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2. Kant also developed the Leibnizian principles with some modifications in his early writing Principiorum Primorum Cognitionis Metaphysicae Nova Dilucidatio (1755), where the Principle of Sufficient Reason becomes the Principle of Determining Reason (Ratio Determinans). Two forms of this principle are distinguished by Kant the ratio cur or antecedenter determinans identified with the ratio essendi vel fiendi, and the ratio quod or consequenter determinans identified with the ratio cognoscendi. It has been defended under these forms against Crusius and the argument that it destroys human freedom. -- T.G.
(3) The predominantly idealistic period of the twentieth century was initiated by the work of the Argentine Alejandro Korn (1860-1936), who introduced modern German philosophy to his fellow-countrymen. Francisco Romero, also an Argentine, has brought about the translation of many European philosophical classics into Spanish. Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, and the more recent neo-Kantians and phenomcnologists have exerted wide influence in Latin America. North American personalism has also attracted attention. In Mexico, Jose Vasconcelos and Pedro Gringoire reflect in their own syntheses the main streams of idealistic metaphysics, ethics, esthetics. Puerto Rico, with its recent publication of the writings of Hostes, is also a center of philosophic activity. There are signs of growing philosophical independence throughout Latin America. -- J.F., E.S.B.
8 of Ante-Nicene Fathers. New York: Scribner, 1925.
Abdullah Plan ::: In 2002, Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdel Aziz of Saudi Arabia unveiled a peace initiative that called on Israel to withdraw to pre- 1967 borders and suggested the establishment of Palestine with a capital in Jerusalem in return for normalized relations with the Arabs. Yassir Arafat’s absence from the conference influenced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah of II to also be absent from the conference.
Activism: (Lat. activus, from agere, to act) The philosophical theory which considers activity, particularly spiritual activity, to be the essence of reality. The concept of pure act (actus purus) traceable to Aristotle's conception of divinity, was influential in Scholastic thought, and persists m Leibniz, Fichte and modern idealism. -- L.W.
Activism: The philosophical theory which considers activity, particularly spiritual activity, to be the essence of reality. The concept of pure act (actus purus) traceable to Aristotle’s conception of divinity, was influential in Scholastic thought, and persists in Leibniz, Fichte and modern idealism.
(a) In metaphysics: Theory which admits in any given domain, two independent and mutually irreducible substances e.g. the Platonic dualism of the sensible and intelligible worlds, the Cartesian dinlism of thinking and extended substances, the Leibnizian dualism of the actual and possible worlds, the Kantian dualism of the noumenal and the phenomenal. The term dualism first appeared in Thomas Hyde, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700) ch. IX, p. 164, where it applied to religious dualism of good and evil and is similarly employed by Bayle m his Dictionary article "Zoroaster" and by Leibniz in Theodicee. C. Wolff is responsible for its use in the psycho-physical sense, (cf. A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la Philosophie. Vol. I, p. 180, note by R. Eucken.)
Alexandrists: A term applied to a group of Aristotelians in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Besides the Scholastic followers of Aristotle there were some Greeks, whose teaching was tinged with Platonism. Another group, the Averroists, followed Aristotle as interpreted by Ibn Rushd, while a third school interpreted Aristotle in the light of the commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias, hence were called Alexandrists. Against the Averroists who attributed a vague sort of immortality to the active intellect, common to all men, the Alexandrists, led by Pomponazzi, asserted the mortality of the individual human soul after its separation from universal reason. -- J.J.R.
algorithm "algorithm, programming" A detailed sequence of actions to perform to accomplish some task. Named after the Iranian, Islamic mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer, {Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi}. Technically, an algorithm must reach a result after a {finite} number of steps, thus ruling out {brute force} search methods for certain problems, though some might claim that brute force search was also a valid (generic) algorithm. The term is also used loosely for any sequence of actions (which may or may not terminate). {Paul E. Black's Dictionary of Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problems (http://nist.gov/dads/)}. (2002-02-05)
algorithm: A set of constructive instructions designed to solve a specific problem. In order to be considered an algorithm, the procedures should require no additional thoughts (heuristics). It can be thought of as instructions fit for implementation on machines (computers). The term is derived from an Arab mathematician who was known as al-Khwarizmi al-Haytham, Abu 'Ali ai-Hasan ibn (c.965—1038).
Ali Ibn Abu Talib ::: fourth and last of the righteous Khalifas after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
al-Khwarizmi {Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi}
Al Kindi, Al Farabi, and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) were the first great philosophers who made large use of Aristotelian books. Their writings are of truly encyclopedic character and comprise the whole edifice of knowledge in their time. Their Aristotelianism is, however, mainly Neo-Platonism with addition of certain peripatetic notions. Avicenna is more of an Aristotelian than his predecessors. Al Farabi, e.g., held that cognition is ultimately due to an illumination, whereas Avicenna adopted a more Aristotelian theory. While these thinkers had an original philosophy, Averroes (Ibn Roshd) endeavored to clarify the meaning of the Aristotelian texts by extensive and minute commentaries. Translations from these writings first made known to medieval philosophy the non-logical works of the "Philosopher", although there existed, at the same time, some translations made directly from Greek texts.
Almost all Jewish philosophers with the exception of Gabirol, ha-Levi, and Gersonides produce proofs for the existence of God. These proofs are based primarily on principles of physics. In the case of the Western philosophers, they are Aristotelian, while in the case of the Eastern, they are a combination of Aristotelian and those of the Mutazilites. The Eastern philosophers, such as Saadia and others and also Bahya of the Western prove the existence of God indirectly, namely that the world was created and consequently there is a creator. The leading Western thinkers, such as Ibn Daud (q.v.) and Maimonides employ the Aristotelian argument from motion, even to positing hypothetically the eternity of the world. Ha-LevI considers the conception of the existence of God an intuition with which man is endowed by God Himself. Crescas, who criticized Aristotle's conception of space and the infinite, in his proof for the existence of God, proves it by positing the need of a being necessarily existent, for it is absurd to posit a world of possibles.
Al-Mukamis, David Ibn Merwan: Early Jewish philosopher (died c. 937). His philosophic work, Book of Twenty Tractates shows influence of the teachings of the Kalam (q.v.) reasoning follows along lines similar to that of Saadia. -- M.W.
animism ::: "Animism" has been applied to many different philosophical systems. This includes Aristotle's view of the relation of soul and body held also by the stoics and scholastics. On the other hand, monadology (Leibniz) has also been described as animistic. The name is most commonly applied to vitalism, which makes life, or life and mind, the directive principle in evolution and growth, holding that life is not merely mechanical but that there is a directive force that guides energy without altering its amount. An entirely different class of ideas, also termed animistic, is the belief in the world soul, held by Plato, Schelling and others. Lastly, in discussions of religion, "animism" refers to the belief in indwelling souls or spirits, particularly so-called "primitive" religions that consider everything inhabited by spirits.
antimonite ::: n. --> A compound of antimonious acid and a base or basic radical.
Stibnite.
Apperception: (Lat. ad + percipere, to perceive) (a) In epistemology: The introspective or reflective apprehension by the mind of its own inner states. Leibniz, who introduced the term, distinguished between perception, (the inner state as representing outer things) and apperception (the inner state as reflectively aware of itself). Principles of Nature and of Grace, § 4. In Kant, apperception denotes the unity of self-consciousness pertaining to either the empirical ego ("empirical apperception") or to the pure ego ("transcendental apperception"), Critique of Pure Reason, A 106-8.
Apperception Perception involving self-consciousness; cognition through the relating of new ideas to familiar ideas. Used by Leibniz to denote a stage higher or more subtle than perception. The impressions received through perception are apprehended by the mind and are related to other impressions which the memory holds, so that complex ideas are formed. Apperception may be called perception accompanied by awareness and an interpretative power. In contrast to the theory that the higher faculties of mind are built up synthetically from the lower, Leibniz’s views support the theory that the intuitive or original inner powers are primary. “Nascent apperception, which is the Mahat of the lower kingdoms, especially developed in the third order of Elementals . . . [is] succeeded by the objective kingdom of minerals, in which latter that apperception is entirely latent, to re-develop only in the plants”; and “that which is meant by ‘animals,’ in primary Creation, is the germ of awakening consciousness or of apperception, that which is faintly traceable in some sensitive plants on Earth and more distinctly in the protistic monera. . . . Neither plant nor animal, but an existence between the two” (SD 1:454-5&n; cf ET 505 3rd & rev ed ).
Appetition: (Lat. ad + petere, to seek) The internal drive which in the Leibnizian psychology effects the passage from one perception to another. Leibniz, The Monodology, § 15. -- L.W.
Appointed Sherif of Mecca by the Turks in 1908. The title of Sherif was an ancient and honorable one, especially in the Hejaz (the Hejaz region, on the western coast of Arabia, includes the Muslim Holy Cities of Mecca and Media, and the port of Jeddah0, indicating direct descent from the Prophet. As a member of the noble House of Beni Hasem, of the Prophet’s own tribe of Quraish, Hussein Ibn Ali claimed descent in the male line from Muhammed’s daughter, Fatima. To the Arab World, he was a man of aristrocratic lineage.
Ars Combinatoria: (Leibniz) An art or technique of deriving or inventing complex concepts by a combination of a relatively few simple ones taken as primitive. This technique was proposed as a valuable subject for study by Leibniz in De Arte Combinatoria (1666) but was never greatly developed by him. Leibniz's program for logic consisted of two main projects: (1) the development of a universal characteristic (characteristica universalis), and (2) the development of a universal mathematics (mathesis universalis (q.v.). The universal characteristic was to be a universal language for scientists and philosophers. With a relatively few basic symbols for the ultimately simple ideas, and a suitable technique for constructing compound ideas out of the simple ones, Leibniz thought that a language could be constructed which would be much more efficient for reasoning and for communication than the vague, complicated, and more or less parochial languages then available. This language would be completely universal in the sense that all scientific and philosophical concepts could be expressed in it, and also in that it would enable scholars m all countries to communicate over the barriers of their vernacular tongues. Leibniz's proposals in this matter, and what work he did on it, are the grand predecessors of a vast amount of research which has been done in the last hundred years on the techniques of language construction, and specifically on the invention of formal rules and procedures for introducing new terms into a language on the basis of terms already present, the general project of constructing a unified language for science and philosophy. L. Couturat, La Logique de Leibniz, Paris, 1901; C. I. Lewis, A Survey of Symbolic Logic, Berkeley, 1918. -- F.L.W.
Ars magna Raymundi: A device by which Raymundus Lullus, Ramon Lul, thought to arrive at all possible conclusions from certain given principles or notions. A very imperfect precursor of Leibniz's mathesis universalis. See Lullic art. -- R.A.
Atom (Greek) atomos. Indivisible, individual, a unit; among the Greek Atomists what in theosophy is called a monad. Atomic theories of the constitution of the universe or of matter are many and ancient. In modern physics the atom is a small particle once thought indivisible, but now resolved into component units. In some philosophies, as that of Leibniz, the atoms (which he calls monads) are psychological rather than physical units — unitary beings of diverse kinds and grades, composing the universe.
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
Bahya, ben Joseph Ibn Padudah: (c. 1050) Philosopher and ethicist. The title of his work, The Duties of the Heart (Heb. Hobot ha-Leba-bot), indicates its purpose, i.e., to teach ethical conduct. First part demonstrates pure conception of God, unity and attributes. His basic principle of ethics is thankfulness to God, for His creating the wonderful world; the goal of religious ethical conduct is love of God. A second work ascribed to him is the Torot ha-Nefesh, i.e., Doctrines of the Soul, which deals primarily with the soul, but also with other subjects and evinces a strong neo-Platonic strain. See Jewish Philosophy -- M.W.
Best: The principle of the best of all possible worlds; according to Leibniz, the world which exists is the best possible because God's wisdom makes him know, his goodness makes him choose, and his power always makes him produce the best possible. See Optimism. -- J.M.
Ibn Abbas in Jung’s Fallen Angels in Jewish, Christ¬
(b) In early modern philosophy, perception was used in a much wider sense than (a). Thus, for Bacon, perception designated the mind's subjection to external influence and its adaptive reaction to such influence. (De Augmentis, IV, 3) Descartes and Spinoza designated by perception intellectual rather than sensuous apprehension (see Descartes, Principles, I, 32 and Spinoza's Ethics, II, prop. 40 schol. 2) and Leibniz understood by perceptions the internal state of one monad whereby it takes cognizance of other monads. Monadology, § 21. -- L.W.
(b) In logic: Disparate terms have been variously defined by logicians: Boethius defined disparate terms as those which are diverse yet not contradictory. See Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, I, 686. Leibniz considered two concepts disparate "if neither of the terms contains the other" that is to say if they are not in the relation of genus and species. (Couturat, Letbntz, Inedits, pp. 53, 62.) --L.W. Disparity: See Disparate. Disputatio: (Scholastic) Out of the quaestiones disputatae developed gradually a rigid form of scholastic disputation. The defensor theseos proposed his thesis and explained or proved it in syllogistic form. The opponentes argued against the thesis and its demonstration by repeating first the proposition and the syllogism proving it, then either by denying the validity of one or the other premises (nego maiorem, minorem) or by making distinctions restricting the proposition (distinguo maiorem, minorem). In the disputations of students under the direction of a magister the latter used to summarize the disputation and to "determine the question". -- R.A.
Bissell, Edwin C. The Pentateuch. New York: Scribner,
Brain The anatomy of the brain is very complex, and the organ as a whole can be considered under two main aspects: 1) in relation to consciousness, thought, and memory; and 2) in relation to functional activities stimulated by nerve currents to the various organs, muscles, etc. It is in reference to consciousness that Blavatsky states that “Occultism tells us that every atom, like the monad of Leibnitz, is a little universe in itself; and that every organ and cell in the human body is endowed with a brain of its own, with memory, therefore, experience and discriminative powers” (Studies in Occultism 100; BCW 12:134). Pirogoff, Liebig, and others are quoted in support of the view that memory is related to the bodily organs in general and not wholly to the brain. The brain is the registering organ of memory, not memory itself. The memories of terrestrial experiences — those pertaining to the lower mind — arise in the bodily organs pertaining to it, and are transmitted to the structure of the brain, where they are registered in the kama-manasic consciousness. But the finer particles of the brain cannot be so reached, for the brain in this sense is the organ of a higher noetic mind. The higher mind does not act directly on the bodily organs, but through the mediation of the lower mind. Thus it is the personal ego “catches occasional glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits them to certain brain cells (unknown to science in their functions), thus making of man a Seer, a soothsayer, and a prophet . . .” (Studies in Occultism 89; BCW 12:367). The brain and heart are special organs through which the higher mind acting through the personal mind can stimulate the finer particles of the body to a representation of spiritual ideas.
Buridan's Ass: The story of the ass, which died of hunger and thirst because incapable of deciding between water and food placed at equal distances from him, is employed to support the free-will doctrine. A man, it is argued, if confronted by a similar situation, would by the exercise of his free-will, be able to resolve the equilibrium of opposing motives. The story of the ass is attributed to John Buridan, a 14th century nominalist who discussed the freedom of the will in his Quaestiones in decem libros ethicorum Aristotelis, 1489, Bk. Ill, quest. I, but is not, in fact, to be found in his writings. (Cf. A.G. Langley, translation of Leibniz's New Essays Concerning Human Understanding, p. 116 n.) Dante relates the story in Paradiso, IV. -- L.W.
But Kant's versatile, analytical mind could not rest here; and gradually his ideas underwent a radical transformation. He questioned the assumption, common to dogmatic metaphysics, that reality can be apprehended in and through concepts. He was helped to this view by the study of Leibniz's Nouveaux Essais (first published in 1765), and the skepticism and empiricism of Hume, through which, Kant stated, he was awakened from his "dogmatic slumbers". He cast about for a method by which the proper limits and use of reason could be firmly established. The problem took the form: By what right and within what limits may reason make synthetic, a priori judgments about the data of sense?
by Scribner, 1925.
Calling the primordial origins of every being and thing by the term monads, as Leibniz did following Pythagoras, these monads may be looked upon as the seeds of cosmic life, life-centers or energy points, and in such case naught in the universe is the product of chance, but is the offspring of mind. Thus the solar system itself sprang from such a cosmic seed or monad; and the same holds true for the planets, nebulae, comets, and all other individually enduring cosmic bodies.
Cassirer, Ernst: (1874-) Has been chiefly interested in developing the position of the neo-Kantian Philosophy of the Marburg School as it relates to scientific knowledge. Looking at the history of modern philosophy as a progressive formulation of this position, he has sought to extend it by detailed analyses of contemporary scientific developments. Of note are Cassirer's investigations in mathematics, his early consideration of chemical knowledge, and his treatment of Einstein's relativity theory. Main works: Das Erkenntntsprobleme, 3 vols. (1906); Substanz-u-Funktionsbegriff, 1910 (tr. Substance and Function); Philosophie der Symbolischen Forme (1923); Phanom. der Erkenntnis, 1929; Descartes; Leibniz. -- C.K.D.
Characteristica Universalis: The name given by Leibniz to his projected (but only partially realized) "universal language" for the formulation of knowledge. This language was to be ideographic, with simple characters standing for simple concepts, and combinations of them for compound ideas, so that all knowledge could be expressed in terms which all could easily learn to use and understand. It represents an adumbration of the more recent and more successful logistic treatment of mathematics and science. It is to be distinguished, however, from the "universal calculus," also projected by Leibniz, which was to be the instrument for the development and manipulation of systems in the universal language. -- W.K.F.
Compossibility: Those things are compossible in Leibniz's philosophy which are literally "co-possible," i.e., which may exist together, which belong to the same possible world. Since metaphysical possibility means for Leibniz simply the absence of contradiction, two or more things are compossible if, and only if, their joint ascription to a single world involves no contradiction. All possible worlds are held by Leibniz to have general laws analogous to those of our own actual world. Compossibility for any set of things, consequently, involves their capacity to be brought under one and the same general system of laws. That this last provision is important follows from the fact that Leibniz affirmed all simple predicates to be compatible. -- F.L.W.
Creative Theory of Perception: The creative theory, in opposition to the selective theory, asserts that the data of sense are created or constituted by the act of perception and do not exist except at the time and under the conditions of actual perception, (cf. C. D. Broad, The Mind and its Place in Nature, pp. 200 ff.) See Selective Theory of Perception. The theories of perception of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz and Berkeley are historical examples of creative theories, Russell (Problems of Philosophy, Ch. II and III) and the majority of the American critical realists defend creative theories. -- L.W.
(c) The traditional problem of the origin of knowledge, viz. By what faculty or faculties of mind is knowledge attainable? It gave rise to the principal cleavage in modern epistemology between rationalism and empiricism (q.v.) though both occur in any thinker. The rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) rely primarily -- though not exclusively -- on reason as the source of genuine knowledge, and the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley and Hume) rely mainly on experience. A broadly conceived empiricism such as Locke's which acknowledges the authenticity of knowledge derived both from the inner sense (see Reflection; Introspection), and the outer senses, contrasts with that type of sensationalism (q.v.) which is empiricism restricted to the outer senses. Various attempts, the most notable of which is the critical philosophy of Kant, have been made to reconcile rationalism and empiricism by assigning to reason and experience their respective roles in the constitution of knowledge. Few historical or contemporary epistemologists would subscribe either to a rationalism or an empiricism of an exclusive and extreme sort.
Datum: That which is given or presented. In logic: facts from which inferences may be drawn. In epistemology: an actual presented to the mind; the given of knowledge. In psychology: that which is given in sensation; the content of sensation. --J.K.F. Daud, Abraham Ibn: (of Toledo, 1110-1180) Jewish historian and philosopher with distinctly Aristotelian bent. His Emunah Ramah ( Al-Akida Al-Rafia), i.e., Exalted Faith, deals with the principles of both philosophy and religion and with ethics. He also enunciated six dogmas of Judaism to which every Jew must subscribe. -- M.W.
Descartes is one of the fathers of modern philosophy; his general influence is too extensive to be detailed. Leibniz, Spinoza, Malebranche, Clauberg, De La Forge, Geulincx, Placentius, Chouet, Legrand, Corneio -- these and many others spread Cartesianism throughout Europe. (See Boutroux, "Descartes and Cartesianism," Camb. Mod. Hist., IV, ch. 27.) At present, German Phenomenology, French Spiritualism and Positivism, Bergsonism, and certain forms of Catholic thought represented by J. Geyser in Germany and M. Blondel in France, are offshoots of Cartesianism.
Distinctness: (Ger. Deutlichkeit) In Husserl: Explicit articulatedness with respect to syntactical components. (See Confused). Distinctness is compatible with emptiness or obscurity of material content. See Descartes, Leibniz. -- D.C.
Divine providence is admitted by all Jewish philosophers, but its extent is a matter of dispute. The conservative thinkers, though admitting the stability of the natural order and even seeing in that order a medium of God's providence, allow greater latitude to the interference of God in the regulation of human events, or even in disturbing the natural order on occasion. In other words, they admit a frequency of miracles. The more liberal, though they do not deny the occurrence of miracles, attempt to limit it, and often rationalize the numerous miraculous events related in the Bible and bring them within the sphere of the rational order. Typical and representative is Maimonides' view of Providence. He limits its extent in the sublunar world to the human genus only on account of its possession of mind. As a result he posits a graded Providence, namely, that the one who is more intellectually perfect receives more attention or special Providence. This theory is also espoused, with certain modifications, by Ibn Daud and Gersonides. Divine providence does by no means impair human freedom, for it is rarely direct, but is exerted through a number of mediate causes, and human choice is one of the causes.
Divisibility: The property in virtue of which a whole (whether physical, psychical or mathematical) may be divided into parts which do not thereby necessarily sever their relation with the whole. Divisibility usually implies not merely analysis or distinction of parts, but actual or potential resolution into parts. From the beginning philosophers have raised the question whether substances are infinitely or finitely divisible. Ancient materialism conceived of the physical atom as an indivisible substance. Descartes, however, and after him Leibniz, maintained the infinite divisibility of substance. The issue became the basis of Kant's cosmological antinomy (Crit. of pure Reason), from which he concluded that the issue was insoluble in metaphysical terms. In recent decades the question has had to take account of (1) researches in the physical atom, before which the older conception of physical substance has steadily retreated; and (2) the attempt to formulate a satisfactory definition of infinity (q.v.). -- O.F.K.
dynamism ::: A cosmological framework developed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). The idea behind Dynamism in metaphysical cosmology is that the material world can be explained in terms of active, point-like forces, with no extension but with action at a distance. Dynamism describes that which exists as simple elements, or for Leibniz, Monads, and groups of elements that have only the essence of forces. It was developed as a reaction against the passive view of matter in philosophical mechanism.
Dynamism: (Gr. dynamis, power) A term applied to a philosophical system which, in contrast to philosophy of mechanism (q.v.), adopts force rather than mass or motion as its basic explanatory concept. In this sense the Leibnizian philosophy is dynamism in contrast to the mechanism of Descartes' physics. -- L.W.
dynamism ::: n. --> The doctrine of Leibnitz, that all substance involves force.
Enlightenment: When Kant, carried by the cultural enthusiasm of his time, explained "enlightenment" as man's coming of age from the state of infancy which rendered him incapable of using his reason without the aid of others, he gave only the subjective meaning of the term. Objectively, enlightenment is a cultural period distinguished by the fervent efforts of leading personalities to make reason the absolute ruler of human life, and to shed the light of knowledge upon the mind and conscience of any individual. Such attempts are not confined to a particular time, or nation, as history teaches; but the term is generally applied to the European enlightenment stretching from the early 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, especially fostered by English, Dutch, French, and German philosophers. It took its start in England from the empiricism of F. Bacon, Th. Hobbes, J. Locke, it found a religious version in the naturalism of Edw. H. Cherbury, J. Toland, M. Tindal, H. Bolingbroke, and the host of "freethinkers", while the Earl of Shaftesbury imparted to it a moral on the "light of reason". Not so constructive but radical in their sarcastic criticism of the past were the French enlighteners, showing that their philosophy got its momentum from the moral corruption at the royal court and abuse of kinglv power in France. Descartes' doctrine of the "clear and perspicuous ideas," Spinoza's critical attitude towards religion, and Leibniz-Wolff's "reasonable thinking" prepared the philosophy of P. Bayle, Ch. Montesquieu, F. M. Voltaire, and J. J. Rousseau. The French positive contribution to the subject was the "Encyclopedie ou Dictionaire raisonne des sciences, arts et metiers", 1751-72, in 28 volumes, edited by Diderot, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Holbach, J. L. Lagrane, etc. What, in England and France, remained on the stage of mere ideas and utopic dreams became reality in the new commonwealth of the U.S.A. The "fathers of the constitution" were enlightened, outstanding among them B. Franklin, Th. Jefferson, J. Adams, A. Hamilton, and Th. Paine their foremost literary propagandist.
(e) The problem of the A PRIORI, though the especial concern of the rationalist, confronts the empiricist also since few epistemologists are prepared to exclude the a priori entirely from their accounts of knowledge. The problem is that of isolating the a priori or non-empirical elements in knowledge and accounting for them in terms of the human reason. Three principal theories of the a priori have been advanced: the theory of the intrinsic A PRIORI which asserts that the basic principles of logic, mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy are self-evident truths recognizable by such intrinsic traits as clarity and distinctness of ideas. The intrinsic theory received its definitive modern expression in the theory of "innate ideas" (q.v.) of Herbert of Cherbury, Descartes, and 17th century rationalism. The presuppositional theory of the a priori which validates a priori truths by demonstrating that they are presupposed either by their attempted denial (Leibniz) or by the very possibility of experience (Kant). The postulational theory of the A PRIORI elaborated under the influence of recent postulational techniques in mathematics, interprets a priori principles as rules or postulates arbitrarily posited in the construction of formal deductive systems. See Postulate; Posit. (f) The problem of differentiating the principal kinds of knowledge is an essential task especially for an empirical epistemology. Perhaps the most elementary epistemological distinction is between non-inferential apprehension of objects by perception, memory, etc. (see Knowledge by Acquaintance), and inferential knowledge of things with which the knowing subject has no direct apprehension. See Knowledge by Description. Acquaintance in turn assumes two principal forms: perception or acquaintance with external objects (see Perception), and introspection or the subject's acquaintance with the "self" and its cognitive, volitional and affective states. See Introspection; Reflection. Inferential knowledge includes knowledge of other selves (this is not to deny that knowledge of other minds may at times be immediate and non-inferential), historical knowledge, including not only history in the narrower sense but also astronomical, biological, anthropological and archaeological and even cosmological reconstructions of the past and finally scientific knowledge in so far as it involves inference and construction from observational data.
Ezra, Abraham Ibn: Jewish exegete and philosopher (1093-1167). Born in Spain he wandered in many lands, sojourned for a time in Italy and Provence. His philosophy is expressed largely in his commentaries but also in several short treatises, such as the Yesod Mora, i.e. Foundation of the Knowledge of God, and the Shaar ha-Shamayyim, i.e., The Gate to Heaven. Main problems he deals with are that of the right conception of the universe and its becoming and that of knowledge. He was influenced by teachings of neo-Platonism and Gabirol. -- M.W.
Faisal-Weizmann Agreement ::: Agreement signed in 1919 between Emir Faisal ibn Hussein (leader of the Arab Revolt and representative of the Arab Federation) and Chaim Weizmann (President of the World Zionist Organization). The agreement endorsed the Balfour Declaration and the creation of a Jewish state where Palestinian-Arabs would have protected rights and receive agricultural and technological aid from the local Jewish population.
Fathers. New York: Scribner, 1925. Revelation of Moses
Fathers. New York: Scribner, 1925.
Filioque: See Trinitarianism. Final Causes, the doctrine of: The view that things and events in the world can be explained, and ultimately can best be explained, by reference to some end or purpose or good or final cause to which they are conducive. Held, e.g., by Aristotle and Leibniz. -- W.K.F.
