قندیل ہدایت — Page 130
130 of 1460 The Natural Philosophy Of AhleSunant Wal Jamaat www۔nafseislam۔com that the spirit is not life, but that life does not exist without it, just as the spirit docs not exist without the body, and that the two are never found apart, because they are inseparable, like pain and the knowledge of pain۔According to this view also the spirit is an accident, like life۔All the Sufi Shaykhs, however, and most orthodox Muslims hold that the spirit is a substance, and not an attribute; for, so long as it is connected with the body, God continually creates life in the body, and the life of Man is an attribute and by it he lives, but the spirit is deposited in his body and may be separated from him while he is still living, as in sleep۔But when it leaves him, intelligence and knowledge can no longer remain with him, for the Apostle has said that the spirits of martyrs are in the crops of birds: consequently it must be a substance; and the Apostle has said that the spirits are hosts (junud), and hosts are subsistent (bagi), and no accident can subsist, for an accident does not stand by itself۔The spirit, then, is a subtle body (jismi latif), which comes and goes by the command of God۔On the night of the Ascension, when the Apostle saw in Heaven Adam, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Jesus, and Abraham, it was their spirits that he saw; and if the spirit were an accident, it would not stand by itself so as to become visible, for it would need a locus in substances, and substances are gross (kathif)۔Accordingly, it has been ascertained that the spirit is subtle and corporeal (jasim), and being corporeal, it is visible, but visible only to the eye of intelligence (chashm-i dil)۔And spirits may reside in the crops of birds or maybe armies that move to and from, as the Apostolic Traditions declare۔Herc we are at variance with the heretics, who assert that the spirit is eternal (gadim), and worship it, and regard it as the sole agent and governor of things, and call it the uncreated spirit of God, and aver that it passes from one 355 www۔nafseislam۔com