Soul In The Treatises Of IKHWĀN AL-ṢAFĀ

The concept of spirit, or soul, as an alternative term, is one of the important concepts, which has received the attention of philosophers and thinkers throughout history both in the West and in the East, and in the world of Islam. Throughout history, different theories about the nature and the essence of soul have been presented by such thinkers as Aristotle, Plato, Avecina, and many others. The present study focuses on discussions concerning spirit studies such as the definition and individuation of soul, faculties of spirit, occurrence and survival of soul, and the association of soul and body from the viewpoints of Ikhwan al-Safa. Influenced by Plato and other philosophies including Neo-Platonics, as well as the philosophies in the world of Islam, Ikhwan al-Safa regarded the spirit as a spiritual essence which, to him, was an independent illumination per se, active by nature, teachable, potentially knowledgeable, active in corporal things, the employer thereof. The manner of the relationship between the abstract soul and the material body is the most important discussion in the studies of soul. Ikhwan al-Safa holds that the soul and the body are two distinct essences, and that the soul is abstract and the body is material