We have explained in previous articles on the concept of reincarnation and transmigration of the soul. However, it is not only possible that a soul may incarnate to the human body, but it is also possible that the soul can incarnate from the soul of the human body to the body of an animal. This phenomenon is called Maskh, we find this being mentioned in Eastern religions as well as in the Quran as well as many narrations from the Ahlul Bayt (From Them Is Peace).
For example, in the Holy Qur’an it states,
“So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised.” - The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 7 (Al-Araf), Verse 166
There are similar verses where it says,
‘Say: "Shall I inform you of something worse than that, regarding the recompense from Allah: those who incurred the Curse of Allah and His Wrath, those of whom He transformed into monkeys and swines, those who worshipped Taghut; such are worse in rank, and far more astray from the Right Path." - The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 5 (Al-Ma'idah), Verse 60
And you had already known about those who transgressed among you concerning the sabbath, and We said to them, "Be apes, despised." - The Holy Qur'ran, Chapter 2 (Al-Baqarah), Verse 65
The majority of Muslims consider this to be an instant literal transformation which occurs, whereby the human being shapeshifts into an animal due to a curse from God. However, it actually means that they were punished and in their next incarnation their souls dwelled in the bodies of apes and pigs.
My father narrated to me, from Ali Bin Ibrahim, from his father, from Ismail ibn Mahran, from Mohammed ibn Al-Hassan ibn A’alan who said, ‘I asked Abu Al-Hassan (PBUH) about the mutants, so he (PBUH) said:
‘There are twelve types and there are reasons for them. So, as for the elephant, so it was metamorphose because it was an adulterous king, a sodomist. And the bear was metamorphosed because it was an effeminate man (inviting other man to himself). And the rabbits have been metamorphosed because she was a woman who betrayed her husband, and did not used to wash from menstruation, nor sexual impurity.
And the bat was metamorphosed because he used to steal the date of the people. And Saheyl (a sea creature) was metamorphosed because he was collecting taxes (unlawfully) at Al-Yemen. And Al-Zohra (a sea creature) was metamorphosed because she was the one by whom Harout and Marout were bewitched by. And as for the monkey and the pigs, so they were a people from the Children of Israel who exceeded with regards to the Sabbath.
And as for the common basilisk (sea lizard) and the (land) lizard so these were a sect from the Children of Israel, when the meal descended upon Isa (pbuh), they did not believe in it, so they strayed. Thus, a sect fell into the sea, and a sect upon the land. And as for the scorpion, so it was a scandal mongering man. And as for the wasp, it was a butcher who stole with regards to the weighing’.
– Ilal Al-Shara’i’, Al-Shaikh Al-Saduq, Vol. 2, Part 6, Chapter 239, Hadith 1
We find another narration where Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) saying,
“....And as for the monkey, so there were Jews who had exceeded the Sabbath; and as for the pigs, so they were Christians, who had asked for the meal (from Prophet Jesus PBUH), so after it had descended, they were intense in their belying it.”
– Ilal Al-Shara’i’, Al-Shaikh Al-Saduq, Vol.2 , Part 6, Chapter 239, Hadith 2
There is another verse where it says,
"There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but are nations like you." (The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 6 (Al-An'am), Verse 38) The Knowledgeable One said, “That means that every single animal which moves on the Earth and in the Heaven were nations before you.”
- Al-Haft Al-Shareef, Al-Mufaddel ibn Omar Al-Jofi, Translated by Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace), Door 24, p. 113
We not only have the concept of Maskh in Islam, we have the context of Naskh, Faskh, and Raskh.
Raskh is the transmigration of the human soul from a human to an inanimate object such as a rock or stone and Faskh is the transmigration of the human soul from a human to a plant or tree.
An example of Raskh is in the Quran where it says,
“And they say, "When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we be resurrected as a new creation?" Say, "Be you stones or iron” - The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 17 (Al-Isra), Verse 49-50
This is a clear example of people who will be stones and iron in their next incarnation
We would also like to state that not every single animal that you see is a Maskh.
