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REL 102World Religions: Near East
“Islamic Theologyand Mysticism”
Professor Rick Colby
May 26, 2010
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Outline for Class on 05/26/10
• Issues in Islamic Theology (kalam) Grave sinner? Free will? God does evil?
Status of divine attributes? Qur'an created?
• Islamic Philosophy (falsafa) Key thinkers, tried to reconcile revelation and reason
• Islamic Mysticism (tasawwuf = Sufism) Famous early figures, famous mystical poets Sufi ritual and mystical orders
• REMINDER:Turn in your papers on Friday at 11 am
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Islamic Theology (kalam)and Islamic Philosophy (falsafa)
• Indebted to Greek metaphysics, to Jewish and Christian "dialectical theology"
• Translations into Arabic in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad
• Not mere "preservers" of Plato and Aristotle
• Flourished among elites in the first six centuries of Islamic history
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Issues in Early Theology (kalam)
• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim?
• God as creator of evil?
• Free will vs. predestination
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal?
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Mu'tazili Responses toIssues in Early Theology (kalam)
• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim? INTERMEDIATE STATUS (neither in nor out)
• God as creator of evil? GOD IS GOOD, CANNOT BE SOURCE OF EVIL
• Free will vs. predestination HUMANS MUST HAVE FREE WILL
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal? QUR'AN IS CREATED, NOT GOD
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Ash'ari Responses toIssues in Early Theology (kalam)• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim?
GOD KNOWS; THE MATTER POSTPONED UNTIL JUDGMENT DAY
• God as creator of evil? GOD RESPONSIBLE FOR GOOD AND EVIL
• Free will vs. predestination HUMANS PREDESTINED, BUT....
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal? QUR'AN IS UNCREATED, DIVINE ATTRIBUTE
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Islamic Philosophy (falsafa)
• Sought to harmonize revelation & philosophy use reason to prove the truths of the Qur'an and
example of the Prophet (sunna) Prophet as a type of "philosopher king,"
dispensing truths in symbolic form palatable to and comprehensible by the masses
• Came under attack, decline in many lands
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Famous Muslim Philosophers from the Formative Period
• AL-FARABI (d. 950) = "Alpharabius"
• IBN SINA (d.1037) = "Avicenna"
• IBN RUSHD (d.1198) = "Averroes"
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AL-GHAZALI (d.1111) known as "Proof of Islam" ; Algazel
• Defender of Sunni Islam in Nizamiya madrasa
• Ash'ari theologian
• Spiritual crisis, journey, enlightenment
• Key works: The Incoherence of the Philosophers Deliverance from Error Revival of the Religious Sciences
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Definitions of Islamic Mysticism
• Recall the definition in World Religions, 404-406
• Remember that Sufism is NOT a theological school NOT a legal school NOT a "sect"
• Insider terms and definitions; controversies
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Famous Early Sufi Figures
• RABI'AH (d.801)
• BAYAZID ( =Abu Yazid Bistami, d.ca.848)
• HALLAJ (d.922)
• JUNAYD (d.910)
• SULAMI (d.1021)
• QUSHAYRI (d.1074)
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Muhyidin IBN 'ARABI (d.1240)
• Known as “al-Shaykh al-Akbar”
• Educated in al-Andalus, went to central lands
• Human beings as manifestation of God's attributes God: "I was a hidden treasure...."
• His major works: Meccan Revelations Ring-settings of Wisdom Interpreter of Desires
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ATTAR (d.1220):The Conference of the Birds
• Hoopoe leadsthe rest of thebirds on a questfor their King,the Simurgh
• Only 30 birdscomplete the questand arrive at theKing’s palace
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Jalal al-Din RUMI (d.1273)
• Born near Balkh, he and his family came West Became established in Anatolia Came to be called "Mevlana"
• Contemporary hagiography
• His major works, composed in Persian: Masnavi In It is What is In It Divan of Shams
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Mevlevi Ritual & the Mevlevi Order as an Example of later Sufism
• Mevlevi sama’: one type of “remembrance” (dhikr)
• Foundation of theMevlevi order
• Rumi's tomb complexin Konya, Turkey veneration of
"saints" asintermediaries