HOW is it POSSIBLE to SEE GHOULS (Ghûl) in the DESERT?
Cécile Bonmariage, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
ABSTRACT
How is it possible to see ghouls in the desert? Mullâ Sadrâ’s answer to this question in his Sharh Usûl al‐ Kâfî (vol. II, pp. 440 ss.) gives us an opportunity to learn more about what it is for him to see something. The chapter in Asfâr (vol. VIII, 178‐200) about the faculty of vision is specially centered on the vision of external things of this world. Mullâ Sadrâ presents and discusses there the positions of earlier philosophers (naturalists, mathematicians, ishrâqiyyûn) and develops his own.The text of Usûl al‐Kâfî (vol. II, pp. 435‐444) gives us a broader interpretation of what it is to see. While explaining a hadîth about the difference between the messenger and the prophet, Mullâ Sadrâ explains what it is to have visions (divinely inspired or not).
He shows us how it is possible to understand our dreams or the vision we can have when awake, vision of things existing in another world as it is the case in revelation or inspiration, or vision of things existing only in our imagination.
After a close consideration of what is written in the Asfâr, our paper will concentrate on the text of Usûl al‐Kâfî to show what it can learn us about the process of seeing, and the part estimation (wahm) and imagination is playing in it.
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| HOW is it POSSIBLE to SEE GHOULS ( غول )(Ghûl)(👻) in the DESERT? [X] |
Where do these images come from and which one of our faculties does perceive them? The second question is easily answered. It is the sensus communis (al‐hiss al‐mushtarak) [common sense] that perceives them. They cannot have any direct effect on the external senses since otherwise every one would see them. They can only be perceived by one of our internal senses and this proves to be the sensus communis.4
As a matter of fact, even sensory perception of things of this world is of a psychic nature [psychic intelligence*], something that happens inside the soul. Perception takes place due to the presence of the form of what is perceived to the perceiving faculty. What I see is not the form that is in the material thing outside in front of me but as Mullâ Sadrâ says: « The form that the soul sees with the eye of the sensus communis ».5
What is needed for perception to be completed is the psychic perception and not the fact that a bodily sensory organ is affected by something as is the case in our perceiving of the things of this material world.6 The fact that a sensory organ is stimulated by something is only the occasion for a perceptible image corresponding to that thing to arise within the soul, image that is what is actually perceived.
Perceptible images don’t necessarily emerge because or following the fact that an external sensory organ is stimulated by something. They can also be provided by some other sources, one of them being the compositive imagination (al‐mutakhayyila) whose nature is to imitate things through their likeness and contraries. This faculty is ceaselessly active in creating new forms. If they reach the sensus communis these forms are perceived just as the forms arising due to an external stimulus.
In every day life, this does usually not happen. Why? First: because the sensus communis is too busy perceiving the forms coming from the external senses. Second: because the intellect refuses to assent to the reality of these forms created by the compositive imagination and denounces their illusive character.7 It is not completely impossible however for fictional forms created by the compositive imagination to reach the sensus communis and be perceived. This can happen when the imaginative faculty is particularly strong and the judgmental activity of the intellect diminished for some reason, disease or fear for instance.
This is exactly what happens to those who see ghouls in the desert. Their fear makes them see what frightens them. Ghouls are forms created by their compositive imagination and perceived by their sensus communis just like any other sensible form. The different shapes they assume are depending on the individual character of the person who sees them. The intellect, paralysed by fear, doesn’t reject the existence of these forms. And so these purely fictional images are perceived and do affect their creator.
To see ghouls in the desert, or more generally to see things with no real counterpart in the outside world is not an every day experience. But to see illusive images when asleep is much more common. The external senses being at rest it is much easier for a strong imagination to impose its images on the sensus communis. When the sleeper wakes up, his intellect judges this dream to be delusive.
