DOCSLIB.ORG

Ibn Taymiyya's Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ibn Taymiyya's Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science Texts and Studies Edited by H. Daiber VOLUME LXXIII Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism by Jon Hoover LeideN • BostoN 2007 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 3.0) License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. ISSN 0169-8729 ISBN 978 90 04 15847 4 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 47 42019 4 (e-book) Copyright 2007 by Jon Hoover This work is published by Koninklijke Brill NV. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper. TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER CONTENTS Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... xi Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Worship, Religious Epistemology and Theological Jurisprudence ............................................................................................. 19 Ibn Taymiyya as a Theological Jurist ................................................... 19 The Centrality of Worshipping God Alone ...................................... 26 The Correspondence of Reason and Revelation ............................... 29 On Knowing that God Exists and that He Alone should be Worshipped ..................................................................................... 32 The Methodology of Theological Jurisprudence .............................. 46 The Apologetic Quality of Ibn Taymiyya’s Theological Jurisprudence ........................................................................................ 68 Chapter Two: God’s Wise Purpose, Perpetual Activity and Self-Sufficiency .......................................................................................... 70 The Problematic of God’s Goodness and God’s Self-Sufficiency ..................................................................................... 70 Joseph Bell on God’s Wise Purpose and Self-Sufficiency in Ibn Taymiyya’s Theology ............................................................... 72 Ibn Taymiyya’s Classification of Views on Wise Purpose/ Causality in the Will of God ........................................................... 76 The Ash≠arī Case against Causality in the Will of God: It Entails Imperfection and Origination in God, as well as an Infinite Regress .......................................................................... 78 Ibn Taymiyya’s Case for a God Who Acts Perpetually for Wise Purposes and Creates from Eternity .................................... 80 Ibn Taymiyya on God’s Voluntary Acts Subsisting in God’s Essence ........................................................................................ 95 Ibn Taymiyya on God’s Sufficiency apart from the Worlds in the Exercise of Wise Purpose ........................................ 97 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 101 viii contents Chapter Three: God’s Creation and God’s Command ........................ 103 Ibn Taymiyya’s Creation/Command Hermeneutic .......................... 103 Ibn Taymiyya’s Classification of Errors in Creation and Command ............................................................................................. 104 Ibn Taymiyya: Analogy Is the Cause of Error in Creation and Command ..................................................................................... 115 Modes of Expressing Creation and Command in Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought ............................................................................. 119 Ibn Taymiyya Defending the Coherence of Creation and Command ..................................................................................... 129 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 134 Chapter Four: God’s Creation of Acts in the Human Agent ............ 136 Ibn Taymiyya’s View of the Human Act in Prior Research ................................................................................................. 136 The Theological and Philosophical Context ..................................... 137 Ibn Taymiyya on the Compatibility of Divine Creation and Human Action ............................................................................. 146 Ibn Taymiyya’s View of Divine Creation by Means of Secondary Causes ................................................................................ 156 Ibn Taymiyya on Controversial Kalām Terms Relating to Human Agency ............................................................................... 165 Ibn Taymiyya’s Compatibilism as the Golden Mean (wasat$ ) ........................................................................................ 173 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 174 Chapter Five: The Wise Purpose and Origin of Evil ........................... 177 Ibn Taymiyya and the Explanation of Evil in Islamic Theodicies .............................................................................................. 177 Ibn Taymiyya’s Evil Attribution Typology ......................................... 179 Ibn Taymiyya on God’s Wise Purposes in the Creation of Evil ..................................................................................................... 190 Ibn Taymiyya’s Location of the Origin of Evil in Nonexistence (≠adam) ........................................................................ 195 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 209 contents ix Chapter Six: The Justice of God and the Best of All Possible Worlds ......................................................................................................... 211 Introduction .............................................................................................. 211 Ibn Taymiyya’s Three-fold Typology on God’s Justice (≠adl) ....................................................................................................... 212 Ibn Taymiyya on God’s Power and al-Ghazālī’s Best of All Possible Worlds ............................................................................. 224 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 227 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 229 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 239 Ibn Taymiyya’s Writings .......................................................................... 239 Collected Works with Abbreviations ............................................. 239 Ibn Taymiyya’s Treatises with Short Titles .................................... 