Soul, Spirit, Mind and Intellect, from Antiquity to a Bahá’í Perspective: An Intertextual Trajectory from Biblical Times and Hellenistic Antiquity to the Islamic and Bábí-Bahá’í Psychology

Abstract

"The soul is the cause or source of the living body. The terms cause and source have many senses. But the soul is the cause of its body alike in all three senses which we explicitly recognize. It is (a) the source or origin of movement, it is (b) the end, it is (c) the essence of the whole living body" (Aristotle, De Anima). "O Kumayl [spirits] (anfus) are four [1] the augmentative vegetative [plant spirit] (al-namiyya al-nabatiyya) [2] the sensate animal [spirit] (al-hissiyya al-hayawaniyya) [3] the sacred rational (al-natiqa al-qudsiyya) [human spirit] and [4] the universal Divine [Spirit] (al-kulliyya al-ilahiyya)" (Attributed to Imam `Ali (d. 40/661) as cited in Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar, vol. 58:85) "Know thou that the soul of man is exalted above, and is independent of all infirmities of body or mind ... The soul of man is the sun by which his body is illumined, and from which it draweth its sustenance, and should be so regarded" (Bahá'u'lláh, GWB: LXXX). "... spirit is universally divided into five categories: [1] the vegetable spirit, [2] the animal spirit, [3] the human spirit, [4] the spirit of faith, and [5] the Holy Spirit ... The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal is the rational soul, and these two names—the human spirit and the rational soul—designate one thing ... But the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp ... (`Abdu'l-Bahá', SAQ, LV).