To see fictional forms in dreams or when awake is an experience proper to weak souls dominated by the overpowering influence of the compositive imagination (al‐mutakhayyila) uncontrolled by intellect.8 But this is only a peculiar aspect of seeing things that are not in this material world. Beside these dreams that have no ground there are other dreams that tell us something about what is real and beside these delusive visions there are other visions that are means to know something of a higher reality. In dreams and even when awake, we can see things that have no counterpart in the outside material world but that are not however without ground. Even if sometimes the compositive imagination has something to do with these experiences, what is seen is no more a pure creation of this faculty but has some real counterpart in another higher level of reality. These visions are no more a token of weakness but of perfection of the soul. They are a way to gain knowledge of the Realm of the Unseen (‘âlam al‐ghayb).
Usually our souls are busy managing the affairs of this world, ceaselessly preoccupied by the stimuli of the external senses. But when the soul is not completely imperfect and there is an opportunity for it to escape these occupations, it is prepared to join another higher world, a world of spiritual entities (jawâhir rûhâniyya). The soul becomes then a mirror where the forms of this world are reflected in a more or less perfect manner depending on the perfection of the soul.
This happens mostly in dreams when the external senses are at rest. But the soul is not always able to join a higher world, and all our dreams are not telling something about the truth. If the activity of the compositive imagination is predominant, the images created by this faculty can bother the soul and impede any junction with a higher level of reality just as the images arising when an external sense is stimulated do when awake.9 These are the dreams with no real ground, the confused dreams that are the counterpart of illusive visions when awake.
If junction takes place the dream is said to be sincere. But even then the compositive imagination can interfere, if it is strong or the soul’s perception of the form weak. In this case the compositive imagination does what it is its nature to do, that is to create imitative forms of what has been seen, obscuring and veiling the primary vision. The dream then needs interpretation, which is difficult and highly doubtful. It can also happen that particularly strong souls have dreams without any interference from the compositive imagination. These are true visions of the higher realm.
When awake it is much more unusual to have such visions of a higher level of reality but it is not totally impossible. Some persons are able to connect when awake with the world of spiritual substances, either because of the perfection of their souls or for some other reason, such as a peculiar temperament (mizâj) dominated by dryness and heat. The people who have such temperament seem to be unaware of the world around them even with the eyes wide open. It is not completely excluded for these people to see something from the Realm of the Unseen, as might happen to madmen and diviners. But only perfect souls can reach the higher levels of the Realm of the Unseen. If their compositive imagination is not to strong, it is pure revelation (wahî), witnessed by the eye of imagination (khayâl). If it is strong, it will give an imitative representation of what has been seen in a sensible form, that will be perceived by the eye of the sensus communis, and this vision will need interpretation (ta’wîl).
What we have learned from what Mullâ Sadrâ says in these pages of his Sharh Usûl al‐Kâfî is that there is a possibility to see something else than the things belonging to this material world. What we see then, be it in dreams or when awake, can be something illusive, a pure creation of our imaginative faculty. It can also be something pertaining to another higher level of reality. The fact that some travellers see ghouls in the desert and perceive them as something real makes it clear that sensible perception is not necessarily dependent on the bodily organs, that perception takes place within the soul, so much so that it is possible to have sensible experiences that are wholly internal without any external ground. If sensible perception can do without the external sensory organs, it is possible to understand how we can see things that are real but that do not belong to this material world and can thus not touch one of our sensory organs. This is very important for Mullâ Sadrâ because for him this kind of perception that we experience sometimes in this world, mostly in our dreams and even so in an unperfected manner, is what will prevail in the afterlife, « dreaming being the first level of afterlife, followed by death and perfected by resurrection10 ».11
APPENDIX: Translation of Mullâ Sadrâ’s Sharh Usûl al‐Kâfî, vol. ii, p. 434 ‐440
[434] BOOK OF PROOF. Chapter III: On the distinction between the Messenger (rasûl), the Prophet (nabî) and the one endowed with narration (muhaddath)12
It contains four hadîths.
