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Lesson Eight
The Autonomy of
the Spirit
as a Proof of Resurrection
The existence and independence of
the spirit can also be adduced as a decisive and convincing proof of life
after death. Numerous theories have been put forward by scholars concerning
the riddle of the spirit, and the greater becomes the scope of philosophical
inquiry and the more carefully use is made of human knowledge, the clearer
and more convincing become the proofs for the existence of the spirit and
its independence from the body. Of course, we cannot be completely successful
in clarifying the quiddity of the spirit, nor can we can lift the veil
from the numerous complex mysteries of this eternal entity.
For this reason, the Qur'an depicts the essence of the spirit as an unknowable
truth the complete cognition of which lies beyond man's reach. When the
Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, was asked concerning
the essence of the spirit, the Qur'an told him to answer as follows:
O Prophet, they ask you concerning the nature of the spirit. Tell
them: The spirit is an affair of God, and its essence is unknowable to
man. Whatever understanding of it has been given to you is extremely slight
(17:85).
Fourteen centuries have passed since the Qur'an gave this answer. The scope
of human knowledge is today very much greater than it was in the time of
the Prophet, but very little has been added to this aspect of man's awareness.
The essential nature of the spirit still eludes man's grasp, and nobody
has been able to clarify it. Just as the Qur'an proclaimed, it remains
veiled in a halo of obscurity, and it is highly probable that it will always
remain so.
Henri Bergson, the well-known philosopher, says:
We can conform to Plato and offer a definition of the spirit that
is antecedent to experience. We can say that the spirit, being simple,
is indivisible, and that because it is indivisible it is also incorruptible,
and that it is therefore eternal in its essence.
For two millennia men have reflected on this concept of Plato, but
it has not advanced our knowledge of the spirit in the slightest.
(Du Sarchishma-yi Akhlaq va Din, pp. 388-389)
Dr. Chesser, an English scholar, writes:
Some people say that the mechanical operations of our brain form
the ego or the self. Others say that it consists of the brain with the
addition of a mysterious spark which leaves our bodies at the time of death.
As you know, the philosophers have reflected a great deal on the spirit:
its nature, its locus in the body, whether it is mortal or eternal, but
none of these questions has yet been solved, despite the continuing of
efforts of scholars.
Recently many scholars have decided to study the matter from another
point of view by putting the whole question of the spirit aside as too
complex and obscure and studying instead the mind or the soul i.e., the
totality of man's feelings, beliefs and thoughts. (Rushd va Zindagi,
p. 134)
Indeed, if one takes into consideration the fruitlessness of all efforts
undertaken for understanding the spirit, how can he believe that it contains
some mysterious property which compels our submission and veneration?
The Noble Qur'an says the following, in the course of some of its verses
concerning the creation of man:
We created man out of pure earth, then We made him into a drop
of sperm and lodged him in a safe place. Then We made the sperm into coagulated
blood, the coagulated blood into a formless piece of flesh, and the flesh
into bones, and finally We clothed the bones in flesh. Thus We brought
forth a new creation. Glorified be the perfect power of the Best of creators!
(23:12-14).
Then God completed the creation of man and inhaled in him of His
own spirit and appointed for you eyes, ears, and a heart. How little you
men give thanks (32:9).
When I complete the outer creation of man and breathe into him
of My own spirit, prostrate yourselves before him, 0 angels!
(15:29).
These verses describe the successive stages of creation that succeed the
coming into being of the drop of sperm, the final result of which is a
perfected human body; they indicate that something more valuable and significant
is at issue than the creation of a mere corporeal form. They indicate that
the infusion of the spirit into man's bodily form constitutes itself a
new creation, which belongs to a category different from the
various stages of the evolution of man's bodily form, each of which is
necessarily accompanied by the traces and properties of matter. The spirit
is a different essence, bearing no similarity to the things created before
it. Infused into man's bodily composition, this spirit which God relates
to Himself and is thus the closest of all things to Him is independent
of the body and separate from it, beyond the reach of matter and all its
attributes and properties.
Even the materialists despite all the differences of opinion and ideology
that separate them from the followers of religion do not go so far as to
deny the existence of something called the spirit. They regard sciences
such as psychology and psychiatry as valid, but part company with the theologians
and metaphysicians on the existence of a second reality in man that subsists
apart from the material body and independently of it; this reality has
a nature peculiar to itself and is the source of thought and reflection
in man.
This does not mean that body and spirit are two realities that are separate
from each other, in the sense of each expressing itself completely independently
of the other. They are two realities that are connected to each other while
being utterly different in their essences.
