SOUL AND ITS ATTRIBUTES BY BABA ALI MUSTAPHA

It is by means of soul that man is the best of creation as it is by means of soul that man acquires the knowledge of God and His attributes and by no other organ of the body. It is by means of soul that man can go to the nearness of God and make efforts to realize Him. So soul is the king of the body and its different organs are its servant to carryout its orders and commands. It is accepted by God when it remains free from things other than God. When it is attached to things other than God, it drifts away from God. It is the soul which will be asked and rebuked. It becomes fortunate if it is purified and cleansed, and it becomes unfortunate if it is kept impure. It is the knowledge of soul which is the root of the knowledge of God. When man does not know himself he does not know God. Majority of men are ignorant of soul and its attributes as screen is cast between soul and baser self. God says: God move between a man and his soul and controls it and its attributes. It is between the two figures of the merciful. It sometimes reaches the last limit of the devil and sometimes rises so high as to the throne of the Almighty. He who does not enquire about his soul is included among these persons of whom God says in the following verse: They forget God and so He made their soul forgetful-Q19:67. They are the transgressors. It is therefore essential to know soul and its attributes which is the root of religion. What has been said I like to relate is not outward organs and bodily limbs, but to narrate the attributes and evils of souls which are the subject matter of secret knowledge.

Words – Nafs, Ruh, Qalb, Aql explained

1. Qalb has got two meanings: it means first a piece of flesh in the left breast called heart which is hollow in the interior, which is filled up with black blood and which is again a source of Ruh or life. Heart is the center or mine for circulation of blood. The detailed description of heart is to be found in Anatomy. It exists in breast and lower animals and appertain to the material world. The second meaning of Qalb is soul which we are concerned here. It is an immaterial thing or formless Latifa or basic subtle element which has got connection with the material heart. It is just like unseen electricity. It is the principal thing in a man. It catches knowledge of God and spiritual world. It is punished and rewarded. The connection of soul with heart is the connection of attributes with the bodily limbs, or a machine with the machine man, or a house with its inmates. This connection is of two kinds. One kind of connection is with Ulume Mokashafa or spiritual knowledge. But in this research our object is to narrate Ulume Mu’amalah or knowledge of worldly usages. Its second connection requires the knowledge of the secrets of soul. The Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) did not throw light on this subject matter and so we should refrain from it. We shall translate the word Qalb in this research as soul or an immaterial thing Latifa with its attributes.

2. Ruh: It has got also two meanings. It mean first a material thing within the heart which vibrates whole body like the current electricity and which runs through the veins of the body. It is called “life”. It has got the power of touch, hearing, sight, smell and the power of the other limbs of the body. It is just like radiation of light of a lighted lamb pitched in a corner of the house. It is a subtle gas or steam which creates the heat of the heart. Our object is not that. The second meaning of Ruh is an immaterial subtle thing which is called soul and not life. God they ask you about Ruh; say: It is a command from my Lord- Q17:85.

3. Nafs: it has got also two meanings for our purpose. The first meaning is passion or baser and lowerseft. Passion is a comprehensive word consisting of greed, anger and other evil attributes. The Prophet said: your greatest enemy is your passion lying by your two sides. The second meaning of Nafs is soul as described above. When Naf assumes calmness and has removed passion, it is then termed Nafs Mutmaina or satisfied soul as God say: O satisfied soul return to your Lord satisfied and satisfying Him Q89:27. In the first meaning, Nafs is with the party of devil. When the calm nature of Nafs does not become perfect, it is called Nafs Lawwamah or self accusing soul as such a soul rebuke one for neglect in divine duties. If soul give up protests and surrenders itself to the devil, it is called Nafs Ammarah or passion addicted to evils. The Quran refers to this in verse Q12:53.

4. Aql: it has got many meanings two of which we shall narrate here. The first meaning of Aql is intellect with which true nature of things of this material world is known and its seat is in soul. The second meaning of Aql is power to understand the secretes of different learning. It is subtle essence called knowledge which is an attribute. Attribute and the thing which contains it are two different things. Intellect is the name of both. This is supported by the following Hadiths: the first thing which God created is intellect. The attribute of intellect is an immaterial thing but the attribute cannot stand without a material thing. So the place of intellect should be created first or along with it. Knowledge is the content of intellect and so it was created.

