“THE CONCEPT OF PERFECT MAN IN MANICHAEISM AND IBN ‘ARABI’S DOCTRINE”

A thesis submitted to the faculty of

A t San Francisco State University 30 5-6(5 In partial fulfillment of The Requirements for

•Q34 The Degree

Master of Arts

In

Humanities

by

Samaneh Gachpazian

San Francisco, California

May 2015 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL

I certify that I have read “The Concept of Perfect Man in Manichaeism and Ibn ‘Arabi’s

Doctrine” (The Islamization of Manichean Ideas in Islamic Iran) by Samaneh Gaclipazian, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of die requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Humanities at San

Francisco State University.

Cristina Ruotolo, Ph.D. Professor of Humanities \

Saul Steier, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Humanities ‘THE CONCEPT OF PERFECT MAN IN MANICHAEISM AND IBN’ARABI’S DOCTRINE” (THE ISLAMIZATION OF MANICHEAN IDEAS IN ISLAMIC IRAN)

Samaneh Gachpazian San Francisco, California 2015

Gnosticism is a religious tradition based on transcendence reached by intuitive means. The esoteric and practical wisdom of Gnosticism, which consists of inner purification and asceticism, has had a deep influence on many religions, including Manicliaeism and Islamic Mysticism. Manicliean doctrine is based on the dichotomy of Light, the power of good, and Darkness, its evil counterpart. In the middle of this spiritual battlefield, composed of both Light and Darkness, stands man, who must embark on a journey of emancipation from Darkness and unification with Light. This emancipation will occur by man achieving redeeming knowledge (Gnosis) of his own innermost essence, die spirit (pneuma).

According to die Qur’an, “God is the Light of die heavens and die earth.”1 Searching for direct esoteric knowledge of God and His Mercy, Sufis regarded the main goal of man as submerging in the infinity of the Divine through Gnosticism, again stressing inner purification and asceticism. Among these mystics, a special place is held by Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240), who formulated the concept of “Perfect Man” (Ar. al-Insan-al-Kamil), a person who has fully realized his essential oneness with die Divine Existence, and exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad. This dissertation analyzes the continuities between Manichaean and Sufi thought through a comparison of central concepts such as Light and Darkness in both traditions and a juxtaposition of Manichaeism’s “Primordial Man” with Ibn ‘Arabics “Perfect Man.”

I certify tiiat the Abstract is a correct representation of die content of this diesis.

0 5/14 /20 15 Chair, Thesis Committee Date

l. Qur’an, Chapter 24 An-Nur (The Light), Verse 35 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction...... 1

II. The Perfect Man According to Ibn ‘ Arabi

Abstract...... 7

The Macrocosm and the Divine as Light and Darkness...... 9

The Microcosm: the Perfect Man...... 16

III. Light, Darkness, and the Primordial Man in Manichaeism

The Path of Knowledge: Gnosticism and Manichaeism...... 25

Light, Darkness, and the Primordial Man: The Manichaean Cosmos...... 29

IV. Conclusion

Bibliography 1

Introduction

God is the light of the heavens and earth The light like the light of a lamp in a niche The lamp enclosed in a cover of glass The glass like a glistening star Kindled from the oil of a blessed tree An olive not of the East not of the West Its oil glows forth nearly without the touch of fire... Qur’an 24:35

Throughout history, humankind has produced individuals who professed a superior knowledge of divine and natural laws, proclaiming it their specific mission to act as guiding lights in the darkness of ignorance and hatred surrounding humanity. These individuals belonged to different eras, various regions and religions, and diverse esoteric orders. Nonetheless, they produced a continuity of doctrine and practice stressing the development of human spirituality.

Manichaeism, one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, was founded in

Sassanid Persia by the prophet Mani (216-276 A.D.). As a religion based upon intuitive wisdom, Manichaeism espouses a specific transcendent experience through its scriptures and rich imagery. Mani’s teachings codified the visions of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, 2

and Buddhism into a unified religion governed by orderly laws.

Mani’s teachings present us with an enormous cosmological battlefield packed with intricate detail and various characters, and a war between the spiritual realm of Light and the material world of Darkness. The slow but steady progress of human history releases Light from the prison of matter and returns it to its own realm.

Manichaeism introduces its main mythological figures in three separate stages of

Creation. Before the Creation of the Cosmos, there are only two entities, the Father of

Greatness and the King of Darkness, each with five attendant worlds. At one point,

Darkness/Evil invades the borders of Light. In response, the Father of Greatness creates the Mother of Life, who, in turn, brings about the Primordial Man, the original model for man’s conflict to save his spirit from the material world.

However, in the first battle with Evil, Primordial Man is defeated, and the Light comes to be held captive in the Realm of Darkness.1 To end this captivity, the Father of

Greatness commences the Second Creation, in which many other divine beings enter the scene to aid Primordial Man, among them the Living Spirit. As demiurges, both the

Living Spirit and the Mother of Life conquer the demons and create eight worlds from the slain demons’ bodies and eleven heavens from their skins. The Living Spirit liberates the light devoured by these demons, and from a part of it he builds the ships of the sun

1 . Esmailpour, Abolqassem, Manichaean Gnosis Creation Myth. Sino Platonic Papers, Department of East Asian Language and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, Number 156, July 2005, p. 60 3

and the moon, while from the rest of it he creates the wheels of wind, water, and fire.2

Finally, the third Creation takes place under the guidance of the Third Messenger, who sets the two ships and the three wheels in motion. He flaunst himself naked before the Archons (demons), who begin to emit the remaining light, which is mixed with some of their sin, through ejaculation and abortion. Detaching the sin from the light, Third

Messenger sends the latter to earth, where it falls onto wet and dry land. On dry land, the sin turns into demonic creatures, plants, and animals.

The demonic creations eventually produce Adam and Eve to entrap the meta­ terrestrial light (man’s spirit) in mundane substance (his flesh and soul). Both body and celestial soul or psyche are the product of these cosmic powers, which cover the body in the garment of the divine Primal Man and try to enliven it with their own psychical powers, giving rise to the appetites and passions of natural man.

Thus, mankind becomes the main inmate of the vast prison called the universe. In the macrocosm, man is imprisoned by the Archons and seven spheres, while in the human microcosm, the spirit, or pneuma (also known as “spark”), is enclosed by seven soul- vestments originating in demonic creation and prevented from achieving eternal salvation from the poison of the world.

Manichaeism presents the human being as made up of intermingled parts of Light

(Spirit), which belongs to the Father of Greatness, and terrestrial perishable parts (Body

2 . Jonas, Hans, The Message of the Alien God & The Beginnings of Christianity The Gnostic Religion Gnostic Religion, pp. 224-5 4

and Soul) pertaining to the Realm of Darkness. Man’s main task is to liberate the light by overcoming his ignorance through Gnosticism.3 By becoming knowledgeable in this way, man will eventually achieve an astonishing triumph over Darkness. No doubt, the crux of pneumatic redemption is awakening through knowledge, providing a release from unconsciousness, intoxication, and especially the ignorance surrounding the pneuma.

