Short answer
No. Justice needs the same person who did the deed to meet its result. The Pali texts teach that nothing in a person, body or mind, is a lasting self. They also teach that deeds bear fruit in a later life. A classic Theravada text, the Milindapanha, says the one reborn is neither the same nor another, yet is not freed from his deeds. Its picture is a man who stole mangoes and is guilty for the mangoes that grew from them. But that thief is one man, and he stands before the king. Rebirth, on this teaching, has no such man. In Islam the same person is raised and reads his own record, and God (﷾) keeps the soul at death.
Full explanation
What the Pali texts say about the self
Buddhism has two great branches. Theravada, found mostly in South and Southeast Asia, follows the Pali texts, which it holds to be the Buddha's word. Mahayana, found mostly in East Asia, adds further sutras. This page quotes the Pali texts and says when a text is later. In the Linked Discourses the Buddha tells a group of five mendicants (monks) that form, feeling, perception, choices and consciousness are each not-self. Each, he says, is to be seen with right understanding in these words. A short verse of the Dhammapada puts it more briefly still. Said exactly, the Pali texts teach that nothing in a person, body or mind, is a lasting self. This page does not say more than that.
“This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.”
“All things are not-self— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”
The Buddha's silence on whether the self survives
The wanderer Vacchagotta asked the Buddha whether the self survives. The Buddha kept silent. Asked whether it does not survive, he kept silent a second time. He then told Ananda why. To say that the self survives would side with the eternalists, who hold that a self lasts for ever. To say that it does not survive would side with the annihilationists, who hold that the self ends at death. So the texts do not teach that a self lasts, and they do not say that no one exists. A Buddhist reader will rightly insist on this, and the page keeps to it.
“"Worthy Gotama, does the self survive?" But when he said this, the Buddha kept silent. "Then does the self not survive?" But for a second time the Buddha kept silent.”
“Ānanda, when Vacchagotta asked me whether the self survives, if I had answered that 'the self survives' I would have been siding with the ascetics and brahmins who are eternalists. When Vacchagotta asked me whether the self does not survive, if I had answered that 'the self does not survive' I would have been siding with the ascetics and brahmins who are annihilationists.”
Heirs to their deeds
The Pali texts do say who receives the result of a deed. In a short discourse the Buddha says beings are the owners of their deeds and heir to their deeds. In another he tells followers to review often that they will be the heir of whatever deeds they do, good or bad. This page grants it fully. What the texts do not say is what the heir is. They teach that nothing in a person is a lasting self, and the Buddha kept silent on whether the self survives. The argument below starts from there.
“'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.'”
“Student, sentient beings are the owners of their deeds and heir to their deeds.”
What links the lives: consciousness
The Pali texts do name a link between lives. In the Long Discourses the Buddha asks Ananda a question. Could name and form take shape in the womb if consciousness were not conceived there? Ananda says no. But the texts do not say the same consciousness passes on. The monk Sati held that it is "this very same consciousness that roams and transmigrates, not another". Asked what that consciousness is, he said it is the one who speaks, who knows, and who experiences the results of good and bad deeds. The Buddha rejected the view. He said consciousness is dependently originated, and that without a cause it does not come to be.
“If consciousness were not conceived in the mother's womb, would name and form coagulate there?”
“As I understand the Buddha's teaching, it is this very same consciousness that roams and transmigrates, not another.”
“Sir, he is the one who speaks, the one who knows, who experiences the results of good and bad deeds in all the different realms.”
“Haven't I said in many ways that consciousness is dependently originated, that without a cause, consciousness does not come to be?”
The Milindapanha: who is reborn, and who answers?
The Milindapanha is a classic Theravada text in which the monk Nagasena answers King Milinda. It is not one of the Buddha's own discourses, so it is set here beside the suttas above. The king raises our question himself. If nothing permanent is in a person, who takes what is not his own, and who lives an evil life? Nagasena answers that a person is a name for parts, as a chariot is a name for pole, axle and wheels. Later the king asks whether the one who is born remains the same or becomes another. Nagasena says, "Neither the same nor another." If the new being is not the old, is he freed from the old one's evil deeds? Nagasena says he would be if he were not reborn, but because he is reborn he is not freed. His picture is a thief who took a mango and says the mangoes he took were not the ones the owner planted. The king agrees he is guilty, because of the last mango that came from the first. The fire left burning and the lamp that burns a village are told the same way.
