The Concept of the Perfect Man in Islamic Mysticism

Divine Manifestation

From the viewpoint of Islamic mysticism, real being and genuine reality is God, and the rest of the world consists of the manifestations of His names and attributes. God is infinite perfection. His one and simple essence contains all perfections in an infinite manner. Each name and attribute of God indicates one of His perfections. God knows Himself and sees Himself in Himself and does not need anyone else. However, since His perfection is absolute and His grace is eternal and never ending, the world manifests Him and He discloses Himself in the world and thus sees Himself in the world. Hence, God created the world in order to see His face in the mirrors of His manifestations.

In this view, God’s names and attributes have consequences that are called immutable archetypes (al-a’ayan al-thabitah = eternal essences/fixed entities). They are mental/intellectual correlates of things (wujud al-’ilmi lil ashya’ ) in the knowledge of God. These archetypes that are essences of things are created by the most holy emanation of God (al-fayd al-aqdas ). Realities of the world are external consequences of God’s names and attributes and objective existences of those essences. Each objective being is the manifestation of one or some of God’s names and the reflection of some of God’s perfections. These realities came into existence by God’s holy emanation (al-fayd al-muqaddas ). Thus, the real being is God and the rest are manifestations of His names and attributes. Each reality is like a mirror in which some of God’s perfections reflected. And the world in its totality is the exhibition in which God’s perfection is explicitly manifested. Each being reflects God’s perfection according to its capacity.[^2]