Tag Archive for: Philosophy Of Religion

Ibn Arabi on the Ontology of Trust – William C. Chittick

Abstract:

In a world where people often relegate God to the realm of illusion and look on “trust in God” as a psychological crutch, to
speak about trust as an actual dimension of reality must seem odd. People would rather imagine that trust is something we should have in our favorite ideology, or perhaps science, or technology, or our doctors, or some politician. Most people agree that we should trust in change, given that the current situation is unsustainable. As an antidote to the fickleness of modern versions of trust, it may be useful to reflect on the views of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), arguably the greatest of all Muslim theologians and philosophers. His insights into the manner in which human nature is utterly dependent on trust may help us understand why we are making a hash of our world, and why every change in which we trust eventually turns out for the worse. Before looking at what he has to say about trust, let me first provide some general background for those unfamiliar with the Islamic tradition

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Maratib al-Taqwa: Sa’id al-Din Farghani on the Ontology of Ethics

“Given the philosophical tradition’s explicit acknowledgment that “the Necessary in Existence” (al-wājib al-wujūd) is a proper designation for God per se, and given the fact that this acknowledgment came to be shared by various forms of Sufism and Kalam, it should come as no surprise that many scholars who investigated the reality of the human, “created upon the form of God,” concluded that ethical perfection amounted to the soul’s harmonious conformity with the Real Existence (al-wujūd al-ḥaqq). Early on, philosophers tended to keep ontology separate from ʿilm al-akhlāq, the science of ethics, but they used expressions like al-tashabbuh bi’l-ilāh, “similarity to the God,” and taʾalluh, “deiformity,” to designate the state of human perfection. Achieving perfection demanded transformation of khulq“

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La Grande chaîne de la conscience – Par Mohammed Rustom

“Dans son Essai sur l’homme, le poète britannique Alexander Pope proposait au XVIIIèsiècle une formulation succincte d’une ancienne doctrine philosophique de la réalité. Cettedoctrine, à laquelle Arthur Lovejoy a donné le nom de “grande chaîne des êtres,” soutientque l’existence est une structure organique, entremêlée et hiérarchisée, reposant sur lesdegrés décroissants d’états de l’existence. La réalité vient de Dieu et elle part de Lui, l’ÊtreSuprême; et elle vient trouver sa fin dans la plus infinitésimale des formes d’existence.Chaque élément du cosmos, y compris le cosmos lui-même, nourrit un lien vital avec lesautres éléments qui en composent la grande chaîne. Pour citer Pope“

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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“

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