Tag Archive for: metaphysics

Reason and Belief in an Age of Empirical Science

It is somewhat puzzling that while the vast majority of the world (around 80 percent) believes in some form of supernatural transcendence, the dominant view in many scientific and philosophical circles is that those who affirm God’s existence bear the burden of proof. Meanwhile, atheists, who deny God’s existence, need not prove God’s nonexistence, because theirs is the default position; belief in God is the extraordinary claim.

This assumption gets reinforced by the widespread notion that atheists and agnostics are the “normal” people, but this idea is contradicted by the beliefs of most human beings worldwide. The paradox begs the question: Shouldn’t the burden of proof rightly rest on those who deny God’s existence? Nonetheless, the rise of scientism, agnosticism, and atheism in recent times warrants rational debates about the existence of God or ultimate reality.

New Atheist writers such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Lawrence Krauss, Leonard Mlodinow, and others frequently invoke the authority of science (often equating it with reason) and point out that our best scientific theories make no reference to God; thus, naturalism—the belief that reality consists only of the physical world and that science is the best way to understand it—must be true. These writers assume that empirical and experimental science is the only genuine form of knowledge—a highly controversial metaphysical presupposition not shared by all scientists or based on any “evidence.”

With this assumption, they respond to traditional arguments for God’s existence with a wide range of counterarguments. For example, they contend that if God is the cause of everything, then God Himself must have a cause, which leads to the problem of infinite…

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Farghani on Wahdat al-Wujud in the Four Journeys

Saʿīd b. Aḥmad Farghānī (d. 699/1300) was one of the foremost students of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī, Ibn ʿArabī’s stepson and primary propagator. He was the author of the first commentary, in two versions, on Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s famous 760-verse qasida, The Poem of the Way. The first version was written in Persian, based on lectures delivered by Qūnawī, and the second in Arabic, with extensive additions and revisions. In the introduction to the Arabic, he provided relatively systematic expositions of many technical terms that were soon to become commonplace among scholars, among which was waḥdat al-wujūd, which had barely been mentioned before him. He also seems to be the first author to describe in detail the four journeys (al-asfār al-arbaʿa), an expression that is famously the short title of Mullā Ṣadrā’s magnum opus. In Farghānī’s understanding, waḥdat al-wujūd cannot be understood apart from the four journey

For the past several centuries in Islamic languages and for decades in the Western secondary literature, waḥdat al-wujūd has been a well-known term, typically understood as a specific doctrine founded by Ibn ʿArabī and supported or critiqued by later scholars. In fact Ibn ʿArabī had no such doctrine, given that he never used the expression. Moreover, everyone who has used the expres- sion, whether supporter or critic, has had some specific or vague meaning in mind, and these meanings have rarely coincided

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Review of House of the Prophet: Muhammad in Islamic Mysticism by Claude Addas, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies By Atif Khalil

More than thirty-five years ago, with the publication of Ibn ‘Arabī ou La quête du Soufre Rouge, a revised version of which was introduced to an English audience in 1993 as Quest for the Red Sulphur: the Life of Ibn ‘Arabī, Claude Addas single-handedly transformed the landscape of Akbarian Studies. We now had before us a comprehensive, meticulously documented account of the life of one of the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and influential figures to emerge out of Muslim history. Relying on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, Addas produced what was, and continues to remain, the most thorough biography of the Andalusian thinker ever written. No one who engaged in any serious scholarship on him could thereaſter afford to ignore such a valuable resource

In the present volume, originally published in French in 2015,1 Addas shifts her attention to the veneration of the Prophet in the mystical piety of Islam, or to be more specific, to the reasons behind it in view of his status among Muslims as khayr al-anām (the “best of humankind”) or khayr al-makhlūqīn (the “best of created beings”). In essence, the work examines his meta-historical function in Islam’s economy of being with special attention to questions of soteriology and cosmogenesis, to theories of salvation and origins.

