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THE SPIRIT

THE universal Spirit (ar-Rah), which is also called

the *first Intellect” (al-‘Aql al-awwal), is describ-
ed sometimes as created, sometimes as uncreated. Ac-
cording to the saying of the Prophet ¢ the first thing
which God created is The Spirit (ar-Ritl)”’ it is created
and, according to the passage in the Quran where God
says of Adam “ And I breathed into Him My Spirit >,
it is uncreated, because directly united with the Divine
Nature. As for the verse in the Quran which describes
the nature of the Spirit in these words: “They will
question you about the Spirit ; say to them: The Spirit
(proceeds) from the Command (a/-Amr) of my Lord...”
(XVII, 84) this can be interpreted in either sense—that
the Spirit is of the same nature as the Divine Command
—or Order—which is of necessity uncreated since it is It
which creates all things, or that the Spirit proceeds
from the Order and is itself at an ontological level
immediately below that Order.

If there are both these aspects of the Spirit it is be-
cause it is the mediator between the Divine Being and
the conditioned universe. Uncreated in its immutable
essence it is yet created in as much as it is the first
cosmic entity. It is compared to the supreme Pen (al-
Qalam al-a‘ia@) with which God inscribes all destinies
on the guarded Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfuz) which

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