Lit. ‘pole’ or ‘pivot’. In mystical literature, such as the writings of al-Tirmidhī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq and Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240), it refers to the most perfect human being (al-insān al-kāmil) who is thought to be the universal leader of all saints, to mediate between the divine and the human and whose presence is deemed necessary for the existence of the world. For some Shi’i authors, such as Ḥaydar Āmulī (14th c.) the quṭb is the Shi’i imam.