There are two previous studies whose findings, thematically speaking, The House of the Prophet most closely develops. The first, And Muhammad is His Messenger (1985) by Annemarie Schimmel (d. 2003), is an exhaustive survey of the various modes of devotion to the Prophet that have characterized Muslim spirituality from its inception, as embodied and articulated in almost all the major languages of the Islamic world (Schimmel, let it be recalled, was a polyglot)

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 al-Nūr al-muḥammadi – the Light of the Prophet », Mohammed in History, Thought, and Culture

Al-nūr al-muḥammadī, the “Muḥammadan light”, is an Arabic expression which designates the inner and transcendent reality of the prophetic being, alluding thereby symbolically to the meta-historical significance of the Prophet Muḥammad, especially within Islamic soteriology, cosmology, spirituality and metaphysics. One of the foremost doctrinal implications of the Muḥammadan light is the Prophet’s primordial existence and his spiritual paternity over mankind. The Muḥammadan light is also understood as the universal principle of prophecy of which the pre-Islamic prophets were partial manifestations while the historic Muḥammad corresponded to its full manifestation. Above all, the concept of al-nūr al-muḥammadī plays a central role in Islamic spirituality. Being the light with which God illuminates the heart of his saints, it highlights the intrinsic relation between spiritual illumination, the Prophet and sainthood.

Content Overview:

Discusses the identity and selection of the Imam after Muhammad.

Explores the significance of praise poetry (madih) in Arabic culture, particularly in relation to Muhammad.

Highlights the , a famous praise poem by al-Busiri, detailing its themes and spiritual significance.

Examines early Byzantine literature’s references to Muhammad and Islam.

Describes the maghazi, military expeditions led by Muhammad during the Medinan period.

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Signs and Causes: Astro-Meteorology in Early Islamic Centuries By Razieh S. Mousavi

By Razieh S. Mousavi

Before the existence of weather stations, people relied on a variety of visible and invisible signs to predict the weather. Among Arabs, observing the regular motions of the stars was a common method for weather forecasting, both before and after the rise of Islam. How did they perceive the connection between cosmic and atmospheric phenomena?

In many past societies, including pre-Islamic Arabia, astronomy and weather forecasting were closely connected, and this knowledge played a crucial role in the region’s economic considerations. After the advent of Islam, this understanding was further enriched by the rapid exchange of ideas with neighboring cultures, blending climatic and environmental concepts with astronomical principles, a synthesis that is evident in the literature from that era. While there is some continuity in Arabian knowledge of astronomy and weather between the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, notable differences also stand out.

Pre-Islamic records are primarily archaeological, such as stone inscriptions, 2 and fragmented poetry, much of which was preserved through Islamic manuscripts. 3 In contrast, sources from the Islamic period, particularly from the late eighth
century onward, are far more diverse and extensive. 4 Another significant difference lies in how this knowledge was created and used. In the Islamic period, knowledge production was primarily state-supported, leading to a more formal and elite-driven approach tied to political and administrative needs. On the other hand, pre-Islamic knowledge of the environment was less structured, based largely on individual observations and regional traditions. Modern scholarship
commonly refers to this body of astro-meteorological knowledge in Arabia, as “folk astronomy” to emphasise its informal, observational character compared to the more advanced and systematic studies that emerged in Islamic societies. However, this lable should not obscure the dynamic encounters between different approaches and practices across changing religious and intellectual contexts

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“What does the heart want?” Being seen, “heart ethnography,” and knowledge through surrender in a Bashkir Sufi circle in Russia

Drawing on fieldwork in a Bashkir Sufi circle in Russia, this article explores my interlocutors’ mode of experiencing the world and transcendence. By letting myself be seen in the field, I let them shape the terms of our encounter as a way of glimpsing their mode of knowing. I explore my fieldwork experience as a transformation of the self in parallel with my interlocutors’ narrations of encounters with saints. I reflect on field experiences in which the limits of my rational thinking are revealed and mirrored in my interlocutors’ spiritual experiences. Being seen by their sheikh, my interlocutors experience a mode of vision that reveals the heart as an organ of perception. Similarly, as I experience being seen in the field, I am pointed to my own heart and soul. This mode of knowing that I glimpse into sheds new light on encounters with “otherness” and transcendence in anthropology.

