Mughal Administration c12.s2.2

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.]