The Spirit and Its Identity.Part1

The spirit is from the world of Divine Commands. There are many other worlds than those we commonly think of, such as those of plants, animals, human beings, and of the world of jinn. Our visible, material world addresses itself to our senses. From tiny particles to galaxies, this world is the realm where God Almighty gives life, fashions, renews, changes, and causes things to die. Science concerns itself with its phenomena.

Above this visible, material world is the immaterial world of Divine Laws or Commands. To learn something about this world, consider how a book, a tree, or a human being comes into existence. The main part of a book’s existence is its meaning. A book cannot exist without meaning, regardless of how excellent the printing machine is or how much paper we have. In the case of a tree, the essence of life and the law of germination and growth (with which it is endowed) stimulates its seed to germinate underground and grow into a tree. We can observe the entire growth process with our own eyes. If this invisible essence and these unobservable laws did not exist, there would be no plants.

Similarly, menstruation prepares a womb every month for insemination. This process is dictated by a (biological) law. Out of the millions of sperms heading for the womb, only one reaches and fertilizes the ovum. After this, another (biological) law takes over: menstruation stops until birth. An embryo’s multi-stage development into a new individual is a third process governed by other (biological or embryological) laws. This process is mentioned in the Qur’an quite explicitly:

We created man from a quintessence of clay. We then placed him as a drop in a place of rest firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into a leech-like structure suspended on the wall of the womb, and then of that leech-like structure We made a chewed-like substance. Then We made out of that chewed-like substance bones (skeletal system). Then We clothed the bones with flesh (muscles). Then We developed out of it another creation. So blessed be God the best to create. (23:12–15)

The Quran says that this is process takes place within three veils of darkness:

He created you in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness (39:6).

These three veils of darkness are the belly, the womb, and the caul or membrane; the constituents of the fetal membranes; or the decidua’s three regions: decidua basalis, decidua capsularis, and the decidua parietalis. Or rather, the verse includes all of these meanings.

We derive the existence of such laws from the almost never-changing repetition of all these processes. Likewise, by observing the (natural) phenomena around us, we derive the existence of many other laws, such as gravitation and repulsion, and the freezing and vaporization of water.

Like these laws, the spirit is also a law issuing from the world of Divine Laws or Commands. This is stated in the Qur’an:

Say:“The spirit is of my Lord’s Command” (17:85)

But it is unique in one way: It is a living, conscious law. If the spirit were stripped of life and consciousness, it would be “regular” law; if “regular” laws were given life and consciousness, each one would become a spirit.