The Spirit (ar-Ruh) and the soul (an-nafs) engage
in battle for the possession of their common son, the heart (al-qalb). By ar-Ruh
is here to be understood the intellectual principle which transcends the individual
nature and by an-nafs the psyche, the centrifugal tendencies of
which determine the diffuse and inconstant domain of 'I'.
(p. 26)
Paraphrased: The saying, the 'Sufi is not created', can be understood
to mean that the being who is thus reintegrated into the
Divine Reality recongizes himself in it 'such as he was' from all eternity
according to his
'principial
possibility, immutable in its state of
non-manifestation' - to quote Muhyi-d-Din ibn 'Arabi.
(p. 26)
Paraphrased:... The identity of the 'I' is merely a recollection of the 'Self'
(al-huwiyali), the possiblity of the being which subsists eternally in the
Infinite Essence. That which 'lights up' and knows the transitory nature of
material phenomenon and connects them with their archetype is
clearly not the individual consciousness but pure and transcendent Intelligence.
(pp. 68-69)
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