Alam al-Mithal or Subtle World
A problem for assessment is the alam al-mithal, the "world of idea" or "world of image," a "fourth world" extending from intellect, soul, and body. The description as "subtle world" is also found in the literature. That obscure world is said to be independent of matter. Suhrawardi also used the symbolic term Hurqalya, which has been translated as "archetypal world," a topic elaborated in the works of Henry Corbin (d. 1978). That scholar innovated the description of mundus imaginalis, though his semi-Jungian exegesis is in dispute.
The alam al-mithal is diversely associated with occult phenomena, magic, jinn (spirits), the celestial spheres, the afterlife, and reincarnation. Subsequent ishraqi commentators attributed this teaching to the ancient philosophers, including Pythagoras and Plato. Yet according to Professor John Walbridge, this "is a philosophical doctrine that first emerges clearly in the writings of Suhrawardi himself." (WLA, p. 80)
The alam al-mithal relates to visionary and other experiences in the occult/mystical range. One may conclude that any attempt to induce mystical experiences, without undergoing the purification specified, would lead to chronic confusion and potentially severe setbacks rather than any enlightened knowledge. If there is truth in such an extending "subtle world," then many layers of crude "images" might be encountered before anything sublime.
One recent commentary refers to imagination in terms of mutakhayyilah, and qualifying that the function of this faculty goes further than apprehension, and "synthesises and analyses." A related faculty is described as fantasy (khiyal), and further described as "the place where sensus communis is stored." A location in the brain is mentioned, and sensus communis is here defined as "the center where all the information and data of the external world is collected." (ASI, p. 49) A retreat from this data storage is specified for perception of the imaginal world. "Seeing the [suspended] archetypes requires transcending all obstacles in order to go beyond what Suhrawardi symbolically refers to as the Qaf mountain." (ASI, p. 88)
A problem for Suhrawardi was that the faculty of imagination figured strongly in the Peripatetic tradition, from which he borrowed. Ibn Sina and other logicians, when charting internal faculties, referred to imagination, fantasy, recollection, estimation, and sensus communis (a term deriving from Aristotle and basically denoting the sensory field). A locus in the brain was specified, though Suhrawardi was keen to negotiate the physical dimensions of this package, insisting that extensions were relevant. Strangely enough, some of the references in Arabic can equate with basic brain rhythms of the type associated today with hemispheric brain function. The "imagination" was divided into synthetic/analytic and a form of passive/active operation (cf. my reference to Abdul Karim Jili, via R. A. Nicholson, in Psychology in Science, 1983, pp. 66, 199). Even if such a cerebral mechanism had been more tangible in the Peripatetic repertory, Suhrawardi would doubtless have regarded this as a cage for the soul.
According to the ishraqi sources, access to the "suspended images" (or archetypes) of the subtle world can be obtained "through visions during sleep or while awake, and by intuitions." (HIP, p. 1152) The "imaginal world" is associated with both Suhrawardi and the Arab Sufi Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240). (62) The ishraqi mystical perception was not actually regarded as an imagination, but as the direct cognition of a greater reality than the physical.
Ibn al-Arabi adopted the prudent recourse of grounding his exposition in metaphorical Quranic imagery. Suhrawardi was more daring in his allusions (for example, the Zoroastrian symbolism), and exhibits a much stronger logical tendency than Arabi. Yet Suhrawardi did not supply any systematic description of the "subtle world." Subsequent Iranian philosophers contributed further versions of this subject. According to Mulla Sadra, the subtle world "has even more reality than the physical world." (HIP, p. 652) The Iranian philosophers were not discussing anything they believed to be imaginary.
From a scientific point of view, much scope for improvement exists in relation to explanations of the "subtle world," if more credence is to be awarded that complexity. Otherwise, the level of ambiguity and poor definition risks being mistaken for fantasy. However, Suhrawardi clearly distinguished between the forms of the "subtle world" and the Platonic Forms (or fixed archetypes). The latter he defined in terms of pure light, while the subtle images he described as comprising both beautiful and repulsive experiences. (CSB, pp. 129-30) The lesser phenomena of the alam al-mithal are clearly not something to be desired.
