This paper examines the influence of Suhrawardī’s thought on Mughal intellectual landscape through a case study of the debate on human voluntary actions in Mīr Zāhid’s (d. 1689) super-commentary on Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191) Hayākil al-nūr. Central to this analysis is the relationship between cognitions, desires, and their role in the formation of will. I argue […]
This dissertation examines the mystical poetics of love in the works of Hamzah Fansuri (fl. 16th century), widely regarded as the earliest Sufi poet of the Malay world and a foundational figure in Southeast Asian Islamic intellectual history. Through close textual analysis, lexical comparison, and intertextual study, it demonstrates that Hamzah’s writings are not mere […]
By Oludamini Ogunnaike It is perhaps not accidental that the Arabic word and central Islamic concept of ḥayāʾ (often translated as “shame,” “modesty,” or “shyness”) is very difficult to translate into modern English, given the profound differences in the world-senses animating the two discourses. Likewise, the modern English notion of “dignity,” although Islamic sources have played […]
have transcribed some interesting passages in Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s work on astral magic, al-Sirr al-maktūm (The Hidden Secret) based on MS Majlis 6853, compared with some other MSS. These passages are taken from the philosophical and theological portions of the work. I also outline the Sirr’s content and method of inquiry. The transcribed passages are […]
It would not be an overstatement to say that the strand of thought now called Sufi metaphysics revolves around two interrelated doctrines, namely the oneness of being (waḥdat al-wujūd) and the perfect human (al-insān al-kāmil ). As is well-known, the expression waḥdat al-wujūd is controversial, which is composed of two words—waḥda and wujūd—both of which […]
This article examines the status of Sufi devotional literature, a corpus still rarely considered in its own right within the study of Islamic thought. Focusing on the Ḥizb al-naṣr (Litany of Support) attributed to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 1166) and still recited today within the Qādiriyya order, it argues that such devotional texts possess a […]
Ibn ʿArabī’s metaphysical framework demonstrates that his hermeneutical approach to the Qurʾan represents a vision of what constitutes objective reality. Such a vision, though rooted in traditional sources, is explicated in a highly theoretical language, and is ultimately predicated on the epistemic modes of unveiling (kashf) and witnessing (mushāhada) as the most certain forms of […]
Seyyed Hossein Nasr supervised the entire Study Quran, including selecting the editorial board and essay authors; editing the translation, commentary, and essays; and overseeing the style and scope of the translation and commentary. Caner K. Dagli wrote the commentary for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 21–28, was the primary translator for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 22–28, […]
In his ‘introduction à la lecture des Futūḥāt Makkiyyaʾ, Michel Chodkiewicz discerned, among the different ways of approaching the mystery of the walāya, the ‘symbolic meaning of the ritual practices that lead to it’, including ritual prayer, considered by Ibn al-ʿArabī (d.638/1240) as an ini- tiatory journey. The ritual prayer prescribed to Muslims, whose form […]
Cosmologists say that if space-time is infinite, then somehow, somewhere, all possible things exist. As someone who has taught that nebulous entity “world literature” for over ten years, I’d like to begin by sketching out one such alternate world. Think of this alternative world as a kind of World Literature Fantasy. In this parallel world, […]