Abstract

Suhrawardi's epistemological encounter with Man enjoys some distinctive features. He transferred the discussion of Man from the field of physics to theology. He considers Man as a noble being whose most significant part of knowledge pertains to the truth. The function of the soul's perception is of particular significance to Suhrawardi. In his view, proximity to the Dominion shows the perfection of the soul, and what hinders it is a mind deeply concerned with sense perceptions. He also considers the soul the most supreme of all faculties and the criterion for human perfection. He interprets the body as mass and suggests that mental and physical faculties affect Man's perfection. In his view, the levels of human perfection start with the world of matter and end with the hidden world. When discussing primordial nature , Suhrawardi deals with its relationship with logic and considers the intellect as the cornerstone of Man's knowledge and sees intellectual perfection in attaining the knowledge of oneness. He also maintains that hidden meanings are imprinted on the soul and vanish very fast. The three terms of heart, intellect, and thought bear a direct relationship to his anthropology. For Suhrawardi, philosophy is intertwined with Man's destiny, and his royal radiance is of the same meaning with gnostics' ray of light