The Perfect Man as the Manifestation of the Divine

The Perfect Man as the Manifestation of the Divine – Excerpt form Mevlana Rumi’s Masnavi

Below verses are from Maulana Rumi’s Masnavi, which in essence reveal the reason why humans were created by Allah. It uses Maulana’s usual symbolism and expression to narrate that Insaan-e-Kamil is a a true reflection of Divine attributes and the reason why Divine created one.

 

Adam is the astrolabe [angle measurer] of the qualities of Divine Excellence: the nature of Adam is the theatre* for His divine revelations.

Since in eternity it was the will and decree of God, the Forgiver, to reveal and manifest Himself

This involves opposition, for nothing can be shown without an opposite; and there was no opposite to that matchless Emperor [Allah]

Therefore He made a viceroy, one having a heart, in order that he might be a mirror for His sovereignty

So he endowed him with infinite noor (spiritual light), and then set up an opposite against him in the form of darkness

Know that the world of created beings is like pure and clear water in which the attributes of the Almighty are reflecting

Their knowledge, their justice and their mercy are like a star of heaven reflected in running water

Kings are the theatre for the manifestation of God’s kingship; the Wise are the mirrors for God’s wisdom

 

 

*The word used in the Persian text is maẓhar, which literally means “place where something is made manifest”.