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Imaginal body

From Imam Khomeini Wiki

Imaginal body, means a body that the human soul has with itself after death and with which it receives punishment or reward. Imam Khomeini in his works has addressed the imaginal body, its reality, position, and its quiddity, and believes that the imaginal body is formed based on psychological traits and in proportion to them.

Importance and Position of the Imaginal Body

The imaginal body in philosophical and religious terminology means a body that the human soul has with itself after death and with which it receives punishment or reward.[1] One of the important philosophical, theological, and religious discussions is the discussion of the barzakhi and imaginal body. Most Islamic thinkers have accepted the barzakhi and imaginal body based on religious texts.[2] In Islamic philosophy, the Peripatetic philosophers, since they deny the realm of Barzakh, do not believe in the imaginal and barzakhi body. In Illuminationist philosophy, too, although the imaginal realm is accepted, the imaginal body has not been accepted, and both the Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophical schools consider the intermediary between the soul and the material body to be the vaporous spirit. But Mulla Sadra has addressed the imaginal and barzakhi body and has systematically applied it in the human being.[3] Imam Khomeini has also addressed the discussion of the imaginal body, its position, reality, its quiddity, and the difference between the imaginal body and the material body in his works.[4]

Quiddity of the Imaginal Body

Divine philosophers have noted in numerous places in their works that the human being, apart from this natural body, also has an imaginal body. The issue of the barzakhi body with the imaginal form is one of the discussions related to bodily resurrection, based on which, according to some hadiths in this regard, the human being, after death and upon disconnecting from the material body, finds himself with the barzakhi body and the imaginal form. The imaginal body is, in fact, the true body of the human being and is a subtle body in which the light of sense and life flows, and the material body, which has been discarded like a shell and sheath, is no longer considered a human body. The imaginal body is like the body that the human being deals with in a dream, sees with its eyes, and hears with its ears; because the human imaginal body is not perceivable by the apparent senses; hence, ordinary human beings who are preoccupied with the apparent senses cannot perceive the imaginal body.[5]

Imam Khomeini also believes regarding the quiddity and reality of the imaginal body that the soul after separation from the body will be in the imaginal form, although some consider the imaginal form to be this very sense of touch that is all over the body and is in the shape of that same organ in every organ, but the meaning of the imaginal body is not that they have built another empty corpse and form and the spirit is transferred from this world and enters it, rather the barzakhi body is currently in the esoteric aspect of the human being as well. Imam Khomeini considers the imaginal body to be the exact same worldly body. Of course, this sameness means that the individuation and the person of this body remain, and the person of this body itself contains the corporeal form and the prime matter, and its matter in the natural world is constantly changing, and material elements are replaced in it, and although the body is gradually changing and altering, the individuation of its corporeal form is preserved, and the preserver of the individuation of the corporeal form throughout these changes is the soul, and when this corporeal form loses its matter, meaning the elemental body, through death, its corporeal form remains; because the truth of corporeality is not dependent on having matter, but rather corporeality also exists in Barzakh, and individuals have physical pleasures with the barzakhi body. Therefore, the material body and corporeality transform into the barzakhi and imaginal body in their natural course.[6]

Imam Khomeini believes that the human being who is resurrected on the Day of Resurrection is exactly the same worldly human being, and this issue does not harm the fact that the worldly body has corrupted and perished; because the identity and sameness of the human being is by his soul, and what is important in the sameness of the worldly body and the imaginal body is observing the aspect of unity between them so that it can be said that this body is the same body. Therefore, the mode of existence of the soul is responsible for its unity and individuation despite its transformations, because the mode of existence of the soul is such that while it is one, it is corporeal at the level of origination, semi-material at the imaginal level, and completely immaterial at the intellect level. In Imam Khomeini's opinion, the soul has the capability to be elevated to another level as a single existence while preserving the perfections of each level, and to manifest and appear in every realm with different modes and with the characteristics of that realm. In this elevation and ascension, the barzakhi and otherworldly form is the intensification of the worldly form, and of course, there is no disparity between them, rather the human being, from the beginning of his origination, by the rule of the gradation of existence, has remained in all stages and only his limits change. Therefore, it can be said that the imaginal and otherworldly body is the same worldly body, and their only distinction is in intensity and weakness, and perfection and deficiency.[7]

