Chapters
They Ask You About the Spirit
Beliefs of Islam and They Ask You About the Spirit · Ahmed Alhasan
{And they ask you about the spirit. Say, "The spirit is of the affair of my Lord. And I have not been given of knowledge except a little”} Quran Chapter “The Night Journey” 17:85.
The term “spirit” refers to any living creation that is not in this physical world. Souls of humans and jinn are spirits, and all angels are called spirits. Just as the wind moves things in this world, so do spirits. They move whatever they enter and merge with.
{And it is He who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy until, when they have carried heavy rain clouds, We drive them to a dead land and We send down rain therein and bring forth thereby [some] of all the fruits. Thus will We bring forth the dead; perhaps you may be reminded} Quran Chapter “The Heights” 7:57.
The first creation that God the Exalted and Almighty created is the human: {The Abundantly Merciful ✶ Taught the Quran ✶ Created man} Quran Chapter “The Abundantly Merciful” 55:1-3. Then He created the creation from the first human. This first human is the manifestation of divinity within the creation. It is the first intellect, the first created spirit, and the spirit of God: {Thus We have revealed a spirit of Our command unto you. You did not know what is the Book or [what is] faith, but We have made it a light by which We guide whom We will of Our servants. And indeed, you guide to a straight path} Quran Chapter “The Consultation” 42:52.
Al-Ahwal said: "I asked Abu Abdullah pbuh about the spirit that is in Adam pbuh, when God says: {And when I proportioned him and breathed into him of my Spirit} [Quran Chapter “The Rocky Tract” 15:29 and “Saad” 38:72]. The Imam said: ‘This spirit is created, and the spirit within Jesus is created’” (Al-Kulayni, Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 133, Chapter of the Spirit, 1944).
Some of our companions narrated from Ahmed Ibn Muhammad Ibn Isa, who narrated from Al-Hajal, who narrated from Thalaba that Himran said: “I asked Abu Abdullah pbuh about the saying of God the Exalted and Mighty {of My Spirit} [15:29, 38:72]. He said: 'It is a spirit of God that is created. God created it within Adam and Jesus'" (Al-Kulayni 1944. Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 133, Chapter of the Spirit).
Thus the spirit of God, or the spirit that the angels had prostrated to when it was breathed into Adam's raised wet clay and manifested in his loins, is the greatest spirit-Muhammad-may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his progeny {So, when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down to him, prostrating”} Quran Chapter “The Rocky Tract” 15:29 and “Saad” 38:72. Thus, the prostration in the verse {So fall down to him in prostration} is to the greatest spirit, or Muhammad, pbuhap. He is the first Qibla (direction) for knowing God the Exalted and Almighty. The prostration of the angels to Adam pbuh never happened until after some of the first spirit, Muhammad, pbuhap, was breathed into Adam.[1], The spirit that the people ask about [in the verse] would face them and they would face it in this world through the body of Muhammad pbuhap, yet they did not know. {And they ask you about the spirit. Say, "The spirit is of the affair of my Lord. And I have not been given of knowledge except a little”} Quran Chapter “The Night Journey” 17:85.
Jabir, son of Yazid narrated, “Abu Jafar pbuh said to me: ‘O Jabir, the first ones that God created were Muhammad pbuhap and his progeny. They are the guides and the guided ones. They used to be apparitions of light before God.’ I then asked: 'What are these apparitions?' He said, 'They are the shadows of the light-luminous bodies without spirits.[2] He was supported with one spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.[3] By it, he and his progeny used to worship God, and thus He created them humble, knowledgeable, benevolent, and pure-worshiping God through prayer, fasting, prostrating, glorifying, tahleel (reciting that there is no God but the one true God), performing their prayers, observing Hajj, and fasting'" (Al-Kulayni 1944. Al-Kafi [The Sufficient Book] vol 1, 442).
Footnotes
- ↩“The first manifestation of the Absolute Divinity in creation, the clearest image of God, and the first creation, intellect and word, is Muhammad (pbuhap). Muhammad's light was breathed into Adam pbuh. Thus, the meaning of the verse {I have breathed My Spirit into him} is: "when I have breathed the Light of Muhammed (pbuhap) into Adam pbuh (Ahmed AlHasan, Kitab Al-Tawheed [The Book of Monotheism], 107). Perhaps the attentive reader will remember that many prophets and successors are better than Adam pbuh and have a greater rank. The image of God that Adam was created from was not the first image (Muhammad pbuhap); and the spirit of God that was breathed into Adam was not the first spirit (Muhammad pbuhap). Rather, it is one of that spirit’s manifestations in the creation. This is because between Adam and that first spirit, there exists all creation that have a higher rank than Adam pbuh. However, we can say that that manifestation is the first spirit because it represents it and reveals it, and because it is one of its manifestations” (Ahmed AlHasan 2010. The Book of Monotheism, footnote 107) -Trans.
- ↩The shadow of light is its dark trace that indicates its self. In an honorable hadith, the light is God Almighty, as He is light without darkness, and His shadow is His manifestation within the creation. Muhammad and his progeny pbut are shadows of light, meaning the traces of God Almighty in the creation. By the effect the cause is known, and by them God Almighty is known.
- ↩The Holy Spirit is within them. Rather, it is their spirit in the seventh complete heaven (the heaven of the intellect).