FIRST hadîth (436th [hadîth of the Kitâb Usûl al‐Kâfî])
« A number of our companions, from Ahmad b. Muhammad, from Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Abî Nasr, from Tha‘laba [435] b. Maymûn from Zarâra. He said: I asked Abû Ja‘far, – Peace be with him –, about the saying of God Almighty: “He is a messenger [and] a prophet” (19:51; 19:54), “what is a messenger and what is a prophet?” He said: “The prophet is the one who sees in his dreams and hears the voice but doesn’t see the angel with his own eyes (‘âyana), and the messenger is the one who hears the voice, sees in his dreams and sees the angel.” I said: “And what is the status of the imâm?” He said: “He hears the voice but doesn’t see nor witnesses the angel.” And then he recited this verse: “We did not send before you any messenger or prophet” (22: 52) or someone endowed with narration (muhaddath) ».COMMENTARY
Know that this world is the world of witness (or evidence: ‘âlam al‐shahâda) and possession (or power, mulk), and the hereafter is the world of the unseen (ghayb) and the dominion (malakût). Man is composed of two parts, one belonging to this world, that is his elemental body (badan ‘unsûrî) that is vanishing, that comes to be and decays, — this being the status of this world and of all that is in it: it is vanishing, coming to be and decaying at every moment. The other belongs to the world to come, and it is his spirit (rûh) that is constant (thâbit) and permanent, — and in the same manner all that is in this world is permanent, everlasting, never passes away.There are many degrees in the hereafter each surpassing the other in worth, as He says – May He be exhalted: « And certainly the hereafter is much superior in respect of degrees and much superior in respect of excellence » (17: 21). The first degree of the hereafter is the state of dream (manâm), then the state of death and its completion is through Raising (ba‘th). Sleep is thus a part of the movement towards the return to the hereafter. The Prophet (nabî), as Prophet, is like the raised (mab‘ûth) on the Day of Resurrection (yawm al‐qiyâma). He sees forms, realities and states that people don’t see, as the Prophet says, –May God’s blessing be with him and his family: « I do see what you don’t (see) ». He is then talking about what he sees and hears in that world [the hereafter] and then tells to the people of this world — who are to tell the truth like sleepers, as he says, – May God’s blessing be with him: « People are asleep » — with the dress of words (alfâz) and by giving examples (amthâl), as He says, – May He be exhalted: « These examples We set them forth for the people, and none understand them but those who know » (29: 43).
[I. Dream‐visions]
If you want a clarification on this point and an explanation of what is the meaning of prophethood, messengerhood and narrationhood, know first that dream‐vision (ru’yâ) is caused (sabab) by the reflection (in‘ikâs) from the outer to the inner of the animal pneuma (or spirit, rûh hayawânî) that is the seat of the higher pneuma. This pneuma means a subtle body (jism la†îf) generated in the cavity of the heart by the vapor of the humors. Its mount (markab) is pure blood and it is a mount for the psychic and animal faculties. By this, life spreads in the whole body (badan) and the faculties of perception and motion join their tools and the organs of sensation and motion.Therefore if [436] there is an obstruction in its canals that is the nerves that lead to sense perception, sense perception is neutralized and epilepsy and apoplexy take place. And in the same way if a man’s hand is constricted tightly, [this man] will feel an insensibility in the extremity of the hand, and his sense perception will immediately be neutralized until [what compresses his hand] is cut, and it comes back after a while.
By means of the arteries, this pneuma spreads to the exterior (manifest side, Zâhir) of the body and sometimes it is held in the interior (non-manifest side, bâ†in) for reasons like the search for rest after a lot of movement – therefore sleep overcomes when the stomach is full –, or like the fact that the pneuma is scarce and decreased, and does thus not suffice for the exterior and the interior altogether – there are medical reasons for its decrease and increase; exhaustion means that the pneuma has decreased by dissolution due to movement –, or like the humidity and moisture that gain ground in it due to the fact that the pneuma that sustains the faculty of sensation is held back, or the weight that subdues it and hinders its speed of movement, as is predominant in the hammam and after coming out of it and after taking drinks moistening (and soothing) the brain.
