It is nothing else. Iḥyā (revivification) is an attribute of al-Muḥyī (the Giver of Life), just as taḥlīq (creation) is. To create is also an attribute of al-Khāliq (the Creator). (Ta'arruf, 40)
The verifying scholars of the people of sunnah have differed regarding the rūḥ (the spirit). Some have said that the rūḥ is [a certain thing], while others have asserted that it is the dhāt (essences, substances) entrusted to the bodily form. (Kushayri, 48)
According to the verifying scholars, perfection is composed of three: The first is rūḥ, the second is nafs (the lower self), and the third is the body. Each of these three meanings is maintained by a particular attribute: the attribute of the rūḥ is intellect, the attribute of the nafs is desire, and the attribute of the body is sensation. (Hujwiri, 238)
One of the shaykhs said: The rūḥ in the body is like fire in coal. The fire is created, and the coal is manufactured. There is no pre-eternity except for Allah's Essence and attributes. (Hujwiri, 316)
According to our understanding, the rūḥ has two meanings: The first is that the rūḥ is a subtle body located in the cavity of the qalb (the heart) within the body. Through the arteries, it spreads to other parts of the body. Its circulation in the body, the outpouring of the rays of life from it, and the occurrence of sensations such as feeling, seeing, hearing, and smelling all happen through it. The emission of its light is like a lamp in a corner of a house illuminating the entire house. Wherever its light reaches in the house, that place is illuminated. Life is like the light that appears on the walls; the rūḥ is like the lamp itself. The movement of the rūḥ within a person is like the lamp moving through the corners of the house.
Physicians, however, understand the rūḥ as follows: The rūḥ is a subtle vapor refined by the fire of the heart. To explain this in detail is not our task; those who should deal with this are the physicians who treat bodies. As for those physicians whose task is to treat the qalb, they are never sāḥib (possessors) of the ability to explain this matter except through submission to Allah.
As for the second meaning of rūḥ: The rūḥ is the knowing, perceiving, and subtle part of the human being. We have mentioned this also when explaining the meanings of the qalb. Allah also said, "Say: The rūḥ is of the affair of my Lord" (al-Isra 17:85), and by this He meant the rūḥ. The rūḥ is such a creation of Allah that many intellects and thoughts are incapable of understanding and comprehending its reality. (Iḥyā, II, 4-5)
The First Intellect (ʿAql-i Awwal), the Tablet, and the Pen are simple substances that distinguish matters. These are mujarrad (abstract) lights, not perceptible but only conceivable. According to us, the rūḥ and the qalb are also among these substances. They do not decay, perish, disappear, or die. They only leave the body and—as mentioned in religious sources—await to return to the body they left on the Day of Qiyāmah (Resurrection). (Risāla, 8)
The rūḥ is a perfect indivisible substance (jawhar-i fard) and is alive in itself. The soundness or corruption of religion depends on it. The natural rūḥ, the animal rūḥ, and all bodily faculties are the soldiers of the rūḥ. This substance receives the forms of knowledge and the true faces of existents without being occupied with their externalities and individualities.
A person can know the reality of another without seeing him, just as he knows angels and devils. Since many people’s senses cannot reach the angel or the devil, the nafs does not need to see them directly. Some people of Sufism (taṣawwuf) say that the qalb, like the body, has an eye by which it sees external events, and that it sees realities (ḥaqīqa) with the eye of the intellect. (Risāla, 9)
The people of the tariqa, that is, the Sufis, rely more on the rūḥ and the qalb than on the person himself. Since the rūḥ is a command of Allah Most High, it is like a stranger in the body. Its orientation is toward its origin and source. When it is strengthened without being polluted by the impurities of nature, it perceives more by its origin than by the person.
If you have understood that the rūḥ is an indivisible substance and that the body requires a place, and that an accident (ʿaraḍ) subsists only through a substance (jawhar), then you should also know that the substance does not settle in a place nor is it located in a space. The body is not the place of the rūḥ nor the abode of the qalb. Rather, the body is the instrument of the rūḥ, the means of the qalb, and the mount of the nafs.
The essence of the rūḥ does not attach to the parts of the body, nor does it separate from it. Rather, the rūḥ turns toward the body, benefits it, and bestows grace upon it. The first place where the light of the rūḥ is seen is the brain, for the brain is the special manifestation site of the rūḥ. From the front part of the brain come the guard, from the middle the vizier and administrator, from the back the storekeeper and treasurer; from all its parts come foot soldiers and cavalry, from the animal rūḥ the servant, from the natural rūḥ the deputy, from the body the mount, from the dunyā (the world) the field, from life the goods and wealth, from movement the trade, from knowledge the gain, from the hereafter the aim and destination, from the sharia the path and method, from the nafs-i ammāra the guard and watcher, from the nafs-i lawwāma the admonisher, from the senses the spy and helper, from religion the armor, from intellect the master, from the senses and sense organs the student. (Risāla, 10)
Some have erred by saying that the rūḥ is pre-eternal. Others have erred by saying it is an accident (ʿaraḍ), for an accident does not subsist on its own but depends on something else. The rūḥ is the essence of the human being; the body depends on the rūḥ. How can that which the body depends on be an accident?
Some have also erred by saying that the rūḥ is a body, for a body can be divided into parts, but the rūḥ cannot. The rūḥ, which we call the qalb, is the center of maʿrifatullāh (direct knowledge of Allah); it is neither a body nor an accident. It is something of the kind of angels. Knowing the rūḥ is very difficult, for there is no information about it in religion. Nor is there a need to know it in religion, for religion is struggle, and maʿrifa is a sign of hudā (guidance). (Kīmiyā', 6)
The rūḥ-i ḥayālī (imaginative spirit) is the rūḥ that fixes what comes to the senses. It collects and preserves what comes to it in order to present it to the rational rūḥ. This rūḥ is not found in a suckling child. Therefore, the child wants to take what it desires, but when it disappears from the child's sight, he forgets it. Until he grows a little, he does not struggle for it. When he grows a little, if what he desires disappears from his sight, he cries and wants to see the form of that thing preserved in his imagination.
The rūḥ-i ʿaqlī (rational spirit) is the rūḥ by which meanings beyond sense and imagination are comprehended. It is a special substance belonging to humans. It is not found in animals or children. The things it comprehends are universal and ḍarūrī (necessary) knowledge.
The rūḥ-i ḥassās (sensitive spirit) is the rūḥ that receives what the five senses present. It is like the origin and beginning of the animal rūḥ, for living beings are alive through it. (Mishkāt, 81)
The rūḥ of pure thought is the rūḥ by which purely rational sciences are obtained. It has characteristics such as unification and reconciliation. By its use ...