section_path: Beliefs/Theology and practices/Reincarnation
section_name: Reincarnation
paragraph_text: Reincarnation
  
  Alawites hold that they were originally stars or divine lights that were cast out of heaven through disobedience and must undergo repeated reincarnation (or metempsychosis) before returning to heaven. According to Alawite beliefs, females are excluded from re-incarnation.
  
  Alawite theologians divided history into seven eras, associating each era with one of the seven re-incarnations of the Alawite Trinity (Ma'na, Ism, Bab). The seven re-incarnations of the Trinity in the Alawite faith can be summarized in the following table.
  
  The last triad of reincarnations in the Nusayri Trinity consists of Ali (Ma'na), Muhammad (Ism), and Salman al-Farsi (Bab). Alawites depict them as the sky, the sun, and the moon, respectively. They deify Ali as the "last and supreme manifestation of God" who built the universe, attributing him with divine superiority and believing that Ali created Muhammad, bestowing upon him the mission to spread Qur'anic teachings on earth.
  
  The Israeli institution of Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies describes the Alawite faith as Judeophilic and " anti-Sunni " since they believe that God's incarnations consist of Israelite Prophet Joshua who conquered Canaan, in addition to the fourth Caliph, Ali. This institution also denies the Arab ethnicity of Alawites even though Alawites themselves self-identify ethnically as Arabs and assert that Alawites claim to be Arabs because of "political expediency."