And, as the soul is different in its structure with the...

And, as the soul is different in its structure with the matter which is subject to the principles governing the matter and its physical and chemical attributes, the Prophet (S) is commissioned to utter this concise and meaningful sentence: “The spirit is of the command of my Lord.” that is, its creation process is complicated and mysterious.

Then, to stop them being stunned, the verse continues saying: “And they ask you about the spirit, say: ‘The spirit is of the command of my Lord, and you are not given of the knowledge but a little’.” Thus, it is not at all surprising that you do not acquire the mysteries embodied in ‘spirit’, though they might be more intimate to you than all other things.

In the commentary of ‘Ayyashi, there are quotations from Imam Baqir (as) and Imam Sadiq (as) who commenting on /yas’alūnaka ‘an-ir-rūh/ said: “One of Allah’s creatures is ‘Spirit’ that has got senses of vision, power, and force as well. The Lord locates the spirit in the hearts of the prophets and of the believers” [^3] .

In another quotation, one of the two great Imams has been quoted as saying: “Spirit is of invisible world and emanates from Allah.” [^4] In numerous quotations from the Shiite and Sunni sources, we have it that the Quraysh pagans, getting this question from the savants of the People of the Book, wanted to put the Prophet (S) to the test thereby. They were told that in case Muhammad provided them with a great deal of information in this connection, this would be the reason for his dishonesty.

Hence, the Prophet’s (S) concise and meaningful statement was surprising and miraculous for them. However, in quotations received through Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) regarding the commentary of the above verse, we note that ‘spirit’ has been considered as a created being introduced as superior to Gabriel and Michael, who has always remained with the Prophet (S) and the Imams, and who has kept them all, in their godly line, from every kind of deviation.

These quotations not only are not incompatible with the comments which we made about the verse, but they are also consistent with them in their entirety, since man’s spirit has got a specific hierarchy. That phase of the spirit which is found in prophets and in Imams, is surely an extraordinarily elevated stage, one of the consequences of which, is its infallibility and state of ‘flawlessness’ from deviations and sin as well as its full cognition state and its extraordinary state of knowledge.