Corbin was enthusiastic about this theme, and commented "it seems that Suhrawardi has been the first to systematically establish" the fourth world. Other commentators deny that the subject got quite that far in his exposition. The ishraqi "did not, however, systematically develop the concept of the imaginal world, something his followers sought to address" (Marcotte, Suhrawardi's Realm). Corbin located on paper the jism mithali, which he described in terms of "the subtle body is an imaginal body." One could easily conclude that the best description for mnemonic reference is in terms of subtle body, to avoid other complicating associations.
Suhrawardi appears to introduce the fourth world "in part, to account for the the posthumous retribution promised to souls by the religious tradition" (Marcotte, Realm). In this respect, he "envisions human souls being able to attach themselves to a subtle body that would guarantee the proper posthumous functioning of their imaginative faculty" (ibid.). Ibn Sina had formerly alluded to the possibility for some souls to witness imaginative forms in the afterlife. Again, the ishraqi was endeavouring to refine the Peripatetic description. He was "attempting to identify a specific realm - one or even two spheres" (ibid.). In other words, there is no use imagining only a fourth world, as there might even be a fifth.
The fourth world "lies somewhere between the physical world and the world of the species and of Platonic Forms" (ibid.). Hence the status as an intermediary world. It is relevant to grasp that "numberless angels" are included in this cosmic conception, and that "the sanctified godly sages may rise higher than the world of the angels" (ibid.). There are evidently several worlds and levels of accomplishment under discussion here.
The correct translation of suwar mu'allaqah appears to be "suspended forms," as in the Marcotte version. One should detour the images and archetypes that have made this subject so confusing. The full rendering from the same scholarly source is "luminous and tenebrous imaginal or suspended forms." As might be hoped, there are complexities in the afterlife that go much beyond standard religious expectations. In general, the afterlife is depicted by Suhrawardi as varying between happiness and misery, depending upon whether the soul is identified with the light or the darkness involved. The eschatological layer of meaning is not exhaustive.
The suspended forms are distinct from "the world of incorporeal figures" (alam al-ashbah al-mujarradah), also mentioned in Hikmat al-Ishraq. This world contains the "mental forms or representations" (Marcotte, art. cit.), not to be confused with the Platonic Forms or Ideas, which are self-subsisting. Obviously, the complexities are now prodigious.
An ethical complexion attends the basic schema. "The more the soul has progressed in its detachment from everything bodily and material and has ascended to to the luminous (the intellective), the more it is able to receive those [luminous] forms.... Their reception equally depends on the extent of the soul's moral character" (Marcotte, art. cit.). Moreover, this moral factor assists the perception of "suprasensible realities," which is perhaps one reason why contemporary commercial mysticism is such a failure.
There is an ominous warning. A problem with the "suspended forms" is their unfixed and shifting nature that may result in an impingement upon the physical world. Suhrawardi says in his major work that "amongst these [forms] are a variety of djinns and demons" (Marcotte trans.). There is the qualifier that these unpleasant denizens of the subtle world are produced by the suspended forms and by souls. The meaning is not entirely clear, but a consequence is that these adverse spirits and demons can be "felt as corporeal entities with which one may struggle" (ibid.). If that is correct, then access to the subtle world may not be nearly so desirable as some enthusiasts imagine.
There is another problem that is generally ignored. Suhrawardi grants a high degree of importance to genuine visions achieved both during sleep and during the waking state. In these experiences, the suspended forms are said to be "self-subsisting images," and "acquire a certain type of independent existence" (ibid.). He also includes a theme of souls in the intermediary group and amongst ascetics who "perceive by means of their faculty of active imagination wondrous and pleasant images and forms with which they experience pleasure" (Intimations, Marcotte trans., in Suhrawardi's Realm). This is not "the real happiness experienced by those who are able to access the realm of pure intelligence" (art. cit.).
The half-way ascetics and subtle intermediates can therefore be implied as existing in a state of delusion by comparison with other occurrences. They could easily mistake their pleasures and transitory visions for a higher grade of experience. Wondrous visions and pleasurous imaginations are attended by an unfledged grade, and might produce complications. That is a citizen deduction made after many years of observing the contemporary new age of bogus spirituality, where "visions," presumed enlightenments, "transformations," sensations, therapeutic techniques, empowerments, and extravagant claims are commonplace.