Tag Archive for: Islamic Philosophy

Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty – Joseph E. B. Lumbard

Abstract:

The search for knowledge has been central to the Islamic tradition from its inception in the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (ahadith). The injunctions to obtain knowledge and contemplate the signs of God in all things undergird a culture of ultimate questions in which there was an underlying epistemic unity among all fields of knowledge, from the religious sciences to the intellectual sciences to the natural sciences. Having lost sight of the underlying metaphysic that provides this epistemic unity, many thinkers in the modern period read the classical Islamic texts independently of the cognitive cartography and hierarchy of which they are a part. This approach leads to further misunderstandings and thus to a sense of hermeneutical gloom and epistemic subordination characteristic of coloniality. Postcolonial theory provides effective tools for diagnosing the process by which this epistemic erosion produces ideologically and epistemically conscripted subjects. But as it, too, arises from within a secular frame, it is only by understanding the cognitive cartography of the sciences within Islam that epistemic confidence and sovereignty can be reinstated

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Fallen in Love:Ayn  al-Qudat on Satan as Tragic Lover (updated 2024) – Mohammed Rustom

Ayn  al-Qud~t on Satan as Tragic  Lover

Abstract:

Like every student of Sufism, I have always benefited from Professor Danner’s scholarship, particularly his
pathbreaking translation of and commentary upon Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh’s Ḥikam or Aphorisms. I also spent a good deal
of time as a graduate student reading his 1970 Harvard University PhD thesis on Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh, and since then have had many opportunities to delve into his writings, such as his still unmatched survey article on the development of Sufism that was published in 1987 in the first volume of Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s excellent edited collection of articles entitled Islamic Spirituality. One of the motifs recurrent in Professor Danner’s thoughtful and carefully documented research is the role of the spiritual master along the Sufi path. This makes perfect sense, given how much time he spent reading the great masters of the Sufi tradition and meditating on the significance of the student-teacher relationship in various traditional and modern Sufi contexts. In one of his articles going back to

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Foreword to Oludamini Ogunnaike, The Book of Clouds (Fons Vitae, 2024) – Mohammed Rustom

“As the blessed Prophet’s words indicate, the cloud is connected to the “space” wherein God resides, and which transforms into the rain of mercy (raḥma) that pervades all things. As a metaphysical reality, Ibn ʿArabī explains that the primordial Cloud (ʿamāʾ) is the ontological, basis of the Muhammadan Reality (ḥaqīqa Muḥammadiyya) and directly corresponds to the Breath of the All-Merciful (nafas al-Raḥmān) within and through which all of God’s words—the stuff of the cosmos are articulated and formed. In its vapor-like state, a cloud is both here and not here, and hence denotes the principle and substance of manifestation which is simultaneously absent and present throughout the created order”

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M. F. Attar 2021 Review of Michael Noble’s “Philosophizing the Occult” – M. Fariduddin Attar

“Michael Noble’s Philosophizing the Occult lies at the intersection of two recent developments in Islamic studies: (1) the renewed appreciation for the philosophical and theological thought of the Sunnī theologian and polymath Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210), a trend that has led to an exponential growth of studies devoted to this figure since the 2000s; and (2) the recent consolidation of a subfield devoted to the study of what was hitherto considered a marginal and problematic preoccupation of many Muslim thinkers, namely the occult sciences. The work is thus significant for two reasons. It aims to show how al- Rāzī’s controversial engagement with the astro-magical traditions of the period is a key element in the formation of his mature intellectual project and how the astrological tradition and the theories that underlie them stood alongside the disciplines of falsafa and kalām as major sources of the scientific, philosophical, and theological perspectives that emerged in the post-Avicennian period“

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Maratib al-Taqwa: Sa’id al-Din Farghani on the Ontology of Ethics

“Given the philosophical tradition’s explicit acknowledgment that “the Necessary in Existence” (al-wājib al-wujūd) is a proper designation for God per se, and given the fact that this acknowledgment came to be shared by various forms of Sufism and Kalam, it should come as no surprise that many scholars who investigated the reality of the human, “created upon the form of God,” concluded that ethical perfection amounted to the soul’s harmonious conformity with the Real Existence (al-wujūd al-ḥaqq). Early on, philosophers tended to keep ontology separate from ʿilm al-akhlāq, the science of ethics, but they used expressions like al-tashabbuh bi’l-ilāh, “similarity to the God,” and taʾalluh, “deiformity,” to designate the state of human perfection. Achieving perfection demanded transformation of khulq“

