THE CONCEPT OF ‘PERFECT HUMAN’ IN THE METAPHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF SADREDDIN AL-KONEVI

Abstract

Being one of the most important figures among the theoreticians of
the Gnostic doctrine ‘perfect man’, Konevi has paid a significant
attention to its delineation in his monumental masterpiece ‘Miftah alghayb (Key to the unseen). Though Ibn Arabi, father of the Sufi
theoretical gnosis, develops the concept of perfect man in the first
chapter of Fusus al-Hikam, Konevi takes this Gnostic anthropology
into new levels of philosophical explanations and ontological
reflections in the light of Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat, especially Khwaja
Nasirudhin al-Tusi’s commentary on it. In the last quarter of Miftah
al-ghayb, Konevi expounds on the special qualities of the ‘Perfect
Man’ and notes that he will know the answers to sixteen key
questions of paramount onto-theological significance.
Konevi’s metaphysical anthropology exerted enduring influence on
the subsequent generations of the Islamic world through the works of
his students Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi and his
foremost commentator Mulla Fanari. Thanks to these towering
figures, later philosophical discourses took an Akbarian/Avicennian
turn ina;most all Islamicate lands stretching from the Ottoman
Turkey, North Africa and Iran to India, China, the Balkans and
elsewhere. This paper aims to study the significance of Konevi’s
concept of ‘Perfect Human’ in his masterpiece Miftah al Ghayb , its
impact on the later Islamic civilization and its relevance in a
postmodern setting.