Tag Archive for: metaphysics

Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata Edited by Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

I have known William Chittick and Sachiko Murata for over half a century as their teacher, friend, colleague, and scholarly collaborator. It was in 1964, when I was the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, that I first met a young American student named Chittick in one of my classes and during a public lecture I gave at the University. He drew my attention as a gifted student and potentially a serious scholar. During that year he also visited historical Islamic cities in Syria and became deeply attracted to the Islamic intellectual and spiritual tradition. After returning to America for his senior year and having received his bachelor’s degree, he came to Iran where he spent the next dozen years finishing his doctorate at the University of Tehran, becoming later an instructor at Aryamehr University of Technology and the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy when I headed both institutions.

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Atonement, Returning, and Repentance in Islam – Atif Khalil

Abstract:

“The aim of this article is to demonstrate how in Islam the principle mechanism for atonement lies in tawba(returning, repentance). Divided into four sections, and drawing primarily on the literature of classical Sufism, the analysis begins by defining some key terms related to the idea of atonement, with special attention to the language of the Quran. Then it outlines three conditions of returning, repentance, and atonement, delineated by classical Muslim authorities, before turning to a brief overview of the concept of amending wrongs or settings matters aright. It concludes with some final remarks about the possibilities of atonement available until death, and the soteriological role divine mercy is believed to play in the posthumous states of the soul“

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The Sufi Path of Light Translated by Khalid Williams & Yousef Casewit

Abstract:

“Our Lord is Light; our holy Prophet is Light; our unswerving Islamic faith is Light; our Holy Qurʾān is Light; and our prayer is Light. Why then do you wish to live in darkness? Why do you aloofly imagine, with your delimited and narrow mind, that the Light is merely an abstract concept that cannot be seen?” inquires Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari. Divine Light, luminous vision (mushāhada), and mystical experience are central to the Qurʾānic revelation, the Hadith corpus, and the Sufi tradition. In this major contemporary treatise on Islamic spirituality, Shaykh al-Karkari provides a detailed esoteric commentary on the Light Verse (āyat al-nūr) as well as other verses concerning Light in the Qurʾān. He then highlights the centrality of luminous vision in the teachings of renowned Sufis of the Shādhiliyya order and beyond, including Abū Madyan and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī. The book concludes with a commentary on Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Illāh al-Iskandarī’s aphorisms on luminous vision. Throughout the treatise, the Shaykh identifies popular questions pertaining to contemporary Sufi practice and invites us to consider the challenges we face along the spiritual path. He proclaims, “You know Islam with your bodily idol, yet your spirit does not recognize it, for you are absent from witnessing the Lights of the Real and the Lights of His holy Messenger. You say, “I bear witness,” yet your insight is blotted out, your heart blind, and your inner heart rusted over. Your testimony is mere speech, not witnessing. Come with me, then, upon a voyage into the depths of pure meaning. Let us travel from one verse to another, until you come to know that the road has been one from the Messenger of God until today-the road named the Radiant Path, whose night is as bright as its day, from which none stray but those bound for”

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Ayn al-Qudāt. The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism. Mohammed Rustom (ed. and trans.). New York: New York University Press, 2022. xxx + 241 pages. ISBN: 9781479816590.

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Ayn al-Qudat’s Tamhidat: An Ocean of Sufi Metaphysics in Persian

Edited by Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

“Readers of William Chittick and Sachiko Murata’s writings often note their unique ability to discern and effectively communicate the visions of reality animating the various texts in Islamic thought that they study. This is surely because they do not see these works as mere repositories of ideas that make no demands on those who engage with them. Rather, they are akin to shoreless oceans inviting onlookers to plunge in, provided they have no hope of returning. In keeping with this characterization, and as a tribute to our beloved teachers and friends, in this article we would like to offer a drop from one of the deepest of these oceans belonging to the pre-modern period”

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Made in God’s Image: A Contemporary Sufi Commentary on Surat al-Insan by the Moroccan Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari

Abstract: “The Karkariyya is a contemporary branch of the Shādhilī Sufi order (ṭarīqa) founded by Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari (b. 1974) in 2007 in the small northeastern Moroccan town of el-Aruit,near the coastal city of Nador.Despite its humble beginnings,the Karkariyyahas established itself as one of Morocco ’s most dynamic centers for the dissemination of Sufi teachings. It is based in a large Sufi lodge ( zāwiya) that accommodates thousands of visitors throughout the year and houses dozens of male and female resident disciples (mutajar-ridīn) who live with the Shaykh for extensive periods of rigorous spiritual training. The order’s largest branches are presently located in France, Algeria, Tunisia, and Oman, with a growing presence in various cities of Morocco, West Africa, and North America.The Karkariyya’s active outreach on social media platforms has contributed to its growth from a local Moroccan order to an internationally diverse, multicultural, and multilingual network of Sufi seekers”

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The Spirituality of the Sufi Path – William C. Chittick

ABSTRACT:

I understand Sufism as a dimension of  the Islamic tradition that stresses the need to undergo spiritual transformation. Those who wanted to achieve transformation typically undertook specific practices and disciplines known as the Ṭarīqa (al-ṭarīqa), “the Path,” one of the words by which Sufism was commonly designated. Many guides on the Ṭarīqa never put pen to paper and were remembered only because of  their influence on contemporaries or later generations. Others entered into the ranks of  the most prolific authors of Islamic history. The primary literature is vast and extends into the modern period, with many Sufi teachers active today (Chittick 2000). Any attempt to survey the major branches of  the Ṭarīqa, not to speak of  the famous authors, would go far beyond the bounds allotted to this chapter. I can only hope to describe in barest terms the theory and practice of  the Sufi path as explained in classical texts.

From the Periphery to the Center – Journal of World Philosophies

ABSTRACT:

This article recounts one contemporary Muslim philosopher’s journey into the discipline of philosophy, detailingthe importance of diversifying the study of philosophy to take it beyond its Anglo-American and Eurocentric boarders along the way.

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