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The soul is connected to the body in five different ways, to which different rules apply.
Its connection to the body as a fetus in his mother’s womb.

Its connection to the body after a person is born.

Its connection to the body when a person is asleep, when the soul is connected in one way and separated from it in another way.

Its connection to the body in the period between a person's death and the Day of Resurrection, when it has departed from the body and separated from it, but is not separated completely in such a way that there is no connection at all. There are ahaadeeth and reports which indicate that the soul is returned to the body when somebody sends the greeting of salaam to a deceased person. This returning is of a special nature which does not mean that the life is restored to the body before the Day of Resurrection.

Its connection to the body on the Day when bodies will be resurrected. This is the most perfect type of connection to the body, and has no comparison to the previous types, because after that the body will never die, sleep or have anything wrong with it.

When a person is asleep, his soul is in his body and he is alive, although his being alive is not the same as that of a person who is awake, for sleep is comparable to death. Similarly, when a dead person's soul is returned to his body (when the greeting is sent upon him), he is in a state between one who is alive and one who is dead, whose soul is not restored to his body. This is like the case of a sleeping person who is in a state between life and death.

The dualism between the body and soul is very clearly evident in the physical world. The body is subservient and the soul is in charge; however both are indispensable. It is just that the soul is the master while the body is the obedient servant. The body has its rights and its demands upon us. However what worth does the body have without the soul? It is a mere corpse, no matter how powerfully or beautifully it is constructed. If the soul departs from it, it becomes a wasted husk. Its beauty can only be realized in partnership with the soul. the soul is of different parts, it is a unity with all its parts working for one final end, happiness. While the plant soul, for example, serves a specific function, it also serves the powers that are higher than it in rank, the animal powers. Without nourishment, growth and reproduc­tion, the animal powers cannot perform their necessary functions. Similarly, while the function of the animal powers is to have sensation and movement, by performing this function they also promote the functions of the powers above them, the rational ones. The operations of the animal powers, especially those of the senses, are particularly important for the attainment of the final end. The external senses strip the forms from material objects and convey them to the internal senses. The more they are transferred internally, the less mixed with matter do they become. Since the innermost sense they reach is the imagina­tion, they are there in their purest material existence

sheshe, do you just make this stuff up?

What function does a rainbow serve?

There is more to life than concrete utility.

^ Win.

in the Greek New Testament the word for soul is "psyche", the same word used by Freud.

so what use is your psyche? without going into psychology, i would say that this is the center of who you are, the root of your feelings and your relation to the world.

then, the purpose of the soul would be the purpose of personal identity.

here is an interesting word study: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4njdHTBmJY