In this paper, I will talk about Mīrzā Mahdī Eṣfahānī's views about the soul and spirit. He takes the terms "nafs" (soul) and "ruh" (spirit) to refer to the dark part of the humans which is devoid of consciousness. He takes the soul to be a material entity with three dimensions and space-time. In his view, ruh is essentially dark and non-conscious, but through divine will, it comes to possess the light, knowledge and volition. I will proceed to compare Mīrzā Mahdī Eṣfahānī's view with some narrations (hadiths). Then I will talk about ways of knowing the spirit; Mīrzā Mahdī Eṣfahānī maintains that the only way to know the spirit for people in generall is deep sleep, the various types of which will be examined here. Next I will talk about the types of soul in Quran in his view and the mutual needs of the spirit and body. The next section is dedicated to the arguments for the materiality of the soul and in the final sections, issues about how the body and the soul are combined in different worlds will be examined.
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