Army of Soul: God say in verse Q71:31- None except He knows the army of your Lord. There are armed soldiers in soul. The real nature is unknown and nobody knows their number except He. Soul has got two armies, one can be seen by the external eyes and another army cannot be seen except by the internal eyes. Those two armies are necessary for the upkeep of the dominion of this king. Courties, servants, helpers, e.t.c are the armies of king which can be seen by the external eyes. Similarly, hands, feet, eyes, ears, tongue and other outward and inward organs are the armies of soul. They are all servant of soul which rules over them. They have been created to obey it. They cannot go against soul. When the soul orders the eyes to open, they open. When it orders the feet to walk, they walk. The submission is like that of angel to God. The angel have been created to obey God and they cannot go against Him. Those armies are necessary for soul for its journey to God, as conveyance and food are necessary for body. It has to cross many stations to meet Him for which it has been created. God say: I have not created Jinn and man but that they should worship Me Q51:56. Body is the conveyance or carrier of soul and its food is knowledge. In order that it can acquire its food, the ingredients which are necessary are good deeds. To reach God is impossible till the body does not remain sound.

            This world is the seed ground for the next and a station of guidance. It is called Duniya or near planet as it is the closest station out of many stations. So to acquire food in the world is necessary.

Two armies of health. To take food which keep the health of body is necessary and to avoid that which is harmful to it is to be avoided so it is necessary to approach two armies, the hidden army of greed for food and drink and the open army of bodily organs. So greed for food and drink have been created in soul as they are necessary for the upkeep of the body, and other organs are the army of greed. Two armies are also necessary to remove the outer enemies who are destructive evils such as anger, e.t.c with which these evil are removed.

Armies of soul are three:

1. One army does benefit to soul, the army of greed, it can be termed will also.

2. The second army is anger which moves the body organs to give the object of greed, power and strength.

3. The third army works like secret emissaries-power of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Those defined powers are entrusted to different organs. For armies, there are open arms-fingers to catch, eyes to see, e.t.c. the third army is divided into two. One army lives openly such as attributes of the five organs –hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. Another army lives secretly in the horizon of brain. They are five:

1. power of idea

2. power of thought

3. power of memory

4. power of retentions and

5. power of consolidating them together.

Those five powers are in brain and they secretly stay therein.

            Those are the armies of soul. A man of weak will feel difficult to understand them but the wise get benefit from the research. I will try to explain to those who are weak in understanding those things by illustration.

Illustration Of Secret Armies Of Soul

1. Soul is a king over body as a king over an empire. In the empire of soul, hand, feet and other organs are like different businessmen and industrialists in town. Greed is a collector of revenue in that town, anger is its police, intellect is its Minister and Soul is its king. The collector greed is like one who collects food and anger is a police who keeps guard over it. The collector greed is dawnright liar and a deceiver. It ostensibly wishes good but there is destructive poison in it. The region of soul over the region of the body is similar. It goes on well if all the organs and attributes are under the rule of soul. When soul takes the help of its Minister intellect, it rules over greed keeping anger in control. In order to bring anger under control, sometimes it seeks the help of greed and then its character and conduct become good. He who goes away from this path becomes like one about who God speaks in the following verse: have you looked towards one who takes his passion as deity Q25:43? God says: He who follows his greed is like dog. If you attack it, it will prolong its tongue. If you give it up, it will also prolong its tongue Q7:145. God speaks in another verse about the person who controlled his passion. As for such men as entertained the fear of standing before their lord and controlled their souls from low desires, their abode will be paradise Q79:41

2. Second Illustration of secret army of Soul: know, o dear readers, that the body is a town and intellect or conscience rules over that town like king. Its armies are its external and internal senses and its subject are its organs. Sexual passion and anger are the enemies of the region of body and soul is its guard. If it fight against its enemies and defeats them and compels them to do what soul likes its actions become commendable and it returns to the Almighty. God says that He give superiority to those who fight with their lives and properties over those who worship sitting Q9:20. If the soul act as guard like the frontier guards and neglects the organs of the body, it is punished. On the resurrection day, it will be asked: O dishonest guard, you have eaten food and drunk milk, but you have not enquired into lost animal and have not arranged for treatment of diseased animals. Today I will take retaliation on you for this. In the hadiths below, such a Mujahid or fighter has been praised: you have returned from the little fight to the greatest fight.

