do?

For sensation and voluntary movement may belong either to the body or to the soul. The body senses and moves voluntarily, and the soul likewise senses and moves voluntarily, although the two attributes differ just as the two realities differ. Similarly, rationality belongs to the soul through discernment, knowledge, and inner speech, and also to the body through the heart’s discernment and knowledge and the tongue’s speech. Thus, both a person’s body and soul possess these two attributes.

The movement, will, knowledge, and rationality of the human soul are not like those of a horse, although they have something in common. Likewise, the sensation and voluntary movement belonging to the human body are not like those of a horse, although they have something in common. For the things suited to his body—food, drink, clothing, mates, scents, sights, and sounds—which he perceives and toward which he moves voluntarily, are not the same as those suited to a horse.

Sensation and voluntary movement, in their general sense, belong to all animals; in their specifically human sense, however, they belong to human beings alone. Exactly the same applies to discernment. Hence the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The names most beloved to Allah are ‘Abd Allāh and ‘Abd al-Rahmān. The names that most truthfully describe their bearers are Hārith and Hammām, and the ugliest are Harb and Murrah.”

Narrated by Muslim.

A hārith is one who works, earns, and moves. A hammām is one who is continually intent upon something, intent being the precursor to volition. Every human being is therefore a worker who acts by his own will, and this, too, is preceded by sensory perception.