The Perfect Human: The Universal Synthesis of the Divine Names1

According to Muslim tradition, the most beautiful names of Allah [asma’ Allah al- husna] are ninety-nine in number, all of which are found, in one form or another, in the Holy Qur’an (7:180; 17:110; 20:8; 59:24). As the essence of Allah, Islam, and the Qur’an, the divine names have played an important role in the interpretation of Islamic scripture. Invoked in prayer and in common speech, the divine names are also employed during dhikr or remembrance of Allah. Among the Sufis, be they Sunni or Shi‘i, the ninety-nine names take on heightened significance as steps along the path of spiritual perfection, reaching its peak in the universal archetype of the Perfect Person who, by reaching the state of sublime submission, has become the microcosmic manifestation of all the divine names.

According to a famous hadith qudsi or sacred saying, Almighty Allah says: “I was a Hidden Treasure [kanz makhfi], and I wished to be known. So, I created humankind, then I revealed myself to them, and they recognized me.” In some Sufi versions of this saying, Allah not only reveals the reason for creation, but also the role of the created, saying:

I was a Hidden Treasure that desired to be known. So I manifested all the creation to reveal the essence of the deep secret: knowledge of myself. He whom I created to reveal the treasure carries within himself this treasure but he must explode the mountain of his existence to discover the treasure which is hidden within it. (http://www.sufimaster.org/teachings/secret love.htm)2

As Almighty Allah says in the Holy Qur’an,

“I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me” (51:56).

According to the Prophet’s companion, Ibn ‘Abbas, the verb “to worship” in this context, is to be understood in the sense of “to know” (Murata 26; Ibn al-‘Arabi, 131). The purpose of creation is inseparable from the concept of divine love. However, since human beings cannot know or love their Creator as an inconceivable transcendent Essence, Allah revealed His most beautiful names so that he could be invoked and remembered (Beneito v). In the words of Ibn al-‘Arabi, “He brought the world into existence to make manifest the authority of the Names” (37). As Beneito explains,

Through His Love and Compassion, Allah - “Hidden” with regards to His Essence - manifests Himself in the cosmos, in human beings, and in the revealed Book, all places of His manifestation, through which he makes Himself “Manifest” to humankind. His names - which Ibn al-‘Arabi considers as ‘relations’ [nisab] - allow humankind to know Him through His similarity and to have knowledge of His incomparability, reconciling immanence and transcendence through a middle path which consists in the union of opposites.

The most beautiful names are the means through which Allah reveals the manifestations of His names throughout the cosmos (VI). They are the means of reaching Him, and the response to His command: “Call upon Me and I will answer you” (40:60). As a result, belief in God is not in itself enough. As ‘Ali Muhammad Naqvi explains,

A person must know the attributes of God, because it is the knowledge of the attributes of God which enables man to cultivate in himself the noblest of human qualities…The knowledge of God’s attributes purifies man’s mind and soul, his beliefs and actions, but mere intellectual knowledge of God’s attributes is not sufficient. We must have an unflinching conviction, firmly rooted in our minds and hearts, so that we may remain immune from doubt and immoral action. If we have conviction that God is our Lord, that He oversees everything, then we may not commit a sin even at a place where there is no one to check us.3 (Naqvi 3-4)

Knowledge of Allah is knowledge of the divine names. Knowledge of the divine names is knowledge of self, and the divine nature which lies latent in all human beings.

According to a well-known hadith [tradition] from the Prophet Muhammad, “Allah created Adam in his image” [inna Allaha khalaqa Adama ‘ala suratihi].4 According to Sufi thought, this tradition indicates that the primordial nature [fitrah] of man is the epitome or universal synthesis of the Divine Essence in its earthly and spiritual manifestations.5 As Ghazali explains in Mishkat al-anwar, Allah, out of His grace and mercy gave to Adam a summary “image” or “form,” embracing every genus and species in the whole world, inasmuch that it was as if Adam were all that was in the world, or was the summarized copy of the world. And Adam’s form - this summarized “image” - was inscribed in the handwriting of Allah, so that Adam is the Divine Word. (135)

Adam, as the Archetype of Man, embodies the Divine Presence and the divine names. As the Qur’an says, “He taught Adam the names, all of them” (2:31).