Man ascends to Heaven not because he curbs and governs his passions or suppresses his feelings, but to the extent he nourishes his intellect and understanding, from which all the passions emanate.4

“The only thing that can contain God is the Heart of the gnostic.” 5 In this sentence, the great Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240) acknowledges the influence

Grnosticism has had on Islamic mysticism. From Ibn ‘Arabi’s standpoint, man is a theomorphic reflection of God. Therefore, the more he can know his own self, the more he is able to discover God. Ibn ‘Arabi distinguishes between regular human beings who each know and worship God in their own measure, and the greatest prophets and “friends of God,” whom he calls “perfect human beings” (al-insdn al-kamil). Through these, each of whom praises God in his indiviual way, God manifests His all-comprehensive Names.6

The only way man can disclose the Essence of God is to achieve the knowledge of the

Divine Names and endeavor to bring them into actualization through the World of

3 . Jonas, p. 210 4 . Esmailpour, pp. 11-17 5. Ibn 'Arabi, Ibn ‘Arabi, M. The Bezels of Wisdom, Translation and Introduction by R. W. J. Austin, Paulist Press. USA: 1980. p. 97 6 . Ibn cArabi. p. 34 6

wholeness of Divine Reality.”11 Through imitation of his lifestyle or those of the other

Prophets as the principles of manifestation, man can advance towards perfection.

11. Ibid. p. 97 7

Chapter I

1. The Perfect Man According to Ibn ‘Arabi

Abstract

Muhammad Ibn Ali Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240), known as Mohyiddin (the Reviver of

Religion), is a mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, and also one of the world’s great spiritual teachers, known as the Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), and also as Ibn Aflatun

(the Son of Plato). He was bom into the Andalusian culture of Spain, in a historic period of cross-fertilization between Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought during which the major scientific and philosophical works of antiquity were transmitted to Northern

Europe. He travelled extensively in the Middle East and passed away in Damascus. Ibn

‘Arabi is known as a thinker who brings Neo-Platonist thought to bear on Islamic sacred texts. Fusus-ulhikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) showcases his exceptional mind and his unconventional views.

On the other side Gnosticism is a religious teaching based on transcendence reached by intuitive means. Representing the Persian branch of Gnosticism, Mani founded his religion in the third century A.D. His theology, which spread later to Western

Asia, and Europe, and then extended eastward into Oriental part of Asia until the fifteenth century, taught both determinism and total depravity, based upon dualistic mythology, and also maintained a carnal outlook on bodily pleasure. It expresses a specific religious experience that does not lend itself to the language of theology or philosophy, but is instead defined through the medium of myth, as found in most Gnostic scriptures, as well 8

as through imagery. The fragmentary nature of Gnostic texts, the complexity of their language, and the comparatively large number of unfamiliar words in them make them very difficult to decipher.

However, mankind’s unremitting search for something absolute and eternal beyond the world of relative and transient things is not limited to Gnosticism; it is one of the most salient themes in Iranian thought. This theme, shared by almost all religions, is treated in Islam by casting doubt on the very the reality of existence. The concept of

“dream” to describe everyday existence in Islam is of paramount importance here. The reliance that Sufis place on dreams in their paths of spiritual progress is expressed in the works of many mystics.

The main target of this dissertation, is to highlight the ways in which Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought is influenced by Gnosticism, paying special attention to the concepts of the dream and the “Perfect Man”. 9

Man is imperfect. The reality he creates, is always endangered by man.

Friedrich Diirrenmatt

“He who knows himself knows his Lord”

Prophet Muhammad

1.1. The Macrocosm and the Divine as Light and Darkness

In the first chapter of The Bezels o f Wisdom, Ibn ‘Arabi talks about the connection between the Divine Essence [dhat]12 and the Cosmos. “Neither God nor the Cosmos may be known, except in relation to each other. So, Divinity is the existential nourishment of the Cosmos, while it, in turn, is the archetypal nurture of the Divine Self-awareness.”Ll

One of Ibn ‘Arabi’s most central concepts is that of tajalli, usually translated as theophany or “self-manifestation.” Tajalli is the “Self-manifestation of the Absolute,” or the “Self-disclosure of God.” As defined by Toshihiko Izutsu, “Tajalli is the process by which the Absolute, which is absolutely unknowable in itself, goes on manifesting itself in ever more concrete forms.” 14 From Ibn ‘Arabi’s standpoint, our routine daily experiences, both internally, in terms of thoughts and sentiments, and externally, in terms

12 . Hadhrat al-Dbat - Presence of the Essence, the Absolute Reality; or Hadhrat ahadiya, Presence of Absolute Unity is the first plane of the five basic planes of Sufi’s view. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts. Berkeley. University of California Press, U.S.A. 1983, p .ll

13 . Ibid. p. 91 14 . Izutsu, Toshihiko, p. 152 10

of confrontation with the world, are the perennial manifestation of the Absolute, which occurs at various levels of reality in particular forms. As Izutsu states, “According to the philosophical school that developed around Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought, these degrees of reality can be classified in terms of the Five Planes of Being:

1. Essence (dhat), the Absolute Mystery (al-ghayb al-mutlaq).

2. Divinity, attributes, and names (uluhiyah).

3. Lordship, actions (rububiyah).

4. Images (arnthal) and imagination (khayal).

5. Sense experience (mushahadah).

Anything in the sensible world is a form {surah), in which a state of affairs

in the higher plane of Images directly reveals itself, and indirectly and

ultimately, the absolute Mystery itself.”15

What we see in the world is a manifestation of higher planes of reality, including the very essence of God. Ibn ‘Arabi talks about two distinctive stages of God’s manifestation in the world. The first stage is God’s revelation to Himself in the unseen world in the form of the immutable identities (a ’yan al-thabita)16, and the second one is the most holy emanation (al-faydh al-aqdas), His revelation in the visible world.17

15 . Izutsu, p. 12 16 . Ibid. pp. xiii & 85 17 . Also Ibn ‘Arabi mentions elsewhere, “Similar with duality, unless there is a working relationship between the two entities, there are merely two singulars in sterile and contradictor}7 isolation from each other. If there is a relationship, it is a connecting principle that relates the two entities, bringing the separate qualities together to form a third entity, a triplicity of knower-knowledge-known, in which the 11

Ibn ‘Arabi sometimes uses the analogy of light to describe how God manifests and is known. Although light is a necessary substance pervading and illuminating all things, man does not see light per se. What he observes is light in reflection or in its manifestations for him. Similarly, God, who subsists in everything, is only known by various expressions and reflections of the essential reality.18

Existence, to Ibn ‘Arabi, has to be understood in terms of the Spiritual and

Corporeal Worlds. Ibn ‘Arabi describes these worlds through many dichotomous pairs, such as luminous and dark, subtle and dense, unseen and visible, high and low. The

Spiritual World is the luminous realm of the Spirits, Angels, and Archetypal Qualities, and is the most real of all worlds, while the Corporeal World is the world of forms and events, the physical and sensory world. Compared to the Spiritual World, it is dark, dense, unconscious, and unreal, but it is not without any light or reality.

