This theory is also applied to individuals...

This theory is also applied to individuals, and it is said that a man is happy when his essence is ruled over by philosophy, For them, attaining truth is not under consideration; they emphasize thought and reflection, not heart and spirit, The way to attain the goal is intellect, logic and reasoning.

Another group consider love to be human perfection, and that means forgetting self and loving others so that there would be no boundary between self and others; and when there is a question of choice, others have priority over self. A being whose noble human sentiments have developed to their limit may be considered a perfect being.

Yet another school of thought considers beauty to be the essence of human perfection, not only physical beauty, which is not significant but spiritual beauty and high morality. This is the basic belief of the Socratic school they say truthfulness is good because it is beautiful. The word ‘good’ is applied to the senses as well as intellect. Knowledge is for them a perfection because it is beautiful, and the opposite, i.e. ignorance is ugly. Power and weakness, too, come under the same category.

In Socratic ethics, everything is based on either intellectual beauty or ugliness. Poetry, art and originality mean the creation of beauty, and a creator of beauty must be beautiful himself to be able to create beauty. Only a beautiful spirit can compose a beautiful poem or paint a beautiful picture. There is a story about one of the Qajar kings who composed one line of a couplet and was unable to compose the second line.

He sought the aid of various poets until one of them supplied the second line, which was found to be the best, the first line was this: “No one has ever seen beauty like Yusuf’s,” And the second line was the following: “But He who created Yusuf (Joseph) has the true beauty.” And this is very true, for, only the Creator with utmost beauty can create beauty in His creatures. Now let us see what Islam thinks about these views. Does Islam agree with the question of ‘truth’ as being perfection?

We cannot wholly accept the Gnostic view. For Islam God is not a Creator in the sense of a father – like being capable of procreating other beings. If so, what is He after accomplishing the task of creation? Is He like a father who has children, or a mere provider of livelihood to creatures, or according to Aristotle, the first motive power? Islam’s logic about God is much higher than that there is nothing that can be compared with Him.