A pilgrimage

On a hot day in July, Ildar picks me up in his car, and we drive to a gas station on the outskirts of Ufa, where other Bashkir murids (disciples) join us. 1 As we finish our cof- fee, we see the murshid (spiritual guide), a man in his sixties with a luminous face and trimmed white beard, emerging from a car. As we later arrive at our destina- tion in the Bashkir countryside, on land that once be- longed to the murshid’s Bashkir clan, we see from afar the grave of an ishan (healer) surrounded by trees and a small fence. This gravesite is typical of the sacred places I have visited during my fieldwork among the Bashkir murids of a transnational Naqshbandi tariqa (order) and an example of their work reviving the Bashkir sa- cred landscape. After the ablution in the newly constructed mosque, our small group heads to the grave. At the end of the dhikr (remembrance of God), the murshid says, “We do not see God, but God sees you. Meditate. God is al- ways with you; it is you who are not with Him.” At this moment, I enter a meditation with my eyes closed, the palms of my hands open, and my face directed toward the hot sun. After a long silence, we hear the voices of a family of pilgrims approaching. As we leave the grave, Aisylu, a woman murid with a soft presence, gently asks what I have felt. I respond salam (peace). When I further allude to my difficulty opening up in such moments, she tells me that near holy graves we need to fully let go and surrender in order to let nur (the light) enter us. “Trust in God. Graves of awliya (saints) are pure places; they purify the pilgrim.”

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Aḥmadu Bamba and the Preceding Sufi Heritage: Tracing the Intellectual Sources of Bamba’s Sufi Writings / Ahmedü Bamba ve Selefleri: Bamba’nın Tasavvufî Yazılarının Fikrî İzlerini Sürmek

This study examines the intellectual formation of Aḥmadu Bamba Mbacke (d. 1927), founder of the al-Murīdiyya Sufi order in Senegal, whose teachings have significantly shaped West African Islamic thought and practice. While the socio-political influence of al-Murīdiyya has been widely acknowledged, the intel- lectual foundations of Bamba’s Sufi thought remain insufficiently explored. This research hypothesizes that Bamba’s thought was profoundly shaped by classical Sufi figures such as Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111), ʿAbdu-l-Wahhāb ash-Shaʿrānī (d. 973/1565), Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493), Ibn ʿAtāʾ Allah as-Sakan- darī (d. 709/1309), as well as Mauritanian scholars including Sīdī Mukhtār al-Kuntiyyu (d. 1226/1811) and Muḥammad ibn al-Mukhtār ad-Daymānī (d. 1166/1753). Notably, Bamba distanced himself from speculative and philosophical Sufism, instead emphasizing a practical, ethically grounded Sufism centered on spiritual discipline, moral reform, and communal service. Through textual analysis and historical contextualization, this study investigates how these intellectual and spiritual currents informed Bamba’s synthesis of Sufi pedagogy and reform, contributing to a localized yet universal model of Islamic spirituality

Özet

Bu çalışma, Senegal’de Mürîdiyye tarikatini kuran ve öğretileriyle Batı Afrika İslam düşünce ve pratiğini derinden etkileyen Ahmedü Bamba Mbacke’nin (ö. 1927) fikir dünyasının teşekkülünü incelemektedir. Mürîdiyye’nin sosyo-politik etkisi yaygın olarak kabul edilmekle birlikte, Bamba’nın tasavvuf anlayışı- nın entelektüel arka planı yeterince araştırılmamıştır. Bu araştırma, Bamba’nın düşüncesinin Ebû Hâmid el-Gazzâlî (ö. 505/1111), Abdu’l-Vahhâb eş-Şa‘rânî (ö. 973/1565), Ahmed Zerrûk (ö. 899/1493), İbn Atâullah el-İskenderî (ö. 709/1309) gibi büyük sufilerin yanı sıra, Muhtâr b. Ahmed Küntî (ö. 1226/1811) ve Muhtâr ed-Deymânî (ö. 1166/1753) gibi Moritanya kökenli âlimlerin etkisiyle şekillendiği hipotezine dayanmaktadır. Bamba, hususen spekülatif ve felsefi tasavvuftan uzak durarak, mânevî disiplin, ahlâkî ıslah ve toplumsal hizmet merkezli pratik ve etik temelli bir tasavvufu ön plana çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, metin analizi ve tarihsel bağlamlandırma yoluyla, söz konusu entelektüel ve mânevî akımların Bamba’nın tasavvufî eğitim ve ıslah anlayışına nasıl yön verdiğini incelemekte ve kökleri yerel ancak nitelikleri evrensel olan bir İslâmî mâneviyat modeline katkılarını ortaya koymaktadır

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In the Name of Letters: Basmala as the Cosmic Design

This paper is a study of Ḥaydar Āmulī’s (d. ca. 787/1385) analysis of the basmala in his commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. While Āmulī addresses this phrase, which he regards as the foremost verse in the entire Quran, in various sections of his work, his most comprehensive discussion focuses on the basmala with which Ibn al-ʿArabī initiates his Fuṣūṣ. Āmulī thoroughly analyzes the basmala and investigates its diacritical marks, numerical symbolism, lexical components, syntactic structures, and morphological dimensions within a lettrist framework. As will be argued, he transforms the basmala into a formula that cap- tures the cosmic design and serves as a lettrist means of reflection to express physical, spiritual, and cosmological realities. Broadly, the paper contributes to the evolving scholarly understanding of lettrism, the unique place of the basmala in Islamic thought, and the growing body of scholarship on Āmulī’s works.