Since pure light and pure darkness cannot meet without destroying the other, they must exist independently of each other.19 The intermediate realm that separates them and yet combines the attributes of both is the Isthmus (Barzakh), the World of Imagination,20 which is more real than the Corporeal, but less real than the Spiritual. It is the intermediary between the Luminous World of Being and the unconscious World of Form.

All corporeal things have at least some spiritual light, while the Spiritual World of

term “knowledge” as relationship brings together the receptive objectivity of the known, and the active subjectivity of the knower to produce the principle of knowledge itself/’ The Bezels of Wisdom, p. 139 l8- The Bezels of Wisdom, p. 120 19 . Ibn “Arabi, p. 120 20 . Ibid. p. 72 12

Luminous Beings needs the Corporeal World to manifest and take form. Both worlds, in turn, need the World of Imagination in order to be known and envisioned.21

Man lives in the subjective realm. He can purely experience neither the corporeal world, nor the spiritual world. He cannot know what pure form is, nor can he know what pure spirit is; because, everything he knows is through subjective experience or interpretation, and this can never be the True Essence. This is why Ibn ‘Arabi says this world is Imagination (khayal'). This Imagination is the vehicle for understanding the essence of the spiritual realm, so that one ascends the ladder of Imagination toward greater and greater knowledge.

What Ibn ‘Arabi describes as kashf or unveiling is the way through which man is able to perceive the higher realities in the phenomenal world. To Ibn ‘Arabi, so-called

‘reality’ is nothing but a dream, i.e., the world as we experience it under normal conditions is not in itself Reality, but an illusion. Nonetheless, the world of sensible things and events is more than sheer fantasy or a purely subjective projection of the mind.

“If ‘reality’ is an illusion, it is not a subjective illusion, but an objective one; that is, an unreality standing on a firm ontological basis. So, dream, illusion or imagination does not mean something valueless or false; it simply means being a symbolic reflection of something truly real.”22

21 . Ibid. pp. 34, 206 & 267 22 . Ibn Arabi. pp. 7 & 11 13

As Izutsu puts it, “Unveiling means, in short, taking each of the sensible things as a locus in which Reality discloses itself to us.”23 According to Ibn ‘Arabi, God never manifests himself in the same way twice or to two people in the same way. Each person, at each moment, has a unique experience of Reality. Put differently, God manifests himself to each person at each moment in a new way. Creation is always new; God’s self­ manifestation is forever changing. However, the Reality of God as the One Essence, which undergoes these transformations, is immutable.

To Ibn ‘Arabi, the word Allah describes the omniscient intelligence in the omnipotent realm of Divinity. The only locus where that knowledge is inscribed is the heart of the Perfect Man, which becomes a mirror for the concealed and the locus of manifestation of their hidden secrets. This, to Ibn ‘Arabi, is the meaning of the Qur’anic statement, “I was a hidden treasure and I wanted to be known, so I created the world.”24

Since no other creature is in a condition to know God, man is the main aim and purpose of the Cosmos. “Thus he is called irnan,25 for it is by him that the Reality looks on His creation and bestows the Mercy [of existence] on them. He is man, the transient [in his form], the eternal [in his essence]; he is the perpetual, the [at once] discriminating and unifying Word.”26

In order to find God, the mystic prayer requires both descent and ascent. The descent describes the divine desire to be known, whereas the ascent is the mystic’s

23 . Izutsu, p. 12 24. Ibid. p. 27 25. Meaning both man and pupil 26 .Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 51 14

scuffle to know God or Truth. As far as the theophany (tajalli) descends upon its locus of manifestation, the Perfect Man receives it through his perfect, comprehensive, and unified reality. Therefore, the theophany of the All merciful only descends through the

Perfect Man and is colored by an added hue provided by the latter.27 The quasi-mutual act between the creator as an active principle, and the created potentialities, the passive principle, culminates in the creation of the world.28

For the Sufi, the mystical quest is an ongoing self-annihilation (fana) and self- affirmation (baqa). One must lose oneself in order to find oneself. Achieving the essential truth means giving up general concepts about truth, which are influenced by society. What remains after this surrender of one’s identity is the truth of one’s being.

From the Sufis’ standpoint, the mirror of heart must first be thoroughly polished in order to enlighten the soul and reflect the truth. One surrenders the ego, which is that sense of being a separate “I” from God and all others, and what endures is the Reality behind the illusion, which is God.29

Thus, God is both veiled and revealed, in the world and through us. On the one hand, God is the negation of everything in this world and everything we might experience

Him to be; but on the other hand, God can only be known in this world through some kind of experience, whether rational or ecstatic. This is the paradox of God. Ibn ‘Arabi

27 . Ibid. pp. 33-4 28 . Ibid. pp. 55 & 83 29 . “Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.” Al-Ghazzali 15

believes that the death of ego in the stage of fana and resurrection in the level of baqa occurs every moment. This is a state of perpetual loss and re-discovery of self. Man does not become God, nor does God come into man, but man realizes God in His immanent and transcendent forms, and God reveals His Immanence through man. This is why Ibn

‘Arabi speaks of the unveiling of God and the awakening of man.30

The realization or the perception of the Oneness of Being is the divine knowledge.

Knowledge, in this greater sense, is one of the main purposes of creation in Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrine. And the human being, having the possibility of self-reflection and consciousness of being, is here to know himself and creation.31 The Sufis engaged in a sophisticated meditation on the various meanings of unity, using a variety of terms to describe it: ahadiyya, wahdaniyya, wahadiyya, all based upon the Arabic root for “one”: a(w)/h/d. A related key term is tawhid, which refers to the activity of affirming Divine

Unity. The most famous Qur’anic passage of tawhid is the Chapter Al-Ikhlas (The

Purity),32 in which God is affirmed as one, as not begetting, and as not begotten, and as-

Samad, an enigmatic term in classical Arabic, with connotations of permanence and indestructibility.33 As Ibn ‘Arabi states, “the Reality has described Himself as being the

Outer and the Inner [Manifest and Unmanifest]. He brought the Cosmos into being as constituting an unseen realm and a sensory world. Therefore, no meaning passes from the

30 . Ibn ‘Arabi, pp. 80-1 31 . Ibid. p. 33 32 . Chapter 112, also known as At-Tawhid j3 . “Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him.” 16

Inward (batin) to the Outward (zahir) except by His command.” 34 In this basic

Cosmology nothing is really separate from God or the Essence. All is derived from the

same One Truth, though this Truth manifests Itself in various Qualities. This is the basis

for Ibn al-‘Arabi’s doctrine of Unity.

1.2. The Microcosm: the Perfect Man

The process of Creation in the true sense is unique to God alone. God is free of all

necessities, but exhibits the perfection of the divine creative attribute in Creation. The

Creation makes God’s qualities, His eternal power, and His divine nature clearly visible.

The Cosmos can be seen as the body of God, which can reveal His multiplicity.

