العروة الوثقى الزيدية - موقع إسلامي يهدف لتعريف الزائر بفكر وتراث المسلمين الزيدية

The Question

Question: The soul (ar-ruh) is a matter whose knowledge Allah has kept exclusively to Himself, as He, exalted is He, said: “And they ask you about the soul. Say, ‘The soul is of my Lord’s command.’” [al-Isra’:85] And claiming to know its reality is close to claiming knowledge of the unseen, since there is no evidence for knowing it. It has been narrated from al-Qasim, al-Hadi, an-Nasir, al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim al-‘Ayyani, al-Mu’ayyad Billah, Ahmad ibn Sulayman, and others from the Imams of the ‘itrah (Peace be upon them) that it is a body whose true reality none knows except Allah. So is their affirming it to be a body considered delving into the reality of the soul?

The Answer

Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success: This is not delving into the reality of the soul. Their statement, “a body whose true reality none knows except Allah,” is not a definition; rather, it is an explanation of His saying, exalted is He: “Say, ‘The soul is of my Lord’s command.’” [al-Isra’:85] And their calling it a body or an accident is not considered guessing at the unseen, for everything that Allah has created in this universe does not go beyond being either a body or an accident, whether we know the reality of the created thing or are ignorant of it.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3