COMMENTS ON ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY BY NASR/ PART II
ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY 101
Nasr points
out that in Islamic Philosophy, what is said is important and not who said
it. Having this in mind. One can try to travel through Islamic Philosophy.
First thing
first.
In contrast
to the various phases of Western philosophy, from ancient Greeks to the present
day, prophecy has the central role in Islamic philosophy.
Apart from a
few names, like Ibn Warraq and Zakaria Razi (Latin Razzes)
overwhelming Muslim thinkers have not questioned the Divine, but have
deliberated on how to reach or recognize the ultimate truth in the Diving Being.
What is Hikmat? Many later theologians, like
Fakhruddin Razi, a rationalist himself, equated with Kalam, the philosophers
disagreed with that. Kindi said, philosophy is the knowledge of reality of
things within the man’s possibility.
DIMENSIONS
OF REVELATION
Islamic revelation
possesses several dimensions.
Externally it
can be looked as shariat, tariqat and haqiqat, (Law, Path and
the Truth).
Looking
inwards it can be seen as Islam, Iman and Ahsan, ie as either
particulars of faith (Submission, Faith and Virtue).
EXISTENCE
OR ESSENCE:
The first
question to address is the nature of divine. Philosophers spent quite a
time this concept. Whether it is the wujood of God, the Existence
or presence more important or the Essence, quiddity, Mashai of
God.
And later, whether
Existence, wujood is depended upon the concept, Mashai or vice
versa.
The
question of existence and essence, wujood and mahiyah is the most basic
in Islamic philosophy.
Peripatetic view is that existence is actualized out of essence.
This question has been addressed by all the philosophers, many Sufis and Mutakalemeen.
The first
questions a scholar has to address: Is it? what is it? and later a third
one, why is it? First is related to wujood and second to mahiyah.
Many
concepts are related to the root wjd: wujood, wajd, wijdan, mojood, wajibul
wajood (God) and the concept of wahdatal wujood.
The difference
between Aristotelian and Avicennan thought:
According to
Aristotle world cannot not exist. In Islamic thought, there is an
ontological poverty faqr in the world that it cannot exist without the
Divine Being. So, the wujood is given by God.
Wujood and
mahiyah are intertwined. They are not separate from one another, but are not
the same thing.
SINA’S ‘THE
THREE DIRECTIONS” (Necessity,
Possibility and Impossibility)
Sina
introduced the essential question, The Three directions. Aljaht al salasa:
To differentiate between Necessity, Possibility and
Impossibility, wujub, mumkin and mumtina.
Wajib is what cannot not exit.
Mumkin be what can exit and may not exist.
Mumtina is what cannot exist.
Every
possible situation has to be analyzed through these questions.
Example of wajib
would be the Zaat e Elahi, the Divine Essence, who is wajibul
wajood.
Rest of the
world be the Aalim e mumkinat, which can or cannot exist.
One example
of mumtina would be a Partner of God. Shirk al Bari
Three
Principles of Sadral Din Shirazi, Mulla Sadra’s metaphysics.
1.Transcendent
Unity of Being. Wahdat
al wujood.
Although
contested by exoteric Ulema and bewilderingly misunderstood by Western
orientalists, this is the dominant concept in Islamic philosophy. It is
however interpreted in more than one way, as whether it means no
one else except God has existence and hence all existence is part of Being, or
God (Wujood al Mutlaq) is the source of everything that appears to
possess wujood. Moreover, it is not for public consumption and is
only reserved for spiritual and intellectual elite, khawass. It is not achieved by ratiocination, Bahs,
but by tasting, Zouq.
The term
itself was first used by Andulusian Ibn Sabin, expanded by Ibne Arabi and fully
defined by Mullah Sidra, Sadr alDin Shirazi.
Main
opponent was Ibne Taymiyyah. In India Shaikh Sirhindi introduced the concept of
Wahdat al Shahood in parallel to it.
2. Maratib
al Wujood.
Hierarchy of Being. The concept of gradation, Tashkik, was introduced by
Aristotle and expanded by Ibne Sina. There is a hierarchy in the universe,
stretching from the Materia prima through minerals, vegetable, animal
kingdom to man, angelic realms and ultimately to God. This concept was further
given a new meaning by Mullah Sidra in his transcendent theosophy. From floor, Farsh
to Arsh, Divine Throne, there is a gradation and each grade is the
reflection of divine light and its intensity.
3. Principality
of Wujood, Asal at al wujood: Islamic philosophy gradually shifted from the principality of
Essence, Mahiyah by Sina and Suhurwardi to the principality of Wujood,
by Mullah Sidra.
Structure
of Reality/Wujood.
External reality is experienced by man and conceptualized as Reality and its
Essence. And then there can be various stages of reality and there are
different opinions in various schools of philosophy. Asharite refused to accept
these differences and later school of Mulla Sadra made clear distinction.
How to
avoid identifying world with God. There are three stages. Negatively
conditioned. Bi sharte la, is without any condition attached to is
that is the Divine Reality. Non conditioned, la bi shart, is the
most expansive mode of wujood , where it can be determined in various forms. It
is like an act of existentiation like breath of the Compassionate, nafas al
Rehman. And then it is the Conditioned by something, Bi Shart e
shay, is the actual level of wujood in the existents.
Here
Sufis and Isma’ili thinkers differ from later philosophers that the former don’t
consider God to be a part of any of these stages. That Absolute Being
cannot be conditioned in any way even by the condition of being negatively
conditioned.
Distinction
between the concept and reality of wujood. (mafhum and haqiqat): In
Western philosophy existence may merely be an abstraction. In major Islamic
thought, it has to be manifest.
Experience of Wujood. That is one of the major differences between classical
Islamic Philosophy and West. Here the experience of transcending from
individual sense of being to the Reality of Being cannot be achieved without
inner dimension. It cannot be experienced with intellect alone. That
brings Islamic philosophy integrated to spirituality.
The ordinary man is usually aware of the container,
whereas the sage sees the content that is at once being, wujood,
presence huzur and witness shuhud.
How one knows? A basic question.
Three stages.
In Islamic
intellectual perspective prophecy is an integral part of this question.
It starts
with Burhan, demonstration, related to faculty of reason and
intellect. Then one moves up to Irfan, gnosis, associated
with inner intellect, or intuition and illumination and then ultimately to Quran,
related to prophetic function.
The journey
from reason to intellect, or intuition is from istadlaal (reflection of
intellect upon the plane of human mind) to firasat. Other terms used for
it are zouq, ishraq, mukashaf, basirat, nazar and badiha. This journey from reason to intellect
cannot be achieved without faith.
In Kalaam,
esp Asharite, the basic use of intellect is to understand the Will of God. It
is not interested in the Truth and Knowledge aspect of Divinity. It is true for
its founder Abul Hasan Aashari. Later Ghazali and Fakhruddin Razi, the mutakhareen,
modified it a bit , but it remained in this domain.
On the other
hand in other schools of Kalaam , like Mutazilla and Shia Kalaam there was a
greater role of reason in understanding the Will of God. Still the function
of kalaam was to find rational means to protect faith, Imaan.
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