Al-Jili and the Perfect Man

Sufism from Ibn al-Arabi onward developed a repertory of esoteric learning that was as vast and at times
as impenetrable as the Kabbala. This was theosophy pure and simple, an arcane and transcendental way
of looking at this world in terms of a higher reality, a blend of knowing and doing, of gnosis and theurgy,
with strong derivative roots in the late Platonic tradition of the fifth and sixth centuries C.E. One of the
central themes of this world view was the theory of the "Perfect Man," a figure who simultaneously
embraces the Holy Spirit, the Word, Adam, Muhammad, and the fully enlightened mystic himself. Ibn al-
Arabi was one of the pioneers in the development of this motif, but it found its classic expression in the
treatise called The Perfect Man by Abd al-Karim al-Jili (d. ca. 1410C.E.).

God created the angel called Spirit from His own light, and from him He created the world and made him
His organ of vision in the world. One of his names is the Word of God. He is the noblest and most exalted
of all existent beings. The Spirit exercises a Divine guardianship, created in him by God, over the whole
universe. He manifests himself in his perfection in the Ideal Muhammad: therefore the Prophet is the most
excellent of all mankind. While God manifests Himself in His attributes to all other created beings, He
manifests Himself in His essence to this angel [that is, the Spirit] alone. Accordingly, the Spirit is the Pole
of the present world and the world to come. He does not make himself known to any creature of God but
to the Perfect Man. When the saint knows him [that is, the Perfect Man] and truly understands the things
which the Spirit teaches him, then he too becomes a Pole around which the entire universe revolves. But
Poleship belongs fundamentally to the Spirit, and if others hold it, they are only his delegates. (Jili, The
Perfect Man 2.12) [Cited by NICHOLSON 1921: 110–111]

The Perfect Man is the Pole on which the spheres of existence revolve from first to last, and since things
came into being he is one for ever and ever. He has various guises and appears in diverse bodily
tabernacles: in respect of some of these his name is given to him, while in respect to others it is not given
to him. His original name is Muhammad, his name of honor is Abu al-Qasim [that is, "father of Qasim," the
latter the name of Muhammad's first son], his description Abdullah [that is, "servant of God"], and his title
is Shams al-Din [that is, "the sun of religion"]. In every age he bears a name suitable to his guide in that
age. I once met him [that is, the Perfect Man, Muhammad] in the form of my Shaykh, Sharaf al-Din Ismail
al-Jabarti, but I did not know that he [that is, the Shaykh] was the Prophet, though I knew the Prophet
was the Shaykh. … The real meaning of this matter is that the Prophet has the power of assuming every
form. When the adept sees him in the form of Muhammad which he wore during his life, he names him by
that name, but when he sees him in another form but knows him to be Muhammad, he names him by the
name of the form in which he appears. The name Muhammad is not applied except to the Real
Muhammad. … If you perceive mystically that the Reality of Muhammad is displayed in any human form,
you must bestow upon the Reality of Muhammad the name of that form and regard its owner with no less
reverence than you would show our Lord Muhammad, and after having seen him therein you may not
behave towards it in the same manner as before.

This appearance of the Real Muhammad in the form of another could be misconstrued as the condemned
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and so al-Jili hastens to disassociate the two.

Do not imagine that my words contain any tincture of the doctrine of metempsychosis. God forbid! I mean
that the Prophet is able to assume whatever form he wishes, and the Tradition declares that in every age
he assumes the form of the most perfect men (of that age) in order to exalt their dignity and correct their
deviation: they are his caliphs externally and he is their reality inwardly.

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 Guarded 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 the 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.

Once again the figure of the mirror is adduced, and in a manner familiar from Ibn al-Arabi: man, and in
particular the Perfect Man, is the mirror in which God sees and recognizes and admires Himself, as does
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. (Jili, The Perfect Man 2.58) [Cited by NICHOLSON
1921: 105–107]

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