unexplainable knowledge of the states of all those whose souls he takes. Thus, he manifests to every individual in a specific form; he may come to some individuals not in a physical shape, but rather as a simple reality. Thus, the soul confronting the spirit becomes enamored by it, and the spirit departs from the body while he holds it. It remains attached to it due to that primal infatuation that existed between the spirit and the body, and so a struggle ensues between the separation forced by the Azra'ilite characteristic (al-khassah al-'Azra'iliyyah) and its infatuation with the body, until the Azra'ilite attraction overpowers it, and it departs. This departure is a wondrous matter. Verily, when the spirit originally enters the body and dwells within it, it does not actually leave its original station and locus; rather, it remains in its locus while gazing toward the body. For it is the nature of spirits that they dwell wherever their gaze falls—whichever locus their sight lands upon, they occupy it without separating from their original center. This is a matter that the rational mind deems impossible, and it cannot be known except through spiritual unveiling (al-kashf).