Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Ali S. Asani, “ ‘So That You May 

Know One Another’: A Muslim American Reflects on 

Pluralism and Islam.” Annals of the American Academy 

of Political and Social Science 588 (July 2003): 40–51; 

Abd al-Aziz Sachedina, “Jews, Christians and Muslims 

According to the Quran.” Greek Orthodox Theological 

Review 31 (1986): 87–105; Zeki Saritoprak and Sydney 

Griffith, “Fethullah Gülen and the People of the Book: 

A Voice from Turkey for Interfaith Dialogue.” Muslim 

World 95, no. 3 (2005): 329–340.

Perfect Man

 

(Arabic: 

al-insan al-kamil)

The concept of the Perfect Man, or Universal Man, 

was most fully developed by the great 12th–13th 

century Sufi mystic and teacher m

Uhyi

 

al

-d

in

 

ibn

al

-a

rabi

 (d. 1240). According to Ibn al-Arabi, 

humanity and the cosmos are two separate but 

intimately connected constructions of the same 

Universal Spirit (God), like two mirrors facing 

each other. The Perfect Man, therefore, is that indi-

vidual who, in embarking on the Sufi path toward 

self-annihilation, or fana, discards his own quali-

ties and attributes and enters fully into the quali-

ties and attributes of God. In doing so the Perfect 

Man fully realizes his oneness with the Universal 

Spirit, becoming the medium through which God 

is made manifest. As “the copy of God,” to quote 

Ibn al-Arabi’s disciple, Abd al-Karim al-Jili (d. ca. 

1423), the Perfect man’s individuality is merely 

his “external” form, while his “inward” reality is 

the universe itself. Although s

UFism

 considers all 

prophets and messengers, as well as the imams 

and the pirs (Sufi shaykhs), to be representatives 

of the Perfect Man, the paradigm of this unique 

being for all Sufis is none other than m

Uhammad

(d. 632) himself.

See also 

baqa

 

and

 

fana

; 

creation

;  m

Ulla

s

adra

; 

theology

.

Reza Aslan