Islamic mysticism
Azita Belali e oskui; Morteza shajari; mina heydaritorkmani; seyd jalal mousavi sharabiani
Abstract
IntroductionHuman agency, both in creation and in recognition of architectural space and their interaction with the space, has been affected by the hidden harmony that is generated in the space, which turns the architectural space away from its static state, stillness, and lifelessness, and the core ...
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IntroductionHuman agency, both in creation and in recognition of architectural space and their interaction with the space, has been affected by the hidden harmony that is generated in the space, which turns the architectural space away from its static state, stillness, and lifelessness, and the core of the harmony is indeed the “unity”; that is, multiple parts find unity and totality within a whole that creates a sense inside, which fits the aesthetic desire and indeed the internal human self, because the human self seeks unity and suffers from multiplicity, diffusion, and conflicts (Ardalan et al., 2011). In fact, it might be acknowledged that architecture as a created work secretly involves the creation of multiplicity and turning it into unity in interaction with humans. Given the idea of the unity of existence (waḥdat al-wujūd) in Islamic mysticism, a world is portrayed that is, first, divine and spiritual, where the song of holiness resonates, and second, it involves a unity by which all multiple parts are unified, or more precisely speaking, all that exists is a manifestation or representation of the one unified reality. In this way, art in general and architecture in particular might come to have a different color. Unity of existence is evident in architectural work in the Islamic world, but the character of this unity is not adequately discussed. A genuine perception of unity in architectural space is not confined to external senses. To the contrary, in its higher degrees, i.e., internal senses, it affects the observer. The goal of the present research to identify the nature of this unity and how it occurs. The question of our research is as follows: are Ibn ʿArabī’s views of unity applicable to architectural space, and what material grounds are prepared in architectural space to attain the unity? To answer the question, we begin with an overview of Ibn ʿArabī’s mystical view, where the question of existence and knowledge of unity is discussed as the foundation of Ibn ʿArabī’s mysticism.According to our surveys, the issue of whether Ibn ʿArabī’s account of unity is applicable to architectural space has not been properly addressed in the past research. Instead, issues of the unity of existence and multiplicity within unity have been discussed separately in philosophy and architecture. Moreover, the architectural literature tends to focus on corporeal, visual, and symbolic aspects of architectural parts in the realization of unity. In the present research, we drawAssociate Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran (Corresponding Author). oskoyi@tabirziau.ac.irProfessor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. mortezashajari@gmail.comD. Candidate of Islamic Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran. m.haydari@tabriziau.ac.irAssistant Professor, Department of Islamic Education, Faculty of Multimedia, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran. sjsharabiani@tabriziau.ac.irDate received: 2022/03/19, Date of acceptance: 2022/07/19 This article has been extracted from the course "Wisdom in Islamic Architecture" in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Tabriz Islamic Art University.on Ibn ʿArabī’s views about the questions of existence and knowledge of unity as the foundation of his mysticism to tackle material and perceptual grounds in the Islamic architectural space to examine the move from multiplicity to unity.Method of ResearchMethodologically speaking, the present research is descriptive-analytic, adopting the qualitative research approach. Qualitative research involves identification of the relevant references, studies and overviews of the written sources, comprehension of their meanings, and extraction of the relevant material, establishment of relations between issues, and providing descriptions and analyses of them.Discussion and ResultsCreation of multiplicity in architectural space and its transformation into unity has been effective in attaining an understanding of the existential unity, such that this understanding in architectural space was a determinant of the degree of the work’s life, and was somehow a cause of its existence. In fact, to attain such a unity, the human presence and existence in the space is undoubtedly what engenders a motion toward its recognition. Accordingly, the move from multiplicity to unity in architectural space implies physical movement (translocation – ocular) and semantic movement (mental movement). During the movement in architectural space, the observer’s physical movement turns into visual movement, which in turn results in reception of a series of regression and connections in the observer’s mind, leading to his or her mental movement. However, once the observer begins to recognize and see signs, it enables him or her to move in the world of imagination to attain unity. In fact, genuine unity is obtained through human imagination.ConclusionThere is a remarkable correspondence between perceptions of existential unity in both philosophy and architecture. On Ibn ʿArabī’s account, imagination is perception of images in the soul after having seen something. Indeed, imagination is the intermediary between dualities. So in his view, human imagination is capable of attaining unity in the world that is abstracted or detached from the sensible world (existence of multiplicity). Furthermore, in the unity of existence, finding the existence is the same as coming to exist, where the finding is through intuitions and revelations. In the Imam Mosque of Isfahan (or the Shah Mosque), manifestation of the pairs [imagination being in pair] in space provides a bedrock for the observer’s intuition and revelation of unity through a definition of hierarchies and qualitative geometry based on the principle of the centrality and symmetry and existence of light.
MOHAMMAD SMAILE ABDOLLAHY
Abstract
IntroductionThis study aims to investigate the relationship between the world of unity and the world of plurality based on Quranic reading and tries to reject the rival theory and the hypothesis of "establishing a relationship between unity and plurality based on the personal unity of existence" based ...
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IntroductionThis study aims to investigate the relationship between the world of unity and the world of plurality based on Quranic reading and tries to reject the rival theory and the hypothesis of "establishing a relationship between unity and plurality based on the personal unity of existence" based on studies and analyzes. Examine the basic Qur'an. The body of research consists of: explaining the personal unity of existence and critique of rival theories and reciting and explaining the Qur'an the chosen theory. By studying the relative interactions of the world of plurality with the world of unity, several studies have been conducted, including: the article "The possibility of personal unity of existence in transcendent wisdom" by Hossein Suzanchi; The article "A method and in proving the content of the personal unity of existence" written by Vahid Vahed Javan et al .; Article "Unity and plurality of existence in transcendent wisdom and mysticism" by Seyyed Hamid Reza Hassani; The article "Reflections on the Evidence of Personal Unity of Existence" written by Mohammad Ali Mohiti Ardakan and Mohammad Fanaei Eshkevari. Although these articles have somehow dealt with the relationship between the world of unity and the world of plurality and the analysis of the personal unity of existence, they have never targeted the basic and documented reading of the Qur'an, which is the mission of this research. MaterialThe present research is a research, theoretical and its method is descriptive-analytical. The research approach is also qualitative; Qualitative research requires identifying sources related to the research topic, studying texts, understanding the meaning of the text and extracting the desired content from these sources, establishing a relationship between the content and describing and analyzing them, and discussing and concluding the collected information. ResultsBased on research and referring to the Holy Quran, it was found that the relationship between the world of plurality and the world of unity is of the type of relationship "was" and "appearance" or the relationship of "truth of existence" and "manifestation of existence" called "personal unity of existence" Is summarized. There are many verses to prove this mystical approach in relation to the world of plurality and the world of unity. With the mystical analysis of the relevant verses, the strategic statement "Existence is unique in the Almighty and the world of possibilities is its manifestations, manifestations and events" was extracted, which can be the basis for further research on the system of Qur'anic mysticism. ConclusionIn mystical ontology, how the world of plurality relates to the world of unity is one of the main axes. The relationship between the world of unity and the world of plurality has long been the subject of controversy among philosophers and sages. Different views are presented in this regard. What has been considered most of all is the theory of the personal unity of existence in these proportions. Mystics try to develop this theory with rational and intuitive analysis and base it on other scientific theories. Based on research and referring to the Holy Quran, it was found that the relationship between the world of plurality and the world of unity is of the type of relationship "was" and "appearance" or the relationship of "truth of existence" and "manifestation of existence".
Mohammadreza Balanian; Morteza Hajihosseini
Volume 5, Issue 3 , November 2014, , Pages 1-24
Abstract
Abandoningtheactive intellectas the main cause of perceptual forms, is there any different approach, based ontheprinciples ofSadra’s philosophy, to explain the process of human knowledge obtaining? Thispaper arguesthough Sadra devoted many pages in his works to the quality of human knowledgeobtaining, ...
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Abandoningtheactive intellectas the main cause of perceptual forms, is there any different approach, based ontheprinciples ofSadra’s philosophy, to explain the process of human knowledge obtaining? Thispaper arguesthough Sadra devoted many pages in his works to the quality of human knowledgeobtaining, with the focus on the active intellect as the main cause, certainprinciples oftranscendentwisdom of Sadra, make us needless from that defective analysis and provide us with a more acceptableandeasierapproach. This approach is based on his peculiar principles and innovations such as existentialism,gradual unity of existence, existential identity of the human, the unification of intellect and intelligibe, and the knowledge division into simple and compound. We will show that these principles allow us to defendthe existential openness of levels of existence towards each other. Also, relying on existential motion of human, they explain the process of human cognition justifiably
Abandoningtheactive intellectas the main cause of perceptual forms, is there any different approach, based ontheprinciples ofSadra’s philosophy, to explain the process of human knowledge obtaining? Thispaper arguesthough Sadra devoted many pages in his works to the quality of human knowledgeobtaining, with the focus on the active intellect as the main cause, certainprinciples oftranscendentwisdom of Sadra, make us needless from that defective analysis and provide us with a more acceptableandeasierapproach. This approach is based on his peculiar principles and innovations such as existentialism,gradual unity of existence, existential identity of the human, the unification of intellect and intelligibe, and the knowledge division into simple and compound. We will show that these principles allow us to defendthe existential openness of levels of existence towards each other. Also, relying on existential motion of human, they explain the process of human cognition justifiably.
Keywords:existentialism, unity of existence, conceiving the man as a unity, the unification of the intellect and the intelligibe, simple knowledge
