The Rashīdī History 214.2

214.2

They say that the Most High God is from all eternity. At the beginning of creation, when He called the souls into being, He taught each one separately how to attain to the regions of the blessed (which was the path that leads to Paradise), and how to escape from hell. [This He taught them] without palate, or tongue, or any other [corporeal] medium. These souls He sent down at various times, as seemed fitting to Him, and mixed them with earth. And this is the origin of the power of vegetation of plants in the earth. When the soul has descended from the highest to the lowest degree, it is no longer pure, but unconsciousness and oblivion dominate it. In the process of time, it migrates to some vile body; and this migration, although it be into a base degree, is yet an advance upon the state of being mixed with earth. In every body [the soul] makes progress according to its conduct. If its conduct is perfect in that body, it enters into a better body; if, on the other hand, it errs, it enters a yet viler body; and if in this [last] body it still does evil, it again becomes mixed with the earth, and again remains inanimate [muntakil] for some time. In this manner [the soul] migrates from one body to another, and progresses until it attains the human body. In the human body it first of all reaches the lowest degree, such as that of a peasant or a slave.