16. “Spirit” does not merely imply the life because of which a living thing moves, but the essential human characteristic which imbues man with consciousness and thought, discretion and judgment, discernment, and discrimination, by virtue of which he is distinguished from all other earthly creations and becomes possessor of a personality and self and worthy of Allah’s vicegerency. Allah has called this “Spirit” His own either because it belongs to Him alone, and its being attributed to Himself is just like a thing’s being attributed to its master, or because the attributes of knowledge, thought, consciousness, will, judgment, discretion, etc. with which man has been characterized are a reflection to the attributes of Allah. They have not arisen from any combination of matter, but from Allah Himself. Man has received knowledge from Allah’s Knowledge, wisdom from Allah’s Wisdom, and discretion and authority from Allah’s Authority. He has not received these from a source which is without knowledge, without wisdom and without discretion and authority. (For further explanation, see( E.N. 19 of Surah Al-Hijr).