Essentially, God cannot be other than One in Himself, but He is also infinite in

possibility, and the universe expresses these possibilities. It is man who can recognize the

unity within the multiplicity, the Essence within the forms, because Man is the Essence

Itself, which recognizes Itself in the various forms.35

Ibn ‘Arabi says, “The Universe was made for Man.” Here, he refers to man and

woman, but not in the ordinary sense, for this Man is the Perfect Man, the one who

realizes God in His Immanence. This realization is really the definition of the Perfect

Man. The Perfect Man is the one who knows God’s Perfection in all of Its ways and can

recognize the Perfection already existing within himself or herself.36 According to the

34 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 55 35. Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 55 36 . Ibid. p. 35 17

Qur’an saying, “He Who Knows Himself Knows His Lord,” Ibn ‘Arabi suggests that God is already manifesting Himself through man, so it is a matter of realizing oneself and realizing that God is the One Who lives through him.37

The knowledge of man himself, as well as his knowledge of others and of God, can only exist by way of manifestation. Without actualization or manifestation of the

Divine Qualities, they cannot be known. That is why God “created the world that [He] might be known.”38 And that is why the purpose of human existence is to know and manifest the Essence in Its various attributes. Austin interprets Ibn ‘Arabi as saying that

“it is not a case of the Sufi striving to reach a goal from which he is, in reality, distant, but only that he is trying to realize and become aware of a oneness and identity that is inexorably and eternally real.”39 Man, or more accurately Perfect Man, who has been created in the image of the Divine, which brings the whole Cosmos into existence, can be described as a “microcosm” (al-kawn al-jami’). He himself is a total divine form and a total world.

The relationship between man and Divine is as a drop in the Ocean, a relationship of two separate and yet simultaneously amalgamated existences. Their essence is the same. Man and God, are not two independently separate entities, because there is only

God, yet God exists in this world through the microcosms of man and nature. Since God needs man as man requires Him, the true discourse between man and God is in man’s

37 . Ibid. pp. 54-5 38. Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 27 39 . Ibicl. p. 40 18

unveiling of God (or actually God’s unveiling of Himself).40 The purpose of life is in this unveiling. A real discourse between man and God leaves the man transformed. This new awakening is the unveiling of the Truth (al-Haqq).41

To Ibn ‘Arabi, man is the prime matter of creation. Being the only intellectual creature, man contains everything in the cosmos and acts as the vicegerent of God

(khalifalullah)42 Man, who subsists in God (al-Khaliq), perceives both the internal fact

(al-batin) of Him and the external (az-iahir) veracity of His creation (al-Haqq wal- khalq) 43 Knowing God (m a’rifa) means to perceive the reality through a combination of these two perspectives. Man is a theomorphic reflection of God, and his path to God is a path of self-discovery as much as it is a path to know God. The one who realizes this essential ontological purpose, and comes to realize and actualize God is known as the

Perfect Man.44

The first chapter of Ibn Arabi’s Bezels o f Wisdom, “The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam,” describes the theomorphic truth of Man: “the [divine] Command required [by its very nature] the reflective characteristic of the mirror of the Cosmos, and

Adam was the very principle of reflection for that mirror and the spirit of that form, while the angels were only certain faculties [also related to the attributes of God] of that form

40. Ibid. pp. 33-4 41 . Ibid. (pp. 153-4), “How wonderful are the words of God concerning the Cosmos and its transformation according to the Breaths ‘in a new creation’ in a single essence. He said concerning a portion, nay most of the Cosmos, Nay, they are in the guise o f new creation. (Qur’an, Chapter 50-Qaf-Verse 15) They do not understand the renewal of the Creative Command according to the Breaths.” 42 . Ibid. pp. 34,198, and 270 43. Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 30 44. Ibid. p. 27 19

which was the form of the Cosmos.”45

Man is unique among all God’s creations: unlike any other creature; including the angels, he has both a material body and an eternal and incorporeal soul/spirit. Being essentially ministering spirits, Angels, unlike humankind, do not have bodies. This lack of a physical body deprives them of sharing in the physical and formal actuality of cosmic creation. Likewise, the animal creation, devoid of consciousness, is separated from the uniquely synthetic experience of the human being.

The Qur’anic accounts of the creation of Adam contain several key elements:

Adam’s being created as a khalifa (caliph or regent) of God on earth; the molding of

Adam out of clay and the Divine’s breathing into Adam of the spirit (ruh);46 and the objection of the angels to the creation of a creature that would “corrupt the earth and spill blood.”47 Man is “breathed into”48 the Cosmos and completes it. At the outset of the

Bezels o f Wisdom, Ibn ‘Arabi mentions that Cosmos without man is like a proportioned and well-balanced body, but lifeless and discarded, waiting for God to breathe His Spirit into it. To him, Adam is “the very principle of reflection,” and the “spirit of the

45. Ibid. p. 50 46 . It is worth mentioning that Jesus, along with Muhammad, is singled out in the Qur’an for his special relationship to the spirit (mb). Like Adam, he was brought to life directly through “inspiriting/’ that is, the deity’s breathing into him of the spirit. Qur’an, Chapter 19- Maryam (Mary), Verses 16-27 47 . Qur’an, Chapter 2- Al-Baqarah (The Cow), Verse 30 “They said, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?” Allah said, ’’Indeed, I know that which you do not know.” 48 . Chapter 15- Al-Hijr (The Rocky Tract), Verse 29 “And when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My [created] soul, then Ml down to him in prostration.” Also Chapter 21, Al-‘Anbya\ Verse 91 20

[reflected] form.”49 Just as the spirit rules the body and controls it through faculties, the

Perfect Man rules the affairs of the world.

Including the realities of both God and the cosmos, Perfect Man recognizes God in all aspects. He is equipped with a vision by which the veils are torn off in order to reveal the facts. The Qu’ran summarizes such a vision in the words: “Wherever you look, there is the face of God.”50 For the Perfect Man, everything is a divine Self-disclosure

(tajalli). Since in Adam’s original disposition, his knowledge of self is identical with knowledge of God, he knows the original disposition of all things. This is why the Qur’an states, “He taught Adam all the Names.”51

Adam could be seen as the perfect mirror reflecting God. Embracing all the realities, “[Adam] is called insan (meaning both man and pupil),52 for it is by him that the

Reality looks on His creation and bestows the Mercy [of existence] on them.”53 Adam is representative of both the mirror and the observing subject, the mirror itself being a symbol of the receptivity and reflectivity of cosmic nature, and the observing subject being God Himself.

The Perfect Man is an ideal archetype of a human being, and the way he connects with all attributes of God distinguishes him from the other creatures. However, man as the sovereign of all creatures has been self-indulgent and careless about God’s

49 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 48 50. Al-‘Anbya\ Verse 115 51 . Ibid. Verse 30 52 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 51 53 . Qur’an, Chapter 7- Al-‘A ’raf (The Heights), Verse 156 21

commandment, causing him to fall from his perfect state, the state of the Perfect Man who abstains from any actions that might endanger his relationship with God or separate him from his Creator. This fall is followed by man’s individual journey in establishing a spiritual relationship with Divinity. Eventually succeeding, after long endeavors, in summoning the Divinity, which lies hidden in his body and soul, man is startled to find that he must obey the God he summoned. At this stage, the zenith of his quest, man entrusts everything to God.