Fons Vitae (Latin) Fount of life; Latin title of the chief work of Ibn Gebirol (Avicebron), the Arab Jewish philosopher of the 11th century, believed by many to be a profound Kabbalist. The Hebrew title is Meqor Hayyim (Fountain of Lives).
Fulguration: Is a lightning flash of the mind. To Leibniz, the monads are God's perpetual fulguration, Monadology, 47. -- J.M.
Gabirol, Solomon Ibn: Known to scholastics as Avicebron (q.v.), but not identified as such until the discovery by the French scholar, Munk. See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.
ghazāl ::: gazelle; rising sun; the name of a Persian village in Tūs (where al-Ghazālī was born). Persian mystic, writer, jurist, theologian Abu Hamīd Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazālī
glibness ::: n. --> The quality of being glib.
Grant and H. H. Rowley. New York: Scribner, 1963.
Harmony, Pre-Established: The perfect functioning of mind and body, as ordained by God in the beginning. The dualism of Descartes (1596-1650) had precluded interaction between mind or soul and body by its absolute difference and opposition between res cogitans and res extensa. How does it happen, then, that the mind perceives the impressions of the body, and the body is ready to follow the mind's will? The Cartesians, in order to correct this difficulty, introduced the doctrine of "occasionalism", whereby when anything happens to either mind or body, God interferes to make the corresponding change in the other. Leibniz (1646-1716) countered by suggesting that the relation between mind and body is one of harmony, established by God before their creation. Earlier than mind or body, God had perfect knowledge of all possible minds and bodies. In an infinite number of creations all possible combinations are possible, including those minds whose sequence of ideas perfectly fits the motions of some bodies. In the latter, there is a perfect and pre-established harmony. A parallelism between mind and body exists, such that each represents the proper expression of the other. Leibniz compares their relation to that of two clocks which have been synchronized once for all and which therefore operate similarly without the need of either interaction or intervention. Expressed by Leibniz' follower, C. Wolff (1679-1754) as "that by which the intercourse of soul and bodv is explained by a series of perceptions and desires in the soul, and a series of motions in the body, which are harmonic or accordant through the nature of soul and body." -- J.K.F.
Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, quotes Ibn Majah
Huppah ::: See Chuppah. ::: Hussein Ibn Ali, Sherif of Mecca
In Ante-Nicene Fathers. New York: Scribner, 1917—
Indirect proof: See Reductio ad absurdum. Indiscernibles, Principle of: (Lat. indiscernibilis, indistinguishable) In the philosophy of Leibniz (Monadology, IX, Nouv. Essais, II, 22), no two monads can be exactly alike. -- V.J.B.
In Germany the first use of the word pcrsonalism seems to have been by Schleiermacher (1768-1834) and later by Hans Dreyer, Troeltsch, and Rudolf Otto. Among German Personalists would be included G. H. Leibniz (1646-1716), Monadism; R. H. Lotze (1817-1881), Teleological Personalism; Rudolf Eucken (1846-1926), Theistic Personalism, Vitalism; Max Schcler (1874-1928), Phenomenological Personalism; William Stern (1871-1939), Critical Personalism, Pantheistic Personalism.
In Germany, the movement was initiated by G. W. Leibniz whose writings reveal another motive for the cult of pure reason, i.e. the deep disappointment with the Reformation and the bloody religious wars among Christians who were accused of having forfeited the confidence of man in revealed religion. Hence the outstanding part played by the philosophers of ''natural law", Grotius, S. Pufendorf, and Chr. Thomasius, their theme being advanced by the contributions to a "natural religion" and tolerance by Chr. Wolff, G. E. Lessing, G. Herder, and the Prussian king Frederik II. Fr. v. Schiller's lyric and dramas served as a powerful commendation of ideal freedom, liberty, justice, and humanity. A group of educators (philanthropists) designed new methods and curricula for the advancement of public education, many of them, eg. Pestalozzi, Basedow, Cooper, A. H. Francke, and Fr. A. Wolf, the father of classic humanism, having achieved international recognition. Although in general agreement with th philosophical axioms of foreign enlighteners, the German philosophy decidedly opposed the English sensism (Hume) and French scepticism, and reached its height in Kant's Critiques. The radical rationalism, however, combined with its animosity against religion, brought about strong philosophical, theological, and literal opposition (Hamann, Jacobi, Lavater) which eventually led to its defeat. The ideals of the enlightenment period, the impassioned zeal for the materialization of the ideal man in an ideal society show clearly that it was basically related to the Renaissance and its continuation. See Aufklärung. Cf. J. G. Hibben, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. -- S.v.F.
In Lucretius, the Scholastics, Fr. Bacon, and Leibniz, it means a hypothesis without confirmation.
In Scholasticism: The nature of substance is that it exists in itself, independently from another being. While accidents are in another, substance is in itself. It is what underlies the accidents, persists even if these are changing, insofar as its being in itself is considered, it is spoken of as subsistence (subststentia). Substances are either material, and as such dependent on matter informed by a substantial form, or spiritual, free of any kind of matter (even a spiritual one, as Aquinas points out in i against Avencebron, i.e., Ibn Gebirol), and as such is called forma subsistens. Substantial forms are not substances, with the one exception of the human soul (q.v.) which, however, is when separated from the body only an incomplete substance. See Form, Matter. -- R.A.
IWBNI ::: It Would Be Nice If.Compare WIBNI.[Jargon File] (1994-11-24)
IWBNI It Would Be Nice If. Compare {WIBNI}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-24)
I.Z.L. ::: See Irgun. ::: Ibn Ezra, Abraham (1089-1164)
Javidan Khirad (Persian) Eternal intellect; the original Javidan Khirad which is supposed to be the teachings of Houshang, one of the mythical Pishdadian kings (Para-Dhata), the ancient law givers. Ibn-e-Moskouyeh (Iranian historian, 923-1030) wrote a book under the same name. In the introduction to this book he writes: “In my youth I had read a book called Estetalat-al-Fahm by Jahiz (160-255 Hejra) in which he had spoken of Javidan Khirad with such unparalleled praise that was unheard of. I searched for this book and traveled everywhere until at last I found it with the Mobed-Mobedan (the chief of Mobeds) of Fers.”
J. L. Coolidge, A History of Geometrical Methods, New York, 1940. Mathesis universalis: Universal mathematics. One major part of Leibniz's program for logic was the development of a universal mathematics or universal calculus for manipulating, i.e. performing deductions in, the universal language (characteristica universalis). This universal language, he thought, could be constructed on the basis of a relatively few simple terms and, when constructed, would be of immense value to scientists and philosophers in reasoning as well as in communication. Leibniz's studies on the subject of a universal mathematics are the starting point in modern philosophy of the development of symbolic, mathematical logic. -- F.L.W.
Kant, Immanuel: (1724-1804), born and died in Königsberg. Studied the Leibniz-Wolffian philosoohv under Martin Knutzen. Also studied and taught astronomy (see Kant-Laplace hypothesis), mechanics and theology. The influence of Newton's physics and Lockean psychology vied with his Leibnizian training. Kant's personal life was that of a methodic pedant, touched with Rousseauistic piety and Prussian rigidity. He scarcely travelled 40 miles from Königsberg in his life-time, disregarded music, had little esteem for women, and cultivated few friends apart from the Prussian officials he knew in Königsberg. In 1755, he became tutor in the family of Count Kayserling. In 1766, he was made under-librarian, and in 1770 obtained the chair of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg. Heine has made classical the figure of Kant appearing for his daily walk with clock-like regularity. But his very wide reading compensated socially for his narrow range of travel, and made him an interesting coversationalist as well as a successful teacher. Kantianism: The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804); also called variously, the critical philosophy, criticism, transcendentalism, or transcendental idealism. Its roots lay in the Enlightenment; but it sought to establish a comprehensive method and doctrine of experience which would undercut the rationalistic metaphysics of the 17th and 18th centuries. In an early "pre-critical" period, Kant's interest centered in evolutionary, scientific cosmology. He sought to describe the phenomena of Nature, organic as well as inorganic, as a whole of interconnected natural laws. In effect he elaborated and extended the natural philosophy of Newton in a metaphysical context drawn from Christian Wolff and indirectly from Leibniz.
Kazwini, Zakariya ibn Muhammed. Kosmographie.
Khwarizmi {Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi}
Kuhn. 4 vols. Strassburg: K.J. Triibner [1895-1904],
Lambert, J. H.: (1728-1777) Was one of Kant's correspondents. He was of the Leibniz-Wolffisn school which attempted an eclectic reconciliation between rationalism and empiricism and thus laid a foundation for the later Kantian critical philosophy. As such, he is viewed as an important forerunner of Kant. -- L.E.D.
Latinized version of the name ibn Sīnā (980-1037
L. Couturat, La Logique de Leibniz (1901).
Leibniz distinguished contingent truths (verites de fait) from necessarv truths of reason (verites de raison), Hume (q.v.) regarded all causal assertions as contingent upon certain habits of the mind. See Cause, Probability.
Leibniz, Gottfried Withelm: (1646-1716) Born in Leipzig, where his father was a professor in the university, he was educated at Leipzig, Jena, and Altdorf University, where he obtained his doctorate. Jurist, mathematician, diplomat, historian, theologian of no mean proportions, he was Germany's greatest 17th century philosopher and one of the most universal minds of all times. In Paris, then the centre of intellectual civilization (Moliere was still alive, Racine at the height of his glory), where he had been sent on an official mission of state, he met Arnauld, a disciple of Descartes who acquainted him with his master's ideas, and Huygens who taught him as to the higher forms of mathematics and their application to physical phenomena. He visited London, where he met Newton, Boyle, and others. At the Hague he came face to face with the other great philosopher of the time, Spinoza. One of Leibniz's cherished ideas was the creation of a society of scholars for the investigation of all branches of scientific truth to combine them into one great system of truth. His philosophy, the work "of odd moments", bears, in content and form, the impress of its haphazard origin and its author's cosmopolitan mode of large number of letters, essays, memoranda, etc., published in various scientific journals. Universality and individuality characterize him both as a man and philosopher.
Leibniz is best known in the history of philosophy as the author of the Monadology and the theory of the Pre-established Harmony both of which see.
Leibniz's philosophy was the dawning consciousness of the modern world (Dewey). So gradual and continuous, like the development of a monad, so all-inclusive was the growth of his mind, that his philosophy, as he himself says, "connects Plato with Democritus, Aristotle with Descartes, the Scholastics with the moderns, theology and morals with reason." The reform (if all science was to be effected by the use of two instruments, a universal scientific language and a calculus of reasoning. He advocated a universal language of ideographic symbols in which complex concepts would be expressed by combinations of symbols representing simple concepts or by new symbols defined as equivalent to such a complex. He believed that analysis would enable us to limit the number of undefined concepts to a few simple primitives in terms of which all other concepts could be defined. This is the essential notion back of modern logistic treatments.
Locke's arguments against Descartes' belief in innate ideas (cf. Essay on the Human Understanding, bk. I) were the target of Leibniz's Nouveaux Essais, 1701 (publ. in 1765). -- M.F.
Logical meaning: See meaning, kinds of, 3. Logical Positivism: See Scientific Empiricism. Logical truth: See Meaning, kinds of, 3; and Truth, semantical. Logistic: The old use of the word logistic to mean the art of calculation, or common arithmetic, is now nearly obsolete. In Seventeenth Century English the corresponding adjective was also sometimes used to mean simply logical. Leibniz occasionally employed logistica (as also logica mathematica) as one of various alternative names for his calculus ratiocinator. The modern use of logistic (French logistique) as a synonym for symbolic logic (q. v.) dates from the International Congress of Philosophy of 1904, where it was proposed independently by Itelson, Lalande, and Couturat. The word logistic has been employed by some with special reference to the Frege-Russell doctrine that mathematics is reducible to logic, but it would seem that the better usage makes it simply a synonym of symbolic logic. -- A. C.
Maimon, Moses ben: (better known as Maimonides) (Abu Imram Musa Ibn Maimun Ibn Abdallah) (1135-1204) Talmud commentator and leading Jewish philosopher during the Middle Ages. Born in Cordova, left Spain and migrated to Palestine in 1165 and ultimately 1160, settled in Fez, N. Africa, whence he settled in Fostat, Egypt. His Guide for the Perplexed (More Nebukim in Heb.; Dalalat al-hairin, in Arab.) contains the summa of Jewish philosophic thought up to his time. It is written in the spirit of Aristotelianism and is divided into three parts. The first is devoted to the problems of Biblical anthropomorphisms, Divine attributes, and exposition and criticism of the teachings of the Kalam; the second to the proof of the existence of God, matter and form, creatio de novo, and an exposition of prophecy; the third to God and the world including problems of providence, evil, prescience and freedom of the will, teleology, and rationality of the precepts of the Torah. Maimonides exerted great influence not only on the course of subsequent Jewish speculation but also on the leaders of the thirteenth century scholastic philosophy, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. -- M.W.
Mentalism: Metaphysical theory of the exclusive reality of individual minds and their subjective states. The term is applied to the individualistic idealism of Berkeley and Leibniz rather than to the absolutistic Idealism of Hegel and his followers. -- L.W.
Mind-body relation: Relation obtaining between the individual mind and its body. Theories of the mind-body relation are monistic or dualistic according as they identify or separate the mind and the body. Monistic theories include: the theory of mind as bodily function, advanced by Aristotle and adhered to by thinkers as divergent as Hobbes, Hegel, and the Behaviorists, the theory of body as mental appearance held by Berkeley, Leibniz, Schopenhauer and certain other idealists, the two-aspect theory of Spinoza and of recent neutral monism which considers mind and body as manifestations of a third reality which is neither mental nor bodily. The principal dualistic theories are: two sided interacti'onism of Descartes, Locke, James and others. See Interactionism. psycho-physical parallelism. See Parallelism, Psycho-physical. Epephenomenalism. See Epephenomenalism.
Modern Period. In the 17th century the move towards scientific materialism was tempered by a general reliance on Christian or liberal theism (Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi, Toland, Hartley, Priestley, Boyle, Newton). The principle of gravitation was regarded by Newton, Boyle, and others, as an indication of the incompleteness of the mechanistic and materialistic account of the World, and as a direct proof of the existence of God. For Newton Space was the "divine sensorium". The road to pure modern idealism was laid by the epistemological idealism (epistemological subjectivism) of Campanella and Descartes. The theoretical basis of Descartes' system was God, upon whose moral perfection reliance must be placed ("God will not deceive us") to insure the reality of the physical world. Spinoza's impersonalistic pantheism is idealistic to the extent that space or extension (with modes of Body and Motion) is merely one of the infinity of attributes of Being. Leibniz founded pure modern idealism by his doctrine of the immateriality and self-active character of metaphysical individual substances (monads, souls), whose source and ground is God. Locke, a theist, gave chief impetus to the modern theory of the purely subjective character of ideas. The founder of pure objective idealism in Europe was Berkeley, who shares with Leibniz the creation of European immaterialism. According to him perception is due to the direct action of God on finite persons or souls. Nature consists of (a) the totality of percepts and their order, (b) the activity and thought of God. Hume later an implicit Naturalist, earlier subscribed ambiguously to pure idealistic phenomenalism or scepticism. Kant's epistemological, logical idealism (Transcendental or Critical Idealism) inspired the systems of pure speculative idealism of the 19th century. Knowledge, he held, is essentially logical and relational, a product of the synthetic activity of the logical self-consciousness. He also taught the ideality of space and time. Theism, logically undemonstrable, remains the choice of pure speculative reason, although beyond the province of science. It is also a practical implication of the moral life. In the Critique of Judgment Kant, marshalled facts from natural beauty and the apparent teleological character of the physical and biological world, to leave a stronger hint in favor of the theistic hypothesis. His suggestion thit reality, as well as Mind, is organic in character is reflected in the idealistic pantheisms of his followers: Fichte (abstract personalism or "Subjective Idealism"), Schellmg (aesthetic idealism, theism, "Objective Idealism"), Hegel (Absolute or logical Idealism), Schopenhauer (voluntaristic idealism), Schleiermacher (spiritual pantheism), Lotze ("Teleological Idealism"). 19th century French thought was grounder in the psychological idealism of Condillac and the voluntaristic personalism of Biran. Throughout the century it was essentially "spiritualistic" or personalistic (Cousin, Renouvier, Ravaisson, Boutroux, Lachelier, Bergson). British thought after Hume was largely theistic (A. Smith, Paley, J. S. Mill, Reid, Hamilton). In the latter 19th century, inspired largely by Kant and his metaphysical followers, it leaned heavily towards semi-monistic personalism (E. Caird, Green, Webb, Pringle-Pattison) or impersonalistic monism (Bradley, Bosanquet). Recently a more pluralistic personalism has developed (F. C. S. Schiller, A. E. Taylor, McTaggart, Ward, Sorley). Recent American idealism is represented by McCosh, Howison, Bowne, Royce, Wm. James (before 1904), Baldwin. German idealists of the past century include Fechner, Krause, von Hartmann, H. Cohen, Natorp, Windelband, Rickert, Dilthey, Brentano, Eucken. In Italy idealism is represented by Croce and Gentile, in Spain, by Unamuno and Ortega e Gasset; in Russia, by Lossky, in Sweden, by Boström; in Argentina, by Aznar. (For other representatives of recent or contemporary personalism, see Personalism.) -- W.L.
Mohammed Al-Khawarizmi {Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi}
Monad: (Gr. Monas, a unit) In Greek usage, originally the number one. Later, any individual or metaphysical unit. Bruno named his metaphysical units monads to distinguish them from the Democritean atoms. The monads, centers of the world life, are both psychic and spatial individuals. Leibniz (borrowing the term possibly from Augustine, Bruno or Protestant scholastics) identified the monads with the metaphysical individuals or souls, conceived as unextended, active, indivisible, naturally indestructible, teleological substances ideally related in a system of pre-established harmony. By extension of Leibnizian usage, a soul, self, metaphysical unit, when conceived as possessing an autonomous life, and irrespective of the nature of its relations to beings beyond it.
Monad: In Greek philosophy, the Unit; originally, the number One, later any individual or metaphysical unit. Numerology still uses the term monad for the number One. According to Giordano Bruno, a metaphysical unit, a microscopic embodiment of the divine essence which pervades and constitutes the universe. Leibniz identified the monads with the metaphysical individuals or souls. In occult terminology, the monad is an indivisible divine spiritual life-atom, the immortal part of man which lives on in successive reincarnations.
Monadology: (also Monadism) The doctrine of monads, the theory that the universe is a composite of elementary units. A monad may also be a metaphysical unit. The notion of monad can be found in Pythagoras, Ecphantus, Aristotle, Euclid, Augustine, et al. Plato refers to his ideas as monads. Nicolaus Cusanus regards individual things as units which mirror the world. Giordano Bruno seems to have been the first to have used the term in its modern connotation. God is called monas monadum; each monad, combining matter and form, is both corporeal and spiritual, a microcosm of the whole. But the real founder of monadology is Leibniz. To him, the monads are the real atoms of nature, the elements of things. The monad is a simple substance, completely different from a material atom. It has neither extension, nor shape, nor divisibility. Nor is it perishable. Monads begin to exist or cease to exist by a decree of God. They are distinguished from one another in character, they "have no windows" through which anything can enter in or go out, that is, the substance of the monad must be conceived as force, as that which contains in itself the principle of its changes. The universe is the aggregate, the ideal bond of the monads, constituting a harmonious unity, pre-established by God who is the highest in the hierarchy of monads. This bond of all things to each, enables every simple substance to have relations which express all the others, every monad being a perpetual living mirror of the universe. The simple substance or monad, therefore, contains a plurality of modifications and relations even though it has no parts but is unity. The highest monad, God, appears to be hoth the creator and the unified totality and harmony of self-active and self-subsistent monnds. -- J.M.
Monas Monadum In Leibniz’ system of monads, the supreme monad, which is infinite and upon which there depend three classes of finite monads. This supreme monad held the place of God, an infinite perfect spirit, a Person of absolute power, wisdom, and goodness. In this case, the supreme monad is cosmically more than a person — for etymologically person means a mask or vehicle through and from which issue the attributes and powers of something incomparably higher than itself. Equivalent to the summit of the human hierarchy.
Most of the basic problems and theories of cosmology seem to have been discussed by the pre-Socratic philosophers. Their views are modified and expanded in the Timaeus of Plato, and rehearsed and systematized in Aristotle's Physics. Despite multiple divergencies, all these Greek philosophers seem to be largely agreed that the universe is limited in space, has neither a beginning nor end in time, is dominated by a set of unalterable laws, and has a definite and recurring rhythm. The cosmology of the Middle Ages diverges from the Greek primarily through the introduction of the concepts of divine creation and annihilation, miracle and providence. In consonance with the tendencies of the new science, the cosmologies of Descartes, Leibniz and Newton bring the medieval views into closer harmony with those of the Greeks. The problems of cosmology were held to be intrinsically insoluble by Kant. After Kant there was a tendency to merge the issues of cosmology with those of metaphysics. The post-Kantians attempted to deal with both in terms of more basic principles and a more flexible dialectic, their opponents rejected both as without significance or value. The most radical modern cosmology is that of Peirce with its three cosmic principles of chance, law and continuity; the most recent is that of Whitehead, which finds its main inspiration in Plato's Timaeus.
Muhammad al-Khwarizmi {Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi}
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi "person" An astronomer, geographer and mathematician, born around 780 CE in Khwarizm (modern Khiva), south of the Aral Sea. Khawarizmi founded {algebra} and {algorithms} (named after him), synthesised Greek and Hindu knowledge, introducing the Indian system of numerals (now known as Arabic numerals), developed operations on {fractions}, trigonometric tables containing the {sine functions}, the {calculus of two errors} and the {decimal} system, explained the use of {zero}, perfected the geometric representation of {conic sections}, collaborated in the degree measurements aimed at measuring of volume and circumference of the Earth and produced the first map of the known world in 830 CE. He died around 850 CE. {Muslim Heritage.com (http://muslimheritage.com/day_life/default.cfm?ArticleID=317&Oldpage=1])}. (2008-07-08)
Natural Theology: In general, natural theology is a term used to distinguish any theology based upon the fundamental premise of the ability of man to construct his theory of God and of the world out of the framework of his own reason and of reasonable probability from the so-called "revealed theology" which presupposes that God and divine purposes are not open to unaided human understanding but rest upon a supernatural and not wholly understandable basis. See Deism; Renaissance. During the 17th and 18th centuries there were attempts to set up a "natural religion" to which men might easily give their assent and to offset the extravagant claims of the supernaturalists and their harsh charges against doubters. The classical attempt to make out a case for the sweet reasonableness of a divine purpose at work in the world of nature was given by Paley in his Natural Theology (1802). Traditional Catholicism, especially that of the late middle Ages developed a kind of natural theology based upon the metaphysics of Aristotle. Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz developed a more definite type of natural theology in their several constructions of what now may well be called philosophical theology wherein reason is made the guide. Natural theology has raised its head in recent times in attempts to combat the extravagant declarations of theologians of human pessimism. The term, however, is unfortunate because it is being widely acknowledged that so-called "revealed theology" is natural (recent psychological and social studies) and that natural theology need not deny to reason its possible character as the bearer of an immanent divine revelation. -- V.F.
Necessity: A state of affairs is said to be necessary if it cannot be otherwise than it is. Inasmuch as the grounds of an assertion of this kind may in general be one of three very distinct kinds, it is customary and valuable to distinguish the three types of necessity affirmed as logical or mathematical necessity, physical necessity, and moral necessity. The distinction between these three was first worked out with precision by Leibniz in his Theodicee.
New York: Scribner, 1917-1925.
New York: Scribner, 1925. Also in James, The
New York: Scribner, 1925. A recension contained
New York: Scribner, 1925.
Nicolai, Friedrich: (1733-1811) Was one of the followers of Leibniz-Wolffian school which developed an eclectic reconciliation of rationalism and empiricism in a popular form that served to lay a foundation for the Kantian critical philosophy. -- L.E.D Nicomachus: Of Gerasa in Arabia, a Neo-Py-thagorean (q.v.) philosopher of the second century. -- M.F.
Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu: (Lat.) Nothing is in the intellect which was not first in sense. All the materials, or content, of higher, intellectual cognition are derived from the activity of lower, sense cognition. A principle subscribed to by Aristotle, St. Thomas and Locke; opposed by Plato, St. Augustine and Leibniz (who qualified the proposition by adding: nisi intellectus ipse, i.e. except for what is already present as part of the innate nature of the intellect, thus making it possible for Kant to suggest that certain forms of sensibility and reason are prior to sense experience). -- V.J.B.
on the 4th day of Creation (Ibn Anas); and on the
optimism ::: Historically, the philosophical position that this is the best of all possible worlds, usually associated with Gottfried Leibniz. Colloquially, the term is often used to refer to a cheerful or positive worldview.
Other figures worthy of mention who fit wholly into none of the above currents of thought are Raymond Lull (+1315), an active opponent of Averroism and the inventor of the famous Ars magna which intrigued young Leibnitz; Roger Bacon (+c. 1293) who under the influence of Platonism, furthered the mathematical and experimental methods; William of Moerbeke (+1286), one of the greatest philologists of the M.A., who greatly improved the translations of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic literature by consulting directly Greek sources; the first proponents of the via moderna doctrine in Logic, William Shyreswood (+1249) and Petrus Hispanus (+1277).
Panpsychism: (Gr pan, all, psyche, soul) A form of metaphysical idealism, of which Leibniz's theory of monads is the classical example, according to which the whole of nature consists of psychic centers similar to the human mind. -- L.W.
Persian Philosophy: Persia was a vast empire before the time of Alexander the Great, embracing not only most of the orientnl tribes of Western Asia but also the Greeks of Asia Minor, the Jews and the Egyptians. If we concentrate on the central section of Persia, three philosophic periods may be distinguished Zoroastrianism (including Mithraism and Magianism), Manichaeanism, and medieval Persian thought. Zarathustra (Or. Zoroaster) lived before 600 B.C. and wrote the Avesta, apparently in the Zend language. It is primarily religious, but the teaching that there are two ultimate principles of reality, Ormazd, the God of Light and Goodness, and Ahriman, God of Evil and Darkness, is of philosophic importance. They are eternally fighting Mitra is the intermediary between Ormazd and man. In the third century A. D., Mani of Ecbatana (in Media) combined this dualism of eternal principles with some of the doctrines of Christianity. His seven books are now known only through second-hand reports of Mohammedan (Abu Faradj Ibn Ishaq, 10th c., and Sharastani, 12th c.) and Christian (St. Ephrem, 4th c., and Bar-Khoni, 7th c.) writers. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) has left several works criticizing Manichaeism, which he knew at first-hand. From the ninth century onward, many of the great Arabic philosophers are of Persian origin. Mention might be made of the epicureanism of the Rubaiyat of the Persian poet, Omar Kayyam, and the remarkable metaphysical system of Avicenna, i.e. Ibn Sina (11th c.), who was born in Persia. -- V.J.B.
Petites Perceptions: (Fr. little perceptions) Term by which Leibniz designates confused and unconscious perceptions. (Cf. The Monadology Sects. 21, 23 ) The Leibnizian theory of petites perceptions anticipates the modern theory of unconscious mind See Unconscious Mind. -- L.W.