In Islam, in general, the goal of the believer is to conform to the character of the Prophet Muhammad, the greatest model of al-tahalluq bi asma’ Allah or assuming the attributes of Allah, in which the qualities of the divine names manifest themselves in harmony (Beneito 310). As Ibn al-‘Arabi says, “No one has realized this station [of servitude] to its perfection like the Messenger of Allah” (131). In Sufi thought, each step that the Prophet took during his ascension to Heaven represented one of the divine names he had embodied. Besides the Messenger of Allah, the Imams, in Shi‘ism, who are known as hujjat Allah or Proofs of Allah, and the aqtab or Poles in Sufism, are also sources of emulation [maraji’ al-taqlid].6 The goal of all believers is to literally become muslimun, those who surrender completely and absolutely to Allah, actualizing the divine names which exist within them as virtualities. This was clearly conveyed in the Prophet’s words “Assume the character traits of Allah” (Ibn al-‘Arabi 308, note 122) and the hadith qudsi in which Allah says, “My earth does not encompass Me, nor does My heaven, but the heart of My servant, the person of true faith, does encompass Me” (315, note 7; 323, note 37). In other words, all of Allah, all of His Attributes, can fit in the heart and soul of a “Complete Human Being.”

In Islam, a “Complete Human Being“ is one who has reached the highest psychological, physical, and spiritual stage of being.7 This Perfect Person is like a sun around which the divine attributes revolve. Although the stages differ between different Sufi orders, they may include: the aspirant, the novice, the wanderer, the knower, the guide, the saint and, finally, the complete human being or perfect person. The “Complete Human Being” is the one who has effaced his ego, become selfless, abandoned his individual identity, erased his “I,” and reached a state of union with the Supreme Identity. Ibn al-‘Arabi uses the Arabic term muwahhid to designate the perfect spiritual union in which the believer loses himself in Divine Unity. It is the state in which the knower and the known are erased, which is known as fana’ al-fani [annihilation of the annihilated].8 The person who reaches the state of muwahhid sees the Divine Unity in everything and does not associate or attribute anything inappropriate with it. Almighty Allah, in a famous hadith qudsi, describes the absolute surrender of a divine servant in the following terms: “When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks” (Bukhari).

According to Islamic thought, “Perfect People” are those who have fully submitted, who have become at one with the Divine, like the great spiritual guides, the Prophets in particular, the Twelve Imams - among Shi‘ite Gnostics - and the “Poles“ [aqtab] - among Sunni Gnostics - namely, the awliyya’ Allah [the Saints or Friends of Allah]. For Shi‘ite Muslims, the Fourteen Infallibles embody the divine attributes. It is for this reason that the Imams proclaimed: “We are the most beautiful names” (Kulayni). For Shi‘ites, the Imam is the khalifat Allah [the representative or vicar of the Divinity], the pillar of the divine names, namely, the manifestation of the divine attributes and qualities through which the Supreme Principle or the Universal Possibility make Himself know to His creatures. The Imam is the supreme mediator [wasilah kubra], synthesis of the divine attributes and qualities through which the Divinity is known by the creatures and through which the Divinity knows its creatures.

The Imam is the one who has “become the Reality” [al-mutahaqqiq bi al-Haqq], namely, the one who, by perfecting himself, has fully manifested the totality of the divine attributes through the perfection of human attributes or moral virtues [khuluq], reaching the state of identification with His Celestial Model, the Complete Human Being [al-insan al-kamil], the first creation, who has transformed into his own image of human form on earth. His limbs, acts and words are epiphanies [mazahir] of the Absolute. For Sufi Muslims, each Muhammadan Pole has a hijjir or “constant invocation” specific to himself. The hijjir of the greatest Poles is the name Allah. This explains why the supreme Pole forever pertains to this name and is called ‘Abd Allah. The constant invocations of the other Poles include well-known formulae that are used in prayer and invocation, including la ilaha illa Allah [There is no god but Allah], Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest], subhana Allah [Glory be to Allah], alhamdulillah [Praise be to Allah], the most common phrases from the Allah Lexicon, as well as various Qur’anic verses.