[1. Junction with a higher realm]
When the senses are at rest due to some of these reasons, the soul remains free from the preoccupation of the senses. [Usually] it never ceases to be busy reflecting on what the senses bring to it. But when there is an opportunity to escape and all that could be an obstacle is eliminated from it, it is prepared to join (ittisâl) the noble intellectual spiritual substances in which are all the frames of all existents (mawjûdât), – and this is what is called in the language of the Law (shar‘) the Preserved Table (al‐lawh al‐mahfûdh) –, I mean [to join] the forms (suwar) of the things that are in these intellectual substances, especially that which is in accordance with what is desired by the soul and what matters to it.The imprint of this form from these [intellectual substances] in the soul when junction takes place is like the imprint of the form of a mirror in another mirror which faces the first one when the veil between them is lifted. Everything that is in one of the mirror appears in the other in proportion to it.
[1 a. No interference from the compositive imagination]
If this form is particular it falls in the soul in the faculty of imagination (khayâl) and the retentive faculty (al‐hâfiza) keeps it [437] like it is, in its own shape, and the faculty of compositive imagination (mutakhayyila), that imitates things through something similar to them, doesn’t operate in it. This vision is thus sincere and doesn’t need interpretation.[1 b. Interference from the compositive imagination]
If the compositive imagination (mutakhayyila) is dominant or if the soul’s perception of the form is weak, the compositive imagination begins, following its nature, to replace what the soul has seen by something similar. It replaces the man by a tree, and the enemy by a snake or it replaces it by what is similar to it or corresponds to it in some way. It can also be by something opposite, like when someone sees that he will beget a boy and it’s a girl who comes into the world and vice versa.These visions need interpretation. The transpositions of the imaginations may not be precisely kept in a determined manner. The modes of interpretation ramify and are varying depending on persons, states, professions, seasons of the year, health of the sleeper or his being ill. The one who interprets them only reach [their meaning] by a kind of intuition. There are many mistakes in this and ambiguity prevails in it.
[2. Confused dreams]
As for confused dreams, these are the dreams for which there is no ground. Their source is the movement of the faculty of compositive imagination (mutakhayyila) and its agitation. In most of the states, this [faculty] does not let up imitating and transforming [things], and it doesn’t let up either during sleep or in most of the states. When the soul is weak and remains preoccupied by the imitations of the [compositive imagination], just like it is preoccupied by the senses when awake, and thus not prepared to join the spiritual substances, if the compositive imagination with its agitation is strong for some reason it is ceaselessly active in imitating and creating forms that do not have existence. These [forms] stay in the retentive faculty until [this man] wakes up and remembers what he saw in his dream.There are also reasons due to the states of the body and its constitution (mizâj) for its imitations. If the bile dominates its constitution, it will imitate it by yellow things. And if there is heat in it, [438] the [compositive imagination] will imitate it by fire or by a hot bath, and if moistness dominates it, it will imitate it by snow or rain, and if it’s melancholy (black bile) that dominates its [constitution], it will imitate it by black things and dreadful things.
The form of fire for instance occurs in the compositive imagination in case of domination of the heat only because the heat that is in a place spreads to its neighbourhood, like the light of the sun spreads to the bodies (ajsâm), meaning that it is a reason for its occurring, since things were created existent by an existence that pours forth what is like it on others. The faculty of compositive imagination being imprinted in or attached to the hot body, it is affected by it in a way that befits its nature and its world, since it is not a body so that it could receive the heat as such. It receives thus from the heat what it is in its nature to receive from it, and that is its form and its likeness.
This is the way the soul is affected by the body and the body by the soul, since every one of them is affected by its companion by the kind of existence which befits it. Don’t you see that if anger, which is a psychic disposition, dominates the soul, the body is affected by it by reddening and becoming warm and [other] bodily dispositions? And in the same way, the acts of the body and its characteristics affect the soul with psychic dispositions that befit it.
