of three things, heat, light and combustion. These three are different from one another, yet combined they form only one fire, and it is at least difficult for us to find a fire in which any one of these three constituents is absent. A single ray of sunlight is now known to consist of the three primary colours, red, green and blue, yet its unity is not destroyed by this plurality. Again, the same single ray contains light, heat and chemical efficacy, but these do not make the one ray into three separate rays.

Man himself may be said to consist of body, soul and spirit, ¹ yet this plurality does not make him three men, nor does it conflict with the oneness of his personality. Man's spirit is the inner being by means of which he is capable of entering into relation with God his Creator, and of receiving from Him the guidance and strength which he needs, so as to recognize and do his duty. The soul (جان ـ نَفْسٌ) is the link between body and spirit, and is in fact the vital principle. Some Muslim philosophers have spoken of the spirit as 'the reasoning soul' (النّفْس النّاطقة), which is the percipient (مُدْرِكٌ) faculty, and have termed the soul 'the animal spirit' (الّروح اْلحيوانيّة); but it is simpler to recognize the distinction between soul and spirit by pointing out the fact that animals have souls but not spirits, and

that man lives after death because that he has a spirit. That our relation to the body is not merely temporary is clear from what the holy Scriptures teach us of the resurrection, so that it is quite allowable to speak in this way of the tripartite nature of man. But, even if we lay aside all consideration of the human body, we can still find in man's inner and invisible nature three entities (وُجُود), spirit, soul and mind (العقل). It is not necessary for us now to endeavour to distinguish these from one another, for we all admit that there is some real distinction (امتياز) between them; yet this plurality does not conflict with the unity of the Ego. The term Ego (انا) may be rightly applied to each of them. Thus, when a man says 'I believe in God', he terms his spirit the Ego; when he says, 'I live', he applies the sane term to his soul, the seat and organ of animal life; when he says, 'I think', he speaks in the same way of his mind. In each case he is right; and yet his personality is single, not triple. It is admitted by our Muslim brethren that plurality of attributes (صفة) is quite consistent with unity of essence. But we have not been dealing with man's attributes here, and yet we discover another kind of plurality in each man's inner being, which in no way conflicts with his single personality. Hence it is incorrect to say that the existence of plurality in unity is impossible and contrary to reason.