Here, man realizes the significance of obedience to God as expressed in the

Qur’anic passage, “Religion with God is Islam,”54 the literal meaning of Islam being obedience to God. Therefore, all creatures that are obedient to God are “Muslims.” In fact, disobedience, the sin of Adam and Eve causing their fall from Paradise, is the starting point of man’s separation from God. The outcome is the invisible wall of separation between man and divinity. Before the separation, Adam could be seen as the primordial, archetypal man who stayed in touch with his Creator. The separation, and the quest to overcome it, forms the bedrock of Sufism.55

God exists in man in potential, but not in full actuality. The Perfect Man is one who realizes his unity with God that God is manifesting through him, but he also recognizes that he is not, and cannot be, the same as God. The Perfect Man has the knowledge of his potential and recognizes it as Divine, and from here he works to

54 . Qur'an, Chapter 3- 'Ali cImran (Family of Imran), Verse 19 55. Ibn ‘Arabi, p.56 22

actualize that potential when the need arises. Thus, the path is realization and acceptance of one’s divine nature, and it is also actualizing that realization of divinity in the world.

“God’s image being nothing other than the divine Presence. In this noble epitome, which is the Perfect Man, He created all the Divine Names and realities, which issue forth from him into the macrocosm outside him.”56

Like God, the Perfect Man feels ultimately unknown, even to himself, for there is no singular identity to hold on to; yet he can manifest in any number of ways and finds himself in all things. Attaining this level of knowledge, he must abandon his selfhood, and turns to Essence. In other words, the negation of all identifications is the first necessity whereby man enters the spiritual path, and becomes purified enough to manifest the many Divine Qualities.

Through him, the Divine Qualities express themselves. He has the spiritual power

(himma) to manifest what is as yet in latency. He sees into the world of Divine

Possibilities, and by his concentration and contemplation these possibilities come into being in this world. He is the perfect agent of God’s becoming, or the agent of God’s

Wish. The Perfect Man is “that individual human being who realizes in himself the reality of the saying that man is created in God’s image, who combines in his microcosmic selfhood both the macrocosmic object and divine consciousness, being that heart which, microcosmically, contains all things essentially, and in which the Reality eternally rediscovers Its wholeness. He is also, at once, the original and ultimate man

56 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 253 23

whose archetype and potential for realization is innate in every human being.”57

This is the great archetypal possibility for all human beings and, according to Ibn

‘Arabi, the primary reason for existence, because the Perfect Man knows his unity with

God, and at the same time perceives God in His diversity of Qualities and Acts in the world and also can manifest any of God’s Qualities at any one moment. He is therefore the perfect instrument for God to know Himself. The Perfect Man is the heart of God in this world. This does not mean that he is the totality of God, because he is not omnipresent or omniscient. He merely has access to all divine potential and knowledge.

He recognizes the divinity in all people and can express the divinity in whatever way

(attribute) is needed in the moment.

Achieving perfection depends upon knowing oneself, as to know oneself is to know God. But Adam’s children are encompassed by imperfection. How then does one become perfect? Man must follow the way of divine guidance, revealed through the prophets. In this way, man can bring his beliefs, his thoughts and his activities into conformity with the Divine Form, upon which he was created.58 The key to this path lies in the Qur’an and the paragon of every perfect characteristic, Muhammad.59 Following this path, man can avoid egocentric perspectives and put aside his capricious nature. It becomes his priority to assume God’s character traits.

In striving to assume the character traits of God, man must realize that Divine

57 . Ibid. p. 35 58 . Ibn ‘Arabi, pp. 151 & 243 59 . Ibid. pp. 97 & 105 24

Qualities such as justice; compassion, and generosity are beyond the reach of man’s forgetful nature and that the very attempt to imitate God would involve a tremendous arrogance.60 Therefore, the goal of the mystical path is to negate, to eliminate one’s own attributes, and to efface one’s own self. On the way of perfection, it is necessary to become God’s utter and absolute servant {Abdullah), submissive, patient, and understanding.61

Since all existence is a theophany, and God is the origin of all things, He is the end of all things, as well. According to the Sufis, the separation of man from his creator is the origin of suffering and the basis of all anxiety, and man’s life’s work is to cut through the veil of ignorance. On one side of the veil, according to Ibn ‘Arabi, is the darkness, or the gross aspect of reality. On the other side is the subtle spirit, which, one might say, covers itself in a veil of light. For this reason, the Cosmos does not perceive the Reality as God perceives Himself.62 Here, it is worth quoting the master of the classical Persian poem, Hafez (d. 1389 C. E.): “The veil, which covers the face of my soul, is the dust of my body/Happy that moment when I throw away the veil from that face.” Lifting the veil of unawareness, man will pave the way for perceiving the Reality and creating the Divine

Unity 63

60 . Ibid. p. 55 61 . Ibid. “Those of His servants over whom Satan has no authority.” P. 45 62 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 56 63. According to a famous Hadith: “I am his hearing and his sight,” As soon as the believer strives to draw closer to God by doing mandatory acts of worship, then charitable acts, God will bring him closer to Him. Therefore, he will start to worship God as if he can see Him, and his heart will be filled with knowledge of his Lord, love, awe, glorification and veneration of Him. Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 56 25

Chapter II l.Light, Darkness, and the Primordial Man in Manichaeism

Abstract

At the outset of the Christian era, the Eastern Mediterranean world produced a system of thought that proclaimed a radical dualism of realms of existence, God and the mundane world, spirit and matter, soul and body, light and darkness, good and evil, life and death. The general religion of this period could be called “a dualistic transcendent religion of salvation.” Gnosticism derives from gnosis, 64 the Greek word for

“knowledge.” The emphasis on knowledge as the means for the attainment of salvation, or even as the form of salvation itself, and the claim to the possession of this knowledge in one’s own articulate doctrine, are common features of the numerous sects in which the gnosis movement historically expressed itself.65 According to Hans Jonas, Manichaeism is “the conclusion of the development of the great ancient systems of Gnosticism.”66

l.l.The Path of Knowledge: Gnosticism and Manichaeism

The idea of gnostic redemption is the most significant feature of Manichaeism.67

64 . “Gnosis meant pre-eminently knowledge of God, and from what we have said about the radical transcendence of the deity it follows that ‘knowledge of God’ is the knowledge of something naturally unknowable and therefore itself not a natural condition.” The Message of Alien God & The Beginnings of Christianity: The Gnostic Religion, p. 34 65. Ibid. p. 32 66 . Ibid. p. 208 67 . Ibid. pp. 31-2 26

As a gnostic doctrine, Manichaeism prefers wisdom, which is based on revelation and illumination, to faith and tradition.68 One of Mani’s writings, preserved in a Middle

Persian fragment, proves this claim:

“Now Self (Narjamig ‘Twin’) goes with me, bears and guards me, with his

force I strive with Az (the Greed Demon) and Ahreman (the Devil), and I

teach the people wisdom and knowledge, and I release them from Az and

Ahreman. And I accepted this thing (matter) of gods, wisdom and the

knowledge of Ruwancinih (gathering the souls), which was from Narjamig

” 69

Serving as a messenger sent from God, Mani’s heavenly alter ego, al-Tawm (MP.

