The Soul
It is obligatory to believe in the soul. It is a subtle body; no one knows its reality except Allah. Allah Made the norm that life is sustained in the bodies of angels, humans, jinn and animals as long as that subtle body is with them, and life will depart them if it departed those bodies.
It is created; it is not eternal. Whoever says it is eternal and not created has blasphemed, and likewise whoever says the animals have no souls, like what was said by Muhammad Mutawalli Ash-Sha^rawiyy in his two books; one of them is a book of tafsir and the other is a book of fatwas. That is contradicting the Qur’an and is objection to what is witnessed.[1] Allah the Exalted Said,
﴿وَإِذَا الْوُحُوشُ حُشِرَتْ﴾
[which means] “…and on the Day of Judgment, when the beasts will be gathered…” and the Messenger of Allah said:
لَتُؤَدَّنَّ الحُقوقُ إلى أهْلِها يَومَ القِيامةِ حَتّى يُقادَ لِلشَّاةِ الجَلْحاءِ مِنَ الشَّاةِ القَرْناءِ
[which means] “Certainly the rights will be given to those who deserve them on Judgment Day, to the extent that it would be granted to the hornless sheep over the horned sheep that butted him.”
[1] i.e., the difference between the dead and the living.