Aisha (ra)
Bismillahi rahmani Raheem, assalamu alaikum.
This is a subject Rasul Allah (saws) taught us, I first encountered it in the works of Imam Ghazali when he explained the punishment in the grave and it stayed with me for many years after until we received our answers from the prophet (saws).
Imam Ghazali explained that man will be “stuck” with his nature in the grave constantly being punished by what he lusted after in life, like a person fasting from something desires it but cannot have it his object of desire will torment him.
The Imam explained this occurs because the soul has left the body so the person is left with how he shaped his soul in life:
“by the soul and how He formed it and inspired it to know (its own) right and wrong (rebellion and piety), Truly he succeeds that purifies it, and the one who corrupts it fails.” (Surah Al Shams, 91)
Beyond this we learned from Imam Ibn Arabi who explained in the akhira development in Jannah is slower than on earth because in Jannah the soul is dominant while on earth the body is, it is the reason Allah placed man on earth and took his spiritual sight from him, so he can learn to see ghayb like a blind person would need to learn see the world around him with his other senses.
Hence Allah wanted us to develop our physical senses, so there is proper balance between the spiritual and physical parts of us, because in Jannah they are dominated by the spiritual ones but after this life they will be tempered by our earthly experiences and knowledge.
Rasul Allah (saws) explained to us that when the soul leaves the body its light by comparison to the human body is like it is almost withdrawn into itself, it does not stretch out to sense (the universe) and gather information as easily as it does in the human body whose light stretches out before it up to 10 feet away (the degree to which scientific instruments can measure).
Allah mentions this in the Quran;
“O you who believe! Turn to God in sincere and reforming repentance. It is hoped that your Lord will blot your evil deeds from you and admit you into Gardens through which rivers flow, on a Day when God will not disgrace nor disappoint the Prophet and those who believe in his company. Their light will shine and spread before them (the difference is on this day Allah has removed from you the Barzakh/veil stopping you from seeing it), and on their right hands, as they say: “Our Lord! Perfect our light, and forgive us. Surely You have full power over everything!”” (66:8)
The soul on its own is limited because while it is in the human body it is connected to the systems of our physiology and they amplify its abilities. In physics there is something called coherence of waves, this is how well information is passed on from one “light” to another, one electromagnetic field to another, in the body you have the light of soul, the light of the heart, the light of the brain and the light of the body itself.
These are all produced by the bodies nervous system in the brain, heart and body, on top of this the prophet (saws) explained in a hadith there is an inner most light inside the heart called the light of Harmony/Uns (responsible for tawheed or centering a person).
The light of the soul connects and uses all of these lights (electromagnetic fields) in the body to see the universe with, just like a mobile phone sends and receives signals from a mobile phone tower, it connects with these lights (senses) and receives and sends information from the body.
So when the soul leaves the body it no longer has the heart, brain and body to help it learn and develop.
“And Allah brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and hearts that haply ye might give thanks.” (16:78)
This is what Allah is referring to in this verse, its significance, spiritual creatures don’t have bodies like the human body and so their spiritual state of existence is dominant over their faculties.
This is what I was shown by Rasul Allah (saws); people departed from this world they can only learn by experiencing something directly and taking knowledge after events occurred (or as they are occurring), while a living person can hypothesis, think, propose, deduce, deduct and guess at outcomes and take knowledge from all of that because they are functions of the bodies systems and organs.
All of this is why the scholars said Angels have no Imagination they see what is, likewise those departed have no imagination and cannot use that faculty, Jinn on the other hand are creatures of Maskh, deception and delusion, but rather than it being based on their imagination, considering what you see from them, it is based on their lies and how that shapes their nature, the term “stuck in their lies” best describes this.
In all of this is an explanation of what Imam Ibn Arabi said about development in Jannah being slower in the Akhira, but then we will have the rest of eternity to learn what we like.
On the other hand Sayidinah Adam (as) had an enemy to contend with so Allah tested Him with the tree to see if it would focus and sharpen His (as) instincts, in the end it was not enough and it proved mankind would need more. Iblis only proved stronger because Adam |(as) was just born and had not developed on earth like Iblis had beforehand before Allah raised him into Jannah.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.