wherein ye disputed."”
“So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith: (establish) Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind: no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by Allah: that is the standard Religion: but most among mankind understand not.”
Unequal lives are a test, not a sentence
Then why are lives unequal? The Qur'an says God (﷾) created death and life "that He may try which of you is best in deed". People are tested by evil and by good. The rich man is tested by his wealth, and the poor man by his need. The healthy are tested by how they treat the sick. God (﷾) lays on no soul a burden greater than it can bear, and He is never unjust in the least degree. So a hard life is not proof of a guilty past. And the scales are not settled here. They are settled on a Day when nothing is hidden. This matters because it lets a suffering person keep his dignity, and his hope.
“He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving;-”
“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.”
“On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith."”
“Allah is never unjust in the least degree: If there is any good (done), He doubleth it, and giveth from His own presence a great reward.”
“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.”
The same person is raised
Islam does not leave open who answers for the deeds. The person who lived is the person who is raised. A man once asked who could give life to dry bones. The Qur'an replies, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time!" God (﷾) keeps each soul at death. Then the person meets his own record, small and great. So the one who did the deed is the one who is repaid. This is the justice that rebirth seeks and cannot secure.
“And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, "Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?" Say, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-”
“It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death; and those that die not (He takes) during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back (from returning to life), but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.”
“And the Book (of Deeds) will be placed (before you); and thou wilt see the sinful in great terror because of what is (recorded) therein; they will say, "Ah! woe to us! what a Book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but takes account thereof!" They will find all that they did, placed before them: And not one will thy Lord treat with injustice.”
“Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.”
Mercy inside the one life
Some people fear that one life is too harsh, and that rebirth is kinder. But where karma alone rules, every deed must be worked off, life after life. Hindus and Sikhs who look to God's (﷾) grace to end the wheel are seeking what Islam states plainly. Islam puts mercy inside the one life. The Qur'an says a good deed is counted ten times, and an evil deed only once. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that a good deed is written as ten to seven hundred, or more. A bad deed that a person turns away from is written as a good deed. And the door of return stays open while a person lives: "Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins". The next verse gives the way, which is to turn to the Lord in repentance. A wrong done to another person must also be put right with that person. So a person does not need a thousand lives to be made clean. He needs to turn to God (﷾) in this one.
“He that doeth good shall have ten times as much to his credit: He that doeth evil shall only be recompensed according to his evil: no wrong shall be done unto (any of) them.”
The Prophet (ﷺ) said that Allah has recorded good and bad deeds. Whoever intends a good deed and does not do it has one full good deed written for him; if he does it, ten to seven hundred good deeds or more are written. Whoever intends a bad deed and does not do it has one full good deed written for him; if he does it, one bad deed is written. Another chain of the same hadith adds that Allah may even wipe it out.
“Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“"Turn ye to our Lord (in repentance) and bow to His (Will), before the Penalty comes on you: after that ye shall not be helped.”
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: whoever has wronged another, in his honour or in anything else, should seek his release from it today, before the Day when there will be no money. If he has good deeds, they will be taken from him in proportion to the wrong. If he has none, some of the wronged person's bad deeds will be laid on him.
- 10 to 700A good deed done
- 1A bad deed done
- 1 good deedA bad deed intended and left undone
Islam's answer
So Islam's answer is one life, one death, and one rising before a just and merciful Lord. You were born clean. Your hardships are a test and not a verdict. Your deeds are written, and you will read them yourself. Nothing you have done is beyond forgiveness while you live. The faiths of rebirth teach people to long for release from the wheel. Islam says there is no wheel. There is a road, and it leads to God (﷾). The Qur'an asks to be weighed: a book from anyone but God (﷾) would hold much contradiction. Read it in a translation you trust. Three pages look at each faith's own texts. They are "Did the Vedas teach reincarnation?", "Can there be karma and rebirth without a soul?" and "Do Sikhs believe in one life or many?"
“Say: "It is Allah Who gives you life, then gives you death; then He will gather you together for the Day of Judgment about which there is no doubt": But most men do not understand.”
“Every man's fate We have fastened on his own neck: On the Day of Judgment We shall bring out for him a scroll, which he will see spread open. (It will be said to him:) "Read thine (own) record: Sufficient is thy soul this day to make out an account against thee."”
“Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
“And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.”
Perspectives
Hindu: the self takes new bodies
An eternal self passes from body to body. Each birth is shaped by the deeds of earlier lives, until the self is released.
The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads
The Gita says the embodied self casts off old bodies and goes to new ones, as a man puts on new clothes (2:22).
Rebuttal
The Qur'an says the dead do not return: before them is a barrier until the Day they are raised (23:99-100). A change of clothes is remembered by the one who changes. No one remembers a former life.
Rebirth explains why people are born unequal: each gets what earlier deeds earned.
Rebuttal
It explains by blaming the sufferer for a crime no one can name. And the first unequal birth had no earlier deeds behind it. The Qur'an says life is a test (67:2), and that there is no fault in the blind (24:61).
Buddhist: deeds bear fruit in later lives
Beings are heirs to their deeds, and deeds ripen in lives to come. Nothing in a person is a lasting self, yet the chain of lives goes on until it is ended.
The Pali texts
Beings are the owners of their deeds and heir to their deeds (Majjhima Nikaya 135).
Rebuttal
An heir must be someone. The same texts say nothing in a person is a lasting self, and that the one reborn is "Neither the same nor another". Islam says the one who did the deed reads his own record (17:13-14).
Sikh: many births, and this one is the chance
The soul has passed through many births. The human birth is the rare chance to meet the Lord and end the coming and going.
The Guru Granth Sahib
Guru Arjan tells the listener of many births as a worm, an elephant, a bird and a serpent. He says this human life is the time to meet the Lord (Ang 176).
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that this life is the chance, and says it is the only one. God (﷾) will ask, "Did We not give you long enough life" (35:37). No scripture can show a person the births it says he had, and he recalls none.
Jain: the soul wanders until karma is shed
Karma binds the soul and turns it through the circle of births. No Lord gives the result. The soul frees itself by its own effort.
The Uttaradhyayana Sutra
Karma follows the doer, and he alone bears his suffering (Uttaradhyayana 13.23).
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that each soul bears its own deeds (6:164). But a law with no Lawgiver cannot know a person, weigh his intentions or forgive him. The Qur'an says God (﷾) counts a good deed ten times and forgives those who turn to Him (6:160; 39:53).
A common hope: another life is another chance
Many people who follow no scripture still hope for rebirth, because one life seems too short to get things right.
One life is too short and too unequal to be fair. More lives would give everyone a fair chance.
Rebuttal
The Qur'an says that people sent back would return to what they were forbidden (6:28). One life is fair because God (﷾) burdens no soul beyond what it can bear (2:286) and counts each good deed ten times (6:160).
The Islamic perspective
Each person lives once, dies once and is raised once. Every child is born clean. Unequal lives are a test. On the Day of Judgement the same person reads his own record before a Lord who is just and forgiving.
The dying man who asks to be sent back is refused, and a barrier stands before the dead until they are raised.
A person has one life on earth and one rising: lifeless, given life, caused to die, then brought to life again.
Every child is born upon the fitra, and no one bears another's burden.
Death and life were created as a test, and God (﷾) burdens no soul beyond what it can bear.
There is no fault in the blind or the lame. One who is patient when he loses his sight is promised Paradise in its place.
Each person will read his own record, and his own limbs will bear witness.
A good deed is counted ten times or more, an evil deed once, and God (﷾) forgives those who turn back to Him.
If people were sent back they would return to what they were forbidden, and they were given life long enough to take heed.