Narjamig), from the Nabatean word meaning ‘Companion’ (Gk. syzygos) appears to him on two occasions at 12-year cycles of 12 and 24 years of age. Not only does he enlighten young Mani as a teacher of spiritual truths, but he also instructs him about his ‘real identity’ as a spiritual being granted a terrestrial existence in order to fulfill the will of

God. This Angel asks Mani to stop attending the sect “Muqtasilah,” a Baptist gnostic community in in Southern Babylonia, whose main practice was ablution, and to which

Mani’s father (Patig) attached and introduced his son.70 Mani rejects baptizing the body,

68 . Esmailpour, Abolqassem, Manichaean Gnosis Creation Myth, Sino Platonic Papers, Department of East Asian Language and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, Number 156, July 2005, p. 8 69. M 49 II. M. Boyce, A Reader in Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian (Leiden-Teheran-Liege 1975), p. 31 70 . “Abandon this community, for you are not of them. You must be unblemished and abstain from desire. The time is not right for you to appear, for you are still young.” (So) when he turned twenty-four, 27

believing that the true baptism is possible only through gnosis. He proclaims: “The purity spoken of [by Jesus] is therefore purity through gnosis. It consists of the separation of light from darkness, of life from death, of living water from the congealed.”71

With the appearance of the Twin, the two sides of the same personality, carnal part and lofty presence, are united, and Mani’s apostolic mission can begin.72 Mani proclaims his identity as the Paraclete, the first successor of Jesus Christ, ‘the Spirit of

Truth,’73 the figure that Jesus himself promised would come to fulfill his teachings.74 In his Gospel,75 which Mani arranged according to the twenty-two letters of the Aramaic alphabet, he says that he is the Paraclete announced by Messiah [Jesus], and that he is the seal of the prophets.76

Mani’s thought was influenced by three religious founders, Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus, whom he saw as his precursors. If we try to apportion this influence, we might say that that of Iranian religion was strongest on his cosmogony, that of Christian religion on his eschatology, and that of Buddhism on his ethical and ascetic ideal of human life.

al-Tawm brought him forth saying: “Now is the time for you to appear and call (others) to your cause.” (Tihrist, trans. I. Gardner and S.N.C. Lieu 2004, credited to M. Laffan, 47; cf. B. Dodge 1970,11.774—5.). Baker-Brian, Nicholas J. Manichaeism: The Ancient Faith Rediscovered. Published by T&T Clark International, New York, USA: 2011, p. 45 71 . A. Henrichs and L. Koenen, “Der Kleiner Mani-Kodex, ed. der Seiten 72, 8-99,9,” ZPE 32 (1979), pp. 84, 9-16. 72 . Baker, p. 38 73 . CMC 46; 70 74 . E .g.Jn. 14.16 75. “The Middle Persian term %ndag (living) is a relevant word in Manichaean texts denoting light-giver to all who attain the ‘fruit of gnosis.’ Mani also called his religion dynyg %yndg (‘living religion’) and his Gospel bore the title of ‘wng/yim yyndg (the Living Gospel). Manichaeans have also called their prophet 3yndkkr (‘reviver’), because man will be gnostic knowledgeable through His ‘living word.’ Ismailpour, p.9 76 . Baker, p. 62 28

The heart of Manichaeism, however, was Mani’s own speculative version of the gnostic myth of cosmic exile and salvation: as an abstract principle stripped of most of the mythological detail with which Mani had embroidered it, it reappeared again and again in the sectarian history of mediaeval Christendom, where often “heretical” was identical with “neo-Manichaean.”77

The cardinal feature of gnostic thought is the radical dualism that governs the relation of God and world, and correspondingly that of man and world. The deity is absolutely trans-mundane, its nature alien to that of the universe, which it neither created nor governs and to which it is the complete antithesis: to the divine realm of light, self- contained and remote, the cosmos is opposed as the realm of darkness. The transcendent

God Himself is hidden from all creatures and is unknowable by natural concepts.

Knowledge of Him requires supernatural revelation and illumination and even then can hardly be expressed otherwise than in negative terms. The world is the work of lowly powers, the Archons, which though they may in a mediate manner be descended from

Him do not know the true God and obstruct the knowledge of Him in the cosmos over which they rule.78

Manichaean Gnosticism negates terrestrial life and rejects body and materiality in order to reach a deeper world. However, Manichaeism does not consider the world and worldly affairs as evil, but rather wishes for a heavenly, splendid and intellectual universe. Since one cannot reach this universe in this material world, it should be sought

77 . Jonas, p. 208 78 . Jonas, pp. 42-3 29

in the heavens, where gods, deities and angels live in the halo of absolute light, which is the rightful residence of the transcendent and gnostic man.79

Manichaeism distinguishes three categories of men: Elect, Soldiers, and sinners,

“an obvious parallel to the Christian-gnostic triad of pneumatics, psychics, and sarkics

(“fleshly men”). Accordingly, there are three ways of the souls after death: the Elect comes to the Paradises of Light; the Soldier, the guardian of religion and helper of the

Elect, must return into the world and its terrors so often and so long until his light and his spirit shall be freed and after long wandering back and forth he attains to the assembly of the Elect; the sinners fall into the power of the Devil and end up in Hell.”80

79 . Esmailpour, pp. 20-1 80 . Jonas, pp. 231-3 30

1.2. Light, Darkness, and the Primordial Man: The Manichaean Cosmos

The Manichaean doctrine undertakes to expound the “beginning, middle and end” of the total drama of existence: “The foundation of Mani’s teaching is the infinity of the primal principles; the middle part concerns their intermingling; and the end, the separation of the Light from the Darkness.”81

In Manichaean scriptures, creation is described as a mythical drama. The beginning period witnessed the immaculate divinity, also called the Father of Greatness82

(i.e., God), residing in the Realm of Light with his five elemental residents, mind, knowledge, intellect, thought and reflection. The completely unconnected contrapositive of this arch-principle is the King of Darkness, who dwells in his region with his five residents, smoke, fire, wind, water and darkness. The world of Light borders on that of

Darkness without a dividing wall between the two.83 In fact, the Light, far from considering the existence of Darkness as a challenge, wants nothing but the separateness and has neither benevolent nor ambitious tendencies to enlighten its opposite. For the

Darkness is what it is destined to be, and left to itself it fulfills its nature as the Light fulfills its own.84

81 . Jonas, p. 209 82 . In Iranian Manichaean texts, the Father of Greatness is called Zurwan. Although this god of Time has bisexual character in Zoroastrian and Zurvanite literature - because he is both the fadier and the modier of Ahura Mayda and Ahriman - he is an untouchable Godfather in Manichaean texts. He is too transcendental to interfere directly in the material creation. The Living Spirit creates the material world with the help of the Mother of Life. There is Holy Spirit beside the Father of Greatness. One can imagine her as His metaphysical spouse who has not any role in the creation process. See M. Boyce, Reader (Leiden 1975), p. 4. 83 . According to Theodor Bar Konai, Jonas, p. 210 84 . Jonas, p. 211 31

In the First Creation, the Demons invade the frontier of the Light Realm out of envy and commence battling the deities of Light. In response, “the Father of Greatness called forth the Mother of Life, and the Mother of Life invoked the [Primordial] Man.”85

Primordial Man (MP. ‘whrmydby), the “central soteriological figure” of the Manichaean system, is created to preserve the peace of the worlds of Light and to fight their battle. He descends from the Realm of Light to participate in the battle against the Prince of

Darkness at the border of Light and Darkness. However, he is defeated in his combat and is imprisoned by the demons.

The Second Creation starts when the Father of Greatness invokes a number of divinities to descend down to the Realm of Darkness in order to save the Primordial Man.

They go and find him and his children have been swallowed by the Devil and the demons.86 Ultimately, one of the divinities, the Living Spirit, comes to the border of the light with darkness, throws his right hand down to the frontier of Darkness, pulls up the

Primordial Man and takes him to the Paradise of Light. Then, he comes down, overcomes the King of Darkness and casts him and followers down to fiery pits. Eventually, the

Living Spirit ascends from the Realm of Darkness and rests beside the Mother of Life and the Primordial Man in the Paradise of Light.87

The Living Spirit and his entourage start separating the Light from the main chaos of Darkness in which it has become entangled during the battle. Then, carrying out the

85. Ibid. 217 86 . Ismailpour, pp.62-3 87 . Ibid. p. 64 32

King of Light’s command, they create the present world out of the material consisting of mixed Light and Darkness, in order to liberate the Light-parts from the dark parts, and build Heaven and Earth out of the defeated Archons’ skins and carcasses. According to some narrations, the Archons are fettered to the firmament, and regarding some sources the Earth and mountains have been shaped from their flesh and bones.

However, “by all this neither have they [the Archons] lost their demonic life nor has the Darkness in general lost its power to act.88 All the parts of nature that surround us come from the impure cadavers of the powers of Evil. As one Persian-Manichaean text briefly puts it, “the world is an embodiment of the Arch-Ahriman ” It is also a prison for the powers of Darkness who are now confined within its scope; and again it is a place of re-purification for the Soul.”89

Parts of the devoured Light are purified, and from the purest part are formed sun and moon, and from the rest the stars. Thus, the stars, with the exception of the planets, which belong to the archons, are “remnants of the Soul.” But with this macrocosmic organization only a small portion of Light is saved, “all the rest still imprisoned, oppressed, sullied,” and the celestials lament it.90 Thus, for the sake of these lost and thoroughly encompassed parts, the cosmos has to be created as a great mechanism for the separation of the Light, and the agonized soul finally will be saved.

The main aim of the Darkness at this point is “the non-separation of the Light

88 . Ismailpour, 25-29 89 . Man. Ps. CCX X III10. 25-29 90 . Jonas, pp. 224-5 33

from the Darkness,” and a particularly large part of the Light can be chained and most effectively retained in the form of “soul”.91 As Jonas puts it,

Anticipating the eventual loss of all Light through the continual separating

effect of the heavenly revolutions, and wishing to have in his world a

substitute for the otherwise unattainable divine figure, over which to rule

and through which to be sometimes freed from the odious company of his

kind, the King of Darkness by using the divine form92 for its purpose in

the grand counter-move against the strategy of Light produces Adam and

Eve in the image of the glorious form, and pours into them all the Light

left at his disposal.93

From now on the struggle between Light and Darkness concentrates upon man, who contains both sides through his body as a devilish substance and spirit as a prize of deity, and becomes the main battlefield of the two contending parties. “This is the metaphysical center of the Manichaean religion, and it enhances the deeds and destiny of individual man to an absolute importance in the history of total existence.”94

Being one of the significant redeeming deities in the Manichaean pantheon, Jesus the Splendor presents Adam (Mp. ghymwrd) with the gift of gnosis.95 Jesus the Splendor teaches Adam the three periods of Before (The Golden Era), Middle (The Mingled Era of

91 . Ibid. pp. 226-7 92 . “This is what has become of the Biblical idea of man’s being created in the image of God.” 93 . Jonas, pp. 226-7 94 . Ibid. pp. 226-7 95. Ismailpour, pp. 15-6 34

Light and Darkness), and After (The Resurrection Day when the Light overcomes the

Darkness). With this knowledge, the seeker reaches the “fruit of gnosis.” This is by itself a kind of rebirth, a new life in the Realm of Light and Truth.96

That it is Jesus who makes Adam eat from the Tree of Knowledge explains the

Christian accusation that the Manichaeans equated Christ with the serpent in Paradise.97

Of the content of Jesus’ revelation, one particular doctrine, concerning “his [Jesus’] own self cast into all things,” requires comment. It expresses the other aspect of this divine figure: in addition to being the source of revelatory activity in the history of mankind, he is the personification of all the Light mixed into matter; that is, he is the suffering form of

Primordial Man.

The revelation of Jesus to Adam includes a warning against approaching Eve. Eve has been created by the demons as the most formidable device in their strategy, to provoke carnal lust in Adam: “to her they imparted of their concupiscence in order to seduce Adam.” Adam at first obeys Jesus, but with the help of the demons is later seduced by Eve, and so starts the chain of reproduction, the temporal perpetuation of the kingdom of Darkness. “For the Darkness, therefore, everything turned on the seduction of

Adam, as for the celestials, on awakening him in time to prevent his seduction.”98 This makes necessary a temporal history of revelation, which in periodic repetition leads via

Buddha, Zoroaster, and the historical Jesus to Mani himself and in essence merely renews

96 . Ibid. p. 17 97 . Jonas, p. 92 98 . Jonas, p. 228 35

again and again the original revelation of the Luminous Jesus, accommodated to the historical progress of religious understanding.

The redemption of the encompassed soul is one of the fundamental motifs of

Manichaean gnosis, such that “the freedom of the Primordial Man from the bondage of hell” (Mp. t ’r zmyg ‘the Land of Darkness’) in the Manichaean view is identical with

Christ’s ascension." Manichaean Gnostics have regarded the bondage of Primordial Man as a symbol of the human soul imprisoned in the material world.

Man, according to Manichaeism, is composed of flesh, soul, and spirit. The spirit, or pneuma, is a portion of the divine substance from beyond which has fallen into the world, and the rest of man was created by the Archons in order to keep the pneuma captive. The earth, the scene of man’s life, can be seen the innermost dungeon of a vast prison ruled by the Archons - this prison is the universe.

Around and above the earth are the cosmic spheres, ranged like concentric enclosing shells. Most frequently there are the seven spheres of the planets surrounded by the eighth, that of the fixed stars. The spheres are the seats of the Archons, especially of the seven, that is, of the planetary gods borrowed from the Babylonian pantheon. The

Archons collectively rule over the world, and each individually in his sphere is a warder of the cosmic prison. Their tyrannical world-rule is called heimarmene, universal Fate, a concept taken over from astrology but now tinged with the gnostic anti-cosmic spirit. As guardian of his sphere, each Archon bars the passage to the souls that seek to ascend after

99 . Ismailpour, pp. 13-4 36

death, in order to prevent their escape from the world and their return to God. They are also the creators of the world, except where this role is reserved for their leader, who then has the name of demiurge (the world-artificer in Plato’s Timaeus) and is often painted with the distorted features of the Old Testament God.100

Man’s body and soul are the products of the cosmic powers, which shape the body in the image of the Primordial Man and animate it with their own psychic forces: these are the appetites and passions of natural man, each of which stems from and corresponds to one of the cosmic spheres and all of which together make up the astral soul of man, his “psyche.” Through his body and soul man is a part of the world and subject to the heimarmene.

