Existential Aspect of Evil in the Works of Mani: Explanation and Evaluation

since distant past, the issue of Evil has been human kind’s problem in understanding the universe. This issue’s ancient background in literature and religion indicates its role in human’s worldview towards the roots of Existence, and this is in itself one of the important reasons of theological-philosophical traditions’ great attention paid to it. Philosophers and theologians have been aware that "evil" poses a serious threat to religious belief. According to Mani, whose viewpoint is deeply rooted in Iranian royal wisdom, evil or darkness resides in the nature of terrestrial creatures. Discover the rules that govern this universe which is composed of good and evil and the process of salvation and purification from it, is what Mani is going to strengthen his religion on. Mani’s thoughts has had a great impact on Iranians’ and non Iranians’ way of thinking. Augustine, for many years, believed that Mani’s religion offers the only acceptable rational interpretation of how the world is formed, because, it properly explains the source of evil. The theory of evil being a Non-being, is still believed by many scholars; some assume the “Evil” as a illusion caused by lack of Will, some others, like the ones in our Islamic tradition, assume it as a result of lack of perfection in Good, and do not consider it to have a real existence. In this paper we face the problem of explaining the existence of "evil" in the same way that Mani sees it, a kind of companionship and amalgamation and yet the apparent opposition of good and evil in our existence and universe. If we consider “Evil” as a living creature, because of its being mixed with Good, regardless of the origin of evil which Mani intended for evil, we need to look at “Evil” aesthetically, from an Existential perspective and not a Non-existential one.