Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T19:34:25.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Man of Light or Superman? a Problem of Islamic Mystical Anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Annemarie Schimmel
Annemarie Schimmel*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

What is man? “The feather of an angel was brought and tied to a donkey's tail that the donkey perhaps might turn into an angel”.

Thus writes the greatest of all Persian-writing mystical poets of Islam, Maulânâ Jalâladdân Rûmî (1207-1273) in his conversations, Fîhi mâ fîhi, when pointing to the mystery of man's existence : man is able to attain a rank superior to that of the angels (who have no free will and are eternally good) provided he develops his God-given faculties of reason and love; but he can sink lower than a beast if he neglects his spiritual powers and falls a prey to sensual pleasures and crimes owing to the misuse of his rational faculties.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 37 , Issue 146 , June 1989 , pp. 124 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Suggested Works

Andrae, T., Die Person Muhammads in Lehre und Glauben seiner Gemeinde, Stockholm, 1918.Google Scholar
Andrae, T., Die letzten Dinge, German translation by Hans Heinrich Schaeder, Leipzig 1940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrae, T., I Mirtenträdgarden, Stockholm, 1948; English translation by Birgitta Sharpe, New York, SUNY, Albany, 1968.Google Scholar
Andrae, T., Chittick, W., The Sufi Path of Love, New York, SUNY, Albany 1984.Google Scholar
Andrae, T., Chittick, W., The Sufi Path of Knowledge, New York, SUNY, Albany, 1989.Google Scholar
Corbin, H., L'homme de lumière dans le Soufisme iranien, Paris, 1971. English translation by Nancy Pearson, Boulder and London 1979.Google Scholar
Al-hallâj, Husain ibn manşur, Kitâb at-tawâsîn, Louis Massignon, Paris, 1913.Google Scholar
Allah, Ibn Atâ. Hikam·, see Nwyia, Paul, Ibn'Atâ Allâh et la naissance de la confrérie shâdilite, Beirut, 1972 (with French transi.); English transi, by Victor Danner, Leiden, 1973, New York 1978.Google Scholar
Iqbâl, Muhammad, Payâm-i Mashriq, Lahore, 1923.Google Scholar
Iqbâl, Muhammad, Six lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Lahore, 1930.Google Scholar
Iqbâl, Muhammad, Javidname, Lahore 1932. English translation by A.J. Arberry, London 1966. Massignon, L., La Passion d'al-Hosayn ibn Manşur al-Hallâj, martyr mystique de l'Islam, 2 vols. Paris, 1922; 2nd ed. in 4 vols. Paris, 1975. English translation by Herbert Mason, Princeton, 1982.Google Scholar
Iqbâl, Muhammad, Meier, F., Die fawâ’ih al-ğamâl wa fawâtih al-ğalâl des Nâgm ad-dîn al-Kubrâ, Wiesbaden, 1957.Google Scholar
MORRIS, J., “Ibn ‘Arabî and his interpreters”, in JA OS, vol. 106 (1986) and 107, (1987).Google Scholar
MORRIS, J., MORRIS, J., “The spiritual Ascension: Ibn ‘Arabi and the Mi'raj”, J AOS vol. 107, (1987).Google Scholar
MORRIS, J., Nicholson, R. A., Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Cambridge, 1921.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Mathnawî-yi ma'nam, ed. and transi. Nicholson, R.A.,London and Leiden, 1925.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Dîvân-i Kabîr ya Kulliyât-i Shams, 10 vols, ed. Furūzânfar, B.Z., Teheran 1957.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Fîhi mâ fîhi, Teheran 1959; English transi, by Arberry, A.J., London 1960.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Schimmel, A., Gabriel's Wing. A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbâl, Leiden, 1963.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1975.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, Pain and Grace. A Study of two Eighteenth Century Mystical Writers of Muslim India, Leiden, 1976.Google Scholar
Rumi, Jâlãlâddin, The Triumphal Sun. A Study of the Life and Works of Mowlânâ Jalâladdîn Rûmî, London-The Hague, 1978.Google Scholar