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April 13, 2009
the perfect man
The Perfect Man in himself is identified with all the individualizations of existence. With his spirituality he stands with the higher individualizations, in his corporeality with the lower. His heart is identified with the Throne of God, his mind with the Pen, his soul with the Well Grounded Tablet, his nature with the elements, his capability of receiving form with matter…He stands with the angels with his good thoughts, with the demons and the devils with the doubts that beset him, with the beasts in his animality…
You must know that the Perfect Man is a copy of God, according to the saying of the Prophet, “God created Adam in image of the Merciful,” and in another tradition, “God created Adam in His own image.” Further, you must know that the Essential names and the Divine attributes belong to the Perfect Man by fundamental and sovereign right in virtue of a necessity inherent in his essence, for it is he whose “reality” is signified by these expressions and whose spirituality is indicated by these symbols: they have no other subject in existence (to which they might be attached) except the Perfect Man.
As a mirror in which a person sees the form of himself, and cannot see it without the mirror, such is the relation of God to the Perfect Man, who cannot possibly see his own form but in the mirror of the name “God”. And he is also a mirror to God, for God laid upon Himself the necessity that His names and attributes should not be seen save in the Perfect Man.
Al Jili – The Perfect Man
Posted by amin at April 13, 2009 5:12 PM