Chapter I: Acquisition of Knowledge
(2) Another class of learning is like the science of travelling in the desert and surmounting obstacles. They purify the mind from evil traits and take it to a high place that does not fall to the lot of any except to those whom God shows favour.
(3) The third kind of knoweldge is like the knowledge of pilgrimage and its rules and regulations. This is the science of knowledge of God, His attitutes and the knowldge of the actions of angels. This is the knowledge which can not be gained except by the agnostics who are close to Him. Those who are lower in rank than them will get also salvation. God says : As for one who is of those nearest to God, there is happiness, bounty and garden of bliss for him. But as for one who is of the companions of the right hand there is peace for him-56:87. This is a certain truth which they perceived through contemplations. This is more clear than Seeing with eyes. They are confirmed in their faith after seeing for themselves. Others are like those who have got faith but without contemplation and without seeing with their own eyes.
By the soul, I don't mean heart made up of flesh but it is a subtle Sir or secret essence which the bodily senses fail to perceive. It is a spiritual substance from God and has been described sometimes by Nafs, sometimes by Qalb. The material heart is the vehicle for the spiritual essence to remove the veil from it as it belongs to the science of revelation, a sceince which is withheld from men and there is no permission to discuss it. What is permissible is the discussion that it is a precious jewel and belongs to the world of spirit and not to the world of matter. God
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says : They ask you about soul. Say : Soul proceeds from the command of my Lord-17:87. The connection of soul with God is nobler than that of all the bodily limbs. To God belong the creation and the command is the most precious thing which can carry the trust of God. It is nobler than the heaven and the earth and what they contain as the latter refused to bear the trust out of fear of the spiritual world. It has come from God and it will return to God. It is the spiritual substance which drives towards God.
SECOND SUBJECT-DUTIES OF A TEACHER