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The Ultimate Perfection of the Human Being

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The Ultimate Perfection of the Human Being is a quality that, by joining a deficient entity, perfects it, ultimately culminating in the certainty of sight (*ʿayn al-yaqīn*), the certainty of truth (*ḥaqq al-yaqīn*), and annihilation (*fanāʾ*) in the Divine Essence.

The Importance and Status of Ultimate Perfection

In philosophical terminology, perfection signifies an entity reaching a stage where its intended purpose is realized upon it.[1] Therefore, perfection (*kamāl*) is something beyond completion (*tamām*); because completion is applied to the deficient to make it whole, whereas perfection is applied to the complete to perfect its attributes.[2] Islamic philosophers consider the human being to possess an ultimate perfection within the realm of existence, moving toward it along an evolutionary trajectory.[3] Elucidating the ultimate perfection of the human being yields profound impacts, including its influence on the human sciences, particularly concerning their values, foundations, and principles.[4]

Imam Khomeini has also addressed the issue of human ultimate perfection from a philosophical perspective, illustrating novel and specific viewpoints based on his distinct philosophical and mystical doctrines.[5]

The Reality of Perfection

To elucidate the reality and quiddity of perfection, divine philosophers have divided it into two types: primary perfection (*kamāl-i awwal*), which actualizes the species-nature (*nawʿiyya*) of a given species, and secondary perfection (*kamāl-i thānī*), which encompasses any action or reaction that ensues after the species-nature is actualized.[6] Hence, perfection denotes that by which an entity becomes actualized.[7] Consequently, philosophers regard the human soul as the primary perfection of the natural body, asserting that all vital effects of living beings are executed through the activity of the soul. From the definition of the soul as the primary perfection, it is clearly evident that the primary perfection completes the essence of the species and gives it actuality.[8]

In explaining the reality of perfection, Imam Khomeini, too, maintains that the primary perfection is that which, by joining a deficient entity, perfects it; he also views perfection as a quality that liberates entities from deficiency.[9] Examining Imam Khomeini's statements yields the understanding that he believes perfection for the physical body is impossible without the soul; for the transition from potentiality to actuality is perfection itself, and this is evident and definitive in beings endowed with a soul. Thus, the soul is the perfection of things.[10] Considering the various degrees of the soul, Imam Khomeini defines the soul as the perfection of the body. However, he never restricts himself to this definition alone, maintaining that the evolutionary trajectory of the soul is infinite and that the human being knows no bounds.[11]

The Perfection of Theoretical and Practical Intellect

Certain divine philosophers attribute the perfection of the human soul to the dimension of the theoretical intellect (*al-ʿaql al-naẓarī*). This means that the human soul, in its evolutionary course, emerges from the material intellect (*al-ʿaql al-hayūlānī*), surpasses the habitual intellect (*al-ʿaql bi-l-malaka*) and the actual intellect (*al-ʿaql bi-l-fiʿl*), to ultimately reach its final perfection, namely the acquired intellect (*al-ʿaql al-mustafād*). Therefore, in Transcendent Theosophy (*Al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyya*), one of the means to attain felicity is for the theoretical intellect to achieve its ultimate perfection.[12]

Imam Khomeini has also focused on the perfection of both the theoretical and practical intellects, noting it in his expressions and doctrines. He explicitly considers the ultimate goal and perfection of both to be one and the same, uniting the theoretical intellect with the practical intellect in their final end and ultimate perfection.[13] Imam Khomeini views the path to attaining felicity as contingent upon the ultimate perfection of the faculties of the theoretical and practical intellects. He posits that realizing the essentially impoverished truth of entities and performing righteous deeds are requisite for achieving felicity.[14]

In contrast to some philosophers who argue for the primacy of the theoretical intellect over the practical intellect, he emphasizes the primacy of the practical intellect. He believes that the ultimate perfection of the human being is realized through the practical intellect, not the theoretical intellect. This is because the ultimate perfection of the theoretical intellect is the station of the certainty of knowledge (*ʿilm al-yaqīn*)—that is, acquiring theoretical certainty regarding gnosis, the Origin, and the Return. The practical intellect, however, in its evolution, attains the stations of the certainty of sight (*ʿayn al-yaqīn*) and the certainty of truth (*ḥaqq al-yaqīn*), ultimately culminating in annihilation in God (*fanāʾ fī Allāh*).[15]

