Abstract

Soul belongs to body only on a temporal contingency basis and not permanently i.e. at its early stage of existence, soul needs body but later as it goes on living, it stops to depend on body totally. In other words, soul when it first draws breath is an impotent being devoid of any perfection resembling body to a great extent, and at this very stage, soul is something between soul and body and then develops into a completely spiritnal being. Ibn Arabi says soul, body and intellect are connected together in the sense that soul and intellect are breathed into body but each has its own rank. Soul is higher than the body and lower than the intellect. What gives soul further importance is that it is the place for spirit to grow and since spirit can do both good and evil, soul is also bound to change. According to Ibn Arabi, the rational animal owes his rationality to his soul and spirit and without them he does not go far beyond other animals.