“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate (bi-smi llāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm),” which is known as the basmala (henceforth, basmala) or tasmiya in Islamic literature, is at the beginning of all suras of the Quran except surat al-Tawba (9). 1 It also has a significant presence in Islamic spirituality, practices, and rituals. In a hadith attributed to the Prophet, it is stated, “Every matter that does not begin with ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Com- passionate’ is doomed to fail.” 2 It is in this spirit that Muslims often invoke the basmala at the beginning of every important act, sanctifying and consecrating it with this formula. 3 Say- yid Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. ca. 787/1385), one of the leading Shiʿi thinkers and a significant figure in the history of the Islamic intellectual tradition, approached the basmala as a verse that encompasses a wide range of esoteric, philosophical, and lettrist dimensions. He regarded it as the foremost verse in the entire Quran, a recipe that harmoniously unifies the celestial and earthly realms and encompasses both the beginning and the culmination of all creation. This article, firstly, argues that Āmulī’s detailed study of the basmala provides a valuable lens for understanding his intellectual framework. While he interpreted various teachings of the celebrated mystic Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) from a Shiʿi perspective, reducing him solely to a sectarian reader would be inaccurate as he formulated an inclusive,

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Philosophy of Religion in Islam: A Reader of Classical Sources

Short Biographies of the Authors of the Selected Texts

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes or Rhasis) (d. 313/925) was an Islamic thinker who, emulating the example of the Hellenistic physician and philosopher Galen (d. c. 216 CE), became competent first in medicine and then in philosophy to the extent that he earned the title “the Galen of the Arabs.” Like Galen, he reflected his experience in the experimental field to his views on metaphysics and natural philosophy and was therefore accused of deism (heresy). In his work al-Ṭibb al-rūḥānī (Spiritual Medicine), in which he interpreted ethics as “the treatment of the soul,” he presented an ethical thought that focused on the treatment of vices. His thoughts on the fear of death and grief in this work contain the manifestations of his Epicurean understanding of pleasure, and in this respect, it represents a different approach to the issue of death among the schools of Islamic thought.

Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/933–4) is one of the leading figures who systematized the theological views of the Ismāʿīlī branch of Shīʿism. He made great efforts to spread the Ismāʿīlī cause, especially through his activities in the region of Ray. In his work Aʿlām al-nubuwwa (Te Sings of Prophethood), he aimed to show the necessity of prophethood and the inadequacy of reason in obtaining the truth against the philosopher Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (d. 313/925).

Al-Ālūsī (d. 1270/1854) is an exegete known for his exegesis Rūḥ al-maʿānī (Te Spirit of Meanings). Although Rūḥ al-maʿānī is often perceived as one of the important texts of allusive (ishārī) exegesis, al-Ālūsī’s main contribution to the science of interpretation of the Qurʾān with this exegesis is his powerful summarization of the commentary-super commentary (sharḥ-ḥāshiya) literature. The issues that we encounter in approximately 80 super commentaries on al-Kashshāf (The Revealer) and 400 super commentaries on Anwār al-tanzīl (The Lights of Revelation), the majority of which were written during the Ottoman period, were largely revised by al-Ālūsī on the axis of rhetoric and subjected to a critical evaluation in accordance with his critical approach (taḥqīq).

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ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s Laṭāʾif al-Minan and the Virtue of Sincere Immodesty

