Adam as vicegerent of God

Abstract

Ibn ʿArabī is considered to be one of the best-known and most influential mystics within the Islamic tradition with an extremely extensive and complex oeuvre, which to this day has been the subject of numerous studies in both East and West. The present contribution is also dedicated to one of these writings, namely the work Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, and examines in the chapter on Adam his role as a vicegerent of God (ḫalīfat Allāh), who in Ibn ʿArabī’s mystical doctrine of being is ascribed the status of a »perfect human« (al-insān al-kāmil). Starting from Q 2:30-34, where Adam is presented as ḫalīfat Allāh, the author presents a precise textual analysis of this first chapter in Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam based on three levels of relationship which Adam has to the world, to the angels and to God, showing how the perfection of Adam can be recognized and measured. In Ibn ʿArabī, Adam is by no means only considered to be the first man and forefather of mankind, as one could claim for the Koran and the Bible; first and foremost, he embodies the prototype of man or the essence of human being itself, which basically has the ability to manifest the attributes of God in such a way that it can attain the status of perfection and vicegerency. This fundamental potential testifies to a special human dignity, which is already expressed in the Koran using the figure of Adam and which is also the subject of this study.