Ontological Levels of Knowledge in Islamic Mysticism

In the present article, ontological levels of knowledge as viewed by Muslim mystics will be described. Like being and man, knowledge has multiple levels, and its levels correspond to levels of existence and man. In the same way that [the world of] being consists of absolutely visible world and absolutely hidden world and the world between the two i.e. doubly hidden world and in the same way that man consists of spirit and body and with the soul and heart in between, knowledge when it belongs to the absolutely hidden world and appears in the spirit and knowledge when it belongs to the absolutely visible world and manifests in body and knowledge when it belongs to the doubly hidden world and appears in the soul and heart is different. In the same way that the doubly hidden world has two faces one of which to the hidden world and the other to the visible world, the middle level of man's being has two layers one of which inclines to body and the other to spirit. The aspect inclining to spirit is called heart and that inclining to body is the soul. Thus, in its middle level, knowledge has two faces as well; one which shows a world inclining to the hidden world and is called the world of Domination and means to know it is formal unveiling; and the other represents a world which inclines to the visible world and that is called the world of Divine power, and means to know it is spiritual unveiling.