The Perfect Man Doctrine Of Ibn Al-Arabi

Ibn Alabi was one of the greatest mysticism ideologists in the Islamic world.He established a holistic system of metaphysics and cosmology,while systematized and theorized Sufism.Ibn Alabi was the first to name a fundamental Islamic esoteric doctrine “Doctrine of Perfect Man”(Al-Ins?n al-K?mil).Ibn Alabi's theory of Unity of Existence(Wa?dat al-Wuj?d)was the cornerstone of the Doctrine of Perfect Man.He characterized perfection in three facets:cosmological,prophetic,and enlightened.From the perspective of cosmology,perfection is also called "the light of Muhammad".In essence,it is "spirit" or "first reason." It is the prototype of creation,containing sources of all innate and acquired,upper and lower world,the spiritual and the physical.From the perspective of prophetic,each dimension of a “perfect man” corresponds to a prophet,indicating the divine wisdom innate to each Islam prophet.It can be said that Islamic prophets are the earthly manifestation of “perfect man”,while the total and complete manifestation was Muhammad.From the perspective of enlightenment,“perfect man” is an example of the spiritual practice.In other words,the “perfect man” is the one enlightened by the truth,comprehends all the possibilities and level of existences of human nature,and grasps the greatest meaning of being a human.The spiritual practice entails suffering and questioning to achieve from separation to aggregation,from servant to divine.And finally reaches the realm of “misty” and “immortality”.Although the potential of being a perfect man exists in every soul,merely a small fraction of them are qualified as “perfect man” in reality.The Doctrine of Perfect Man has rich and profound academic value with immeasurable practical significance in religion and universal value for the public.It is worthy of further study by scholars.