Anthropology of spiritual wayfaring on the basis of Qur'ān and the Sunnah

Abstract

Spiritual anthropology is among the most important foundations of Islamic ethics and practical mysticism. In the religious tradition, we can outline a specific structure of anthropology in terms of spiritual wayfaring. The reality of the heart, which is the celestial identity of the human being, extends from its divine facet down to its bodily facet, and consists of the psychical and the spiritual regions. Each of these in turn possesses two kinds of soldiers known as characteristical soldiers and two kinds of strata which are levels of the soul. The psychical region is the lower region of the reality of the heart, wherein sensory and psychical inclinations are dominant. It is inhabited by the soldiers of ignorance (junūd al-jahl) and the two strata of the nature (al-ṭab') and the lower-self (al-nafs) or the vegetative and the animal souls respectively. The spiritual region, on the other hand, which is the higher region of the reality of the heart and is directly connected to the Infinite God inhabits the soldiers of intellect (junūd al-'aql) and the two strata of the spirit (rūḥ) and the secret (sirr) or the sanctified and the divine souls respectively.