The relationship between the material body and the human soul remains a profound and complex topic, as it explores into religious, spiritual, philosophical and scientific perspectives. Most religions insinuate that the soul is eternal and transcends the physical body and is often seen as the true essence of a person, destined for an afterlife.
From and Islamic perspective, the human is one of the many life forms that inhabit the planet earth, but he exists as a special life form. Unlike all other life forms, he is not a creation of matter alone. He exists as some combination of body and soul; body is made of matter whereas soul is made of spirit which we cannot see. The human body is similar to other life forms, for they all exist with sense organs, which is the source of instinctive power. The instinctive power resides in the brain, which functions naturally like a computer to alert the body of imminent danger.
The purpose of instinctive power is to protect the material body from harm or injury. The body seeks pleasure and avoids pain. It has needs that it must fulfill for its sustenance and growth. In addition to its needs, it also invents desires for material things. While it is able to create infinite desires, the body has a finite life span. It ages and dies; disease and accident may explain early death. Guard against harmful or perilous acts of body so that the brain can exercise its instinctive power effectively.
The human soul resides in the body. The body is designed to give the soul natural existence similar to how other natural living beings exist. The body enables soul, and the soul is who the human is, to live in and experience Nature. This is why the human sweats for the means of living, e.g. food, clothing and shelter, as does a natural being for survival and a healthy body. We all prefer our soul to dwell in a healthy body. What happens to the soul when the body dies? The soul does no more belong to the world of matter. We may perceive it as an alien that comes from the unseen world of spirit. Obviously, soul returns to where it comes from upon death of the body. In other words, soul outlives body after the human lives his natural existence on planet earth.
An instinctive power exists to protect the body. How does the human protect his soul? The soul has sense organs of its own similar to sense organs of the body. The spiritual sense organs can also see and hear, for example. Close your eyes and you can see people you have met or observe events you have experienced. The mind has the capacity to recreate from memory images of your past experiences. You can even see things your imagination creates with your eyes closed. The spiritual sense organs reside in the mind and the mind resides in the soul. The mind has the mental capacity to think and feel. We discover in the capacity to feel hope or despair, love or hate, dignity or prejudice, satisfaction or misery. Our feeling may relate to us, fellow humans, other life forms or even non-life creations. In fact, the capacity to feel is what makes us human.
The capacity of the mind to think makes us a thinking being. The thinking mind uses knowledge that it creates or learns with the help of sense organs of body. We are able to reason with knowledge in order to deal with ongoing challenges of life. This is how our mind empowers us to become an intelligent being. If we do not use the power of mind to reason with facts, prejudice infects our mind. When we form an opinion without due consideration of facts, we have a prejudiced opinion. Prejudice biases thinking. Guard against the mental disease of prejudice and learn to reason with facts in order to grow a healthy mind and hence a healthy soul.
What is the cause of prejudice? We find the cause in the body-soul conflict. The body seeks pleasure in material things, but soul has no interest in material things except to fulfill the needs of our body for a healthy life. The soul, on the other hand, seeks hope, love, dignity and satisfaction while it avoids despair, hate, prejudice and misery. It wants us to live in peace and harmony.
Apply the power of reason, learn great thoughts and expand the capacity to think and feel. This is how we grow our mind. Value its unmatched power; it is a great resource and it is at our command. Take full advantage of it to facilitate our struggle without the fear of depleting the resource. Utilize the power of mind, strive wholeheartedly and give our soul what it wants, and remember the soul is who we are.
Bashir Nuckchady
