The three classes of souls

Ibn Khaldun determined that the powers of perception are ranked. First is the outer sense with its instruments; then the common sense, which perceives sensible things in a single state; then the imagination, which represents a thing stripped of its matter. Their instrument is the first chamber of the brain. Then there is the estimative faculty, which perceives meanings connected with individuals, and the memory, which stores what has been perceived; their instrument is the rear chamber. Then comes the power of thought, whose instrument is the middle chamber.

Human souls are of three kinds. The first is incapable of reaching spiritual perception; it is cut off by sensory and imaginative perception, and it is where the perception of scholars generally ends. The second turns toward spiritual perception, which does not need bodily instruments; it moves through the space of inner witnessing. This is the perception of scholars, the saints, and the people of divine knowledge, and it is what the people of felicity attain after death in the intermediate realm. The third is naturally disposed to shed humanity entirely and rise to the angels from the highest horizon in a single moment, so that it witnesses the assembly on high and hears the divine address. These are the prophets. This is the state of revelation, of receiving from the angel and returning to human perception, all in a single moment, not in time; that is why it is called wahy, because revelation in the language means speed. The state of the murmuring sound is the rank of prophets who are not messengers, and the state in which the angel takes the form of a man who addresses them is the rank of the messengers, and it is the most perfect. ²

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