souls would remain perpetually poised for conflict, and chaos would prevail. Therefore, the greater good dictated that this privilege—the privilege of memory—be withheld to preserve the welfare of society, while God exacts the rights of the oppressed from the oppressor.

As for your second question: Yes, all souls inhabit these "garments" (bodies) as a second or third opportunity, and so on. Thus, souls can have no argument that they were only given a single chance, claiming that had they been given another, they would have repented and turned away from their error, disbelief, and injustice.

Dima Al-Sadr: "But how can souls realize that they have been given one or more opportunities if they do not remember anything to begin with?"

The Answer: Suppose that the idea is rejected by you, yet God—Exalted is His Might—blesses you with a child. When the child begins to speak, he tells you that he had another life and starts describing it to you. At first, you reject his words, but he persists in repeating the matter until his story becomes a haunting obsession. You then decide to verify what he is saying, and upon investigation, you find that your child was truthful in everything he said. At that point, would there be any room left for the mind to reject it?