3. Third illustration of secret army of soul.

Intellect is like a rider, greed is like a horse and anger is like the hunting dog. When the rider is expert and his horse and dog trained, success can be obtained in hunting. When the rider is inexperienced, horse disobedient and dog bitting, then the horse does not obey the rider and the dog does not run obeying him. Similarly, when intellect is mature and greed and anger are submissive to intellect, success is sure but if intellect is immature and greed and anger are not under control, there is surely ruin. 

Knowledge and Will:

The attributes for which man’s soul becomes fit to approach God are honoured are knowledge and will. Knowledge means knowledge of the material and spiritual world and reality of intellect. Then matters lies behind the knowledge gained by the senses. Lower animals have got no share in it. Regarding will, man can understand by his intellect the result of any action and know what will bring good, then there grew in mind will be obtain that good and to do that action. It is not the will of greed or the instinct of lower animals. It is opposed to greed. Intellect wills that will be its good in future and spends for it. There is greed of taking delicious food in illness but intellect prohibits its eating. A wise man refrains from eating it so soul of man is endowed with knowledge and will and not the lower animals. Even little children are void of those attributes. There are two stages of acquiring knowledge on the part of a boy. The first stage is his learning of all preliminary necessary things and to know lawful and unlawful things. He cannot gain expert knowledge at this stage but becomes close to it. The second stage is his acquisition of knowledge by learning and thinking. He becomes then like and expert writer.

Three Modes of Gaining Soul Power:

1. Mode of Illham or Inspiration: God’s inspirations come on some souls unknowing and for that they gain spiritual knowledge.

2. some souls acquire spiritual power by learning and effort.

3. Some soul acquire spiritual power quickly and some late. There are degrees of these acquisition in the case of Prophets, friends of God, wise and learned men. This advance is unlimited. There is no limit of knowledge about God. The rank of the Prophet in this regard is highest. All secrets are disclosed to him without his efforts. A child in his mother’s womb does not know the condition of a boy. A boy does not know  the condition of a grown-up man. A grown-up man does not know the condition of an intelligent man and his acquired learning. Similarly, an intelligent man does not know the blessings, mercy and gifts showered by God on the Prophets. These blessings are also cast upon those soul which remain prepared and become fit to receive them. The Prophet said: “there is your Lord’s blowing in the days of your life. Beware and be prepared for it”. The meaning of this preparation is to remove the impurities that have fellen on soul as a result of commission of sin and to purify it. It can be understood from the following hadiths: God comes down every day to the nearest heaven and says: is there any invoking man whose invocation I shall accept? In another Hadith: the religious man remains eager to meet Me, but I am more eager to meet him. In a hadith Qudsi, God say: I advance one cubit for one who advance to me half a cubit.

From this, it is understood that God does not withhold His mercy to shed the lustre of knowledge on soul, but the people themselves are to be blamed for they do not cleanse their souls or minds from the impurities that are heaped on them. An air does not enter a pot full of water, so knowledge of God does not enter a soul or mind if it remains filled up with things other than God. For this reason, the Prophet said: Had the party of the devil not moved round the minds of the children of Adam, they would have seen the spiritual world. From this, it is understood that knowledge is the special attribute of human soul. The knowledge about God’s being, attributes and actions is most honourable and on that strength a man becomes perfect and within the perfection there lies his fortune of approaching God. 

