This letter, written to Mawlânâ Sâdiq Kishmîrî, explains that souls can take the shapes of objects and that metempsychosis is not true:
I thank Allâhu ta’âlâ and I invoke a blessing on you. We have received your kind letter. We have been pleased to know about the beautiful states you have been in. “I have been understanding Allâhu ta’âlâ beyond mind, knowledge, kashf, findings, and beyond the beyonds. So much so that I cannot believe that His attributes are together with Him. I have been understanding Him as far from anything, any being,” you say. This pleases us so much.
Question: It is written in the book Rashahât that Bâbâ Âbrîz said, “Before there was any man on the earth, when Allâhu ta’âlâ willed the kneading of Hadrat Adam’s clay, I poured water into the clay.” You ask what he means by saying so.
Answer: Hadrat Adam’s clay was kneaded by angels. It is understood that as this task was assigned to angels, so Bâbâ Âbrîz’s soul was assigned the task of pouring water. When his own body came to the world or, rather, when he reached perfection, he was informed that his soul had done the task. It is possible for Allâhu ta’âlâ to give souls the power of taking the shapes of objects and acting like the living before entering their bodies or after leaving their bodies.
Some great men of dîn stated that they had done important great duties centuries before they had come to the world; these events happened in the same manner. That is, their souls did these deeds without bodies, and they were informed of the task after coming to the world.
Some people have considered souls acting in the shapes of objects as metempsychosis. It is never, never metempsychosis. That is, souls have not entered other bodies. This case has engendered perdition for many ignorant people. Much is there to write on it. Bewildering pieces of information have been coming to my heart. I will write about them if Allah should will it. I have no time to write now. Inshâ-Allah, it will fall to my lot to write.
I send my salâm and benedictions.