The Imam (From Him is Peace) has also said, “When the human incarnates as a Maskh, let’s say a sheep or a cat, when the human incarnates as an animal, nothing is erased from its memory, it remembers so that it is a punishment upon it.” - The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace), Door 26 (Maskh and the Wonders of the Animal Kingdom), p. 323
One of the questions non-Muslims ask is why slaughtering and eating meat is permissible and the truth is that the slaughtering of the animal is actually karma being done upon the soul of that animal. Imam Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) explains in the book Al-Haft Al-Shareef,
"And what Allah sent upon the disbelievers is not but due to the sins that came from the disbeliever towards the believer of humiliation and killings and slaughters. And the believer had held his tongue back from the disbeliever because he cannot defend himself, so it was made incumbent upon the disbeliever due to what had come from him before of disbelief and rejection and denial of the truth and its people.
So Allah punishes him swiftly with what you see of the torture of his spirit and its incarnation into everything that differs from the human image, of cows and sheep and camels and beasts and birds and insects. And everything that has a spirit/soul and that stomps and moves and is slaughtered and killed, and all that is ridden and terrible, are Maskh and Naskh.
Whatever is eaten from it is Naskh and what is not eaten from it is Maskh. Punishment has befallen him and great shame, as previously mentioned, such as that which he experienced in Naskh of being slaughtered and eaten, and that is all justice from Allah the Almighty, for Allah said,
‘And indeed We will make them taste the smaller punishment.’ (The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 32 (Al-Sajdah), Verse 21)
Meaning, the disbelievers’ spirits/souls who reject the truth and its people. That is the completion of their disbelief when Allah removes their souls/spirits from their bodies that you see them in and places them in the degenerated bodies of Maskh according to Allah’s words,
‘O man! What has deceived you away from your Lord, the Most Beneficent? The one Who created you, then molded you, then made you proper? He placed you into any shape He willed. Nay! Rather you deny that which is your religion!’ (The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 82 (Al-Infitar) Verse 6-9)
Religion is the Prince of the Believers."
- Al-Haft Al-Shareef, Al-Mufaddel ibn Omar Al-Jofi, Translated by Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace), Door 24, p. 113
And in the Goal of the Wise, Aba Al Sadiq said to the Imam (From Him is Peace),
“There is a Shiite doctor who is a representative of Sistani in Pakistan. He is saying that he has a question which he has wondered about for a very long time, and no one has been able to answer it adequately. The question is, why does God need us to slaughter and sacrifice animals to Him?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “I shall answer this question, the reason is because these animals were in the past human beings. And they were disbelievers in God and God turned them into Maskh, turning them into animals such as sheep and cows and calves and other than that. And slaughtering them as sacrifices to God is vengeance against them in the name of the Great Avenger, and on the other hand, it is a great mercy to them. The slaughtering washes away its sins in the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, and the believer comes closer to God by this act. And you find many times the animal is in a state of submission during the slaughtering process, especially the sheep, when you place the knife on its throat it submits because it knows that the time has come for judgment, and all praises are due to God, Lord of the Worlds.” - The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) Door 26 (Maskh and the Wonders of the Animal Kingdom), p.322
There is another reason why a human being would be reincarnated as an animal.
In the episode called, Does God Turn People Into Animals? Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him Is Peace) said,
“You will incarnate as an animal because your deeds and your life as having been lived as a human being no longer requires you to have the body of a human being to fulfill those things that you are interested in fulfilling. So for example if you have a person who's just a mass murder, he just wants to murder all the time or you have a person who just wants to eat all the time, well you don't need a human body to fulfill that. Human bodies were meant for Spiritual elevation. So if you're not going to use your body for Spiritual elevation and you're just going to use it for the purpose of fulfilling worldly pleasures or bodily pleasures, well you can do that, God believes that you can do that with a different type of body a different type of body actually might be more adequate for you in order that you may achieve your goals. Because clearly you're not interested in the intellect, you're not interested in the spirit and so you're only interested in lowly desires and things of this nature so you could do that. You can eat as much as you want for example in the body of a pig or you can kill as much as you want in the body of a lion etcetera.”