WHAT IS THE SPIRIT (VERSE NO. 85)

      Commentators have had very long discussions about this verse (NO.85) in general, and about Man's ``SPIRIT'', or what is called the, ``SOUL'' in particular.

      In our comments we shall begin to explain the literal meaning of the word, then we shall see how the word is used in Qurän; and finally will give our comments:ِ

1ِ The Arabic, ``ROOH'' and, ``RIH'' which means, ``WIND'' both are from the same root. It has many connotations and shades of meaning, like, RÄHAT=COMFORT, HAPPINESS, KINDNESS, INSPIRATION, HOLY SPIRIT, GOD'S AID, FINE, MERCURY and etc.

      Therefore, if the Spirit of Man which is an independent, and incorporeal created essence is called ROOH, it is due to its similarity with the wind, in movement, life inducing, invisibility, and etc.

2ِ

      A) The word, ``ROOH'' has been used in Qurän in a various way to bear a diversity of meanings:ِ

      In S 2:253, it is used to show the HOLY SPIRIT which came from God to strengthen the Apostles in their missions;ِ

      ``And those Messengers We have exalted; some above the athers. Among them are some to whom Allah spoke. (MOSES THE INTERLOCUTOR) Others He raised in grades, and We gave Jesus the son of MARY, evidences, and We strengthened him with the Holy Spirit.''

      B) In some passages it is used to mean SPIRITUAL POWER by which Allah strengthens the believers, e.g. in S 52:22;ِ

      ``They are those on whose heart, the faith is written, and Allah has strengthened them with a SPIRIT from Himself.''

      C) Sometimes it is used in Qurän to illustrate the angel of inspiration as in, S 26:193:ِ

      ``This is a revelation from the Lord of the world, with which comes down the Trustworthy Spirit.''

 

      D) In other cases it is used to imply an Arch angel such as Gabriel, as we read in S 97:4:ِ

      ``There comes down in the night of Ghadr, the angels and the SPIRIT, by Allah's permission, on every affair.''

      The verse implies that the Spirit (GABRIEL) does not come down of his own accord. He, in accompany with the other angels, come down to dispose every affair of Man.

      E) And finally the word may mean the soul, or the life bearing Spirit which God has blown it to Man. An instance of this is found in S 32:9:ِ

      ``He fashioned Man in due proportion and breathed into him of His Spirit.''

3ِ We now come to know what the word, ``ROOH'' that is translated to, ``SPIRIT'' may mean in the verse under our discussion. (NO.85) In other word, find the answer that what sort of a ROOH was the object of their question from our prophet?

      All evidences prove that the questioners wanted to know what sort of a creature is the SPIRIT, or the SOUL of Man, which distinguishes him from other animals. What is the intelligent power which is the main source and the foundation of all our faculties, such as the wisdom, memory, knowledge, seeing, hearing, decision, love, faith, and etc.?

      The Spirit has a structure which is different from that of our material body, and the laws and regulations that govern the Spirit are not similar to the laws that govern the body, and what we know about our soul is indeed very little, to compare it to what we must come to know.

      Therefore our prophet is instructed to answer:ِ

      ``The Spirit is of the order of my Lord, and you are not given of knowledge, but a little.''

      So the Spirit is one of the high mysteries which cannot be explained in our physical and material terms. Imam Sadiq (AS) has said:ِ ``Rooh is a creature created by God, which has power and can see. It belongs to the kingdom of heavens.''

      Although our Spirit is nearer to us than everything else, we know very little about it. Our knowledge of past and present have not given us enough information about our ownself and soul. We cannot yet answer even to some of the fundamental question about our Spirit like;ِ Of what sort of material is it made of. Or how is its structural form?

      Inspite of all the mysteries of the Spirit, and so many unanswered questions about it, we are not very stranger with the matter, that no one denies that a fact or an entity which is named Spirit exists in us, or we exist in it.

OUR SOUL, THE IMMATERIAL ENTITY

      HAZRAT AYATULLAH-AL-OZMÄ MAKÄREM has a long discussion about Man's Soul in his great Example Commentary, a summary of which I have quoted and translated in the above passage. The whole commentary needs a great amount of knowledge to understand, and a high skill to translate.

      On the other hand, my style in this translation and all the books that I have written and published, has been to write the most complex matters that I may understand, in the simplest possible language. This is because my aim is to write for the common people, and not for the learned and scholars. I therefore left the translation of the article about Spirit for an expert and skilled translator that I hope will in future translate the complete work of his holiness. But in order to fill up the vacancy of the matter, in the following Translator's Note, our dear readers will have the results of my own studies in the field of the Spirit, and the views of some of the Persian Great scholars and philosophers, like FARABI and AVICENNA.

(1)

      Our soul is an inmaterial entity, distinguishable from, and superior to our body. It is the animating principle, and actuating cause of life, manifested in thinking, willing, and knowing. The Soul is a substance of the spiritual world, which takes no form, and cannot be pointed out. It has no motion or repose. It can perceive that which is lost, and conceive that which is expected. The Soul goes to sightseeing in the kingdom of heavens. We do not know much about it, as the knowledge that has been vouchsafed to us is only a little. The wisdom may reach the Soul, but imagination never.

 

 

(2)THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL AND SEPARABLE FROM THE BODY

      There are so many reasons by which we prove that Man's Soul is immortal and separable from his body. Some of the reasons that are given to prove the proposition by Persian Scholars Like FARÄBI and AVICENNA; SHAIKH ESHRÄGH, and other philosophers are as follows:ِ

      Aِ No one can forget his own very self, which is his soul; but every one does forget his body, and most of his organs. There are some organs in our body, that we may never know them in the whole life; but we know the self all the times, and we can never forget that we are, and we exist, in any condition! This fact proves that the Soul and the Body are two different and two separate entities.

