The theories about the relation between the universe or macro¬ cosm on the one hand and man or the microcosm on the other, as expounded by such eminent Islamic thinkers as the Ikhwan al-Safa, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), ‘Umar Khayyam, al-Ghazali, and Ibn al-‘ArabI,4 to name but a few, can, it is true, be traced to Neo-Platonic sources.5 The doctrines in their final form, how¬ ever, supported as they were by passages from the Koran and the Hadlth, are certainly distinctively Islamic, since such an anthropocentric perspective is a characteristic feature of Islamic metaphysics. From the Koranic text it appears there that God created everything,7 that in fact- ‘He is the first and the last’;8 that God’s throne was above the water,9 that heaven and earth were originally one solid mass, that God separated this mass, and that He created the heavens and the earth in six days10 whereby the heavens were created out of smoke;11 that He placed the mountains on the earth, and that He fixed the sun, the moon and the stars in the heavens, and created day and night;12 that He created all living beings from water.
Now as to the structure of the Universe, other passages in the Koran tell us of seven heavens and seven earths,17 the latter being interpreted by Muslim cosmographers as the seven tradi¬ tional climatic zones. In Muslim eschatology, however, these seven earths were identified with the seven strata into which the body of the world is horizontally divided and which are described as the seven mansions of Hell.18 Above the heavens are situated the pedestal (kursiyy) and the throne (‘arsh) of God.19 At the demarcation between the seven astronomical spheres, which are those of the planets, and the superior spheres, at the gateway of the heavenly Paradise20 grows a large tree known as the Lotus-tree of the Boundary.21 Four rivers spring from its roots; two of them water Paradise, the other two are the earthly Euphrates and Nile.
These heavenly spheres and landscapes are populated by hosts of angels, the highest amongst them being the Cherubim. Islamic angelology, firmly rooted in the Koran, was later to develop under Iranian influence into an important branch of esoteric disciplines, with a strong impact on cosmological doctrine. Mention is made in the Koran of the Prophet Muhammad’s night journey (isra) from Mecca to Jerusalem and his sub¬ sequent ascent (mi ‘radj) under the guidance of the archangel Gabriel through the heavens to the Throne of God, where the mysteries of Divinity were revealed to him. This story is only briefly referred to in the Koran in a single verse.
The first seven stages correspond to the seven astronomical heavens. At the gate of each the travellers, Muhammad and the archangel Gabriel, are met by a guardian angel who wel¬ comes them after having learned who they are. In each heaven Muhammad is greeted by one or two prophets dwelling in that particular sphere. The most frequent order in which they appear is Adam, Jesus and John, Joseph, Idris (Enoch), Aaron, Moses, and Abraham. The prophet Abraham is seen leaning against the wall of the temple of the celestial Jerusalem, a replica of the earthly city. Then begins the ascent through the last three heavens. The first is represented by the gigantic ‘Lotus-tree of the Boundary’, with leaves as large as the ears of an elephant and fruits like jars, the second by the ‘Inhabited Place’, a Koranic expression for the temple of the celestial Jerusalem,25 and the third and last by the Throne of God. There are, however, certain variations in the descriptions of the different stages. In one version, the vision of a gigantic cock is introduced into the first heaven, an element of distinctly Persian origin. The wings of this cock stretch across the horizon and its crest touches the throne of God. The third heaven, with a fiery angel as doorkeeper, sometimes contains a vision of Hell.26 There are seven levels in Hell, with fiery landscapes, cities and seas. The tortures inflicted in each of them are described with the exaggerated enthusiasm of popular religious imagination.
Looking back on the structure of the legend, with its seven astronomical heavens, its seven levels of Hell, its seven man¬ sions of the celestial Paradise, and its three stages of the theo¬ logical heaven, we will recognise their correspondence with certain verses in the Koran, for example: ‘Seven are the astro¬ nomical heavens and seven the earths, as are seven the seas, the gates of hell and the mansions of Paradise’,28 and other verses referring to the Lotus-tree, the Pedestal and the Throne. It remains for us now to show how the cosmos, as viewed by Islamic astronomical science, itself based on the Greek heritage, was able to preserve its identity as Islamic and Koranic. This cosmos was conceived as a spherical entity, comparable in structure to an onion, with the earth at the centre. The part nearest to the centre is the sublunary region, which consists of the surface of the earth and the zone above it up to the lower boundary of the sphere of the moon. This region is referred to as the world of generation and corruption, the house of the ‘Three Kingdoms’ (malakut)oi natural objects, minerals, plants and animals. These are composed, in varying degrees of perfec¬ tion, of the four elements, fire, air, water and earth,31 and contain two of the four fundamental qualities, heat, cold, dry¬ ness and moisture. The four elements were often termed ‘mothers’ (ummahat) by Muslim cosmologists. Those scholars who were following the Aristotelian Peripatetic doctrines, al- Kindi, al-Biruni and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), for example, held that only the sublunary region was composed of the four elements; the celestial spheres and bodies were of a different substance, known as ether (athir), and not subject to genera¬ tion and corruption. Al-Biruni furthermore maintained that the substance of the spheres was crystalline.32
Despite the difference in substance assumed by the Peripatetics, both the heavenly spheres and the sublunary region were believed to possess the four fundamental qualities.
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