Pre-Mortality in Mystical Islam and the Cosmic Journey of the Soul

Abstract

Cook discusses the notion of pre-mortality in mystical Islam and the cosmic journey of the soul. Islam has had its own intellectual, religious, and emotional interaction with the idea, but the concept of pre-mortality was ultimately consigned by mainstream Islam to the fringes of theological idiosyncrasy. Even so, the explanatory power of pre-mortality has provided a remarkably durable ontological coherence and symmetry for many Muslims across time.