On a more earthly as opposed to ethereal level, many Muslims have a favorite divine name and Allah expression, just like they have a preferred chapter or verse from the Qur’an. When Muslims give their children names of servitude like ‘Abd Allah, they want their children to live up to them, to embody them, in the same way that divine names are actualized by the Friends of Allah.9 They do so in accordance with the words of the Prophet: “On the Day of Judgment you will be called by your names and your fathers names, so choose beautiful names [for your children]” (Abu Dawud). As Earl H. Waugh has observed, “This care about names has perhaps developed from the sensitivity to God’s beautiful names in the Qur’an (17:110), and the great piety with which the ninety-nine names of God are recited” (224). When it comes to selecting names for one’s offspring, the Messenger of Allah has said that “The names dearest to Allah are ‘Abd Allah and ‘Abd al-Rahman” (Abu Dawud). Parents who name their son ‘Abd al-Halim, the Servant of the Gentle One, want him to be gentle; those who name their son ‘Abd al-‘Alim or ‘Abd al-Hakim, want him to be wise; and those who name their son ‘Abd al-Rahman, want him to be compassionate. While each human being embodies the divine attributes, and often one in particular, many Muslims are actually named with the divine names.10

According to Islamic thought, the Great or Complete Human Being [al-insan al-kabir or al-insan al-kamil], is the universal synthesis of the divine names and attributes. As Muslim Gnostics say, the universe is a Great Man, and man is a Small Universe [al-kawnu insanun kabirun wa al-insanu kawnun saghir] (Murata 23). In fact, the Complete Human Being [al-insan al-kamil] is the universal archetype in whose image was created the humanized human or small man [al-insan al-saghir], the “Son of Adam” [ibn Adam] in whom Allah placed all of the realities [haqa’iq] of the macrocosmos [al-‘alam al-kabir], in such a way that man, despite the size of his body, represents the entire universe. The “Complete Human Being” is the universal synthesis of existence which embodies the virtual potentiality of all forms of being [al-wujud], through both divine and human attributes. As Ibn al-‘Arabi explains, “[T]here is no name that God has applied to Himself that He has not also applied to us” (214). It is by means of these attributes that Allah brings Himself close to His creatures and gives them the opportunity to approach His Essence (De la Torre 24). As Friedlander explains, “The names of Allah are connected with the life of man. All aspects of life can be seen in the names” (10). As such, there is a name of God for every human trait (De la Torre 25). This is why the Prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying: “He who knows himself, knows his Lord.”11 In other words, the attributes of Allah are to be found in souls, the receptacles [qawabil] or place of manifestation of the Divine Presence.12 As Beneito explains,

Human beings have the possibility, depending on their predisposition and receptivity, to adopt the qualities of the various names of the One and the Multiple, reintegrating them by means of his concentration, spiritual aspiration and breadth of his heart, in their essential Unity… It is essential to understand that the adoption of the qualities of the names does not imply appropriation. Human beings are the receptacle, the “place” in which the human attributes are manifested. Human beings participate in the attributes by which, through the grace of divine providence, they adorn themselves as faithful servants of God.

Human beings, by nature, possess all the possibilities of perfection.13

As a result, they have been placed in a central or axiomatic position in the universe. As Beneito explains,

The servant…is not a mere man or woman, a common person or individual believer…but rather the human being par excellence, the Complete Human Being, created in the image of God, as a microcosmic synthesis and Pole or Axis of the Universe. Without a Complete Human Being, the cosmos would be annihilated.

