Spiritual Justice and Reincarnation

The following is a summary of an article titled “Spiritual Justice and Reincarnation,” by Dr. Ghazi Brax and published in “Dahesh Voice,” issue 4, March 1996:

Human life is full of strange occurrences that seem to be illogical as if it is contradicting the common understanding of Divine Justice. What certain children have done to deserve becoming orphans and homeless due to wars or natural disasters? How about the ones that are born into poor families and illiterate societies where they live their entire life in sadness and misery? Or, those who are born blind or paralyzed before they had a chance to do good or evil? What has the innocent done to deserve dying in wars? These questions and many others face most people on a daily basis. Some people would doubt Divine Justice and accept fate, some would resort to atheism, while others are unable to solve the mystery and refer to the saying: “We cannot fathom God’s Wisdom.” However, is it reasonable for God, Almighty to withhold his answer from the devout thinkers and believers? No, for God inspired the answer to the great philosophers, such as Pythagoras and Plato: human beings return to life on earth in many reincarnations and in situations directly related to the individual’s behavior and deeds. God also inspired Spiritual Guides with the same answer that became intrinsic into the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Sacred Text, and the Gospel of Buddha. God also inspired the answer to Lord Christ and to the Arab Messenger, where many references are made to reincarnation in the Gospels and the Holy Qu’ran. However, for some Spiritual reason, reincarnation in Christianity and Islam was not elaborated on. This however, did not prevent great thinkers and sects in both religions from believing in it, to include Origen, one of the fathers of the early Christian church.

The founder of Daheshism included in his four-volume book “Strange Stories and Wonderful Tales,” many stories that clarify the reasons for reincarnation and how it is administered. Dahesh assured us of its existence when he said: “The incidents of reincarnation in the stories that I have mentioned are not fictional, for I believe in reincarnation as much as I believe in my own existence. This means that any human being continues to come back to life on earth in order to be purified from his vices and to rid himself from his sins.” Dr. Brax gives many examples from these stories dividing them into two sections: Human being reincarnates into another human being and human being reincarnates into an animal. In this summary, it is sufficient to give only one example of each section.

Human Being Reincarnates into Another Human Being

In the story “Close Friendship Turns Hostile,” Jody receives an invitation from his friend, James, to visit him in London accompanied by anyone he desires to bring along. Jody accepts the invitation and selects his close friend, Alfred, to accompany him. The visit would be a good opportunity to test their friendship, because both Jody and Alfred compete in winning the heart of Suzie, the daughter of James. However, young Suzie seems to be attracted to Jody and not Alfred—something that bruises Alfred’s ego and makes him vindictive. After they have returned to their home in Mexico, Alfred takes advantage of Jody’s visit to his home by mixing a sedative in his glass of water, tying him, and then blinding him by goring his eyes with a hot skewer. This tragedy ends with Jody’s death and the killing of Alfred.

Many who have read about this story think that justice has been served by the killing of Alfred by Jody’s brother, however, Spiritual Justice is far from being served and insists on having the punishment to be of the same genre of the deed itself. Alfred, in committing the crime, had planted a specific evil seed and must harvest its fruit, so he reincarnates into a blind child. After Qatam had grown to be a young man, fate brought him in contact with another young man named Gerard, whom he considered to be a good friend. One day, a friend of Qatam’s mother visits her accompanied by her only daughter, Butterfly. Gerard falls in love with Butterfly and causes Qatam’s hatred and vindictiveness to be ignited, so he decides to poison his friend. However, before he had a chance to act on his thought, he had a dream whereby he was able to realize the reason behind his blindness, which is due to his goring of Jody’s eyes in a previous life and that Butterfly is Suzie. The shock on Qatam due to this realization is great—especially, when he used to complain a lot about God’s cruelty and injustice for being born blind—and he drinks the poison that he had prepared for his friend and dies.

Human Being Reincarnates into an Animal

It is not necessary for a human being to reincarnate after death into another human being. It is possible for a human being to reincarnate into an animal for several reasons, such as: an evil tendency or an intense desire that brings his Spiritual Fluids (Sayyals)—the psychological energies—to a Spiritual level that is specific to that of certain animals. Such transformation from human to animal is controlled by Spiritual Justice and in accordance with a precise Divine System.

In the story of “The Stray Dog,” Dr. Dahesh describes a skinny and hungry dog that is led to a butcher shop through his sharp sense of smell. The dog stood in front of the shop in humility, however, instead of having the butcher take pity on him by throwing him a bone, he started to beat him up with extreme cruelty and leading to bust the dogs’ skull and causing him to die. The founder of Daheshism confirms that animals possess a psychological life, just as human beings do and are able to understand, feel pain, sadness, and happiness. They are also responsible for their deeds and desires in accordance with the Spiritual System that governs their world. For this reason, torturing animals and attacking them is just like torturing and attacking human beings and the perpetrator will be held spiritually responsible.

Divine justice had it that the dog that was killed by the butcher reincarnated into a prince, while the Principal Spiritual Fluid (Sayyal) of the butcher to reincarnate into a dog. This pitiful dog had many deformities and ailments, such as: chopped tail, deaf, frail body, squinting eyes, and scabby skin. One day, the prince saw some kids beating this dog with sticks and stones, so he rescued him and ordered to have his wounds dressed up and to have him fed. However, the dog refused to eat, became very sad and tears fell from his eyes. The prince realized in a dream the secret behind this dog and told his relatives about it. They all ran towards the dog and saw him still weeping and made them believe in the truth of the dream. They were all puzzled when they saw the dog lick the hands of the prince, lay down in front of his feet, and then run up the stairs to the roof of the high palace and committed suicide. Why did the dog behave this way? The reason is known through Daheshism that animals are endowed by the Creating Force with a perception that makes them realize who they were in a previous life and the reason for them to be born as animals. However, as a merciful act by God, Almighty, the knowledge of previous lives is kept hidden from human beings.