Philosophers have in the past been concerned with two questions covered by our definition, though attempts to organize the subject as an autonomous department of philosophy are of recent date. Enquiries into the origin of language (e.g. in Plato's Kratylos) once a favorite subject for speculation, are now out of fashion, both with philosophers and linguists. Enquiries as to the nature of language (as in Descartes, Leibniz, and many others) are, however, still central to all philosophical interest in language. Such questions as "What are the most general characters of symbolism?", "How is 'Language' to be defined?", "What is the essence of language?", "How is communication possible?", "What would be the nature of a perfect language?", are indicative of the varying modulations which this theme receives in the works of contemporaries. Current studies in the philosophy of language can be classified under five hends: Questions of method, relation to other disciplines, etc. Much discussion turns here upon the proposal to establish a science and art of symbolism, variously styled semiotic, semantics or logical syntax, The analysis of meaning. Problems arising here involve attention to those under the next heading. The formulation of general descriptive schemata. Topics of importance here include the identification and analysis of different ways in which language is used, and the definition of men crucial notions as "symbol'', "grammar", "form", "convention", "metaphor", etc. The study of fully formalized language systems or "calculi". An increasingly important and highly technical division which seeks to extend and adapt to all languages the methods first developed in "metamathematics" for the study of mathematical symbolism. Applications to problems in general philosophy. Notably the attempt made to show that necessary propositions are really verbal; or again, the study of the nature of the religious symbol. Advance here awaits more generally acceptable doctrine in the other divisions. References:
Pluralism: This is the doctrine that there is not one (Monism), not two (Dualism) but many ultimate substances. From the earliest Ionian fundamentals of air, earth, fire and water, to the hierarchy of monads of Leibniz, the many things-in-themselves of Herbart and the theory of the many that "works" in the latter day Pragmatism of James and others, we get a variety of theories that find philosophic solace in variety rather than in any knowable or unknowable one. See Dualism, Idealism, Materialism, Monism, Political Philosophy (Laski). -- L.E.D.
Preestablished Harmony: A theory expounded by Leibniz and adopted in modified form by other thinkers after him, to refute the theories of interactionism, occasionalism, and the parallel ism of the Spinozistic type, in psycho-physics. According to its dynamism, matter and spirit, body and soul, the physical and the moral, each a "windowless", perfect monad (q.v.) in itself, are once and for all not only corresponding realities, but they are also synchronized by God in their changes like two clocks, thus rendering the assumption of any mutual or other influences nugatory. -- K.F.L.
Preformationism: (Lat. pre + formare, to form before) The doctrine, according to which, the organs and hereditary characters of living creatures are already contained in the germ either structurally or by subsequent differentiation. Cf. Leibniz (q.v.) (Monadology, sect. 74) who was influenced by Leeuwenhoek's microscopic discoveries and theory of the homunculus (little human contained in the sperm). Prediction:
Principle of sufficient reason: According to Leibniz, one of the two principles on which reasoning is founded, the other being the principle of Contradiction. While the latter is the ground of all necessary truths, the Principle of Sufficient Reason is the ground of all contingent and factual truths. It applies especially to existents, possible or factual, hence its two forms actual sufficient reasons, like the actual volitions of God or of the free creatures, are those determined by the perception of the good and exhibit themselves as final causes involving the good, and possible sufficient reasons are involved, for example, in the perception of evil as a possible aim to achieve. Leibniz defines the Principle of Sufficient Reason as follows: It is the principle "in virtue of which we judge that no fact can be found true or existent, no judgment veritable, unless there is a sufficient reason why it should be so and not otherwise, although these reasons cannot more than often be known to us. . . . There must be a sufficient reason for contingent truths or truths of fact, that is, for the sequence of things which are dispersed throughout the universe of created beings, in which the resolution into particular reasons might go into endless detail" (Monadology, 31, 32, 33, 36). And again, "Nothing happens without a sufficient reason; that is nothing happens without its being possible for one who should know things sufficiently to give a reason showing why things are so and not otherwise" (Principles of Nature and of Grace). It seems that the account given by Leibniz of this principle is not satisfactory in itself, in spite of the wide use he made of it in his philosophy. Many of his disciples vainly attempted to reduce it to the Principle of Contradiction. See Wolff.
Process Theory of Mind: The conception of mind in terms of process in contrast to substance. A mind, according to the process theory is a relatively permanent pattern preserved through a continuously changing process. Leibniz doctrine of the self-developing monad signalizes the transition from the substance to the process theory of mind and such philosophers as Bradley, Bosanquet, Bergson, James, Whitehead, Alexander and Dewey are recent exponents of the process theory. See C. W. Morris, Six Theories of Mind, Ch. II. -- L.W.
prosperity, being auspicious, a fortunate aspect of the stars. The Persian Sufi poet Muslihuddīn Mushrif ibn Abdullāh, often called Sa'dī, was born in Shīrāz (Iran) around 1175
Rationalism: A method, or very broadly, a theory of philosophy, in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive. Usually associated with an attempt to introduce mathematical methods into philosophy, as in Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. -- V.J.B.
Reflection: (Lat. reflectio, from re + flectere, to bend) The knowledge which the mind has of itself and its operations. The term is used in this sense by Locke (cf. Essay, II, 1, § 4) Spinoza (cf. On the Improvement of the Understanding 13) and Leibniz (cf. Monadology, and New Essays, Preface, § 4) but has now largely been supplanted by the term introspection. See Intelligence, Introspection. -- L.W.
Renouvier, Charles: (1818-1903) a thinker strongly influenced by Leibniz and Kant. His philosophy has been called 'phenomenological neo-criticism', and its peculiar feature is that it denies the existence of all transcendental entities, such as thing-in-itself, the absolute, and the noumenon. -- R.B.W.
Rule of inference: See logic, formal, §§ 1, 3, and logistic system. Russell, Bertrand A. W.: (1872-) Fellow Trinity College, Cambridge, 1895; lecturer in philosophy, University of Cambridge, 1910-1916. Author of: The Philosophy of Leibniz, 1900; The Principles of Mathematics, 1903; Principia Mathematica (in collaboration with A. N. Whitehead), 3 vols. 1910-13, (second edition, 1925-27); The Problems of Philosophy, 1912; Our Knowledge of the External World, 1914; Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, 1918; The Analysis of Mind, 1921; The Analysis of Matter, 1927; An Outline of Philosophy, 1928; An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, 1940. Also numerous other works on philosophy, politics and education, outrageously attacked by reactionaries.
Scribner, 1914.
Scribner, 1917-1925.
Scribner, 1929.
Scribner, 1952.
Scribner. See Till, Walter C.
silsila ::: lit., chain; the lineage of a Sufi tariqa descending from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), through Ali Ibn Abu Talib or Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them). The chain of transmission includes all murshids of the order up to the present.
Sometimes, however, the distinction between nominal definitions and real definitions is made on the basis that the latter convey an assertion of existence, of the defimendum, or rather, where the definiendum is a concept, of things falling thereunder (Saccheri, 1697); or the distinction may be made on the basis that real definitions involve the possibility of what is defined (Leibniz, 1684). Ockham makes the distinction rather on the basis that real definitions state the whole nature of a thing and nominal definitions state the meaning of a word or phrase, but adds that non-existents (as chimaera) and such parts of speech as verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions may therefore have only nominal definition. -- A.C.
stibium ::: n. --> The technical name of antimony.
Stibnite.
stibnite ::: n. --> A mineral of a lead-gray color and brilliant metallic luster, occurring in prismatic crystals; sulphide of antimony; -- called also antimony glance, and gray antimony.
Suarezianism is systematic, orderly, easy to teach, it has become the framework of many Catholic text-books in philosophy, particularly of those by Jesuit authors. Schopenhauer, Spinoza, Leibniz and Descartes mention their reading of the Disputations. See: Grab-mann, M., "Die Disp. Metaph. F. Suarez in ihrer methodischen Eigenart und Fortwirkung," in Franz Suarez, S.J., (Innsbruck, 1917). (Pedro Descoqs, S. J., is an outstanding contemporary Suarezian).
Subconscious Mind: (Lat. sub, under -- cum together + scire to know) A compartment of the mind alleged by certain psychologists and philosophers (see Psycho-analysis) to exist below the threshold of consciousness. The subconscious, though not directly accessible to introspection (see Introspection), is capable of being tapped by special techniques such as random association, dream-analysis, automatic writing, etc. The doctrine of the subconscious was foreshadowed in Leibniz's doctrine of petites perceptions (Monadology, Sections 21, 23) and received philosophical expression by A. Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, and E. von Hartman, Philosophy of the Unconscious and has become an integral part of Freudian psychology. See Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, esp. pp. 425-35, 483-93. -- L.W.
Succession and Duration: These concepts are inseparable from the idea of 'flowing' time in which every event endures relatively to a succession of other events. In Leibniz's view, succession was the most important characteristic of time defined by him as "the order of succession." Some thinkers, notably H. Bergson, regard duration (duree) as the very essence of time, "time perceived as indivisible," in which the vital impulse (elan vital) becomes the creative source of all change comparable to a snow-ball rolling down a hill and swelling on its way. According to A. N. Whitehead, duration is 'a slab of nature' possessing temporal thickness, it is a cross-section of the world in its process, or "the immediate present condition of the world at some epoch." -- R.B.W.
Sufficient Reason, Principle of: Consists in the necessary relation of every object or event to every other. Time, space, causality, ground of knowledge and motivation are so many forms of this most basic principle of the relatedness of phenomena. (Schopenhauer). In Leibniz, see Principle of Sufficient Reason. -- H.H.
Surrender is the main power of the yoga, but the surrender is bound to be progressive ; a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, but only a will in the being for that complete- ness. — in fact it takes time ; yet it is only when the surrender h retpjfieSe ibn} Ihc /uU -Orxsd of ibc jsadhana is possible.
Teichmüller, Gustav: (1832-1888) Strongly influenced by Leibniz and Lotze and anticipating some recent philosophic positions, taught a thoroughgoing personalism by regarding the "I", given immediately in experience as a unit, as the real substance, the world of ideas a projection of its determinations (perspectivism). Nature is appearance, substantiality being ascribed to it only in analogy to the "I". Consciousness and knowledge are clearly separated, the latter being specific and semiotic. Reality is interpreted monadologically. -- K.F.L.
The Anti-Nicene Fathers. New York: Scribner, 1925.
The differences begin when the questions of the mode of creation and mediators between God and the world are dealt with. In these matters there are to be noted three variations. Saadia rejected entirely the theory of the emanation of separate intelligences, and teaches God's creation from nothing of all beings in the sublunar and upper worlds. He posits that God created first a substratum or the first air which was composed of the hyle and form and out of this element all beings were created, not only the four elements, the components of bodies in the lower world, but also the angels, stars, and the spheres. Bahya's conception is similar to that of Saadia. The Aristotelians, Ibn Daud, Maimonides, and Gersonides accepted the theory of the separate intelligences which was current in Arabic philosophy. This theory teaches that out of the First Cause there emanated an intelligence, and out of this intelligence another one up to nine, corresponding to the number of spheres. Each of these intelligences acts as the object of the mind of a sphere and is the cause of its movement. The tenth intelligence is the universal intellect, an emanation of all intelligences which has in its care the sublunar world. This theory is a combination of Aristotelian and neo-PIatonic teachings; Ibn Daud posits, however, in addition to the intelligences also the existence of angels, created spiritual beings, while Maimonides seems to identify the angels with the intelligences, and also says that natural forces are also called angels in the Bible. As for creation, Ibn Daud asserts that God created the hyle or primal matter and endowed it with general form from which the specific forms later developed. Maimonides seems to believe that God first created a substance consisting of primal matter and primal form, and that He determined by His will that parts of it should form the matter of the spheres which is imperishable, while other parts should form the matter of the four elements. These views, however, are subject to various interpretations by historians. Gabirol and Gersonides posit the eternal existence of the hyle and limit creation to endowing it with form and organization -- a view close to the Platonic.
“The kabalist is a student of ‘secret science,’ one who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabalah, and explains the real one by these means. The Tanaim were the first kabalists among the Jews; they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century before the Christian era. The books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Henoch, and the Revelation of St. John, are purely kabalistical. This secret doctrine is identical with that of the Chaldeans, and includes at the same time much of the Persian wisdom, or ‘magic.’ History catches glimpses of famous kabalists ever since the eleventh century. The Mediaeval ages, and even our own times, have had an enormous number of the most learned and intellectual men who were students of the Kabala . . . The most famous among the former were Paracelsus, Henry Khunrath, Jacob Bohmen, Robert Fludd, the two Van Helmonts, the Abbot John Trithemius, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardinal Nicolao Cusani, Jerome Carden, Pope Sixtus IV., and such Christian scholars as Raymond Lully, Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola, Guillaume Postel, the great John Reuchlin, Dr. Henry More, Eugenius Philalethes (Thomas Vaughan), the erudite Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, Christian Knorr (Baron) von Rosenroth; then Sir Isaac Newton, Leibniz, Lord Bacon, Spinosa, etc., etc., the list being almost inexhaustible. As remarked by Mr. Isaac Myer, in his Qabbalah [p. 170], the ideas of the Kabalists have largely influenced European literature. ‘Upon the practical Qabbalah, the Abbe de Villars (nephew of de Montfaucon) in 1670, published his celebrated satirical novel, “The Count de Gabalis,” upon which Pope based his “Rape of the Lock.” Qabbalism ran through the Mediaeval poems, the “Romance of the Rose,” and permeates the writings of Dante.’ No two of them, however, agreed upon the origin of the Kabala, the Zohar, Sepher Yetzirah, etc. Some show it as coming from the Biblical Patriarchs, Abraham, and even Seth; others from Egypt, others again from Chaldea. The system is certainly very old; but like all the rest of systems, whether religious or philosophical, the Kabala is derived directly from the primeval Secret Doctrine of the East; through the Vedas, the Upanishads, Orpheus and Thales, Pythagoras and the Egyptians. Whatever its source, its substratum is at any rate identical with that of all the other systems from the Book of the Dead down to the later Gnostics” (TG 167-8).
The legend of the cyclops with the third eye is also found in ancient Ireland. De Jubainville parallels the three cyclopes of Hesiod with the three famous Irish smiths, Goibniu (Gavida) and his brothers. Goibniu slew the wicked Fomorian Balor — also a cyclops with one eye in the middle of his forehead — to give victory to the Tuatha De Danaan (gods of day and life) (Irish Mythological Cycle 122).
The monads are also living mirrors of the universe, every monad reflecting every other one (SD 1:623), as Leibniz taught. “The Luminous Mirror, Aspaqularia nera, a Kabbalistic term, means the power of foresight and farsight, prophecy such as Moses had. Ordinary mortals have only the Aspaqularia della nera or Non Luminous Mirror, they see only in a glass darkly: a parallel symbolism is that of the conception of the Tree of Life, and that only of the Tree of Knowledge” (TG 215).
The origin, nature, and the continued existence or immortality of the soul is widely discussed in Jewish philosophy. As to origin, Saadia believes that each individual soul is created by God -- considering, of course, creation a continuous process -- and that it is of a fine spiritual substance. As to its faculties, he accepts the Aristotelian-Platonic division of the soul into three parts, namely, the appetitive, emotional, and cognitive. Ibn Daud thinks that the soul exists prior to the body potentially, i.e., that the angels endow the body with form; he further considers it a substance but says that it undergoes a process of development. The more it thinks the more perfect it becomes, and the thoughts are called acquired reason, it is this acquired reason, or being perfected which remains immortal. Maimonides does not discuss the origin of the soul, but deals more with its parts. To the three of Saadia he adds the imaginative and the conative. Gersonides' view resembles somewhat that of Ibn Daud, except that he does not speak of its origin and limits himself to the intellect. The intellect, says he, is only a capacity residing in the lower soul, and that capacity is gradually developed by the help of the Active Intellect into an acquired and ultimately into an active reason. All thinkers insist on immortality, but with Saadia and ha-Levi it seems that the entire soul survives, while the Aristotelians assert that only the intellect is immortal. Maimonides is not explicit on the subject, yet we may surmise that even the more liberal thinkers did not subscribe to Averroes' theory of unitas intellectus, and they believed that the immortal intellect is endowed with consciousness of personality. To this trend of connecting immortality with rational reflection Crescas took exception, and asserts that it is not pure thought which leads to survival, but that the soul is immortal because it is a spiritual being, and it is perfected by its love for God and the doing of good.
The problem of attributes gave rise to extensive discussions. In general, the attempt is made to convey some knowledge about God and yet maintain that His essence is inconceivable. The number of attributes varies with individual philosophers, from three of Bahya to eight of Ibn Daud. Saadia counts one, living, potent and wise as essential attributes; Bahya one, existent, and eternal. Ha-Levi substitutes living for existent. Ibn Daud adds to those of Saadia and Bahya three more: true, willing, and potent. Maimonides considers living, potent, wise, and willing as those agreed upon by philosophers. The difficulty, however, does not consist in the number but in their content, or in other words, how to speak of essential attributes and not to impair the simplicity of God's essence. Bahya was the first to assert that their content is negative, e.g., existent means not non-existent. He was followed in this by all others. Maimonides is especially insistent upon the negative meaning and asserts that they are to be applied to God and man in an absolute homonymic manner, i.e., there is no possible relation between God and other beings. Gersonides and Crescas, on the other hand, believe that the essential attributes are positive though we cannot determine their content. There are, of course, other attributes which are descriptive of His action, but these are not essential.
There is, however, greater difficulty in making freedom of the will compatible with divine prescience of human action. The question arises, does God know beforehand what man will do or not? If he does, it follows that the action is determined, or if man can choose, His knowledge is not true. Various answers were proposed by Jewish philosophers to this difficult problem. Saadia says that God's knowledge is like gazing in a mirror of the future which does not influence human action. He knows the ultimate result. Maimonides says that God's knowledge is so totally different from human that it remains indefinable, and consequently He may know things beforehand, and yet not impair the possibility of man to choose between two actions. Ibn Daud and Gersonides limit God's knowledge and say that He only knows that certain actions will be present to man for choice but not the way he will choose. Crescas is more logical and comes to the conclusion that action is possible only per se, i.e., when looked upon singly, but is necessary through the causes. Free will is in this case nominal and consist primarily in the fact that man is ignorant of the real situation and he is rewarded and punished for his exertion to do good or for his neglect to exert himself.
The term monad was adopted from Greek philosophy by Bruno, Leibniz, and others. According to Leibniz there can be but one ultimate cosmic reality or monad, the universe; but he recognizes an innumerable multiplicity of monads which pervade the universe, copies or reflections of the universal monad regarded as real except in their relation to the universal monad. He divides his derivative monads into three classes: rational souls; sentient but irrational monads; and material monads, or organic and inorganic bodies. As regards the material monads, while recognizing that corporeal matter is compound, and the attributes by which we perceive it unreal, unlike Berkeley, he does not deny its existence but regards it essentially as monadic. Thus his universe is an aggregate of individuals. The relations of these individuals to each other and to the universal is a supreme harmony, implying both individuality and coordination, thus reconciling the antinomy of bonds of law and freedom. The interrelations of various groups of monads is as a series of hierarchies. Theosophical usage is largely the same as that of Leibniz, as the focus or heart in any individual being, of all its divine, spiritual, and intellectual powers and attributes — the immortal part of its being. In The Secret Doctrine we find a triadic union of gods-monads-atoms, related to each other as spirit-soul-body (or more accurately spirit, spirit-soul, and spirit-soul-body). Monads and atoms are related to each other as the energic and the material side of manifestation, the atoms being the reflections, veils, or projections of and from the monads themselves.
This system contrasts with those of Spinoza and Leibnitz, Spinoza accentuating the monistic view and Leibnitz regarding Descartes’s two substances as aspects of the One Substance (SD 1:628-9). It is stated, furthermore, that a combination of Spinoza with Leibnitz would give the essence of theosophical philosophy, according to which the universe, though essentially a unity, appears as a plurality of monads, manifesting under the dual — yet essentially illusory — aspects of spirit and matter. There is therefore no essential difference between spirit and matter, these being but mutually contrasted aspects of the one underlying and all-pervading substance.
Three senses of "Ockhamism" may be distinguished: Logical, indicating usage of the terminology and technique of logical analysis developed by Ockham in his Summa totius logicae; in particular, use of the concept of supposition (suppositio) in the significative analysis of terms. Epistemological, indicating the thesis that universality is attributable only to terms and propositions, and not to things as existing apart from discourse. Theological, indicating the thesis that no tneological doctrines, such as those of God's existence or of the immortality of the soul, are evident or demonstrable philosophically, so that religious doctrine rests solely on faith, without metaphysical or scientific support. It is in this sense that Luther is often called an Ockhamist. Bibliography: B. Geyer, Ueberwegs Grundriss d. Gesch. d. Phil., Bd. II (11th ed., Berlin 1928), pp. 571-612 and 781-786; N. Abbagnano, Guglielmo di Ockham (Lanciano, Italy, 1931); E. A. Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham (N. Y. & London, 1935); F. Ehrle, Peter von Candia (Muenster, 1925); G. Ritter, Studien zur Spaetscholastik, I-II (Heidelberg, 1921-1922). --E.A.M. Om, aum: (Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. --K.F.L. Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. --J.J.R. One: Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the soul (Lotze). Religious philosophy and mysticism, beginning with Indian philosophy (s.v.), has favored the designation of the One for the metaphysical world-ground, the ultimate icility, the world-soul, the principle of the world conceived as reason, nous, or more personally. The One may be conceived as an independent whole or as a sum, as analytic or synthetic, as principle or ontologically. Except by mysticism, it is rarely declared a fact of sensory experience, while its transcendent or transcendental, abstract nature is stressed, e.g., in epistemology where the "I" or self is considered the unitary background of personal experience, the identity of self-consciousness, or the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifoldness of ideas (Kant). --K.F.L. One-one: A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determine, a one-to-one correspondence between its domain and its converse domain. --A.C. On-handedness: (Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A "deficient" form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) --H.H. Ontological argument: Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the former is not really the greater. The greatest, therefore, has to exist. Anselm has been reproached, already by his contemporary Gaunilo, for unduly passing from the field of logical to the field of ontological or existential reasoning. This criticism has been repeated by many authors, among them Aquinas. The argument has, however, been used, if in a somewhat modified form, by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz. --R.A. Ontological Object: (Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ontologism: (Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speaking any rationalistic, a priori metaphysical doctrine, specifically the philosophies of Rosmini-Serbati and Vincenzo Gioberti. As a philosophic method censored by skeptics and criticists alike, as a scholastic doctrine formerly strongly supported, revived in Italy and Belgium in the 19th century, but no longer countenanced. --K.F.L. Ontology: (Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principles, Metaphysics, Theology. --J.K.F. Operation: "(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. --A.C.B. In logic, see Operationism. In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism. Operationism: The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations. 1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events. 2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositions are operationally meaningful when the assertions are testable by means of performable operations. Thus, under operational rules, terms have semantical significance, propositions have empirical significance. Operationism makes explicit the distinction between formal (q.v.) and empirical sentences. Formal propositions are signs arranged according to syntactical rules but lacking operational reference. Such propositions, common in mathematics, logic and syntax, derive their sanction from convention, whereas an empirical proposition is acceptable (1) when its structure obeys syntactical rules and (2) when there exists a concrete procedure (a set of operations) for determining its truth or falsity (cf. Verification). Propositions purporting to be empirical are sometimes amenable to no operational test because they contain terms obeying no definite semantical rules. These sentences are sometimes called pseudo-propositions and are said to be operationally meaningless. They may, however, be 'meaningful" in other ways, e.g. emotionally or aesthetically (cf. Meaning). Unlike a formal statement, the "truth" of an empirical sentence is never absolute and its operational confirmation serves only to increase the degree of its validity. Similarly, the semantical rule comprising the operational definition of a term has never absolute precision. Ordinarily a term denotes a class of operations and the precision of its definition depends upon how definite are the rules governing inclusion in the class. The difference between Operationism and Logical Positivism (q.v.) is one of emphasis. Operationism's stress of empirical matters derives from the fact that it was first employed to purge physics of such concepts as absolute space and absolute time, when the theory of relativity had forced upon physicists the view that space and time are most profitably defined in terms of the operations by which they are measured. Although different methods of measuring length at first give rise to different concepts of length, wherever the equivalence of certain of these measures can be established by other operations, the concepts may legitimately be combined. In psychology the operational criterion of meaningfulness is commonly associated with a behavioristic point of view. See Behaviorism. Since only those propositions which are testable by public and repeatable operations are admissible in science, the definition of such concepti as mind and sensation must rest upon observable aspects of the organism or its behavior. Operational psychology deals with experience only as it is indicated by the operation of differential behavior, including verbal report. Discriminations, or the concrete differential reactions of organisms to internal or external environmental states, are by some authors regarded as the most basic of all operations. For a discussion of the role of operational definition in phvsics. see P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, (New York, 1928) and The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton, 1936). "The extension of operationism to psychology is discussed by C. C. Pratt in The Logic of Modem Psychology (New York. 1939.) For a discussion and annotated bibliography relating to Operationism and Logical Positivism, see S. S. Stevens, Psychology and the Science of Science, Psychol. Bull., 36, 1939, 221-263. --S.S.S. Ophelimity: Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. --J.J.R. Opinion: (Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. --J.K.F- Opposition: (Lat. oppositus, pp. of oppono, to oppose) Positive actual contradiction. One of Aristotle's Post-predicaments. In logic any contrariety or contradiction, illustrated by the "Square of Opposition". Syn. with: conflict. See Logic, formal, § 4. --J.K.F. Optimism: (Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created a better world had he known or willed such a one to exist. Not even he could remove moral wrong and evil unless he destroyed the power of self-determination and hence the basis of morality. All systems of ethics that recognize a supreme good (Plato and many idealists), subscribe to the doctrines of progressivism (Turgot, Herder, Comte, and others), regard evil as a fragmentary view (Josiah Royce et al.) or illusory, or believe in indemnification (Henry David Thoreau) or melioration (Emerson), are inclined optimistically. Practically all theologies advocating a plan of creation and salvation, are optimistic though they make the good or the better dependent on moral effort, right thinking, or belief, promising it in a future existence. Metaphysical speculation is optimistic if it provides for perfection, evolution to something higher, more valuable, or makes room for harmonies or a teleology. See Pessimism. --K.F.L. Order: A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation. Whitehcid and Russell apply the term serial relation to relations which are transitive, irreflexive, and connected (and, in consequence, also asymmetric). However, the use of serial relations in this sense, instead ordering relations as just defined, is awkward in connection with the notion of order for unit classes. Examples: The relation not greater than among leal numbers is an ordering relation. The relation less than among real numbers is a serial relation. The real numbers are simply ordered by the former relation. In the algebra of classes (logic formal, § 7), the classes are partially ordered by the relation of class inclusion. For explanation of the terminology used in making the above definitions, see the articles connexity, reflexivity, relation, symmetry, transitivity. --A.C. Order type: See relation-number. Ordinal number: A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ⊂ b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defined to be the relation-number (q. v.) of R. The ordinal numbers of finite classes (well-ordered by appropriate relations) are called finite ordinal numbers. These are 0, 1, 2, ... (to be distinguished, of course, from the finite cardinal numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .). The first non-finite (transfinite or infinite) ordinal number is the ordinal number of the class of finite ordinal numbers, well-ordered in their natural order, 0, 1, 2, . . .; it is usually denoted by the small Greek letter omega. --A.C. G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction by P. E. B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. (new ed. 1941); Whitehead and Russell, Princtpia Mathematica. vol. 3. Orexis: (Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). --G.R.M.. Organicism: A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. --J.K.F. Organism: An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. --R.B.W. Organismic Psychology: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. --L.W. Organization: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. --J.K.F. Organon: (Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelianism. --G.R.M. In Kant. A system of principles by which pure knowledge may be acquired and established. Cf. Fr. Bacon's Novum Organum. --O.F.K. Oriental Philosophy: A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that of the complex cultures of Asia Minor, extending far into antiquity. Oriental philosophy, though by no means presenting a homogeneous picture, nevertheless shares one characteristic, i.e., the practical outlook on life (ethics linked with metaphysics) and the absence of clear-cut distinctions between pure speculation and religious motivation, and on lower levels between folklore, folk-etymology, practical wisdom, pre-scientiiic speculation, even magic, and flashes of philosophic insight. Bonds with Western, particularly Greek philosophy have no doubt existed even in ancient times. Mutual influences have often been conjectured on the basis of striking similarities, but their scientific establishment is often difficult or even impossible. Comparative philosophy (see especially the work of Masson-Oursel) provides a useful method. Yet a thorough treatment of Oriental Philosophy is possible only when the many languages in which it is deposited have been more thoroughly studied, the psychological and historical elements involved in the various cultures better investigated, and translations of the relevant documents prepared not merely from a philological point of view or out of missionary zeal, but by competent philosophers who also have some linguistic training. Much has been accomplished in this direction in Indian and Chinese Philosophy (q.v.). A great deal remains to be done however before a definitive history of Oriental Philosophy may be written. See also Arabian, and Persian Philosophy. --K.F.L. Origen: (185-254) The principal founder of Christian theology who tried to enrich the ecclesiastic thought of his day by reconciling it with the treasures of Greek philosophy. Cf. Migne PL. --R.B.W. Ormazd: (New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). --K.F.L. Orphic Literature: The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which they sought to influence to the better by pure living and austerity. They taught a symbolism in which, e.g., the relationship of the One to the many was clearly enunciated, and believed in the soul as involved in reincarnation. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato were influenced by them. --K.F.L. Ortega y Gasset, Jose: Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg, under the special influence of Hermann Cohen, the great exponent of Kant, who taught him the love for the scientific method and awoke in him the interest in educational philosophy, Ortega came to Spain where, after the death of Nicolas Salmeron, he occupied the professorship of metaphysics at the Central University of Madrid. The following may be considered the most important works of Ortega y Gasset: Meditaciones del Quijote, 1914; El Espectador, I-VIII, 1916-1935; El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo, 1921; España Invertebrada, 1922; Kant, 1924; La Deshumanizacion del Arte, 1925; Espiritu de la Letra, 1927; La Rebelion de las Masas, 1929; Goethe desde Adentio, 1934; Estudios sobre el Amor, 1939; Ensimismamiento y Alteracion, 1939; El Libro de las Misiones, 1940; Ideas y Creencias, 1940; and others. Although brought up in the Marburg school of thought, Ortega is not exactly a neo-Kantian. At the basis of his Weltanschauung one finds a denial of the fundamental presuppositions which characterized European Rationalism. It is life and not thought which is primary. Things have a sense and a value which must be affirmed independently. Things, however, are to be conceived as the totality of situations which constitute the circumstances of a man's life. Hence, Ortega's first philosophical principle: "I am myself plus my circumstances". Life as a problem, however, is but one of the poles of his formula. Reason is the other. The two together function, not by dialectical opposition, but by necessary coexistence. Life, according to Ortega, does not consist in being, but rather, in coming to be, and as such it is of the nature of direction, program building, purpose to be achieved, value to be realized. In this sense the future as a time dimension acquires new dignity, and even the present and the past become articulate and meaning-full only in relation to the future. Even History demands a new point of departure and becomes militant with new visions. --J.A.F. Orthodoxy: Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. --V.S. Orthos Logos: See Right Reason. Ostensible Object: (Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ostensive: (Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. --A.C.B. Ostwald, Wilhelm: (1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special forms of energy. --L.E.D. Oupnekhat: Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. --K.F.L. Outness: A term employed by Berkeley to express the experience of externality, that is the ideas of space and things placed at a distance. Hume used it in the sense of distance Hamilton understood it as the state of being outside of consciousness in a really existing world of material things. --J.J.R. Overindividual: Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. --L.W. P
T'ime: The general medium in which all events take place in succession or appear to take place in succession. All specific and finite periods of time, whether past, present or future, constitute merely parts of the entire and single Time. Common-sense interprets Time vaguely as something moving toward the future or as something in which events point in that direction. But the many contradictions contained in this notion have led philosophers to postulate doctrines purporting to eliminate some of the difficulties implied in common-sense ideas. The first famous but unresolved controversy arose in Ancient Greece, between Parmenides, who maintained that change and becoming were irrational illusions, and Heraclitus, who asserted that there was no permanence and that change characterized everything without exception. Another great controversy arose centuries later between disciples of Newton and Leibniz. According to Newton, time was independent of, and prior to, events; in his own words, "absolute time, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably without regard to anything external." According to Leibniz, on the other hand, there can be no time independent of events: for time is formed by events and relations among them, and constitutes the universal order of succession. It was this latter doctrine which eventually gave rise to the doctrine of space-time, in which both space and time are regarded as two systems of relations, distinct from a perceptual standpoint, but inseparably bound together in reality. All these controversies led many thinkers to believe that the concept of time cannot be fully accounted for, unless we distinguish between perceptual, or subjective, time, which is confined to the perceptually shifting 'now' of the present, and conceptual, or objective, time, which includes til periods of time and in which the events we call past, present and future can be mutually and fixedly related. See Becoming, Change, Duration, Persistence, Space-Time. -- R.B.W.
