trained it upon diligence and activity in worship, treated it well by diminishing the false desire and the fleeting pleasure, and pondered the saying of the Exalted: {He has succeeded who purifies it} ¹ . And it is not far from our minds that among the spirits themselves is a virtuous one, and a less virtuous one, an origin and a branch. And every believer in Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—has believed that his spirit is the origin of all spirits, and it is their first light emanated upon the rest of them.

For the spirit is that which extends to the rational faculty and inspires the complete conduct for it, and it is the overflowing light sent from His Presence, whose rays circulate in all the senses. And since the spirit, despite its power, is simple (sadhajah) by virtue of primordial nature, and obedient because it is from the World of Command ('alam al-amr), it moves following the rational faculty according to the purity of its structure and the rust of its mirror. Thus, when the rational faculty ascends and the structure of the body becomes pure,