An Analysis of the Immaterial Dimensions of ‎Humanity in the Quran

Document Type : The Quarterly Jornal

Authors

1 PhD student, Comparative Quranic Exegesis, Department of Quran and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Qom, Qom, Iran (corresponding author).

2 Associate professor, Department of Quran and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Qom, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

his article provides a comprehensive analysis of the immaterial dimensions of humanity as presented in the Quran, including rūḥ (spirit), nafs (self), qalb (heart), fuʾād (inner heart), ʿaql (intellect), lubb (pure intellect), samʿ (hearing), baṣar (sight), and fiṭra (innate nature). The central question is whether these concepts refer to a singular reality or represent distinct and independent dimensions of human existence. Relying on Quranic verses and drawing from exegetical and philosophical texts, the authors aim to clarify the functional roles of each dimension and distinguish their conceptual and operational differences. The research methodology is based on conceptual and comparative analysis, using interpretative and philosophical sources to define each term and its functions. The findings indicate that while these dimensions are interconnected, they maintain independent meanings and functions. The rūḥ, as the most significant metaphysical aspect of humanity, is described as the source of life, connection to the unseen, and human immortality. The nafs manages the body and is susceptible to purification or deviation. The qalb acts as the center of spiritual perception and divine testing. The fuʾād is identified as a locus of stabilization and solace during challenging times, as well as a medium for intuitive awareness. The ʿaql and lubb are tools for discerning truths and providing moral guidance. The samʿ and baṣar, beyond sensory perception, are instruments for spiritual understanding and recognizing divine signs. Lastly, the fiṭra is portrayed as the innate human inclination toward monotheism, truth-seeking, and morality. The primary contribution of this study lies in elucidating the distinctions and connections among these dimensions, enhancing the understanding of human spiritual identity and its immaterial functions. The research underscores the importance of accurately interpreting these concepts for a correct understanding of Quranic verses.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

