Malakut

The realm of Malakut (ʿālam al-malakūt), also known as Hurqalya, is a proposed invisible realm of medieval Islamic cosmology. The Quran speaks of the malakūt al-samāwāt wa l-arḍ "kingdom of heaven and earth", where the heavenly kingdom represents the ultimate authority of God. This concept is attested by the writings of al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111), but limited to epistemological categories of understanding metaphysical realities (spirits, heavens, etc.). Only centuries later, in particular with the Illuministic school of thought (Ishrāqi) and ibn Arabi (1165 – 1240), was it developed into a full ontological concept. Malakut is sometimes used interchangeably with 'ālam al-mithāl or imaginal realm, but otherwise distinguished from it as a realm between 'ālam al-mithāl and 'ālam al-jabarūt. In this context, Malakut is a plane below the high angels, but higher than the plane where the jinn or demons live. The higher realms are not spatially separated worlds but impinge the realms below. In his The Incoherence of the Philosophers, Ghazali rejects denial of bodily resurrection, as proposed by some Muslim philosophers (like ibn Sina). Still, it seems al-Ghazali holds similar views regarding the time period from death until bodily resurrection. He seems to agree that pleasure and punishment during the time in the grave is not on equal with bodily experience. Instead, the grave life unfolds in a dream-like state. However, the deceased will enjoy or suffer as if it were experienced by someone with a body. In The Revival of the Religious Sciences Ghazali explains that in the world after death (malakut), like a dreamer truly sees the things in his dream, the deceased will see the images deriving from his soul after death and thus suffer just as much as a human awake. Al-Ghazali draws a sharp distinction between the alam al-mulk ("World of Dominion") and the malakut ("World of Sovereignty"). The first is a sensual world of here and now, while the latter an intelligible everlasting world over which God presides, jinn (angels and devils) dwell, and revelation originates.