Footnotes

Template:Footnotes

Sources

Template:Sources

  • Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd Allāh, Al-Shifāʾ, Qom, Ayatollah Marʿashī Library, 1404 AH.
  • Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa-yi Imām Khumaynī, Tehran, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2006.
  • Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sharḥ-i Chihil Ḥadīth, Tehran, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2009.
  • Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sharḥ-i Ḥadīth-i Junūd-i ʿAql wa Jahl, Tehran, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2008.
  • Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sharḥ Duʿā al-Saḥar, Tehran, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2004.
  • Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Ṣaḥīfiy-i Imām, Tehran, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 2010.
  • Banāyī Aʿlāyī, ʿAlī, Taʾthīr-i ʿIrfān-i Naẓarī bar Niẓām-i Ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāyī, Tehran, Farhang-i Andīsha, 2017.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Al-Aʿlamī Foundation for Publications, 1417 AH.
  • ʿAbdollāhī, Mahdī, Kamāl-i Nahāyī-yi Insān wa Rāh-i Taḥṣīl-i Ān az Dīdgāh-i Faylasūfān-i Islāmī, Qom, Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute Publications, 2011.
  • Madanī Shīrāzī, ʿAlī Khān, Riyāḍ al-Sālikīn fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīfat Sayyid al-Sājidīn, Qom, Islamic Publications, 1412 AH.
  • Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyya fī al-Asfār al-ʿAqliyyat al-Arbaʿa, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1981.
  • Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Ḥāshiya bar Ilāhiyyāt-i Shifāʾ, Tehran, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Foundation Publications, 2003.
  • Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Al-Shawāhid al-Rubūbiyya fī al-Manāhij al-Sulūkiyya, annotated and edited by Āshtiyānī, Mashhad University Press, 1981.
  • Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Al-Mabdaʾ wa-al-Maʿād, Tehran, Iranian Institute of Philosophy Press, 1975.
  • Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, Tehran, Ministry of Culture and the Iranian Institute of Philosophy, 1984.

Author: Bāqir Ṣāḥibī

  1. ↑ Madanī Shīrāzī, Riyāḍ al-Sālikīn, vol. 5, p. 375; ʿAbdollāhī, Kamāl-i Nahāyī-yi Insān, p. 31.
  2. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Ḥāshiya bar Ilāhiyyāt-i Shifāʾ, vol. 1, p. 420; Madanī Shīrāzī, Riyāḍ al-Sālikīn, vol. 5, p. 375.
  3. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, p. 644; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Al-Mīzān, vol. 1, p. 66.
  4. ↑ ʿAbdollāhī, Kamāl-i Nahāyī, p. 17.
  5. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Ṣaḥīfiy-i Imām, vol. 16, p. 20; vol. 18, p. 159; Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 2, pp. 594-596; vol. 3, pp. 466 and 354; Sharḥ-i Chihil Ḥadīth, p. 527.
  6. ↑ Ibn Sīnā, Nafs-i Shifāʾ, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyya, vol. 8, pp. 14-23; vol. 2, p. 305.
  8. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyya, vol. 8, p. 23; Banāyī, Taʾthīr-i ʿIrfān-i Naẓarī bar Niẓām-i Ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāyī, p. 392; Ibn Sīnā, Ṭabīʿiyyāt-i Shifāʾ, vol. 2, pp. 10-11.
  9. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Sharḥ Duʿā al-Saḥar, p. 65; Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 2, pp. 594-596.
  10. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 2, pp. 594-595; Ṣāḥibī, Ḥikmat-i Maʿnawī, pp. 529-530.
  11. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Ṣaḥīfiy-i Imām, vol. 16, p. 20; Sharḥ-i Chihil Ḥadīth, p. 12; Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 3, p. 387.
  12. ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Al-Shawāhid al-Rubūbiyya, pp. 206-207 and 250; Al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyya, vol. 8, p. 132; vol. 9, p. 7; Al-Mabdaʾ wa-al-Maʿād, pp. 447-438.
  13. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 3, pp. 354 and 453-454.
  14. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 3, p. 466; Ṣāḥibī, Ḥikmat-i Maʿnawī, p. 626.
  15. ↑ Imam Khomeini, Taqrīrāt-i Falsafa, vol. 3, p. 354; Sharḥ-i Chihil Ḥadīth, p. 527; Sharḥ-i Ḥadīth-i Junūd-i ʿAql wa Jahl, p. 9.
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