To say categorically that it is a body or that it is not a body calls for further clarification, for the term jism (body) has acquired a number of technical meanings among scholars that differ from its original sense in Arabic.

The philologists maintain that a jism is the jasad or badan—that is, the physical frame. In this lexical sense the spirit is not a body, which is why they commonly speak of “the spirit and the body.” The Qurʾan likewise says, “When you see them, their bodies impress you, and when they speak you listen to their words” (63:4), and, “He has granted him abundance in knowledge and in stature [jism]” (2:247).

The theologians, however, are divided: some define a body as anything that exists; others, as that which subsists in and of itself; still others, as that which is composed of discrete atoms. Each of these definitions carries different implications when applied to the spirit.