Introduction
Not every soul that returns... returns with light.
While the Qur'an often speaks of the soul's return to Allah as a hopeful homecoming, it also documents a tragic phenomenon: those who forget how to return. These are not merely disbelievers or the ignorant. They are people who once had access to hikmah (wisdom), fitrah (primordial purity), and the signs of Allah—but chose to bury them under the weight of their own desires, arrogance, and heedlessness.
In this blog, we’ll walk through the anatomy of these lost souls—those whose hearts, eyes, and ears were created to guide them back to their Rabb, but ended up locked in self-worship, spiritual blindness, and eternal regret. Each verse of the Qur'an we reflect on here is a warning, a mirror, and a sorrowful testimony.
1. Surah Al-Jathiyah (45:23) — When Desires Become a God
"Have you seen the one who takes his own desire as his god, and Allah leaves him astray despite knowledge, seals his hearing and heart, and places over his vision a veil?"
Here lies the origin of spiritual collapse: nafs al-ammarah bis-su’ (the commanding self) is obeyed not as a weakness, but as a deity. This person follows their desires as if they are revelation. Even knowledge doesn’t save them—because knowledge without humility becomes fuel for pride.
The result? Allah seals the very tools of guidance: hearing, heart, and vision. The conscience is not absent; it's paralyzed.
2. Surah Al-Furqan (25:43–44) — Worse Than Cattle
"Have you seen the one who has taken his own desire as his god? Would you then be a guardian over him? Or do you think most of them hear or understand? They are like cattle. Rather, they are more astray."
This verse strikes deeper: those who reject guidance despite having faculties are likened to animals. But animals follow instinct. These souls violate their fitrah knowingly.
They didn’t just make mistakes; they suppressed their God-given capacity to see truth, feel truth, and return to it.
3. Surah Al-A'raf (7:179) — The Saddest Verse in the Qur'an
"We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle. Rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless."
This is not just a warning. It’s a Divine lament.
These are people who had everything: access to revelation, the inner compass of fitrah, the capability to reflect. But they chose to shut all channels of return.
And so, Allah didn’t blind them. They blinded themselves.
He didn't deafen them. They refused to listen.
Their return is still inevitable— but now, it is a forced unveiling, not a welcomed homecoming.
4. Surah Al-Kahf (18:57) — The Self-Forgotten Ones
"And who is more unjust than one who is reminded of the signs of his Lord but turns away from them, forgetting what his hands have sent ahead? Truly, We have placed veils over their hearts and deafness in their ears..."
This is the zulm (injustice) of willful ignorance. They aren't innocent. They were reminded. They knew. But they chose to forget.
And when a human forgets the weight of his own deeds... He forgets himself. And eventually, Allah allows the veil to descend.
5. Surah Taha (20:124–127) — Blind in the Afterlife
"But whoever turns away from My remembrance—indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will raise him on the Day of Resurrection blind." He will say: “My Lord, why have You raised me blind when I was once able to see?” [Allah] will say: "Thus did Our signs come to you, and you forgot them; and thus today you are forgotten."
This is Qur'anic symmetry at its most terrifying:
They turned away from dhikr (remembrance).
Allah turns away from them in the Akhirah.
They saw signs, but lived like they were blind.
So Allah resurrects them physically blind, a mirror of their inner state.
Their soul's return becomes a reckoning, not a reunion.
6. Surah As-Sajdah (32:22) — The Rejected Signs
"And who is more unjust than one who is reminded of the signs of his Lord, then turns away from them? Indeed, We shall take retribution from the criminals."
Every divine sign is a rope of return. Rejecting it is not just denial. It is criminality against the soul.
These people walk away from the very breadcrumbs that were meant to guide them back to Allah. Their crime is not disbelief by default. It is disbelief by choice.
7. Surah Al-Imran (3:102) — The Final Plea
"O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except in a state of submission."
This is not a threat. It's a plea of mercy. Because everyone will return to Allah. But not everyone will return as a Muslim.
And if the nafs, ego, or arrogance corrupts the soul to the point of forgetting how to return, then death doesn't find them prepared— they are caught in heedlessness.
The result? A soul that doesn't return with honor, but in chains.
Conclusion: A Final Reminder
These Qur'anic verses aren’t random. Together, they describe a terrifying anatomy of the soul that collapsed from the inside:
The conscience was strangled.
The fitrah was silenced.
The dhikr was abandoned.
The signs were ignored.
The return was forgotten.
But here you are, reading, reflecting & remembering.
And as you read it this far, that simply means your return is still alive. Your heart is still open to the divine Truth stated by Allah.
So protect it. Feed it dhikr. Clean it with tawbah. Surround it with du’a. And never, ever let it forget... how to return.
"Inna ila Rabbika ar-ruj'aa."
"Indeed, to your Lord is the final return." (Surah Al-‘Alaq 96:8)
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