* Holy Quran.
Fakhr al-Rāzī, M. b. ʿU. (1999). Al-Tafsīr al-kabīr (Vols. 18, 28, & 32, 3rd ed.). Beirut: Maktab Taḥqīq Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī / Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. [In Arabic]
Farāhīdī, K. b. A. (1984). Al-ʿAyn (Vols. 3 & 8, 2nd ed.). Qom: Hijrat. [In Arabic]
Fīrūzābādī, M. b. Yaʿqūb; Zubaydī, M. b. M. (n.d.). Tāj al-ʿarūs min jawāhir al-qāmūs (ed. ʿA. Shīrī). Qom: Dār al-Fikr. [In Arabic]
Ghajavand, M.; Haj-Kazemian, M. (2016). Tamāyuz-i rūḥ va nafs dar Qurʾān-i karīm va rivāyāt. Muṭāliʿāt-i Qurʾān va ḥadīth, 9(18), 97-122. [In Persian]
Hajati Shooraki, S. M.; Naghavi, H. (2017). Taḥlīl-i vāzhigān-i rūḥ, nafs, qalb, fuʾād, va ṣadr dar Qurʾān va barrasī-yi chandgāni yā muttaḥid būdan-i ānhā bā taʾkīd bar dīdgāh-hāyi ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi va Ayatollah Javadi Amoli. Qurʾān shinākht, 10(19), pp. 37-54. [In Persian]
Ibn al-ʿArabī, M. (2011). Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Vol. 4). Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa. [In Arabic]
Ibn ʿĀshūr, M. Ṭ. (2009). Tafsīr al-taḥrīr wa al-tanwīr al-maʿrūf bi-Tafsīr Ibn ʿĀshūr (Vol. 6, 1st ed.). Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Tārīkh al-ʿArabī. [In Arabic]
Ibn Bābawayh, M. b. ʿA. (1992). Man lā yaḥḍuruhu al-faqīh (ed. ʿA. A. Ghaffārī, Vol. 2, 2nd ed.). Qom: Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn fī al-Ḥawza al-ʿIlmiyya bi-Qom, Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī. [In Arabic]
Ibn Fāris, A. b. F. (1984). Muʿjam maqāyīs al-lugha (ed. H. ʿA. Muḥammad, Vols. 3–4, 1st ed.). Qom: Maktab al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī, Markaz al-Nashr. [In Arabic]
Ibn Manẓūr, M. b. M. (1993). Lisān al-ʿArab (ed. J. Mīrdāmādī, Vols. 2 & 11, 3rd ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Fikr li-Ṭibāʿa wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ / Dār Ṣādir. [In Arabic]
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, M. b. Abī Bakr. (1996). Al-Rūḥ (ed. I. M. Ramaḍān). Beirut: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī. [In Arabic]
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥ. b. ʿA. (n.d.). Al-Ishārāt wa al-tanbīhāt (ed. M. Zāraʿī). Qom: Bustān-i Kitāb (Markaz al-Nashr al-Tābiʿ li-Maktab al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī). [In Arabic]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2002). Tafsīr-i mawḍūʿī-yi Qurʾān: ṣūrat va sīrat-i insān dar Qurʾān. Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2010). Insān az āghāz tā anjām (ed. S. M. Mousavi Tabar, 3rd ed.). Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2013). Tafsīr-i mawḍūʿī-yi Qurʾān: fiṭrat dar Qurʾān. Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2014). Tafsīr-i mawḍūʿī-yi Qurʾān: ḥayāt-i ḥaqīqī-yi insān dar Qurʾān (vol. 15). Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2019). Hamtāyī-yi Qurʾān va ahl-i bayt ʿalayhim al-salām. Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2020). Tafsīr tasnīm (vol. 50, 3rd ed.). Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2020). Tafsīr tasnīm (vol. 64, 1st ed.). Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Javadi Amoli, A. (2021). Tafsīr tasnīm (vol. 48, 2nd ed.). Qom: Esra. [In Persian]
Majlisī, M. B. (1983). Biḥār al-anwār (Vols. 1–110). Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ. [In Arabic]
Makarem Shirazi, N. (2001). Tafsīr-i nimūnih (vol. 5, 7th ed.). Qom: Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib School. [In Persian]
Malikī Miyānjī, M. B. (1993). Manāhij al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān (eds. ʿA. Āl Ṭālib, M. Biyābānī Iskūʾī, and Ḥ. Dargāhī). Tehran: Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. [In Arabic]
Mawlawī, J. (n.d.). Sharḥ-i mathnawī (ed. J. Shahidi). Tehran: ʿIlmī va Farhangī. [In Persian]
Mesbah Yazdi, M. T. (2007). Maʿārif-i Qurʾān (vol. 1). Qom: Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute. [In Persian]
Mesbah Yazdi, M. T. (2008). Akhlāq dar Qurʾān. Qom: Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute. [In Persian]
Moallemi, H. (2013). Ḥaqīqat va vīzhigī-hāyi nafs va rūḥ dar Qurʾān-i karīm. Qom: Islamic Propagation Office. [In Persian]
Mufīd, M. b. M. (n.d.). Taṣḥīḥ iʿtiqādāt al-imāmiyya (ed. Ḥ. Dargāhī, Vol. 8, 1st ed.). Qom: Al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamī li-Alfiyya al-Shaykh al-Mufīd. [In Arabic]
Muṣṭafawī, Ḥ. (1981). Al-Taḥqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm (Vols. 1–14). Qom: Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. [In Arabic]
Nosrati, S. (2018). Maʿnāshināsī-yi qalb dar Qurʾān (1st ed.). Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth Publications. [In Persian]
Parsanejad, M. (2012). Ḥaqīqat-i qalb va ḥālāt-i ān az dīdgāh-i Qurʾān va ʿirfān-i Islāmī. PhD diss. Qom: Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute. [In Persian]
Rāfiʿī Qazwīnī, ʿA. b. M.; Ghazālī, M. b. M.; and Fayūmī, A. b. M. (n.d.). Al-Miṣbāḥ al-munīr fī gharīb al-sharḥ al-kabīr lil-Rāfiʿī (Vol. 2). Qom: Muʾassasat Dār al-Hijra. [In Arabic]
Rāghib Iṣfahānī, Ḥ. b. M. (1991). Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān (ed. Ṣ. ʿA. Dāʾūdī, 1st ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Shāmiyya / Dār al-Qalam. [In Arabic]
Shīrāzī, Ṣ. b. M. b. I. (1981). Ḥikmat mutaʿāliya fī sharḥ al-asfār al-ʿaqliyya al-arbaʿa (Vol. 2). Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth. [In Arabic]
Shīrāzī, Ṣ. b. M. b. I. (1982). Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm (ed. M. Khwājūʾī). Qom: Bīdār. [In Arabic]
Ṭabarī, M. b. J. (1991). Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Vol. 15). Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa. [In Arabic]
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, M. Ḥ. (1992). Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Vols. 1, 2, 8, 11, 12, and 13, 2nd ed.). Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī lil-Maṭbūʿāt. [In Arabic]
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, M. Ḥ. (1995). Tafsīr al-Mīzān (trans. M. B. Mūsawī, Vol. 2). Qom: Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn Ḥawza ʿIlmiyya Qom, Daftar Intishārāt Islāmī. [In Arabic]
Ṭabrisī, F. b. Ḥ. (1993). Majmaʿ al-bayān (ed. H. Rasūlī & F. Yazdī Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Vol. 8, 3rd ed.). Tehran: Nāṣir Khusraw. [In Arabic]
Ṭurayḥī, F. b. M. (1996). Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn (ed. A. Ḥ. Ashkūrī, 3rd ed.). Tehran: Kitābfurūshī Murtazawī. [In Arabic]
Ṭūsī, M. b. Ḥ. (n.d.). Al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān (intro. by M. M. Āqā Buzurg Ṭihrānī & A. Ḥ. ʿĀmilī, Vols. 7 & 9, 1st ed.). Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. [In Arabic]
Zamakhsharī, M. b. ʿU. (1986). Al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl (Vol. 4, 3rd ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī. [In Arabic]

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics