Saîdüddin Fergānī’s Concept of Human
-Human is a Being Whose and is İnherent in His Beginning-
In this study, our aim is to examine how Fergānī’s conception of the
human being is handled in terms of existence, knowledge, and morality.
In doing so, the adventure of man’s coming into existence was
investigated through the questions “where is man from?” and “how
was he created?” and Fergānī’s claims on the subject were identified
and analyzed. Is the human being/soul eternal in terms of creation or
was it created later? What is the source of creation? What kind of possibility
do reason and revelation/wahîy provide us with regarding the
certainty of sources/knowledge? The unity and distinction between
the soul, nafs, and body were investigated through questions such as.
The issue of unity and multiplicity, which we see as the main issue
in all three parts of the study, was continued in all parts according
to the context. This is due to the fact that al-Fergānī’s topics are always
interconnected and intertwined. Although existence seems to be
a separate subject from knowledge and knowledge from morality, it
is possible to say that they correspond to a single truth in Fergānī’s
conception of the human being. Their external reflection/naming as
knowledge or morality is realized only because of their relation to the
truth. In this context, perfect knowledge is regarded as something beyond
the power of the senses and intellect, something that is acquired
through pleasure and observation. However, this knowledge/learning
is formed as a knowledge that is hoped to be acquired after a certain
moral behavior. In this context, perfect morality appears as a journey
of perfection that the human being directly reaches the ultimate
limit of its own ability as it removes the veils that it has added to the
manifestation (tecelli) of the divine name on which it is effective. The
human being, whom we characterize as a traveler, reaches its own
beginning at the end of the road. In al-Fergānī, the end of the journey
that man can reach morally becomes the beginning of his knowledge.
Therefore, the point from which man begins his journey of searching
for himself is the same as the point at which he arrives. The only thing
that changes is not the human being but the transparency in manifestation
(tecelli)..
Keywords: Said al-Dīn Fergānī; Muntehā al-Madārik; Wahdat al-wujūt;
Realm; Human