Introduction 1. Methodological concerns 2. The Modulation of Being 3. The semantics of modulation of being 4. Mental Being 5. Reality and the Circle of being. Conclusion.

This is the first reliable biography of Mulla Sadra Shirazi that examines his influences and legacy and includes an extensive survey of his work.

The study of political theology has never been a neutral exercise in excavating the theoretical origins of sovereignty. The political contexts in which questions arise are instructive. In this paper, I argue that the very language of representation and legitimacy articulated for Muslims in the contemporary world may occlude the political challenges that obviate their possibility. Biopolitics, the construction of tradition, the possibility of a ‘philosophical religion’ and the challenge of rationality, and the incompleteness of the critique of political theology (...) make the actuality of a critical and theoretical encounter with representation difficult at best, elusive at worst. (shrink)

: A central assumption in this essay, in terms of both historical development and methodological approach, is that later Islamic philosophy is characterized by a shift from a substance-based metaphysics to a processoriented metaphysics. Defenders of substance metaphysics often focus on the nature of causation to attack process metaphysics. If there is no substance or substratum for process, then how can events have any causal nature? If neither cause nor the caused are somehow stable in terms of their essence and (...) essential features, then how can one be said to act upon the other? After considering the function of causation in other metaphysical systems and certain skeptical denials of causation, its role in the mystical thought and onto-theology of the Iranian philosopher Mullā Sadrā (d. 1641) is examined. (shrink)

Shi‘i Islam is often considered to be political per se because of its emergence historically as a movement with a strong position on authority and legitimacy in governance. This piece demonstrates how the politics of salvation in the tradition tie together one’s loyalty to the divine person of the Imam to one’s final destination, and how that relationship is complicated in the physical absence of the Imam. Such a politics guards against a sacralisation of everyday politics and recognises that sanctity (...) arises from the person of the Imam and not the office of his delegate. (shrink)

Within the history of philosophy, the history of Islamic philosophy is emerging as a flourishing field, and one wonders what method is most appropriate to apply in the reading of the text. Hadot's work seemed to put forward four critical insights for the study of ancient thought that may be grafted onto the study of medieval thought and Islamic thought. First, philosophy takes place within a tradition. Reading the text is a practice rooted in a school tradition, and significantly with (...) concomitant spiritual practices. Second, training in philosophizing is intended to inculcate practices of dialoguing. Third, philosophizing requires spiritual exercises, which are more than just intellectual and contemplative, but entail a mode of living, a way of life. Hadot paradigm is a fruitful way of reading Mullā sadrā especially since it seems to be consistent with the way in which he himself presents h. ikma and his endeavor. (shrink)

The distinction between existence and essence in contingent beings is one of the foundational doctrines of medieval philosophy. Building upon Neoplatonic precursors, thinkers such as Avicenna and Aquinas debated its nature. However, one Islamic philosopher, who had an enormous influence on the development of philosophical discourse in Iran, subverted the traditional Peripatetic vision of reality and disputed the ontological nature of existence. Through a critique of the Peripatetic notion of existence, Suhrawardi demonstrated the irrelevance of the distinction for metaphysical inquiry, (...) which should, instead, rely upon an eidetic vision of the 'hierarchy of lights'. I shall explain why the later tradition advocated an essentialist reading of Suhrawardi and suggest that the Platonic hermeneutic of essential vision which Suhrawardi expounds, might be the reason for it. Later philosophers in the Islamic tradition had mistaken methodology for a description of reality. (shrink)

Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mullā Ṣadrā on Existence, Intellect and Intuition. By Ibrahim Kalin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xxii + 315. $74, £45.

Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran: Najm al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Nayrīzī and His Writings. By Reza Pourjavady. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, vol. 82. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. vii + 224. $136.

The old medieval problem of the temporal relationship between an eternal God and an eternal or timed world remains an issue that animates debates about the nature of God in contemporary philosophy of religion. The Islamic debate pitted the philosophers, in particular Ibn Sīnā [Avicenna], who held that an eternal God produced an eternal world that was merely logically posterior to him, against some theologians, such as al-Ghazālī (Alghazel) who insisted on the scriptural doctrine of creatio ex nihilo and refuted (...) the possibility of an eternal world. The conflict continued with each side ceding some aspects and rejecting others until the Safavid period in which one finds the divisions between philosophy and theology irrevocably breaking down. I shall discuss the positions of three key philosophers of early modern Iran who all defended the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo from a philosophical perspective and came up with some novel approaches to the old problem of the temporal relationship between God and creation. /// O presente artigo parte da constatação de que o velho problema dos pensadores medievais acerca do relacionamento temporal entre um Deus que é eterno e um mundo que ora se entende como eterno ora como localizado no tempo permanece ainda hoje um dos assuntos que animam os debates relativos à natureza de Deus na fdosofia da religião contemporânea. Constata-se, antes de mais, que o debate que se verificou no seio do Islão começou por levantar os filósofos, particularmente Ibn Sīnā [Avicenna], o qual defendia que um Deus eterno produziu um mundo eterno que apenas do ponto de vista lógico lhe era posterior, contra os teólogos, tais como al-Ghazātī [Alghazel], o qual insistia na doutrina baseada na Escritura da creatio ex nihilo e refutava a possibilidade de um mundo eterno. O conflito continuou com cada uma das partes cedendo alguns aspectos e rejeitando outros até à emergência do período dos Safavidas durante o qual se verifica o rompimento das divisões entre Filosofia e Teologia. Assim, o autor do artigo propõe-se analisar as posições de três filósofos fundamentais do início da era moderna no Irão, pensadores esses que defendiam a doutrína da creatio ex nihilo numa perspectiva filosófica e, ao mesmo tempo, foram capazes de avançar com algumas abordagens novas ao velho problema da relação temporal entre Deus e a criação. (shrink)

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 5, Page 705-706, August 2012.

Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas. Edited by Felicitas Opwis and David Reisman. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, vol. 83. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Pp. xii + 493. $221, €161.