in Paradise, then return to lamps suspended from the Throne.” It is also established through authentic chains of transmission:

“When a person’s spirit is taken, the angels say: ‘Come out, O good soul that dwelt in a good body. Come out content and well-pleasing.’ And it is said: ‘Come out, O wicked soul that dwelt in a wicked body. Come out discontented and under wrath.’”

Another hadith states:

“The believer’s soul is a bird that feeds on the fruit of Paradise, then returns to lamps suspended from the Throne.”

Thus he called it a nasama (soul).

Likewise, the authentic hadith concerning the Ascension states:

“Adam, peace be upon him, had dark figures to his right and dark figures to his left. When he looked to his right, he laughed; when he looked to his left, he wept. Gabriel told the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: ‘These figures are the souls of his descendants: the blessed are to his right, and the wretched to his left.’”

In the hadith of ‘Alī:

“By Him who split the seed and created the living soul!”

And in an authentic hadith:

“When the spirit is taken, the gaze follows it.”

Thus, what is taken at death and during sleep is called both a spirit and a soul. What is taken up to heaven is likewise called both a spirit and a soul. It is called a soul in view of its governance of the body, and a spirit in view of its subtle nature, for the word rūh (spirit) conveys subtlety. Hence the wind is also called a rūh. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“The wind is from the spirit of Allah.”

That is, from the spirit Allah created. Attributing the spirit to Allah therefore denotes ownership, not an attribute of His. For anything attributed to Allah, if it is an entity that subsists independently, belongs to Him; whereas if it is an attribute subsisting in something else, with no locus in which it subsists, then it is an attribute of Allah.