239 Works of Others Found in the Collected Works of Ibn Taymiyya ................................................................................... 243 Other Arabic and Western Language Sources .................................. 243 Index ................................................................................................................. 255 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a substantial reworking of my 2002 University of Birmingham Ph.D. entitled, “An Islamic Theodicy: Ibn Taymiyya on the Wise Purpose of God, Human Agency, and Problems of Evil and Justice.” David Thomas gently guided and nurtured my doctoral research through many a blind alley. Yahya Michot gave the doctoral thesis text a careful critique and drew my attention to aspects of Ibn Sīnā in Ibn Taymiyya. Both shared generously of their time, and their incisive questions, observations, corrections and suggestions spurred me on to what I trust is now a more accurate reading of Ibn Taymiyya’s theodicy. Many others have engaged me in conversations that provided encourage- ment, taught me much of relevance to Ibn Taymiyya, challenged me to think deeper about what I was doing, and saved me from errors and oversights. In this regard, I wish to thank especially Muammer İskenderoğlu, Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth, Giuseppe Scattolin, Frank Griffel, David Vishanoff, Sha- hab Ahmed, Livnat Holtzman, Caterina Bori, Mairaj Syed, Tariq el-Jamil, David Grafton, Gino Schallenbergh, Aron Zysow, Luciano Verdoscia, Khaled el-Rouayheb, Mark Swanson and Christian van Nispen. The Center for Ara- bic and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut and its director John Meloy kindly provided access to the research and library resources needed to bring this book to completion. Michael Shelley and Marc Schoeni read through the entire text at different stages of preparation and offered their valuable perspectives as educated readers from outside the sub-discipline of Islamic philosophy and theology.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hadith and Its Principles in the Early Days of Islam
    HADITH AND ITS PRINCIPLES IN THE EARLY DAYS OF ISLAM A CRITICAL STUDY OF A WESTERN APPROACH FATHIDDIN BEYANOUNI DEPARTMENT OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Glasgow 1994. © Fathiddin Beyanouni, 1994. ProQuest Number: 11007846 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11007846 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 M t&e name of &Jla&, Most ©racious, Most iKlercifuI “go take to&at tfje iHessenaer aikes you, an& refrain from to&at tie pro&tfuts you. &nO fear gJtati: for aft is strict in ftunis&ment”. ©Ut. It*. 7. CONTENTS Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................4 Abbreviations................................................................................................................ 5 Key to transliteration....................................................................6 A bstract............................................................................................................................7
    [Show full text]
  • Theodicy: an Overview
    1 Theodicy: An Overview Introduction All of us struggle at one time or another in life with why evil happens to someone, either ourselves, our family, our friends, our nation, or perhaps some particularly disturbing instance in the news—a child raped, a school shooting, genocide in another country, a terrorist bombing. The following material is meant to give an overview of the discussion of this issue as it takes place in several circles, especially that of the Christian church. I. The Problem of Evil Defined Three terms, "the problem of evil," "theodicy," and "defense" are important to our discussion. The first two are often used as synonyms, but strictly speaking the problem of evil is the larger issue of which theodicy is a subset because one can have a secular problem of evil. Evil is understood as a problem when we seek to explain why it exists (Unde malum?) and what its relationship is to the world as a whole. Indeed, something might be considered evil when it calls into question our basic trust in the order and structure of our world. Peter Berger in particular has argued that explanations of evil are necessary for social structures to stay themselves against chaotic forces. It follows, then, that such an explanation has an impact on the whole person. As David Blumenthal observes, a good theodicy is one that has three characteristics: 1. "[I]t should leave one with one’s sense of reality intact." (It tells the truth about reality.) 2. "[I]t should leave one empowered within the intellectual-moral system in which one lives." (Namely, it should not deny God’s basic power or goodness.) 3.
    [Show full text]
  • International Mevlana Symposiuın Papers
    International Mevlana Symposiuın Papers ,. Birleşmiş Minetler 2007 Eğitim, Bilim ve Kültür MevlAnA CelAleddin ROmi Kurumu 800. ~um Yıl Oönümü United Nations Educaöonal, Scientific and aoo:ı Anniversary of Cu/tura! Organlzatlon the Birth of Rumi Symposium organization commitlee Prof. Dr. Mahmut Erol Kılıç (President) Celil Güngör Volume 3 Ekrem Işın Nuri Şimşekler Motto Project Publication Tugrul İnançer Istanbul, June 20 ı O ISBN 978-605-61104-0-5 Editors Mahmut Erol Kılıç Celil Güngör Mustafa Çiçekler Katkıda bulunanlar Bülent Katkak Muttalip Görgülü Berrin Öztürk Nazan Özer Ayla İlker Mustafa İsmet Saraç Asude Alkaylı Turgut Nadir Aksu Gülay Öztürk Kipmen YusufKat Furkan Katkak Berat Yıldız Yücel Daglı Book design Ersu Pekin Graphic application Kemal Kara Publishing Motto Project, 2007 Mtt İletişim ve Reklam Hizmetleri Şehit Muhtar Cad. Tan Apt. No: 13 1 13 Taksim 1 İstanbul Tel: (212) 250 12 02 Fax: (212) 250 12 64 www.mottoproject.com 8-12 Mayıs 2007 Bu kitap, tarihinde Kültür ve yayirı[email protected] Turizm Bakanlıgı himayesinde ve Başbakanlık Tamtma Fonu'nun katkılanyla İstanbul ve Konya'da Printing Mas Matbaacılık A.Ş. düzerılenen Uluslararası Mevhiııfı Sempozyumu bildirilerini içermektedir. Hamidiye Mahallesi, Soguksu Caddesi, No. 3 Kagıtlıane - İstanbul The autlıors are responsible for tlıe content of tlıe essays .. Tei. 0212 294 10 00 "W e are the inheritors of the lig ht of Muhammad": Rumi, ada b, and Muhammadan intimacy ümid Safi 1 lran 1 WlLL begin by two stories about relations between Mawlana and his do se companions, each revealing one facet of his un derstanding of the Prophet. One day Shaykh Shas al-Din Multi (Malati?) had come to see Mawlana.
