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The word "soul" is used by different people in different senses, but the manner of its connection with the body proves it to be divine. Therefore the Sufi conception of the soul is that it is the divine part in man. The fire that comes from coal or wood is in reality the part of the sun that is in them, and when the soul qualities arise in the heart of a man and show themselves, this proves that it is the divine part in him that rises, like the flame in the fire.

Soul is in all objects, both things and beings, but when it is recognized as soul, then it becomes a soul.

It is of the soul that a Persian Sufi has said, "God slept in the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awoke in the animal kingdom, and became self-conscious in man."

It is the description of the soul, starting in manifestation as one and manifested in variety.

The reason why one cannot see the soul is that it is the soul that sees all things, and the soul has to become two in order to see itself, and this can never be. As consciousness is realized by being conscious of something, and as intelligence is realized by the knowledge of things, so the existence of the soul can be proved by one's very existence. That part which exists in one, or which makes one existent, that part which sees, conceives, perceives, and is conscious of all things and yet above all things is the soul.

The destiny of the soul with the mind and the body is a momentary experience when compared with the everlasting life of the soul. The soul with the mind and the body are like three persons travelling together. The difference between them is that

• one depends for his life upon the other two -- that is the body;
• and one depends upon one for its life -- that is the mind;
• and one does not depend upon either for its life -- that is the soul.

That is why the spiritual person, who realizes being not as body and mind alone, but as soul independent of body and mind, attains to everlasting life. But for the experience of the external life the soul depends upon the mind, and the mind depends upon the body.

There is no object or being that has no soul, but the word "soul" is used in ordinary language only for that entity which is conscious of its individual being. The soul is the light, the mind is the furniture, and the body is the room. The furniture could be anywhere, and the room is a fitting place for it; but without light, neither room nor furniture is of any use, nor would life exist without soul.

The mind is created by the soul, yet the soul is independent of the mind; just as the body is created by the mind, but the mind is independent of the body for its life. It is the life of the body which we call life on earth, and it is the life of the mind which we call "the hereafter," and it is the life of the soul which we call "the life everlasting."

• Who lives with the body dies with the body;
• who lives with the mind will live long with the mind, and will die with the death of the mind;
• but who lives with the soul will live and live for ever.
• Who lives with his individual self will live so long as his individual self lives, here and hereafter,
• and who lives with God will live the everlasting life of God.

There is a saying of Nanak that, "as grain is saved from being ground in the mill by being in the center, so the worshipper who lives with God is saved from mortality."

Hazrat Inayat Khan

https://www.hazrat-inayat-khan.org/php/views.php?h1=25&h2=13&h3=7