A Comparison of the Views of Suhrawardī and Mullā Ṣadrā on Khosravani Perfect Man

Suhrawardī’s light-oriented philosophy interprets spiritual wayfaring as the intuition of Nūr al-anwār (Light of all lights) within the framework of different levels and luminous realms. Nūr al-anwār illuminates the world and rules a kingdom. It is referred to as khvarenah (divine mystical force) in Avesta and as Farr (glory and splendor) in Persian. Farr is a divine gift that makes the individual who is blessed with it worthy of caliphate and kingship. Suhrawardī stipulates that the perfect man, who has been called with names such as Espahbodi Noor, Minavi (spiritual) Lights, Chief of Elements, Avarman Aspahr Angel, and Ravanbakhsh (Soul Giver), enjoys the station of royal glory, kingship, and charisma. He also believes that the highest position belongs to those kings whose existential realm is the locus of a collection of divine lights, glory, and beauty. In fact, they are the manifestation of divine perfection on Earth. In contrast, Mullā Ṣadrā follows an ontological approach to the features of perfect man. He believes that the perfect man is the all-showing mirror of the Truth and divine names and attributes and maintains that it is their nominal comprehensiveness which makes them worthy of divine vicegerency. Given the different basic principles of light and existence in these two philosophical schools, the present paper mainly aims to provide an answer to the questions of who a perfect man is and what their referents are. Mullā Ṣadrā considers existence to be principial and examines the whole being and place following an ontological approach and, thus, sees a perfect man as an individual who has reached the supreme level of existence and perfect intellectual immateriality. However, Suhrawardī holds that a typical perfect man could be any individual who has reached the level of royal glory and intuition.