King Milinda asks the monk Nagasena his name. Nagasena says "Nagasena" is only a generally understood term, a designation in common use, for no permanent individuality is involved. The king objects: then who gives the monks their robes, who lives righteously, who takes what is not his own, who lives an evil life? There would be neither merit nor demerit, and neither doer nor causer of good or evil deeds. Nagasena asks how the king came. By carriage. Is the chariot its pole, its axle, its wheels, all of them together, or something besides them? The king says no to each. Yet the word "chariot" is used on account of all the parts together, and in the same way "Nagasena" is used when the five constituent elements of being are present. He cites a saying of the nun Vajira.
“The king said: 'He who is born, Nâgasena, does he remain the same or become another?' 'Neither the same nor another.'”
“Just so, great king, deeds good or evil are done by this name-and-form and another is reborn. But that other is not thereby released from its deeds (its Karma).”
The bearer of the burden
In one discourse the Buddha calls the five grasping aggregates the burden: form, feeling, perception, choices and consciousness, the parts that Buddhism says make up a person. He then asks who carries it, and answers: the individual, the venerable of such name and such clan. Some Buddhists took such words to mean that a person is real. The Kathavatthu, the Theravada canon's book of disputed points, opens with a long debate against them. Its commentary names two of the eighteen early schools that held this view, the Vajjiputtakas and the Sammitiyas. In the debate, the Personalist, the side that holds the person is real, quotes the Buddha's words about beings who pass away and are reborn. The Theravadin replies: "Granting that the Exalted One said that which is quoted, is that a reason" to say the person is real? So both sides stood on the Buddha's words.
“And what is the burden? The five grasping aggregates, it should be said. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. This is called the burden. And who is the bearer of the burden? The individual, it should be said; the venerable of such name and such clan. This is called the bearer of the burden.”
“The five aggregates are indeed burdens, and the individual is the bearer of the burden.”
“Controverted Point.—That the 'person' is known in the sense of a real and ultimate fact.”
“Who among the eighteen schools of thought were Puggalavadins? In the Sasana the Vajjiputtakas and Sammitiyas, and many other teachers besides, not belonging to the Sasana.”
“P.—Surely then the person is known in the sense of a real and ultimate fact? Th.—Granting that the Exalted One said that which is quoted, is that a reason for affirming that the person is known in the sense of a real and ultimate fact?”
One man in every picture
Look at who stands before the king in each picture. The thief is one man, who took the mango and now argues his case. The man who left the fire burning is one man. So is the man who carried the lamp upstairs. Each is the same person who acted and who now answers. Earlier in the same book Nagasena asks whether the one who commits a crime is one person and the one who is punished another. The king says certainly not. Nagasena then says that a man is the same person from babyhood on, because all his states are held together in one by this body. These pictures work because they supply the sameness that rebirth does not have. On this teaching the new being is another. No body passes on, and no lasting self either. The texts name consciousness as a link. But when the monk Sati said it is "this very same consciousness" that passes on, the Buddha rejected the view. So the texts do not say that the same person passes on.
“Just so, great king, deeds good or evil are done by this name-and-form and another is reborn. But that other is not thereby released from its deeds (its Karma).”
After saying that the one reborn is neither the same nor another, Nagasena asks the king whether the baby he once was is the man he is now. The king says no. Nagasena asks whether the one who commits a crime is one person and the one who is punished for it another. The king says certainly not. Nagasena then says that he is the same person now as when he was a tiny baby, for all these states are included in one by means of this body. He gives the picture of a lamp that burns all night: the flame of the first watch is not the flame of the second, yet the light comes from the same lamp. So, he says, the continuity of a person or thing is maintained: one comes into being, another passes away, and the rebirth is as it were simultaneous.
"I did this"
Everyone knows what it is to say "I did this" and "this was done to me". Every court asks who did the deed, and every conscience answers with the same name: mine. Law and conscience both treat the doer as one person across time, and so does the king's answer to Nagasena. A teaching that has to explain this knowledge away takes on the burden of proof. To call the sense of self a habit of mind does not say who meets the result of the deed. Nor does calling it a name for a stream of events. Karma and rebirth need someone who did and someone who receives, and they need them to be one.