Peculiarities of Human Soul:

Body has been framed for accommodation of soul which is again the house of knowledge. Divine knowledge is human goal and its specialty. As ass and a horse are the same for carrying loads but a horse is superior to an ass, as horse has got additional qualities of beauty and running fast which an ass and other animals lack in. similarly, there is difference between a man and an angel. The man who engage all his limbs, thoughts and actions to please God is like an angel and fit to be called an angel. God said about Joseph: surely he is an honorable angel Q12:21. He who make effort only for his physical comports comes dawn to the class of an animal. He becomes then envious like an Ox, greedy like a pig, bitting like a dog, eat like camel, takes revenge like a leopard, cunning like jackal and clever like a devil-the embodiment of the above evils. There is no such limb or senses which dot help a man to reach God. He is successful who walks in that path and he is unsuccessful who is misguided.

Man’s fortune lie in taking God’s vision as the ultimate goal, the next world as his permanent abode, this world as his temporary abode, body as his carrier and the limbs as his servants.

Human soul is the centre to realize them and a king over the region of body. His power of idea works like post office in front of his head. All news gathered by sense are accumulated there. The power of thinking keeping behind the brain work like a treasurer, the tongue as its interpreter, the five sense like secret police. Eye have been given power to receive various colours, ears to receive different voices, nose to smell and other limbs to receive other news and they send them to the power of ideas which send them to the power of thinking which send them to the king soul.

Hazrat Ka’ab Ahbar Said: I went to Hazrat Ayesha and said: Man’s eyes are his guide, his two ears are his guards, his tongue his interpreters, his two hands are his wings, his two feet are his news carriers and his soul is his king. When the king soul is pleased, his armies are also pleased. Hazrat Ayesha said: I hear the Prophet say thus. Hazarat Ali said by way of illustration of human soul; God has got many pots in this world. The dearest to God among them is that which is most soft, pure and strong. The he explained and said: the soul which is most firm in religion, most pure in faith, most kind in treatment with brethren is dearest to God. This can be seen from the following verse: they are hard upon the unbelievers and kind to one another among them Q48:29. In another verse, God says: His light is like a niche wherein there is lamp –Q24:35. To explain this verse, Hazrat Ka’ab said: the meaning of light is the light of soul of a believer. God says: Or it is like darkness in a Fathomless sea. Hence the soul of a hypocrite has been spoken as an illustration.

Nature of Men

There are four natures of men.

1. Beastly nature

2. Animal

3. Devilish nature

4. Angelic nature.

Anger is a sign of beastly nature along enmity, hatred, rebuke, attack on people, e.t.c . his animal nature is seen when his sexual passion becomes strong. He has got devilish nature like deceit, fraud, conspiracy, e.t.c. he has got angelic nature such as divine service, worship of God, doing good to all. As he had got the divine thing soul, he has got the nature of Lordship and he likes to be free from servitude and meanness. 

The root of those four nature are in a man and centred in human soul. If he has got only the nature of a lower animal, he becomes like pig or dog. If he has got only the nature of the devil, he becomes a devil. If he has got divine qualities he become a truly wiseman. If he follows sexual passion and greed he acquires the evils of impurity, shamelessness, meanness, miserliness, hatred and other bad habits. If he obeys the dictate of anger, he acquires heinous conducts such as haughtiness, pride, love of power, self-praise, jokes, contempt for others, oppression. If he obeys the devil, he acquires evil conducts such as deceit, deception, treachery, fraud, e.t.c. When he controls the above evils, he is endowed with divine qualities such as wisdom, knowledge, certain faith, knowledge of the nature of all things. When he becomes free from sexual passion and anger, he acquires the following virtues=pardon, contentment, self-satisfaction, asceticism, piety, God-fear and shame. If he keeps anger under control, he gain heroism, kindness, patience, silence, e.t.c. 

Baba Ali Mustapha, is of Ngrannam Ward, Near old 7up deport, Bolori II, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. 

Reference:

1. Ihya Ulum-Iddin (The Book of Religion learning) Vol.3 by Imam Ghazzali, translated by FASLUN-KARIM, Published in Nigeria by Hasbunalla Islamic Publishers, Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria.

2. In Egypt, the Book was published by Alnahar Publishers and Perfumes, 7, Gomhoria street, Abdeen Cairo (Egypt).