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Alam al-Jabarut (Arabic: عَالَم الْجَبَرُوت, romanized: ʿālam al-jabarūt "World of Power")[1] is a realm proposed in Islamic cosmology. According to Suhrawardi (1154–1191), this is the highest realm and denotes the place of God's presence.[2]: 189 Below alam al-jabarut lies alam al-malakut "World of Sovereignty", followed by alam al-mulk "World of Dominion". The term jabarut doesn't appear in the Quran, but al-jabbar does (59:23). Thus, the things in al-jabarut were those which cannot change and are compelled in their state of eternity.[3]: 310
In the writings of al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111), alam al-jabarut has not been conceived as the highest realm yet but connects the physical realm (al-mulk) with the intelligible world (al-malakut).[2]: 188 First centuries later, alam al-jabarut becomes an independent ontological realm, latest within the writings of Suhrawardi.[2]: 189 Here, al-malakut is below alam al-jabarut, which in turn, is placed above alam al-mulk. The higher realms are thought to influence the realms below, but not as spatially separated worlds.[4]
Aziz ad-Din Nasafi, a 13th-century Persian Sufi, describes in Manazil as-sa'irin the ontological ordering of the world. Accordingly, both alam al-malakut and alam al-mulk, in which existence is actual, are potentially in jabarut.[3]: 307 The term "world" (alam) is accidental, thus limited to al-mulk and al-malakut, but not applied to jabarut, which is eternal.[3]: 306
While some scholars argued there is no significant difference between alam al-jabarut and al-malakut,[3]: 306–07 others regarded alam al-jabarut to be the abode of the highest angels (Cherubim)[3]: 308 and spirits. At the same time al-malakut denotes a realm for lower spirits (angels, jinn, Satan).[3]: 308 In this regard, al-jabarut is also considered to be the created aspect of rasul and the original reality of Adam as the perfect human (Al-Insān al-Kāmil). The lower angels, who dwell in al-malakut, could be encountered by humans, the most elected angels inhabit al-jabarut.[3] This would depict the domain of primary angelic manifestations; the realm of archetypes, thrones and powers. This is also the paradise of the afterlife excepting the supreme paradise.[1] This realm is thus eternal existence while the others are created and limited.[3]
- ^ a b Cyril Glassé, Huston Smith The New Encyclopedia of Islam Rowman Altamira 2003 ISBN 978-0-759-10190-6 pp. 144–45
- ^ a b c Lange, Christian (2016). Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions. Cambridge United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50637-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h N. Hanif Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and Middle East Sarup & Sons 2002 ISBN 978-8-176-25266-9
- ^ Amira El-Zein Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn Syracuse University Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-815-65070-6 p. 6