Subtleties and Allusions

1. The Immateriality of the Soul and How It Is Bestowed

Shaykh Ṭūsī and Amīn al-Islām Ṭabrisī have said: Since the soul (rūḥ ḥayawān) is a body, it was capable of receiving breath (nafkh-padhīr) for Jesus. (197) This statement is incomplete in two respects:

a. Breathing (nafkh) does not mean that a person blows into something and that breath and exhalation becomes the soul of that thing, but rather breathing (nafkh) is that divine bestowal (ifāḍa ilāhī), as He said about man: “Indeed I am about to create a human being out of clay. So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him.”(198)

It is possible that external breathing (nafkh ẓāhirī) is a preliminary to this divine grace (fayḍ ilāhī), just as touching with the hand or casting a staff is a preliminary; for example, Moses (a.s.) was commanded to cast his staff: “Throw down what is in your right hand, and it will swallow what they have conjured.”(199) And if Moses the Interlocutor (Mūsā Kalīm) had not cast this staff, but others had done so, no effect would have appeared in the staff. Therefore, by divine command, Moses (a.s.) himself had to cast that staff so it would become a serpent, and this casting of the wood is a preliminary to the life of the serpent.

In the story of Jesus (a.s.) as well, the animal soul (rūḥ ḥayawānī) is not a material matter that comes into being through breathing, but rather breathing is the ground and preliminary for the bestowal of the soul (ifāḍat al-rūḥ).

b. A being that possesses knowledge and understanding and perception is certainly immaterial (mujarrad), because thought and knowledge are not material. This is the case whether the knowledge is imaginative (takhyīlī) or estimative (tawahhumī) or higher than these—namely rational knowledge (ʿilm ʿaqlī)—because matter is divisible and decomposable, but understanding and knowledge are never divisible and have no first and last, up and down, part and whole (half and third and quarter, etc.), and something that has none of the effects of matter is immaterial (mujarrad). This very knowledge that is immaterial is an attribute of the soul, and it is impossible for an attribute to be immaterial while its subject is material, so the soul is likewise immaterial (mujarrad), consequently it can have many perceptual effects; like the hoopoe that was trained by Solomon and brought a strong verbal proof (burhān qawī kalāmī) for the unity of worship (tawḥīd ʿibādī) as to why some people prostrate before the sun and do not prostrate before God who is the Creator of the sun: “I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah.”.. “so that they do not prostrate themselves to Allah, who brings out the hidden in the heavens and the earth, and He knows whatever you hide and whatever you disclose.”(200) A being that can establish proof for the unity and establishment of the Truth and that God alone is worthy of worship is certainly not material and is immaterial (mujarrad). On this basis, the soul (whether human soul or animal soul) cannot be a body and material matter; of course, immateriality (tajarrud) is predicated by gradation (tashkīk) which has degrees of intensity and weakness: the immateriality of the soul of an ordinary human is greater than the immateriality of an animal soul, and the immateriality of angels is greater than the soul of ordinary humans, and the immateriality of the soul of perfect humans (insān-hā-yi kāmil) is greater than the immateriality of the souls of ordinary individuals and angels.

2. The Difference Between the Expression “Revival” (iḥyāʾ) and “Breathing of the Spirit” (nafkh rūḥ)

The spirit (rūḥ) is the source of life for humans and every other living being. The expression of the Qur’an concerning the bringing to life of humans in the stage of origination (ḥudūth) and subsistence (baqāʾ) is not the same, because in the first instance when by God’s permission the human spirit is given to him, the expression for that bestowal (ifāḍa) is “breathing of the spirit” (nafkh rūḥ), and this expression is not specific to the case of Adam (a.s.) but rather this same expression of breathing of the spirit has been used concerning his progeny as well, and in the second instance when again by God’s permission the human spirit is granted to him and the human is brought to life again, the expression for that bestowal is “revival” (iḥyāʾ) not breathing of the spirit; that is, God did not use the expression breathing of the spirit concerning the revival of humans in the Resurrection (maʿād).

In the case of Jesus (a.s.) it is the same way, because concerning the creation of the bird He used the expression “breathing” (nafkh) (not breathing of the spirit), and concerning the revival of the dead there is no trace of the expression breathing, but rather it is only expressed as revival of the dead; of course, concerning Jesus (a.s.) nothing is mentioned about the creation of humans, even though it be by the Lord’s permission.

The difference in expression between initial creation and renewed creation, where in the first instance it was expressed as “breathing” (al-nafkh) and in the second instance as “revival” (iḥyāʾ), might perhaps be indicative of the spirit being corporeal in origination and spiritual in subsistence (jismāniyyat al-ḥudūth wa rūḥāniyyat al-baqāʾ). Of course, rational subtleties (daqāʾiq ʿaqliyya) which only reason is capable of handling and their possibility cannot be derived from conventional expressions; however, usual correspondences can be helpful in solving the difficulties of rational knowledge (maʿārif ʿaqliyya).

3. Sculpture Among Christians

The remarkable advancement of sculpture (mujassama-sāzī) that is prevalent among Christians is not common among Jews, Zoroastrians, and Muslims. Based on the conjecture of some exegetes (mufassirān), the secret of the advancement of art, especially sculpture, in Christianity and the inclination of Christians toward the art of sculpture and drawing and imagery and representation (tamthīl) (making something intelligible perceptible), is that it has precedent and roots in their religious system, and the evidence for this is verses that mention the process of representation (tamathul) and embodiment (tajsīm) concerning Mary and Jesus and present the unseen matter in the form of manifest matter concerning those two sacred personas, such that an angel was commissioned by God to represent himself to Mary in the form of a human: “Thus did she seclude herself from them, whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit and he became incarnate for her as a well-proportioned human”;(201) also Jesus (a.s.) by God’s permission would create from clay the form of a bird and breathe into it and it would become a bird: “and when you would create from clay the form of a bird, with My leave, and you would breathe into it and it would become a bird, with My leave.”

Note:

a. This matter is an exegetical insight (tafaṭun tafsīrī); however, its jurisprudential ruling (ḥukm fiqhī) should be discussed as to whether sculpture was permissible in the law (sharīʿa) of Jesus or not?

b. Embodiment (tajsīm), meaning sculpture especially with all external limbs (jawāriḥ ẓāhirī) and internal faculties (jawāniḥ bāṭinī), is prohibited (taḥrīm), although preserving it has a separate ruling. This same embodiment that is a sin (maʿṣiya) when done by one unauthorized (ghayr maʾdhūn) would be worship (ʿibāda) when done by one authorized (maʾdhūn), because it is by God’s permission and command; of course, what is meant by this worship and permission is in terms of creation (takwīn) not legislation (tashrīʿ); except for that which returns to the domain of prophethood (nubuwwa) and the establishment of miracles (iʿjāz) by divine decree (ḥukm ilāhī), which takes on the character of legislation (ṣibghat tashrīʿ).