Mystical Humanology in the Perspectives of Imam Khomeini and Allama Tabatabaei (An Analytic and Comparative Suvey)

Mankind is the gist of creation and the core of world, reflecting the universe and being the lofty soul in the body of the material world. All creatures have been created for him, and he has been created to represent the essence of Allah. The organization of creation, albeit magnificent, is the equivalent of a man, and man alone is considered to be the universe. He consists of a body and a soul; the body is from the material world and can be decomposed, and the soul is from the world of command, is immaterial and cannot be decomposed. Through the body, he needs to manage this world, and by the virtue of his spirit, he needs to strive for the hereafter. Man is worthy of being a vicegerent of Allah, possessing the Divine Trust, and is dignified by Him. Names of Allah that even angels do not know have been taught to him. The Divine attributes are manifested in him; thus, his existence has numerous dimensions and areas. Man’s advantage over animals is in his holy soul, in addition to his vegetative and animal souls. He fell from Heaven to the earth so that he could prostrate before Allah in the mosque of nature and then ascend [to Him]. A man’s soul has the potential to reach perfection, but he needs his body to actualize it. He must inevitably meet the needs of both the body and the soul. Every creature on earth is a manifestation of the Divine attributes, but two manifestations stand superior to others; the superior man, and the inferior man. As the inferior man possesses all of the characteristics of the superior man, he is also considered to be a perfect manifestation of Divine attributes. Thus, the perfection of this manifestation can be seen in the perfect man. In other words, Allah has created man as a pupil so that divine beauty can be seen in him. Naturally not all human beings reach this rank, but one should try to reach this potential perfection. Human souls desire to ascend. The mystic believes that the highest ascension is the proximity to Allah, and through attaining this rank, one can see the realities of the universe and hear the speech of all objects. Referring to this, Imam Khomeini and Allamah Tabataba’i contended that the glorification of Allah by all objects and creatures meant a verbal glorification, not an existential one, and that the perfect man was capable of perceiving this glorification.