Two Dimensional Dasein

"The whole philosophical enterprise [among Muslims] depends upon discerning the difference between high and low, heaven and earth, spirit and body...Body and spirit (or soul) are differentiated in terms of their attributes. One must avoid the common mistake of thinking of the two as discrete and distinct 'things.' In modern times, people tend to think of the body as something material, concrete, and real, and the soul as another discrete 'thing,' which is, however, impalpable, intangible, and unreal or illusory. This way of thinking is totally alien to the Islamic philosophical tradition...Readers of the philosophical texts should always keep in mind that body and soul are correlative terms, because they are understood and conceptualized in relation to each other. The body is a reality that is known only in terms of its qualities, and the spirit is a reality that knows itself precisely because its qualities can be differentiated from those of the body."

--William Chittick, The Heart of Islamic Philosophy, 80.