The Meaning of God’s Creation of Adam in His Image (Part 2)

As to the word ‘Adam,’ the Sihah states, “Originally it is with two hamzah’s, for it pertains to the form af’al, and the second hamzah has been altered into an alif, and when it is to be given a vowel sound it is changed into waw, whereat its plural is awadim.”

The reason that Adam, the father of the human race (abu al-bashar) wag given this name is perhaps because he was had a brown complexion (asmar al-lawn), as according to the lexicons al-adama min al-nas means someone who is brownish (al-asmar). And according to some traditions Adam was named so because he came from the adim of the earth [5] adim being in the sense of ‘face’ and adim-e ard means the surface of the earth.

As to the expression ‘ala Suratih, Surah in the lexicon is in the sense of picture and form, and it may be said that it has a general meaning common to different notions in which the commonality consists of the thingness of a thing and its actuality (fi’liyyat). However, everything has an actuality in respect of which it is said to possess a form (dhu al-Surah) and that actuality is called form (Surah).

The application of the term ‘form’ in the terminology of the philosophers to matters that are inclusive of a thing’s actuality and thingness is not contrary to its lexical meaning, and is not a technical or special term. Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Sina, the chief of the Islamic philosophers, in the part on metaphysics of his book al-Shifa’, says, “At times Surah is applied to any configuration and act that is in a single or composite recipient so that its movements and accidents are called surah. Surah (form) is also applied to something by virtue of which matter is sustained in actuality; hence, the intellectual substances (jawahir ‘aqliyyah) and accidents cannot be called suwar (forms).

And surah is applied to something by means of which matter becomes perfect, though it should not be sustained by it in actuality, such as health and that towards which a thing moves by its own nature (tab’). Also, surah is applied to the species (naw’), genus, and differentia of a thing, or to all of them. And the universality of the universal in the particulars is also surah.”

Reflection on all the instances of the usage of surah shows that in all of them the criterion is actuality and it is used univocally in all the cases of its use, to the extent that even God, the Exalted, is called surat al-suwar (the actuality of all actualities).

As to the word istafaha, safwah means something pure and purged from impurity (kudurat) and istifa’ has the sense of taking that which is clear and pure (safi) and is implied in its meaning. However, Jawhari and others have considered it to mean ikhtiyar (choosing), and so they have also considered ikhtiyar to mean isitifa’ in the lexicons. This is, however, an explanation in terms of that which is implied, as ikhtiyar also means taking that which is good (khayr) and meritorious, and in this respect coincides with istifa’ in external reality, though it is not synonymous with it.

As to the word al-Kaba, it is the name of the House of the God. Some have said that it has been called Kaba due to its resemblance to a cube (muka’ab) or due to its square shape, [6] and muka’ab in the terminology of mathematicians is a body with six equal planes perpendicular to one another.

As to the word al-ruh, in the terminology of men of traditional medicine ruh (spirit) is described as “a subtle vapor formed in an animal’s heart due to the heat of the blood.” They state that “the heart has two sides. One of them is on the right, wherein blood is drawn from the lever and there it releases a vapor due to the heart’s heat: Those vapors flow through the left side of the heart becoming refined there due to the actions of the heart, and from it the animal spirit is constituted.”

Then it flows through the blood vessels due to the expansion and contraction of the heart, in the manner mentioned in the related works. Thus, the source of this animal spirit is the heart and its channels are the blood vessels.

Hereafter, God willing, we will explain that this spirit is the one breathed by the Divine breath and that it is that which is the chosen and elect (mustafa wa mukhtar) of the Real, Glorious and Exalted.

Notes:

[5] Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, ‘Ilal al-sharayi’, i, 26. The text of the tradition is as follows:

[6] Al-Tabrisi, Majma’ al-bayan, exegesis of 5:97; Qamus al-lughah, under k-’-b, Ka’bah.

[7] 15:29, 38:72.

Taken from: Forty Hadith (An Exposition on 40 ahadith narrated through the Prophet [s] and his Ahl al-Bayt [A.S] By Imam Ruhullah al-Musawi Khomeini