It is so. Accordingly, if a substance (jawhar) were to become a ruh (the spirit), then every substance would have to become a ruh. This would be contrary to rational proof. (Tadbīrāt, 129)
Every human is a khalifa (vicegerent). However, the animalistic human, in our view, is not a khalifa. Nor is being male something exclusive to vicegerency. Thus, our statement concerns those men and women who have attained kamāl (spiritual perfection). Undoubtedly, humanity encompasses both men and women, as well as maleness and femaleness. However, both—though other haqīqas (inner realities) may call them—are two accidents (aʿrāḍ) that are not among the insānī (human) haqīqas, since all living beings share in this regard.
The khalifa stands over every nafs (the lower self). Men stand over women (qawwām, caretaker, commander). When men are separated from their families, they leave behind for them the haqq (the Real) as a khalifa, so that whatever work he does, it is performed for them. Furthermore, Allah's appointing successive khalifas on earth is also considered part of this rank. It is not valid for two people to simultaneously hold the office of walī (governor). (Futūḥāt, IV, 269)
The khalifa, that is, the insan-i kamil (the perfected human), ... is ghayb (unseen), that is, the inner aspect of the world and its governing ruh. Although the khalifa exists outwardly, in reality he is ghayb, the spiritual and corporeal great world's governing ruh. The First Intellect is the first thing the khalifa sees in the realm of spirits. The khalifa is the sultan of the entire cosmos. For this reason, ... that is, because the khalifa is ghayb ... the sultan ... is veiled from the eyes of the people due to the existence of the species that comes from the very meaning of vicegerency in him. When the bayān (clear exposition) of the connection by which the world is brought into being is completed, the bayān of the connection that the Real has concealed from us begins. (Sofyavi, 34)