To become a saint, from an Islamic point of view, is to fully realize all the possibilities of the human condition, uniting with the universal human prototype, “The Complete Human Being.”14 From the perspective of tasawwuf [Sufism] and ‘irfan Shi‘i [Shi‘ite mysticism], spiritual realization [tahaqquq ruhani] consists in assuming each divine attribute step by step, eventually reaching union with the Divine [Allah] and the cosmos which is the representation of the “Complete Human Being,” the mirror which reflects the highest grade of purity and simplicity of all the divine names. The entire process is one of unveiling. As the Prophet said, “Allah has seventy or seventy thousand veils of light and darkness” (Majlisi qtd. in Chittick, 1989: 264, note 49, and Ghazali, 1952: 76-77). The quest of each Muslim is to remove veils of darkness and veils of light. According to Nicholson, these light-veils correspond to various degrees of sainthood (78). As Ghazali explains, the first step along this path of spiritual purification is the understanding of the true meaning of the divine attributes (1952: 169). The adoption of divine names, Islam’s ninety-nine-points plan for human perfection, culminates in the creation of the “Complete Human Being,” also known as ‘Abd al-Samad, the Servant of the Eternal Universal Pillar, who serves as the place of manifestation of the divine names (Beneito 246).

According to Sufi thought, the Complete Human Being, who shares the original nature of Adam and the Muhammadan Reality [al-haqiqah al-muhammadiyyah], is the microcosmic synthesis of creation, the mirror in which the Divine Reality contemplates Himself, and the pupil through which He sees (Beneito v). As is often stated in Islamic mysticism, the Divine contemplates Himself and everything which He [hu] has achieved in the cosmos by means of the “Complete Human Being.” As Beneito explains, “When a human being develops a divine character, adorning himself with the most noble qualities, he becomes the gaze of God from the cosmos…the presence of the manifestation of the names of God” (243-44). It is for this reason that the “Complete Human Being” is known as the “Sole Prototype,” the “Evident Prototype” which is spoken of in the Qur’an. In fact, it is the Universal Being which differentiates itself in successive polarizations, as active and passive, as species and individual, as male and female, as macrocosmos and microcosmos, as universe and man. Each of these elements has their opposite in the plan of ontological perfection.

As the names of Allah are limitless, so are the ways to Allah. It is for this reason that the Prophet said that “The numbers of paths to God is equal to the number of human souls” (Chittick, 1989: 52, Note 1) and it is why Yahya or John the Baptist told Ibn al-‘Arabi in the Fifth Heaven that “Each person has a path, that no one else but he travels…paths that come through the traveling itself” (223). Each person has a path, each path is a divine name, and each path starts with the most beautiful names, the source of the Allah Lexicon, and a ninety-nine-steps plan for human perfection.

Many people wonder how they can become pious Muslims. According to the spiritual tradition of Islam, the answer is to be found in the most beautiful names of Allah, the ninety-nine point plan for human perfection which is based on the Shari‘ah. The divine attributes, the most beautiful names, are also human attributes. If people pray, fast, pay the poor-due, perform the hajj, perform jihad, promote the good, forbid the wrong, love the Household of the Prophet, and keep away from their enemies, they are good Muslims. Complete and total submission to Allah, however, requires more than that. Performing the wajibat [religious obligations] and avoiding the haram [religiously forbidden] is merely the beginning of the journey towards Allah. And as Almighty Allah has promised: For every step one take towards Him, He will take two towards us. If one goes to him walking, He will come to us running (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah). So the first step is to cast off the veils of darkness and vice to pass through the veils of virtue and light.

