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Qutb

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Not to be confused with Qutbism.

Qutb, Qutub, Kutb, Kutub or Kotb (Arabic: قطب), means 'axis', 'pivot' or 'pole'.[1] Qutb can refer to celestial movements and be used as an astronomical term or a spiritual symbol.[2] In Sufism, a Qutb is the perfect human being, al-Insān al-Kāmil ('The Universal Man'), who leads the saintly hierarchy. The Qutb is the Sufi spiritual leader that has a divine connection with God and passes knowledge on which makes him central to, or the axis of, Sufism, but he is unknown to the world.[3] There are five Qutbs per era, and they are infallible and trusted spiritual leaders. They are only revealed to a select group of mystics because there is a "human need for direct knowledge of God".[1]

According to the Institute of Ismaili Studies, "In mystical literature, such as the writings of al–Tirmidhi, Abd al–Razzaq and Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), [Qutb] refers to the most perfect human being who is thought to be the universal leader of all saints, to mediate between the divine and the human and whose presence is deemed necessary for the existence of the world."[4]

Discover more about Qutb related topics

Sufism

Sufism

Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

In Islamic theology, al-Insān al-Kāmil, also rendered as Insān-i Kāmil and İnsan-ı Kâmil (Turkish), is an honorific title to describe the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The phrase means "the person who has reached perfection", literally "the complete person". It is an important concept in Islamic culture of the prototype human being, pure consciousness, one's true identity, to be contrasted with the material human who is bound by their senses and materialism. The term was originally used by Sunni Sufis and is still used by them, but it is also used by Alawis and Alevis. This idea is based upon a hadith, which was used by Ibn Arabi, that states about Muhammad: "I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay."

Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi

Ibn ʿArabī, nicknamed al-Qushayrī and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn, was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought. Out of the 850 works attributed to him, some 700 are authentic while over 400 are still extant. His cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Muslim world.

Scriptural evidence

In the teachings of Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, there is evidence to suggest that the Qutb is the head of the saintly hierarchy which provides scriptural evidence to support the belief in the qutb. The hadīth attributed to Ibn Mas‘ūd has been used as proof that a qutb exists.[5]

Temporal Qutb and cosmic Qutb

Temporal Qutb

There are two different conceptions of the Qutb in Sufism: temporal Qutb and cosmic Qutb. The temporal and cosmic qutb are connected, which guarantees that God is present in the world at all times. The temporal qutb is known as "the helper" or al-ghawth and is located in a person on Earth. The cosmic qutb is manifested in the temporal qutb as a virtue which can be traced back to al-Hallaj. The temporal qutb is the spiritual leader for the earth-bound saints. It is said that all beings - secret, animate, and inanimate - must give the qutb their pledge which gives him great authority. The only beings exempt from this are al-afrād, which belong to the angels; the djinn, who are under the jurisdiction of Khadir; and those who belong to the tenth stratum of ridjālal-ghayb.[5]

Due to the nature of the Qutb, the location where he resides, whether temporal or cosmic, is questionable. It is thought by most that the Qutb is corporeally or spiritually present in Mecca at the Ka'ba, which is referred to as his maqām.[6]


The language of Sufi is a notable style of writing in Persian which is full of novel spiritual ideas and metaphors, this indicates of the needs to not take their wordings literally if it seems to be against the Islamic teachings.[7]

Cosmic Qutb

The cosmic Qutb is the Axis of the Universe in a higher dimension from which originates the power (ultimately from Allah) of the temporal Qutb.[8][9][10]

Discover more about Temporal Qutb and cosmic Qutb related topics

Al-Hallaj

Al-Hallaj

Al-Hallaj or Mansour Hallaj was a Persian mystic, poet, and teacher of Sufism. He is best known for his saying: "I am the Truth" (Ana'l-Ḥaqq), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego, allowing God to speak through him. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the Abbasid court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.

