Neo-Orientalism and the Study of Islamic Philosophy: An Interview with Professor Mohammed Rustom
Abstract:
After attending Professor Rustom’s advanced seminar on Ibn Sina at Carleton University in winter 2017, doctoral candidate Soroosh Shahriari of McGill University, Canada, “brought up the possibility of . . [posing] some ‘hard’ questions concerning the contemporary study of Islamic philosophy.” Rustom’s in-depth knowledge of the method and spirit of traditional Islamic education and Islamic metaphysics helps us navigate the complexities inherent in the study of Islamic philosophy in the modern academy. What follows is an edited version of this interview, which took place in Ottawa, Canada, February 2017.
Neo-Orientalism-and-the-Study-of-Islamic-Philosophy-JIMS-3.1-2018Roads to paradise : Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam
Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam offers a multi-disciplinary study of Muslim thinking about paradise, death, apocalypse, and the hereafter. It focuses on eschatological concepts in the Quran and its exegesis, Sunni and Shi‘i traditions, Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism, and other scholarly disciplines reflecting Islamicate pluralism and cosmopolitanism……………..
A Philosopher’s Itinerary For The Afterlife (Roads To Paradise, 2017)
An Interview with Ekrem Demirli, Turkey’s Leading Scholar of Ibn ʿArabi and Qunawi
Abstract:
“Ekrem Demirli (www.ekremdemirli.com/) is Professor of SufiStudies at Istanbul University (Faculty of Theology, Department of Tasawwuf), and Turkey’s foremost scholar of IbnʿArabi and Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi. Below is the edited transcript of an interview which I conducted with him concerning his life and work. Professor Demirli’s responses were given in Turkish and translated into English by Sultan Adanir Salihoglu”
An-Interview-with-Ekrem-Demirli-JMIAS-63
Everything Muhammad: The Image of the Prophet in the Writings of ‘Ayn al-Qudat
It is well‑known that Rumi (d. 1273) was a great lover of the Prophet
Muhammad. This is best typified in such verses as the ones with which
the present article begins. Given our knowledge of the devotion to the
Prophet that we find in Rumi’s writings and in the works of many other
Sufi authors,
I would here like to discuss the views of another major
devotee of the Prophet. His name was Abu’l Ma‘ali ‘Abd Allah al‑Miyanji,
and is most commonly known as ‘Ayn al‑Qudat Hamadani. He was born……
Rajab Ali Tabrizi Refutation of Sadrian metaphysics
Amongst the most formidable opponents of the metaphysics of Mulla
Sadra (d, 1045 AH/1636 or 1050 AH/1640) during the Safavid period was
his student and son-in-law ‘Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji (d. 1071 AH/1661-2).’
Unlike Muhsin Fayd Kashani (d, 1091 AH/1680),’ Sadras other son-in
law and student, Lahiji’s writings were primarily within the tradition
of post-Avicennian Islamic philosophical theology. This is best
evidenced in his critique of Sadras principal and innovative doctrine
of substantial motion (al-/iarakah al-jawhariyyah). One of Fayd and
Lahiji’s disciples, the major Safavid philosopher and mystic Qa<;li Sa’id……………..
The End of Islamic Philosophy by Mohammed Rustom
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 which is now not well received and
to present it in terms more conformable to the intellectual horizon of our
contemporaries. What is needed essentially is a re-presentation of the whole
body of Islamic wisdom in a contemporary language. Thus those who seek
for various problems the solution offered by this form of wisdom will find it
without the barrier of unfamiliar language or thought structure………..
Everything Muhammad: The Image of the Prophet in the Writings of ‘Ayn al-Qudat
Abstract
It is well‑known that Rumi (d. 1273) was a great lover of the Prophet
Muhammad. This is best typified in such verses as the ones with which
the present article begins. Given our knowledge of the devotion to the
Prophet that we find in Rumi’s writings and in the works of many other
Sufi authors,I would here like to discuss the views of another major
devotee of the Prophet. His name was Abu’l Ma‘ali ‘Abd Allah al‑Miyanji,
and is most commonly known as ‘Ayn al‑Qudat Hamadani. He was born……..
Do All Things Possess Awareness?
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 hierarchical and organically linked……………..
Equilibrium and Realization: William Chittick on Self and the Cosmos by Muhammed Rustom
Abstract:
“William Chittick, currently professor of religious studies at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), is an internationally renowned expert on Islamic thought. His contributions to the fields of Sufism and Islamic philosophy have helped paint a clearer picture of the intellectual and spiritual landscape of Islamic civilization from the seventh/thirteenth century onwards. Yet Chittick is not simply concerned with discussions in Islamic thought as artifacts of premodern intellectual history. His vast knowledge of the Islamic intellectual tradition serves as the platform from which he seeks to address a broad range of contemporary issues. In this short essay, I will outline Chittick’s writings on the self within the context of his treatment of cosmology. Rather than being outdated ways of looking at the universe and our relationship to it, Chittick argues that traditional Islamic cosmological teachings are just as pertinent to the question of the self today as they were yesterday.”
Equilibrium and Realization – William Chittick on Self and the Cosmos by Muhammad Rustom
Equilibrium and Realization - William Chittick on Self and the Cosmos by Muhammad Rustom