Ruh
The spirit: the divine breath breathed into man, a subtle centre deeper than the heart in Sufi anthropology.
Ruh is the spirit, the breath. The Qur’an says it was breathed into Adam: ‘I breathed into him of My spirit’ (XV, 29); asked about the ruh, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) receives the answer: ‘The spirit belongs to my Lord’s command, and of knowledge you have been given but little’ (XVII, 85). The word thus keeps a modesty: it names in man what comes directly from God.
In Sufi anthropology the ruh is a subtle centre deeper than the qalb: the heart knows, the spirit is the origin of that knowledge, as the spring is of the well. The authors describe an inward hierarchy, from the apparent body to the most secret sirr, of which the ruh is one storey.
Sufism does not erect these maps into dogma: they serve first to name what the wayfarer experiences, where ordinary language fails. The Qadiriya Boutchichiya path assumes them as a heritage of the tradition without making a closed system of them. See also the distinction between hal and maqam.