The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)

Sha'rawi holds that the nafs is formed when the ruh joins matter and gives it life, that matter and ruh each glorify God before they join, and that when they meet, desires stir and disorder begins ¹.

He says that matter alone, before the ruh joins it, is subdued and obedient, while the ruh glorifies God. So one should not speak of a spiritual life and a material life as opposites, since both glorify God ¹. He holds that death takes the ruh to its world of subjection and the body to its world ¹.

He holds that the senses bear witness on the Day because they are no longer at a person's service in disobedience. They are at his service in obedience, and when he uses them in disobedience they curse him ². See al-Nur 24.

He says the word ruh is used for the angelic ruh and for the ruh of revelation, which is pure and clear ². See al-Shams 7 and al-Shura 52.

This is Sha'rawi's reading of soul and spirit. No positions of philosophers, theologians or Sufis are set out here, and none is checked.

The Sheikh says the soul is breathed into the body after about a hundred and twenty days, and that the reality of this joining of soul and matter is not known (needs_source). ³ He lists the stages of formation (drop, clot, lump of flesh, bones, flesh), then the soul is breathed in, and likens this to the demolition of a building, which starts at the top floor (needs_source, his analogy). ^{4 5} He says the reality of the soul is beyond human knowledge, and cites the verse saying that the knowledge given is little (his view). ⁶ He says that each person has an earthly garment and a luminous one, and that the Companions' luminous part was greater (needs_source). ⁷ He says the soul leaves voluntarily in worship when the heart is pure and is seized by force in sleep (needs_source). ^{8 9} He uses the image of pure water or olive oil in an expensive crystal bottle to show the purity of the pure soul (his view). ^{10 11} He describes the soul of the disbeliever as drawn out with difficulty and that of the believer as eased out, with the image of a camel whose knot is untied and rises easily (his view). ^{12 13} He uses the image of a bucket drawn gently from a well (his view). ¹⁴ He holds that the soul is received with escort, as a head of state is received, likening it to aircraft circling a VIP's aircraft (his view). ^{15 16}

The Sheikh raises the question of who the Ruh is: Jibril, or a special creature. He mentions the view of some scholars that it is a great angel of the fourth heaven, with its feet on the earth and its head in the fourth heaven, so that the heavens and the earth with all they hold look to it like a ring thrown down ¹⁷. He also asks whether the ruh is the servant's own soul or a new creature that God creates for the servant ¹⁷.

The Sheikh relays from Uthman a definition of true rest: that you see your left foot beside your right foot at the threshold of Paradise (needs_source) ¹⁹. He says the soul leaves the body and departs of its own choice during prayer (needs_source) ¹⁹.

The Sheikh condemns prying and spying on people's faults, says this happens even among people of lessons and mosques, and says people should see in them what they do not see in others, so that they stand out among them like a beauty mark ¹⁸. He says that when a person sleeps the soul begins to face the world of spirits (needs_source) ¹⁸.

The Sheikh says the soul is from the world of light and is not affected by the condition of the body it dwells in, and he likens this to a glass that may be clean or dusty (his own comparison) ²⁰.