The Seven Types of Being

وجود کی سات اقسام

The Islamic philosophers and Sufi masters distinguish seven types or modes of being (wujūd), each with its own proper realm and degree of reality:

1. External Being (Wujūd Khārijī)

This is the being of things in the external, material world — things that are concrete, perceptible, and have extension in space and time. This is the most apparent and the most familiar mode of being to ordinary human perception.

2. Sensory Being (Wujūd Hissī)

This is the being of things as they are perceived by the senses — the content of sensory experience. It is closely related to external being but is distinguished as the mode of being in the medium of sense perception.

3. Imaginal Being (Wujūd Khayālī)

This is the being of things in the imagination — images, memories, and representations formed in the mind. Imaginal being is dependent on a perceiving subject and does not have the stability of external being.

4. Exemplary Being (Wujūd Mithālī)

This is the being of things in the World of Archetypes ('Alam al-Mithal) — an intermediate world between the world of pure spirits and the world of material bodies. Things in this world have form but no matter; they are more real than imaginal forms but less dense than material things. Truthful visions (ru'yā sādiqa) and spiritual openings (kashf) often operate in this domain.

5. Intellectual Being (Wujūd 'Aqlī)

This is the being of things in the intellect — abstract, universal concepts and forms as they exist in the rational mind. Intellectual being is immaterial and universal, unlike sensory or imaginal being which is always particular.

6. Analogical / Metaphorical Being (Wujūd Tashbīhī / Tamthīlī)

This is the mode of being in which a thing is said to 'exist' through analogy or comparison — e.g., when a quality or relationship is attributed to something by resemblance or correspondence to something else.

7. Metaphorical / Compound Metaphorical Being (Wujūd Majāzī / Majāz Murakkab)

This is the mode of being in which a thing is attributed existence only loosely, by convention or common usage — as when we say 'the king's justice lives on' or 'courage stands before us.' Such beings have no genuine ontological status of their own.