Beliefs of the Materialists
The thoughts of the materialists on this topic are based on the assumption
that a substance called the spirit does not exist independently of matter.
They insist that all the activities of the brain are controlled by the
laws of matter and result from physical causes and chemical reactions of
the brain cells and nerves.
Our nervous system at all times links our perceptions to a central organ,
the brain, and these perceptions in turn give rise to a single and indivisible
whole. The phenomena that we associate with the spirit are nothing other
than physico-chemical reactions. When the brain cells are exhausted and
the reciprocal influence of the bodily organs comes to an end, so that
the cells cease motion and reproduction, nothing is left of the essence
of man save a material form. It is therefore impossible to accept any kind
of spiritual immortality or the existence of an autonomous, independent,
supranatural entity in man, for both the first appearance and the subsistence
of the spirit were caused by a spatially and temporally determined
connection.
Here the materialist and religious schools of thought part company decisively.
If we accept the claims of the materialists, man will be like a machine,
put together from different components and parts, and all traces of life
and thought in him terminate utterly once the reciprocal influence of his
material components comes to an end. Such an interpretation of the matter
fails to do justice either to the reality of the human spirit or to that
of man himself.
It is true that the body submits involuntarily to physiological law, but
this observable reality does not lead to the conclusion that man is in
his entirety chained to the laws of matter with the force of a mathematical
equation. There is certainly a close connection between the phenomena of
the spirit and the cells of the brain; without having at its disposition
a certain number of instruments and tools, the spirit cannot undertake
any activity at all in this world. The brain cells, the nerves, and the
chemical reactions of the brain, all count as the tools of the spirit by
means of which it accomplishes its activity.
It must be asked whether not only the spirit but also its manifestations
such as will, determination, perception and so forth, are realities independent
of matter, or are themselves entirely material, dependent upon it in all
conditions and circumstances.
By way of analogy it may be asked if we conduct a long-distance conversation
by means of the telephone, whether we are the real hearers or the telephone
receiver?
Is the telephone simply the instrument by means of which we hear the soundwaves,
or is it the true and actual hearer?
Matters are the same with respect to the brain. The brain cells are the
tool of the spirit, not its creator. All that the proofs put forward by
the materialists establish is that there is indeed a link between man's
perceptions and his brain cells, not that the brain itself is engaged in
perception. In any event, no theologian maintains that thought takes place
outside the sphere of the brain cells.
The effects and necessary attributes of matter must inevitably be found
in all material beings; it is unacceptable that the properties of matter
should be absent from any material entity. If therefore an entity is lacking
in the effects and properties of matter, and the effects and properties
it does possess do not coincide with those of matter, there can be no doubt
that entity in question is not material.
As an objective reality, man is the source of a series of distinctive effects
which inseparably accompany his objective existence. Certain of the realities
that prevail in human existence can be explained in terms of material criteria,
but others do not accord with the properties of matter and cannot be weighed
by its criteria.
Here we encounter the fact that in man, in addition to his material composition,
an entity exists that is separate from matter and superior to it; it is
the source of various forms of perception that belong to a different category
than matter.
In fact, each of the perceptions of man, together with its special properties
and attributes, is in itself a clear proof and indication of the existence
in man of an entity other than his corporeal composition.
If those perceptions were to be the effect of man's physical makeup, his
particular bodily composition, if perception and reflection, hearing and
seeing, were simply a function of his nerves, they should be explicable
in terms of the laws governing his nervous system and his brain cells.
However, they are not.
Let us assume that seeing is the formation of an image in the brain; still
the question arises of who sees and perceives, who is the author of the
act?
Again, if we assume that man is nothing other than a certain type of material
composition in a certain part of which an image has been formed again we
ask whether the one that sees and perceives is the totality of the bodily
composition or only that small sector of it in which the image has been
formed?
The totality of the material composition cannot
see and perceive the image that has been formed in a small part of the
whole, and it is also impossible for that part to see and perceive; can
a material thing see and perceive the images that are formed in the thing
itself? Were it so, a painting or a piece of paper would be able to see
and perceive the paintings that the painter has executed on them.
Although scientists have been able to establish empirically that there
is a link between perception and consciousness on the one hand and chemical
reactions in the brain on the other hand, the only conclusion they can
draw is that the nervous system and the brain play a decisive role in the
occurrence of perception and various psychological states. The experiments
these scientists carry out do not at all permit the conclusion that the
essence of the spirit is equivalent to the activity of these instruments
of perception or to physical and chemical effects. Finally, proving that
the link exists is in no way sufficient to defining the distinctive states
and properties of perception and awareness.
