The following text is a summary of one of the sessions of Workshop "Zarathustra in the Mirror of Ibn Arabi's Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam" taught by Prof. Babak Alikhani in Persian. To view the Persian text, click here and then go to کارگاه‌های آموزشی section. Click here to see the summary of other sessions.

The Naqš al-Fuṣūṣ begins with the Bezel of Divine Wisdom in the Adamic Word (faṣṣ ḥikma ilāhiyya fī kalima ādamiyya). Muhyiddin opens his speech by saying, "Know that the beautiful Divine Names seek the existence of the world by their own selves". In other words, the Beautiful Names of God (asmāʾ al-husnā) seek their manifestations or the mirrors reflecting their images.

So, Allah brought forth the world as a harmonious integral body and made Adam as its spirit... And He taught Adam all the Names. For the spirit is the organizer of the body with all its internal faculties, and likewise the Names are to the perfect man (al-insān al-kāmil) as his faculties.

Ibn Arabi's method here is to obtain from the Quranic indications of "And I breathed into him of My Spirit" (Quran 15:29, 38:72) and "Allah taught Adam all the Names" (Quran 2:31), that Adam is the spirit of the world and the Divine Names are this spirit's faculties. Similarly, according to the Fahlavī metaphysics (ancient Iranian way of wisdom), man is the only creature who is particularly designated with Ormazd, or as the Middle Persian book Denkard states, he is the "sign of Ormazd" (Mid. Per.: daxšag ī ohrmazd), as opposed to other creatures. Ibn Arabi adds,

Man is a summary of the Divine [that is the Divine Presence of the Names and Attributes], and that is why he has been associated with the Image, so the Prophet says 'Allah has created Adam in His image,' or according to another narration, 'in the image of the Merciful (Raḥmān).' And God made man the intended goal of the world, as the thinking soul is essentially the ultimate goal of a human body ... So man is the first (al-awwal) in Intention, the last (al-ākhir) in Creation, apparent (aẓ-ẓāhir) in Image, and hidden (al-bāṭin) regarding the Status or Rank.

According to Mazdaism, Adam is the same as Kayumars (Mid. Per. Gayōmard, Av. Gayamarətan) who was the first person to receive the divine Manthra or the sacred formula from Ahura-Mazdā, according to the Avesta. Therefore, Kayumars is not only the first human and the first king, but also the first prophet or messenger. The divine guidance began with Kayumars and reached its peak with Zarathustra, and finally will be culminated with Saošyant, who is the "Seal of the Saints" (khatm al-awliyāʾ). The divine guidance is thus perfected in three stages. In the Mazdaist doctrine, the periods of the Seal of Prophethood and the Seal of Sainthood has always been of great importance.

About Man, Ibn Arabi adds,

He is the servant in relation to God, and the lord in relation to the universe, and that is why He made him the successor and his offspring successors. Therefore, no one in the world has claimed the lordship except for Man, due to the possibility of lordship given to them. And no one has established the position of servitude in himself except for Man who worships stones and inanimate objects, which are the lowest of all creatures.

This kind of deviant lordship and deviant servitude has become widespread in our age, the main characteristic of which is reign of quantity. Most people in this dark age have caused destruction of the natural world and the environment instead of managing it wisely, and have turned to worship matter and materialism instead of worshiping God.

Muhyiddin returns to the proper and principled lordship and servitude and writes, "No creature is more precious in the sight of God than Man, and no creature is more humble in servitude than Man". The preciousness of Man is understood from the fact that the Divine Names seek after him, and his humbleness is understood from the fact that he does not possess these names within himself and he is insignificant when considered as being separated from those Names.

Ibn Arabi concludes the fist chapter of his Naqš al-Fuṣūṣ on the Adamic Wisdom with the phrase, "And from this it is known that Man is an exemplar of two forms, one being the form of the Truth and the other being the form of the world". In the Quran, we read that Allah addresses and admonishes Satan, "What prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My two hands?" (Quran 38:75, see also 7:12). These two hands are usually considered to be the Names of Divine Majesty (jalāl) and Beauty (jamāl), but Muhyiddin also considers them to be in accordance with the form of the Truth and the form of the world.

In Pahlavi (Middle Persian) texts, especially in Denkard, Man is not only daxšag ī ohrmazd (in the image of the divine) but also hangirdīg ī gētīg ud mēnōg (the summary of the physical and spiritual worlds).