Entries by simar
In Search of the Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought
Abstract: Arabic and Persian terms have been transliterated in accordance with the system employed by the (), with the following major exceptions: (1) no distinction is made in transliterating consonants shared between Arabic and Persian; (2) complete transliterations of book and article titles have been retained throughout; (3) in contexts where transliteration is not an […]
The Islamic Notion of Beauty – William Chittick
Abstract: Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of Islamic culture knows that it has produced extraordinary works of art and architecture — Persian miniatures, the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra. Few are aware, however, that this rich artistic heritage is firmly rooted in a worldview that highlights love and beauty…….
Rumi’s View of Imam Husayn – William C. Chittick
Abstract: The martyrdom of the Imam Husayn can hardly be called a major theme of Rumi’s works; in over 50,000 couplets he refers to it less than twenty times. Nevertheless, these few lines are sufficient to suggest how the events of Karbala’ were viewed not only by Rumi’s, this great representative of the………….
Love in Islamic Thought – William C. Chittick
Abstract: Western studies of Islam have paid relatively little attention to love. Early scholars were heirs to a long history of European animosity toward this upstart religion and tended to assume that love was a Christian monopoly. When Muslim writing on love did come to their attention, they typically considered it peripheral or borrowed, often […]
Avicenna’s Theodicy and al-Rāzī’s Anti-Theodicy
Abstract: Avicenna’s Neoplatonic account of divine providence and theodicy was hugely influential on later philosophical and religious thought in the Islamic world. However, it was severely criticised by one of his earlier commentators, the theologian-philosopher Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210). While Avicenna champions an optimist theodicean thesis of a plenitude of good to support the […]
The Epistle of Ya qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi on the Device for Dispelling Sorrows
ABSTRACT “Although less technical philosophically than many of al-Kind‡¯’s known treatises, this Epistle remains basic for understanding the spirit that underlies his thinking. Socratic, yet very Kindian in spirit, this Epistle displays its author’s tendency to harmonize Greek philosophy and Islam, particularly as this relates to ethics, and his belief in man’s free will and […]
Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān’s Parable of the Two Generous Men in Avicenna’s Decree and Determination (R. fī l-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar)
Abstract This article explores Avicenna’s conception of divine providence in the light of his allegorical work Decree and Determination (R. fī l-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar), wherein the philosopher stages interactions between the rational soul, the animal soul, and the Active Intelligence. Centering on the parable of the two generous men told in Decree and Determination by the […]
Chess and the Divine Decree ( Translation by Hamza Yusuf)
Abstract: “It would be honor enough for the people of India had they bequeathed us nothing but chess, a game that, like the sun itself, has traversed the entire globe. Indeed, people everywhere hold high in esteem and deem intelligent anyone who masters it or even plays it well. Such being the case, in how […]
THE MATHNAWÍ OF JALÁLU’DDÍN RÚMÍ
Abstract: There are complete translations of the Mathnawí in Turkish[1], Arabic[2], and Hindustani[3], but only the first two of the six Books of the poem have hitherto been made accessible in their entirety to European readers, though a number of extracts from Books III–VI are translated in E. H. Whinfield’s useful abridgment. While it may […]
The Qur’an and its Interpretive Tradition. By Andrew Rippin.
The Qur’an and its Interpretive Tradition. By Andrew Rippin. (Variorum Collected Studies Series). Pp. 356. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2001. £62.50. Each volume of the Variorum Collected Studies Series musters long term writings by some noteworthy scholar (in this case, one of the biggest names in Qur’anic studies in the West); by grouping articles on […]
The Significance of Human Attire
Abstract: Along with food and shelter, clothing must rank among the most important but least analyzed sites of colonization. And even those works that do examine the connection between colonization and clothing focus almost entirely on the material dimension of dress. Few works, if any, take the necessary additional step of defining clothing as a […]