“If one were to ask what is metaphysics, the primary answer would be the science of the Real or, more specifically, the knowledge by means of which man is able to distinguish the Real and the illusory and to know things in their essence or as they are, which means ultimately to know them in divinis.  The knowledge of the Principle which is at once the absolute and infinite Reality is the heart of metaphysics…Metaphysics concerns not only the Principle in Itself and in Its manifestations but also the principles of the various sciences of a cosmological order.  At the heart of the traditional sciences of the cosmos, as well as traditional anthropology, psychology, and aesthetics, stand the scientia sacra (metaphysics) which contains the principles of these sciences while being primarily concerned with the knowledge of the Principle; this is both sacred knowledge and knowledge of the sacred par excellence, since the Sacred as such is none other than the Principle.”

~Seyyed Hossein Nasr~