Title of Leibniz's essay on evil (Essai de Theodicee).
To be an Aristotelian under such extremely complicated circumstances was the problem that St. Thomas set himself. What he did reduced itself fundamentally to three points: (a) He showed the Platonic orientation of St. Augustine's thought, the limitations that St. Augustine himself placed on his Platonism, and he inferred from this that St. Augustine could not be made the patron of the highly elaborated and sophisticated Platonism that an Ibn Gebirol expounded in his Fons Vitae or an Avicenna in his commentaries on the metaphysics and psychology of Aristotle. (b) Having singled out Plato as the thinker to search out behind St. Augustine, and having really eliminated St. Augustine from the Platonic controversies of the thirteenth century, St. Thomas is then concerned to diagnose the Platonic inspiration of the various commentators of Aristotle, and to separate what is to him the authentic Aristotle from those Platonic aberrations. In this sense, the philosophical activity of St. Thomas in the thirteenth century can be understood as a systematic critique and elimination of Platonism in metaphysics, psychology and epistemology. The Platonic World of Ideas is translated into a theory of substantial principles in a world of stable and intelligible individuals; the Platonic man, who was scarcely more than an incarcerated spirit, became a rational animal, containing within his being an interior economy which presented in a rational system his mysterious nature as a reality existing on the confines of two worlds, spirit and matter; the Platonic theory of knowledge (at least in the version of the Meno rather than that of the later dialogues where the doctrine of division is more prominent), which was regularly beset with the difficulty of accounting for the origin and the truth of knowledge, was translated into a theory of abstraction in which sensible experience enters as a necessary moment into the explanation of the origin, the growth and the use of knowledge, and in which the intelligible structure of sensible being becomes the measure of the truth of knowledge and of knowing.
Transport Layer Interface ::: (networking, programming) (TLI, or Transport Level Interface) A protocol-independent interface for accessing network facilities, modelled after the ISO transport layer (level 4), that first appeared in Unix SVR3.TLI is defined by SVID as transport mechanism for networking interfaces, in preference to sockets, which are biased toward IP and friends. A disavantage is library, libnsl_s.a. The major functions are t_open, t_bind, t_connect, t_listen, t_accept, t_snd, t_rcv, read, write.According to the Solaris t_open man page, XTI (X/OPEN Transport Interface) evolved from TLI, and supports the TLI API for compatibility, with some variations on semantics. (1999-06-10)
Transport Layer Interface "networking, programming" (TLI, or "Transport Level Interface") A {protocol}-independent interface for accessing network facilities, modelled after the {ISO} {transport layer} (level 4), that first appeared in {Unix SVR3}. TLI is defined by {SVID} as transport mechanism for networking interfaces, in preference to {sockets}, which are biased toward {IP} and friends. A disavantage is that a process cannot use read/write directly, but has to use backends using {stdin} and {stdout} to communicate with the network connection. TLI is implemented in SVR4 using the {STREAMS} interface. It adds no new {system calls}, just a library, libnsl_s.a. The major functions are t_open, t_bind, t_connect, t_listen, t_accept, t_snd, t_rcv, read, write. According to the {Solaris} t_open {man page}, XTI (X/OPEN Transport Interface) evolved from TLI, and supports the TLI {API} for compatibility, with some variations on semantics. (1999-06-10)
Verite de fait (Verite de raison): There are two kinds of truth, according to Leibniz, truths of fact and truths of reason (or reasoning).These two classes of truths are exhaustive, and also, with the single exception of the existence of God, which has a logically anomalous position of being a necessary truth about existence, completely exclusive. Truths of reason are completely certain and necessary, for their denial involves a contradiction and is hence impossible. Truths of fact, on the other hand, are not completely certain and necessary. Their denial involves no contradiction, they rest upon experience and they have, hence, only a limited inductive certainty. The truth of inductive inferences which go beyond the evidence of immediate experience depends upon the Law of Sufficient Reason, which is the expression in logic of the choice of the best on the part of God. Since God conceivably could have chosen another world for realization, rathcr than this best of all possible worlds, these truths can never equal in certainty the truths of reason, which depend not on God's will, but on the Principle of Contradiction, which not even God himself can make to be false. -- F.L.W.
Vols. 2 and 8. New York: Scribner, 1925.
Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de: (1694-1778) French dramatist and historian. He was one of the leading Encyclopaedists. He preached a natural religion of the deist variety. Though characterized as an atheist because of his fervent antagonism to the bigotry he found in the organized religions, he nevertheless believed in a righteous God. He was opposed to all intolerance and fought passionately to right the evils he discerned in religion and in society in general. In ethics, he based his views on the universal character of morals in which he firmly believed. His famous Candide is illustrative of his keen satire in its blasting of the Leibnizean best of all possible worlds. -- L.E.D.
Wahdat al-wudjud Literally: the unity of being. Term of Ibn el Arabi that refers to the condition of ecstasy when man feels himself united with the divine being after dropping his own identity. A less radical form is Wahdat al-shuhud: witnessing the unity of God.
WIBNI ({Bell Labs}) Wouldn't It Be Nice If. What most requirements documents and specifications consist entirely of. Compare {IWBNI}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-24)
WIBNI ::: (Bell Labs) Wouldn't It Be Nice If.What most requirements documents and specifications consist entirely of.Compare IWBNI.[Jargon File] (1994-11-24)
With reference to the approach to the central reality of religion, God, and man's relation to it, types of the Philosophy of Religion may be distinguished, leaving out of account negative (atheism), skeptical and cynical (Xenophanes, Socrates, Voltaire), and agnostic views, although insertions by them are not to be separated from the history of religious consciousness. Fundamentalism, mainly a theological and often a Church phenomenon of a revivalist nature, philosophizes on the basis of unquestioning faith, seeking to buttress it by logical argument, usually taking the form of proofs of the existence of God (see God). Here belong all historic religions, Christianity in its two principal forms, Catholicism with its Scholastic philosophy and Protestantism with its greatly diversified philosophies, the numerous religions of Hinduism, such as Brahmanism, Shivaism and Vishnuism, the religion of Judaism, and Mohammedanism. Mysticism, tolerated by Church and philosophy, is less concerned with proof than with description and personal experience, revealing much of the psychological factors involved in belief and speculation. Indian philosophy is saturated with mysticism since its inception, Sufism is the outstanding form of Arab mysticism, while the greatest mystics in the West are Plotinus, Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Ruysbroek, Thomas a Kempis, and Jacob Bohme. Metaphysics incorporates religious concepts as thought necessities. Few philosophers have been able to avoid the concept of God in their ontology, or any reference to the relation of God to man in their ethics. So, e.g., Plato, Spinoza, Leibniz, Schelling, and especially Hegel who made the investigation of the process of the Absolute the essence of the Philosophy of Religion.
W. V. Quine, Mathematical Logic, New York, 1940. Logic, symbolic, or mathematical logic, or logistic, is the name given to the treatment of formal logic by means of a formalized logical language or calculus whose purpose is to avoid the ambiguities and logical inadequacy of ordinary language. It is best characterized, not as a separate subject, but as a new and powerful method in formal logic. Foreshadowed by ideas of Leibniz, J. H. Lambert, and others, it had its substantial historical beginning in the Nineteenth Century algebra of logic (q. v.), and received its contemporary form at the hands of Frege, Peano, Russell, Hilbert, and others. Advantages of the symbolic method are greater exactness of formulation, and power to deal with formally more complex material. See also logistic system. -- A. C.
Xirau Palau, Joaquin: Born in Figueras, Spain, 1805. At present, in Mexico. Xirau specialized in philosophy, literature and law, obtaining his Ph.D. from the Central University of Madrid in 1918. Studied and worked under Ortega y Gasset, Serra Hunter, Cossio, and Morente. Main Works: Las Condiciones de la Verdad Eterna en Leibniz, 1921; Rousseau y las Ideas Politicas Modernas, 1923; El Sentido de la Verdad, 1927; Descartes y el Idealismo Subjectivista Moderna, 1927; Amor y Mundo, 1940; Introduccion a la Fenomenologia, 1941. According to Xirau the way essence of philosophic thought (Influence of Husserl and Heidegger) opposes the conception of philosophy as mere play of ideas or speculation of concepts. Philosophy is, above all, called upon to develop man in the sense of actualizing his inborn potentialities and bringing the fact and concept of personality to full fruition. Philosophy thus becomes pedagogical, and as such it will always have a great destiny to realize. -- J.A.F.
York: Scribner, 1897.
York: Scribner, 1917-1925.
York: Scribner, 1930.
York: Scribner, 1955.
Z3 "computer" The third computer designed and built by {Konrad Zuse} and the first {digital computer} to successfully run real programs. The computer was ready in 1941, five years before {ENIAC}. Zuse began his work on program-driven calculating machines in 1935. His two predessors of the Z3, the Z1 and Z2, were unsuccessful mechanical calculating machines. The Z3 was delivered to the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Experimental Department of Aeronautics) in Berlin and was used for deciphering coded messages. A 1960 reconstruction of the Z3 is in the Deutsche Museum in Munich. The Z3 used about 2600 relays of the kind used in telecommunications. Zuse wrote and implemented the language {Plankalkül} on the Z3. Programs were punched into cinefilm. Zuse built some more computers after World War II, including the Z3's successor, the Z4, which was set up at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Of the potential rival claimants to the title of first programmable computer, {Babbage} (UK, c1840) planned but was not able to build a {decimal}, programmable machine. {Atanasoff}'s {ABC}, completed in 1942 was a special purpose calculator, like those of {Pascal} (1640) and {Leibniz} (1670). Eckert and Mauchly's {ENIAC} (US), as originally released in 1946, was programmable only by manual rewiring or, in 1948, with switches. None of these machines was freely programmable. Neither was {Turing} et al.'s {Colossus} (UK, 1943-45). {Aiken}'s {MARK I} (1944) was programmable but still decimal, without separation of storage and control. [Features? Where was it designed? Contemporaries?] {(http://cs.tu-berlin.de/~zuse)}. {(http://epemag.com/zuse)}. (2003-10-01)
Zaddik, Joseph Ibn: Judge at Cordova (1080-1149). Philosophic work written in Arabic is the Microcosm (Heb. Olam Katon). See Jewish Philosophy. Zarathustra: A historic personality whose life became "enshrowded in legend. He lived not later than the 6th century B.C. in ancient Persia (Iran or Bactria) and is credited with establishing a dualism called after him Zoroastrianism (q.v.). In Also sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche makes him, though dissociated from his doctrines, the bearer of his message. -- K.F.L.
KEYS (10k)
27 Ibn Arabi
5 Solomon Ibn Gabirol
3 Leibniz
2 Leibnitz
2 Ibn Ata'illah
2 Ibn Ata'allah
2 IbnArabi
1 Umar ibn al-Khattab
1 Shaykh ibn Ata'illah al-Sakandari
1 Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi. "Essay on Unity."
1 Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi
1 Megan Scribner
1 Imam Ibn Ata'Allah
1 Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib
1 Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah
1 Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya
1 Ibn Qayyim]
1 Ibn Masnd
1 Ibn Khafif
1 Ibn El-Jalali. Source: Idries Shah
1 Ibn Ata'illah al-Sakandari
1 Ibn Ata 'illah al- Iskandari
1 Ibn Ata'Allah
1 ibnArabi
1 Ibn Arabi
1 Ibn al-Jawzi
1 Ibn Al-Jawzee
1 Ibn al-Farid
1 Hazrat Umar ibn Khattab
1 Hazrat Khwaja Ibn-El-Jalali
1 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1 Gottfried Leibniz
1 Ali ibn Abi Talib
1 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
1 Abraham-ibn-Ezra
1 Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
139 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
64 Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya
63 Ibn Arabi
48 Ibn Taymiyyah
33 Ibn Warraq
33 Alex Gibney
31 Patricia Gibney
29 Solomon Ibn Gabirol
29 Ibn Khaldun
18 Ibn Hazm
12 Khalid ibn al Walid
10 Ibn Majah
9 Idries Shah
9 Ibn Battuta
7 Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi
7 Abu Sufyan ibn Harb
6 Anonymous
5
4 Viera Scheibner
4 Samuel ibn Naghrillah
1:I run from You, to You ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
2:Sufism is truth without form." ~ Hazrat Khwaja Ibn-El-Jalali, #KEYS
3:How utterly Close you are. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
4:The beginning of wisdom is to desire it. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
5:Be in a continuous loving state. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
6:A wise man's questions contain half the answer. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
7:If the heart becomes hardened, the eye becomes dry. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #KEYS
8:Thou hast created me not from necessity but from grace. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
9:If men knew themselves, they would know God." ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
10:Judge by the truth. The truth is in the present. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
11:The destiny of a person is determined by their efforts. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
12:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
13:Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you. ~ Ali ibn Abi Talib, #KEYS
14:Oh, Lord, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
15:Sufism is truth without form." ~ Ibn El-Jalali. Source: Idries Shah, "The Way of the Sufi,", (reprint 1990)., #KEYS
16:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
17:We know that there is another stage beyond the stage of logical perception. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
18:The tears we shed,water the gardens in our hearts. ~ Ibn Arabi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
19:God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
20:the domain ... of true reflection. " ~ Ibn Ata 'illah al- Iskandari, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
21:All is in the One in power and the One is in all in act. ~ Abraham-ibn-Ezra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
22:He who knows himself, knows his Lord. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi. "Essay on Unity.", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
23:The desires of this world are like sea water. The more you drink of them, the more you thirst. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
24:If a person has ten habits out of which nine are good and one bad, that bad one will destroy the good ones. ~ Hazrat Umar ibn Khattab, #KEYS
25:The days of trial are an Eid for the Sufis." ~ Shaykh ibn Ata'illah al-Sakandari, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
26:When you know yourself, your 'I'ness vanishes and you know that you and Allah are one and the same. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
27:Give value to your time. Live in the present moment. Do not live in imagination and throw your time away. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
28:When you restrain your anger you outrage the devil, since you have tamed your animal self and subdued it." ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
29:When you restrain your anger . . . you outrage the devil, since you have tamed your animal self and subdued it. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
30:Actions are but lifeless forms whose soul is the secret of sincerity in them. ~ Ibn Ata'illah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
31:If the heart is fed by love, the greed for pleasure would disappear". ~ Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
32:He who remembers the consequence of sins, surely patience will become easy for him. ~ Ibn Qayyim], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
33:realize that He wants to open for you to the door of intimacy with Him." ~ Ibn Ata'illah al-Sakandari, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
34:In existence there is no similarity or dissimilarity, for there is but One Reality, and a thing is not the opposite of itself. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
35:The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
36:They say: Thou art become mad with love for thy beloved. I reply: The savour of life is for madmen." ~ Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i, (1299-1367) chronicler from Yemen., #KEYS
37:What is the process of the cleansing of the mirror of the heart? It is an unending battle with one's ego, whose purpose is to distort reality. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
38:I am in love with no other than myself, and my very separation is my union... I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and my maiden. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
39:If someone's state does not lift you up, and his words do not lead you to Allah, then do not keep his company. ~ Ibn Ata'allah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
40:The intellect reaches a certain limit, beyond which it cannot go, while one possessed of inspiration and certainty can proceed beyond that limit. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
41:If you find it complicated to answer someone's question, do not answer it, for his container is already full and does not have room for the answer ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
42:Man must come to the realization that the two most valuable things that he has are his heart and his time. When time is wasted, the heart is ruined and all benefit is lost. ~ Ibn Al-Jawzee, #KEYS
43:The ignorant one does not see his ignorance as he basks in its darkness; nor does the knowledgeable one see his own knowledge, for he basks in its light ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
44:Sins to a heart are like oil drops on a cloth, unless you wash it immediately and vigorously, it will permanently stain". ~ Ibn al-Jawzi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
45:Whoever is not thankful for graces runs the risk of losing them; and whoever is thankful, fetters them with their own cord. ~ Ibn Ata'illah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
46:The Church does not consist in a great number of persons. He who possesses the Truth at his side is the church, though he be alone. ~ Ibn Masnd, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
47:Actions are lifeless forms, but the presence of an inner sincerity within them is what endows them with life-giving spirit. . ~ Ibn Ata'allah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
48:Know that that which is referred to as other-than-Allah, or the universe, is related to Allah as the shadow is related to the person. The universe is the shadow of Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
49:When thou takest cognizance of what thine "I" is, then art thou delivered from egoism and shalt know that thou art not other than God. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
50:When My Beloved Appears :::
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5],#KEYS
51:Be fearful lest the existence of His generosity toward you and the persistence of your bad behavior toward Him not lead you step by step to ruin. ~ Ibn Ata'Allah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
52:Keep company with those who remind you of God, and seek approval of those who counsel not with the tongue of words but the tongue of deeds." ~ Ibn Khafif, (died 981/982) a Persian mystic and sufi from Iran, Wikipedia., #KEYS
53:None but God is loved in the existent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover - and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
54:No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by Allah's Decree." ~ Umar ibn al-Khattab, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
55:And occupy youself with dhikr, remembrance of God, with whatever sort of dhikr you choose. The highest of them is the Greatest Name; it is your saying "Allah, Allah," and nothing beyond "Allah." ~ Ibn Arabi, Journey to the Lord of Power, #KEYS
56:He hath not lived here, who hath sober lived. And he that dieth not drunk hath missed the mark. With tears then let him mourn himself, whose life Hath passed, and he no share of it hath had." ~ Ibn al-Farid, (1181 - 1234) Esteemed as the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs, Wik., #KEYS
57:You may try a hundred things, but love alone will release you from yourself. So never flee from love - not even from love in an earthly guise - for it is a preparation for the supreme Truth. ~ Jami ~ Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
58:Uqba ibn Muslim said: 'No quality in a man is dearer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than the longing to meet Him. At no moment is a man closer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than when he sinks down in prostration. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
59:It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
60:Having doubt about one's provision is in reality doubt as regards the Provider. A thief did not steal, and a usurper did not usurp, except their own provision. As long as you are alive, nothing will be diminished of your provision. ~ Imam Ibn Ata'Allah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
61:Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
62:He is, and there is with him no before or after, nor above nor below, nor far nor near, no union nor division, nor how nor where nor place. He is now as he was. He is the One without oneness and the Single without Singleness... whithersoever you turn, there is the Face of God. ~ Ibn al-Arabi, Kitab al-Ajwiba, 98, trans. Margaret Smith (1950) #KEYS
63:Whoever builds his faith exclusively on demonstrative proofs and deductive arguments, builds a faith on which it is impossible to rely. For he is affected by the negativities of constant objections. Certainty(al-yaqin) does not derive from the evidences of the mind but pours out from the depths of the heart. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
64:One of the gnostics was hungry and wept. Someone who had no tasting (dhawq) in that area censured him for that. The gnostic said, "But Allah makes me hungry so that I might weep.
He tests me by affliction so that I might ask Him to remove it from me. This does not lessen my being patient." We know that patience is holding the self back from complaint to other-than-Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi,#KEYS
65:You only know the universe according to the amount you know the shadows, and you are ignorant of the Real according to what you do not know of the person on which that shadow depends. Inasmuch as He has a shadow, He is known, and inasmuch as one is ignorant of what is in the essence of the shadow of the form which projects the shadow, he is ignorant of Allah. For that reason, we say that Allah is known to us from one aspect and not known to us from another aspect. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
66:The Real made me contemplate the light of the veils as the star of strong backing rose, and He said to me, "Do you know how many veils I have veiled you with?"
"No", I replied.
He said, "With seventy veils. Even if you raise them you will not see Me, and if you do not raise them you will not see Me."
"If you raise them you will see Me and if you do not raise them you will see Me."
"Take care of burning yourself!"
"You are My sight, so have faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself" ~ Ibn Arabi,#KEYS
67:The Prophet related that when Allah loves the voice of His slave when he makes supplication to Him, He delays the answer to his supplication so that the slave will repeat the supplication.
This comes from His love for the slave, not because He has turned away from him. For that reason, the Prophet mentioned the name of the Wise, and the Wise is the one who puts everything in its proper place, and who does not turn away from the qualities which their realities necessitate and demand; so the Wise is the One who knows the order of things. ~ Ibn Arabi,#KEYS
68:The Names of Allah are endless because they are known by what comes from them, and what comes from them is endless, even though they can be traced back to the limited roots which are the matrices of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but one of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but One Reality which assumes all these relations and aspects which are designated by the Divine Names. The Reality grants that each of the Names, which manifest themselves without end, has a reality by which it is distinguished from another Name. It is that reality by which it is distinguished which is the Name itself - not that which it shares. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
69:It is ignorance if, when Allah afflicts someone by what gives him pain, he does not call on Allah to remove that painful matter from him. The one who has realization must supplicate and ask Allah to remove that from him. For that gnostic who possesses unveiling, that removal comes from the presence of Allah. Allah describes Himself as "hurt", so He said, "those who hurt Allah and His Messenger." (33:57) What hurt is greater than that Allah test you with affliction in your heedlessness of Him or a divine station which you do not know so that you return to Him with your complaint so that He can remove it from you?
