Beyond Atoms and Accidents Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and the New Ontology of Postclassical Kalām – Bilal Ibrahim

Abstract:

“This article explores a novel approach to the analysis of the external world in postclassical Ashʿarite kalām. While discussions of physical reality and its fundamental constituents in the classical period of Islamic thought turned chiefly on the opposing views of kalām atomism and Aristotelian hylomorphism, in the postclassical period kalām thinkers in the Ashʿarite tradition forge a new frame of inquiry. Beginning most earnestly with the philosophical works of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, a critical approach is developed addressing received views in ontology, including the relation of substance to accident, the status of Aristotelian form and matter, and part-to-whole relations. Drawing on Rāzī’s al-Mulakhkhaṣ and al-Mabāḥith, kalām thinkers develop several concepts to distinguish arbitrary or mind-dependent (iʿtibārī) composites (‘man-plus-stone’) from non-arbitrary composites (e.g., tree, paste, and house). Most notably, they adopt a substance-plus-accident ontology in opposition to the Aristotelian hylomorphism of falsafa. The mutakallimūn will conceive of composites as possessing ‘real unity’ (ḥaqīqa muttaḥida) while dispensing with the explanatory and causal role of Aristotelian substantial forms”

Beyond_Atoms_and_Accidents_Fakhr_al_Din
Beyond_Atoms_and_Accidents_Fakhr_al_DinDownload

Sulamī’s Treatise on the Science of the Letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf)

Abstract:

“The terms, “Sufism” and “the Science of the Letters” ( ilm al-ḥurūf)’ mentioned together frequently awaken associations with the most widely known work on magic in Islam, Shams al-ma’arifwa-lata’i], al-‘awiirif(“The Brilliance of Knowledge and the Subtleties of its Gift”) of Abii l-‘Abbas Ahmad b. ‘Ali al-Buni ( d.622/1225).The author was a native of the town of Bone (i.e., ‘Annaba) on the Mediterranean coast between Algiers and Tunis, an old Phoenician settlement that became known as the Roman city of Hippo, the bishopric of Saint Augustine (395-430 ), which passed into the hands of the Muslim conquerors in the beginning of the second eighth century. The Shams al-ma’iirif exists in three versions, a short one, the oldest ( dated 618/1221), a middle-sized one, and a long one. the work may be best understood as a kind of encyclopedia of magical”

Sulami's Treatise On The Science Of Letters (Bowering)
Sulami’s Treatise On The Science Of Letters (Bowering)Download

What is Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi’l-Qurʾān?

Abstract:

In an attempt to understand a well-known though often unexamined exegetical principle,
this article offers a reading of the story of Joseph in light of two Quranic passages, namely 39:23
and, most importantly, 95:4-6. What links these texts is the concept of beauty. In 39:23, the
Quran is referred to as “the most beautiful discourse,” while 95:4 says that human beings were
created in “the most beautiful stature.” At the same time, Sūrat Yūsuf is spoken of as being “the
most beautiful of stories” (12:3). We thus have the most beautiful discourse, which contains the
most beautiful of stories, and all of this is for the benefit of God’s creatures, who are created in
the most beautiful of statures. ……………………..

What Is Tafsir Al-Qur'an Bi'l-Qur'an (SR 17.1, 2018)

What Is Tafsir Al-Qur’an Bi’l-Qur’an (SR 17.1, 2018)

Seyyed Hossein Nasr – Three Muslim Sages

THE “golden age, of Islam, insofar as the intensity of the religious and spiritual life and the realization of its ideals are concerned, must be identified with the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad- upon whom be peace- and the first Muslim community at Medina. But just as the seed sown in the ground grows into a tree and finally bears fruit only after the passage of time and. the gaining of nourishment from a………………

(link below)

Seyyed Hossein Nasr-Three Muslim Sages_ Avicenna-Suhrawardi-Ibn Arabi-Caravan Books (1976)

The Dialectic of Gratitude (Shukr) in the Non-dualism of Ibn al-ʿArabī

The role and function of gratitude or shukr in Islam has been a
topic that, until recently, has been the subject of little extensive
analysis. This is despite the central place of gratitude within the…………….

(link below)

Gratitude In IA – Khalil Final Nov 24 2018

The Great Chain of Consciousness :Do All Things Possess Awareness?

Abstract:

In An Essay on Man, the eighteenth-century British poet Alexander Pope offers a succinct formulation of an age-old philosophical doctrine about reality. This doctrine, which Arthur Lovejoy refers to as the “great chain of being,” maintains that existence is hierarchi- cal and organically linked, structured as it is upon the descending degrees of being. Reality begins with and proceeds from God, the Supreme Being, and ends in the most minuscule and discrete kinds of beings. Each thing in the cosmos, including the cosmos itself, forms a vital link with the other parts of this great chain. In Pope’s words..

The Great Chain of Consciousness (Renovatio 1.1, 2017)
The Great Chain of Consciousness (Renovatio 1.1, 2017)Download

A Commentary on the Creed of Islam: Sa’d al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm al-Din al-Nasafi – Translated with introduction and notes by Earl Edgar Elder

This book is a translation of one of the most important texts on the creed of Islam, the Sharh al-‘Aqa’id al-Nasafiyyah of Imam Sa’ad al-Din al-Taftazani (d. 1389).  It is a commentary by Taftazani of Imam Abu Hafs al-Nasafi’s (d. 1177) work al-‘Aqa’id al-Nasafiyyah.

Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law: Sharh al-‘Aqa’id al-Nasafiyyah

Imam Razi’s ‘Ilm al-Akhlaq

Imām Rāzī’s ʿIlm al-akhlāq –

Classic work on Islamic Ethics