After having found vegetative form within the womb...
After having found vegetative form within the womb, and been influenced both by external factors, and their stimulants, the corporeal matter passively takes on sense, and then the earliest form of perception takes place. Thus, the first manifestation of soul occurs.
Here it could be said that soul is created out of corporeal matter...[^6] There is a tradition from Imam ‘Ali (AS) worthy of contemplation: مَا أَضْمَرَ أَحَدٌ شَيْئًا اِلاَّ ظَهَرَ فِيْ فَلَتَاتِ لِسَانِهِ وَصَفَحَاتِ وَجْهِهِ No one hides anything save that it appears in the lapses of his tongue and the cheeks of his face.[^7] This shows a unity between the outer side of the human being which is his physical structure and his inner side which is the spirit.
The physical can only reveal what is hidden of the spiritual if it is united with the latter. وَعَلىَ الارْوَاحِ And unto the spirits ( al-arwah ) Some commentators of this sacred Ziyarat have given the possibility that the arwah mentioned in this verse refers to the angels who live around the radiant rawdha of Imam al-Husayn (AS).
Explaining the reality of angels, Shaykh al-Tabrasi in his Tafsir Majma’ al-Bayan says: وَالْمَلاَئِكَةُ رُوْحَانِيُّوْنَ خُلِقُوْا مِنَ الرِّيْحِ فِي قَوْلِ بَعْضِهِمْ، وَمِن النُّوْرِ فِيْ قَوْلِ الْحَسَنِ، لاَ يَتَنَاسَلُوْنَ وَلاَ يَطعَمُوْنَ وَلاَ يَشْرَبُوْنَ. And angels are spiritual entities ( ruhaniyyun ).
They were created from al-rih (the wind) according to some, and from light ( al-nur ) according to al-Hasan, they neither mate, not eat, nor drink.[^8] We should note however that words like al-rih and al-nur must not quickly transport us to their material extensions. Words, as has been established in its own place, have been coined for the spirits of their meanings. Therefore these terms have a subtler meaning, the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this work.
One should however at least understand that they do not necessarily refer to the wind that we can feel, or the physical light that we can vision. According to authoritative scholars like Mir Damad and Mulla Hadi Sabzawari, al-ruhaniyyun (the spiritual entities) are the highest of the classes of the angels. In his Sharh al-Asma’ Sabzawari says: ...فَالأَعْلى طبَقَةً اَلَّذِيْنَ طعَامُهُمْ التَّسْبِيْحُ وَشَرَابُهُم التَّقْدِيْسُ اَلرُّوْحَانِيُّوْنَ....
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