Published in 1969, Knowing the Spirit (Ma’refat ol-Rûh) reads like a classic philosophical treatise. Resurrecting the canonical form of the philosophical-theological discussion, this work may at first seem unique among Ostad Elahi’s writings as a purely theoretical text. On closer inspection, it proves to be much more complex. Although it is the product of several years of extensive theological and philosophical research, it is mostly the result of a rigorous practice of the mystical understanding of the soul. Drawing from the discursive and conceptual background of the metaphysical tradition with which he was familiar, one which links Neoplatonism to Avicenna and Mollâ Sadrâ, Ostad sets forth the findings of his personal research. Beneath the impeccable constructions of proofs, refutations, and counter-refutations, one can decipher the marks of an original knowledge acquired through personal experience, a firsthand account as irrevocable as the philosopher’s arguments. This inner vision of truths, referred to in the Islamic tradition as "kashf," is an intuitive and concrete perception of intelligible or invisible realities. Thus, Knowing the Spirit allows two different readings: at a philosophical level, one follows the chains of reasoning and the analytic exposition of concepts; at a deeper level, one touches on revelation and spiritual knowledge. At the first level, the network of arguments laid out by the author implicitly points to the limits of a purely conceptual philosophical discourse (positions refute one another), while at the second level the actual process of the soul’s perfection sets forth both the condition for and the very object of spiritual discourse.

As indicated by its title, Knowing the Spirit addresses such questions as the proof of the existence of the soul and its immortality, as well as the different stages the soul must traverse throughout the course of its successive lives before it can reach its ultimate destination (perfection). It also covers such topics as the existence of God, Creation, spiritual and corporeal resurrection, the soul’s supra-terrestrial journeys, and transmigrationist conceptions. Ostad establishes an exhaustive inventory of the different positions and arguments relating to these eschatological questions and refutes some of them in the process, notably metempsychosis.

The seventh chapter, in which Ostad Elahi presents his own ideas, deserves special consideration, as it constitutes the very heart of this work. Containing a precise introduction to the general doctrine of perfection and the various modalities of the soul’s process of perfection, it describes the interworld and the modalities of the soul’s existence in this spiritual space. Ostad also addresses the question of the cycle of successive lives within the framework of the conditions governing the soul’s perfection, both in this world and the next.

Through his discussion of the theory of successive lives, Ostad Elahi presents the central and perhaps most sensitive point of his system. It is the central point because it is by virtue of this theory that he resolves the question of divine justice. It is a particularly sensitive point because successive lives is not acknowledged by religious orthodoxy. Moreover, though this theory may seem similar to a number of transmigrationist doctrines, the process of the soul's perfection is essentially incompatible with them. Ostad also elaborates on the metaphysical structure of human beings, clarifying the role of both the terrestrial soul and the celestial soul within the process of perfection and the nature of their relationship to one another. Throughout this work, Ostad alternates between arguments of reason and "authoritative" arguments (prophetic tradition and revelatory discourse). He thus manages to produce a rational discourse that is characteristic of philosophy ever since its Greek origins, while maintaining a strong link with the spiritual discourse inherited from the religious tradition. One of the goals of Knowing the Spirit is to demonstrate that not only is the doctrine of perfection compatible with the principles of revealed religions, but that it may actually be considered as the logical outcome of these very principles.

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