The traveler on the path takes one attribute, any attribute, and attempts to embrace it and embody it. One Muslim may adopt the attribute of al-Sabbur, and work on his nafs, on his personality, his soul, his character, until he becomes perfectly patient. A Muslim woman, for example, may simultaneously embody the divine attributes of al-Jamil, the Beautiful, and al-Batin, the Veiled. Since beauty is a feminine attribute, a Muslim woman is a manifestation of divine beauty. When a Muslim sees the beautiful face of a woman, he is contemplating the beauty of the Divine. As the famous hadith says, “Allah is Beautiful and love beauty” (Bukhari). While Allah is Beautiful, He also hides His Beauty behind the Veil [hijab] as divine beauty can only be contemplated by those who are pure of heart, the saints, the awliyya’ or “Friends of Allah.” Likewise, a Muslim woman’s beauty can only be admired by her direct relatives [mahram].15 She is beautiful, but she is batinah: hidden and veiled. The Muslim mystic, the ‘irfani, may adopt the attribute of al-‘Arif, the One who Knows. The scholar may adopt the attribute of al-Hakim, the philosopher and the jurist the attribute of al-‘Alim, the mujahid the attribute of al-Muntaqim, the Avenger, the judge the attribute of al-‘Adil, the Just, all assuming different attributes of Allah, and witnessing to the presence of the Divine. Of course, it is only the Friends of Allah who can adopt all the divine names, a state described by Ibn al-‘Arabi as follows:

[W]hen a servant…knows that he is not [created] according to the form of the world, but only according to the form of God [al-Haqq], then God “makes him journey” through His Names, “in order to cause him to see His Signs” (17:1) within him. Thus [the servant] comes to know that He is what is designated by every divine Name - -whether or not that Name is one of those described as “beautiful.” It is through those Names that God appears in His servants, and it is through Them that the servant takes on the different “colorings” of his states: for They are Names of God, but “colorings” [of the soul] in us. (213)

Adopting divine attributes, however, does not mean that one becomes Allah. As Ghazali warned:

when one sloughs off the passions of his soul with its desires and concerns, no room remains in him for anything other than God, nor will he have any concern other than God…So if nothing exists in his heart but the majesty of God and His beauty, so that he becomes immersed in it, he does become as though he were He, but not so that he actually is God… But here lies a pitfall, for if one does not have a firm footing in things rational, he may fail to distinguish one of them from the other, and looking upon the perfection of his essence and how it may be adorned with the finery of truth which shines in it, he will think that he is He [God], and will say ‘I am the Truth.’ (1999: 153)

The fact that believers acquire one of the characteristics of the Divine Essence does not mean that they become Allah, since Allah is the synthesis of all the divine names, and the Muslim can only aspire to adopt one, some, or all of them, through their mention. In other words, everything in the human being manifests Allah’s names and attributes, while the individual human being as a whole - -at least in the case of those who are fully human and have become Allah’s vicegerents - manifests all Allah’s names (Murata 37).

If the name Allah, which refers to the Essence, does not have a precise meaning, and cannot be comprehended, the most beautiful names, on the contrary, are divinely donned descriptions and the only means of understanding the Divinity. Ninety-nine in number, the most beautiful names are eloquent expressions of the multiplicity within the Divinity, and the conceptual core of the Qur’an. The most beautiful names are the foundational framework of Islamic speculative metaphysics, reaching its peak in the universal archetype of the Complete Human Being who, by reaching the state of sublime submission, has become the manifestation of Allah.

