Spirit Meaning

SPIRIT. Arabic (روح‎). The word rūḥ (pl. arwāḥ), translated “spirit,” is the Arabic form corresponding to the Hebrew ‏רוּחַ‎ rūak͟h. It occurs nineteen times in the Qurʾān:—

1. Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (ii.), 81: “We strengthened him (Jesus) by the Holy Spirit (Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus).”

2. Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (ii.), 254: “We strengthened him (Jesus) by the Holy Spirit (Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus).”

3. Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ (iv.), 169: “The Masīḥ, Jesus, son of Mary, is only an apostle of God, and His Word which He conveyed into Mary and a Spirit (proceeding) from Himself (Rūḥun min-hu).”

4. Sūratu ʾl-Māiʾdah (v.), 109: “When I strengthened thee (Jesus) with the Holy Spirit (Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus).”

5. Sūratu ʾn-Naḥl (xvi.), 2: “He will cause the angels to descend with the spirit (Rūḥ) on whom He pleaseth among his servants, bidding them warn that there be no God but me.”

6. Sūratu ʾn-Naḥl (xvi.), 104: “The Holy Spirit (Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus) hath brought it (the Qurʾān) down with truth from thy Lord.”

7. Sūratu ʾl-Miʿrāj (xvii.), 87: “They will ask thee of the spirit. Say: The spirit (ar-Rūḥ) proceedeth at my Lord’s command, but of knowledge only a little to you is given.”

8. Sūratu ʾsh-Shuʿarāʾ (xxvi.), 193: “The faithful Spirit (ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Amīn) hath come down with it (the Qurʾān).”

9. Sūratu ʾl-Muʾmin (xl.), 15: “He sendeth forth the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) at His own behest on whomsoever of His servants He pleaseth.”

10. Sūratu ʾl-Mujādilah (lviii.), 23: “On the hearts of these (the faithful) hath God graven the Faith, and with a spirit proceeding from Himself (Rūḥun min-hu) hath He strengthened them.”

11. Sūratu ʾl-Maʿārij (lxx.), 4: “The angels and the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) ascend to Him in a day, whose length is fifty thousand years.”

12. Sūratu ʾl-Qadr (xcvii.), 4: “Therein descend the angels and the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) by permission of their Lord for every matter.”

13. Sūratu ʾsh-Shūrā (xlii.), 52: “Thus have we sent the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) to thee with a revelation, by our command.”

14. Sūratu Maryam (xix.), 17: “And we sent our spirit (Rūḥa-nā) to her, Mary, and he took before her the form of a perfect man.”

15. Sūratu ʾl-Ambiyāʾ (xxi.), 91: “Into whom (Mary) we breathed of our Spirit (min Rūḥi-nā).”

16. Sūratu ʾt-Taḥrīm (lxvi.), 12: “Into whose womb (i.e. Mary’s) we breathed of our Spirit (min Rūḥi-nā).”

17. Sūratu ʾs-Sajdah (xxxii.), 8: “And breathed of His Spirit (min Rūḥi-hi) into him (Adam).”

18. Sūratu ʾl-Ḥijr (xv.), 29: “And when I shall have finished him (Adam) and breathed of my Spirit (min Rūḥī) into him.”

19. Sūratu Ṣād (xxxviii.), 72: “And when I have formed him (Adam) and breathed of my Spirit (min Rūḥī) into him.”

Of the above quotations, all Muslim commentators are agreed in applying Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, to the angel Gabriel; Nos. 3, 15, 16, are said to be Jesus, the Rūḥu ʾllāh, or “Spirit of God”; Nos. 17, 18, 19, the Rūḥ, or “Life,” given to Adam; Nos. 9, 13, “the Spirit of Prophecy”; No. 10 is held to mean God’s grace and strength. With reference to No. 7, there is some discussion. The K͟halīfah ʿAlī is related to have said that it was an angel with 7,000 mouths, in each mouth there being 7,000 tongues, which unceasingly praised God. Ibn ʿAbbās held that it meant the angel Gabriel. Mujāhid, that it meant beings of another world.

The Commentators al-Kamālān say the Jews came and asked Muḥammad regarding the spirit of man, and the Prophet replied, “The Spirit proceedeth at my Lord’s command, but of knowledge only a little to you is given,” from which it is evident that it is impossible for the finite mind to understand the nature of a spirit.

The philosophical bearings of the question are fully discussed, from an Oriental standpoint in the Kashshāfu Iṣt̤ilāḥāti ʾl-Funūn, A Dictionary of Technical Terms used in the Sciences of the Mussalmāns, edited by W. Nassau Lees, LL.D., 1862, vol. i. p. 541; also in the Sharḥu ʾl-Mawāqif, p. 582.

Muḥammadan writers hold very conflicting views regarding the state of the soul or spirit after death. All agree that the Angel of Death (Malaku ʾl-Maut), separates the human soul from the body at the time of death, and that he performs his office with ease and gentleness towards the good, and with force and violence towards the wicked, a view which they establish on the testimony of the Qurʾān, Sūrah lxxix. 1, where the Prophet swears by “those who tear out violently and those who gently release.” After death the spirits enter a state called al-Barzak͟h, or the interval between death and the Resurrection, the ᾍδης of the New Testament. The souls of the faithful are said to be divided into three classes: (1) those of the Prophets who are admitted into Paradise immediately after death; (2) those of the martyrs who, according to a tradition of Muḥammad, rest in the crops of green birds, which eat the fruits and drink of the waters of Paradise; (3) those of all other believers, concerning the state of whose souls before the Resurrection there is great diversity of opinion. Some say they stay near the graves, either for a period of only seven days, or, according to others, until the Day of Resurrection. [606]In proof of this, they quote the example of Muḥammad, who always saluted the spirits of the departed when passing a grave-yard. Others say, all the departed spirits of the faithful are in the lowest heaven with Adam, because the Prophet declared he saw them there in his pretended ascent to heaven. [MIʿRAJ.] Whilst others say the departed spirits dwell in the forms of white birds under the throne of God (which is a Jewish tradition).

Al-Baiẓāwī says the souls of the wicked are carried down to a pit in hell called Sijjīn [SIJJIN]; and there is a tradition to the effect that Muḥammad said the spirits of the wicked are tormented until the Day of Resurrection, when they are produced with their bodies for judgment.

The author of the Sharḥu ʾl-Mawāqif (p. 583), says that some Muslim philosophers state that after death the spirit of man will either be in a state of enlightenment or of ignorance. Those who are in a state of ignorance will go on from worse to worse, and those who are in a state of enlightenment will only suffer so far as they have contracted qualities of an undesirable character when in the body, but they will gradually improve until they arrive at a state of perfect enjoyment. This view, however, is not one which is tenable with the views propounded by the Qurʾān, in which there are very decided notions regarding the future state of heaven and hell. [SOUL.]