The Relationship between Body and Soul in the Epistemology of 'Abdu'l-Bahá:

Abstract: This article contributes to scholarship on the philosophy of Abdu'l-Baha by moving beyond a descriptive presentation of His teachings toward a constructive philosophical reconstruction of their underlying metaphysical framework. It argues that many apparent tensions in interpreting His writings arise from conflating three distinct philosophical questions: the ontological origin of the soul, its existential embodiment, and the progressive manifestation of its capacities. By distinguishing these dimensions, the article offers a coherent interpretive model that reconciles the soul's independence from matter with its developmental expression through embodied existence. More broadly, it proposes a general metaphysical principle that differentiates ontological grounding from developmental manifestation, a distinction that may illuminate not only Abdu'l-Baha's conception of the soul but also His broader understanding of evolution, consciousness, nature, and human development. In doing so, the article seeks to provide a conceptual framework that enriches Bahá'í studies while opening new avenues for comparative dialogue with classical metaphysics, contemporary philosophy of mind, and process philosophy.