Concerning thy question whether all the souls enjoy eternal life: Know
thou those souls partake of the eternal life in whom the spirit of life is
breathed from the Presence of God and all beside them are dead--without
life, as Christ hath explained in the texts of the Gospel. Any person
whose insight is opened by God seeth the souls in their stations after the
disintegration of the bodies. Verily they are living and are subsisting
before their Lord and he seeth also the dead souls submerged in the gulfs
of mortality. Then know thou verily all the souls are created according to
the nature of God and all are in the state of purity at the time of their
births. But afterward they differ from one another insofar as they acquire
excellencies or defects. Nevertheless, the creatures have different
degrees in existence insofar as the creation goes, for capacities are
different, but all of them are good and pure, then afterward they are
polluted and defiled. Although there are different states of creation, yet
all of them are beneficial. Glance thou over the temple of man, its
members and its parts. Among them there are the eye, ear, nose, mouth,
hands and fingers. Notwithstanding the differences between these organs,
all of them are useful in their proper spheres. But if one of them is out
of order, there is need of a remedy and if the medicine does not heal,
then the amputation of that member becomes necessary.