    [Show full text]
  • An Atheistic Argument from Ugliness
    AN ATHEISTIC ARGUMENT FROM UGLINESS SCOTT F. AIKIN & NICHOLAOS JONES Vanderbilt University University of Alabama in Huntsville Author posting. (c) European Journal of Philosophy of Religion 7.1 (Spring 2015). This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version is available at http://www.philosophy-of- religion.eu/contents19.html This is a penultimate draft. Please cite only the published version. Abstract The theistic argument from beauty has what we call an ‘evil twin’, the argument from ugliness. The argument yields either what we call ‘atheist win’, or, when faced with aesthetic theodicies, ‘agnostic tie’ with the argument from beauty. 1 AN ATHEISTIC ARGUMENT FROM UGLINESS I. EVIL TWINS FOR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS The theistic argument from beauty is a teleological argument. Teleological arguments take the following form: 1. The universe (or parts of it) exhibit property X 2. Property X is usually (if not always) brought about by the purposive actions of those who created objects for them to be X. 3. The cases mentioned in Premise 1 are not explained (or fully explained) by human action 4. Therefore: The universe is (likely) the product of a purposive agent who created it to be X, namely God. The variety of teleological arguments is as broad as substitution instances for X. The standard substitutions have been features of the universe (or it all) fine-tuned for life, or the fact of moral action. One further substitution has been beauty. Thus, arguments from beauty. A truism about teleological arguments is that they have evil twins.
    [Show full text]
  • A Traditionalist's Response to the Falāsifa
    The Virtuous Son of the Rational: A Traditionalist’s Response to the Falsifa (Conference Paper for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, Oct. 14–16, 2005) Nahyan Fancy University of Notre Dame Dimitri Gutas has recently made a strong case for considering the three centuries after Ibn Sn (d. 1037, lat. Avicenna) as the “Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy.”1 He argues that the “originality and depth of philosophical thought” and the “diffusion of philosophical work and influence on society in general” during this period far surpassed that of earlier and later periods.2 He traces the deep penetration of falsafa3 into Islamic intellectual life to the towering figure of Ibn Sn himself, who, by engaging with the religious and theological concerns and discussions of his day, made falsafa relevant for all subsequent discussions on philosophical and theological topics.4 Recent work by Robert Wisnovsky and Ayman Shihadeh has substantiated Gutas’s claim by further illuminating how much Ibn Sn was influenced by and, in turn, influenced subsequent theological discussions in kalm5 and other religious circles.6 What is abundantly clear from these studies is that thirteenth century philosophical and theological discussions had to contend with Ibn Sn’s sophisticated philosophical system, for it rationally defended and interpreted religious doctrines and 1 Dimitri Gutas, “The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000–ca. 1350,” in Avicenna and His Heritage: Acts of the International Colloquium, Leuven-Louvain-La-Neuve, September 8–September 11, 1999, ed. Jules Janssens and Daniel De Smet (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002), pp. 81–97.