After saying that the one reborn is neither the same nor another, Nagasena asks the king whether the baby he once was is the man he is now. The king says no. Nagasena asks whether the one who commits a crime is one person and the one who is punished for it another. The king says certainly not. Nagasena then says that he is the same person now as when he was a tiny baby, for all these states are included in one by means of this body. He gives the picture of a lamp that burns all night: the flame of the first watch is not the flame of the second, yet the light comes from the same lamp. So, he says, the continuity of a person or thing is maintained: one comes into being, another passes away, and the rebirth is as it were simultaneous.
One person, raised and shown his own record
The Qur'an says the person who acted is the person who is brought back and shown what he did. His record is laid open and he is told to read it. His own hands and feet bear witness to what they did. Man is evidence against himself, and no soul bears another's burden. Even an atom's weight of good or evil is seen. The one who did the deed is the one who sees it. Nothing in this needs a thief who is not the thief.
“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.”
“Nay, man will be evidence against himself, Even though he were to put up his excuses.”
“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."”
“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.”
What carries the person: the soul that God (﷾) keeps
The Qur'an says Allah (﷾) takes the souls of men at death, and of the living during their sleep. Those on whom He has decreed death He keeps back. The rest He sends back to their bodies until an appointed term. Muslims say no more about the soul than God (﷾) has told them. The Qur'an also answers the man who asks who can give life to decayed bones: the One who created them the first time. So the person raised is not a copy made by another. He is the same person, brought back by the One who made him and kept his soul. The Qur'an adds that the soul has its wrong and its right made known to it, and that he succeeds who purifies it.
“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 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!-”
“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-”
“Truly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it!”
An invitation to look at the Qur'an
Who meets the result of a deed decides how a person should live. The Qur'an does not ask to be taken on trust. It says that had it come from anyone but God (﷾), much contradiction would be found in it. It says too that Muhammad (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind. Muslims ask every reader, Buddhists too, to look at the Qur'an and at the last Prophet who brought it. They ask him to weigh what it says about the self, the record and the return.
“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."”
Seven replies answered
Milindapanha 2.2.6 — The Questions of King Milinda, book II, chapter 2, question 6
“Just so, great king, deeds good or evil are done by this name-and-form and another is reborn. But that other is not thereby released from its deeds (its Karma).”
Cited for
Nagasena has already answered you. The one reborn is not released from his deeds just because he is reborn. The mango thief is guilty for the last mango that came from the first.
The response
The page gives that answer in full. But look at the picture. The thief, the man who left the fire burning and the man who carried the lamp are each one man, standing before the king. In the same book Nagasena asks whether the one who commits a crime is one person and the one who is punished another. The king says certainly not. Rebirth has no such man, since the new being is another.
Where it lands — The illustrations supply the sameness of person that rebirth, on this teaching, does not have.
Milindapanha 2.2.1 — The Questions of King Milinda, book II, chapter 2, question 1
“The king said: 'He who is born, Nâgasena, does he remain the same or become another?' 'Neither the same nor another.'”
Cited for
The man in court is no lasting self either. Nagasena says the baby and the grown man are neither the same nor another, yet the court punishes him. If that is enough within one life, it is enough across lives.
The response
Within one life, Nagasena grounds the sameness "by means of this body". The king agrees that the offender and the one punished are not two. Across lives no body passes on. The texts name consciousness, but the Buddha rejected the view that it is "this very same consciousness" that passes on (Majjhima Nikaya 38). The page "Is karma just?" takes up why that is not justice. In Islam the same person is shown his own record and owns it (17:14; 75:14).
Where it lands — Convention works within a life, where one body holds the person together. Rebirth removes that, and the Buddha denied that the same consciousness passes on.
Milindapanha 2.2.1 — The Questions of King Milinda, book II, chapter 2, question 1 (the baby, the crime and the lamp)
After saying that the one reborn is neither the same nor another, Nagasena asks the king whether the baby he once was is the man he is now. The king says no. Nagasena asks whether the one who commits a crime is one person and the one who is punished for it another. The king says certainly not. Nagasena then says that he is the same person now as when he was a tiny baby, for all these states are included in one by means of this body. He gives the picture of a lamp that burns all night: the flame of the first watch is not the flame of the second, yet the light comes from the same lamp. So, he says, the continuity of a person or thing is maintained: one comes into being, another passes away, and the rebirth is as it were simultaneous.
Cited for
Continuity is enough. One flame is lit from another and carries on. The stream of cause and effect carries the deed to its result.
