In this book, Ibn Qayyim talks about the subject of the soul in both the material world and in the Hereafter. He speaks about the spirits of the living and the dead. He mentions twenty-one important cases that include such subjects as the awareness of the dead of visits from the living, the meeting of the spirits of the dead and the living, the truth of dreams, the dead visiting each other and remembering their lives, the death of the spirit and its immortality, the torture or the bliss of the grave, the world of souls both in Heaven and in Hell, the difference between the soul and the spirit, and the status of the soul while asleep and awake and alive and dead.

He discusses the Barzakh (the world of the dead) and where the souls reside. He writes about other important subjects that cannot be found in any other book. That is why this scholar is still highly needed especially since people are in still dire need to know about themselves and their souls. People need to know about the relationship between the body and the soul and the destiny of the souls after death, but the fact remains that most people know nothing about all of these studies.

As always, Ibn Qayyim brings every proof from the Quran, the Sunnah, the consensus of the scholars, the traditions, and the sayings of the pious forefathers and those who followed them on the straight path. He supports his arguments with logic and evidence that agree with common sense.