[II. Visions when awake]
As for the reason for the knowledge of the Unseen (ma‘rifat al‐ghayb) and the vision of what has no existence in the external [world] when awake (fî l‐yaqza), it is what I will say [now].[1. Junction with a higher realm]
The reason for the need of sleep and its occurrence is one of the things that prevail due to the weakness of the soul and the fact that the senses are preoccupying it, so that if the senses are at rest, [the soul] joins the intellectual substances and is prepared to receive from them. It is possible that this occurs to some souls when awake for two reasons.[1a. Strength of the soul]
The first one is that the soul is so strong that it is not preoccupied by the senses so as to be completely absorbed by them and impeded [to do anything else]. On the contrary, its strength encompasses the grasp of both sides and the care for both aspects, the upper aspect and the lower aspect, altogether. One concern does not preoccupy it so as to distract it from another, just like some souls are strong enough to join in one and the same time writing, speaking, hearing and seeing. It is possible that the preoccupation of the senses slackens for such souls in some states, and that they ascend to the World of the Unseen and so some things from this [World] may appear to them, this being a part of prophethood (nubuwwa).Then if the compositive imagination is weak and the eye of the internal sense is strong, what has been disclosed to it from the Unseen remains in its memory, and this is pure revelation (wahî). And if the compositive imagination is strong and is engaged in imitating [things], [as is its] nature [to do], this revelation [439] will need exegesis (ta’wîl), just as dream‐vision needs interpretation.
[1b. Constitution (mizâj)]
The second reason is that dryness and heat dominate the constitution so much so that the soul is distracted from what the senses supply due to the domination of melancholy. With eyes wide open [the man with such a constitution] is like someone perplexed, absent, inattentive to what he sees and hears, this being due to the weakness of the exit of the pneuma to the outward (Zâhir). This man also, it is not impossible that something from the Unseen among things that befit him should be disclosed to his soul. He relates it and this flows on his tongue, but even then, he seems to be unaware of what he is saying.This exists for madmen and epileptics and some diviners among Indians and Arabs: they tell what is in accordance with what will be. This is a kind of deficiency and what one sees from the Unseen is something particular that is in some lower intermediate world (barzakh). But the first reason is a kind of perfection and what is seen may be from the forms of the higher Malakût.
[2. Illusive visions]
As for the reason why man sees when awake things that do not have existence in reality, [you have] first to know that to see (ibsâr), and in the same way all sensations and perceptions, doesn’t mean in reality to witness (shuhûd) the form itself that is in the external matter. This latter form is not perceived (mahsûs) nor is it occurring to the perceptive soul. What is essentially perceived (mahsûs) is the forms that the soul sees with the eye of the sensus communis. As for the [forms] that are outside they are a reason for a form that resembles it to be manifest to the sensus communis. What is perceived in reality is this representative form and the external [form] is called perceived in another sense.[You have also to know that] for the representative form to occur before the sensus communis it makes no difference if it occurs from outside and rises to it by using the tools of the senses to perceive what is outside or if it occurs from inside, and moves down to it by using the compositive imagination to make present what is in the treasury [of the soul] among the objects of perception (mudrakât), be it intellectual or other: everything that occurs to the sensus communis is witnessed (mushâhad).
[440] This being stated, we say: the soul sometimes perceives something from the Unseen (ghayb) and that which it perceived stays in the memory as it is. But sometimes it is received in a weak way, so that the compositive imagination seizes command of it and gives an imitative representation of it in a sensible form. If this form strengthens in the compositive imagination the eye of the sensus communis regards it as true and [this form] is represented to it, so that the soul sees and witnesses [this form] with the eye of sense, even if the eyelids are closed and even if it is in complete darkness.
What man imagines (takhayyala) when awake is [usually] not seen by the eye of the sensus communis so as to be witnessed only because generally the sensus communis is preoccupied by what the external senses are bringing to it, and because the intellect breaks into pieces the forgeries of the compositive imagination and refutes them, and [these forms] are not strong enough to be represented when awake. But as soon as the intellect becomes too weak to deny and refute [the forgeries of the compositive imagination], due to some disease or a violent fear, it is not impossible for them to be imprinted in the sensus communis, as is the common doctrine, or to be present to it, as we say, so that the sick person sees images that have no existence. And in the same way if fear achieves supremacy and the estimative faculty (wahm) is strong and the refuting intellect is weak, the form of what is feared will be represented to the sense so that it witnesses (shâhada) it and sees with his eye (basara) what he fears. Therefore sometimes the frightened coward sees dreadful forms for which there is no existence. This is the reason for the ghoul that can be seen and whose voice can be heard in the deserts. And sometimes the desire (shahwa) of this sick person becomes more intense due to some weakness, so that he sees what he desires. He extends his hand to it and moves [it] back as if he were eating and seeing people and things for which there is no existence.
