Sufism Revived: A Contemporary Treatise on Divine Light, Prophecy, and Sainthood

Abstract:

“In this compilation of spiritual discourses (sing. mudhākara), Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari offers a Sufi commentary on the functions, degrees and implications of prophethood (nubūwa), messengerhood (risāla), and sainthood (wilāya). Major themes include the identification of the Prophet Muhammad with “the supreme intellect” (al-ʿaql al-akbar); the manifestation of the all-encompassing Muhammadan Reality through the different prophetic figures; the notion of prophetic inerrancy (ʿiṣma); the doctrine of the Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil); and the universality of the Muḥammadan nation. In his discussion on sainthood, the Shaykh offers a commentary on the Path to God as expressed in the well-known Holy Tradition (ḥadīth qudsī), narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, in which God proclaims: “Whoever aggresses against one of My friends, I declare war on them…My servant continues to draw near unto Me with supererogatory devotions until I love him; and when I love him, I am his hearing by which he hears, his sight by which he sees, his hand by which he clutches, and his foot by which he walks. If he asks of Me, I will surely give him; and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely give him refuge.” Throughout these discourses, the Shaykh offers practical advice for seekers regarding the complementarity between the exoteric Law (sharīʿa) and esoteric Truth (ḥaqīqa); the love of the Prophet and his descendents; and the attainment of unmediated knowledge of God (maʿrifa). Special emphasis is placed by the Shaykh on the seeker’s visions (mushāhadāt) of God’s Light; recognizing the traces of the Divine Names in creation; and how to derive knowledge of God from one’s spiritual experiences”

In_the_Footsteps_of_Moses_A_Contemporary

Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Sufi Treatise on the Secrets of the Divine Name – Yousef Casewit

Abstract:

“In this masterful treatise of Sufi spirituality and metaphysics, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari maps out the mystical journey to God as an initiatic progression through seven degrees of realization, or readings, of the divine Name Allāh. These seven degrees encapsulate what it means to read in the Name of the Lord, letter by letter, syllable by syllable, until the Hu, Lahu, Lillāh, ilāh, Allāh, Alif, and the Treasure-Dot are inwardly realized in the heart of the wayfarer. The Shaykh guides the reader from secret to secret, or reading to reading, devoting ten subchapters to each degree of the divine Name. Written with both metaphysical rigor and poetic elegance, the book comprises seventy short chapters that correspond to the seventy veils of Light and darkness between God and creation. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the centrality of directly witnessing the Divine Light, the indispensability of a living spiritual master, the dynamic between transcendence and immanence, the purification of the heart, and wholehearted commitment to practicing the Sunna and continuous invocation as a means of attaining direct knowledge of God. Describing the fruit of wayfaring, the Shaykh proclaims: “[It is] a matter of sheer fruitional experience, tasted only by those who plunge the depths of the kernel of the heart..”

Introduction_to_Islamic_Metaphysics_A_Co

İBN ARABÎ’YE GÖRE TAHKİKÎ İLİM – William C. CHITTICK

Abstract: İbn Arabî, geçen 800 yıl zarfında bir an dü-şünüldüğünde ilk akla gelen en tesirli vehakkında en çok tartışılan Müslüman düşü-nürdür. Tasavvuf geleneği onu Şeyhül Ekberolarak adlandırır. Bu, İslâmiyet’in bâtınî öğ-retilerinin en önde gelen şârihi olduğu anla-mına gelir. Günümüz akademi dünyası haklıolarak böylesine büyük ünvanlara şüpheci bakıyor olsa da bu ünvanın tamamıyla yersizolmadığını gösterir pek çok ipucu mevcut-tur. Nicelik açısından bakarsak İbn Arabî’nindevâsâ eseri Fütûhat-ı Mekkiye, en üretkenyazarların bile bir ömür boyunca yazabilek-leri metinlerden çok daha fazla metin içerir.Kitaplarının ve ilmî eserlerinin çetelesi ya-yınlanmış ve yüzlerce el yazma eseri kütüp-hanelere dağılmıştır

Ibn_Arabi_ye_Gore_Tahkiki_Ilim
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#055: Wisdom Crystallized: What is Sufi Metaphysics? w/ Mohammed Rustom

via Path & Present Podcast https://soundcloud.com/pathandpresent

Actionless Action – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

“It has indeed been a blessing to sit with the great Kenan Rifai’s commentary upon book one of Mevlana’s Mesnevi .Spending time with this book naturally led me to Kenan Rifai’s explanation of a famous tale in the Mesnevi  centered around ‘Ali b. Abi Talib tale is retold from Islamic tradition and is cast in Mevlana’s unique terms and worldview. The long and short of the story is as follows: in the heat of a one-on-one encounter with an enemy of Islam, ‘Ali gained the upper hand and thru this opponent to the ground. Just as he was about to finish him off withone blow from his sword, the enemy spat at ‘Ali’s face. When this happened, ‘Ali immediately dropped his sword and walked away. This per-plexed his enemy, and led him to ask ‘Ali in earnest why he had not killed him at that very moment. ‘Ali then speaks, telling the enemy that he only fights for the sake of God. But, when the man insulted him by spitting at him, the possibility that it would become a personal affair had presented itself to him. So he walked away from the situation. ‘Ali then explains that he never acts out of self-interest, but only for, in, and through God“

Actionless_Action
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Islamic Perspectives on Science and Technology Selected Conference Papers

Abstract:

“The collection of papers that are featured in this book was presented at the International Conference on ‘Developing Synergies Between Islam and Science &Technology for Mankind’s Benefit’, held at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, on 1–2 October 2014.The conference was formally opened by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia,Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and involved two keynote speeches, invited talks from eminent scholars, and talks by senior scholars, as well as some PhD candidates reporting on their research findings. The conference, consisting of both plenary and parallel sessions, included two open forums: one on bioethics and the other on the teaching and history of Islamic science. Presenter-authors were requested to con-tribute recommendations that could be taken up by governments, institutions, NGOs, and the public to hopefully ensure beneficial outcomes to sectors of human“

Islamic_Perspectives_on_Science_and_Tech
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Sayyid Haydar Amuli’s Seal of Absolute walaya: A Shi’i Response to Ibn ‘Arabi – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

“The work of one of the most important figures of philosophical Sufism, Sayyid Haydar Āmulī (d. ca. 787/1385), has largely been neglected in modern Western scholarship. In Iran, however, the situation is quite different as a steady stream of Persian monographs dedicated to Āmulī’s life and thought have been appearing over the past twenty years.In Arabic, we have a handful of studies, the most noteworthy being the 800-page tomeby Khanjar H  ̣amiyya.4Yet these works on Āmulī vary significantly in accuracy, scope, and depth. This explains why there are still so many key aspects of  Āmulī’s thoughtabout which we have only a cursory knowledge, such as his role as a philosophical/mysticalqur’anicexegete.5Anothertopicofenduring(because unresolved)investigation that is particularly worthy of our consideration is Āmulī’s engagement with Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240)“

Sayyid_Haydar_Amulis_Seal_of_Absolute_wa
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Islam and the Density of Man – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

“I would like to begin with an autobiographical account which takes us back to the fall of 2000, when I was a second‑year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. Like many of my classmates in philosophy, I had a fairly naïve understanding of what I was doing studying this discipline. I would eventually come to learn that there were different kinds of traditions of philosophy, and where one would end up focusing really had to do with a number of factors, not least one’s interests, predilections, and ultimate concerns. But, in the fall of 2000, as I sat in a very popular course on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, such things were not entirely clear to me. I signed up for the course, to be honest, because the two authors who were its focus had names that sounded “cool.” The course description promised to give students a sense of the important and enduring themes in Kierkegaard and Nietzsche’s writings—themes which, in one way or another, helped define a number of pressing problems in several contemporary forms of philosophy. Little did I know that the course would be a catalyst for something else.“

Islam And The Density Of Man (SW 46, 2020)
Islam And The Density Of Man (SW 46, 2020)Download

Metaphysics of Muhammad The Nur Muhammad from Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765)to Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 672/1274)

Abstract:
“This study analyzes the development of the theme of the “Light of Muḥammad”(al-nūr al-Muḥammadī) or the “Muḥammadan Reality” (al-ḥaqīqa al Muḥammadiyya)among several Shiʿi and Sufi thinkers through the seventh/thirteenth century. These thinkers include Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765), Sahl al-Tustarī (d. 283/896), the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (early to mid 4th/10th century), the Ismaili dāʿīs Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (d. after 361/971) and Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 411/1020), Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and ʿAyn al-Quḍāt (d. 526/1131), Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), ʿAbdal-Karīm al-Shahrastānī (d. 548/1153), and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274). I argue that the “Light of Muḥammad” as a theological and metaphysical idea evolved historically through three distinct but cumulative phases of conceptualization: mytho-cosmological narrative, Neoplatonization, and ontological theophanization. Through these developments, the theological status of the Light of Muḥammad underwent a gradual but decisive shift from being reckoned as the first spiritual creation of God in the early period to being revered as the ontological self-manifestation of God in later periods“

Metaphysics Of Muhammad (Andani)
Metaphysics Of Muhammad (Andani)Download