Difference between the Imaginal Body and the Worldly Body

Transcendent Theosophy has established differences between the natural and worldly body and the imaginal and barzakhi body, including; that the natural body is like the matter prepared for the origination of the soul and the preponderant of the origination of the soul, unlike the imaginal body. Also, the natural body is the material recipient of the soul, unlike the imaginal body which is not like this, rather the imaginal body is the intermediary for the soul's intervention and management in the natural body. Also, the attainment of the imaginal body is not conditional on prepared matter, rather it takes shape based on psychological traits and in proportion to them, and possesses life.[8]

Imam Khomeini also establishes differences between the worldly body and the imaginal body; including:

  • The worldly and material body rots, turns into dust, and perishes, unlike the imaginal body which remains with the soul. Hence, the relation of the soul to this corpse that turns into dust and rots is like the relation of the soul to other bodies.[9]
  • The worldly body is the shell and skin of the barzakhi body.[10]
  • The worldly body is the cover of the barzakhi body, just as formal clothing is the cover of the material body. Therefore, the elemental body is the cover of the barzakhi body, and the barzakhi body exists now, but it is under the cover and veil of the worldly body.
  • The imaginal body, unlike the material body, has life. Imam Khomeini, by citing the noble verse "Indeed the abode of the Hereafter is true life, had they but known",[11] believes: life is essential for the barzakhi and imaginal body because it has imaginal immateriality and cognitive forms, and on the other hand, the existence in itself of the cognitive forms is identical to their existence for the perceiver, and the cognitive forms are united with the perceiver. Therefore, the imaginal bodies are identical to the souls and their life is essential, unlike worldly bodies to which life is essentially introduced from outside; hence, the imaginal body is entirely dependent on the soul in its manifestation, and the soul encompasses all its realms and fully attends with power to its shadowy body and brings it into manifestation.[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Muḥsinī, Barzakh wa maʿād az dīdgāh-i Qurʾān wa riwāyāt, pp. 29-30; Malāyirī, Naẓariyya-hā-yi badan-i barzakhī, p. 114.
  2. ↑ Ṭūsī, Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 466; Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 3, p. 243; Mufīd, Taṣḥīḥ iʿtiqādāt al-Imāmiyya, p. 77; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 3, p. 201; Fayḍ Kāshānī, al-Wāfī, p. 634.
  3. ↑ Ibn Sīnā, al-Shifāʾ, al-Ṭabīʿiyyāt, vol. 2, p. 232; Suhrawardī, Majmūʿa-yi muṣannafāt, vol. 2, p. 266; Mullā Ṣadrā, Majmūʿa-yi rasāʾil-i falsafī, p. 301; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Mabdaʾ wa l-maʿād, p. 281; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Ḥikmat al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 9, p. 98; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-ʿArshiyya, p. 243; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 15, p. 68; Shah Gulī, Awṣāf-i badan-i mithālī dar ḥikmat-i mutaʿāliya wa āmūza-hā-yi dīnī, pp. 164-166.
  4. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 2, p. 364; vol. 3, pp. 54, 240, and 246; Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 91; Imām Khumaynī, al-Taʿlīqa ʿalā l-fawāʾid al-raḍawiyya, p. 140.
  5. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Ḥikmat al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 8, p. 249, vol. 9, pp. 99 and 281; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Shawāhid al-rubūbiyya, p. 318; Mullā Ṣadrā, Mafātīḥ al-ghayb, p. 600; Mullā Ṣadrā, Majmūʿa-yi rasāʾil-i falsafī, p. 296; Mullā Ṣadrā, Asrār al-āyāt, p. 180; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Maẓāhir al-ilāhiyya, p. 117; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-ʿArshiyya, pp. 239-240; ʿUbūdiyyat, Darāmadī bih niẓām-i ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāyī, vol. 3, p. 123.
  6. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 2, p. 364; vol. 3, pp. 54 and 213-216; Ṣāḥibī, Ḥikmat-i maʿnawī, pp. 688-690.
  7. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 3, pp. 201-207, 212-213, 408-411, and 541; Ṣāḥibī, Ḥikmat-i maʿnawī, pp. 749-754.
  8. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Ḥikmat al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 9, pp. 31, 207, and 281; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Mabdaʾ wa l-maʿād, p. 554; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Shawāhid al-rubūbiyya, p. 270; ʿUbūdiyyat, Darāmadī bih niẓām-i ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāyī, vol. 3, pp. 133-136.
  9. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 3, pp. 240-246.
  10. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 3, p. 323.
  11. ↑ (Qur'an 29:64)
  12. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, al-Taʿlīqa ʿalā l-fawāʾid al-raḍawiyya, pp. 140-141; Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 91; Ṣāḥibī, Anwār-i ḥikmat, p. 691; Ṣāḥibī, Ḥikmat-i maʿnawī, pp. 691-692.

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