Khidr

Khidr

Al-Khidr, also transcribed as al-Khadir, Khader, Khidr, Khizr, Kathir, Khazer, Khadr, Khedher, Khizir, Khizar, Khilr, is a figure described but not mentioned by name in the Quran as a righteous servant of God possessing great wisdom or mystic knowledge. In various Islamic and non-Islamic traditions, Khidr is described as a messenger, prophet or wali, who guards the sea, teaches secret knowledge and aids those in distress. He prominently figures as patron of the Islamic saint ibn Arabi. The figure of al-Khidr has been syncretized over time with various other figures including Dūraoša and Sorūsh in Iran, Sargis the General and Saint George in Asia Minor and the Levant, Samael in Judaism, Elijah among the Druze, John the Baptist in Armenia, and Jhulelal in Sindh and Punjab in South Asia.

Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is the holiest city in Islam and the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 1,578,722 in 2015. Its estimated metro population in 2020 is 2.042 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Pilgrims more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah.

Allah

Allah

Allah is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means "the god", and is linguistically related to the Aramaic words Elah and Syriac ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlāhā) and the Hebrew word El (Elohim) for God.

The cosmic hierarchy of the Qutb

The cosmic hierarchy is the way that the spiritual power is ensured to exist through the cosmos. Two descriptions of the hierarchy come from notable Sufis. The first is Ali Hujwiri's divine court. There are three hundred akhyār (“excellent ones”), forty abdāl (“substitutes”), seven abrār (“piously devoted ones”), four awtād (“pillars”) three nuqabā (“leaders”) and one qutb.[11]

The second version is Ibn Arabī’s which has a different, more exclusive structure. There are eight nujabā (“nobles”), twelve nuqabā, seven abdāl, four awtād, two a’immah (“guides”), and the qutb.[12]

People named Qutb

For those named Qutb ad-Din, with many variant transliterations, see Qutb ad-Din

Buildings

  • Qutb complex, a group of monuments and buildings at Mehrauli in Delhi, India
  • Qutb Minar, a tall brick minaret in Delhi, India

Source: "Qutb", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 20th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutb.

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Further Reading

Sufism

Ibn Arabi

Chishti Order

Wali

Fakhr al-Din Iraqi

Abdal

William Chittick

History of Sufism

Sufi philosophy

Sufi metaphysics

Ma'rifa

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Kashf

Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi

Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi

List of Sufi saints

Maqam (Sufism)

Akbarism
References
  1. ^ a b Esposito, John L. (2003). The Oxford dictionary of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
  2. ^ Hobson, J. Peter (2001). The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam. London, England: Stacey International & Cyril Glasse. p. 374.
  3. ^ Brill, E.J. (1938). Encyclopaedia of Islam. A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan peoples. Netherlands: Leiden. pp. 1165–1166. ISBN 90-04-09796-1.
  4. ^ A glossary of terms, The Institute of Ismaili Studies Archived 2010-10-09 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b Bearman, P.; Kunitzsch, P.; Jong, F. "Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition". Koninklijke Brill NV. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
  6. ^ Lewisohn, Leonard (1999). "An Introduction to the History of Modern Persian Sufism, Part II: A Socio-Cultural Profile of Sufism, from the Dahahbi Revival to the Present Day". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 62 (1): 36–59. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00017559. JSTOR 3107388. S2CID 154491288.
  7. ^ Jaberi, Sareh; Abdullah, Imran Ho; Vengadasamy, Ravichandran (2015). "A Traveler in God's Path: Sufi Words and the Metaphor of Journey. Asian Social Science". doi:10.5539/ass.v11n16p160. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ "Idris and Al Khidr"--see Axis of the Universe about one-fourth of the way down the web page:
  9. ^ "The Tree Symbol in Islam" by Noble Ross:
  10. ^ "How many worlds are there?" – Discussion of the Planes of existence as conceived in Shi’ism
  11. ^ The Saints of Islam, quoting The Mystics of Islam by Dr. Reynold A. Nicholson
  12. ^ Jones, Lindsay (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. p. 8821. ISBN 0-02-865733-0.
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