Man's Encounter With Himself

Extract

Our insight into the paradoxical nature of the human situation and the awareness of the polarity of man's being has not been transmitted through rigorous philosophical reflection but has been nurtured by the mystic, religious and poetic traditions of all times. It is therefore all the more necessary to detect and recognize the religious and mystic accents of recent philosophic thought in their philosophical camouflage, and try to see how philosophic reflections on man's pre-philosophic awareness of himself in his archaic experience can significantly contribute to build an authentic image of him. An alleged incident in the life of the great Persian poet and mystic, Shaikh Faridubbin Attar, will illustrate better what we mean than any philosophical sophistication. Once taken captive by a soldier of the Tartar hordes which sacked Nishapur, he refused to let his life be redeemed by the offer of a substantial sum as he considered himself worth much more. However he later urged on his captor to accept as lowly a price as a bundle of grass since he deemed himself not worth even that much. The consequence can easily be imagined. The authenticity of this story, like that of all beautiful stories which make history meaningful, is now disputed. Its meta-historical relevance remains unchallenged nevertheless. What is really intended to be conveyed by weaving an imaginary anecdote round the life of a great Sufi is probably the paradoxicality of man's existence alluded to in the Quran: “Verily we created man in the most excellent stature and then reduced him to the lowest of the low” (Quran XCV). Consequently man moves between two infinites, the infinite which makes him swing to dizzy heights and the infinite which allows him to sink to frightening depths. In other words he can rise so high as to assimilate the attributes of the divine and fall so low as to forfeit his human identity.