The Wisdom of the Mystic East

The Wisdom of the Mystic East PDF Author: John Walbridge
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791450529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
An expert on the thought of medieval Islamic philosopher Suhrawardi argues that philosophers have romanticized this work as a revival of “oriental” wisdom.

Ibn al-'Arabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture

Ibn al-'Arabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture PDF Author: Caner K Dagli
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317673913
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 1240) was one of the towering figures of Islamic intellectual history, and among Sufis still bears the title of al-shaykh al-akbar, or "the greatest master." Ibn al-'Arabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture traces the history of the concept of "oneness of being" (wahdat al-wujūd) in the school of Ibn al- 'Arabī, in order to explore the relationship between mysticism and philosophy in Islamic intellectual life. It examines how the conceptual language used by early mystical writers became increasingly engaged over time with the broader Islamic intellectual culture, eventually becoming integrated with the latter’s common philosophical and theological vocabulary. It focuses on four successive generations of thinkers (Sadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, Mu'ayyad al-Dīn al-Jandī, 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī, and Dāwūd al-Qaysarī), and examines how these "philosopher-mystics" refined and developed the ideas of Ibn al-'Arabī. Through a close analysis of texts, the book clearly traces the crystallization of an influential school of thought in Islamic history and its place in the broader intellectual culture. Offering an exploration of the development of Sufi expression and thought, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic thought, philosophy, and mysticism.

The Heritage of Sufism

The Heritage of Sufism PDF Author: Leonard Lewisohn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1786075288
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 685

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Book Description
This collection - the second of a three-volume study - examines the roots of the artistic, literary and cultural renaissance of Sufism from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It includes essays on Rumi's poetry and imagery; Sufi music and the idea of ecstacy; sainthood and Neoplatonism; comparative metaphysics and literature; and unity of religion theory in Sufi philosophy.

Suhrawardī’s Illuminationism

Suhrawardī’s Illuminationism PDF Author: Jari Kaukua
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004514104
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
In Suhrawardī’s Illuminationism, Jari Kaukua offers a new interpretation of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191 CE) illuminationist (ishrāqī) philosophy. Commonly portrayed as a philosophically inclined mystic, Suhrawardī appears here as a perspicacious critic of Avicenna who developed his critique into an alternative philosophical system. Focusing on metaphysics and theory of science, Kaukua argues that Suhrawardī’s illuminationist philosophy combines rigorous metaphysical monism with a modest but positive assessment of scientific explanation. This philosophical core of Suhrawardī’s illuminationism is reconcilable with but independent of the mystical side of the shaykh al-ishrāq.

Polished Mirror

Polished Mirror PDF Author: Cyrus Ali Zargar
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1786072025
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Islamic philosophy and Sufism evolved as distinct yet interweaving strands of Islamic thought and practice. Despite differences, they have shared a concern with the perfection of the soul through the development of character. In The Polished Mirror, Cyrus Ali Zargar studies the ways in which, through teaching and storytelling, pre-modern Muslims lived, negotiated, and cultivated virtues. Examining the writings of philosophers, ascetics, poets, and saints, he locates virtue ethics within a dynamic moral tradition. Innovative, engaging, and approachable, this work – the first in the English language to explore Islamic ethics in the fascinating context of narrative – will be a valuable resource for both students and scholars.

Sufi Cosmology

Sufi Cosmology PDF Author: Christian Lange
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004392610
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This volume discusses origin, structure and levels of existence of the created world and the place of human beings in it, according to the major Sufi thinkers of all times.

World of Image in Islamic Philosophy

World of Image in Islamic Philosophy PDF Author: van Lit L. W. C. van Lit
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474415873
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
One of the most controversial issues that divided Islamic philosophers and theologians during the Middle Ages was whether human beings would have a spiritual or bodily existence after death. The idea of a world of image was conceived as a solution, suggesting that there exists a world of non-physical (imagined) bodies, beyond our earthly existence. This world may be reached in sleep, in meditation or after death.From the embryonic conception by Ibn Sina, to the radical rethinking by Suhrawardi and Shahrazuri into a sophisticated system, L. W. C. van Lit unravels the history of this idea. Using a distant reading approach for measuring the transmission, he further shows how the idea remained relevant for Muslim thinkers through the centuries, up until today.

The Heirs of Avicenna: Philosophy in the Islamic East, 12-13th Centuries

The Heirs of Avicenna: Philosophy in the Islamic East, 12-13th Centuries PDF Author: Peter Adamson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004503994
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 742

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Book Description
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.

The Seat of Consciousness in Ancient Literature

The Seat of Consciousness in Ancient Literature PDF Author: Richard E. Lind
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476609373
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
For early civilizations, consciousness and the sense of self were experienced as located in the center of the body, most often near to or within the physical heart. Enlightenment was understood as the illumination of a transformed "spiritual heart." Thus the mind of the body as a whole was represented by the heart-soul. In contrast, modern culture places consciousness within the brain, resulting in a mind/body dualism. This separation of mind and body has recently been emphasized as characteristic of the psychopathologies of the modern self. This volume explores the understanding and experience of consciousness in the earliest civilizations before about 500 BCE. Beginning with a description of ancient Western and Eastern heart-consciousness, the psychological and spiritual manifestations of the ancient mature heart-soul are summarized. Ancestor worship, lineage identity, primitive consciousness and the ways in which the external world was mirrored by the inner world provide additional clues about the experience of heart-consciousness. Finally, the work addresses the fundamental changes in the experience of consciousness that led to the mind/body dualism of today.

The Triumph of Mercy

The Triumph of Mercy PDF Author: Mohammed Rustom
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438443412
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Discusses philosopher Mulla Sadras commentary on the opening chapter of the Quran. This book investigates the convergence of philosophy, scriptural exegesis, and mysticism in the thought of the celebrated Islamic philosopher Mulla Sadra (d. 1050/1640). Through a careful presentation of the theoretical and practical dimensions of Sadras Quranic hermeneutics, Mohammed Rustom highlights the manner in which Sadra offers a penetrating metaphysical commentary upon the Fatiha, the chapter of the Quran that occupies central importance in Muslim daily life. Engaging such medieval intellectual giants as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1210) and Ibn Arabi (d. 638/1240) on the one hand, and the wider disciplines of philosophy, theology, Sufism, and Quranic exegesis on the other, Sadras commentary upon the Fatiha provides him with the opportunity to modify and recast many of his philosophical positions within a scripture-based framework. He thereby reveals himself to be a profound religious thinker who, among other things, argues for the salvation of all human beings in the afterlife.