Thus the need which is your reality will be proven. The hurt is removed from Allah by your asking Him to repel it from you, since you are His manifest form. ~ Ibn Arabi,#KEYS
70:Similarly, the existence of Allah has multiplicity and the many Names. It is this or that according to what appears from it of the universe which demands the realities of the Divine Names by its development. They are doubled by it and stand in opposition to the unity of multiplicity. It is one by source in respect to its essence, as the primal substance (hayûla) is a single source in respect to its essence, while it has many forms which it supports by its essence. It is the same with Allah through the forms of tajalli which are manifested from Him. So the locii of the tajalli are the forms of the universe, in spite of the intelligible unity (ahadiyya). Look at the excellence of this divine instruction which Allah gives by granting its recognition to whoever He wishes among His slaves. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
71:Then the matter is as we have confirmed. So know that you are imagination and that which you perceive and of which you say, "It is not me" is also imagination. All of existence is imagination within imagination. True existence is Allah, the Real, in particular in respect to essence and source, not in respect to His Names, because the Names have two meanings. One meaning is His source which is the same as the "Named", and the other meaning is what it indicates and that by which the Name is separate from this other Name, and so distinct. The Ever-Forgiving is separate from the Manifest and the Hidden, and the First is distinct from the Last. Thus it is clear to you that each Name is the same as the other Name, and yet it is not the other Name. Inasmuch as the Name is the same, it is the Real, and inasmuch as it is not it, it is the imaginary Real which we discussed. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
72:Integral Psychology presents a very complex picture of the individual. As he did previously in The Atman Project, at the back of the book Wilber has included numerous charts showing how his model relates to the work of a hundred or so different authors from East and West.57
57. Wilber compares the models of Huston Smith, Plotinus, Buddhism, Stan Grof, John Battista, kundalini yoga, the Great Chain of Being, James Mark Baldwin, Aurobindo, the Kabbalah, Vedanta, William Tiller, Leadbeater, Adi Da, Piaget, Commons and Richards, Kurt Fisher, Alexander, Pascual-Leone, Herb Koplowitz, Patricia Arlin, Gisela Labouvie-Vief, Jan Sinnot, Michael Basseches, Jane Loevinger, John Broughton, Sullivan, Grant and Grant, Jenny Wade, Michael Washburn, Erik Erikson, Neumann, Scheler, Karl Jaspers, Rudolf Steiner, Don Beck, Suzanne Cook-Greuter, Clare Graves, Robert Kegan, Kohlberg, Torbert, Blanchard-Fields, Kitchener and King, Deirdre Kramer, William Perry, Turner and Powell, Cheryl Armon, Peck, Howe, Rawls, Piaget, Selman, Gilligan, Hazrat Inayat Khan, mahamudra meditation, Fowler, Underhill, Helminiak, Funk, Daniel Brown, Muhyddin Ibn 'Arabi, St. Palamas, classical yoga, highest tantra yoga, St Teresa, Chirban, St Dionysius, Patanjali, St Gregory of Nyssa, transcendental meditation, Fortune, Maslow, Chinen, Benack, Gardner, Melvin Miller, Habermas, Jean Houston, G. Heard, Lenski, Jean Gebser, A. Taylor, Jay Early, Robert Bellah, and Duane Elgin. ~ Frank Visser, Ken Wilber Thought as Passion,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:The parallels to modern physics [with mysticism] appear not only in the Vedas of Hinduism, in the I Ching, or in the Buddhist sutras, but also in the fragments of Heraclitus, in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, or in the teachings of the Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan. ~ fritjof-capra, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:I follow the Way of Love, ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
2:My heart can take on any form: ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
3:And though the years before I die ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
4:If your pride leads you to boast, ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
5:Seek (beneficial) knowledge, ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
6:What can my enemies do to me? ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
7:Habits are qualities of the soul. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
8:Don't depend too much on anyone. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
9:Ilmu itu didatangi bukan mendatangi ~ Malik Ibn Anas, #NFDB
10:Your personal nature seeks its paradise. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
11:A tiny fly can choke a big man. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
12:Drink poison rather than worry. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
13:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
14:Faith is the summit of the Torah. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
15:Geography means destiny.” – Ibn Khaldun ~ Ece Temelkuran, #NFDB
16:Ibn Warraq (author of Why I Am Not a Muslim) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
17:Who lives sees, but who travels sees more. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
18:May the eyes of cowards never sleep ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
19:Truthfulness is composed of justice and courage. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
20:The beginning of wisdom is to desire it. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
21:When Allah decides a matter, it is done. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
22:Be at your mother’s feet and there is the Paradise. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
23:One hour of neglect can undo a year of pious effort. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
24:Sins cause harm and repentance removes the cause ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
25:Wisdom is to the soul as food is to the body. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra, #NFDB
26:Ingratitude to man is ingratitude to God. ~ Samuel ibn Naghrillah, #NFDB
27:In times of distress strengthen your heart. ~ Samuel ibn Naghrillah, #NFDB
28:Men mixing with women is like fire mixing with wood. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
29:The destiny of a person is determined by their efforts. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
30:A wise man's questions contain half the answer. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
31:Misfortune may become fortune through patience. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
32:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #index, #NFDB
33:The West has given the world the symphony, and the novel. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
34:Islam is under obligation to gain power over all nations. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
35:Man intends one thing, but Allah intends another. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
36:Riches bring anxiety; wisdom gives peace of mind. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
37:There is no joy for someone who has no sorrow. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
38:There is nothing like marriage, for two who love one another. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
39:Geometry enlightlens the intellect and sets one's mind right ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
40:I wish more people would belabor the obvious, and more often. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
41:Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
42:One is punished by the very things by which he sins. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
43:All is in the One in power and the One is in all in act. ~ Abraham-ibn-Ezra, #NFDB
44:What really counts are good endings, not flawed beginnings. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
45:Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
46:If the heart becomes hardened, the eye becomes dry. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
47:Many men hoard for the future husbands of their wives. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
48:My friend is he who will tell me my faults in private. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
49:One who directs to good is rewarded similar to the doer of good. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
50:He who knows himself, knows his Lord. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi. “Essay on Unity.”, #NFDB
51:Oh, Lord, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
52:Thou hast created me not from necessity but from grace. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
53:I have dedicated my life to the way of Allah, Most High. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
54:Oh, Lord, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
55:You are My sight, so have faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
56:A person’s tongue can give you the taste of his heart. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
57:How can the heart travel to Allah when it is chained by its desires ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
58:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
59:Indecency in anything spoils it. And modesty in anything adorns it. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
60:There is no one so lonely than a man who loves only himself. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra, #NFDB
61:The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all." Ibn Arabi. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
62:To pursue knowledge is obligatory on every believing man and woman. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
63:People are largely ignorant of the interests of the human species. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
64:Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
65:There is none more lonely than the man who loves only himself. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra, #NFDB
66:Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
67:All men have one entrance into life, and the like going out. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
68:As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
69:Life is just action and reaction, rationalizations are added later on ~ Ibn e Safi, #NFDB
70:The test of good manners is to be patient with the bad ones. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
71:If Abu Bakr is dead and Umar is Caliph, then we hear and obey. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
72:Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
73:As Ibn Arabi says: ‘Absolute existence is the source of all existence’. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
74:El verdadero sabio no se vincula a ninguna creencia. Mohyid-din-ibn’Arabí ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
75:Every person has a zakaat (to pay) and the zakaat of the body is fasting. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
76:I am better able to retract what I did not say than what I did. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
77:You should not look at what the person used to do, rather you should ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
78:Glad-tidings to he who knows his own faults more than other people know it. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
79:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #NFDB
80:If you do good in secret, Allah will shower His good on you in public. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
81:La visión de Dios en la mujer es la más perfecta de todas.” Ibn el Arabi ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
82:One of the most beneficial of remedies is persisting in du’a. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
83:The sign of the people of bid’ah is that they do not follow the salaf. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
84:Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
85:Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
86:There is no laughter except that it is eventually followed up with weeping. ~ Ibn Sirin, #NFDB
87:Through patience and certainty, leadership in the religion is obtained. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
88:If you are truthful you will survive. If you lie you shall perish. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
89:Monotheism is in its turn doomed to subtract one more God and become atheism ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
90:The wise man knows the only fitting price for his soul is a place in Paradise. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
91:How can you expect me to be perfect...when I am full of contradictions. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra, #NFDB
92:I saw Divinity with the Eye of the Heart. I said, “Who are you. It said, “You. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
93:Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
94:The earth destroys its fools, but the intelligent destroy the earth. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
95:The past resembles the future more than one drop of water resembles another. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
96:A man’s mind is hidden in his writings: criticism brings it to light. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
97:Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
98:A real man is one who fears the death of his heart, not of his body. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
99:Eat together and not separately, for the blessing is associated with the company. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
100:If the heart is fed by love, the greed for pleasure would disappear. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
101:Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
102:The happiest people among us are those who can sleep when they want to. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
103:Your secret is your prisoner; once you reveal it, you become its slave. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
104:All religions are sick men's dreams, false - demonstrably false - and pernicious. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
105:Every realm may have as large a militia as it can hold and support, but no more. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
106:Whoever prefers Allah to all others, Allah will prefer him to others. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
107:If I remained silent and you remained silent, then who will teach the ignorant? ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
108:Ibn El-Arabi wrote, ‘The Teacher is he who hears you, then unveils you to yourself ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
109:Beware of preoccupying your heart with what it has not been created for. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
110:God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
111:Tal como dice Ibn Arabi:
La absoluta existencia es la fuente de toda existencia. ~ Idries Shah,#NFDB
112:Traveling - it offers you a hundred roads to adventure, and gives your heart wings! ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
113:God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
114:Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you. ~ Ali ibn Abi Talib, #NFDB
115:Allah will never humiliate the one who takes his Lord as friend and patron. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
116:Be to Allah as He wishes, and He will be to you more than you can wish for. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
117:The entire religion revolves around acknowledging the truth and then acting upon it. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
118:Anyone who rises above the things of this world, to which you kneel, is mightier than you. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
119:Ibn taimia said,You should enjoin al-maruf with al-maruf and forbid al-munker without another munker ~, #NFDB
120:If you correct your hidden deeds subsequently, Allaah will correct your outward deeds. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
121:Knowledge no longer exists if one has ignored the attributes of the Almighty Great Creator. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
122:The truth hurts like a thorn at first; but in the end it blossoms like a rose. ~ Samuel ibn Naghrillah, #NFDB
123:Whoever desires to purify his heart, then let him prefer Allah to his desires ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
124:If one is cruel to himself, how can we expect him to be compassionate with others? ~ Hasdai ibn Shaprut, #NFDB
125:L'homme supérieur est celui qui se fuit lui-même pour obtenir la compagnie de son Seigneur. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
126:The idea that the West was economically successful because of slavery, it's just nonsense. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
127:There are no means of attaining faith and certainty except through the Qur'an. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
128:The sincere hearts and the pious supplications are soldiers which can never be defeated ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
129:Be sincere in your aim and you will find the support of Allaah surrounding you. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
130:Sins have many side-effects. One of them is that they steal knowledge from you. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
131:The more humble, needy, and subdued you are before Allah, the closer you will be to Him. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
132:When people help one another in sin and transgression, they finish by hating each other. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
133:A man will never fear something besides Allah unless it be due to a disease in his heart. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
134:Government is an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
135:If you advise someone on the condition that they have to accept it, then you are an oppressor. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
136:Ibn El-Arabi escribió: “El Maestro es quien te escucha, luego te desvela frente a ti mismo”. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
137:Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.” Ibn Khaldoun Al Muqaddima (1332–1406) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
138:[Muhammad] said, "...fight everyone in the way of God and kill those who disbelieve in God..." ~ Ibn Ishaq, #NFDB
139:The desires of this world are like sea water. The more you drink of them, the more you thirst. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
140:And here I am, dying in my bed, like cattle die. May the eyes of cowards never sleep. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
141:The desires of this world are like sea water. The more you drink of them, the more you thirst. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
142:What has he found who has lost God?
And what has he lost who has found God? ~ Ibn Ata Allah al Iskandari,#NFDB
143:Imaan is of two halves; half is patience (Sabr) and half is being thankful (Shukr). ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
144:A true believer does not fear physical death, rather he fears the death of his heart ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
145:I follow the Way of Love, and where Love's caravan takes its path, there is my religion, my faith. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
146:Make tawba not just for sins you've committed, but also for obligations you haven't fulfilled. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
147:A believer to another believer is like two hands, one washes the other (correcting each other). ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
148:Abolitionism did not find positive response in Africa as it did in Western societies and cultures. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
149:When you know yourself, your 'I'ness vanishes and you know that you and Allah are one and the same. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
150:You are yourself the cloud veiling your own sun! So recognize the essential reality of your being! ~ Ibn ‘Arabi, #NFDB
151:If you want to keep something concealed from your enemy, don't disclose it to your friend. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
152:Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light. ~ Abdullah ibn Alawi al Haddad, #NFDB
153:When you know yourself, your 'I'ness vanishes and you know that you and Allah are one and the same. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
154:The perfection of Tawheed is found when there remains nothing in the heart except Allaah ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
155:The disease that knowledge brings is arrogance, and the disease that worship brings is showing off ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
156:When someone offends me, I think it’s a gift from Allah (god). He (Allah) is teaching me humility. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
157:As long as a word remains unspoken, you are its master; once you utter it, you are its slave. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
158:Only that which was effective for the first of this community will be effective for the last of it ~ Malik ibn Anas, #NFDB
159:Sitting with the poor and less fortunate people removes the ego and pride from your heart. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
160:The hijrah to Allah includes abandoning what He hates and doing what He loves and accepts. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
161:All the sciences came to exist in Arabic. The systematic works on them were written in Arabic writing. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
162:Man is wise only while in search of wisdom; when he imagines he has attained it, he is a fool. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
163:Not only is the West so successful economically, but it leads the world scientifically, and culturally. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
164:traveling - it gives you home in thousand strange places, then leaves you a stranger in your own land. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
165:History, therefore, is firmly rooted in philosophy. It deserves to be accounted a branch of philosophy. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
166:Imprisoned is he whose heart is imprisoned from Allâh. Captured is he who is captured by his desires. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
167:Speech remains as a slave to you, but the moment it leaves your mouth, you become its slave. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
168:In the case of all human qualities, the extremes are reprehensible, and the middle road is praiseworthy. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
169:Love of Allah is the power of the heart, the sustenance of the heart, the light of the heart. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
170:The Sage was asked to define good manners? to which he replied, To bear patiently the rude ones. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
171:The shield of the scholar is, ‘I do not know’, so if he leaves it down, his attacker will strike him. ~ Malik Ibn Anas, #NFDB
172:The sinner does not feel any remorse over his sins, that is because his heart is already dead ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
173:A wise man's question contains half the answer. Unfortunately the other 50% is harder to come by! ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
174:And if a person were given all of the world and what is in it, it would not fill his emptiness. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
175:Remembrance is to the heart what water is to the fish. And what is the state of a fish that leaves water? ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
176:The sea of pleasures may drown its owner and the swimmer fears to open his eyes under the water. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
177:When I am in the battlefield, I love it more than my wedding night with the most beautiful of women ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
178:Guidance is not attained except with knowledge and correct direction is not attained except with patience. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
179:Ich folge der Liebe,
Wohin auch ihre Karawane zieht,
Liebe ist meine Religion,
Liebe ist mein Glaube. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
180:In this world there is a paradise, whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
181:What indicates a person’s weak religion and fear of God, is that he seeks for an opinion that suits his desire. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
182:A tear that runs down a believer's cheek is more beneficial than a thousand raindrops on the earth ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
183:Being from a minority culture, I realised the importance of looking at non-Western cultures in a positive way. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
184:Each time you admire the façade of the New York Public Library, you are paying homage to Western civilization. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
185:The Prophet also said: "A truthful and trustworthy merchant is associated with the prophets." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
186:Abandon desire for this world, and God will love you. Abandon desire for others’ goods, and people will love you. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
187:Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
188:I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
189:Sedentary culture is the goal of civilization. It means the end of its lifespan and brings about its corruption. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
190:Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
191:Everyone experiences bouts of jealousy; but the dignified person conceals it, while the vulgar one acts upon it ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
192:[I]njustice can be committed only by persons who cannot be touched, only by persons who have power and authority. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
193:I think forgiveness plays a very important part in Western society and it comes from the Judeo Christian heritage. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
194:Anyone who criticizes you cares about your friendship. Anyone who makes light of your faults cares nothing about you. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
195:How strange! You lose a little from you and you cry. And your whole life is wasting and you're laughing ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
196:I know I'm not perfect & will never become. Yet, I'm proud of being Me, with all humility & imperfections. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
197:As you can taste a pot full of food with a spoon likewise someone's tounge can tell you about his heart. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
198:Doom comes about because of neglecting to evaluate one's self and because of just following one's whims. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
199:If you knew the true value of yourself, you will never allow yourself to be humiliated by committing sins. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
200:This whole religion revolves around knowing the truth and acting by it, and action must be accompanied by patience. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
201:Ibn Taymiyyah lived poorly. He was imprisoned and threatened. But I have never seen anyone as happy as him. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
202:Meanwhile, ibn-Saud was also British India’s man in Arabia, with a close relationship going back to before the war. ~ Scott Anderson, #NFDB
203:Someone who seeks to travel the path of Allah should begin with a sound repentance from all his sins. ~ Abdullah ibn Alawi al Haddad, #NFDB
204:We used to say that those amongst us with the most sins are those who spend their time talking about the sins of others. ~ Ibn Sirin, #NFDB
205:Whoever mocks his brother for a sin they repented from will not die till he himself falls into the same sin. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
206:The West has given us the liberal miracle of individual rights, individual responsibility, merit, and human satisfaction. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
207:Wait a while; there will come to you mounts, carrying lions in shining armor, battalions followed by battalions. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
208:Women are one half of society which gives birth to the other half so it is as if they are the entire society. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
209:O people who take pleasure in a life that will vanish, falling in love with a fading shadow is sheer stupidity ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
210:Plan for this world as if you expect to live forever; but plan for the hereafter as if you expect to die tomorrow. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
211:A calamity that makes you turn to Allah is better for you then a blessing which makes you forget the remembrance of Allah ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
212:No one can stand up against the authority of truth, and the evil of falsehood is to be fought with enlightening speculation. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
213:Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) is to the heart as water is to a fish; see what happens to a fish when it is taken out of water ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
214:If you think killing people is a solution to a problem, I not only disagree with you but also I hate your perspective. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
215:Patience is that the heart does not feel anger towards that which is destined and that the mouth does not complain. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
216:Avoiding the temptation to sin and being patient upon that, is greater than being patient whilst being afflicted with trials. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
217:By working and living in New York, you are breathing Western civilization, continuously reminded of its benefits and its values. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
218:I maintain that Western popular culture at its best is worthy of respect and should be cherished as much as the operas of Wagner. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
219:The Church does not consist in a great number of persons. He who possesses the Truth at his side is the church, though he be alone. ~ Ibn Masnd, #NFDB
220:Turning his face to the other side, Pharaoh asserted impatiently: "I know he is a liar." Then he looked towards Haman (and cried): ~ Ibn Kathir, #NFDB
221:Many a “learned” man is destroyed by ignorance and by the learning which is of no use to him’ (Hadrat Ahmed ibn Mahsud, the Sufi). ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
222:No love that a man has will only give him pleasure in return- he shall also suffer pain because of it, except for love of Allah. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
223:Verily, I constantly renew my Islam until this very day, as up to now, I do not consider myself to have ever been a good Muslim. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
224:An adulterer will not commit adultery when he has full faith (in Allah), and a thief will not steal when he has full faith (in Allah). ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
225:Government decisions are as a rule unjust, because pure justice is found only in the legal caliphate that lasted only a short while. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
226:If you wish to check how much you love Allah, then see how much your heart loves the Quran, and you will know the answer. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
227:While you are alive, your worldly self is like a collector of benefits from Allah's bounties, which come to you from myriads of hands. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
228:The keys to the life of the heart lie in reflecting upon the Quran, being humble before Allah in secret, and leaving sins. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
229:Ibn Mas'ud said that Allah's Messenger said: Abusing a Muslim is sinful and fighting with his tantamount to Kufr. Bukhari Muslim ~ Ahmad Von Denffer, #NFDB
230:Wasting time is worse than death, because death separates you from this world whereas wasting time separates you from Allah ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
231:Among the believers who show most perfect faith are those who have best disposition and are kindest to their families. ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
232:I am in love with no other than myself, and my very separation is my union... I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and my maiden. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
233:People justify their own subservience to pleasure by citing men and women of the past who allegedly did the same things they are doing. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
234:Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: this triptych succinctly defines the attractiveness and superiority of Western civilization. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
235:O you, who spends his lifetime disobeying his Lord, no one amongst your enemies is wicked to you more than you are to yourself ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
236:Whatever is not done by the permission of Allah will not happen, and what is not done for the sake of Allah will not benefit or remain. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
237:As long as one is following the right way, one should never be concerned about the reproaches of those who like to find faults. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
238:War begins like a pretty girl with whom every man wants to flirt and ends like an ugly old woman whose visitors suffer and weep. ~ Samuel ibn Naghrillah, #NFDB
239:We cannot hope to win the ideological battle against Islam without criticism of Islam, it is essential that we continue to criticize Islam. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
240:Every gulp of air that goes out in a cause other than the cause of Allah will turn to sorrow and regret on the Day of Judgement. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
241:The Prophet Muhammad (s) said: "Indeed, an ignorant man who is generous is dearer to God than a worshipper who is miserly." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
242:When the inward is good the outward is also inevitably so, for the outward always follows the inward, whether good or evil. ~ Abdullah ibn Alawi al Haddad, #NFDB
243:Every love that leads away from His love is in fact a punishment; only a love that leads to His love is a heartfelt and pure love. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
244:When thou takest cognizance of what thine “I” is, then art thou delivered from egoism and shalt know that thou art not other than God. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi, #NFDB
245:I am in love with no other than myself, and my very separation is my union... I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and my maiden. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #NFDB
246:No one is moved to act, or resolves to speak a single word, who does not hope by means of this action or word to release anxiety from his spirit. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
247:The Prophet Muhammad (s) said: "It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
248:If you find it complicated to answer someone’s question, do not answer it, for his container is already full and does not have room for the answer ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
249:The heart will rest and feel relief if it is settled with Allah. And it will worry and feel anxious if it is settled with the people. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
250:If you find it complicated to answer someone's question, do not answer it, for his container is already full and does not have room for the answer ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
251:While many Islamic countries pay lip service to the idea of freedom of religion, they don't put up with conversion from Islam to another religion. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
252:Sins are like chains and locks preventing their perpetrator from roaming the vast garden of Tawheed and reaping the fruits of righteous actions. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
253:And verily for everything that a slave loses there is a substitute, but the one who loses Allah will never find anything to replace Him. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
254:Frédéric Dard, Libanius Antiochus, Michael Oakeshott, John Gray, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn Battuta, Saadia Gaon, or Joseph de Maistre; he ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
255:Allah will support the just state even if it is led by unbelievers, but Allah will not support the oppressive state even if it is led by believers ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
256:Your son at five is your master, at ten your slave, at fifteen your double, and after that, your friend or foe, depending on his bringing up. ~ Hasdai ibn Shaprut, #NFDB
257:In this I conformed to my usual manner of thinking in symbols; this because the things of the invisible world attract me more than those of actual life ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
258:The ignorant one does not see his ignorance as he basks in its darkness; nor does the knowledgeable one see his own knowledge, for he basks in its light ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
259:The one who is [truly] imprisoned is the one whose heart is imprisoned from Allah and the captivated one is the one whose desires have enslaved him. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
260:Discussions of Western civilization are too often confined to works of high art that reflect a relatively narrow element of public taste and experience. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
261:The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
262:The ignorant one does not see his ignorance as he basks in its darkness; nor does the knowledgeable one see his own knowledge, for he basks in its light ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
263:Happiness is attained by three things: being patient when tested, being thankful when receiving a blessing, and being repentant upon sinning. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
264:If a heart becomes attached to anything other than Allah, Allah makes him dependent on what he is attached to. And he will be betrayed by it. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
265:There was a time, when I blamed my companion if his religion did not resemble mine. Now, however, my heart accepts every form....Love alone is my religion. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
266:Every drop of sweat and every breath we take in life, if not taken for the sake of Allah, will lead to regret and sorrow on the Day of Judgment ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
267:He who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. ~ Malik ibn Anas, #NFDB
268:The People of the Sunnah are the most knowledgeable of mankind concerning the truth, and the most merciful of the creation towards the rest of creation. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
269:The truth of passion is
that passion is the cause of passion.
If there had not been passion in the heart,
passion would not have been worshipped. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
270:Ibn Attaillah al-Sakandari said it beautifully: “Nothing is difficult if you seek it through your Lord, and nothing is easy if you seek it through yourself. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
271:He who keeps his heart near God will find peace and tranquility, whilst he who gives his heart to the people will find restlessness and apprehension. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
272:I was wedded to all the stars of the sky.There was not a single star left, and I married every one of them with great spiritual pleasure. Then I married the moon. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
273:Slavery had very little to do with the economic success of the West. Just look at the facts and figures and how much slavery actually contributed to development. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
274:When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
~ Ibn Arabi, When My Beloved Appears
,#NFDB
275:As long as you are performing prayer, you are knocking at the door of Allah, and whoever is knocking at the door of Allah, Allah will open it for him. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
276:As I flipped the pages, I became the Turkish tax collector Ibn Armut Hasir, who walked the streets of Istanbul with a scimitar at his waist, collecting taxes. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
277:You will see, as time goes by", said Ibn Rushd, "that in the end it will be religion that will make men turn away from God. The godly are God's worst advocates. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
278:And to have spent the night sleeping and awoken regretful, is better than to have spent the night standing (in prayer) and awaken impressed with oneself! ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
279:Losing time is harder than death, as losing time keeps you away from Allah and the Hereafter, while death keeps you away from the worldly life and people. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
280:Alfarabi first studied Islamic jurisprudence and music in Bukhara, then moved to Marv, where he began to study logic with a Nestorian Christian monk, Yūḥannā Ibn Haylān. ~ Al Farabi, #NFDB
281:Allah guards the justice loving government, even if it is the government of non-Muslims, and destroys the tyrant government, even if it is the government of Muslims. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
282:Beautiful leaving (hajr), is to leave without harming, beautiful pardoning is to pardon without rebuking, and beautiful patience is to be patient without complaining. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
283:Were it not for
the excess of your talking
and the turmoil in your hearts,
you would see what I see
and hear what I hear!
~ Ibn Arabi, Turmoil In Your Hearts
,#NFDB
284:At the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
285:Know that that which is referred to as other-than-Allah, or the universe, is related to Allah as the shadow is related to the person. The universe is the shadow of Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
286:Among the principles of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah lie the attitude of peace and purity of their heart and tongue towards the Sahaba(Companions) of the Prophet (saw). ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
287:And when I was born, I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
288:When Allah tests you it is never to destroy you. When He removes something in your possession it is only in order to empty your hands for an even greater gift. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
289:The rich countries are rich because of their practices at home, and because of their readiness to adopt and adapt new things, such as Chinese inventions or New World crops. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
290:This wordly life is like a shadow. If you try to catch it, you will never be able to do so. If you turn your back towards it, it has no choice but to follow you. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
291:Creation is intelligible and Allah is felt and witnessed with the believers and the
people of unveiling. Allah is intelligible with other classes, and creation is witnessed. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
292:Know that that which is referred to as other-than-Allah, or the
universe, is related to Allah as the shadow is related to the person. The universe is the shadow
of Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
293:Satan rejoiced when Adam (peace be upon him) came out of Paradise, but he did not know that when a diver sinks into the sea, he collects pearls and then rises again. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
294:When My Beloved Appears :::
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #index,#NFDB
295:Make no choice upon your own authority in anything, and choose not to choose. Flee from that choice, from your flight, and from everything to Allah." Imam Shadhili ~ Ibn Ata Allah al Iskandari, #NFDB
296:Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, a thirteenth century scholar, said that it is possible for anyone to have sincerity in what one does and in what one believes, irrespective of creed. ~ Hamza Yusuf, #NFDB
297:The Berbers belong to a powerful, formidable, and numerous people; a true people like so many others, the world has seen - like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
298:Abu Abdullah Ibn Battuta came from a prominent family of judges who studied thick tomes of Islamic law and wrote legally binding opinions on how to live out the law in daily life. ~ Michael Rank, #NFDB
299:None but God is loved in the existent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover – and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
300:None but God is loved in the existent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover ~ and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
301:None but God is loved in the exist- ent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover – and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
302:There are three types of friends: those like food without which you can't live those like medicine which you need occasionally and those like an illness which you never want. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
303:As the ninth-century legal scholar Malik ibn Anas, founder of the Maliki school of law, once quipped, “This religion is a science, so pay close attention to those from whom you learn it. ~ Reza Aslan, #NFDB
304:The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was asked what type of earning was best, and he replied: " A man's work with his hands and every (lawful) business transaction." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
305:In Saudi Arabia, among other countries, Muslims are not free to convert to Christianity, and Christians are not free to practice their faith. The Koran is not a rights-respecting document. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
306:Whenever the time of Prayer approached, ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God be pleased with him and ennoble his countenance, used to quake and change colour. They asked him: ‘What is the ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
307:Per lo studioso e leader religioso arabo ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib (che non è un mio parente), mantenere le distanze da una persona ignorante equivale a stare in compagnia di un saggio. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
308:You are ridiculous, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. I am just one girl. You are the Caliph of Khorasan, and you have a responsibility to a kingdom.”
