The Perfect Human in Sufi Thought: A Sufi-Philosophical Approach to Self-Construction and the Realization of Human Perfection According to Ibn Arabi and Abd al-Karim al-Jili

Abstract

The Perfect Human in Sufi Thought: A Sufi-Philosophical Approach to Self-Formation and the Realization of Human Perfection in Ibn ʿArabī and ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī. This study proceeds from a central problem concerning the nature of the concept of the Perfect Human (al-Insān al-Kāmil) in Sufi thought, particularly in the works of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī and ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī. Despite the prominent presence of this concept in Sufi and philosophical studies, it has often been approached primarily through its ontological and epistemological dimensions, with particular emphasis on the human being’s position within the order of existence and the relationship of the human being to divine self-disclosure (tajallī), the Divine Names, vicegerency (khilāfah), and sainthood (walāyah).

Important as this approach is, it opens the way to another, equally significant question: How does the human being become perfect? To what extent can the concept of the Perfect Human in Ibn ʿArabī and ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī be interpreted as a Sufi-philosophical project of self-formation? Furthermore, how does perfection develop from a metaphysical conception of human reality into an epistemological, ethical, and spiritual path through which the human being realizes the fullness of human perfection?.