Abstract

The "world of images" or the "intermediate world" exists in the middle of the world of the matter and the world of absolute immaterials. Some philosophers believe that there are three types of perception associated with these three-fold worlds: sense perception, imaginal perception, and intellectual perception.Suhrawardi's "world of sustaining ideas" is related to this very intermediate world or the world of ideas. Of course, he also agrees with Plato's ideas which consist of the world of latitudinal intellects and the world of archetypes. However, the commonality between these two ideas is mainly related to the words they use rather than their interal meanings.Suhrawardi also believes in the existence of three types of man: corporeal man, mental man, and intellectual man. The relationship among the faculties and perceptions of these three man consist of the following in an ascending order: the relation of the shadow to the owner of the shadow or the relation of the low to the high.What is more, the psychological perceptions' description of the aspects of and considerations in intellectual perceptions confirms the principle of "nothing is emanated from the one but one".In Suhrawardi's view, imaginal forms are not the product of man's imagination; rather, the faculty of imagination is the manifestation of imaginal forms.Moreover, the solutions to the problem of calling the material body and sustaining forms as the intermediate world, and the complexities of appearance and concealing lie in the fact that the concealment of the material body is not in contradiction with its being the manifestation of sustaining forms.