The Analogy of Prior Entitlement (qiyās al-awlā)
Allah—exalted is He—is not to be likened to His creatures by any comparison that entails resemblance, for He has no equal; to Him belongs the highest example. Hence it is impermissible to place Him and the created realm side by side either in an analogical comparison of likeness (qiyās tamthīl) or in a universal analogy whose individual instances are deemed equivalent (qiyās shumūl). The only acceptable comparison is the supreme analogy: every perfection possessed by a creature is, in far greater measure, the right of the Creator, and every imperfection from which a creature is free, the Creator is even more deserving of being exalted above it. Accordingly, if one created being is declared free of resembling another created being despite the two sharing a common name, then the Creator is, a fortiori, even more entitled to be declared transcendent above any likeness to the creature, even when a name is shared.
The Second Example: The Spirit
The same reasoning applies to the second example—the spirit within us. The revealed texts describe this spirit by affirming certain qualities and denying others. They inform us that it ascends, rising from one heaven to the next, and that it is taken from the body and drawn out as a strand of hair is drawn from dough.
People’s Divergent Views on the Nature of the Spirit
People have differed greatly about it: among them are groups of scholastic theologians who regard it as merely a part of the body, or