Later Plotinos reconciled Plato's philosophy with religion under the teachings of neoplatonism. Thus, the idea of goodness as a divine virtue in sufism is probably carried over from neoplatonism. In both of these doctrines, the more the soul purifies itself from temporary passions, wishes and desires, the more harmonious it becomes with goodness. Both neoplatonism and sufism believe that death is a separation of body and soul. When a person dies, the soul as a divine essence does not die, and travels to another body while the body decomposes, decays and becomes earth again.
Death is a dissociation of two entities, the soul and the body.
This notion of creation is quite different from Orthodox Islamic belief of creation as coming to existence from nothing. According to this belief God created the universe, mankind, and all other living creatures from nothing but out of self-love. This belief is adopted by all monotheistic religions, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam which assume the existence of only one God, and it probably first originated in the Old Testament. Sufism, like neoplatonism, explains creation in a pantheistic fashion. Both sufism and neoplatonism claim that the soul can reach exaltation by passing through certain stages.