On the Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-Quds)

Know that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of spirits, and it is transcendent above falling under the encompassing of "Be!" (kun).

So it is not permissible to say of it that it is created, because it is a special aspect of the aspects of the Real, by which aspect existence subsists.

So it is a spirit unlike the [other] spirits, because it is the Spirit of God, and it is what was breathed from Him into Adam.

And to it is the pointing in His saying (exalted is He):

"And I breathed into him of My spirit" (38:72) -- so the spirit of Adam is created, and the Spirit of God is not created.

So it is the Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-Quds): that is, it is the Spirit sanctified above the cosmic deficiencies; and that Spirit is what is expressed as the divine existence in the creatures.

And it is what is expressed in the verse by His saying: "So wherever you turn, there is the Face of God" (2:115).

Meaning this sanctified Spirit by which God established the cosmic existence with existence -- so wherever you turn, by your sensing among the sensibles or by your thoughts among the intelligibles, the sanctified Spirit is determined, in its perfection, therein.

Because it is an expression for the divine Face subsisting with existence; so that Face in everything is the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is the thing itself -- so existence subsists by the Self of God, and His Self is His Essence.

And know that everything of the sensibles has a created spirit by which its form subsists; so the spirit, for that form, is like the meaning for the word.

Then that created spirit has a divine spirit by which that [created] spirit subsists, and that divine spirit is the Holy Spirit.

So whoever looks at the Holy Spirit in the human sees it as created, by reason of the absence of [there being] two footings -- for there is no footing except God (exalted is He) alone.

And there are joined to His Essence all His Names and Attributes, by reason of the impossibility of [their] disjunction; and what is other than that is created and originated. So the human, for example, has a body, which is his form; a spirit, which is his meaning; a secret, which is the [created] spirit; and a Face, which is what is expressed as the Holy Spirit, the divine secret, and the pervading existence.

So when what predominates over the human is the matters that his form requires -- which are expressed as humanness and appetite --

then his spirit acquires the mineral sediment which is the root of the form and the wellspring of its [base] mixture, until it nearly opposes its original world, by the entrenchment of the human requisites within it; so it becomes bound by the form, [cut off] from its spiritual absoluteness.

So it comes to be in the prison of nature and habit; and that, in this world, is the likeness of the prisoner in the abode of the Hereafter -- nay, the very prisoner is that in which a spirit has settled.

But the prisoner in the Hereafter is in a sensory prison, in a sensory fire; and that [prison], in this world, is this mentioned meaning -- because the Hereafter is a place in which meanings are brought forth in a sensory form. So understand. And by its opposite: the human, when what predominates over him is the spiritual matters -- of continual sound thought, and the reducing of food, sleep, and speech, and the abandoning of the matters that humanness requires --

then his frame acquires the spiritual subtlety, so he walks upon the water, flies in the air, walls do not veil him, and the distance of lands does not keep him far.

Then his spirit becomes entrenched in its place, by the absence of the impediments -- which are the human requisites -- so he comes to be in the highest of the ranks of the creatures; and that is the world of the spirits absolved of the restrictions that come about by reason of the neighboring of bodies.

And it is what is pointed to in the verse by His saying: "Truly the pious are in bliss" (82:13). Then, when the divine matters predominate over him -- of witnessing what is God's, that is, His Beautiful Names and His Lofty Attributes -- together with those matters that humanness and spirituality require, he becomes a sanctified [being].

For humanness requires the appetites by which this body subsists, and the matters that the [natural] disposition is accustomed to; and spirituality requires the matters by which the human's law subsists -- of rank,

and ascendancy and elevation, because it [the spirit] is high of place -- and other than that.

So when the human abandons these mentioned requisites of spirituality or of humanness, and is continual in the witnessing of the secret from which is his root,

the rulings of the divine secret appear in him, so his frame and his spirit are transferred from the lowness of humanness to the summit of the holiness of transcendence (tanzīh); and the Real becomes his hearing, his sight, his hand, and his tongue.

So when he wipes with his hand, he heals the one born blind and the leper; and when his tongue speaks the bringing-into-being of a thing, it comes to be by the command of God (exalted is He), and he is supported by the Holy Spirit.

As God said concerning Jesus (peace be upon him), when this was his description: "We supported him with the Holy Spirit" (2:87). So understand. And God says the truth, and He guides to the way.