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SAYINGS OF SOME MUSLIM SAGES

The Affinity between Man and Beast

“In the region of existing matter, the mineral kingdom comes lowest, then comes the vegetable kingdom, then the animal, and finally the human being. By his body he (man) belongs to the material world but by his soul he appertains to the spiritual or immaterial. Above him are only the purely spiritual beings – the angels – above whom only is God: THUS THE LOWEST IS COMBINED BY A CHAIN OF PROGRESS TO THE HIGHEST. But the human soul perpetually strives to cast off the bonds of matter, and, becoming free, it soars upwards again to God, from whom it emanated.” (Al-Hazen)¹

“Dying from the inorganic, we developed into the vegetable kingdom:

Dying from the vegetable, we became men.

Then what fear that death will lower us?

The next transition will make us angels.

From angels we shall rise and become what no mind can conceive;

We shall merge in affinity as in the beginning.

Have we not been told, ‘All of us shall return unto Him’?” (Rūmī)²