Some ideas change the way we understand revelation, the life of the soul, and the nature of meaning itself. The imaginal world and the creative imagination are two such ideas. Chapter 4 of Jean‑Marc Lepain’s Archeology of the Kingdom of God explores their emergence, and this post offers a simple introduction to the fascinating history of that emergence.
The Imaginal World and Creative Imagination in Islam
Lepain traces a long philosophical lineage across centuries of Islamic thought, and the terrain is intricate. Yet within that complexity, a compelling story begins to take shape. The story is about how two ideas slowly emerged and eventually became central to the way later thinkers understood the structure of reality.
At first, these two ideas — the imaginal world and the creative imagination — appear only in fragments, almost as hints or intuitions. But, as the tradition develops, they gather definition and force. The imaginal world is conceived as a realm that is neither physical nor purely spiritual. It is a world of forms and meanings that mediates between the sensible and the transcendent. The creative imagination is the human faculty capable of perceiving that realm. It is not fantasy or daydreaming, but a disciplined, receptive mode of perception through which the soul encounters symbolic realities.
What makes chapter 4 so compelling is the way these concepts gradually crystallise through the work of different philosophers. Early figures such as Avicenna gesture toward an intermediate realm where forms appear. Suhrawardi gives this realm a more detailed structure and begins to explore its metaphysical significance. Ibn ‘Arabi deepens the picture by describing how the heart perceives symbolic realities, and later thinkers such as Mulla Sadra weave these strands into a more unified vision. Across these developments, the imaginal world takes shape as an intermediate realm between the physical world and the next world, and the creative imagination emerges as the faculty that allows human beings to access it.
The Imaginal World in Baha’i Thought
This historical movement matters because these ideas shape how later mystical thinkers understood revelation, the nature of spiritual experience, the relationship between the soul and meaning, and the way symbols operate within the fabric of reality. They also form part of the background to the concepts that Baha’u’llah draws on for his own metaphysics, even though he ultimately transforms these ideas in profound ways. Lepain turns to that transformation later in his study, but chapter 4 lays the groundwork by showing how the tradition arrived at these ideas in the first place.
The following passage from Baha’u’llah is one example of his reference to the imaginal world (‘álam-i-mithál, literally “the world of images”). Here, he gives the word malakút two definitions: first, as the world of his transcendent glory, and second, as the imaginal world.
“The meaning of the Kingdom (malakút) in its primary sense and degree is the scene of His transcendent glory. In another sense, it referreth to the world of similitudes (‘álam-i-mithál), which existeth between the Dominion (jabarút) and this mortal realm (násút).”
Summaries of Chapter 4 Now Online
I have published on Patreon summaries of the sections in chapter 4. These trace the development of the concepts of the imaginal world and the creative imagination step by step. They are dense because the material is dense, but they reveal a story that is both historically rich and spiritually suggestive. If you are curious about how these ideas emerged and evolved — and why they became so important — you may find the summaries a useful guide through this early terrain. They mark the beginning of a thread that becomes increasingly significant as Lepain’s Archeology study unfolds. In chapter 5, “The Divine Worlds in the Work of Baha’u’llah,” Lepain turns directly to the way Baha’u’llah draws on the mystical language he inherited from the Islamic philosophical tradition, transforming it in ways that are entirely his own.
For those who prefer a more conversational introduction to these themes, there is a thoughtful YouTube interview with Steven Phelps called “The Symbolic Language of Revelation and Creative Imagination – with Dr. Steven Phelps,” in which Phelps explores the creative imagination and why it matters. As he puts it, “One ends up embracing the idea of divine revelation as a kind of … creative fiction or sacred fiction, not in the sense of vacant fairy tale, but in the sense of creative imagination … the realm in which imagination becomes an actual creative force.”
Reference for the quotation from Baha’u’llah: BC003‑149‑00003; also Ma’idiy-i-Asmani, vol. 1, p. 18. Translated by Keven Brown in “Selections from the Baha’i Writings and from Shaykh Ahmad on the Seven Stages of Creation” (2008), p. 11, online at the Baha’i Library Online.