Ma`rifat Kalami

"Abstraction of spirit" is one of the basic topics in anthropology and has always been the concern of thinkers of various sciences. Sheikh Mufid, the most prominent Shiite scholar of the late third and early fourth century AH, has significant opinions in the field of anthropology. Researchers and commentators of his works consider one of his important theories to be the theory of "abstraction of spirit". The purpose of the present research is to examine the evidence related to this debate in his works. The findings show that in the works of Shih Mofid, although there are evidences that indicate the abstraction of the soul (such as the definition of a human being as a simple essence without volume, movement, stillness, composition and differentiation clearly), but there are evidences against it (such as the accident nature of the soul, annihilation of souls after death and allocating abstraction to the Almighty) are also found. From the point of view of this research, conflict resolution strategies from Sheikh Mofid's expressions are: Separation of the two terms "philosophical essence" and "theological essence" in Sheikh's statements, Separating the soul from the truth of man, paying attention to the periods of his scientific life, and carefully examining the scientific works documented on him. The result shows that although Sheikh Mofid acknowledges the immaterial dimension of man, he did not present a completely coherent theory about the abstraction of the soul and did not accept some of its essentials.