The response
A flame is not blamed or rewarded. Nagasena himself holds that a man is one person across his life, "by means of this body". The king agrees that the offender and the one punished are not two. At rebirth no body passes on, and the texts affirm no lasting self that does. Islam says the one who acted is the one who reads the record and is told, "Read thine (own) record" (17:14).
Where it lands — Justice needs one who did the deed to meet its result, and a stream of events is not that one.
Samyutta Nikaya 22.59 — Linked Discourses, discourse 59 (The Characteristic of Not-Self)
“This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.”
Cited for
The self is an illusion. Each part of a person is not-self, so "I did this" is a habit of mind and not a fact about a lasting person.
The response
The texts say that nothing in a person is a lasting self, and the page does not say more. But each of us knows what it is to say "I did this". Every court and every conscience treats the doer as one person. A teaching that must explain that knowledge away carries the burden of proof, and it does not meet it by naming the knowledge a habit.
Where it lands — Experience and law both assume one doer. A teaching that denies it must show why they are wrong.
Samyutta Nikaya 44.10 — Linked Discourses, discourse 10 (With Ananda), the question and the silence
“"Worthy Gotama, does the self survive?" But when he said this, the Buddha kept silent. "Then does the self not survive?" But for a second time the Buddha kept silent.”
Cited for
The Buddha said nothing either way, and he never said the self does not survive. The texts also say every being is heir to his deeds, so they do say who receives the result.
The response
The texts do call every being the owner and heir of his deeds (Anguttara Nikaya 5.57; Majjhima Nikaya 135). But calling a being the heir does not say who the heir is. The Buddha kept silent on whether the self survives, so as not to side with the eternalists or the annihilationists (Samyutta Nikaya 44.10). The Qur'an names the heir: the person who acted is raised and told, "Read thine (own) record" (17:14). Man will be evidence against himself (75:14).
Where it lands — Calling a being the heir of his deeds does not say who the heir is. The Qur'an answers it.
Dhammapada 279 — The Path, verse 279
“All things are not-self— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”
Cited for
All things are not-self, and the wise see it and are freed from suffering. A soul that God keeps is only one more thing to cling to.
The response
The Dhammapada says all things are not-self, and the page quotes it as it stands. The question is whether that teaching can say who does a deed and who meets its result. The Qur'an says Allah (﷾) takes the soul at death and keeps it (39:42), and Muslims say no more about it than He has told them. It is a claim about what God (﷾) does, not a self that anyone holds for himself.
Where it lands — Islam does not ground the person in a self that clings to itself. It grounds him in the One who keeps the soul.
Qur'an 36:78-79 — Surat Ya Sin (Yaseen), verses 78-79
“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!-”
Cited for
Islam has the same problem. If a body rots and God rebuilds it, the one raised is a copy and not the one who lived.
The response
In Islam the person is not the body alone. Allah (﷾) takes the soul at death and keeps it (39:42), and the body is raised by the One who made it the first time (36:78-79). It is the same person whose hands and feet will bear witness to what they did (36:65). So the person raised is not a copy made by another, but the one who lived.
Where it lands — Identity is carried by the soul God (﷾) keeps, and the body is returned by the One who first made it.
Perspectives
Buddhist teaching (the Pali texts and a classic Theravada text)
A Buddhist reader may answer from the Pali texts and from the Milindapanha. Nothing in a person is a lasting self, and the Buddha kept silent on whether the self survives. Yet the one reborn is not freed from his deeds, and what continues is a stream of cause and effect. Islam's own picture of the raising of the dead is also questioned.
The Pali texts teach that form, feeling, perception, choices and consciousness are each not-self (Samyutta Nikaya 22.59; Dhammapada 279). Since nothing in a person is a lasting self, nothing lasting passes on, and yet deeds still bear fruit.
Rebuttal
Granted, and the page says no more than the texts. But then nothing lasting joins the one who acts to the one who receives. The Qur'an says God (﷾) takes the soul at death and keeps it (39:42).
In the Milindapanha, a classic Theravada text, the one reborn is neither the same nor another. Yet because he is reborn, he is not released from his deeds. The mango thief is guilty for the last mango that grew from the first (II.2.6).
Rebuttal
The thief in the picture is one man who stands before the king. In the same book Nagasena agrees it is not one man who offends and another who is punished. Rebirth has no such man.
