وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلرُّوحِ قُلِ ٱلرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّى وَمَآ أُوتِيتُم مِّنَ ٱلْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
"They ask you about the spirit. Say: 'The spirit is of my Lord's command. And you have been given only a little of knowledge.'"
Per the method a record must be entered at the very outset of this verse, and the record comes out of the verse's own sentence:
The verse answers a question, and the content of the answer is not a description but a statement of source: min amri rabbī. And immediately after, a limit on knowledge is set: wa mā ūtītum mina'l-ʿilmi illā qalīlā.
The verse itself, that is, says that the knowledge given on this matter is little. In this commentary there is no speculation about what the rūḥ is. The table below is a list of the views transmitted in the classical sources; none of them is preferred and none is presented as certain knowledge.
| Reading | What rūḥ is | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The life in a human being — what gives the body life | The most widespread understanding |
| 2 | Gabriel (Jibrīl) | The Qurʾān uses the expressions al-Rūḥu'l-amīn (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/193) and Rūḥu'l-qudus (al-Baqara 2/87) |
| 3 | Revelation / the Qurʾān | At al-Shūrā 42/52 the phrase rūḥan min amrinā occurs |
| 4 | An angel, or a class of created beings | At al-Qadr 97/4 al-rūḥ is named separately alongside the angels |
All four readings are transmitted in the classical sources; I do not impose a preference and I do not pile up reports.
That the word al-rūḥ is named separately was treated at 78/38 in al-Nabaʾ, and it was recorded there: the Qurʾān names Gabriel separately. And the root was analysed in detail at 42/52 in al-Shūrā (wa kadhālika awḥaynā ilayka rūḥan min amrinā), and a "line of the limit of knowledge" was tabulated there. I rely on those treatments.
The root was analysed in al-Aḥzāb, al-Raḥmān, al-Ḥāqqa and at 56/89 in al-Wāqiʿa. It was recorded there: the shared core of the root is air in motion, and under it lie rūḥ (life), rīḥ (wind), rawḥ (relief) and rāʾiḥa (scent). I do not repeat it here.
The form of the answer must be recorded, and this is an observation about the structure: the verse does not say "the spirit is such and such". It places it in a category: amr.
أ-م-ر — the root here points to a field the Qurʾān uses often: the distinction between ʿālam al-amr and ʿālam al-khalq has been debated in classical theology. This distinction is itself an interpretive frame, and I transmit it as a transmitted frame; the wording of the verse sets up no such distinction.
I give this as my own reading, and its support is the generality of the sentence: the verse does not say "you have little knowledge on this matter". It enters a general record: mina'l-ʿilmi — of knowledge.
And the word qalīlā must be recorded: little has been given — not that nothing has been given. The sentence, that is, does not devalue knowledge; it states its proportion.
This can be read together with the thirty-sixth verse (wa lā taqfu mā laysa laka bihi ʿilm), and I record this as my own reading: first the sūra forbids falling in behind what is not known, then it says that what is known is little. Together the two verses build the two faces of an ethics of knowledge: to be aware of the limit, and not to carry judgements beyond it.