This paper explores the spiritual chain (silsila), foundational doctrines and practices of the Shādhilīya Sufi order, notably, their Qur’anic and prophetic epistemology, the doctrine of sainthood, spiritual cultivation and Sharia-centered discourse among it prominent representatives.
his article presents an introduction to this special issue of Intellectual History of the Islamicate World. We suggest that this collection of papers broadens the scope of Islamic philosophy by bringing new insights into diverse forms and affective experiences of philosophy. Together, these papers suggest a way of doing Islamic philosophy that is both living and communal. This issue emerges from the community formed within the Islamic Philosophy in Conversation Working Group. As such, the introduction to the collection also serves as a reminder of the necessity of support specifically for women and nonbinary academics, scholars of color, and other minoritized scholars in our field.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/alex-azabache-YSabBvW1aR4-unsplash-scaled.jpg25601707Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2025-02-23 22:40:552025-02-23 22:40:57Introduction: Forms and Functions of Islamic Philosophy – Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed
This is the first in a series of sourcebooks charting the reception of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d.1037) in the Islamic East (from Syria to central Asia) in the 12th-13th centuries CE. Avicenna was the dominant philosophical authority in this period, who provoked generations of thinkers to subtle critique, defense, and development of his ideas. The series will translate and analyze hundreds of passages from works by such figures as al-Ghazālī, al-Suhrawardī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, and many more. This volume focuses especially on issues in metaphysics, dealing with topics like the essence-existence distinction, the problem of universals, free will and determinism, Platonic Forms, good and evil, proofs of God’s existence, and the relationship between philosophy and theology.
Research into the unio mystica has revealed what seems to be an area of “real discussion” between scholars of different traditions of mysticism, particularly those of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although this research serves as a promising start to the dialogue among scholars, it has also raised many questions about a “shared moment” that is nevertheless expressed in “irreducibly diverse” and distinct ways in each tradition. What purpose, for instance, can generic cross-cultural categories serve when they mean little or nothing to scholars in each tradition? By contrast, tradition-specific vocabularies are profuse and often difficult to represent in interlinguistic contexts without significant explanation. The challenge of translating mystical texts, imagery, and ideas across cultures and linguistic traditions raises obvious concerns about the misrepresentation and distortion of traditions in an environment of post-colonial critique. Nevertheless, the continued promise of dialogue calls for specialists of these traditions—particularly non-western and non Christian traditions—to approach, assess, re-formulate, and even challenge the categories of mysticism from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of the traditions that they research.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ulug-Beg-Madrasah-in-Samarkand-Uzbekistan.jpg6831024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2025-01-27 13:23:452025-01-27 13:23:47Rethinking the Unio Mystica: From McGinn to Ibn ʿArabī
In this episode, we discuss Mohammad Rustom’s new book, Inrushes of the Heart, which delves into the life and thought of the Muslim philosopher and Sufi master ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī. The conversation explores the book’s insights into ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt’s original teachings on topics such as God, human agency, and spiritual practice.
Path & Present is a long form conversation hosted by poet, emcee, and teaching-artist Baraka Blue with friends and guests including artists, musicians, authors, and scholars to collectively explore what it means to walk a path of awakening and spiritual discernment in the modern world. Topics covered include spirituality/religion/metaphysics, community, art/music, psychology, social justice, Islam and Muslims in the West, and earth stewardship.
Path & Present Is a community endeavor produced for the sake of sharing the stories of our communities and amplifying the forces of positivity and goodness in the universe. It is made possible through the support of our sponsors such as SufiCorner as well as from our community.