      Bِ Our material body has some function that matter and material is not able to accomplish them. Our intellect, and understanding, for instance, are not the function of Matter. How can a stone or a piece of gold or any other material understand, think, and distinguish and finally decide!? Therefore it follows that the Soul is something other than the body.

      Cِ The body changes all the time. No one is like his childhood. The body changes all the time but the self never changes! Yes! You old man are that boy who....

      There are millions of billions of cells in our body. The red blood cells number to some twenty-five trillions, and yet each one of us has been originated as a single cell, or what they call it a fertilized egg. It was from this single egg that all our cells were then derived by a process of cleavage, or division!

      Cells are continually dying and being replaced in our body. Millions of dead cells are washed from the surface of the skin, every time we bathe. It has been scientifically estimated that during every second of our life ten millions of our red cells die, and are replaced by the new ones!

      It follows therefore, that our body is periodically dying a natural death, and is then revived! Thus far in your life, you have died a natural death so many times, and your old body has been perished, and replaced with a new one, and you have always been yourself without any change!

      Doesn't this change of our body prove that we are not the body, and that our body is only a veil upon us, or something like our clothes that are easily replaced?

      Dِ If all the organs of the body; like the heart, the head, the lungs, the limbs and etc., be replaced with that of another person, still the self and personality of the donor and acceptor will remain fixed and unchanged!

      Eِ A material body will never take a new form, unless the old form is destroyed. But the mind takes one form upon another up to millions of new forms, and retains the original forms as they are introduced to it.

      Millions of forms of knowledge, memories, poetries, and observances, are stored, and piled up, in your mind with their original forms all preserved; and you may remember and distinguish them whenever you want. This also proves that the mind and the material body are different substances.

      Fِ No material body can comprehend itself, but the self of Man does! A hand, for example, can never know its condition of being hot or cold, long or short, white or black; but, the soul does comprehend its existence; which is a proof that the soul is something other than the body.

 

      Gِ Too much work wears out every material instrument, and in particular the body organs, but will refresh the soul and renew its power for continuous working. Gaze at the sun for a while; and your eyes shall get temporarily blind, but the more you think, the more you will know, and the stronger your mental power shall become! This also can prove that our mind and body are two different substances.

 

 

(3)HYPNOSIS

      By hypnosis one easily prove that the ``self'' is not the body.

      Hypnosis is a psychological state of altered attention and awareness in which the individual is usually receptive and responsive to suggestions.

      The outstanding characteristic of the hypnotic state is the suggestibility of the object. He readily accepts and responds to ideas offered by the hypnotist. He may even carry out suggestions offered to him while in hypnosis sometimes after he emerges from the hypnotized state!

      Psychiatrists use hypnosis to enable the patients to recall early painful or happy experiences that he may otherwise not recall.

      Hypnosis has also been used in surgery. It is also used to overcome undesirable habits such as smoking, overeating, and nail-biting.

      I have seen myself, hypnotizers who have made their objects absolutely soul-less! They concentrated all the sensations and emotions of object into another pieces of a material body. Therefore, when the body of their object was severely pinched or harmed, by say a pin, or a nail, the object felt no pain! But when the material body, say a handkerchief, in which the object's soul was concentrated, was pinched or pinned, the object really suffered the pain!

      I have also seen myself persons that practise asceticism such as the Indian Fakirs. They do incredible things! For instance they thrust nails and bars in every point of their bodies, including their heads and their faces! And even in their eyes. They then drive the nail out, and prevent any blood shed with the help of their spit! When you ask them about it they answer:ِ ``We do not live with our body. We rather live with our God, and our soul. It is the self that makes our body. The body does not make the self.''

 

(4)TELEPATHY

      The thought transference which is known as TELEPATHY, is another reason to show that the body and mind are two different substances. Telepathy is apparent communication from one mind to another, otherwise than through the channel of senses. There are many persons who can transfer their thoughts to some other who is far away. There are also persons who can see the absent, or who can read the others mind.

 

(5)TRUE DREAMS

      True dreams that are conformable to facts and reality, are among the reasons to prove the distinction of the soul from body. As a matter of fact, the soul leaves the body during sleep, and participates in the dream activity.

      That, which Freud considered the dream to be an expression of our suppressed wishes, or the outcome of unresolved problems arising in real life, does not explain the existence of True Dreams; or the dreams that come to pass exactly as they were dreamt.

      Many a time, a person dreams of something unknown to him, and yet the dream comes to pass a couple of years later more or less.

      Once I myself dreamt of a house of three stories, situated in another city with such a special form that I had never thought of. There were two young girls in a certain place of the house, one of them known and the other unknown to me. I tried to catch the one I knew but I failed.

      Two years later it happened that I went to that city, and to that very house, and things happened to be as I saw them in my dream a hundred percent true!

      Almost all people have had some sort of a true dream that have come to pass. In QURÄN, it is narrated that Joseph explained the Pharaoh's dream of seven fat cows being eaten by seven lean cows, as a prophecy of seven years of famine following seven good years.

(6)

      Aِ Prophets, apostles, saints and all the men of God, have been convinced that the soul is immortal and separable from the body. Such godly persons never tell lies and are truthful and trustworthy, and we better deny them not.

      Bِ ``Self'' is indivisible, but the body is divisible and therefore they should be different entities.

      Cِ The Soul is attracted by morals, philosophy and divine phenomenons, and knowledge. It must therefore be of the divine nature, as the birds of a feather fly together, or flock together.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE)