Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Notes

1. By man is meant not the male alone but the human state whose archetypal reality is the androgyne reflected in both the male and female. Man in English signifies at once the male and the human being as such like the Greek anthropos, the German mensch or the Arabic insan. There is no need to torture the natural structure of the English language to satisfy current movements which consider the use of the term “man” as a sexist bias, forgetting the second meaning of the term as anthropos.

2. On the Islamic conception of man and the meaning of this term see G. Eaton, King of the Castle, chap. 5; G. Durand, Science de l’homme et tradition, Paris, 1979, esp. chap. 3, entitled “Homo proximi orientis: science de l’homme et Islam spirituel”; and Nasr, “Who is Man? The Perennial Answer of Islam,” in Needleman (ed.), The Sword of Gnosis, pp. 203-17.

See also “Man as Microcosm,” in T. Izutsu, A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism-Ibn ‘Arabı and Lao-Tzu, Chuang- , Tzu, Pt. 1, Tokyo, 1966, pp. 208ff., where the whole doctrine of the universal man (or khalıfah) as expounded in Ibn ‘Arabı’s Fusus al-hikam is elaborated with great clarity. In pts. 2 and 3 of this work the Taoist concept of man is likewise elucidated and finally compared in a masterly fashion with the Islamic.

3. Needless to say, the title of pontiff given to the Catholic pope symbolizes directly the central function of this office as the “bridge” between God and His church as well as between the church and the community of the faithful, but this more particular usage of the term does not invalidate the universal significance of the “pontifical” function of man as such.

4. Certain modern observers of the environmental crisis, who want at the same time to defend the misdeeds of modern man, seek to extrapolate the devastation of the planet to earlier periods of human history in order to decrease the burden of responsibility of modern man by including even goats to explain why the ecological balance is being destroyed. While one cannot deny the deforestation of certain areas or erosion of the soil during the Middle Ages or even earlier, there is no doubt that there is no comparison between the intensity, rapidity, or extent of destruction of the natural environment during the past few centuries and what occurred during the previous long periods of history when traditional man lived on the surface of the earth.

5. This is the title of a well-known essay of G. Durand. See his On the Disfiguration of the Image of Man in the West, Ipswich, U.K., 1976.

6. There is no doubt that there were many attempts to rediscover traditional teachings in the Renaissance esp. in the field of the traditional sciences. See J. F. Maillard, “Science sacrée et science profane dans la tradition ésotérique de la renaissance,” Cahiers de l’Université Saint Jean de Jérusalem, vol. I, Paris, 1974, pp. 111-26. But this fact cannot at all obliterate the truth that secularizing humanism and the rationalism connected with the notion of virtù, according to which man was able to command any situation rationally, characterize and dominate the Renaissance world view, especially as it concerns man. This conception of man based on an aggressive rationalism combined with skepticism was to enter the mainstream of European thought, both literary and scientific, through such figures as Montaigne and Galileo. On virtù and the concept of Renaissance man as “the rational artist in all things,” see A. C. Crombie, “Science and the Arts in the Renaissance: The Search for Truth and Certainty, Old and New,” History of Science, 18/42 (Dec. 1980): 233.

7. This hatred of wisdom has been combined, in what is characteristically modern philosophy, with a fear that God may somehow threaten the petty mental constructions which modern man has substituted for wisdom. “God, for the philosophic spirit, is an external menace to the human wisdom that man, deprived of Divine Intellect, contrives for himself.” Durand, op. cit., pp. 20-21.

8. On this process see S. H. Nasr, Man and Nature, chap. 2.

9. On the traditional criticism of Comte see R. Guénon, La Grande triade, Paris, 1980, chap. 20.

10. For a criticism of the positivism inherent in modern anthropology see Durand, “Hermetica ratio et science de l’homme,” in his Science de l’homme et tradition, pp. 174ff. See also the capital work of J. Servier, L’Homme et l’invisible, which, using scientific data, refutes nearly all the presumptions of modern anthropology.

11. Quoted in R. C. Zaehner, The Teachings of the Magi, London, 1956, p. 75; see also M. Molé, Le Problème zoroastrien et la tradition mazdéenne, Paris, 1963.

The alchemical significance of this passage which relates the alchemical symbolism of metals to the inner or physiological aspect of the microcosm is evident. It is also of great significance to note that according to the Bundahisën, the form of Gayomart was spherical as also asserted in Plato’s Symposium concerning the form of the primordial man. This geometric symbolism indicated that just as all geometric figures and solids are generated by and contained in the circle and the sphere which are the primordial form in two and three dimensions, primordial man is the origin of all humanity and, in fact, cosmic existence and “comprehends,” in a metaphysical sense, all cosmic existence.

See also the various works of M. Eliade dealing with sacrifice and religious rites including Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. R. Sheed, New York, 1958; Traité d’histoire des religion, Paris, 1964; and Gods, Goddesses, and the Myths of Creation, New York, 1967.

12. The Person (Purus.a) has a thousand eyes, a thousand heads, a thousand feet:

Encompassing Earth on every side, he rules firmlye-stablished in the heart.

The Person, too, is all This, both what has been and what is to come. .

With three parts the Person is above, but one part came-into-existence here:

Thence, he proceeded everywhere, regarding Earth and Heaven.

Of him was Nature born, from Nature Person born:

When born, he ranges Earth from East toWest.

Whereas the Angels laid-out the sacrifice with the Person of their offering,. .

From that sacrifice, when the offering was all accomplished, the Verses and Liturgies were born, The Metres, and the Formulary born of it.

Therefrom were born horses, and whatso beasts have cutting teeth in both jaws.

Therefrom were born cows, and therefrom goats and sheep.

When they divided the Person, how-many-fold did they arrange him?

What was his mouth? What were his arms? How were his thighs and feet named?

The Priest was his mouth; of his arms was made the Ruler;His thighs were the Merchant-folk; from his feet was born the Servant.

The Moon was born from his Intellect; the Sun from his eye.

R.g Veda, X, 90, trans. A. K. Coomaraswamy on the basis of the translation of N. Brown. See Coomaraswamy, The Vedas, Essays in Translation and Exegesis, London, 1976, pp. 69-71.

13.

14. This is a specifically Islamic image, since Islam sees the cardinal sin of man in his forgetfulness (ghaflah) of who he is although he still carries his primordial nature (al-fit.rah) within himself, the man as such to which in fact the Islamic message addresses itself. See Schuon, Understanding Islam, pp. 13-15.

15. The term al-insan al-kamil was first used as a technical term by Ibn ‘Arabı although its reality constitutes the second Shahadah, Muh. ammadun rasulallah, and of course was present from the beginning of the Quranic revelation. After Ibn ‘Arabı the doctrine was presented in a more systematic fashion by ‘Abd al-Karım al-Jılı in his al-Insan al-kamil and also by ‘Azız al-Dın Nasafı in the work bearing the same name. See. T. Burckhardt, De l’homme universel; and M. Molé (ed.), ‘Azizoddin Nasafi, Le Livre de l’homme parfait (Kitab al-insan al-kamil), Tehran-Paris, 1962. A complete translation of the Jılı work is being prepared in English by V. Danner for the Classics ofWestern Spirituality Series being published by the Paulist Press.

16. All traditions teach of the presence of more than one self within us, and we still speak of self-discipline which means that there must be a self which disciplines and another which is disciplined. Coomaraswamy has dealt with this theme in many of his writings, for example, ¸SOn the Indian Traditional Psychology, or Rather Pneumatology,ˇT in Lipsey (ed.), Coomaraswamy 2: Selected Papers, Metaphysics, pp. 333ff.

On the traditional doctrine of the inner man see also V. Danner, ¸SThe Inner and Outer Man,ˇT in Y. Ibish and P. Wilson (eds.), Traditional Modes of Contemplation and Action, Tehran, 1977, pp. 407 ˝ U12.

17. The very fact that one of the species living on earth called man can destroy the natural environment is itself an indication that he is not simply an earthly creature and that his actions possess a cosmic dimension. This only proves, for those whose vision has not become atrophied by the limitations of modern thought, that man is more than a purely biological specimen with a somewhat larger brain than the other primates.

18. Both Jews and Muslims within the Abrahamic family of traditions and Hindus in quite another world believe that the practice of their rites and various aspects of their sacred law uphold the cosmos. In Hinduism the gradual decline of man and his natural environment through a cosmic cycle are explicitly associated with degrees of practice of the Law of Manu. The same correspondence between the practice of rites and the sustenance of the cosmic order is also emphasized in nearly every other tradition ranging from the Egyptian to the American Indian.

19. “Man is either Viceroy or else he is an animal that claims special rights by virtue of its cunning and the devouring efficiency of teeth sharpened by technological instruments, an animal whose time is up. If he is such an animal, then he has no rights-he is no more nor less than meat-and elephants and lions, rabbits and mice must in some dim recess of their being rejoice to see the usurper develop the means of his own total destruction. But if he is Viceroy, then all decay and all trouble in the created world that surrounds him is in some measure to be laid to his count.” Eaton, King of the Castle, p. 123.

20. By this assertion we do not mean that traditional man is only that half-angelic creature of a certain type of Christian piety who is alienated from nature. Traditional man who saw himself as custodian of nature nevertheless buried his dead and did not consider himself a purely natural being, although he lived in complete harmony with nature.

21. See Ibn ‘Arabı, TheWisdom of the Prophets (Fusus al-hikam), trans. from Arabic to French with notes by T. Burckhardt and trans. from French to English by A. Culme-Seymour, pp. 23 and 35; also Ibn al-‘Arabı, Bezels of Wisdom, chap.2.

22. The genesis of man and his prenatal existence in various higher states of existence is expounded in great detail in Jewish esoterism. See L. Schaya, “La genèse de l’homme,” Études Traditionnelles, no. 456-57 (Avril-Septembre 1977): 94-131, where he discusses the birth, descent, loss of original purity, and the regaining of man’s original state according to Jewish sources concluding that, “Né de Dieu, l’être humain est destiné, après ses multiples naissances et morts, à renaiître en Lui, en tant que Lui” (p. 131); and idem, The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah, pp. 116ff. See also F. Warrain, La Théodicée de la Kabbale, Paris, 1949, pp. 73ff.; and G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Jerusalem, 1941, lectures 6 and 7.

23. Quran VII; 172. On the significance of this verse see Nasr, Ideals and Realitites of Islam, pp. 41ff.

24. The Divan, trans. H.Wilberforce Clarke, vol. 1, Calcutta, 1891, p. 406.

25. Hermeticism as reflected in alchemical texts contains a most profound anthropology which is now attracting the attention of thoseWestern anthropologists who have realized the inadequacies of the modern science bearing this name and are in search of a science which would deal with the anthropos, not the twolegged animal that modern, secularized man envisages him to be. On the wedding between the soul and the Spirit in alchemy see T. Burckhardt, Alchemy, chap. 17.

26. Sadr al-Dın Shırazı and later Islamic metaphysicians have dealt extensively with eschatological questions centered around the doctrine of the subtle body and its relation with the soul as it is molded by human action to which this hadıth refers. See especially the commentary of Sadr al-Dın Shırazı upon the Us.ul al-kafı of Kulayrı containing the sayings of the Imams and also his commentary upon Suhrawardı’s Hikmat al-ishraq. See Corbin, “Le Thème de la résurrection chez Mollâ Sadrâ Shîrâzî (1050/1640) commentateur de Sohrawardî (587/1191),” in Studies in Mysticism and Religion presented to Gershom G. Scholem, Jerusalem, 1968, pp. 71-115.

27. On the metaphysical interpretation of the popular Indian notion of transmigration see Coomaraswamy, “On the One and Only Transmigrant,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 44, supplement no. 3, and in Lipsey, Coomaraswamy, vol. 2.

28. One must also remember the meaning of “land” in the ancient Icelandic Land-Nama-Bok, which has been compared by Coomaraswamy in certain respects to the Rg-Veda. See his The Rg Veda as Land-Nama-Bok, in his The Vedas-Essays in Translation and Exegesis, pp. 117-59.

The Rg Veda itself (I, 108, 9 and X, 59, 4) refers to the three worlds as “earths.”

Likewise, the Kabbalah speaks of not only the earthly paradise or “upper earth” (Tebel) but also of six other earths of a more fragmentary nature so that there are altogether seven earths as stated by the Zohar and the Sefer Yetsirah. See Schaya, The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah, pp. 108-9.

29. See Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, trans. N. Pearson, Princeton, 1977, where these doctrines are fully expounded. Corbin even speaks of “geosophy” as a wisdom about the earth and a sacred knowledge of the earth, including the celestial earth totally distinct from what geography or geology is concerned with.

30. Traditional eschatologies, whose complex doctrines cannot be treated here, all assert that only in this life as a human being can one take advantage of the central state into which one is born and pass to the spiritual abode and that there is no guarantee that one will be born into a central state after death unless one has lived according to tradition and in conformity with the DivineWill.

31. The physiology of the “man of light” is developed within Islamic esoterism particularly in the Central Asiatic school associated with the name of Najmal-Dın Kubra. See Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, trans. N. Pearson, Boulder, Colo., and London, 1978; and idem, En Islam iranien, vol. 3. It is also developed fully in the Kabbala (for example, in the Zohar) as well as in the ancient Iranian religions which speak often of the cosmic dimensions of man in terms of light symbolism. See B. T. Anklesaria, Zand- Akasıh, Iranian or Greater Bundahisën, Bombay, 1956; and J. C. Coyajee, Cults and Legends of Ancient Iran and China, Bombay, 1963.

32. The title of one of Suhrawardı’s most famous works is Hayakil al-nur (The Temples of Light). The Arabic work haykal (pl. hayakil) here rendered as temple means also body; the title refers to the symbolism of the body as the temple in which is present the light of God.

33. There are of course exceptions not only in the medieval period in such figures as Dante but also in the later period in the writings of Paracelsus and even during the last century in the poetry ofWilliam Blake.

On the doctrine of the spiritual significance of the body in connection with the “subtle body” see G. R. S. Mead, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition, London, 1919; and of more recent origin, C. W. Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, Wheaton, Ill., 1969; and on a more popular level D. Tanseley, Subtle Body, Essence and Shadow, London, 1977.

34. One hardly need mention how important gesture is in traditional societies and how it is related to sacred symbols which manifest themselves in all facets of traditional civilizations including their art. The mudras in both Hinduism and Buddhism are a perfect example of the central role played by gesture.

On the heart, head, and body of man and their spiritual significance see Schuon, “The Ternary Aspect of the Human Microcosm,” Gnosis, DivineWisdom, pp.93-99.

35. See Schuon, Du Divin à l’humain, pt. 3.

36. The horizontal and vertical dimensions of the cross symbolize the Universal Man who contains all the possibilities of existence, both horizontal and vertical, within himself. See R. Guénon, Symbolism of the Cross.

37. Some interest has been taken in recent years on reviving the traditional doctrines concerning memory. See F. Yates, The Art of Memory, Chicago, 1966.

38. This is a term used first by Corbin in French to distinguish the positive role of the imagination from all the pejorative connotations connected with the word “imaginary.”

In recent years after three centuries of neglect, certain European philosophers and scholars have turned their attention to a serious reappraisal of the traditional teaching concerning the imagination. Among this group one must mention especially G. Durand who

has established a center in Chambéry, France, named “Centre de recherche sur l’Imaginaire” for the study of the world of imagination. See his Les Structures anthropologiques de l’Imaginaire, Paris, 1979;also Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabı, trans. R. Manheim, Princeton, 1969. See also R. L. Hart, Unfinished Man and the Imagination, New York, 1968.

39. For modern man the sentiment of fear has come to have only a negative significance as result of the loss of the sense of majesty and grandeur associated with the Divinity. In the traditional context, however, the Biblical saying, repeated by St. Paul and the Prophet of Islam, “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God” (rd’s al-h. ikmah makhafatallah), remains of permanent significance since it corresponds to the nature of things and the most urgent and real needs of man as a being created for immortality.

40. For example, in India while in Tantrism there is reference to the androgynic figure Ardhanarı; in the ´Sivite school the androgynic state is usually represented iconographically by the union of ´Siva and Parvatı who are sometimes fused as one figure half male and half female, in which case ´Siva is known as Ardhan arı´svara.

On the significance of the androgyne and some of the contemporary applications of the meaning of its symbol see E. Zolla, The Androgyne, Fusion of the Sexes, London, 1981; also K. Critchlow, The Soul as Sphere and Androgyne, Ipswich, U.K., 1980.

41. It is not accidental that in so many sacred languages these qualities possess a feminine form such as the Arabic rahmah (“mercy”) and hikmah (“wisdom”).

42. The attempt by modern man to destroy the qualitative differences between the sexes in the name of some kind of egalitarianism is only a consequence of the further elongation of Promethean man from the archetypal reality of the human state and therefore an insensitivity to this precious qualitative difference between the sexes.

43. On the gun. as see Guénon, Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta, chap. 4.

44. On their relation see Nasr, Islamic Science-An Illustrated Study, pp. 159ff.

45. For the traditional treatment of astrological human types see al-Bırunı Elements of Astrology, trans. W. RamseyWright, London, 1934; Burckhardt, The Mystical Astrology of Ibn ‘Arabı, London, 1977; R. Z. Zoller, The Lost Key to Prediction, New York, 1980; M. Gauguelin, The Cosmic Clocks, London, 1969; and J. A.West and J. G. Toonder, The Case for Astrology, London, 1970.

46. On the metaphysical significance of caste see Schuon, “Principle of Distinction in the Social Order,” in his Language of the Self, pp. 136ff.

47. It is possible for a human being to possess more than one caste characteristic, the most eminent example being of course the prophet-kings of the Abrahamic traditions who possessed both the sacerdotal and knightly natures in the most eminent degree, Melchizedik being the primal example of the union of these natures as well as spiritual and temporal authority.

48. See Schuon, “Understanding and Believing” and “The Human Margin,” in Needleman (ed.), The Sword of Gnosis, pp. 401ff.

49. Quran (XIV; 4-Pickthall translation).

50. We shall deal more extensively with this question in chap. 9.

51. In all traditions the significance of the “face” is emphasized since it bears the direct imprint of the Divine upon the human. In the Quran there are several references to the “face of God” which have become sources of meditation for many Muslim sages. See, for example, H. Corbin, “Face de Dieu et face de l’homme,” Eranos-Jahrbuch 36 (1968): 165-228, which deals mostly with the teachings of Qadı Sa‘ıd Qummı, on the significance of the face of God in relation to the human face and all that determines the humanity of man.

52.