# Is the soul the same thing as consciousness?

*Storytelling as minds syncing, and consciousness as the ruh*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/7/
- Date: 2021-04-26 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Lupe Fiasco | Stardom, Semiotics & Soul-searching | MindTrap#56 | Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki MALM (33:13–36:27)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYiiPEhuiHA&t=1993s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/

**Topics:** Soul, nafs and consciousness; Narrative and story

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest describes storytelling as a syncing of minds; Mufti Abu Layth says he feels consciousness is synonymous with the ruh and links people weakly at a distance.

## Longer summary

The guest says that telling a story transfers one's mind into someone else's, so that for the length of the story the listener's brain comes to resemble the storyteller's, a kind of syncing that is telepathic without the 'hoodoo voodoo'. Mufti Abu Layth says he has often said he feels consciousness, or the mind linked to it, is synonymous with the ruh [?], and that there is a connection, perhaps weak, between people, citing stories of relatives far apart who suddenly sense that something is wrong, which he says are above probability. He then asks the guest for his thoughts on the soul.

## Sources and names cited

- Lupe Fiasco (guest)
- ruh [?] (captioned 'rule')

## Transcript (machine tier, 33:13–36:27)

[33:12] there's there's a there's a i don't know if it's called mirroring or uh it's definitely like a sinking that occurs that if you if you uh um a story is is really just you fundamentally again and and these are kind of the theory there's some there's some aspects to uh to uh to objectivity to them but it's you know when you tell a story fundamentally what's happening is you're transferring your mind into somebody else yeah and it's happening um like not just on like a a image level but it's reshaping to a degree like the mind

[33:51] your brain has to kind of like biochemically resemble the mind of the person telling the story and there's like a sinking that that happens s-y-n-c-k right s-y-n-c um that happens with a storyteller so if you think the the whole uh fundamental process of a story or the action that's taking place is you're basically projecting your mind into somebody else's for that period of time for mary had a little lamb right in order for that person to really to to actively be engaged with you not and i don't i don't even think it requires a certain level of intentionality it's something that you can overhear

[34:29] um and again speaking to the power of storytelling that person brain that person's brain becomes your brain right for a moment or if it's 500 people or a thousand people whoever however is hearing it um not to say that it's going to stay that way right but for that period of time while that story is being told there is this sinking right uh up of mines right and then it's kind of a telepathic way but in a real but without the without the hoodoo voodoo and space technology like in a just very direct way your brain is becoming my brain right i'm it's really super duper no because i because i've uh often said

[35:08] that i feel i don't know what your thoughts are on this lupe but i feel that consciousness or this mind which is linked to consciousness in not just being conscious as awake but consciousness is synonymous with the rule i felt that these are kind of synonyms and and that there is a kind of connect i'll be at a low level it may be a low level connect but people do have some kind of you know you get these stories with loved ones or other people or siblings or parent child and and they'll be so distant and something's happened and they'll get

[35:47] suddenly some kind of anxiety and they feel that something's wrong and they feel you know and and these kind of things are above probability they're not just you know to be just simple coincidences and and i felt that that is the you know the connection it may be a weak connection but of the arah of the rule of the the kind of soul and this what you're saying that you know in a moment there is this kind of um this kind of i don't know this kind of locking in of these minds that's um it does it ties into i don't know i don't know if your thoughts on things like on the soul and

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment oYiiPEhuiHA/s/7. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/7/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.