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NOTES
1‐ On the ghûl in the Arabic and Islamic traditions, see Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, s. v.2‐ Mullâ Sadrâ, Sharh Usûl al‐Kâfî, vol. ii, p. 434 sq., Bâb al‐farq bayna l‐rasûl wa l‐nabî wa l‐muhaddath. This text is primarily concerned with the explanation of the prophetic visions. To do so, Mullâ Sadrâ explains the possibility of dreams, illusive or sincere, and of visions when awake. There are other texts where these different aspects of vision are considered. See al‐Asfâr al‐arba‘a fî l‐hikmat al‐muta‘âliyya (henceforth abbr. Asfâr), vol. viii, p. 209‐210, where the inner nature of sensation, and specially vision, is stressed, and Tafsîr sûrat al‐Baqara, vol. i, p. 295‐302, on the vision of the Angel by the Prophet. Mullâ Sadrâ is not the first philosopher in the Islamic tradition to consider this matter. See the chapter on al‐ mutakhayyila (compositive imagination, representation) in Fârâbî’s Mabâdî’ ârâ’ ahl al‐madînat al‐fâzila (Al‐Farabi on the perfect state. A revised text with introduction, translation, and commentary by Richard Walzer. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1985, ch. 14, p. 211‐227) and Ibn Sînâ on the same subject in his De Anima, M. IV, f. 2 (Avicenna’s De Anima. Being the psychological part of Kitâb al‐Shifâ’. Edited by F. Rahman, London, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 169‐182). The way Mullâ Sadrâ is dealing with the matter is not particularly innovative but his exposition reveals the peculiarities of his doctrine on sensation and on the human soul.
3‐ Note that ghouls are not considered by every one in the Islamic tradition to be fictional. See the references to the classical authors like Mas‘ûdî and Jâhiå in the article referred to in note 1.
4‐ See Mullâ Sadrâ, Asfâr, vol. viii, p. 209‐210. The very fact that we see fictional images is used by Mullâ Sadrâ in this text to prove that there is such a faculty as sensus communis.
5‐ Sharh Usûl al‐Kâfî, vol. ii, p. 439. See also several passages of the Asfâr, for instance Asfâr, vol. viii, p. 203 : « What is perceived essentially is the form that is present to the soul, not the external thing corresponding to it ». See also ‘Arshiyya, p. 248 ; English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 159.
6‐ See Asfâr, vol. viii, p. 234 : « In sensation (ihsâs), two things happen : stimulation (ta’aththur) of the sensory [organ] and perception (idrâk) by the soul, [...] that is the fact that the form is there (Husûl al‐ sûra) ».
7‐ A chapter of the Asfâr is entitled « That the senses do not know if there is an existence to what is sensed, this being the concern of the intellect » (Asfâr, vol. iii, p. 498 sq.). The madman and the sleeper are given as example: they can believe in the existence of what their sensus communis perceives, even if it is fictional, because the intellect is not there to judge. See Asfâr, vol. iii, p. 499.
8‐ It is the intellectually weaks (zu‘afâ’ al‐‘uqûl) who are readily influenced by their fear. See Asfâr, vol. viii, p. 210.
9‐ See ‘Arshiyya, p. 238. English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne (1981), p. 138 : « It is not true [...] that these forms are mere phantom images without the regular effects of real being, as is the case in most dreams. For in sleep too, the soul is usually preoccupied with the body ».
10‐ Or by Raising (bi‐l‐ba‘th).
11‐ Sharh Usûl al‐Kâfî, vol. ii, p. 435. See also ‘Arshiyya, p. 238. English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne (1981), p. 138: « The complete manifestation of these forms and the perfection of the power of their being occurs only after death. [...] Then the Unseen becomes directly visible, and knowledge becomes immediate vision. In this is the secret of the "Return" and the resurrection of the body ».