To draw an analogy, the spirit is like the electric power required to set
a machine in motion. Whenever the power is cut off, the whole of the machine
comes face to face with a kind of death, even though its individual components
may be quite sound and unimpaired.
Similarly, when man dies the link between his spirit and his body is severed,
but the severance does not mean the destruction and death of the spirit.
If our telephone, radio or television stops working, we lose our means
of communication, and we no longer hear distant sounds or see distant images.
Those sounds and images exist everywhere, but we do not see them or hear
them; we become aware of them only when our means of communication is provided
by the telephone, radio or television.
Sounds and images subsist, then, independently and separately from the
instruments required for their perception. Likewise the spirit of man is
independent of the body while being linked to it, and it does not perish
with the death of the body.
The Particular Properties of Perception
We know that a basic difference separates the functioning of the brain
from that of the various parts of the body, all of which have in one sense
roughly similar functions. The kidneys, for example, are compounded as
a result of various physical and chemical activities; their function is
related entirely to the inner organs of man's body. By contrast, the phenomena
of the spirit relate to the external world that lies outside our personal
existence. It is obvious that external world has no ingress to our personal
existence; it is on the contrary we who must attempt to comprehend it in
order to become aware of external existents, a task of which our brain
cells are incapable. Like other dimensions of our body, the brain cells
receive effects from the external world but they cannot gain awareness
of the nature of matters in the external world. Were that not the case,
we ought to be able to perceive the external world with our stomach and
lungs. The special nature of our perceptions tells us, then, that another
entity rules over our beings.
Let us raise another question at this point: who is it that judges the
images that are formed in our brain?
If we meet two people, one of them old and the other young, and images
of both of them are formed in our brain, we compare the two images and
decide which person is old and which is young.
Several factors are at issue in this decision. First, the seeing and perceiving
of the two images that are formed in the brain. Second, the comparison
of the two images and the identity of the person that makes the comparison.
With respect to this second point, it may be asked how man acquires the
power to compare if he consists of nothing more than a series of bodily
compounds. Third, the perception of the old man as being more aged than
the young man, which follows on the comparison of the two images; here,
the perceiver must also establish a relationship. If man consisted exclusively
of his bodily form and lacked any non-material dimension, he would be totally
unable to establish such a relationship. For a relationship does not have
any sensory shape or form that can express itself as an image; we cannot
possibly explain the establishment of a relationship through recourse to
the criteria of matter.
The fourth issue is perceiving one of the two men as being older than the
other. Again we can say that if man consisted only of his physical being,
he would not be able to determine which of the two images that have formed
in his mind represented an older person.
When we distinguish truth from falsehood, when we appreciate beauty and
separate it from ugliness, we are dealing with matters that are external
to us and judging them in accordance with certain criteria. The existence
within us of a capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from
wrong, to measure phenomena external to us by criteria of our own, demonstrates
in itself the independence of the spirit. Judgement and discernment are
beyond the capacity of the nervous system; they derive exclusively from
the operation of thought and the activity of the mind, and cannot be explained
in sensory terms.
The unseen light within our inner beings that permits us to distinguish
good from evil, beauty from ugliness, right from wrong, is an absolute
reality and is none other than our eternal spirit. All temporal occurrences
revolve around it, for it is itself an immutable and indivisible pivot
of all things.
One of the precious properties of man is his ability to perceive universals,
which permits him, after analyzing his experience and sensory perceptions
to deduce permanent, fixed and unchanging universals from the particulars
that he has observed.
With his sense of touch, for example, man can feel the weight of iron.
After repeating this sensory perception, he engages in analysis and reaches
the universal conclusion that iron is heavy.
It is thus that man deduces the universal laws and realities that exist
in all the particular instances, by analyzing the particulars and abstracting
them from their temporal and spatial contexts. These universals form an
important part of man's knowledge, for they are the source for his conclusions
and judgements.
Were we to regard man as consisting exclusively of his bodily form and
to deny the existence of an autonomous spirit, we could not explain the
knowledge of universals in any acceptable way, for we would confront the
problem of how the processes of analysis or abstraction to which man's
sensory experiences and perceptions are subjected take place.
How could the physical composition of our bodily form undertake the tasks
of abstraction and the deduction of universal rules from particular instances?
If we regarded the deduction of universals from particulars as a reactive
function of matter, precisely how would it take place? How can we depict,
as a material process, the perception of a universal principle?
When we perceive a universal principle, we are in fact perceiving an objective
reality that is free of all material, temporal and spatial characteristics;
it is the existential effect of an entity superior to matter.
If despite all this, some people wish to insist on a materialistic explanation
of the matter, their explanation must count as unrealistic, baseless and
far removed from the truth.