“If you are just one girl, I am just one boy. ~ Ren e Ahdieh,#NFDB
309:Of course slavery and the Muslims were deeply implicated in the slave trade, Islam was an Imperialist religion which destroyed Christianity in the Near East, yet nobody mentions those facts. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
310:Do not say that! How few are the Romans and how numerous are we ! 'An army's strength lies not in numbers of men but in Allah's help, and its weakness lies in being forsaken by Allah ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
311:I join Ibn Tufayl in the
wish that it may help you along the road that his philosophy traversed and that you
may reach and surpass the limits set by his understanding or my own ~ Lenn Evan Goodman,#NFDB
312:The soul will never become pious and purified except through undergoing afflictions. It is the same as gold that can never be pure except after removing all the base metals in it. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
313:At times it does not really matter what language you are speaking, especially when you are emotional and try to reach other hearts. To transcend emotion, silence is the best language. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
314:Muhammad had close links with three of the leading hanifs of Mecca. ‘Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh was his cousin and Waraqah ibn Nawfal was a cousin of Khadijah: both these men became Christians. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
315:Each person is oriented toward a quest for his personal invisible guide, or . . . he entrusts himself to the collective, magisterial authority as the intermediary between himself and Revelation. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
316:From Hunayn ibn-Ishak (Diogenes,8), we learn about his view of women and education: when he saw a man teaching a girl how to read and write, he advised him not to make a bad thing even worse. ~ Luis E Navia, #NFDB
317:When there is money in your hand and not in your heart, it will not harm you even if it is a lot; and when it is in your heart, it will harm you even if there is none in your hands. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
318:When there is a fight of reason versus emotion and the mind wonders which one to follow, in most times, emotion wins over reason. But it is reason that should win and emotion shouldn't. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
319:I have indeed - praise be to God - attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and i have attained in this respect what no other person has attained to my knowledge. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
320:Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Paradise."
(reported by Ibn Majah and others, fulfilling the conditions of Imam al Bukhari and Imam Muslim) ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
321:You can't grow up without taking a few knocks on the way. All parents know that, but children when they're growing up, they take some knocks, and nasty knocks sometimes if they've been too protected. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
322:The Prophet told us that patience is all good and full of goodness, and said that, “There is no gift better than patience.” ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “The best days of our lives were ours by virtue of patience. ~, #NFDB
323:How did I find myself here? Me—the man who wanted to walk around the world? On foot, no less. I wanted to be Passepartout, a traveller with little luggage, a Thomas Cook, an Ibn Battuta. Where is Xanadu? ~ Fadia Faqir, #NFDB
324:Contentment is the greatest door that one enters to Allah, it is the source of tranquility for the worshiper and paradise on earth. Whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise in the Hereafter. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
325:And there is still value in
Ibn Tufayl’s thought experiment, the story of Hayy Ibn Yaqzān, one philosopher’s
effort to conceive the tenor of human thinking free of the constraints of tradition. ~ Lenn Evan Goodman,#NFDB
326:Never break a Muslim's heart by refusing what he offers you, when you know that anything that comes to you through him is in reality from Allah, and he is only His powerless and compelled means. ~ Abdullah ibn Alawi al Haddad, #NFDB
327:Some things do not have to be said. You didn’t have to tell me you were in love with Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. And I didn’t have to tell you I cried myself to sleep for weeks after you left. Love speaks for itself. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
328:There are places which offer but scant consolation
while others offer one great delight.
However, make the Lord the mainstay and refuge of your soul,
wherever and however you may be.
~ Ibn Arabi, Silence
,#NFDB
329:Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
330:He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is recognized as such. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
331:Throughout history many nations have suffered a physical defeat, but that has never marked the end of a nation. But when a nation has become the victim of a psychological defeat, then that marks the end of a nation. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
332:We liberate our nation's heart inside of Indonesian independence!! Ibn Saud liberated Arabian's heart inside of Saudi Arabian independence one by one!! Stalin liberated Soviet-Russian's heart inside of Soviet one by one!! ~ Sukarno, #NFDB
333:When my Beloved appears, With what eye do I see Him? With His eye, not with mine, For none sees Him except Himself. [1486.jpg] -- from The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A. Nicholson
~ Ibn Arabi, When my Beloved appears
,#NFDB
334:There are two things that if you do them you will attain the good of this world and the hereafter; [They are] that you bear what you dislike if it is beloved to Allah and you leave what you like if it is disliked by Allah. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
335:Human rights transcend local or ethnocentric values, conferring equal dignity and value on all humanity regardless of sex, ethnicity, sexual preference, or religion. It is in the West that human rights are most respected. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
336:In the West we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live as we choose. Liberty is codified in human rights, a magnificent Western creation but also, I believe, a universal good. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
337:The Prophet Muhammad (s) said: "Do not turn away a poor man...even if all you can give is half a date. If you love the poor and bring them near you...God will bring you near Him on the Day of Resurrection." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
338:Ibn Semmak prenosi da je neka žena, koja je živjela u pustinji rekla:
'Kada bi srca vjernika mogla zamisliti kakve su im sve nagrade pripremljene na ahiretu, ne bi životu na ovom svijetu pridavali nikakvog značaja niti bi mu se radovali. ~,#NFDB
339:Uqba ibn Muslim said: ‘No quality in a man is dearer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than the longing to meet Him. At no moment is a man closer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than when he sinks down in prostration. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
340:These were not the words of a madman. For the first time, Tariq saw what Shahrzad saw when she looked at Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. He saw a boy. Who loved a girl. More than anything in the world. And he hated him all the more for it. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
341:Home
بحث
حينما ينعم الحاكم في أي دولة بالترف والنعمة، تلك الأمور تستقطب إليه ثلة من المرتزقين والوصوليين الذين يحجبونه عن الشعب، ويحجبون الشعب عنه، فيصلون له من الأخبار أكذبها، ويصدون عنه الأخبار الصادقة التي يعاني منه الشعب. ~ Ibn Khaldun,#NFDB
342:One of the reasons my name is Rushdie is that my father was an admirer of Ibn Rush'd, the 12th century Arab philosopher known as Averroes in the West. In his time, he was making the non-literalist case for interpreting the Koran. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
343:The Hanbalite Ibn Taymiya understood Ilm (knowledge) as referring to that knowledge which derives from the Prophet. Everything else he regarded either as useless or no science at all, even though it might be called by that name. ~ Pervez Hoodbhoy, #NFDB
344:Those who are conquered," wrote the philosopher Ibn Khaldun in the fourteenth century, "always want to imitate the conqueror in his main characteristics—in his clothing, his crafts, and in all his distinctive traits and customs. ~ Adam Hochschild, #NFDB
345:She said: I wondered at a love
that struts its glory
through the garden's
flowers as they blossom.
I said: don't wonder
at what you see.
You see yourself
in the mirror of a man.
~ Ibn Arabi, In The Mirror Of A Man
,#NFDB
346:Surprisingly one of the forces for secularisation was Christianity itself. As soon as it accepted the idea of a contrary opinion, the moment that European opinion decided for toleration, it decided for eventual free marketing opinion. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
347:When a person spends his entire day with no concern but Allah alone, Allah will take care of all his needs and take care of all that is worrying him; He will empty his heart so that it will be filled only with love for Him. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
348:We should think of those who were famous for their good deeds or their bad deeds; did their fame raise them one single degree in the sight of Allah. Did it win them a reward that they had not already won by their actions during their life? ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
349:How did I find myself here? Me—the man who wanted to walk around the world? On foot, no less. I wanted to be Passepartout, a traveller with little luggage, hopping from one train to another, a Thomas Cook, an Ibn Battuta. Where is Xanadu? ~ Fadia Faqir, #NFDB
350:[T]he purpose of human beings is not only their worldly welfare. This entire world is trifling and futile. It ends in death and annihilation. The purpose of human beings is their religion, which leads them to happiness in the other world. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
351:What can my enemies do to me? My paradise is in my heart, it is with me wherever I go. To imprison me is to provide me with seclusion. To send me into exile is to send me away in the Path of Allah. And to kill me is to make me a martyr. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
352:The tears that fall from the eyes of a truthful Believer, out of the fear of the Lord, and, then, roll down his face, however little they are, even of the size of a fly [i.e. just one drop], shall prevent the Fire of Hell from touching his face. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
353:The twelfth-century poet Abraham ibn Ezra, whom you encountered in high school as Browning’s Rabbi ben Ezra (may his tribe increase), limpidly described the shlimazl’s lot when he wrote: If I sold lamps, The sun, In spite, Would shine at night. ~ Leo Rosten, #NFDB
354:Here Ibn Hawqal, about 970, found some 300 mosques, and 300 schoolteachers who were highly regarded by the inhabitants “in spite of the fact,” says the geographer, “that schoolteachers are notorious for their mental deficiency and light brains. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
355:To be a Sufi is to give up all worries and there is no worse worry than yourself. When you are occupied with self you are separated from God. The way to God is but one step: the step out of yourself.
(Abu Sa'id Ibn Abi-l-khayr) ~ Llewellyn Vaughan Lee,#NFDB
356:There is no joy for the one who does not bear sadness, there is no sweetness for the one who does not have patience, there is no delight for the one who does not suffer, and there is no relaxation for the one who does not endure fatigue. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
357:The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
358:For Ibn Tufayl, as for the Platonist, to know oneself was to see in oneself the affinities to the divine and to accept the obligation implied by such recognition to develop these affinities-to become, in as much as was in human power, like God. ~ Lenn Evan Goodman, #NFDB
359:Because of its exceptional capacity for self-criticism, the West took the initiative in abolishing slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in black Africa, where rival African tribes took black prisoners to be sold as slaves in the West. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
360:Widely referred to as “the second teacher,” that is, second after Aristotle, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Ṭarkhān Ibn Awzalagh al-Fārābī (Alfarabi) is generally heralded as having founded political philosophy within the Islamic cultural tradition. ~ Al Farabi, #NFDB
361:Historically the first philosopher to enquire deeply into the nature of corruption in society was Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406), whose wandering life was largely spent in the northern littoral of Africa at a time when kingdoms and sultanates were crumbling. ~ Robert Payne, #NFDB
362:Beware of every hour and how it passes, and only spend it in the best possible way, do not neglect yourself, but render it accustomed to the noblest and best of actions, and send to your grave that which will please you when you arrive to it. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
363:In 1352, Ibn Batuta, the greatest Arab-language traveler of the Middle Ages, who had journeyed overland across Africa, Europe, and Asia, reported visiting the city of Taghaza, which, he said, was entirely built of salt, including an elaborate mosque. ~ Mark Kurlansky, #NFDB
364:My heart can be pasture for deer and a convent for monks, a temple for idols and a Kaaba for the pilgrims. It is both the tables of the Torah and the Koran. It professes the religion of Love wherever its caravans are heading. Love is my law. Love is my faith. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
365:I always have tendency to form very strong local attachments, so I was very keen to find out about the school I was going to, its history, and the countryside. I was acquiring a kind of English character if you like, Englishness about things and my attitudes. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
366:The origins of the modern West are often seen in the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, but the roots of the Enlightenment can be found in habits of mind cultivated in Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, and the institutions that grew from them. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
367:ibn al-Musayyab said: ‘If a person performs Prayer in a wilderness, an angel prays on his right and an angel prays on his left. If he also gives the Call to Prayer and the signal to begin, angels perform Prayer behind him in rows like mountain ranges. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
368:It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
369:My father decided that he was such a admirer of Ibn Rushd's philosophy, thinking that he changed the family name to Rushdie. I realized why my father was so interested in him, because he was really an incredibly modernizing voice inside our Islamic culture. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
370:Allah said, 'A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.' ~ Ibn Ishaq, #NFDB
371:I love the ‘friend’ that is with me wherever I go... The one transforming my greatest joy into bitter sadness. Thankfully I know! Whenever I look at the sky, in that huge universe, that there isn’t only me. And someone ‘from me’ is very happy somewhere over there ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
372:It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
373:When you compare yourself with others in matters of wealth, position, and health, you should look at people less favoured than yourself. When you compare yourself with others in matters of religion, knowledge and virtue, look at people who are better than yourself. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
374:Western society is a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives; it is a society of boundless private charity; it is a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
375:O sufi Muhammad ibn Khafif disse: “Fé é acreditar, com o coração, no conhecimento que vem do Invisível.” Ele não disse que é acreditar em algo que foi dito, ou incutido, ou admitido em momentos de entusiasmo e que, por conseguinte, tornou-se parte de uma obsessão. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
376:The opinion that the survival of Islam itself depended on the use of military slavery was shared by the great Arab historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun, who lived in North Africa in the fourteenth century, contemporaneously with the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt. ~ Francis Fukuyama, #NFDB
377:Submit to Islam and be safe. Or agree to the payment of the Jizya (tax), and you and your people will be under our protection, else you will have only yourself to blame for the consequences, for I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life. ~ Khalid ibn al Walid, #NFDB
378:Our generation delimited the definition & horizon of Love in a box that mainly refers to love between a boy & a girl. Love has a broader & profound meaning beyond this box. Surely, the highest state of love is Love of God, a love between creations & the Creator. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
379:Muslims have not ever been told to examine their faith in a critical way, so the shock is going to be even greater for them, as it is for any child who lives in an over-protected environment, who suddenly has to go out and earn a living and has to stand up on his own feet. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
380:The implausible, well-nigh-miraculous functioning anarchy that we know as New York is adorned with every excellence of Western art. It is a city of manifold suggestions, which ministers to every ambition, engenders a thousand talents, nurtures ingenuity and experimentation. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
381:Had we discussed the station of Sulayman in its entirety, you would have seen a matter
whose revelation would have struck you with terror. Most of the men of knowledge of this
Path have no knowledge of the state and rank of Sulayman. The business is not as they claim. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
382:If you think you're too far from Allah to return, and your 'past' continues to own you, just remember that Malik ibn Dinar (RA) was an alcoholic, and Omar (RA) was on his way to assassinate the Prophet (pbuh) before they became two of the greatest souls to walk the earth! ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
383:No matter how perfect & honest a person is, there will always be people to criticize. In other words, if everyone agrees with someone, there is something fundamentally wrong with what that individual is doing. If you are not criticized, you are not in the right track. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
384:Whoever considers the Attributes of Allaah to be like the attributes of the creation, such that the Istawaa of Allaah is like the ascending of the creation, or His Descending (Nuzool) is like the descending of the creation or other than that, then he is a deviated innovator. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
385:Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
386:In the past some of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians, such as Maimonides, Aquinas and Ibn Sina, made it clear that it was very difficult to speak about God, because when we confront the ultimate, we are at the end of what words or thoughts can do. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
387:Perpetually is the servant either the recipient of a blessing from Allaah, in which case he is need of gratitude; or he is the perpetrator of sin, in which case he is in need of repentance; he is always moving from one blessing to another and is always is in need of repentance. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
388:Some people have the disease of criticising all the time. They forget the good about others and only mention their faults. They are like flies that avoid the good and pure places and land on the bad and wounds. This is because of the evil within the self and the spoiled nature. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
389:Allah says, "He has made everything
that is in the heavens and the earth subservient to you. It is all from Him." (22:65) All that is
in the universe is subject to man. He who knows that from his knowledge is the Perfect Man.
He who is ignorant of that is the Animal Man. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
390:And so in the heart of such a believer is a sort of paradise. That is the paradise that Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on his soul, spoke of when he said: 'Truly, there is a Heaven in this world, [and] whoever does not enter it, will not enter the Heaven of the next world.' ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
391:My heart has become capable of every form: It is a pasture for gazelles And a monastery for Christian monks, And the pilgrim's Ka'ba, And the tablets of the Torah, And the book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love: Whatever way love's camel takes, That is my religion, my faith. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
392:The poor people of this world have left it without having tasted the sweetest thing in it.” They asked: What is the sweetest thing in it?
He replied, “Love of Allah, intimacy with Him, yearning to meet Him, drawing closer to Him, and turning away from everything other than Him.” - Ibn Qayyim ~,#NFDB
393:The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Do you know who will go first on the Day of Resurrection to the shade of God...Those who when given what is right accept it, when asked for something give freely and who judge in favor of others as they do for themselves." ~ Muhammad ibn Isa at Tirmidhi, #NFDB
394:If a man's patience is stronger than his whims and desires, then he is like an angel, but if his whims and desires are stronger than his patience, then he is like a devil. If his desire for food, drink and sex is stronger than his patience, then he is no better than an animal. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
395:Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
396:There is no knowledge except that taken from Allah,
for He alone is the Knower... the prophets,
in spite of their great number and the long periods of time
which separate them, had no disagreement in knowledge of Allah,
since they took it from Allah.
~ Ibn Arabi, True Knowledge
,#NFDB
397:Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
398:It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature.
al-Futûhât al-Makkiyya ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
399:What can you do with me? My jannah is in my heart! If you take me to jail, I will make zikr of Allah. If you exile me out of my land, I will make takaffur. If you execute me, I would be a shaheed. What can you do with me? Because I am not limited to this dunya. I am living for al-akhira! ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
400:I have a sickness doctors can't cure,
Inexorably pulling me to the well of my destruction,
Consented to be a sacrifice, killed for her love,
Eager, like the drunk gulping wine mixed with poison,
Shameless were those my nights,
Yet my soul loved them beyond all passion. ~ Ibn Hazm Al Andalusi,#NFDB
401:Two kinds of people live a life without care: one kind are extremely worthy of praise, the other kind are extremely worthy of criticism. The first are those who care nothing for the pleasures of the world and the second (i.e. those who are deserving of criticism) care nothing for haya or modesty. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
402:You will see, as time goes by,” said Ibn Rushd, “that in the end it will be religion that will make men turn away from God. The godly are God’s worst advocates. It may take a thousand and one years but in the end religion will shrivel away and only then will we begin to live in God’s truth. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
403:There are six stages to knowledge: Firstly: Asking questions in a good manner. Secondly: Remaining quiet and listening attentively. Thirdly: Understanding well. Fourthly: Memorising. Fifthly: Teaching. Sixthly- and it is its fruit: Acting upon the knowledge and keeping to its limits. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
404:The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, Oxford University Press, 1955. An English translation of the earliest biography of Muhammad—written by a pious Muslim. Virtually every page presents a devastating refutation of the whitewashed, peaceful Muhammad of PC myth. ~ Robert Spencer, #NFDB
405:Everything that is loved, if it is not loved for His sake then this love is nothing but distress and punishment. Every action that is not performed for His sake then it is wasted and severed. Every heart that does not reach Him is wretched; veiled from achieving its success and happiness. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
406:Ibn Malik snarled in anger, but Schaalman was faster. A hand lashed out and caught Ibn Malik around the throat.
You cost me any chance at happiness, Schaalman said.
Ibn Malik writhed around his fist: I gave you boundless knowledge instead.
A poor second, said Yehudah Schaalman, and squeezed. ~ Helene Wecker,#NFDB
407:A slave stands infront of Allah on two occasions. The first during salah, and secondly on the Day of Judgment. Whoseover stands correctly in the first, the second standing will be made easier for him. And whosoever, disregards the first standing, the second standing will be extremely difficult. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
408:If there is someone in need whom you wish to help, whether the initiative came from him or from you, do no more than he expects of you, not what you might personally wish to do. If you overstep the mark, you will not deserve thanks, but blame from him and others and you will attract hostility, not friendship. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
409:Whoever builds his faith exclusively on demonstrative proofs and deductive arguments, builds a faith on which it is impossible to rely. For he is affected by the negativities of constant objections. Certainty(al-yaqin) does not derive from the evidences of the mind but pours out from the depths of the heart. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
410:Whoever builds his faith exclusively on demonstrative proofs and deductive arguments, builds a faith on which it is impossible to rely. For he is affected by the negativities of constant objections. Certainty(al-yaqin) does not derive from the evidences of the mind but pours out from the depths of the heart. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
411:My heart can take on any form:
A meadow for gazelles,
A cloister for monks,
For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
The tables of the Torah,
The scrolls of the Quran.
My creed is Love;
Wherever its caravan turns along the way,
That is my belief,
My faith. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
412:although Ibn Ishaq, al-Tabari, and Ibn Saad did not record the events at Ghadir Khumm, “as far as the authenticity of the event itself is concerned, it has hardly ever been questioned or denied even by the most conservative Sunni authorities, who have themselves recorded it.” Jafri gives details of those records. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
413:Allah saved him from the grief of the ark, so he pierced natural darkness by what Allah gave
him of divine knowledge, while he did not depart from nature. He tested him with many trials
(9) and gave him experience in many places so that he might realize patience in himself in the
trials Allah gave him. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
414:I have always felt that many Christians, deeply sincere Christians, support the idea of separation of State and Church and the secularist in that sense as well. They believe that religion should be very much a private affair and should not be given special treatment. The State should not fund churches for example. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
415:Yearning for Allah and His meeting is like the gentle breeze blowing upon the heart, extinguishing the blaze of the Dunya. Whosoever caused his heart to settle with his Lord shall be in a state, calm and tranquility, and whosoever sent it amongst the people shall be disturbed and excessively perturbed. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
416:Khashyah (fear) is to fear Allah until His fear comes between you and your sins - that is true khashyah. And Dhikr (remembrance) is to obey Allah so whoever obeys Him has indeed remembered Him, and whoever does not obey Him is not a dhakir - even if he makes abundant tasbih (glorification) and recites much of Qur'an. ~ Ibn Sirin, #NFDB
417:She said: I wondered at a love that struts its glory through the garden's flowers as they blossom. I said: don't wonder at what you see. You see yourself in the mirror of a man. [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells
~ Ibn Arabi, In the Mirror of a Man
,#NFDB
418:The highest degree of love is Tatayyum (total enthrallment). The lowest degree is 'alaqah (attachment), when the heart is attached to the beloved: then comes sabahah (infatuation), when the heart is poured out: then gharam (passion), when love never leaves the heart: the nashaq (ardent love), and finally tatayyum. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
419:The term of life of a dynasty does not normally exceed three generations. For in the first generation are still preserved the characteristic features of rough, uncivilized rural life, such as hard conditions of life, courage, ferocity, and partnership in authority. Therefore the strength of the 'Asabiya is maintained. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
420:Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
421:Ibn Ata' Allah said: "God may open up for you the gates of obedience, but without opening up for you the gates of acceptance. On the other hand, He may Allow you to fall into disobedience which happens to lead you to the right path. DISOBEDIENCE that teaches you HUMILITY is better than PIETY that fills you with VANITY and ARROGANCE. ~, #NFDB
422:It was a great sage of Islam, ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), who saw that as a society becomes affluent it becomes more individualistic. It loses what he called its asabiyah, its social cohesion. It then becomes prey to the ‘desert dwellers’, those who shun the luxuries of the city and are prepared for self-sacrifice in war. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
423:From the perfection of Allah's ihsan is that He allows His slave to taste the bitterness of the break before the sweetness of the mend. So He does not break his believing slave, except to mend him. And He does not withhold from him, except to give him. And He does not test him (with hardship), except to cure him. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
424:My heart wears all forms: For gazelles it is an open field, for monks a cloister. It is a temple for idols, and for pilgrims the Ka'ba. It is the Torah's tablets and the pages of the Quran. Love is the faith I follow. Whichever path Love's caravan takes, that is my road and my religion.
~ Ibn Arabi, My heart wears all forms
,#NFDB
425:Beggars and Workers IT IS RELATED of Ibn el-Arabi that people said to him: ‘Your circle is composed mainly of beggars, husbandmen and artisans. Can you not find people of intellect who will follow you, so that perhaps more authoritative notice might be taken of your teachings?’ He said: ‘The Day of Calamity will be infinitely ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
426:It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing and defending their rights. The notions of freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts of self-criticism. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
427:Of Love--may God exalt you! -the first part is jesting, and the last part is right earnestness. So majestic are its diverse aspects, they are too subtle to be described; their reality can only be apprehended by personal experience. Love is neither disapproved by Religion, nor prohibited by the Law; for every heart is in God's hands. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
428:According to Mustafa Elhussein, secretary of a center for Muslim intellectuals known as the Ibn Khaldun Society, “There is a great deal of bitterness that such groups have tarnished the reputation of mainstream Muslims” because “self-appointed leaders . . . spew hatred toward America and the West and yet claim to be the legitimate ~ Craig Unger, #NFDB
429:It is a sad commentary on the state of Muslim scholarship that Ibn Khaldun remained a virtual nonentity until he was discovered by Orientalists. Now that he has their stamp of recognition, many scholars - excepting Arab racialists and the extreme orthodox - have entered into a competition to see whose encomiums are the loudest ~ Pervez Hoodbhoy, #NFDB
430:If the people of this religion are asked about the proof for the soundness of their religion, they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, and strive to kill their adversaries. This is why truth became thoroughly silenced and concealed. ~ Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi, #NFDB
431:Knowledge is not to be taken from four types of people: a foolish person who openly acts foolish, even if he reports the most narrations; an adherent of bid'ah who calls to his desires; a person who lies, even if I don't accuse him of lying in hadith; and a righteous pious worshiper who does not accurately retain what he narrates. ~ Malik ibn Anas, #NFDB
432:The heart, in its journey to Allah, Majestic is He, is like that of a bird; Love is its head, and fear and hope are its two wings. When the head and two wings are sound, the bird flies gracefully; if the head is severed, the bird dies; if the bird loses one of its wings, it then becomes a target for every hunter or predator. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
433:Though we love to think that we are civilized & developed than that of people lived centuries ago. In reality, the world is still run through the principle of 'Might is right'. Whoever - government or individual - has more power & money is dominating and, in many cases, oppressing people who are financially & politically weaker. ~ Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, #NFDB
434:When incentive to acquire and obtain property is gone, people no longer make efforts to acquire any... Those who infringe upon property rights commit an injustice... If this occurs repeatedly, all incentives to cultural enterprise are destroyed and they cease utterly to make an effort. This leads to destruction and ruin of civilization. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
435:The life of Islamic philosophy did not terminate with Ibn Rushd nearly eight hundred years ago, as thought by Western scholarship for several centuries. Rather, its activities continued strongly during the later centuries, particularly in Persia and other eastern lands of Islam, and it was revived in Egypt during the last century. ~ Seyyed Hossein Nasr, #NFDB
436:As for the people of Tasawwuf, they affirm the love of Allah, and this is more evident among them than all other issues....the affirmation of the love of Allah is well-known in the speech of their [old] and recent masters, just as it is affirmed in the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah and in agreement of the ways of the early generation (Salaf) ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
437:Franklin D. Roosevelt plays a part, as does the eighteenth-century tribal chief Muhammad Ibn Sa’ud. So does another eighteenth-century Arab, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd-al-Wahhab and the archconservative thirteenth-century cleric Ibn Taymiyah. And so, finally, do the fruits of all the malignant seeds planted by Ibn Taymiyah: the Muslim Brotherhood. ~ Robert B Baer, #NFDB
438:From Ibn Umar who said: A man burped/belched in front the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam and the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam said: ‘Stop your belching in front of us since indeed many of those people who have filled their appetites in the Dunyaa will be those who will be hungry for along time on the Day of Judgement.’ No. 343 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
439:The ibtilaa' (testing) of the believer is like medicine for him. It cures him from illness. Had the illness remained it would destroy him or diminish his reward and level (in the hereafter). The tests and the trials extract these illnesses from him and prepare him for the perfect reward and the highest of degrees (in the life to come). ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
440:How many of us would be able to overcome our desires and resist the temptation of sin? How many of us even lower our gaze when we look upon something that we are not supposed to? The real prisoner is the one whose heart has been kept away from remembering his Lord, and the real captive is the one who has been captivated by his whims and desires. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
441:Dass du dir einen Unwissenden, der mit sich selbst unzufrieden ist, zum Freund nimmst, ist besser für dich, als einen Gelehrten anzufreunden, der mit sich selbst zufrieden ist. Also, welches Unwissen besitzt ein Unwissender, der mit sich selbst unzufrieden ist und welches Wissen besitzt ein Gelehrter, der mit sich selbst zufrieden ist. ~ Ibn Ata Allah al Iskandari, #NFDB
442:If you do not find the deed producing a sweetness or expansion in your heart, then blame it. For the Lord, Exalted is He, is indeed appreciative.” – Ibn Taimiyyah
Meaning that He will reward the doer of the deed in this world with experiencing sweetness, expansion and delight in his heart. Whenever one does not find this occurring, then the deed is defective. ~,#NFDB
443:She shook her head, though her shoulders trembled and her nails dug into her palms. “You are ridiculous, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. I am just one girl. You are the Caliph of Khorasan, and you have a responsability to a kingdom.”