Works Cited

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• 1. This study, which was authored exclusively by John Andrew Morrow, was previously published in Sufi: A Journal of Sufism. 71 (2006): 20-25. It also appeared in an expanded version in Arabic, Islam, and the Allah Lexicon: How Language Shapes our Conception of God (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006): 243-272. It should be noted that many of the concepts discussed in this chapter [the perfect person, manifestation…] were not an intrinsic part of early Islam. However, merely because they were not known the early Muslims does not make them un-Islamic. They are philosophical developments inspired by the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
• 2. This tradition, which is commonly quotes in Sufi works, and by Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240) in particular, is considered spurious by the traditionists as it does not contain an isnad or chain or narration. According to Ibn Taymiyyah, “It is not from the words of the Prophet, and there is no known isnad for it: neither sahih [authentic] nor da‘if [weak];” al-Zarkashi (d. 794), Ibn Hajar (d. 1449), al-Suyuti (d. 1505), and others agreed with him. Nonetheless, Ibn al-‘Arabi considers it authentic on the basis of “unveiling” and even the traditionists agree that its meaning is true. As al-Qari’ admits, “its meaning is correct, deduced from the statement of Allah, ‘I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me’ (51:56), i.e. to recognise/know me, as Ibn ‘Abbas has explained” (Hassan). For the long version of this famous hadith qudsi, see Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Uqlat al-mustawfiz (48) and Henry Corbin’s L’Imagination créatrice dans le soufisme d’Ibn ‘Arabi (98).
• 3. According to Shi‘ite belief, on the Prophets and Fourteen Ma‘sumin are infallible. Nonetheless, the term “infallible” is also applied to those falling outside of this category, like Zaynab (d. 682?), the sister of Husayn (d. 680), whom her nephew, Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (d. 710?) referred to as an “un-taught scholar” or ‘alimah ghayr mu‘allamah. The same applies to the sister of Imam al-Rida (d. 818-19), Fatimah, who was known as al-Ma‘sumah, the infallible one. So a distinction must be made between those who are infallible by divine gift and those who have acquired “infallibility” through piety, knowledge, absolute faith, and knowledge of certainty.
• 4. Although this tradition is considered suspect by traditionists, and condemned outright by the jurists, the representatives of the spiritual tradition in Islam accept it as it epitomizes the metaphysical underpinnings of their position (Murata 333). As Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240) remarks, the tradition is “sound on the basis of unveiling [ie. by mystical vision], but not established by way of transmission” (qtd. Murata 333). Another variant of the tradition says that “Allah created Adam in the form of the Most Merciful” which, according to Jami (d. 1492), is found in Riwayat ma‘ani al-akhbar of Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar. Cf. Jami, Naqd al-nusus 94.
  Issues of authenticity aside, the tradition is subject to numerous interpretations. According to the first interpretation, the pronoun refers to Allah; hence, “Allah created Adam in His Own Image.” In other words, Adam was made in the image of God. This is the interpretation adopted by the Ummayad line and practically theorized by Ibn Taymiyyah and taken as an irrefutable fact by the Salafis. This view has been refuted by both Sunni and Shi‘ite scholars. According to the second interpretation, the pronoun refers to Adam. Consequently, “Allah created Adam in his image;” namely, God created Adam in the mould of Adam, without having undergone the stages of creation (23:13-14). As Imam Muhammad al-Baqir said, “It was a recently created image.” According to the third interpretation, the pronoun refers to the human prototype. According to a tradition, the Prophet heard a man say to someone: “May Allah make your face and the one who resembles you ugly!” The Prophet admonished him, saying, “Hold on a minute! Do not say this for verily Allah created Adam in his image.” As Shaykh Saduq explains, “The anthropomorphists took out the first part of this tradition and said: ‘Verily, Allah created Adam in His Image.’ Hence, they went astray in this meaning and led others astray. According to the fourth intrerpretation, the pronoun refers to the person which is struck. According to a tradition, the Prophet said “When you hit a person, avoid the face, for verily, Allah created Adam in his image.”
