Chapter Seventeen: Showing the Creation of the Soul, and That It Is Originated, Existing with the Existence of the Body, Neither Eternal nor Prior to the Body

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what is near to it, such as the intellects and the souls. The third respect: just as the eye, if it does not move its pupil with a vigorous movement toward the sensible and gather itself together, will not be able to attain the apprehension (idrāk) of what (1) is far from it, so likewise the intellect (ʻaql), if it does not rouse its movement and gather itself back from dispersal (2) among the senses, cannot attain apprehension. [35] The fourth respect: just as the eye is not able to see except (3) by means of the light of the air, so likewise the intellect is not able to apprehend except by the illumination of the spiritual beings upon it. And just as the sun is the greatest luminary, and then the moon below it, which receives its light from it, and then after it (4) the light — so likewise the Creator, exalted be He, is the light of all the lights: from Him the separate intellects receive their lights, and from Him the light shines upon the souls of men that have been stripped away from their bodies.

Chapter Seventeen

On setting forth the creation of the soul (nafs), and that it is originated, existing with the existence of the body, and is neither eternal nor prior to the body

The first demonstration. We say: if it were eternal and prior to the body, then it would be either one or many. The first is void, for either it would indwell many bodies while being one — and that is impossible, since it would follow that what a single individual has done all have done, which is void — or else the soul would be divided among the individuals of mankind,

[36] and that is impossible, since the soul is not a body, and everything that is not a body cannot be divided. And the second is likewise impossible, since the difference would have to be (1) either by differentiae or by accidents. The first is impossible, since we have shown that souls are one in their natures (2); and the second is likewise impossible, since accidents attach only to bodies, and souls are not bodies. Therefore souls are not eternal, nor can existence before the bodies be conceived for them (3).

The second demonstration. If the soul is eternal, then it cannot but be that either it had (4) indwelt other bodies than these bodies, or it had not indwelt anything at all. The first is impossible, as will appear later in [the proof] that metempsychosis (tanāsukh) is impossible (5). And the second is likewise impossible, since it would either be knowing or not knowing (6). For if it were knowing, its indwelling in these animal bodies would be absurd, and its indwelling in them after its knowing would be impossible (7). And if it were eternal and not knowing, that is impossible, since it would then be empty of all the cognitions, so that its existence would be void — and there is nothing void (8) in existence.

[37] As for the testimonies of the divine books to the origination of the souls (9): among them is what has been said: “God formed Ādam and breathed into his face the breath of life” (1); and the word of Ayyūb: “Thou didst take clay from the earth and make a rational animal and set it upon the earth” (2); and the word of Zakarīyā: “God created the soul of man within him” (3); and the word of the pure Gospel: “The Father creates until now, and I too create” (4). And this is a proof of the existence of souls originated with the origination of their bodies. Ghrīghūriyūs said: “I am afraid of a thought entering into anyone, that the soul lived in another place and thereafter came to the body to which it was bound.” And Sāwīrus said: “The rational soul has no priority over the body, nor has the body priority over it.” And so likewise Yaʻqūb al-Ruhāwī.

A notice. Know that the learned men of the Church agreed that souls are originated and not eternal, but they differed as to the time of their creation. For Mār Afrām [38] and Mār Yaʻqūb and Fīlaksīnūs al-Manbijī and Thāwdūrīṭā held that the body is formed first and that thereafter the soul is created within it; and they also based this upon what is said in the Torah: “She who bears a male child shall sit upon the blood forty days, and she who gives birth to a female eighty days” (5), because during those days she is carrying a dead thing devoid of the rational soul. And Ūrījānīs held that souls are prior to the bodies, but he held that they are created, not as the pagans held,

— Notes —

[31] 1) Dropped in the original: mā.

[31] 2) He means “al-tashattut”.

[31] 3) Dropped in the original: illā.

[31] 4) In the original: thumma wa-baʻdahu.

[32] 1) Delete “muzmiʻ an”.

[32] 2) See sections five and six.

[32] 3) In the original: al-badan.

[32] 4) In the original: fa-lā yakhlū ammā annahā kānat.

[32] 5) In section nineteen.

[32] 6) In the original: aw lam takun.

[32] 7) In the original: muḥāl.

[32] 8) In the original: wa-lā bāṭilan.

[32] 9) Had he said “al-nufūs” it would have been more correct.

[33] 1) The Book of Genesis 2:7

[33] 2) The Book of Ayyūb 10:8 and 9

[33] 3) The Prophecy of Zakarīyā 12:1

[33] 4) The Gospel of Yūḥannā 5:17

[33] 5) The Book of Leviticus 12:2 and 4 and 5