“If you are just one girl, I am just one boy.”
Shahrzad closed her eyes, unable to hold the fierce light in his gaze. ~ Ren e Ahdieh,#NFDB
444:Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well, if you were going to fight it, be called "Rushdie," and stand where your father had placed you, in the tradition of the grand Aristotelian, Averroës, Abul Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
445:A culture that gave the world the spiritual creations of the Classical Music of Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Schubert, the paintings of Michelangelo, and Raphael, Da Vinci and Rembrandt, does not need lessons from societies whose idea of spirituality is a heaven peopled with female virgins for the use of men, whose idea of heaven resembles a cosmic brothel. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
446:The best you can seek from Him is what He seeks from you. A sign of being deluded is: sorrow over loss of obedience while failing to get on with it. [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ Ibn Ata Illah, The best you can seek from Him
,#NFDB
447:[The people of Mali] are seldom unjust, and have a greater horror of injustices than other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence. —Ibn Battuta, fourteenth-century traveler ~ Patricia C McKissack, #NFDB
448:There is no captive in a worse state than the one who is captivated by his worst enemy (Shaytan) and there is no prison which is tighter than the prison of hawa (desire) and there is no bond/fetter more strong than the bond of desire. How, then, will a heart which is captivated, imprisoned and fettered travel unto Allah and the Home of the Hereafter? ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
449:"When we contemplate the duration of the universe, we see it limited to the present moment, which is nothing more but the point which separates two infinities of time. The past and the future are as meaningless as if they did not exist. Is anyone more misguided than the man who barters an eternal future for a moment which passes quicker than the blink of an eye?." ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
450:—Podría haber ido a cualquier otro sitio sin necesidad de imposturas. Al Califato occidental... Toledo, Córdoba... Pero había oído hablar de un hombre, Avicena, cuyo nombre árabe me acometió como un hechizo y me sacudió como un estrecimiento. Abu Ali at-Husain ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina. Para tocar el borde de tus vestiduras. El médico más grande del mundo—susurró Rob. ~ Noah Gordon, #NFDB
451:When Allah granted Prophet Yoosuf (`alayhis-Salaam) physical beauty it caused him to be locked up in the prison; but when Allah granted him knowledge (when he interpreted the dream of the king) it not only took him out of prison, but elevated his rank in society, clearly showing us the virtue of knowledge and that physical beauty does not mean anything. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
452:Wonder,
A garden among the flames!
My heart can take on any form:
A meadow for gazelles,
A cloister for monks,
For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
The tables of the Torah,
The scrolls of the Quran.
My creed is Love;
Wherever its caravan turns along the way,
That is my belief,
My faith.
~ Ibn Arabi, Wonder
,#NFDB
453:One of the gnostics was hungry and wept. Someone who had no tasting (dhawq) in that area censured him for that. The gnostic said, "But Allah makes me hungry so that I might weep.
He tests me by affliction so that I might ask Him to remove it from me. This does not lessen my being patient." We know that patience is holding the self back from complaint to other-than-Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
454:You must never forget that dealing with a monarch is not like dealing with an ordinary man,” Ibn Sina said. “A king is not like you or me. He drops a hand carelessly and someone like us is put to death. Or he wiggles a finger and someone is allowed to live. That is absolute power, and no man born of woman is able to resist it. It drives even the best of monarchs slightly mad. ~ Noah Gordon, #NFDB
455:There are four types of men in this world: 1. The man who knows, and knows that he knows; he is wise, so consult him. 2. The man who knows, but doesn't know that he knows; help him not forget what he knows. 3. The man who knows not, and knows that he knows not; teach him. 4. Finally, there is the man who knows not but pretends that he knows; he is a fool, so avoid him. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #NFDB
456:It is a meaningful thing for a scientist of the stature of Ibn Sina, certainly one of the best scientific minds in the whole history of mankind, to often resort to prayer to seek God's help in solving his philosophical and scientific problems. And it is also perfectly understandable why the purification of the soul is considered an integral part of the methodology of knowledge. ~ Osman Bakar, #NFDB
457:O you who sold yourself for the sake of something that will cause you suffering and pain, and which will also lose its beauty, you sold the most precious item for the cheapest price, as if you neither knew the value of the goods nor the meanness of the prize. Wait until you come on the Day of Mutual Loss and Gain and you will discover the injustice of this contract. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
458:Oh, her beauty--the tender maid! Its brilliance gives light like lamps to one travelling in the dark.
She is a pearl hidden in a shell of hair as black as jet,
A pearl for which Thought dives and remains unceasingly in the deeps of that ocean.
He who looks upon her deems her to be a gazelle of the sand-hills, because of her shapely neck and the loveliness of her gestures. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
459:By entwining the story of his life with verses from the Quran and an acknowledgment of the new Christian terms to which he must adapt, Omar ibn Said created less a tale of conversion than a syncretic narrative: Like that of so many others, his is a story not of the religious remaking of a people but of a people remaking religious traditions to serve their altered circumstances. ~ Peter Manseau, #NFDB
460:Ibn Rushd's writings were translated into Latin and Hebrew by European scholars. There soon appeared super-commentaries on his commentaries. Many of the writings exist only in these two languages, the original Arabic writings being long lost. This itself is a commentary on the extent to which Ibn Rushd, as a rationalist philosopher, was able to influence the mood of his times ~ Pervez Hoodbhoy, #NFDB
461:O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'bah,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur'an.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.
~ Ibn Arabi, Fire
,#NFDB
462:Approach the dwelling place of the dear ones who have taken covenants -
may clouds of incessant rain pour upon it!
And breathe the scent of the wind over against their land, in desire that
the sweet airs may tell thee where they are.
I know that they encamped at the banded tree of Idam, where the arar plants
grow and the shih and the katam.
~ Ibn Arabi, The Invitation
,#NFDB
463:Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one's mind right. All of its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to enter into geometrical reasoning, because it is well arranged and orderly. Thus, the mind that constantly applies itself to geometry is not likely to fall into error. In this convenient way, the person who knows geometry acquires intelligence. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
464:One of the gnostics was hungry and wept. Someone who had no tasting (dhawq) in that area
censured him for that. The gnostic said, "But Allah makes me hungry so that I might weep.
He tests me by affliction so that I might ask Him to remove it from me. This does not lessen
my being patient." We know that patience is holding the self back from complaint to other-
than-Allah. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
465:While visiting Mali’s capital, Ibn Battuta was received by the king, who was at that time Mansa Musa’s son. Ibn Battuta was offended by the king’s lack of generosity. The traveler complained that the king was miserly and instead of giving him “robes of honor and money,” he offered Ibn Battuta … three cakes of bread, a piece of beef fried in native oil, and a calabash of sour curds. ~ Patricia C McKissack, #NFDB
466:7. A manifestation by which something is made clear and unobscured, as the bride is
displayed to the husband or the rust removed from a sword or mirror so that it shines. The
tajalli is the unveiling of a spiritual reality in the realm of vision. It is a direct-seeing into the
nature of existence, a showing forth of the secrets of the One in the celestial and terrestial
realms. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
467:And in the dark of that room, notorious for the woven patterns of desire it had seen, Ammar ibn Khairan held the woman beloved of the man he’d killed, and offered what small comfort he could. He granted her the courtesy and space of his silence, as she finally permitted herself to weep, mourning the depth of her loss, the appalling disappearance, in an instant, of love in a bitter world. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay, #NFDB
468:If what she says is true
And she feels for me
The obsessive desire
That I feel for her,
Then, in the sweltering heat of noon,
In her tent, in secret,
We will meet
To fulfill the promise completely...
We will reveal the passion
We feel one for the other
As well as the harshness of the trial
And the pains of ecstasy.
~ Ibn Arabi, If What She Says Is True
,#NFDB
469:That is why the theopathic maxim of
the disciples of Ibn Arabi was not Ana'l Haqq "I am God "
(Hallaj) , but Ana sirr al-l Haqq, "I am the secret of God," that
is to say, the secret of love that makes His divinity dependent on
me, because the hidden Treasure "yearned to be known" and it
was necessary that beings exist in order that He might be
known and know Himself. ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
470:I look for you early, my rock and my refuge, offering you worship morning and night; before your vastness I come confused and afraid for you see the thoughts of my heart. What could the heart and tongue compose, or spirit's strength within me to suit you? But song soothes you and so I'll give praise to your being as long as your breath-in-me moves.
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, I look for you early
,#NFDB
471:Indeed, the term body (jism), organs ('arad), extent (mutahayyiz) and their like are all newly-invented terminologies. We have mentioned many a time before that the Salaf and the Imaams have not spoken about such things, neither by way of a negation nor by way of affirmation. Rather, they declared those who spoke about such matters to be innovators and went to great lengths to censure them. ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
472:Saya tetap menghormati beliau (Fazlur Rahman) sebagai salah seorang ilmuwan ulong zaman ini, khasnya dari tradisi falsafah ala Ibn Sina. Saya juga menyanjunginya sebagai seorang yang baik dan berdedikasi dalam perjuangannya walaupun saya tidak bersependapat dengannya. Sikap ini saya dapat secara praktis dari memerhatikan Prof Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas sejak 1988 hingga sekarang. ~ Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, #NFDB
473:Who anyway can define the borderline between gnosis and poetic knowledge? The two modes are not identical, and yet they interpenetrate one another. Are we to call the gnosis of Novalis, Blake, and Shelley a knowledge that is not poetic? In domesticating the Sufis in our imagination, Corbin renders Ibn 1 Arabi and Suhrawardi as a Blakl· and a Shelley whose precursor is not Milton but the Koran. ~ Harold Bloom, #NFDB
474:Like a bridegroom the sun Dons his robe that is spun Of light, Which from Thee emanated Yet in no wise abated Thy light. Taught to go westward round With obeisance profound To his Lord, He by service so loyal To a master so royal Is a lord. While his homage each day Serves to mark and display Thy glory, 'Tis Thy hand that investeth The robe on which resteth His glory.
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, The Sun
,#NFDB
475:Lubb: In Arabic there is no word for mind. However, in the Qur'an the word that
designates a central locus of awareness in the human being is lubb, which means core. It is
the heart viewed as an organ of gnosis and not merely as a valave which pumps blood to the
head. Ibn al-'Arabi says that it is that part of knowledge which is protected from the hearts
which are attached to phenomenal being. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
476:My thoughts astounded asked me why Towards the whirling wheels on high In ecstasy I rush and fly. The living God is my desire, It carries me on wings of fire, Body and soul to Him aspire. God is at once my joy and fate, This yearning me He did create, At thought of Him I palpitate. Shall song with all its loveliness Submerge my soul with happiness Before the God of Gods it bless?
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Ecstasy
,#NFDB
477:O Marvel,
a garden among the flames!
My heart can take on
any form:
a meadow for gazelles,
a cloister for monks,
For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
the tables of the Torah,
the scrolls of the Qur'n.
I profess the religion of love;
wherever its caravan turns along the way,
that is the belief,
the faith I keep.
~ Ibn Arabi, A Garden Among The Flames
,#NFDB
478:My heart has become able
To take on all forms.
It is a pasture for gazelles,
For monks an abbey.
It is a temple for idols
And for whoever circumambulates it, the Kaaba.
It is the tablets of the Torah
And also the leaves of the Koran.
I believe in the religion
Of Love
Whatever direction its caravans may take,
For love is my religion and my faith.
~ Ibn Arabi, My Heart Has Become Able
,#NFDB
479:Zapamiętajmy także katolickiego arcybiskupa Toledo, Obayda Allaha ibn Qâsima. Zapamiętajmy kordobańskie synagogi. Nigdy już potem, przez omal tysiąclecie, nie spotkał się świat z taką religijną tolerancją, czy dzisiejszymi mówiąc słowami – ekumenizmem. Mogli kalifowie zmieniać królów na szachownicy konfliktów rozdrobnionych państewek Hiszpanii, ich poddanym zostawiali jednak pełną wolność religijną i światopoglądową. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
480:Approach the dwelling place
of the dear ones who have taken covenants
may clouds of incessant rain pour upon it!
And breathe the scent
of the wind over against their land,
in desire that the sweet airs
may tell thee where they are.
I know that they encamped
at the ban tree of Idam,
where the arar plants grow
and the shih and the katam.
~ Ibn Arabi, Approach The Dwellings Of The Dear Ones
,#NFDB
481:Repel the thought, for if you don't, it becomes an idea. So repel the idea, for if you don't it will become a desire. So fight against that(desire), for if you don't, it will become a determination and a passion. And if you don't repel that, it will become an action. And if you don't replace it with its opposite, it will become a constant habit. So at that point, it will be difficult for you to change it. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
482:Ibn Arabi observes that the most perfect of mystic lovers are
those who love God simultaneously for himself and for them-
selves, because this capacity reveals in them the unification of
their twofold nature (a resolution of the torn "conscience
malheureuse" ). He who has made himself capable of such love
is able to do so because he combines mystic knowledge ( ma
rrifa ) with vision ( shuhud) . ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
483:Ibn Taymiyyah was a worrying figure to the establishment. His return to the fundamentals of the Quran and sunnah and his denial of much of the rich spirituality and philosophy of Islam may have been reactionary, but it was also revolutionary. He outraged the conservative ulama, who clung to the textbook answers, and criticized the Mamluk government of Syria for practices which contravened Islamic law as he understood it. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
484:As Luxenberg's work has only recently been published we must await its scholarly assessment before we can pass any judgements. But if his analysis is correct then suicide bombers, or rather prospective martyrs, would do well to abandon their culture of death, and instead concentrate on getting laid 72 times in this world, unless of course they would really prefer chilled or white raisins, according to their taste, in the next. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
485:It is strange that a person may find it easy to protect himself from: eating Haraam, oppression and injustice, adultery, theft, drinking khamr (alcoholic drinks), and from unlawful looking, but it is hard for him to restrain the movement of his tongue. How often do we see people who are very cautious about falling into shameful deeds or injustice, but their tongue lashes against the living and the dead and they don't mind it? ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
486:I withdrew with He whom I love passionately, and there was no one but us,
for if there had been another than me, the retreat would not have been one.
When I imposed on my soul the conditions of her seclusion,
the souls of the creatures all at once became her slaves!
But if there were not in her an Other than herself,
my soul would have made a gift of herself to He who overwhelms her with His gifts.
~ Ibn Arabi, My Journey
,#NFDB
487:Ibn Tufayl, following in Avicenna’s wake, takes a different tack, abstracting not
from the physical but from the social world. What would human thought be like in
the absence not of a body but of culture and tradition? What would a curious, in-
sightful, and dedicated human being think about God and the world, the self and
its place in the cosmos, without the help—or interference—of religion, or even lan-
guage? ~ Lenn Evan Goodman,#NFDB
488:If what she says is true And she feels for me The obsessive desire That I feel for her, Then, in the sweltering heat of noon, In her tent, in secret, We will meet To fulfill the promise completely... We will reveal the passion We feel one for the other As well as the harshness of the trial And the pains of ecstasy. [1564.jpg] -- from Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks) , by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
~ Ibn Arabi, If what she says is true
,#NFDB
489:Ich hörte von Nafi' [der hörte] von Ibn Umar, dass Umar b. al-Khattab -möge Allah mit ihm zufrieden sein- folgendes an all seine Statthalter schrieb: "Meiner Meinung nach ist das Wichtigste in euren Angelegenheiten das Gebet. Wer auch immer es (das Gebet) beschützt und sorgfältig befolgt, der beschützt seine Religion. Während derjenige, der mit dem Gebet nachlässig umgeht, sogar zunehmend im Umgang mit anderen Dingen nachlässig sein wird. ~ Malik Ibn Anas, #NFDB
490:Oh, her beauty- the tender maid
Its brilliance gives light like lamps
to one travelling in the dark.
She is a pearl hidden in a shell of hair as black as jet,
A pearl for which Thought dives
and remains unceasingly in the deeps of that ocean.
He who looks upon her deems her
to be a gazelle of the sand-hills,
because of her shapely neck
and the loveliness of her gestures.
~ Ibn Arabi, Oh- Her Beauty- The Tender Maid!
,#NFDB
491:The heart becomes sick, as the body becomes sick, and its remedy is al-Tawbah (repentance) and protection [from transgression]. It becomes rusty as a mirror becomes rusty, and its clarity is obtained by remembrance. It becomes naked as the body becomes naked, and its beautification is al-Taqwa. It becomes hungry and thirsty as the body becomes hungry, and its food and drink are knowledge, love, dependence, repentance and servitude. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
492:We are free, in the West, to choose; we have real choice to pursue our own desires; we are free to set the goals and contents of our own lives; the West is made up of individuals who are free to decide what meaning to give to their lives-in short the glory of the West is that life is an open book,[1] while under Islam, life is a closed book, everything has been decided for you: God and the Holy Law set limits on the possible agenda of your life. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
493:Truly in the heart there is a void that can not be removed except with the company of Allah. And in it there is a sadness that can not be removed except with the happiness of knowing Allah and being true to Him. And in it there is an emptiness that can not be filled except with love for Him and by turning to Him and always remembering Him. And if a person were given all of the world and what is in it, it would not fill this emptiness. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
494:The Breath of the All-Merciful has no
basis in other than the All-Merciful...
Its stopping-place is the Yaman of the creatures
and It is neither spirit nor body.
It has no limit to define It
yet It is what is (always) sought, the Sempiternal (al-matlub as-Samad)
For all the creatures are seeking It
though none of them can possess it
Unique, no one is like It
alone in the Perfection of Its description.'
~ Ibn Arabi, Allah
,#NFDB
495:She laughed, the sound dancing around the room with the airy quality of chimes. “My life is forfeit. You’ve made that clear. Perhaps we should move past that issue and get to the matter at hand.” “By all means.” She took a moment to steady herself. “I want to tell you a story.” “Excuse me?” For the first time, she saw a distinct emotion ripple across his features. Are you surprised? Rest assured, it won’t be the last time, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. “I ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
496:May showers enrich thy happy soil,
Fair land, where fanes & towers arise:
On thee let sainted pilgrims pour
The richest blessings of the skies.
The wave that round thy bosom plays,
Conscious of its endeared retreat,
When the rude tempest rocks thy domes,
In sigh resigns its happy seat.
Yet urged another glance to steal
Of thy loved form so good so fair,
Flies to avoid the painful view
Of rival lovers basking hence. ~ Ibn Battuta,#NFDB
497:The great ideas of the West - rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy- quite an achievement, surely, for any civilization- - remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
498:The story of Hayy Ibn Yaqzān is a history of the progressive development, alone,
on an equatorial island of an individual human soul. What is the purpose of telling
such a story? Close to the surface as subject-problems posed by the premiss of Ibn
Tufayl’s book are the problems of educational philosophy: ‘What is education?’
‘What is personal development?’ ‘How does human growth take place?’ ‘How can
a man attain fulfillment? ~ Lenn Evan Goodman,#NFDB
499:Lawrence argued that despite posing as Islamic reformists “with all the narrow minded bigotry of the puritan,” ibn-Saud and his Wahhabists were hardly representative of Islam. Instead, as he warned in “The Politics of Mecca,” the Wahhabist sect was composed of marginal medievalists, “and if it prevailed, we would have in place of the tolerant, rather comfortable Islam of Mecca and Damascus, the fanaticism of Nejd … intensified and swollen by success. ~ Scott Anderson, #NFDB
500:Thou livest, but not from determined time or known epoch. Thou livest, but not with soul or breath, for Thou art soul of the soul. Thou livest, but not as the life of man that is like vanity, its end in moths and worms. Thou livest, and whoever attains Thy secret will find eternal delight -- "and eat, and live for ever." [1568.jpg] -- from The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences, by Joseph Dan
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Thou Livest
,#NFDB
501:How is it possible for one’s heart to be certain that one is going to meet Allah, that Allah sees and hears all that he does, and knows his secret open affairs, and that he will be made to stand before Allah, answerable for all his deeds - how can one be certain and aware of all of this, and yet persist upon things which displease Allah; persist upon abandoning Allah’s orders, neglecting His rights, and yet claim that he has good expectation of Allah? ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
502:Most people, he suggested, are not capable of exercising reason. God created scripture for the unreasoning masses. He intended the Qur’an to be read in one of two ways. The learned, the falsafah, read it allegorically. ‘Anyone who is not a man of learning’, however, ‘is obliged to take these passages in their apparent meaning.’ ‘Allegorical interpretation’ of the Qur’an is, for the masses, Ibn Rushd suggested, the same as ‘unbelief because it leads to unbelief’. ~ Kenan Malik, #NFDB
503:You only know the universe according to the amount you know the shadows, and you are ignorant of the Real according to what you do not know of the person on which that shadow depends. Inasmuch as He has a shadow, He is known, and inasmuch as one is ignorant of what is in the essence of the shadow of the form which projects the shadow, he is ignorant of Allah. For that reason, we say that Allah is known to us from one aspect and not known to us from another aspect. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
504:Ibn Arabi was above all the disciple of Khidr ( Khidr). We shall attempt further on to indicate what it signifies and implies to be "the disciple of Khidr." In any event such a relationship with a hidden spiritual master lends the disciple an essentially "transhistorical" dimension and presupposes an ability to experience events which are enacted in a reality other than the physical reality of daily life, events which spontaneously transmute themselves into symbols. ~ Henry Corbin, #NFDB
505:Ich hört' in meiner Bücherei des Nachts
Den Bücherwurm den Schmetterling befragen:
"Ich habe mein Nest in Ibn Sinas Blättern,
Bin in Farabis Manuskript beschlagen -
Den Sinn des Lebens hab' ich nicht verstanden,
Ganz sonnenlos leb' ich in finstern Tagen!"
Wie schön sprach darauf der halbverbrannte Falter:
"Nach diesem Punkt darfst du nicht Bücher fragen:
Nur Fieberglut kann neues Leben bringen,
Nur Fieberflut gibt deinem Leben Schwingen! ~ Muhammad Iqbal,#NFDB
506:In his Epistle on Free Will, the leader of the Qadaris, an ascetic scholar named Hasan al-Basri, openly challenged Umayyad caliph Ibn Marwan.14 One of al-Basri’s followers, Ghaylan al-Dimashqi, went even further. Rulers did not have the right to regard their power as “a gift of God,” he argued; they had to be aware of their responsibility for people before God. He even asserted that if all Muslims truly obeyed God and His law, there would be no need for any caliph. ~ Mustafa Akyol, #NFDB
507:Her name was Ava. That much they all knew and not much more. In their language, it meant “voice.” Strange that this slender sylph of a queen exhibited anything but. When she was in need of something, she sent her most trusted servants. Hushed conversations transpired in shadowed hallways. And all was handled in an equally discreet manner. Perhaps a somewhat taciturn queen would suit the young caliph. After all, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid had always been a boy of few words. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
508:The greatest number of drug addicts are to be found in Teheran and in Karachi, not in the West. Not in New York believe it or not. It's the same with the roles of slavery, racism and imperialism in the world. These institutions were present in other cultures. However, it was Western civilization which did something about slavery, about racism and voluntarily dissolved its empires leaving behind a very positive legacy of institutions not to mention buildings and roadways. ~ Ibn Warraq, #NFDB
509:Humble of spirit, lowly of knee and stature, But in fear and awe abounding, I come before Thee. And in Thy presence to myself appear As a little earth-worm. O Thou, who fillest the earth and whose greatness is endless, Shall one like me laud Thee, And how shall he honour Thee? The angels of heaven do not suffice, How then one like me? Thou hast wrought good and hast magnified mercies, Wherefore the soul shall magnify praise of Thee.
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Humble of Spirit
,#NFDB
510:The universe is its own veil on itself and cannot perceive the Truth since it perceives itself. It
is continuously in a veil which is not removed, since it knows that it is distinct from its
Creator by its need of Him. It has no portion of that essential necessity which belongs to the
existence of Allah, so it can never perceive Him. In this respect, Allah is never fully known
by the knowledge of tasting and witnessing because the in-time has no hold on that. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
511:It is not surprising that Ibn Sina is a national icon in Iran today, and one can find countless schools and hospitals named after him in many countries around the world. Indeed, his legacy stretches even further, for there is an 'Avicenna' crater on the moon, and in 1980 every member country of Unesco celebrated the thousand-year anniversary of Ibn Sina's birth. As a philosopher he is referred to as the Aristotle of Islam; as a physician he is known as the Galen of Islam. ~ Jim Al Khalili, #NFDB
512:The Shari'a makes something
reprehensible because of what Allah made known or which He made known through
someone He has instructed. So Allah prescribed retaliation by necessity for the preservation
of the human race and to prevent people exceeding the limits of Allah. Allah says, "There is
life for you in retaliation, O you who possess intelligence (lit. cores)!" (3) (2:179) They are
the people of the core who stumble onto the secret of divine laws and wisdoms. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
513:Stop being so stubborn!” Her bare feet fell to the onyx floor. “Do not make me beg you. Because I won’t. I’ll merely lose my temper or cry. And I have always secretly despised those who cry to wheedle their objectives. But if you force me to do it, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid, I will. And I cry beautifully.” She crossed her arms and pursed her lips.
A corner of his mouth twitched. “You do not cry beautifully.”
“Liar!”
“I’m not lying.” He held her gaze. “I rarely lie ~ Ren e Ahdieh,#NFDB
514:You only know the universe according to the amount you know the shadows, and you are
ignorant of the Real according to what you do not know of the person on which that shadow
depends. Inasmuch as He has a shadow, He is known, and inasmuch as one is ignorant of
what is in the essence of the shadow of the form which projects the shadow, he is ignorant of
Allah. For that reason, we say that Allah is known to us from one aspect and not known to us
from another aspect. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
515:We should know that Allah has created us to live an eternal life with no death, a life of pride and ease with no humiliation, a life of security with no fear, a life of richness with no poverty, a life of joy with no pain, a life of perfection with no flaws. Allah is testing us in this world with a life that will end in death, a life of pride that is accompanied by humiliation and degradation, a life that is tainted by fear, where joy and ease are mixed with sorrow and pain. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
516:If it had not been for this love, the universe would not have appeared in its source. Its
movement from non-existence to existence is the movement of the love of the One who
brings into existence for this purpose. The universe also loves to witness itself in existence as
it was witnessed in immutability. Thus by every aspect, the movement from immutable non-
existence to the existence of the sources is a movement of love, both in respect of Allah and
in respect to itself. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
517:While the sun's eye rules my sight,
love sits as sultan in my soul.
His army has made camp in my heart -
passion and yearning, affliction and grief.
When his camp took possession of me
I cried out as the flame of desire
burned in my entrails.
Love stole my sleep, love has bewildered me,
love kills me unjustly, and I am helpless,
love has burdened me with more than I can bear
so that I bequeath him a soul and no body.
~ Ibn Arabi, When The Suns Eye Rules My Sight
,#NFDB
518:Do not praise your own faith exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest. If you do this you will miss much good. Nay, you will miss the whole truth of the matter. God, the Omniscient and the Omnipresent, cannot be confined to any one creed, for He says in the Quran, wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah. Everybody praises what he knows. His God is his own creature, and in praising it, he praises himself. Which he would not do if he were just, for his dislike is based on ignorance. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
519:The Real made me contemplate the light of the veils as the star of strong backing rose, and He said to me, "Do you know how many veils I have veiled you with?"
"No", I replied.
He said, "With seventy veils. Even if you raise them you will not see Me, and if you do not raise them you will not see Me."
