human beings are pleased.” Contentment and anger are attributes of the animal soul in human beings, not attributes of the rational soul. Even if rational souls are characterized by contentment and anger, it is not in the sense he intended by saying, “I become angry as human beings become angry, and I am pleased as human beings are pleased.”
We ascribed this to the animal soul because we witness it in animals. The Messenger of God’s prohibition, God bless him and grant him peace, against inciting beasts against one another is established. All animals have the property of direct contact, through whose reality the human being is called bashar. To this extent, the angel’s superiority over the human being in worship becomes clear, because the angel does not slacken. The reality of its constitution gives it this unceasingness, so its sanctification is intrinsic. Its glorification comes only from presence with the One glorified, and it glorifies only the One who brought it into existence. Its entity is thus sanctified beyond heedlessness. Its natural, luminous constitution does not distract it from perpetually glorifying its Creator, even though, through their constitution, they dispute with one another, just as the human being, through his constitution, has an eye that sleeps and a heart that does not sleep.
The human being has not been given the angel’s strength in this, because Nature’s temperament differs among individuals. This is necessarily witnessed in
Notes
Translator’s note TN3734-1: Mubāshara, rendered ‘direct contact,’ and bashar, ‘human being,’ share the root b-sh-r. The author uses this connection in discussing the human being’s animal constitution, while explicitly calling the angel’s constitution both natural and luminous.
