REL 102World Religions: Near East

“Islamic Theologyand Mysticism”

Professor Rick Colby

May 26, 2010

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

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

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?

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

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

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

Famous Muslim Philosophers from the Formative Period

• AL-FARABI (d. 950) = "Alpharabius"

• IBN SINA (d.1037) = "Avicenna"

• IBN RUSHD (d.1198) = "Averroes"

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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