The essay below analyzes the substance and rhetoric of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) book Laṭāʾif al-minan wa-l-akhlāq (Subtle Blessings and Morals). While giving particular attention to the text’s introduction and concluding sections, in my analysis here I use the Laṭāʾif as a case study to illustrate how Sufi authors like al-Shaʿrānī attempted to relieve the tension between the antipodal Sufi virtues of, on the one hand, concealing one’s spiritual state to preserve the purity of one’s intention and, on the other, speaking openly about God’s blessings upon one as a demonstration of gratitude to God and a means to guide others along the Sufi Path. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī was an Egyptian Sufi and legal thinker who lived in Cairo during the fnal years of the Mamlūk Sultanate and the first half-century of Ottoman rule in Egypt. He is best remembered today for his writings in comparative Islamic law (ikhtilāf al-madhāhib), Sufi ethics, and Sufi hagiography. Several of his texts would generate controversy during his lifetime owing to what he claimed

were libelous passages that jealous peers had falsely attributed to him. 1 During his early years, al-Shaʿrānī studied Islamic law and other scholarly disciplines under Egypt’s Chief Shāfʿī Justice Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī (d. 926/1523); a charismatic and illiterate fgure named ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ (d. 939/1532–3) served as his primary guide in the study and practice of Sufsm. 2 By the second half of his life, al-Shaʿrānī’s acumen and reputation had earned him the attention of Egypt’s Ottoman rulers, who gifted him with a Suf hospice (zāwiya) that made him independently wealthy through the revenues that it generated.

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“Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: A Philosophical Critique,” Philosophical Forum 55 (2024): 353–375

The crises of the Islamic world revolve around “epistemic colonialism.” So, in order to decolonize the Muslim mind, we must be able to deconstruct the Western episteme, and this involves dissociating ourselves from the Eurocentric knowledge system that gradually became ascendent since the Renaissance through such ideas as progress and modernity. However, this does not mean we need to discontinue dialog with Western thought. Rather it means retrieving and reviving our own intel- lectual heritage and being able to think with the categories and concepts derived from that heritage. But in light of the postcolonial situation where the intellectual and linguistic connection with one’s own tradition is severed, this is a tremendous challenge. What is more, many Muslim intellectuals simply think that Islamic heritage has little relevance to address contemporary challenges. Yet unless Muslims are able to ground their self-identity in their own intellectual tradition, they will be held captive to the web of epistemic colonialism. They might be comfortable offering their prayers as Muslims, but their mental ambience will be permeated by devastating, Eurocentric ideas. They will hardly be able to overcome their fragmented self-image.

Imagine living in an old Riad in Fez, a Haveli in Lahore, or another traditional house, and then being forced into ugly high-rise apartments. These modern buildings might offer amenities like swimming pools, fitness centers, and private outdoor spaces, but their all-glass structures lack the traditional windows that connect people to the natural world of heat, light, and sound. Moreover, the sealed and glazed facades increase heating and cooling loads and create issues with glare and thermal comfort. Although people may still possess beautiful artifacts from their old homes, such as window panes, oil lamps, and plant pots, they no longer understand their language and meaning in a new context. In a word, the new setting radically alters the rhythms of life, work, and thought. And this is analogous to what has happened to the Muslim mind; its very architecture has been fundamentally transformed. Sadly, the current generation, with its fragmented self-image, often does not care to explore their historical identity and the importance of this knowledge in constructing a present self-identity

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Was That Layla’s Fire?: Metonymy, Metaphor, and Mannerism in the Poetry of Ibn al-Fāriḍ

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ‘Umar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” (Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn), ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, many of which are considered masterpieces of Islamic metaphysics. Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry continues to be sung, taught, and commented upon down to the present day and is considered one of the greatest expositions of spiritual realization, Sufi metaphysics, and psychology. This article will consider the role of the figure of Layla in some of Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry, exploring the relationship between the exquisite form of his poetic language and the meanings to which they allude in an attempt to understand an aspect of how the “licit magic” of his poetry works to express and inspire realization. That is, of all the various genres and modes of expression, why did so many Sufi figures find the genre of the romantic or even erotic Arabic ghazal, especially the exquisite verses of Ibn al-Fāriḍ, to be so felicitous for expressing the deepest truths they had realized.

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ʿUmar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. His poetry was famous and commented upon even in his own lifetime, and several commentators even claimed that while non-poetic language was perfected in the inimitable Qur’an, six centuries later, Arabic poetry was perfected in the inimitable verse of Ibn al-Fāriḍ. 1 Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” (Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn), Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, many of which are consid- ered masterpieces of Islamic metaphysics. Saḍr al-dīn al-Qūnāwī (d. 673/1274), Ibn al-ʿArabī’s stepson and successor taught Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s magnum opus, the 760-verse qaṣīda, Naẓm al-Sulūk (“The Poem of the Sufi Way”) to his circle of students, two of whom, Sa‘īd al-dīn al-Farghānī (d. 699/1300) and ‘Afīf al-dīn al-Tilimsānī (d. 690/1291) published commentaries upon the work

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