Entries by simar

The End of Islamic Philosophy – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract: Islamic traditional teachings are couched in a language which is not easily understood by many contemporary men, especially those with a modern education. The old treatises were usually written in a syllogistic language which is no longer prevalent today. What must be done is to disengage the content of Islamic philosophy from the language […]

Ayn al-Quḍāt between Divine Jealousy and Political Intrigue – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract: Modern scholars have been interested in the great Persian Sufi martyr ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131) for over six decades. Despite this fact, many aspects of his life and thought still remain terra incognita. Our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his death is a case-in-point. Although we have a fairly good understanding ofthe factors […]

The Mosque The Heart of Submission – Rusmir Mahmutćehajić

Abstract: This is a remarkable little book. As I read it through I was astonishedat Dr. Mahmutc´ehajic´’s ability to reformulate classical positions ofMuslim thinkers and spiritual teachers in fresh and original ways. Despitehis use of a nondenominational language, he is completely inline with the Islamic intellectual tradition founded by the Qur’an andthe Prophet and echoed […]

Shushtarī’s Treatise on the Limits of Theology and Sufism: Discursive Knowledge (ʿilm), Direct Recognition (maʿrifa), and Mystical Realization (taḥqīq) in al-Risāla al-Quṣāriyya الرسالة القصارية لأبي الحسن الششتري – Yousef Casewit

Abstract: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī’s (d. 668/1269) heretofore unedited and unstudied treatise, “On the Limits [of Theology and Sufism]” (R. al-Quṣāriyya) is a succinct account of the celebrated Andalusī Sufi poet’s understanding of the relationship between discursive knowledge (ʿilm) of the rational Ashʿarite theologians, direct and unitive recognition (maʿrifa) of the Sufis, and verified knowledge (taḥqīq) […]

The Sound of Silence -William Chittick

Abstract “I tried to imagine how the authors of the old texts that I read would have reacted to the phrase “the silence of God.” Probably they would have muttered, “Try listening for once.” Or they might have quoted the Qur’anic verse, “They have hearts but they do not understand with them, they have eyes […]

The Mosque – The Heart of Submission by RUSMIR – MAHMUTCEHAJIC

Abstract: Man exists in space and time. At any space and time we can turn in any number of potential directions—but none can bring us fulfillment, for nothing that happens to us is enough in itself. But all boundedness in space and time has the potential to direct us toward the Boundless, that which lies […]

The Problem of Evil – by M. Ali Lakhani

Abstract The problem of evil challenges the conception of a deity that combines the attributes of Omnipotence and Goodness: either attribute alone is compatible with the existence of evil, but the combination of the two is not. And yet it is precisely this combination of attributes that is claimed by the monotheistic God of the […]

Review of Yousef Casewit’s “The Mystics of al-Andalus” – Noah Gardiner

Abstract“The Sevillan thinker Ibn Barrajān (Abū al-Ḥakam ʿAbd al-Salām b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī al-Rijāl Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Lakhmī al-Ifrīqī al- Ishbīlī, d. 536/1141), much like his Cordoban predecessor Ibn Masarra al-Jabalī (d. 319/931), has appeared in modern scholarship mostly as a silhouette in the penumbra of the great Sufi thinker Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn […]