Jahiliyya doctrines of the soul
مذاهب الجاهلية في النفوس
The Arabs' rival accounts of the soul before Islam: for one school the soul is simply the blood and the spirit the air within the body — whence the parturient 'nafsa'' and the jurists' dispute over soul-blooded things falling into water — Ta'abbata Sharran telling his uncle al-Shanfara 'I jammed him with a blade and his soul poured out', since a corpse has no blood to rise 1.
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Overview
Al-Masudi notes that the Arabs in the Jahiliyya had doctrines about the soul (nafs). Some of them claimed that the soul is nothing but blood, and that the spirit (ruh) is the air within the body. 2
For this reason they called a woman who had just given birth nafsa' (one with blood), because of the blood that comes out of her. On this meaning the jurists of the cities disagreed about whether an animal with flowing blood that falls into water makes it impure. 2
He cites the words of Ta'abbata Sharran to al-Shanfara describing a slain man: "his soul flowed out in a flood." 2
Sources
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p. 467-468
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p.467-468
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Jahiliyya doctrines of the soul”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/nafs-al-damm/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.