understand himself and the world. Men who fail to make use of
their intellect are said to be worse than cattle. Animals have a sure
guide in instinct but man can rely only on his intellect.
The term “psyche,” originally introduced by Freud, is in vogue at
present, especially among the psychologists. It is a comprehensive
term which denotes all the mental drives and functions, both
conscious and unconscious. However, the important question
whether the psyche is an entity in its own right or is only a label for
the totality of mental processes is still unanswered. The
psychologists have not made any definite pronouncement on this
point.
The term “spirit” has a long history behind it. It played an
important role in the scholastic philosophy of the Medieval Age.
The scholastic philosophers held that there were two independent
substances in the world, spirit or soul and matter. This naturally led
to the theory of dualism. It was believed that spirit and matter had
nothing in common; that, in fact, they were opposed to each other.
The body, being material, was regarded as an impediment to the
soul’s progress. Spirit was the sole concern of religion. The soul
could achieve salvation only by subduing and crushing the body.
This view inevitably resulted in other-worldliness, asceticism and
self-abnegation. All pleasure came to be regarded as evil. Devout
men and saints gloried in self-mortification. Men who were
interested in this-worldly life were naturally repelled by this extreme
view. They tended to react favourably to materialism which would
not prevent them from tasting the joys of life and appreciating the
beauty of nature. In this way the extreme type of spiritualism was
opposed by an equally extreme type of materialism. Modern
science, however, has exposed the errors of both spiritualism and
materialism. The older materialistic theory is now quite untenable.
The older conception of matter, as composed of indivisible and
ultimately real atoms, has been totally discarded and the same fate
has overtaken the theory of dualism. Modern science has divested
matter of the very attributes which formerly were regarded as
essential to it, namely, extensity and solidity. We will give a few
examples to show how matter is conceived by the thinkers of the
modern age. Sir James Jeans defines matter as “bottled-up waves,”
and Bertrand Russell as “a system of interrelated events.” Einstein
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 83