" The Perfect Individual as a Mirror
3: The Perfect Individual as a Mirror
The Perfect Individual, as a perfect reflection of God, is given special status in the world. The Perfect Individual is the only creature that manifests all the Names or Attributes, of God, and therefore is the only creature that fully manifests Being. The question arises: “if the Perfect Individual perfectly and completely reflects God or Being, then is this individual somehow more ‘real’ than other individuals?” The answer to this question will always be yes and no. The reason for this paradoxical answer/non-answer is evident within the mirror analogy employed by Ibn al- ‘Arabi.
The being of the Perfect Individual is not conducive to a linear or systematic description. Much like radii extending from the center of a sphere, the different themes outlined here could be discussed in any order, each one leading to and connecting with the others. A key concept within Ibn al- ‘Arabi’s school of Sufism is the idea of unveiling, which refers to the process by which the initiate is made aware of a previously unknown level of existence or truth. The knowledge was already in front of this person, but hidden under a veil. Through various unveilings, the individual is granted a progressively clearer vision of truc Reality. This chapter seeks to lift away veil after veil to present a clear vision of the Perfect Individual’s ontological and metaphysical status. This will be accomplished by:"
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" In order for God to see His own mystery, He has to see His Attributes manifested in an object other that Himself. Ibn al- Arabi describes this need as similar to the phenomenological experience of viewing oneself in a mirror. An individual can look at him/herself using only his/her own naked eye, but this is fundamentally different from looking at oneself through the means of a mirror. T**he mirror manifests a quality of otherness upon the individual that would otherwise remain hidden and unknown**. The otherness is not given to the individual by another person, but is given by him/herself, for the other is none other than him/herself. The image in the mirror, as Ibn al- Arabi says, imbues the individual with a form that “would only appear to it given the existence of the location” and which is only knowable to the individual because of the location’s “self-disclosure.”
Meaning that, from one perspective, the form in the mirror is no different than the form of the individual, but from another perspective, it is intrinsically different given the altered location. This distinct location denotes this otherwise unknowable quality to the individual, this quality of comparability. Only through another can a person begin to understand and manifest such qualities as compassion, anger, wrath, mercy, etc. By these means the original subject (God) can manifest all the varying aspects of (His) Being, and can find or discover these new attributes that would not concretely exist if there were no other to whom to relate (Himself).
The second aspect of the mirror analogy, relates to humanity and the Perfect Individual. A mirror only functions when it possesses the attribute of reflectivity. A mirror for Ibn al- `Arabi was a finely polished sheet of metal. The flatter and smoother it was polished, the better its reflective capacity. Any blemish or roughness would hinder the subject’s ability to see itself, the resulting image being distorted or hazy.91 Humanity, in particular the Perfect Individual, imbues the universe with its reflective quality: “Thus the [divine] Command required [by its very nature] the reflective characteristic of the mirror of the Cosmos, and Adam was the very principle of reflection for that mirror and the spirit of that form.”92 According to the Qur’an, Adam (humanity) was the final and ultimate act of creation. This ultimate act culminates in the Perfect Individual of whom Adam was the prototype. The Perfect Individual is the most concrete actualized form of God."
cool synch: