Author: Salman H. Bashier Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 0791484343 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
This book explores how Ibn al-'Arabi (1165–1240) used the concept of barzakh (the Limit) to deal with the philosophical problem of the relationship between God and the world, a major concept disputed in ancient and medieval Islamic thought. The term "barzakh" indicates the activity or actor that differentiates between things and that, paradoxically, then provides the context of their unity. Author Salman H. Bashier looks at early thinkers and shows how the synthetic solutions they developed provided the groundwork for Ibn al-'Arabi's unique concept of barzakh. Bashier discusses Ibn al-'Arabi's development of the concept of barzakh ontologically through the notion of the Third Thing and epistemologically through the notion of the Perfect Man, and compares Ibn al-'Arabi's vision with Plato's.
Author: Salman H. Bashier Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 1438437447 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 219
Book Description
In this innovative work, Salman H. Bashier challenges traditional views of Islamic philosophy. While Islamic thought from the crucial medieval period is often depicted as a rationalistic elaboration on Aristotelian philosophy and an attempt to reconcile it with the Muslim religion, Bashier puts equal emphasis on the influence of Plato's philosophical mysticism. This shift encourages a new reading of Islamic intellectual tradition, one in which boundaries between philosophy, religion, mysticism, and myth are relaxed. Bashier shows the manner in which medieval Islamic philosophers reflected on the relation between philosophy and religion as a problem that is intrinsic to philosophy and shows how their deliberations had the effect of redefining the very limits of their philosophical thought. The problems of the origin of human beings, human language, and the world in Islamic philosophy are discussed. Bashier highlights the importance of Ibn Ṭufayl's Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, a landmark work often overlooked by scholars, and the thought of the great Sufi mystic Ibn al-ʿArabī to the mainstream of Islamic philosophy.
Author: William C. Chittick Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 0791498980 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 507
Book Description
Ibn al-'Arabi is still known as "the Great Sheik" among the surviving Sufi orders. Born in Muslim Spain, he has become famous in the West as the greatest mystical thinker of Islamic civilization. He was a great philosopher, theologian, and poet. William Chittick takes a major step toward exposing the breadth and depth of Ibn al-'Arabi's vision. The book offers his view of spiritual perfection and explains his theology, ontology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and soteriology. The clear language, unencumbered by methodological jargon, makes it accessible to those familiar with other spiritual traditions, while its scholarly precision will appeal to specialists. Beginning with a survey of Ibn al-'Arabi's major teachings, the book gradually introduces the most important facets of his thought, devoting attention to definitions of his basic terminology. His teachings are illustrated with many translated passages introducing readers to fascinating byways of spiritual life that would not ordinarily be encountered in an account of a thinker's ideas. Ibn al-'Arabi is allowed to describe in detail the visionary world from which his knowledge derives and to express his teachings in his own words. More than 600 passages from his major work, al-Futuhat al-Makkivva, are translated here, practically for the first time. These alone provide twice the text of the Fusus al-hikam. The exhaustive indexes make the work an invaluable reference tool for research in Sufism and Islamic thought in general.
Author: William C. Chittick Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 0791498964 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 527
Book Description
The Self-Disclosure of God offers the most detailed presentation to date in any Western language of the basic teachings of Islam's greatest mystical philosopher and theologian. It represents a major step forward in making available to the Western reading public the enormous riches of Islamic teachings in the fields of cosmology, mystical philosophy, theology, and spirituality. The Self-Disclosure of God continues the author's investigations of the world view of Ibn al-ʿArabī, the greatest theoretician of Sufism and the "seal of the Muhammadan saints." The book is divided into three parts, dealing with the relation between God and the cosmos, the structure of the cosmos, and the nature of the human soul. A long introduction orients the reader and discusses a few of the difficulties faced by Ibn al-ʿArabī's interpreters. Like Chittick's earlier work, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, this book is based primarily on Ibn al-ʿArabī's monumental work, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah "The Meccan Openings." More than one hundred complete chapters and subsections are translated, not to mention shorter passages that help put the longer discussions in context. There are detailed indices of sources, Koranic verses and hadiths. The book's index of technical terminology will be an indispensable reference for all those wishing to delve more deeply into the use of language in Islamic thought in general and Sufism in particular.
Author: Michel Chodkiewicz Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 0791499006 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 202
Book Description
An Ocean Without Shore is a study of Ibn Arabi, known in Islam as al-Shaykh al-Akbar, the Greatest Spiritual Master. In the introduction, Chodkiewicz provides a good deal of documentation for the often heard claim that Ibn Arabi has been the most influential thinker in Islam over the past seven hundred years. He shows that this has been true, not only among the intellectual elite, but also among the common believers. He explains why a few Muslims have considered Ibn al-Arabi the greatest heretic of Islam, while for many others he is Islam's greatest spiritual teacher. In the main body of the book, Chodkiewicz demonstrates that Ibn Arabi's writings are firmly grounded in the Koran. In doing this he also shows that Ibn Arabi's Koranic roots run far deeper than has heretofore been imagined. He explains that principles of Ibn Arabi's Koranic hermeneutics with unprecedented clarity, and in bringing out the primary importance of the Shaykh's magnum opus, The Futuhat Makkiyya, he solves a good number of riddles about the text that have puzzled modern readers. Chodkiewicz's work shows how, for Ibn Arabi, the iniatory voyage is a voyage in the divine word itself.
Author: Henry Corbin Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400853672 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 423
Book Description
A penetrating analysis of the life and doctrines of the Spanish-born Arab theologian. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Author: Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Publisher: Anqa Publishing ISBN: 1905937032 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 122
Book Description
A collection of 101 hadith sayings, this work is one of the most important and influential early collections of hadith qudsi. Falling into three categories, the first 40 sayings each have a full, unbroken chain of transmission that goes back to God through the medium of the Prophet Muhammad. The second category are sayings mostly taken from well-known written collections. The final section is drawn from similar books, with Ibn 'Arabi adding one extra hadith, orally transmitted. Comprised of a full introduction explaining the meaning of Hadith, the text stresses the importance of this tradition in Ibn 'Arabi's writing.
Author: Binyamin Abrahamov Publisher: Anqa Publishing ISBN: 1905937520 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Ibn al-'Arabi and the Sufis is a fascinating and groundbreaking analysis of the extent to which various major Sufi figures contributed to the mystical philosophy of Ibn al-'Arabi. While recent scholarship has tended to concentrate on his teachings and life, little attention has so far been paid to the influences on his thought. Each chapter is dedicated to one of Ibn al-'Arabi’s predecessors, from both the early and later periods, such as al-Bistami, al-Hallaj and al-Jilani, showing how he is discussed in the works of the ‘Greatest Master’ and Ibn al-'Arabi’s attitude towards him. As the author makes clear, Ibn al-'Arabi was greatly influenced by the early Sufis as regards his philosophy and by the later Sufis in matters of practice. This naturally raises the question: how original was Ibn al-'Arabi? Abrahamov tackles this complex question in his conclusion. This book brings into sharp relief the highly original nature of Ibn al-'Arabi’s mystical theory, unprecedented in Islamic Mysticism, and the unique way in which he interwove the ideas of others into his own thought.
Author: Salman H. Bashier
Author: Alexander D. Knysh
Author: Salman H. Bashier
Author: William C. Chittick
Author: William C. Chittick
Author: Michel Chodkiewicz
Author: Henry Corbin
Author: Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi
Author: Binyamin Abrahamov
Author: Ibn al-ʻArabī