Volume
The Healing Papers
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2,2: the Spirit In the Flesh
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26: The Soul
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The Healing Papers
2,2: the Spirit In the Flesh
26: The Soul
The word "soul" is used by different people in different senses, but the manner of its connection with the body proves it to be divine. Therefore the Sufi conception of the soul is that it is the divine part in man. The fire that comes from coal or wood is in reality the part of the sun that is in them; and when the soul qualities arise in the heart of a man and show themselves, this proves that it is the divine part in him that rises, like the flame in the fire.
Soul is in all objects, both things and beings, but when it is recognized as soul, then it becomes a soul. It is of the soul that a Persian Sufi has said, "God slept in, the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awoke in the animal kingdom, and became self-conscious in man." It is the description of the soul, starting in manifestation as one and manifested in variety.
The reason why one cannot see the soul is that it is the soul that sees all things, and the soul has to become two in order to see itself, and this can never be. As consciousness is realized by being conscious of something, and as intelligence is realized by the knowledge of things, so the existence of the soul can be proved by one's very existence. That part which exists in one, or which makes one existent, that part which sees, conceives, perceives, and is conscious of all things and yet above all things is the soul.
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