• 5. According to Islam, all human beings have a natural predisposition [fitrah] to believe in the oneness of God (7:172). According to a hadith qudsi, Almighty Allah said: “I created my servants in the right religion, but the devils made them go astray” (Muslim). The Messenger of Allah also said that “Each child is born in a state of fitrah, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian” (Bukhari and Muslim). As Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240) explains, “Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature [bi fitratihi wa jibillatihi]. So the whole world prays to Him, prostrates itself before Him, and glorifies His praise” (2002: 183). And, of course, “tongues speak of Him” (183), using the Allah Lexicon.
• 6. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) refers to the Perfect Person as al-Muta‘,the Vicegerent, which Massignon identifies with the Qutb or Axis.
• 7. For more on the metaphysical aspect of the Perfect Person, see al-Jili’s (d. 1365-66) Kitab al-insan al-kamil, translated into French by Titus Burckhardt as De l’homme universel. Pages 30-35 and 40-45 of this latter include a commentary on the divine attributes. See, also, Qashani’s (d. 1330?) Kitab and Alawi’s commentaries on the divine name Allah with relation to the basmalah in al-Minahu al-quddusiyyah. Ghazali’s (d. 1111) Fada’ih al-batiniyya, Lahiji Fayyaz’s (d. 17th c.) Gawhar-e murad and Jami’s (d. 1492) Nafahat al-uns can also be consulted. For the Perfect Person as the universal synthesis of the divine names and attributes in Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), see Chitticks’s The Self-Disclosure of God, particularly pp. xxiii-xxv, as well chapter six of Titus Burkhardt’s An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine.
• 8. Several prophetic traditions connected the Islamic concept of enlightenment are cited in Michel Chodkiewicz’s critically annotated translation of the Meccan Revelations, including: “Whoever dies has already begun his resurrection;” “Not one of you will see his Lord until he dies” (277, note 19) and “Death is before the meeting with God” (281: note 43).
• 9. From a strictly Shi‘ite point of view, the Prophets, Messengers, and the Fourteen Infallibles may hold a station higher than that of Perfect People. In the insan al-kamil, perfection is acquired through effort. In the case of the Prophets, Messengers, and Fourteen Infallibles, it is divinely gifted.
• 10. Just like every Amerindian has a totem, a nahua, an animal characteristic he aims to incarnate, every Muslim, or rather, every human being, regardless of religion, has been given a gift, a divine quality, which needs to be discovered and actualized. According to Ibn al-‘Arabi, this is one’s divine duty: “Just as He who loves you gave you your creation, so also you should give Him that for which you were created” (2002: 191).
• 11. According to hadith specialists, this is actually a saying of the Sufi Yahya ibn Mu‘adh al-Razi which has been wrongly attributed to the Prophet (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 2002: 308, note 123, and Massignon 88).
• 12. Human beings have a spirit or life-force known as the [nafs] which represents animal instincts. They also have a soul [ruh] in which divine qualities lay latent. The worst of people may have the spiritual form of animals like donkeys, pigs, and dogs… The best of people are those who have the spiritual form of a true human being (Ibn al-‘Arabi 278, note 27). Once, when Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 765-66) was performing the pilgrimage, his companion pointed out that there were many pilgrims. The Imam responded that there were few pilgrims. He then touched the eyes of his companion, allowing him to see the souls of the pilgrims, and saw nothing but beasts circumambulating the Ka‘bah.
• 13. This belief is perfectly in line with Abraham Mazlow’s concept of self-actualization. As he explains, “Self-actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is.” The concept of the Archetype of Adam and the Perfect Person also reflects Islam’s position on the nature versus nurture debate. According to the Muslim faith, humans are innately righteous; they are only corrupted by their upbringing and environment. As Mazlow believed, people are basically good, not evil.
• 14. Unlike Catholic saints, Muslim awliya’ are not canonized, enumerated or objects of prayer. In Sufism, Shi‘ism and traditional Sunnism, many Muslims ask “saints” to intercede with Allah on their behalf.
• 15. The veil [hijab] is not a male imposition as some tendentious interpretations would have it. It is the free choice of Muslim women who wear it to protect themselves from inappropriate gazes. In the Muslim world, the hijab is viewed almost exclusively as a legal obligation from the standpoint of Islamic jurisprudence [fiqh], and justified on social, and sometimes, political grounds. If there are men in the Islamic world who wish to impose the veil on women, it is because they have lost the spiritual significance and elevated symbolism of the scarf. It is through the hijab, rich in mystical meaning, that Allah manifests Himself, speaks to our souls, and makes His Presence known in Islamic society.