    [Show full text]
  • Desiring Postcolonial Britain: Genre Fiction Since the Satanic Verses
    Desiring Postcolonial Britain: Genre Fiction sinceThe Satanic Verses Sarah Post, BA (Hons), MA Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2012 This thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in substantially the same form for the award of a higher degree elsewhere ProQuest Number: 11003747 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11003747 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 1 Acknowledgements The completion of this project would not have been possible without the academic, financial and emotional support of a great number of people. I would like to thank all those that offered advice on early drafts of my work at conferences and through discussions in the department. Special thanks go to the Contemporary Gothic reading group at Lancaster for engendering lively debate that fed into my understanding of what the Gothic can do today. Equally, I could not have finished the project without financial support, for which I am grateful to the Lancaster English Department for a fee waiver and to Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Jami and Nava'i/Fani's Rewritings of Hafez's Opening Ghazal
    Imitational Poetry as Pious Hermeneutics? Jami and Nava’i/Fani’s Rewritings of Hafez’s Opening Ghazal Marc Toutant To cite this version: Marc Toutant. Imitational Poetry as Pious Hermeneutics? Jami and Nava’i/Fani’s Rewritings of Hafez’s Opening Ghazal. Charles Melville. The Timurid Century, 9, I.B. Tauris, 2020, The Idea of Iran, 9781838606886. hal-02906016 HAL Id: hal-02906016 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02906016 Submitted on 23 Jul 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Imitational Poetry as Pious Hermeneutics? Jami and Nava’i/Fani’s Rewritings of Hafez’s Opening Ghazal Marc Toutant (CNRS Paris) He was the unique of the age (nadera-ye zaman) and a prodigy of the world (o‘juba-ye jahan). These are the first words with which Dowlatshah Samarqandi begins the notice he devotes to Hafez in his Tazkerat al-sho‘ara in 1486. Then he adds: ‘His excellence (fazilat) and his perfection (kamal) are endless and the art of poetry is unworthy of his rank. He is incomparable in the science of Qur’an and he is illustrious in the sciences of the exoteric (zaher) and the esoteric (baten).’1 Although Hafez died in 1389, his poetry was widely celebrated one century later, as shown by Dowlatshah’s eulogy.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study on the Theory of God's Science of Maturidi School Cunping
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 328 4th International Conference on Humanities Science and Society Development (ICHSSD 2019) A Study On the Theory of God's Science of Maturidi School Cunping Yun School of Foreign Language, Northwest Minzu University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730050 [email protected] Keywords: Islamic theology, The science of God, Maturidi school Abstract: Maturidi school is one of the two pillars of Sunni sect in Islamic theology. In the heated debate on Islamic dogmatics, Maturidi school unswervingly protected the authority of the Book and the reason and became the one of the founders of the Sunni theology. Maturidi school successfully applied dialectical principles to ensure the supremacy of the Scriptures and at the same time upheld the role of the reason. They maintained a more rational and tolerant attitude toward many issues, and it is called "Moderatism"by the Sunni scholars. The thought of Maturidi school spread all over Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Rome, Persian, Turkey, Egypt and China ,etc.. In today's globalized and diversified international situation, it is of great significance to enhance the study of Maturidi school's theological thought, especially it's theory of God's Science in order to promote ideological and cultural exchanges between our country and Muslim world and to enhance the mutual understanding. 1. Introduction Muslims began to argue about the fundamental principles of Islamic belief after the Prophet passed away. And some muslim scholars even touched upon the theological questions like the essence, attributes of Allah and the relationship between human and the universe in the influence of foreign cultures of Greece, Persia and Syria, and then ＂Ilm El-Kalam＂(Islamic theology) came into being.
    [Show full text]
  • I Am a Salafi : a Study of the Actual and Imagined Identities of Salafis
    The Hashemite Kingdom Jordan The Deposit Number at The National Library (2014/5/2464) 251.541 Mohammad Abu Rumman I Am A Salafi A Study of The Actual And Imagined Identities of Salafis / by Mohammad Abu Rumman Amman:Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2014 Deposit No.:2014/5/2464 Descriptors://Islamic Groups//Islamic Movement Published in 2014 by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Jordan & Iraq FES Jordan & Iraq P.O. Box 941876 Amman 11194 Jordan Email: [email protected] Website: www.fes-jordan.org Not for sale © FES Jordan & Iraq All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publishers. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the original author. They do not necessarily represent those of the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung or the editor. Translation: Dr. Hassan Barari Editing: Amy Henderson Cover: YADONIA Group Printing: Economic Printing Press ISBN: 978-9957-484-41-5 2nd Edition 2017 2 I AM A SALAFI A Study of the Actual and Imagined Identities of Salafis by Mohammad Abu Rumman 3 4 Dedication To my parents Hoping that this modest endeavor will be a reward for your efforts and dedication 5 Table of Contents DEDICATION ........................................................................................................ 5 FOREWORD .......................................................................................................... 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Tawaqquf and Acceptance of Human Evolution
