The Chest of Time

The spirit is usually thought of as a supernatural or non-physical entity, such as a ghost, fairy, or angel. It must be noticed, however, that although they are treated as two different entities in most religions, the concepts of spirit and soul overlap to some extent, and they are often confused, but both of them have a distinguishing ontological priority over the body, and both are believed to survive after passing away. Spirit is also often used to refer to the consciousness or personality. The spirit of a living body is ubiquitous non-quantifiable substance, whereas the soul is the collective character developed by persons as they grow.

The physical world, in which we are now consciously living, includes all physical forms such as the stars, planets, sun, moon, earth, plants and animals, as well as other material forms such as the air we breathe and water we drink. It also includes our physical bodies, with the eyes, nose, mouth, brain, and other organs. Nevertheless, we naturally know of the existence of the spiritual world that manifests itself in many ways all around us, but on a different plane of being that seems to be made of a different kind of substance or energy that we cannot directly detect, despite the fact that some ordinary people have been reported to have seen spirits or ghosts, maybe through their inner spiritual eyes. The spiritual world, according to many religions, is the realm inhabited by invisible creatures that could be good or evil. This includes angels and jinn, as well as the souls of people who passed away even from the ancient ages.

However, what is most important is that spirits are responsible for animating the physical bodies of humans as well as animals, though Ibn al-Arabi affirms that all animate and inanimate creatures do have corresponding spirits suitable to their composition and level of life or inner motion. These various spiritual manifestations do not have the same universal nature or composition. Although he often calls them spirits, Ibn al-Arabi differentiates very clearly between angels and jinn, since the latter are made of “fire’’ while angels are made of “light” . Therefore, he often denotes jinn as fiery spirits while the angels are described as luminous.

Moreover, although they are not normally seen on the physical level, spirits are in constant interaction and communication with the physical and psychical worlds, and they can consciously communicate with people and other material and psychological forms, both while they are sleeping or sometimes in the state of being awake. For example, at the beginning of the Meccan Revelations Ibn al-Arabi explains how he met the passing spirit from whom he took all the wisdom that he delivered in this book, considered to be the best encyclopedic description of Islamic mysticism, contained in five-hundred and sixty chapters that are spanned over more than ten thousands pages. He also explained in other chapters how he met the spirits of some famous scholars who died many centuries before. In one occasion he also describes talking to a personified spirit who lived more than forty thousand years ago [Futuhat, III.549.10].