Perfect Man from the Perspective of Islamic Philosophy
2023-01-15 10:49Hussein Hammouda
Mohammad Mehdi Gorjian
The study of perfection and perfect man is one of the significant topics that Islamic philosophy has paid much attention to, as it is one of the internal religious issues. In fact, Islamic philosophy has given it a new nature consistent with its goals. Among the Muslim philosophers, who have paid much attention to this subject, were al-Sheikh al-Ra’ees and Sadruddeen al-Shirazi. Here, we will try, through the rational analytical approach, to study their opinion about the matter. Al-Sheikh al-Ra’ees sees that perfect man is one who has perfect theoretical power by obtaining acquired intellect, and has perfect practical power by obtaining justice. In addition to this, one, who had the prophetic feature, he would be the most perfect man ever. As for Sadrul-Muta’allihin, perfect man is one who has reached actuality in all levels of the self, that are sense, imagination and reason. Only prophets and infallible peoples have all these three actualities altogether. He also sees that perfect man is the cause for the creation of the upper and lower world, and by knowing him, perfection is attained by human beings, and their existential rank is highly confirmed. Al-Sheikh al-Ra’ees and Sadrul-Muta’allihin both believe that the human community’s attainment of perfection and getting to the ultimate purpose is only possible through the presence of a perfect man, whether a prophet or an infallible one.
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