Islamic mysticism
mohammad javad dakami; Akbar orvatimovaffagh
Abstract
Introduction
Muslim theologians and philosophers debate the manner in which the world was created by God. Theologians assert that God’s role in creation is characterized in terms of agency-by-intention (fāʿiliyya bi-l-qaṣd), while Peripatetic philosophers argue for agency-by-providence (fāʿiliyya ...
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Introduction
Muslim theologians and philosophers debate the manner in which the world was created by God. Theologians assert that God’s role in creation is characterized in terms of agency-by-intention (fāʿiliyya bi-l-qaṣd), while Peripatetic philosophers argue for agency-by-providence (fāʿiliyya bi-l-ʿināya), and Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) philosophers propose agency-by-agreement (fāʿiliyya bi-l-riḍā). Mullā Ṣadrā and his adherents advocate for agency-by-providence, where their definition of this kind of agency closely aligns with the concept of agency-by-manifestation (fāʿiliyya bi-l-tajallī) as suggested by Muslim mystics. Twentieth-century Muslim philosopher Mahdi Elahi Ghomshei introduced another form of agency, which he calls agency-by-love (fāʿiliyya bi-l-ʿishq). He posits that the primary impetus behind the creation of the world by the necessary existent is His love and delight for His own essence, serving as the source from which all things emanate. Elahi Ghomshei pioneered this concept to explain God’s agency. The central question of this study is whether this concept has precedent in the works of earlier Muslim philosophers and, if so, how it was addressed within those works.
Research Methodology
This research employs the analytic-descriptive method by examining library sources. Initially, we investigate the perspectives of the scholars concerning the agency of the necessary existent, and subsequently, we draw our conclusions.
Discussion and Results
An examination of the writings of philosophers and intellectuals predating Elahi Ghomshei reveals that they did not neglect the significance of love in God’s agency. Indeed, dating back to Plato and Aristotle, the role of love in the agency of the necessary existent has been consistently emphasized. Furthermore, certain philosophers contended that the creation of the world without love is inconceivable. However, instead of employing the term "agency by love," they utilized alternative expressions such as attraction force, natural magnetism, love-based motion, and others, as will be elucidated below.
Plato and Aristotle delved into the concept of the love of the demiurge—the creator of the world—or the unmoving mover for its own essence, highlighting its significance in imparting order and motion to worldly affairs. Among thinkers, Muslim philosophers and mystics stand out for their emphasis on God''s love and delight in His essence. Al-Fārābī offers a nuanced definition of love and delight, positing that the love of the necessary existent for its essence represents the pinnacle of love. He contends that God possesses the utmost perception, directed at the highest perceivable entity—His own essence. Thus, in the realm of the divine, the distinction between lover and beloved collapses, as they are one and the same.
Avicenna contends that the ultimate form of delight is found in the necessary existent''s delight in its own essence. This arises from its perfect perception of all beings, making it impervious to the realm of possibility and nonexistence. Avicenna posits that God is loved for His essence and is the object of love for all beings, suggesting that their very existence is sustained through their love for God. Shaykh al-Ishrāq Suhrawardī and Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn also emphasize God''s profound inherent love for His essence, depicting Him as the most delighted being by its essence, and asserting that this fundamental love and delight are the primary impetuses behind the creation of the world.
Ibn al-ʿArabī asserts that all motion in this world, culminating in the existence of the universe, emanates from love—primarily the love possessed by God and also by other beings and natural causes through divine love. Without such affection, the world would remain unmanifest. Similarly, Imam Khomeini contends that divine love serves as the guiding and directing force in both the natural and supernatural realms (Imam Khomeini 1989, 76). He argues that existence and the sustenance of existence stem from essential love, which acts as both the existence-conferring and sustaining causes of beings. Referring to these two realms as the facilitators of creation and the pathways to perfection, he emphasizes that without this love, no entity could come into being, and no individual or object could attain perfection; thus, the heavens themselves are erected by love.
Conclusion
We conclude that although Mahdi Elahi Ghomshei was the first philosopher to employ the term "agency-by-love" to explain the agency of the necessary existent, discussions regarding God''s love for His own essence trace back to ancient times. Plato, Aristotle, and several other ancient Greek philosophers explored the notion of the creator''s love for its essence. In the Islamic world, mystics, philosophers, and theologians engaged with and endeavored to explain the notion of God''s agency within their respective frameworks. While they present various explanations for God''s agency—such as agency-by-intention, agency-by-providence, agency-by-agreement, or agency-by-manifestation—they unanimously affirm God''s possession of agency-by-love. These philosophers argue that perception is the source of love, with the intensity of love corresponding to the brilliance and beauty of the perceived entity. As God''s essence epitomizes beauty and brilliance, and He is both the perceiver and the perceived by His essence, He possesses the utmost love and delight for His essence.
