Beyond Death
In early 2019 a young Iranian cleric, Ḥujjat al-Islām Muṣṭafā Amīnīkhāh, spent about thirty-nine sessions with university students reading a Persian book of three near-death accounts, Ān sūy-e marg, and explaining what they mean in the light of the Qurʾān, the Imams' sayings and the philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā. Two question-and-answer sessions followed in early 2020.
This site gathers the whole series: an English summary and the Persian transcript of every session, a link to each lecture's audio, and short essays on the speaker and on near-death experiences (NDEs) in Iran. Together the lectures are a long, candid statement of how a seminary-trained, Ṣadrian-leaning cleric with ties to the Leader's office understands NDEs.
- Sessions
- 41
- Accounts
- 3
- Delivered
- 2019–20
- Persian text
- 150,000 words
The series
| Sessions | What they cover |
|---|---|
| 1–5 | A woman who, in a coma after strokes and a cardiac arrest, is visited by a figure of light and recovers. |
| 6–15 | An engineer who leaves his body twice, sees spirits and devils over his city, and meets his dead brother and mother. |
| 16–39 | A university lecturer who passes through a tunnel to a valley where he must answer for wrongs to other people, and is given another chance after forgiving a debt. |
| 40–41 | Questions and answers: sorcery, the rights of others, the appearance of the Imam of the Age and more. |
Between the stories Amīnīkhāh teaches on the barzakh (the world between death and resurrection), the "imaginal world", the meaning of light, the rights of other people, and why the goal is God and not paradise.
Where to begin
- 1Session 1: From the hospital bed to the levels of MalakutThe opening: why the material is not for everyone, what existing books leave out, and the first account, a heart-attack experience.
- 6Session 6: The flight of the soul and passing through the door of the houseThe start of the engineer's story, a building engineer who experienced death twice.
- 16Session 16: The road, the headache and the gates of another worldThe start of the doctor's story. Unlike the first two narrators he dies badly.
- 40Session 40: Questions and answers, part 1Held after the book was finished: the reach of the series, how rights of others can be settled, and listeners' written questions.
Themes and where to find them
| Theme | Sessions |
|---|---|
| The imaginal body and imaginal world | 6, 7, 9, 22 |
| Deed and doer are one | 17, 18, 22, 27 |
| Time in the barzakh | 10, 17, 22 |
| Substantial motion and the absence of decay | 10, 25, 28, 30 |
| The soul and the body | 28 |
| The rights of others | 19, 20, 40 |
| Tawḥīd and shirk | 37 |
| Paradise is not the goal | 4, 25 |
| Attachment and barzakhi suffering | 8, 14 |
| Certainty (yaqīn) as the purpose | 39 |
| Reincarnation, rejected | 11, 41 |
| Dreams and visions as evidence | 41 |
The theme list follows the synthesis on His reading of NDEs, which gives the argument for each.
Read further
- 01The speakerWho he is, what he teaches and how
- 02NDEs in IranA short review of the research literature, with references
- 03His reading of NDEsA synthesis of the lecturer's Ṣadrian interpretation
- 04All sessionsThe full list of forty-one, with Persian titles
Watch
Ḥujjat al-Islām Muṣṭafā Amīnīkhāh lecturing on Ān sūy-e marg (video from the series, on YouTube, uploaded by the channel Jan-e Kalam). Watch on YouTube.
About the materials
The lectures and Persian transcripts are © Ḥujjat al-Islām Muṣṭafā Amīnīkhāh (aminikhaah.ir). The English summaries, essays and this site are © 2026 Abdullah Ansar. The summaries are not translations: they follow each lecture and were prepared with AI assistance, checked against the Persian. About this site.