Understanding Irfan (Shiite Mysticism) and the mystic divine leadership perspective.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Yes I read the whole thing. Swedenborg was a mystic too and was very sympathetic to Islam.

It was said that God becomes the hearing by which he hears and the seeing by which he sees. That means his perception becomes entirely objective and is in tune with the divine perception...Imam Ali is reported to have said "There is not a thing but I see God with it, in it, and beyond it"

I could not agree more. There is no' God in the gaps', since everything is in God.

...even after the traveler has made the journey towards God, he still needs the spiritual guide to show him the way in the world of divinity....all these stages and stations must be passed under the guidance and supervision of a mature and perfect example of humanity who, having traveled this path, is aware of the manners and ways of each station. If not, and there is no perfect human being to guide him on his path, he is in danger of going astray.

I also agree completely, although as Christian, our example of the perfect man was Jesus Christ.

...This position is held only by the Holy Prophet and his rightful successors....the Imam...whatever stages the spiritual traveler traverses, he covers them in the light of the Imam, and every position to which he advances, that position is controlled by the Imam. ...Imam's company is essential at every stage of spiritual journey.

I for one do not place my spiritual fate in the hands of any other man, priest, minister or Imam, only the Lord Himself.

... to connect between the novel [hadith] and the Eternal [qadim], the changing and the Unchanging, there should be an intermediate, a connector, with the characteristic of being unchanging and changing, eternal and novel. Without such an intermediate, the Emanation of the Eternal and the Unchanging would not pass to the changing and the novel in the divine law, and the universal and existential connection would not take place...

You are correct. Imperfect man requires a mediator between their earthly self and the perfect Supreme Being. But an Imam? Wasn't the Ayatollah Khomeini an imam?

....they are followers of the Perfect Manand walk in his footsteps, they journey by the light of his guidance and the lamp of his knowledge ...and submit themselves totally in the journey to the Perfect Man and the station of ultimate prophecy.

As a Muslim, I know you consider the Prophet to be the example of the "perfect man". I can accept that He may have been a very very good man. But what do you believe it is that makes him perfect?

You know how I feel as a Christian, but I'm not sure you know why I think of Jesus as the 'perfect man'. It's because of this. He died in complete agony because He was betrayed by His own people, tortured by strangers, and denied by His friends and through it all He still had enough love inside Him to say,"Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Anyone who can love so unconditionally, deserves at least and much serious consideration, if not more so, than any successor of the Prophet.

Peace.