    2 | Theological Non-Commitment (Tawaqquf) in Sunni Islam and Its Implications for Muslim Acceptance of ​ Human Evolution Author Biography Dr. David Solomon Jalajel is a consultant with the Prince Sultan Research ​ Institute at King Saud University and holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of the Western Cape. Formerly, he was a lecturer in Islamic theology and legal theory at the Dar al-Uloom in Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests concern how traditional approaches to Islamic theology and law relate to contemporary Muslim society. He has published Women and Leadership ​ in Islamic Law: A Critical Survey of Classical Legal Texts (Routledge), Islam and ​ Biological Evolution: Exploring Classical Sources and Methodologies (UWC) and Expressing I`rāb: The Presentation of Arabic Grammatical Analysis (UWC). ​ Disclaimer: The views, opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in these papers and articles are strictly those of the authors. Furthermore, Yaqeen does not endorse any of the personal views of the authors on any platform. Our team is diverse on all fronts, allowing for constant, enriching dialogue that helps us produce high-quality research. Copyright © 2019, 2020. Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research 3 | Theological Non-Commitment (Tawaqquf) in Sunni Islam and Its Implications for Muslim Acceptance of ​ Human Evolution Abstract Traditional Muslims have been resistant to the idea of human evolution, justifying their stance by the account of Adam and Eve being created without parents as traditionally understood from the apparent (ẓāhir ) meaning of the Qur’an and ​ Sunnah. The account of the creation of these two specific individuals belongs to a category of questions that Sunni theologians refer to as the samʿiyyāt, “revealed ​ ​ knowledge.” These are matters for which all knowledge comes exclusively from Islam’s sacred texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/25/2021 04:49:01PM Via Free Access 348 Glossary of Proper Names
    Glossary of Proper Names A ʿAbdAllāh b.ʿUmar (d. 73/693): Companion of the Prophet and son of the Caliph ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb. Was active in narrating traditions from the Prophet and gained a rep- utation for his precision in recalling events that took place during the Prophet’s life. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Abū Bakr (d. 363/974): Ḥanbalī muḥaddith and jurist who transmitted the Kitāb al-Amr of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd (Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Ḥumayd) (d. 249/863): Early muḥaddith who compiled his own musnad work. Prominent ḥadīth scholars nar- rated from him, including al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, and Muslim. ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Qāḍī Abū al-Ḥasan (d. 415/1025): Major Muʿtazilī theologian, a Shāfiʿī, who presented a systematic discussion of Muʿtazilī doctrine in his ten- volume work al-Mughnī fī abwāb al-tawḥīd wa-l-ʿadl. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166): Well-known Sufi and Ḥanbalī scholar in Baghdad who, after his death, became the eponym of the Qādiriyya Sufi order. Was greatly respected by Ibn Taymiyya, who wrote a commentary on ʿAbd al-Qādir’s mystical treatise Futūḥ al-ghayb. al-Abharī, Athīr al-Dīn (d. 663/1264 or 1265): Influential philosopher, astronomer, as- trologer, and mathematician. His philosophical tracts Īsāghūjī and Hidāyatal-ḥikma are commonly taught in seminaries and other scholastic settings around the world. Abū Ḥanīfa, al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit (d. 150/767): Founder and eponym of the Ḥanafī school of law. Studied with many noteworthy jurists and theologians, particularly the Kufan legal scholar Ḥammād b.
    [Show full text]
  • Divine Love in Early Persian Prose* William C
    129-143 Chittick Divine Love_Layout 1 16/08/2013 20:20 Page 129 Divine Love in Early Persian Prose* William C. Chittick eaders of this journal are no doubt familiar with Persian poets like R cAttar and Rumi, famous for their celebration of love. What is much less well known is that the theological vision shared by these poets was given explicit formulation by a series of prose works written in the century leading up to cAttar, who died in 1221. If we try to understand the teachings of the poets without this theological background, it is difficult to grasp what they are saying. To illustrate what I have in mind, I want to look at a few short passages drawn from this early period. The most famous Persian classic on love appeared during the life- time of Sanaʾi (d. 1131), the first major poet of love. This was a short book called Apparitions (Sawanih) by Ahmad Ghazali, who died in 1126, fifteen years after his illustrious brother, the theologian, philoso- pher, and Sufi Muhammad Ghazali. Ahmad’s Apparitions is relatively well known and has been translated into English,1 so here I will look at two other scholars whose significance has been underrated or ignored. One is cAbdallah Ansari from Herat, who died forty years before Ahmad, in the year 1088. He is the author of the classic Arabic description of the stages on the path to God, The Way Stations of the Travelers (Manazil al-saʾirin). He also wrote a great deal in Persian, much of it addressing the role of love in the spiritual life.
    [Show full text]