The Concept of the Perfect Man in Islamic Mysticism

The Greatest Manifestation

Although realities of the world are manifestations of God’s names, and the whole world can show all His names; however, before the creation of the human being there was no single creature that was capable of being the manifestation of all God’s names. God wants to create something that can alone show all His names and thus God can see Himself with all His names in this mirror. The only thing in the world that has such a capacity is the human being.[^3] Even celestial beings, angles and intellects do not have this capacity. Therefore, God created the human being that is his greatest manifestation and the most perfect theophany.[^4] Since the name “Allah” is the most comprehensive name of God, the perfect man is the manifestation of this name. “The perfect man is the manifestation of God’s most comprehensive name (al-ism al-jami’) and the mirror for the disclosure of his greatest name (al-ism al-a’dam ).”[^5] Therefore, we can say that manifestation of God is either in a separate manner and explicitly in the multiplicity of the world, or implicitly in a unitary way of appearing in the perfect man.

It is noteworthy that the human being is a species; and thus all its individuals potentially have this capacity; however, its actualization depends on one’s own free efforts, and thus, at the end, only some individuals enjoy this status. These individuals are in fact described as the perfect man (al-insan al-kamil), divine great manifestations, microcosm and the most universal being. These are prophets, and saints (anbiya’ wa awliya’ ). They are not all at the same level; rather, their perfection has degrees. Highest of all is the status of the seal of prophets: Muhammad (s).[^6] Other people depending on the spiritual status that they earn enjoy some degrees of this perfection.