Continuity is enough. As one flame is lit from another and carries on, so the stream of cause and effect carries the deed to its result. Nagasena gives the picture of a lamp.
Rebuttal
A flame has no mind that knows the deed was its own. Justice needs a someone, as the king's own answer shows. In Islam each soul reads its own record (17:14).
The self is an illusion. "I did this" is a habit of mind and a name for a stream of events, not a fact about a lasting person.
Rebuttal
Every court and every conscience treats the doer as one person. A teaching that must explain that knowledge away carries the burden of proof. Calling it a habit does not meet it.
The Pali texts say that beings are owners of their deeds and heir to their deeds (Anguttara Nikaya 5.57; Majjhima Nikaya 135). So the texts do say who receives the result.
Rebuttal
Granted. But calling a being the heir does not say who the heir is. The texts teach that nothing in a person is a lasting self. The Qur'an names him: the one who acted reads his own record (17:14).
The texts name what links the lives: consciousness, "conceived in the mother's womb" (Digha Nikaya 15). So rebirth is not without a link.
Rebuttal
Granted that the texts name a link. But when the monk Sati said it is "this very same consciousness" that passes on, the Buddha rejected the view (Majjhima Nikaya 38). A link of causes is not the one who did the deed.
The man in court is no lasting self either. Nagasena says the baby and the grown man are neither the same nor another, yet the court punishes him. If that is enough within one life, it is enough across lives.
Rebuttal
Within one life, Nagasena grounds the sameness "by means of this body". Across lives no body passes on. The texts name consciousness, but the Buddha rejected the view that it is "this very same consciousness" that passes on (MN 38). In Islam the same person is shown his own record (17:14; 75:14).
The Buddha kept silent when asked whether the self survives (Samyutta Nikaya 44.10). So the texts do not say that no one inherits the result of his deeds.
Rebuttal
Then the texts call a person the heir of his deeds but will not say whether anything of him survives to inherit. The Qur'an says it plainly: "Read thine (own) record" (17:14).
Some people say they remember earlier lives, and a Buddhist may take that as a sign of rebirth.
Rebuttal
The texts report remembered lives (Majjhima Nikaya 4) and still affirm no lasting self, so a memory does not tell who meets the deed's result. This page argues no case either way.
Islam has the same problem. If a body decays and God remakes it, the person raised is a copy and not the one who lived.
Rebuttal
In Islam the person is carried by the soul, which God (﷾) takes at death and keeps (39:42). The body is raised by the One who made it the first time (36:78-79).
When the Buddha calls the individual the bearer of the burden, he is using an everyday way of speaking. He does not mean that a lasting self is real.
Rebuttal
Then, on the very question of who bears the deed, the Buddha's own words say "the individual". His canon must then explain that he did not mean it. The Theravadin even had to grant that the Buddha said the words the Personalists quoted about beings who are reborn. The Qur'an says the one who acted is the one who bears it. Every soul's deeds fall on itself alone, and no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another.
The Islamic perspective
Karma and rebirth need a doer and a receiver who are one person. The Milindapanha's own pictures have one man in each. In the same book the king and Nagasena agree that the criminal and the punished are not two. In Islam the same person is raised and reads his own record. God (﷾) takes the soul and keeps it, and raises the body as He made it the first time. Muslims ask every reader to look at the Qur'an and at the last Prophet (ﷺ).
In each of Nagasena's pictures one man acts and the same man answers. They are the thief, the man who left a fire burning and the man who carried a lamp. Nagasena also agrees that it is not one who commits a crime and another who is punished. He says a man is the same person from babyhood "by means of this body".
The Pali texts teach that nothing in a person is a lasting self, and the Buddha kept silent on whether the self survives. They call each being heir to his deeds. Yet they cannot say what it is that inherits.
The Qur'an says the person who acted is raised, is shown his own record and is told to read it. His hands and feet bear witness, and man is evidence against himself.
Every soul draws the reward of its acts on itself alone. Even an atom's weight of good or evil will be seen.
Allah (﷾) takes the souls of men at death, and of the living in their sleep. He keeps back those whose death He has decreed. The soul has its wrong and its right made known to it. Muslims say no more about it than this.
The One who created man the first time gives life to decayed bones. So the person raised is the same person, not a copy.
The Qur'an asks to be examined, and Muhammad (ﷺ) was sent to all mankind.
The Qur'an says every soul draws the result of its acts on itself alone. No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another.