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English translation

Know that the existence of the spirit (ruh) is a matter of necessary knowledge, but concerning its nature the intellect is powerless. Each of the scholars and sages of the community has said something about it according to his own analogy, and the various sects of unbelief also have discourse upon it. For when the unbelievers of Quraysh, at the instruction of the Jews, sent Nadr ibn al-Harith to ask the Messenger (peace be upon him) about the quality and essence of the spirit, God Most High first affirmed its very existence — His saying, exalted: 'And they ask you about the spirit (17:85/al-Isra)' — then negated pre-eternity from it — His saying, exalted: 'Say, the spirit is from the command of my Lord (17:85/al-Isra).'

And the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: 'Spirits are conscripted armies; those that recognize one another are in harmony, and those that reject one another are in discord.'

And there are many such proofs of its existence, without dealing with its nature.

Then a group said: 'The spirit is the life by which the body lives.' A group of the theologians (mutakallimun) also hold this, and in this sense the spirit is an accident by which the animal is alive by the command of God, mighty and majestic; and it is of the genus of composition, motion, and aggregation, and similar accidents by which a person changes from state to state.

And another group said: 'It is other than life, and life is not found except with it, just as the spirit is not found except with the bodily structure, and neither of the two is found without the other, like pain and the knowledge of it; for they are two things that do not separate. The spirit is a meaning other than life, whose existence is not valid without life; just as it is not [found] without a balanced person, and one of these two is not without the other, like pain and knowledge.' And in this sense too it is an accident, just as life is.

And again the majority of the shaykhs and most of the people of the Sunna and community (may God have mercy on them) hold that the spirit is a substance (a concrete entity), not an attribute: as long as it is connected to the frame in the customary course, God Most High creates life in that frame, and the life of a human is an attribute that is attested by revelation. But the spirit is deposited in the body, and it is possible for it to separate from the human while the human remains alive by [that] life; as in the state of sleep it departs and life remains, but it is not possible that in the state of its departing knowledge and intellect remain. Because the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that 'the spirits of the martyrs are in the crops of birds,' and inevitably this must be a substance. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'Spirits are conscripted armies'; inevitably armies must be enduring, and endurance is not valid for an accident, and an accident does not subsist by itself. So it must be a subtle body that comes by the command of God, mighty and majestic, and goes by His command. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'On the night of the Ascension (Mi'raj) I saw Adam, Joseph, Aaron, Moses, Jesus, and Abraham (peace be upon them) in the heavens.' Inevitably those were their spirits; and if the spirit were an accident it would not subsist by itself so that it could be seen in the state of its existence; for its existence requires a locus of which it is an accident, and the locus is a substance, and substances that are composed and subtle are bodies. And since it is permissible to see it, it is valid that it be in the crops of birds, and valid that it be an army, and that they have a coming and going; as the reports speak of it, and their coming and going is by the command of God Most High; by His saying, exalted: 'Say, the spirit is from the command of my Lord (17:85/al-Isra).'

There remains here the dispute of the heretics (malahida) who say the spirit is pre-eternal (qadim), and worship it, and know no maker and governor of things other than it, and call it 'the spirit of God' (Ruh al-Ilah) and 'the ever-existent' (lam yazal), and say it is a manager passing from one person to another. And upon no doubt that has befallen creation is there such consensus as upon this; for all the Christians hold this, though in expression they say otherwise, and all the Hindus of Tibet, and China, and Machin hold this, and the consensus of the Shi'a and Qaramita and Batiniyya is upon this, and those two misguiding groups also profess this doctrine, and each of these groups we mentioned has premises for this saying and claims by proofs.

We say to all of them: What do you mean by this word 'pre-eternity' (qidam)? A temporally-originated thing prior in existence, or a pre-eternal thing that always was? If they say: by this saying we mean a temporally-originated thing prior in existence — then the dispute in principle is removed; for we too say the spirit is originated, with the priority of its existence over the existence of the person; as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'God Most High created the spirits before the bodies.' And since its origination is established, inevitably the originated is originated by an Originator; and this is one genus of God's creation that joins to another genus, and from their joining to one another, God Most High brings forth a life according to His determination; that is, the spirits are one genus of creation and the bodies another genus. When He determines the life of an animal, He commands the spirit to join the body, and life comes to be in the living being. But its passing from person to person is not valid; because just as two lives are not valid for one person, two persons are not valid for one spirit. And if the reports did not speak of it and the Messenger were not truthful in his reports, the spirit would rationally be nothing but life, and would be an attribute, not a substance.

And if they say: 'What we mean by this saying is a pre-eternal thing that always was,' we say: 'Is it self-subsisting or subsisting through another?' If they say: 'The pre-eternal is self-subsisting,' we say: 'Is it the Lord of the world or not the Lord of the world?' If they say: 'It is not He,' this would be the affirmation of two pre-eternals, and this is not rational; for the pre-eternal is not delimited, since the existence of one essence would be the limit of another, and this is impossible.

And if they say: 'It is the Lord of the world,' we say: 'Then it is pre-eternal and creation is originated. It is impossible for the originated to have mingling with the pre-eternal, or union, or indwelling (hulul), or for the originated to be the place of the pre-eternal, or for the pre-eternal to be its bearer; for whatever joins to a thing is like it, and joining and separation are valid only for originated things, for they are of one another's genera.' Exalted is God above that.

And if they say: 'It is not self-subsisting, and its subsistence is through another,' it is not outside of two cases: either it is an attribute or an accident. If he says accident, inevitably it must be said to be in a locus or in no locus. If he says in a locus, the locus is like it, and the name of pre-eternity is nullified for both. And if he says in no locus, it is impossible; for an accident that does not subsist by itself is inconceivable in no locus.

And if he says: 'It is a pre-eternal attribute' — as the Hululiyya and Tanasukhiyya (transmigrationists) say, and they call that attribute the attribute of the Truth — it is impossible that a pre-eternal attribute of the Truth should become an attribute of creation. And if it were valid that His life become the attribute of creation, it would be valid that His power become the power of creation. Then the attribute subsists through the thing described; how can a pre-eternal attribute have an originated thing described? So inevitably the pre-eternal has no connection with the originated, and the saying of the heretics in this is false, and the spirit is created, by the command of the Truth. Whoever says other than this is engaged in obstinate denial of the evident, and cannot distinguish the originated from the pre-eternal. And it is not valid that a saint, in the soundness of his sainthood, be ignorant of the attributes of the Truth. And we praise God Most High that He preserved us from innovation and peril, and gave us intellect so that by it we reflected and reasoned, and gave us faith so that we knew Him by His guidance — a praise that is not joined to any limit; for finite praise is not accepted in the face of infinite bounty.

And when the exotericists (zahiriyan) heard this account from the people of the [theological] principles, they supposed that all the Sufis believe this, so that through a great error and a manifest loss they became veiled from the beauty of these good ones, and the subtlety of the sainthood of the Truth and the divine flashes and gleams were hidden from them; after they had rejected the great ones and the masters. But the rejection by [ordinary] creation is like their acceptance, and their acceptance is like [their] rejection.