The Unity of the Personality
Another matter which can help us to appreciate the autonomy of the spirit
is the unity of the human personality which covers the entirety of man's
life. There can be no doubt that man's knowledge of himself is different
from his knowledge of beings external to himself. His knowledge of those
beings occurs by means of a reflection of them being traced in his mind;
it is thus that we gain the kind of knowledge that is known as acquired
knowledge. As for the knowledge that man gains of his own self, it
does not come about through the occurrence of an image in his mind; it
is present with him at all times and is inseparable from him, being known
therefore as present knowledge.
This constant presence, which is not subject to change or diminution, and
possesses stability and permanence in its ability to feel and gain awareness,
represents the clearest and most evidential form of human knowledge.
The entity which is exempt from change and impermanence (these being the
attributes of all external reality), which controls and rules the material
body, which is not subject to biological determinism, which expresses itself
as this entity is one and the same from the first stages of life until
its last moments. Man enjoys permanence by virtue of the permanence of
this entity. Its ontological level is infinitely higher than that of matter
and material beings, for the unity of the human personality is preserved
throughout all the stages of change an individual undergoes in his lifetime.
Can this unchanging entity in any way be ascribed to or regarded as identical
with the brain cells?
The contents of the brain cells completely change during the life of an
individual through the absorption of matter external to themselves and
the transformation of it into energy. New material takes the place of material
that dissolves. In fact, every living creature may be re-created several
times over in the course of his life as a result of the ceaseless changes
of his molecules and the particles of his body.
Were we to be composed only of matter and were there to be no invisible
force controlling the mass of our cells and the structure or our bodies,
given the fact that the content of our nervous system and our brains changes
several times over in the course of, say, fifty years, and the entirety
of our physical form undergoes various fundamental changes, the reality
of our being would be entirely controlled by the attributes of matter and
we would no longer be the same distinctive person that we were last year.
We know, however, that there is a single stable and immutable reality which
comprises our personality and assures its unity and distinctiveness.
That stable entity which exists in man is like the reflection of the moon
or the sun, shining night and day on the water. Although the waves are
in constant motion and flux, one wave advancing to have its place taken
by another, the reflection of the light of the moon or the sun is stable
and uniform:
Time and again the water has changed in the stream,
But the light of the moon and the stars maintains its
gleam.
The stable and immutable spirit keeps shining down on the
river of the body, just like the light of the moon and the sun. Although
the cells and molecules of the body perish, the slightest change does not
occur in the essential personality of man.
Everyone can perceive the existence within himself of a spirit that is
both independent of the body and possesses a form of existence totally
different from that of the body. Everyone is aware within himself of an
identity that is autonomous, continuous, constantly present, and stands
in contrast to his material being which changes every day.
One cannot possibly regard an entity that thus dominates the body and unlike
the body is immune to diminution as being the product of matter or subordinate
to its rules. Any supposition of this type cannot explain anything concerning
the true nature of man.
Cressy Morrison writes:
What is certain is that the creation of this world was not the outcome
of accident or chance, because the entire order of the world revolves around
specific laws.
The appearance among the animals of man, endowed with thought and
intelligence, is too mysterious and too significant for us to imagine it
to be the result of material processes, without the hand of a Creator being
involved. If this is not the case man must be like a mechanical instrument
requiring someone also to set him to work. But then whose hand would it
be that sets him in motion?
Until now, science has not been able to provide any explanation of
who this operator might be, only one thing is certain that
the operator cannot be a material compound.
We have progressed only so far as to imagine God bestowing a flash
of His own knowledge on our existence. Man is still passing through his
infancy in the understanding of creation and is just beginning to understand
the existence of the spirit; he is gradually becoming aware of this heavenly
gift and its eternal, everlasting character. (Raz-i Afarinish-i
Insan, pp. 180-181)
If the manifestations of the spirit are simply part of the effect and properties
of the body, the outcome of the activities of the brain, or reducible to
the total functions of the nervous system, how can we analyze and explain
the persistence of the human personality?
It is, after all entirely natural to suppose that an entity which refuses
to submit to the laws of matter should be permanent and everlasting.
The explanation offered by certain materialists to the effect that the
self is relative and that it undergoes change and development while possessing
stability, is more of a poetic than a scientific nature; it cannot in any
way explain the unity preserved by the human personality throughout life.
For this incorrect theory arises from a theory of man which is even more
erroneous; it would imply that I am not now that man that I previously
was; I am someone who has taken his place but I somehow fancy that I am
the same person as before. In addition, these imaginings are my act and
I am their source; it is not that my self comprises the varied and ever-changing
concepts that take form in my mind.
