This is from the great Islamic revolution's leader Khomeini (q):
It should be known that the knowledge of the spirituality and the station of perfection of the major prophetic figures and the infallible
awliya’ (A) in general, and those of the Seal of the Prophets (S) in particular, is not attainable by means of thought or journey through the
‘horizons and the souls’ (
afaq wa anfus; 41:53).
That, because those venerable personages belong to the Divine lights of the Unseen and are the complete manifestation and the manifest signs of Divine glory and beauty, having reached, in the spiritual journey towards God, the ultimate extremity of self-annihilation (
fana’ al-dhati) and the ultimacy of ascent, to the point of
‘two bows length or nearer’ (
qaba qawsayn aw adna; 53:9)
, though the latter station belongs [specifically] to the Seal of the Prophets and other wayfarers in their ascension are followers of his sacred being.
Here we do not intend to describe the nature of the journey of that sacred personage and the difference between his spiritual ascent (
mi’raj) and the ascents of other prophets and
awliya’ (A). For the sake of the present discourse we shall confine ourselves to mentioning one tradition pertaining to their luminosity, for the perception of their luminosity also requires an inner light and a divine gravitation:
الْكَافِي بِإسْنَادِهِ عَنْ جَابِرٍ عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ قَالَ: سَأَلْتُهُ عَنْ عِلْمِ العَالِمِ فَقَالَ لِي: يَا جَابِرُ، إنَّ فِي الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالأَوْصِيَاءِ خَمْسَةَ أَرْوَاحٍ: رُوحَ القُدُسِ وَرُوحَ الإيمَانِ وَرُوحَ الحَيَاةِ وَرُوحَ القُوَّةِ وَرُوحَ الشَّهْوَةِ. فَبِرُوحِ القُدُسِ يَا جَابِرُ عَرَفُوا مَا تَحْتَ العَرْشِ إلَى مَا تَحْتَ الثَّرَى. ثُمَّ قَالَ: يَا جَابِرُ إنَّ هَذِهِ الأرْبَعَةِ أَرْوَاحٌ يُصِيبُهَا الحِدْثَانُ إلاّ رُوحَ القُدُسِ فَإنَّهَا لا تَلْهُو وَلا تَلْعَبُ.
[In al-Kafi (al-Kulayni reports) with his isnad from Jabir, from Abu Ja’far (A). Jabir says: I asked him concerning the knowledge of the Knowing One (al-’Alim, i.e. an Imam.) He replied saying, “O Jabir, verily, there are five spirits in the prophets and the awsiya’ the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Faith, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Power, and the Spirit of Appetite. By the means of the Holy Spirit, O Jabir, they know everything from the Throne to underneath the earth.” Then he added, “O Jabir, all the four spirits are subject to vicissitudes, but not the Holy Spirit, which does not engage in diversion or play.”
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وَبِإسْنَادِهِ عَنْ أَبِي بَصِيرٍ قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِاللهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ عَنْ قَوْلِ اللهِ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى: ﴿وَكَذَلِكَ أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ رُوحًا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا مَا كُنْتَ تَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلَا الْإِيمَانُ.﴾ قَالَ: خَلْقٌ مِنْ خَلْقِ اللهِ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى أَعْظَمُ مِنْ جِبْرَئِيلَ وَمِيكَائِيلَ، كَانَ مَعَ رَسُولِ الله صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ يُخْبِرُهُ وَيُسَدِّدُهُ. وَهُوَ مَعَ الأَئِمَّةِ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ صَلَوَاتُ اللهِ عَلَيْهِمْ.
In al-Kafi, al-Kulayni reports with his isnad from Abu Basir that he said: I asked Abu ‘Abd Allah (A) concerning the statement of God, the Blessed and the Exalted, “And thus have We inspired in thee (O Muhammad) a Spirit of Our Command. Thou knewest not what the Scripture was, nor what the Faith’ (
42:52).” He replied, “(The Spirit mentioned in the verse) is one of the creatures of God, the Blessed and the Exalted, greater than Gabriel and Michael, that was with the Messenger of God (S) and which used to inform and guide him, and after him it is with the Imams (A).”
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From the first tradition one comes to know that the prophets and the
awsiya’ (A) possess a sublime spiritual station which is called the Holy Spirit (
ruh al-qudus; lit, ‘the Spirit of Holiness’). By the means of that station they encompass all the particles of the universe epistemically and ontologically (
ihateh-ye ‘ilmi qayyumi)
. In that spirit, there is no negligence, sleep, error, forgetfulness and other vicissitudes associated with contingency or any of the changes and deficiencies pertaining to the realm of
mulk.
Rather, it belongs to the world of the immaterial Unseen and the greater
Jabarut. From the second tradition, one comes to know that that spirit is perfectly non-material and greater than Gabriel and Michael, who are the greatest inhabitants of the station of proximity of the
Jabarut.
Yes, the
awliya’, whose natural form (
tinah) has been fashioned by God, the Exalted, with the mighty hands of His own Beauty and Majesty, and manifested Himself, in the first manifestation of the Essence (
tajalliye dhati-ye awwali)
, with all the Names, Attributes and the all-inclusive station of Unity (
maqam al-ahadiyyat-a jam’) in their perfect mirror, and initiated them into the reality of the Names and the Attributes in the Unseen privacy (
khalwatgah al-ghayb) of the Divine Ipseity-the majesty of their glory and beauty is beyond the reach of the aspirations of the gnostics, and the summit of their perfection is beyond access to the gnostic endeavors of the people of the heart. And it is mentioned in a tradition of the Prophet (S):
