Author: Ayatollah Muttahari

Islamic Insights – In his book Perfect Man Ayatollah Murtadha Muttahari examines the subject of perfection from the viewpoint of various philosophers and points out their deficiencies using the Islamic ideology and standard for perfection. He explains the route towards self-perfection and what leads to a perfect society.

Although human nature has several facets to it, the very basic and fundamental aspect of its nature is to seek God. Love of Allah is innate in the nature of man. A startling fact that the author points out is that every other creation inclines towards following the path of its innate God-given nature. It is man alone, however, who can deviate from the nature of humanity!

If we study the life of Imam Ali (as), we will find him to be an embodiment of high levels of knowledge and understanding of every matter, a valiant warrior on the battleground, a serenely devoted worshipper and the most cheerful, polite, and friendly personality among the people. This illustrates that a perfect man is actually the one who is balanced and moderate in lifestyle.

The struggle towards perfection lies in self-renunciation, which is unlike self-mortification (killing the self.) The beauty of self-purification is not only that it removes vices and increases sincerity of the heart, but it also adds to one’s wisdom and internal knowledge. The method of self-purification involves self-renunciation (Jihad an-Nafs) and self-respect.

Man has two types of selves, and the “self” that needs to be rejected is the irrational and evil self. Allah (swt) has granted man two basic sources of guidance: his internal messenger, the conscience, and the external messenger, the Prophet (pbuh). The good “self” is the internal messenger, and if crushed or ignored, makes the journey towards perfection impossible.

A major obstacle in the process of self-purification is delusion. The evil self tries to deceive one’s conscience by beautifying and justifying negative qualities so that one is not even aware of the presence of such a vice or evil within them. This is why we are advised never to trust our “self” or Nafs, which can turn against us without us being aware!

The key to perfection lies in devotion, and the key to devotion lies in communication with Allah (swt). Prayer restores faith; it makes one realise that everything other than Allah (swt) is insignificant and perishable. This does not mean that prayer alone can lead to perfection. Just as the lack of a certain value destroys a person, similarly the excess and overemphasis of one value over others brings equal damage. A perfect believer is the one who not only cares about self-development but also about the people of his society.

In this book, the author increases appreciation of Islamic views by presenting an in-depth analysis of several other philosophies and contrasting them with Islam. Although many schools of thought are considered, the main ones are the intellectuals, the Gnostics, and Sophists.

According to intellectual philosophers, perfection results from logical and intellectual development through knowledge and reasoning. If that were to be true, then perhaps Satan would qualify as the most perfect being. Opposite to this, in the view of the Gnostics, perfection is solely the measure of love of God in which there is no interference of the intellect. Since the basis for Islamic faith lies in intellect, this thought cannot hold true either. The Sophists are another group of people who think that perfection belongs to the most powerful one of the society, in other words, “survival of the fittest”. This school of thought does not believe in equality, but rather that “might is right” in every sense.

In short, the book was a wonderful read and was able to bring out a precise definition of both a “perfect man” and a “perfect society”. May Allah (swt) help us realise our deficiencies and to embark upon the infinite path of perfection for our own sake and for the sake of our society.

The book is available online [www.al-islam.org/perfectman]. This article originally appeared in Islamic Insights magazine. It has been republished here with permission.