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A new light on the Sufi network of Mindanao (Philippines) – Oman Fathurahman

“This article attempts to fill the gap in the very limited knowledge of the history of Islam and Muslim intellectual tradition in Mindanao in the 19th century. It particularly deals with a set of primary sources of Islamic manuscripts recently found in the Lanao area of Mindanao, southern Philippines, which formerly belonged to a Maranao ulama, Aleem Ulomuddin Said, who inherited the manuscripts from his father, Sheikh Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang(1904-1974). This manuscript collection contains several texts written in Malay, Arabic, and Maranao languages on various fields. I will argue that these manuscripts indicate the close contact Muslim communities of Mindanao developed during the 18th and19th centuries with their Malay colleagues, especially those in Aceh and Banten. It also conforms their network with the wider Islamic world, more specially with Mecca and Medina through“

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Nearness to the Real: Sainthood as Ontological Proximity in the Thought of Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī -Arthur Schechter

Abstract:

“This article presents the theory of sainthood found in the writings of Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī (d. 751/1350), a major
commentator on the Sufi thought of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). Building on previous philosophical interpretations of Ibn
ʿArabī’s thought to systematize the worldview now known as the “Oneness of Being” (waḥdat al-wujūd), Qayṣarī also developed a sophisticated theory of sainthood that not only described, but explained in detail what a saint was, how to become one, and what made the methods for doing so effective. After a historical introduction, I examine the principles of Qayṣarī’s hagiology in the broader context of his worldview, with special attention to his innovative use of philosophical language. Finally, my analysis of the spiritual path in Qayṣarī’s writings shows the consistency with which his account of Sufi wayfaring reflects these principles, according to which the acquisition of sainthood was a journey from the particular to the universal“

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“We are Not Our Brain: How Poets and Philosophers Saw the Immaterial Life of the Self.” Renovatio, Spring (2024) – Muhammad U Faruque

Abstract:

We live in an era in which the brain has come to signify the central component of human identity. It’s common to hear people blurt out statements like “our brains are wired to do XYZ,” or “the brain creates new ideas,” or “explain X to my brain” (instead of saying “explain X to me!”) to talk about their feelings, desires, experiences, and understanding. For a dyed-in-the-wool materialist who either believes there is no mind or soul or completely identifies the mind with the brain, it makes sense to replace the words “I” or “mind” with “brain.” While materialism arguably is not the dominant viewpoint in our culture, this nod to the brain puzzlingly persists when we should really be referring to the entire person/self of which the brain is a part. We unwittingly take the brain to be the center of our self, which has implications for the contours of human subjectivity, the source of our meaning, wonder, love, and beauty. Do such materialistic habits of describing ourselves render holistic conceptions of the human self involving body, soul, and spirit completely void?

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The Question of Theodicy in Islamic Philosophy—Suggesting a Solution:Bada – Mona Jahangiri

Abstract:

“The problem of evil is one that has earned much attention in recent decades and is frequently used as a justification for atheism, and increasingly so due to the rise in popularity of secularism and atheism. How is the issue of theodicy considered in Islamic philosophy, and especially in Shia theology? Does this problem arise there at all? The following discussion addresses these questions, examining the basis of the so-called ‘problem of evil’ through the rationale and multiple perspectives offered by Islamic Sharia a theology on the issue. First, some verses in the Quran dealing with evil and
suffering will be illuminated. After that, some mutakallim ¯un’s views will be presented. Following that, the problem of evil will be investigated from the perspectives of Ibn Sına and Mulla Sadra. After briefly highlighting the mystical perspective, finally, a practical theological solution according to Shıa theology known as bada will be introduced“

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The Expansion of Consciousness during Mystical Experiences: The Example of Moses – Mona Jahangiri

Abstract:

“What happens in the brain during meditation? Neuroscientists such as Andrew Newberg, who studies religious experiences on the neural level, may provide an answer. He calls the devolution, which is similar to all mystical experiences in different faiths, self-transcendent experience (STE); in a further instance, he also calls it the feeling of Absolute Unitary Being (AUB). A more detailed consideration of related issues is done by examining the human expansion of consciousness in Islamic mysticism based on an event depicted in the Qur֓ desire to talk to or see God, his subsequent unconsciousness due to the awe of God, and his subsequent attainment of a new consciousness. The following paper will have a brief look at the case of Moses and aims to investigate the states of consciousness during such experiences. Here, an attempt will be made to trace and prove a connection between neuroscience and the mystical state of the feeling of union with God”


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