And the belief concerning the spirit is that it is not a kind of body...

And the belief concerning the spirit is that it is not a kind of body, but is a different creation, on account of His word: “And then (We) produced it as another creation” (Qur'an 23:14) .[^13] And our belief concerning the prophets (anbiya'), the apostles (rusul) and the Imams is that there were five spirits within them: [110] the Holy Spirit (ruhu'l-qudus), the spirit of faith (-iman ), the spirit of strength (-quwwa), the spirit of appetite (-shahwa) and the spirit of motion (-mudraj).[^14] True believers (mu'minin) possess four spirits: the spirit of faith (iman), of strength (quwwa), of appetite (shahwa), and of motion ( mudraj).

The unbelievers and beasts possess three spirits: the spirits of strength, appetite and motion. And as for His saying, Exalted is He above all: "They will ask thee concerning the Spirit (ruh). Say: the Spirit is an affair of my Lord" (Qur'an 17:85). For verily it is a creation greater than Gabriel and Michael."[^15] It always accompanies the Messenger of Allah and the angels and the Imams, and it belongs to the celestial world (malakut).

I shall compose a work concerning this subject, in which I shall fully comment on the significance of these propositions.[^16] [^1]: On nafs and ruh see the full discussion by E. J. Calverley in EI, iii. 827-830; MB, ruh, 184-187; nafs, 349-351; Tahinawi, Dic. of Tech. Terms, ruh,i. 540-547; nafs, ii. 1396-1403. Nafs is rendered soul, and ruh, spirit, by all modern authors. Affifi (index) ; Ivanow in FC, nafs, 11,61; ruh (aniyya), 50.

But frequently the terms are interchangeable, see Ivanow, Kalami Pir,p. xlviii, etc., and also the use of the two terms by al-Qummi in the opening para. of this section (ch. 14). Although it is difficult to lay down a hard and fast rule, it is probably correct to say generally that soul (nafs) represents "the animal life" in the human organism, while spirit (ruh) represents the "rational principle" (Affifi, 120). For a contrary view, see Calverley in EI, iii. 828 (top).

It appears therefore that three views are prevalent: (a) that nafs and ruh are synonymous, (b) that nafs represents the living, conscious principle, and ruh, the intelligent and rational principle of life, and (c) vice versa. Nafs may be of five kinds; (1) ammara (acting evilly) ; (2) lawwama (the blaming one) ; (3) mutma'inna (peaceful) ; (4) radiya (satisfied); (5) mardiya (giving satisfaction), also called mulhima (MB, 350, mid.). On the five kinds of ruh, see below, note 126, p.131.