As in the macrocosm the seven spheres encompass man, so in the human microcosm again the pneuma is enclosed by the seven soul-vestments originating from them. Immersed in soul and flesh in its unredeemed state, the ignorant pneuma immersed is unconscious of itself, benumbed, asleep, or intoxicated by the poison of the world. Its awakening and liberation is affected through knowledge.101 Contrary to Marcion,102 who believes that redemption is feasible only through faith and divine grace, Mani’s idea is that gnosis and the awakening out of the material forgetfulness are the factors of redemption.103 “Wake up of deep drunkenness, in which thou art slept, and watch me ...

100 . Jonas, pp. 43-4 101 . Ibid. p. 44 102 . Marcion of Sinope (c. 85 — c. 160) was an important leader in early Christianity. 103 . Ismailpour, pp. 7-8 37

take me out of the bosom of Death.” 104 Thus, life in Manichaean view means the redemption and salvation of the soul; and death means the imprisonment in the material jail.

The longing for the Paradise of Light (Mp. Whysht’w rwshri) is one of the important themes of Manichaean gnosis. The only wish of the offended, alienated and miserable man in the material world is redemption, then joining the transcendental kingdom of the Father of Greatness, who will meet the purified and redeemed souls and lights only at the end of the world. All released particles of light, which have passed through the Moon to the Sun, and from the Sun to the New Paradise (Mp. whysht y nwg),'05 a temporary paradise until the apocalyptic time, will join in the Paradise of

Light. Then, the world becomes absolute light; darkness will be vanquished and the Devil will be imprisoned in a deep pit.106

Since Manichaean gnosis informs man of his true essence, is wakeful and illuminating. Therefore, the first condition of the salvation of man is the consciousness of himself, and of the transcendental deity, Father of Greatness, with whom he shares the same essence. Of course, only the light-filled and spiritual particles of existence, which are captivated in the ‘jail of body,’ share the same essence as the deity. This imprisoned light-particle needs to be freed through man’s endeavor to reach the gate of gnosis.107

104 . M. Boyce, Ope cit., p. 108. 105. Ibid. Op. cit., p. 66 106 . Ismailpour, p. 10 107 . Ibid. p. 9 38

Conclusion

“We were in heaven... We were the companions of angels... When will we return there again?”108

The term Gnosticism, which is applied to a wide variety of religious beliefs, is derived from the Greek word yvcocnq (knowledge, understanding). In the Gnostic tradition, the word specifically denotes “redeeming knowledge.”109 A dualistic attitude is shared by various Gnostic orientations. Darkness, associated with the material world, is separated from Truth and Light, which are connected to God. A savior or a redeemer sent from God must rescue the divine part of the human being from the material realm.110

Manichaeism aims at the attainment of such Gnosis, which is described through metaphors of Light and is reached through the purging of elements of the realm of

Darkness. Thus, the confrontation of Light (Spirit) and Darkness (Matter) is the bedrock of Manichaean Gnosticism. To Manichaeism, man’s main target as a creature made up of intermingled parts of Light and Darkness is to liberate the Light from the Darkness by following the path of Gnosticism. In this way, man will reach salvation.

Gnosticism enters Islam through the ideas and practice of Sufism. In its historical

108 . From a poem by Jalal ud-Din Rumi: Schimmel, Annemarie, Mystical Dimensions of Islam. The University of North Carolina Press 1975, p. 189. 109 . Rudolph, Kurt, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Limited 1984, p. 55. Like it is written in The Gospel of Phillip: “He who has knowledge of the truth is a free man.” (NHC II 3, 77,15-16), Robinson, James McConkey (ed.), The Nag Hammadi library in English, Leiden: Brill, 1988, p. 146 110. Ibid. pp. 58-9 39

trajectory, Sufism has been shaped by a variety of influences. One of these was

Christianity, the asceticism and monasticism of which had an essential impact on the practice and explication of Sufism. Still, although there are many Sufi schools with various philosophical leanings and trying to cultivate their own disciples, the central core of Sufism’s esoteric doctrine relies heavily on Gnostic thought.

According to Sufism, God created human beings in His desire to manifest. Man, who unlike the Angels has both material and spiritual aspects, is therefore capable of reflecting God in His entirety. To Ibn ‘Arabi, Perfect Man is like a smudge-free mirror reflecting the Divine Manifestation. The self-realization of Perfect Man is simultaneously the manifestation of God.

Ibn ‘Arabi maintains that at certain times, the Divine Will manifested Itself to humanity through certain Persons, who acted as Intermediaries between God and

Creation, the Sphere of Life. They were Microcosms reflecting the entire Divine

Macrocosm of Creation, the bearers of God’s trust, His friends (wali-ullah). Ibn ‘Arabi believes that the Prophet Muhammad is the symbol of Perfect Man in the world, and has within him all the divine properties of God.

In Sufism, all people have the potential to regain this state of perfection. Reunion with God after a long separation from His presence is the Sufi’s main aim. To attain a state of perfection, man must relinquish his ego, focus on love, concentrate entirely on how he can be united with God, and yet stay humble and aware of his own human 40

nature.111 Through knowledge of his own self, he can know God and be united with the

Divine. “God is Light,”112 and man is a ray of this Eternal Source. However, he is surrounded by darkness and ignorance. Thus, his main task is to immerse in his origin through achieving knowledge of his essence.

Trying to achieve unification with God, a Sufi cannot participate in secular affairs except in striving to self-annihilate in the Divine. According to the Gnostics, the terrestrial world is a prison for the spirit, ruled by the Archons.113 Ultimately, both teachings cultivate disinterest in the world.

According to Manichaeism, Adam’s body was shaped by the Archons and is part of the spirit’s prison. In contrast, according to Sufi beliefs, rooted in Islamic theology,

God is the Creator of both body and spirit.114 But the two teachings converge on the issue of the spirit: In Sufism, Godly nature belongs to spirit (ruh), which will eventually return to the celestial home.115 In Manichaeism, man contains a shard of the Godhead, the spirit

{pneuma), which must ascend to the Realm of Light.116 Both Gnosticism and Sufism believe that man’s body, as the material part of his being, should be condemned in living an ascetic life. According to Rumi, the body is only “a morsel for the tomb.”117

Ultimately, the biggest continuity between the two traditions may be the belief in

111 . Ibn ‘Arabi, p. 128 112 . Qur’an, Chapter 24- An-Nur (The Light), Verse 35 113 . Rudolph, p. 67-68. 114 . Qur’an: Chapter 23, Al-Mu’minun (The Believers), Verses 12-14 115. Schimmel, p. 192-193. 116 . Rudolph, p. 88-91. 117. Schimmel, p. 116 41

the perfection of man through gaining knowledge of the Divine. Ibn ‘Arabi’s concept of the Perfect Man echoes Mani’s ideas about Primordial Man in supplying everyday human beings with a model for such perfection, a model to emulate on the path of knowledge. 42

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