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.
Islamic mysticism
Amir Pourrastegar
Abstract
AbstractIntroductionThe approach is the attitude and style that the researcher relies on to seek closer to his hypothetical project. In fact, the approach refers to the angle of view or direction that the researcher takes. Collectively, how to deal systematically with a particular issue or situation ...
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AbstractIntroductionThe approach is the attitude and style that the researcher relies on to seek closer to his hypothetical project. In fact, the approach refers to the angle of view or direction that the researcher takes. Collectively, how to deal systematically with a particular issue or situation is called an "approach." In modern literary criticism and analysis, the research is based on a set of approaches based on which the researcher seeks to know and understand, interpret and criticize the texts. Research approaches that have a methodological and sometimes interdisciplinary nature are unique theoretical and methodological frameworks that seek to analyze texts in an epistemological process.MethodologyThe extent of Sufism and mysticism as teachings, experience, art, thought, practice, knowledge, and its schools and practices has led to broad approaches to it. Sufism and mysticism have had many functions, contexts, and influences, both due to their buoyancy in definition and due to their continuous presence in the cultural history of Iran; Therefore, the scientific confrontation with this Iranian phenomenon requires various approaches, so that it is not possible to recognize and analyze Sufism from a fixed perspective. Sufi scholars, especially Western mystics, have used various approaches such as phenomenology, mythology, linguistics, hermeneutics, etc. to recognize and discover the symbols and basically what and how Sufism is.Although the orientalist approach has a long history, it has no background in recognizing and analyzing the approaches with which Western mysticism has explored Sufism. . Due to the study gap, apart from the present study, there is no independent and comprehensive research that has examined the necessity of the methodology and research approach of Orientalists in mystical studies in general, and Louise's mysticism in particular.The basis of the present study is a reflection on the research of Leonard Lewisohn (1953-2018), an American mystic who, in comparison with many orientalists, has analyzed Persian mystical texts with structured methodologies and approaches. This Sufi scholar has used different approaches in his Sufi studies depending on the context and time of the subject. In this discourse, due to the necessity of his mystical approach, he has studied and analyzed Lewisohn's research from this perspective, and we have come to the conclusion that he has well understood that looking at mysticism from a perspective is a component.Or a particular feature, causes the subject to be seized, reduced, or ideologized; Therefore, by choosing both aesthetic and historical-social approaches in his mystical studies, he has sought a more comprehensive and realistic cognition of Sufism.Results and Discussion In his mysticism, Leonard Lewisohn has explored Sufism with specific approaches such as aesthetic, historical, social, and comparative approaches. What the Orientalist's methodological analysis shows is that the socio-historical aspect is more analytical than his other approaches, and his aspects of Sufism no longer have the depth of this approach Lewisohn's aesthetic view of mystical texts is, above all, corresponding to mystical symbolism and its interpretation and literary artistic functions. He considers the aesthetics of Sufism to be inspired and discovered, and calls it the "aesthetics of taste." According to Lewisohn, the aesthetics of Sufism depends on the knowledge of the cognitive metaphors of Sufism, the origin of which is "science". Lewisohn considers the interpretation and decipherment of mystics' allegories as a work of art and believes that interpretation is the discovery of exemplary meanings and the understanding of the relationship between property and kingdom, which is possible by passing through the word and reaching the world of example.Another aesthetic aspect of Lewisohn's research is the discovery of artistic symbols of "infidelity." Lewisohn's explanation of this is not focused on the classification and interpretation of these symbols, but rather on the explanation of the political and social components of infidelity and the transgression of taboos. According to him, infidelity is the secret of esotericism and confrontation with the demonstration of the official religion, which reveals the totalitarian belief of the Sufis. Lewisohn has viewed the literary tradition of blasphemy and superficiality necessarily and exclusively from the socio-political dimension and function of transgression; While this kind of look is a reduction of the subject.History is the basis of Lewisohn's research; In such a way that he has never neglected the socio-historical approach in recognizing Sufism. According to his historical analysis, Sufism has had a wide and continuous function in the intellectual life of Iranians, so much so that he considers Sufism to be the "institutionalized religion of the masses." Examining this aspect of Lewisohn's research, we have come to the conclusion that the most important aspect of his historical approach is the conflict between jurists and Sufis; As far as he believes, the "historical evolution of the Sufi-Mullah transition" is very important for the flow of Sufi thought. The pivotal history of Lewisohn Behnik has revealed the background and time of Iranian Sufism; But sometimes, seeing merely historical matters of spirituality, has caused him to fall into the conflicts of jurists and Sufis and not be able to reveal and introduce the spirituality captured in history and society. The historical approach to the study of Sufi texts, for all its value, sometimes fails to discover the spiritual spirit of mysticism, and the spirituality trapped in history and society becomes merely ideology.