12‐ On these muhaddathûn, see Mullâ Sadrâ, Tafsîr Sûrat al‐Baqara, vol. i, p. 302: « [...] the muhadaththûn, with "a" on the doubled dâl are those who discard the World of witness (‘âlam al‐ shahâda) [i. e. this world] and ascend to the World of the Unseen (‘âlam al‐ghayb). They may hear a voice from inside when awake but they do not see (‘âyana) an individual person ».
13‐ That is, composed of the four elements.
14‐ See Mullâ Sadrâ, ‘Arshiyya, p. 234. English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne, p. 128: « [...] this world is a realm of extinction, transience, and passing away, while the other world is a realm of stability ».
15‐ bi‐l‐ba‘th : bi‐l‐‘abth
16‐ This saying , usually followed by this phrase : « When they die, they awaken » is frequently cited. Mullâ Sadrâ usually attributes it to Imâm ‘Alî (as in Mullâ Sadrâ, ‘Arshiyya, p. 238. English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne (1981), p. 138).
17‐ kamâ : kamâl
18‐ On this animal pneuma or spirit and its differenciation from the natural and the psychic pneumata or spirits, see Mullâ Sadrâ, Tafsîr âyat al‐nûr, vol. iv, p. 368 sq. See also Ibn Sînâ, De Anima, M. v, f. 8 (Edited by F. Rahman (1959), p. 263‐264) and al‐Mabdâ’ wa l‐ma‘âd, Edition ‘A. Nûrânî, Tehran, 1363/1984, p. 95.
19‐ We translate here ad sensum. The fact that obstruction in the canals of transmission impede sensation is taken as a proof for the existence of a subtle body between the body (badan) and the faculties by Avicenna. See Ibn Sînâ, De Anima, M. v, f. 8 (Edited by F. Rahman (1959), p. 263 and al‐ Mabdâ’ wa l‐ma‘âd, Edition ‘A. Nûrânî (1363/1984), p. 95.
20‐ fa‐lâ yakfî : fa‐lâ yafî
21‐ bi‐sabab : bi‐sbt
22‐ The anger and its effects is also used in the ‘Arshiyya to prove that the dispositions of the soul can cause external effects. See ‘Arshiyya, p. 249. English translation by J. W. Morris, The Wisdom of the Throne (1981), p. 160.
23‐ The Highest Kingdom, the highest Realm of reality.
24‐ nafs al‐sûra : nafs sûra
25‐ See the passages referred to in n. 5, and Tafsîr sûrat al‐Baqara, vol. i, p. 298 (in a text on the vision of the Angel of revelation by the Prophet): « What is needed for sensible vision and hearing in man is the existence of the visible form, – like the colors, the shapes, etc. –, and of the auditive form, – like the sounds, the letters and the words –, for the soul through its internal faculty that perceives the particular forms, and their representation before the internal sense that unites all the external senses. What is seen in reality and what is heard in reality from the thing that represents itself to the external sense is its form that is present within the rational soul and its realm (malakût). As for the existence of the form in its external reality and its spatial matter, it is only perceived by accident and secondarily ».
26‐ We have said already that Mullâ Sadrâ’s approach to the question of visions is not without some relations with the approach of other philosophers, especially Ibn Sînâ. Here even the expression is near that of Avicenna in his Najât (Ilâhiyyât, Fasl fî ma‘âd al‐anfus al‐insâniyya, Ed. M. Fakhry, Beyrouth, Dâr al‐Âfâq al‐jadîda, 1405/1985, p. 333). Note Mullâ Sadrâ’s use of huzûr instead of Avicenna’s irtisâm.
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[*psychic intelligence, my (M's) way of thinking about it, besides rational and emotional intelligence]
[Q19_51] [Q19_54]
[Q22_52] We did not send any apostle or prophet before you but that when he recited [the scripture] Satan interjected [something] in his recitation. Thereat Allah nullifies whatever Satan has interjected, and then Allah confirms His signs, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise .
[Q17_21] [Q29:43]
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THE END .
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HOW is it POSSIBLE to SEE GHOULS (Ghûl)(👻) in the DESERT? [X] |
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