Support Our Podcast: Help us keep these conversations going by becoming a patron. Enjoy exclusive content and behind-the-scenes access while supporting our mission.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flower-8173078_1280.jpg8531280Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2025-01-21 14:50:042025-01-21 14:50:05The Sufi Philosophy of ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt w/ Mohammad Rustom
Entre los escritos de Šihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (m. 587/1191),fundador de la Escuela de la Iluminación y figura clave de la filosofía islámica post-aviceniana, se encuentran una serie de relatos visionarios. En el contexto de cada una de estas narrativas, Suhrawardī emplea numerosas imágenes simbólicas para transmitir varias ideas clave que marcan su filosofía. Dado su lenguaje concreto, estos relatos añaden una dimensión de profundidad que no es fácilmente discernible en las obras filosóficas estrictamente hablando de Suhrawardī, dada la dependencia de estas últimas de un lenguaje abstracto.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/baqeer-gashua-RShyAYht2As-unsplash-scaled.jpg17072560Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2025-01-20 17:33:252025-01-20 17:33:27LA NARRACIÓNCOMO PEDAGOGÍAFILOSÓFICA:EL CASO DE SUHRAWARDĪ
This article explores five remarkable works (currently in unpublished manuscript form) by ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Muṣṭafā (known as “Dan Tafa”) (1804–1864), a 19th-century West African Sufi scholar of the Sokoto Caliphate, to examine the ways in which dreams were (and are) theorized in the unique synthesis of Sufi, occult, philosophi- cal/medical, theological, and exegetical disciplines that characterized discourse about dreams and dream interpretation in Muslim West Africa on the eve of colonial con- quest. Concluding with a brief discussion of what these texts can tell us about Dan Tafa’s conceptions of cosmology, knowledge, and the human self, and the importance thereof for African and Islamic intellectual history, we will also consider the potential relevance of Dan Tafa’s work for the importance and onto-epistemological status of dreams in contemporary West African Sufi communities and attempt to understand why dreams have been and remain so important in these traditions.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Soofie-Mosque-in-Ladysmith-South-Africa.jpg7351024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2025-01-06 23:00:292025-01-06 23:00:32Dreaming Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Dreams and Knowledge in the Works of Shaykh Dan Tafa – Oludamini Ogunnaike
Caner Dagli’s Metaphysical Institutions: Islam & the Modern Project is an interdisciplinary treatise on the nature of shared thinking—with an emphasis on interdisciplinary. What strikes the reader first and foremost is both the many topics Dagli covers—religion, modern philosophy, human consciousness, and of course Islam and modernity, inter alia—and the rationally coherent employment of various disciplines—from various subdisciplines of the humanities and social sciences to linguistics and the physical sciences by which he explores them. Dagli examines the modern academic project of defining and conceptualizing Islam
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Taj-Mahal-Mosque-in-Agra-India-mihrab.jpg7681024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2024-12-30 15:41:142024-12-31 14:16:50Returning to the Central Question of the Humanities: What Does it mean to be Human and to share Human consciousness?
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sultan-Qaboos-Grand-Mosque-in-Muscat-Oman-chandelier.jpg6401024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2024-12-28 13:26:172024-12-28 13:26:19Love in Islamic Philosophy – William C. Chittick
ʿAyn al-Quḍāt was a first-rate philosopher, Sufi master, theologian, legal judge, poet, and scriptural exegete. He was a highly innovative author who wrote in both Arabic and Persian, and whose ideas in so many domains, from cosmology and metaphysics to epistemology and love theory, left an indelible mark upon later Islamic thought. His writings in Persian had a lasting influence upon various Sufi figures and orders in Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and particularly India, while his Arabic writings were studied in intellectual circles throughout the Muslim east into the early modern period, and were even influential during the time of the British Raj.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tin-Mal-mosque-in-Morocco.jpg7681024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2024-12-25 13:17:362024-12-25 13:19:33Ayn al-Qudat – Muhammad U.Faruque and Mohammed Rustom (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Winter 2024 ed)
Scholars often assume that love is a concern alien to Islamic legal discourses. However, the composition of love poetry has been a core cultural competence of elite Muslims throughout the premodern history of Islamicate societies. In fact, love was a preoccupation across disciplines and genres. This article examines a work on love by an important if controversial fourteenth-century jurist, Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymīya. Ibn Taymīya associates love with obedience to God and with solidarity among the believers. He depicts love as cognitively based; while human beings are naturally inclined to various forms of infatuation, love can be redirected to its proper objects (primarily God, the Prophet Muhammad, and other believers) through correct religious instruction. While this understanding of love may seem to contrast with the more universalistic approach popularly associated with Sufism, it resonates with recent scholarship outside of Islamic studies that demonstrates the role of love in sustaining boundaries and hierarchy.
https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tillya-Kori-Madrasah-in-Samarkand-Uzbekistan.jpg6831024Tony Sopranohttps://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beige-Shahada3.pngTony Soprano2024-12-23 10:06:162024-12-23 10:06:18What Muslim Scholars Talk About When They Talk About Love – Marion Katz
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