Mughal Administration c12.s2: § 2. Popular longing for the advent of a Superman guide.

Mughal Administration c12.s2

Language: English

§ 2. Popular longing for the advent of a Superman guide.

c12.s2.1

Anthropomorphism or the worship of God in the form of man, is the besetting sin of the Aryan race. The Persians could not shake it off even after their conversion to a strictly monotheistic religion like Islam, and the variety of incarnations adored by the Persian people along with Islamic tenets proves how fertile a field for man-worship Iran is. We find a full account of these religious movements in Browne’s *Literary History of Persia* (Vol. I. Ch. 9). Sufism, to which the Persians among all Islamic races have made the largest contribution, also favours the recognition of inspired or superhumanly gifted spiritual preceptors.

c12.s2.2

The *Insan-i-kamil* or Perfect Man is the title given by Muhammadan mystics to the highest type of humanity, *i.e.*, the theosophist who has realised his oneness with God. This theory of the Perfect Man is based on a pantheistic monism which regards the Creator (*al Haqq*) and the creature (*al Khalq*) as complementary aspects of Absolute Being,—or as a Hindu would say the *Purusha* and the *Prakriti* are two aspects of one and the same thing. “Man,” as an Arabian mystic writes, “unites in himself both the form of God and the form of the universe...He is the mirror by which God is revealed...We ourselves are the attributes by which we describe God ; our existence is merely an objectification of His existence.”...The Perfect Man, who typifies the emanation of Absolute Being from itself and its return into itself, moves upward through a series of illuminations until he ultimately becomes merged in the Essence,... when the seal of deification is set upon him. He now becomes the Pole-star (*Qutb*) of the universe, and the medium through which it is preserved ; he is omnipotent, nothing is hidden from him ; it is right that mankind should bow down in adoration before him, since he is the vicegerent (*Khalifa*) of God in the world (*Quran*, ii, 28). Thus, being divine as well as human, he forms a connecting link between God and created things. According to orthodox Muslims this representative Superman is the Prophet Muhammad...Al Jili holds that in every age Muhammad assumes the form of a living saint, and in that guise makes himself known to mystics. [*Encyclo. Islam*, ii. 510.]

c12.s2.3

So much for the craving of the Sufistic Muslims in general and the men of the Persian race in special, for a divine teacher in a human form in their own age. The Hindu is even more ready to welcome an *avatar*, because it is his creed that such avatars have appeared by the million in the past and God is sure to incarnate Himself when the age requires it by reason of its excess of sin and the agony of spiritual hunger unsatisfied by the existing teachers. (*Bhagabat-Gita.*)

Linked texts (1)

Bhagavadgītā — Vyāsa, Sanskrit