"If you raise them you will see Me and if you do not raise them you will see Me."
"Take care of burning yourself!"
"You are My sight, so have faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself" ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
520:The Real made me contemplate the light of the veils as the star of strong backing rose, and He said to me, “Do you know how many veils I have veiled you with?”
“No”, I replied.
He said, “With seventy veils.
Even if you raise them you will not see Me, and if you do not raise them you will not see Me.”
“If you raise them you will see Me and if you do not raise them you will see Me.”
“Take care of burning yourself!”
“You are My sight, so have faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
521:I proceeded, therefore, and after a voyage of fifty days, came to the countries of the hBarahnakār,5 a people who have mouths like those of dogs. This is a vile race. They have no religion, neither that of the Hindoos nor any other. They live in houses made of reeds upon the sea-shore. Their trees are those of the ibanana, the kfawfel and the lbetel-nut. Their men are of the same form with ourselves, except that their mouths are like those of dogs ;6 but the women have mouths like other folks. The ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
522:Wenn Imam Ali ibn 'Alawi "Assalamu 'alaika ayyuhan-nabiyyu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh!" sagte, so hörte er den Propheten (der Frieden und Salah gelten ihm) antworten: "Wa 'alaikumus-salam!"
Der Imam wiederholte dann den Friedensgruß, bis er den Propheten folgendes antworten hörte: "Wa 'alaykas-salam ya shaykh!"
Die Gelehrten haben darauf hingewiesen, dass es eine weitere Ehre für ihn war, dass der Prophet (der Frieden und Salah gelten ihm) ihn mit den Namen Shaykh angesprochen hat. ~ Mostafa al Badawi,#NFDB
523:I have sought Thee daily at dawn and twilight, I have stretched my hands to Thee, turned my face, Now the cry of a heart athirst I will utter, Like the beggar who cries at my door for grace. The infinite heights are too small to contain Thee, Yet perchance Thou canst niche in the clefts of me. Shall my heart not treasure the hope to gain Thee, Or my yearning fail till my tongue's last plea? Nay, surely Thy name I will worship, while breath in my nostrils be.
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, I Sought Thee Daily
,#NFDB
524:Let us think of the human race as if it were a single human being,” Ibn Rushd proposed. “A child understands nothing, and clings to faith because it lacks knowledge. The battle between reason and superstition may be seen as mankind’s long adolescence, and the triumph of reason will be its coming of age. It is not that God does not exist but that like any proud parent he awaits the day when his child can stand on its own two feet, make its own way in the world, and be free of its dependence upon him. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
525:In the early part of the ninth century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a mathematician working in Baghdad, wrote a seminal textbook in which he highlighted the usefulness of restoring a quantity being subtracted (like 2, above) by adding it to the other side of an equation. He called this process al-jabr (Arabic for “restoring”), which later morphed into “algebra.” Then, long after his death, he hit the etymological jackpot again. His own name, al-Khwarizmi, lives on today in the word “algorithm. ~ Steven H Strogatz, #NFDB
526:Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your Creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel. There is no nobility in anyone who lacks faith. The wise man knows that the only fitting price for his soul is a place in Paradise. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
527:If the soul is impartial in receiving information, it devotes to that information the share of critical investigation the information deserves, and its truth or untruth thus becomes clear. However, if the soul is infected with partisanship for a particular opinion or sect, it accepts without a moment's hesitation the information that is agreeable to it. Prejudice and partisanship obscure the critical faculty and preclude critical investigation. The results is that falsehoods are accepted and transmitted. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
528:If you are proud of your descent from virtuous ancestors, how empty their virtue will leave your hands if you yourself are not virtuous. How little pride your ancestors will have in you in this world and the next if you do no good! All men are children of Adam whom Allah created by His own Hands, giving him paradise for a dwelling place and letting His angels bow down before him. But how little is the advantage from this since all the vices dwell in mankind and all the wicked impious people are among their number. ~ Ibn Hazm, #NFDB
529:In 1923, ibn- Saud would conquer much of the Arabian Peninsula and, to honor his clan, give it the name Saudi Arabia. For the next ninety years, the vast and profligate Saudi royal family would survive by essentially buying off the doctrinaire Wahhabists who had brought them to power, financially subsidizing their activities so long as their disciples directed their jihadist efforts abroad. The most famous product of this arrangement was to be a man named Osama bin Laden. Far more immediately, however, Lawrence ~ Scott Anderson, #NFDB
530:Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your Creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel. There is no nobility in anyone who lacks faith. The wise man knows that the only fitting price for his soul is a place in Paradise... ~ Ibn Hazm Al Andalusi, #NFDB
531:Those travelling to Him are guided by the light of turning their faces toward Him. Those who have arrived have the light of face-to-face encounter. The former belong to lights, but the lights belong to the latter because they belong to Allah, and are His alone. "Say: 'Allah' then leave them plunging in their games." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ Ibn Ata Illah, Those travelling to Him
,#NFDB
532:Allaah subhanahuu, rejects those who refused Allaah’s Shareeah; the laws that are good for the Muslims; the laws that forbid what is evil. Allaah rejects those who follow laws of personal desires and who adopt laws of Kufr such as the laws enforced by the Tartars who were under the control of Gengiz Khan, their king. These laws were a mixture of Judaism, Christianity and laws chosen by their king that suited his desires. Should we prefer these laws to the Sharee`ah of Allaah and His Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)? ~ Ibn Kathir, #NFDB
533:While Europe was mired in its dark years of medieval superstition, the work of combining theory and experiment was advanced primarily in the Islamic world. Muslim scientists often also worked as scientific instrument makers, which made them experts at measurements and applying theories. The Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham, known as Alhazen, wrote a seminal text on optics in 1021 that combined observations and experiments to develop a theory of how human vision works, then devised further experiments to test the theory. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
534:Where Ibn al-Arabi had written for the intellectual, Rumi was summoning all human beings to live beyond themselves, and to transcend the routines of daily life. The Mathnawi celebrated the Sufi lifestyle which can make everyone an indomitable hero of a battle waged perpetually in the cosmos and within the soul. The Mongol invasions had led to a mystical movement, which helped people come to terms with the catastrophe they had experienced at the deeper levels of the psyche, and Rumi was its greatest luminary and exemplar. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
535:Had Allah lifted the veil for his slave and shown him how He handles his affairs for him, and how Allah is more keen for the benefit of the slave than his own self, his heart would have melted out of the love for Allah and would have been torn to pieces out of thankfulness to Allah. Therefore if the pains of this world tire you, do not grieve. For it may be that Allah wishes to hear your voice by way of Dua'a. So pour out your desires in prostration and forget about it and know; that verily Allah does not forget it. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
536:The easiest method of acquiring the habit of scholarship is through acquiring the ability to express oneself clearly in discussing and disputing scholarly problems. This is what clarifies their import and makes them understandable. Some students spend most of their lives attending scholarly sessions. Still, one finds them silent. They do not talk and do not discuss matters. More than is necessary, they are concerned with memorizing. Thus, they do not obtain much of a habit in the practice of scholarship and scholarly instruction. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
537:On a fait allusion (...) à la présence d'Ibn'Arabî assistant au transfert des cendres d'Averroës à Cordoue. Le souvenir qu'il en garda est poignant. D'un côté de la monture on avait chargé le cercueil ; de l'autre, les livres d'Averroës. "Un paquet de livres équilibrant un cadavre !" Pour comprendre le sens de la vie spéculative et scientifique de l'Orient islamique traditionnel, il faut avoir présente à l'esprit cette image, à la façon d'un symbole inverse de sa quête et de son option : "une science divine" qui triomphe de la mort. ~ Henry Corbin, #NFDB
538:O lover – whosoever you are – know that the veils between you and your beloved – whosoever he might be – are nothing save your halt with things, not the things themselves; as said by the one who hasn’t tasted the flavour of realties. You have halted with things because of the shortcoming of your perception; that is, lack of penetration, expressed as the veil; and the veil is nonexistence and nonexistence is nothingness. Thus there is no veil, If the veils were true, then who got veiled from you, you should also have been in veil from him. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
539:The light of the inner eye lets you see His nearness to you. The source of the inner eye lets you see your non-existence by your existence. The truth of the inner eye lets you see His existence, not your own non-existence or existence. "Allah was and there was nothing with Him. He is now as He was." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ Ibn Ata Illah, The light of the inner eye lets you see His nearness to you
,#NFDB
540:The Prophet related that when Allah loves the voice of His slave when he makes supplication to Him, He delays the answer to his supplication so that the slave will repeat the supplication.
This comes from His love for the slave, not because He has turned away from him. For that reason, the Prophet mentioned the name of the Wise, and the Wise is the one who puts everything in its proper place, and who does not turn away from the qualities which their realities necessitate and demand; so the Wise is the One who knows the order of things. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
541:If the Prophets, peace be upon him, thanked Allah for what He had bestowed on them and
given to them, that was not from the command of Allah. They undertook that freely from
themselves, as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, stood
thanking Allah until his feet were swollen, when Allah had forgiven Him his wrong actions,
past and present. When people commented what he did, he said, "Am I not a thankful slave?"
Allah said that Nuh was a thankful slave. (4) So the thankful among the slaves are few. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
542:The 21-year-old set off for his journey the year before he died in 1324. Yet even though he traveled three times as far as Polo, crossing Africa, Asia, and China, Ibn Battuta has not received the same recognition. His memoirs, the Rihla (The Journey) was not translated into European languages until the nineteenth century and was unknown to Westerners except for the occasional Oriental scholar. Its full title is A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling. Despite its lofty appellation, his work lives up ~ Michael Rank, #NFDB
543:Rise and open the door that is shut, and send to me the roe that is fled. The day of his coming he shall lie all night between my breasts there his good smell shall rest upon me. How looks thy beloved, O lovely bride, that thou sayest to me 'Take him and send him!' Is he beautiful, ruddy, and goodly to look on? That is my beloved and my friend! Rise and anoint him! [1482.jpg] -- from Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems, Translated by Bernard Lewis
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Rise and open the door that is shut
,#NFDB
544:Here is a great secret! He mentioned the "act" in giving the answer to the one who asked for a
definition of essence. He made the essential definition the source of the attribution to what
appeared of Him in the forms of the universe, or what appeared in Him of the forms of the
universe. In answer to, "What is the Lord of the worlds?" he said that He is the One in whom
the forms of the universe are manifest on high which is the heaven - and below - which is the
earth, "if you but have certainty," (18) or He who is manifest by them. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
545:Prorok zmarł w 632 roku według naszego szacunkowego kalendarza. Pierwsza relacja o jego życiu została spisana sto dwadzieścia lat później przez Ibn Ishaka, choć oryginał tej kroniki zaginął i pojawił się jako podstawa innej kroniki, autorstwa Ibn Hishama, który zmarł w 834 roku. Wiemy o tych pogłoskach i niejasnościach, należy jednak stwierdzić, że nie istnieje pewna relacja o tym, w jaki sposób wyznawcy Proroka skompilowali Koran czy też w jaki sposób różne jego wypowiedzi, „niektóre z nich zapisane ręką osobistych sekretarzy”, zostały skodyfikowane. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
546:The Prophet related that when Allah loves the voice of His slave when he makes supplication
to Him, He delays the answer to his supplication so that the slave will repeat the supplication.
This comes from His love for the slave, not because He has turned away from him. For that
reason, the Prophet mentioned the name of the Wise, and the Wise is the one who puts
everything in its proper place, and who does not turn away from the qualities which their
realities necessitate and demand; so the Wise is the One who knows the order of things. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
547:When I finally did confront Mr. Arcott, after my return to Falchester, he had the cheek to try and argue that his intellectual thievery had been a compliment and a favor. After all, it meant my work was good enough to be accepted into ibn Khattusi's series -- but of course they never would have taken a submission from a woman, so he submitted it on my behalf. What I said in reply is not fit to be printed here, as by then I had spent a good deal of time in the company of sailors, and had at my disposal a vocabulary not commonly available to ladies of quality. ~ Marie Brennan, #NFDB
548:The Quranic voice quickly came into play to counteract the shocking image of believers destroying date orchards: “Whatever you believers have done to their trees, whether cutting them down or uprooting them, was done by God’s leave, so that he might disgrace those who defied him.”4 This was the fault not of the believers but of men like ibn-Ubayy: “Consider the hypocrites who say to their fellows, the faithless among the People of the Book, ‘We would never listen to anyone who sought to harm you, and if you are attacked, we shall certainly come to your aid. ~ Lesley Hazleton, #NFDB
549:Thou art the supreme light, and the eyes of the pure soul shall see Thee, and clouds of sin shall hide Thee from the eyes of sinners. Thou art the light hidden in this world and revealed in the world of beauty, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Thou art the eternal light, and the inward eye yearns for Thee and is astonished -- she shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all. [1568.jpg] -- from The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences, by Joseph Dan
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Thou art the Supreme Light
,#NFDB
550:I one day saw, in the assembly of this prince, a man with a knife in his hand, which he placed upon his own neck; he then made a long speech, not a word of which I could understand; he then firmly grasped the knife, and its sharpness and the force with which he urged it were such, that he severed his head from his body, and it fell on the ground.14 I was wondering much at the circumstance, when the King said to me: Does any among you do such a thing as this? I answered, I never saw one do so. He smiled, and said: These our servants do so, out of their love to us. He ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
551:Abdullah Ibn Dinar relates, "Once I was walking with the Caliph Omar near Mecca when we met a shepherd's slave-boy driving his flock. Omar said to him, "Sell me a sheep." The boy answered, "They are not mine, but my master's." Then, to try him, Omar said, "Well, you can tell him that a wolf carried one off, and he will know nothing about it." "No, he won't," said the boy, "but God will." Omar then wept, and, sending for the boy's master, purchased him and set him free, exclaiming, "For this saying thou art free in this world and shalt be free in the next." There ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
552:When Allah undertakes the destruction of this organism by what is called "death", that is not
negation (i'dam) , but rather separation. He takes man to Him, and what is meant is only
Allah's taking man to Him, "and to Him the whole affair will be returned." (11:123) When He
takes him to Him, He fashions him a different composition than this composition. The new
composition is from the genus of the abode to which he has moved, that is, the Abode of
Going-on, because equilibrium exists. The creature thus will never die, i.e. his parts will
never be separated. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
553:Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. These people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying the books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and, even if one desired to do so, her family would not allow her to go. The women have their 'friends' and 'companions' amongst the men outside their own families. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
554:While the sun's eye rules my sight, love sits as sultan in my soul. His army has made camp in my heart -- passion and yearning, affliction and grief. When his camp took possession of me I cried out as the flame of desire burned in my entrails. Love stole my sleep, love has bewildered me, love kills me unjustly, and I am helpless, love has burdened me with more than I can bear so that I bequeath him a soul and no body. [1482.jpg] -- from Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems, Translated by Bernard Lewis
~ Ibn Arabi, While the suns eye rules my sight
,#NFDB
555:Çocuk terbiyesini anlatan ibn Miskeveyh, çocuğun yanında iyiyi övüp kötüyü yerip kınama üzerinde durur. Ona göre anne-baba, çocuğun yanında daima iyi ve hayır sahiplerini övmeli, kötü ve zararlı kimseleri ayıplamalı ve çocuğu bu kişilerden uzak tutmalıdır. Böyle yapmanın gerçek manasını da Kınalızade Ali’nin Ahlâk-ı Alâî’sindeki bir sözünden anlıyoruz. Aile Ahlakı bölümünde Kınalızade “Çocukların nefs-i emmareleri mevcuttur ve kötülüğe mani olacak akılları henüz olgunlaşmamıştır.” tespiti, bize hayata hazırlanan çocukların arkadaşlarıyla kurdukları dünyada dikkat edilecekleri hatırlatıyor. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
556:Therefore, since existence is from an intelligible movement which transported the universe
from non-existence to existence, the prayer encompasses all movements. There are three
movements: vertical, which is the state of standing in the prayer, the horizontal, which is the
state of bowing, and the downward movement, which is the state of prostration. The
movement of man is vertical, the movement of the animal is horizontal, and the movement of
plants in downward. The inanimate does not have a movement from its essence. If a rock
moves, it moves by other means than itself. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
557:Adam was in
possession of Divine Names which the angels did not have, so that their praise and
glorification of Him was not the same as Adam's praise and glorification of Him. Allah
describes this to us so that we may ponder it and learn adab with Allah, and so that we
will not lay claim to what we have not realised or possessed by pinning down. How can we
allege something which is beyond us and of which we have no knowledge? We will only be
exposed. This divine instruction is part of Allah's discipline of those of His slaves who are
well-mannered, trusting and khalifs. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
558:Ibn Khaldun, though a conservative in certain aspects of his belief, was nevertheless dismayed by the negative attitudes towards learning among the Muslims. He writes:
When the Muslims conquered Persia and came upon an indescribably large number of books and scientific papers, Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas wrote to Umar bin al-Khattab asking him for permission to take them and distribute them as booty among the Muslims. On that occasion, Umar wrote him: 'Throw them in the water. If what they contain is right guidance, God has given us better guidance. If it is error, God has protected us against it. ~ Pervez Hoodbhoy,#NFDB
559:Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) was keenly aware of the presence of God as a motive force in every human action and event. But for Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) God infused the moral sphere as well, and the felt weight of moral responsibility imposed by God's constant presence was too great to allow Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) to ignore the special burden of freedom imposed by the very fact that man is a moral agent. Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) was no more a fatalist than Ibn Tufayl, for Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) was no less a participant of that extraordinary transference of purpose that marks the life of the ecstatic radical monotheist. ~ Lenn Evan Goodman, #NFDB
560:When a man loves a woman, he desires union, that is, the goal of union which exists in love.
In the elemental form, there is no greater union than marriage. (10) By this appetite
encompasses all parts. For that reason, complete ritual washing is prescribed after
intercourse. Purification envelops him as annihilation in the woman was complete in the
obtainment of appetite. Allah is very jealous of His slave if He believes that he finds pleasure
in other than Him. So man purifies himself by ritual washing in order to return to Him in
whom he was annihilated, since that is all there is. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
561:Ibn al-Arabi gave this advice:
Do not attach yourself to any particular creed exclusively, so that you may disbelieve all the rest; otherwise you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to recognize the real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for he says, 'Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah' (Koran 2:109). Everyone praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently, he blames the disbelief of others, which he would not do if he were just, but his dislike is based on ignorance. ~ Karen Armstrong,#NFDB
562:If someone sits in my company three times without having need of me, I learn where he is placed in the world. Sa’id ibn al-’Ās said: – I owe my sitting-companion three things: on his approach I greet him; on his arrival I make him welcome; when he sits I make him comfortable. God (Exalted is He!) said: – Full of mercy one to another. (Qur’ān 48.29)15 These words point to compassion and generous treatment. Part of complete compassion is not to partake in solitude of delicious food, nor to enjoy alone an occasion of happiness; rather should the brother’s absence be distressing and the separation sad. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
563:But the importance of language in Islam went far beyond the production of a telling slogan. Eloquence, the sheer power of the word, as dictated by God and declaimed to all who would listen, played the first role in winning converts for Islam, leaving hearers no explanation for the beauty of Muhammad's words but divine inspiration. The classic example is 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, a contemporary of Muhammad and acknowledged authority on oral poetry, determined to oppose, perhaps even to assasinate, him. Exposed directly to the prophet's words, he could only cry out: 'How fine and noble this speech!' And he was converted. ~ Nicholas Ostler, #NFDB
564:If athletes include as part of their training the visualization of their sport and mentally picturing themselves going through all the steps required for success, how then can believers fail to visualize what is more important and consequential than sport? People of spiritual elevation prepare themselves psychologically for the ultimate journey. Although death is a sudden severance from this life, one remains conscious in a different way. In fact, the deceased is in a hyperconscious state that makes this life appear like a dream. ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib, may God be pleased with him, said, “People are asleep. When they die, they wake up. ~ Hamza Yusuf, #NFDB
565:Isa Ibn Maryam عليه السلام (Jesus, Son von Maria) pflegte zu sagen: "Seid nicht in einer Versammlung anwesend, in der nicht der Name Allahs erwähnt wird, denn dadurch werden eure Herzen zu Stein. Ein hartes Herz ist weit entfernt von Allah, ohne es zu wissen. Schaut nicht auf die falschen Taten der Menschen, als würdet ihr Herren sein. Schaut stattdessen auf eure eigenen Fehltritte, als würdet ihr Skalven sein. Manch einer wird von den falschen Taten heimgesucht, wobei ein anderer vor ihnen bewahrt wird. Hab Barmherzigkeit mit jenen, die von den falschen Taten heimgesucht werden, und zeige tiefe Dankbarkeit für Seinen (Allahs) Schutz. ~ Malik Ibn Anas, #NFDB
566:THE PROPHET (570-632) During the month of Ramadan in 610 C.E., an Arab business-man had an experience that changed the history of the world. Every year at this time, Muhammad ibn Abdallah used to retire to a cave on the summit of Mount Hira, just outside Mecca in the Arabian Hijaz, where he prayed, fasted and gave alms to the poor. He had long been worried by what he perceived to be a crisis in Arab society. In recent decades his tribe, the Quraysh, had become rich by trading in the surrounding countries. Mecca had become a thriving mercantile city, but in the aggressive stampede for wealth some of the old tribal values had been lost. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
567:Guidance is that man is guided to bewilderment (hayra). He knows that the business is
bewilderment. Bewilderment is being unsettled and movement. Movement is life. There is no
non-movement nor death. There is existence and not non-existence. It is the same with the
water which gives life to the earth. Its movement is His word, "so it quivers" and conceives,
"and swells" with pregnancy, "and sprouts plants in beautiful pairs." (7) It only gives birth to
what resembles it, i.e. has a nature like it. It has being linked in pairs (zawjiya) which is the
state of being doubled by what is born from it and what appears from it. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
568:ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb is associated with being particularly sensitive to justice and fairness. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān’s name is derived from the same Arabic root as ʿiffah, which according to al-Qāmūs of al-Fayrūzabādī, refers not only to moderation but also to one who is abstinent and chaste, a meaning that is fitting for ʿUthmān. The Prophet once said that even the angels were shy before ʿUthmān because of his modesty. In ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib, there is extraordinary wisdom or ḥikmah. It is true that these great heroes of Islamic civilization embodied in a particular way one of the four virtues, but they also kept a balance that enshrined the rest. ~ Hamza Yusuf, #NFDB
569:Come to me at dawn, my beloved, and go with me, for my soul thirsts to see the sons of my people. For thee I shall lay golden couches in my chamber I shall spread for thee a table, I shall make ready for thee my bread I shall fill for thee a bowl, from the clusters of my vineyard -- Drink to thy heart's delight, may my taste be pleasing to thee for with thee I shall rejoice, as the scion of my people the son of thy servant Jesse, the prince of Bethlehem. [1482.jpg] -- from Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems, Translated by Bernard Lewis
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Come to me at dawn, my beloved, and go with me
,#NFDB
570:The Spanish philosopher and physician Ibn Rushd (1126–98), better known as Averroës in the West, pushed al-Jabbar’s conception of truth to its limit by proposing a “two truths” theory of knowledge in which religion and philosophy are placed in opposition to each other. According to Ibn Rushd, religion simplifies the truth for the masses by resorting to easily recognizable signs and symbols, regardless of the doctrinal contradictions and rational incongruities that inevitably result from the formation and rigid interpretation of dogma. Philosophy, however, is itself truth; its purpose is merely to express reality through the faculty of human reason. ~ Reza Aslan, #NFDB
571:But she had loved her philosopher so strongly that she had made him believe that her body was aroused and ecstatic. Ibn Rushd had been fooled. Men were easily deceived in such matters because they wanted to believe they had the power to arouse. She wanted to make him believe he pleased her. But the truth was that she could give physical pleasure to a man but not receive it, she could only imagine what such pleasure might be like, she could watch and learn, and offer up to her lover the outward signs of it, while trying to fool herself, as well as him, that yes, she was being pleasured too, which made her an actress, a phony, and a self-deceiving fool. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
572: How utterly amazing is someone who flees from something he cannot escape to seek something that will not last! "It is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts in the breasts are blind." Do not travel from phenomenal being to phenomenal being. You will be like the donkey going around at the mill. It travels to what it set out from. Travel from phenomenal beings to the Maker of Being. "And the final end is to your Lord." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ utterly amazing is someone who flees from something he cannot escape
,#NFDB
573:Musa was only born being a synthesis of many spirits. He was a concentration of effective
forces since the young have an effect on the old. Do you not see how the child has an effect
on the older person by the special quality the child has? The older person descends from his
leading position to play with the child and rock him in his arms and to show himself at the
child's level of intellect he descends to the level of the child's intellect. He is under
subjugation even though he is not aware of it. He occupies himself with instructing and
protecting the child, seeing to his needs and consoling him so that the child is not distressed. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
574:So you intend to go through life never loving anyone? Just … things?”
“No. I’m looking for something more.”
“More than love?”
“Yes.”
“Is it not arrogant to think you deserve more, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid?”
“Is it so arrogant to want something that doesn’t change with the wind? That doesn’t crumble at the first sign of adversity?”
“You want something that doesn’t exist. A figment of your imagination.”
“No. I want someone who sees beneath the surface-someone who completes the balance. An equal.”
“And how will you know when you’ve found this elusive someone?” Shahrzad retorted.
“I suspect she will be like air. Like knowing how to breathe. ~ Ren e Ahdieh,#NFDB
575:Like the Khawarij, Wahhab declared all Muslims who disagreed with him to be unbelievers who could be lawfully killed as heretics and apostates. In 1744 Wahhab entered into an alliance with an Arab chieftain, Muhammad ibn Saud, and together they set out on jihad against those enemies, fighting against the Ottoman authorities, who Wahhab believed had lost all legitimacy by departing from the tenets of Islam. Not long after Wahhab’s death in 1792, the Wahhabis captured the Two Holy Places of Mecca and Medina and after that gradually expanded their domains until finally, in 1932, the Wahhabi sheikh ibn Saud captured Riyadh and established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ~ Robert Spencer, #NFDB
576:Quoi de plus pénible, de plus profondément misérable que la condition d'un homme tel que, si l'on passe en revue ses oeuvres depuis l'instant où il s'éveille jusqu'au moment où il se rendort, on n'en trouve pas une seule qui n'ait pour fin quelqu'une de ces choses sensibles et viles : accumulation de richesses, recherche d'un plaisir, satisfaction d'une passion, assouvissement d'une colère, acquisition d'un rang qui lui offre la sécurité, accomplissement d'un acte religieux dont il tire vanité oui qui protège sa tête ? Ce ne sont là ténèbres sur ténèbres au-dessus d'une mer profonde "et aucun de vous n'en réchappe ; c'est un arrêt prononcé, de la part de son Seigneur ~ Ibn Tufayl, #NFDB
577:You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran. You say: 'Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one.' Indeed, we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose is in better meter. … By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation. Then you say: 'Produce something like it'‽ ~ Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi, #NFDB
578:Their spring meadows
are desolate now. Still, desire
for them lives always
in our heart, never dying.
These are their ruins.
These are the tears
in memory of those
who melt the soul forever.
I called out, following after
love-dazed:
You so full with beauty,
I've nothing!
I rubbed my face in the dust,
laid low by the fever of love.
By the privilege of the right of desire for you
don't shatter the heart
Of a man drowned in his words,
burned alive
in sorrow.
Nothing can save him now.
You want a fire?
Take it easy. This passion
is incandescent. Touch it.
It will light your own.
~ Ibn Arabi, In Memory Of Those
,#NFDB
579:The Names of Allah are endless because they are known by what comes from them, and what comes from them is endless, even though they can be traced back to the limited roots which are the matrices of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but one of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but One Reality which assumes all these relations and aspects which are designated by the Divine Names. The Reality grants that each of the Names, which manifest themselves without end, has a reality by which it is distinguished from another Name. It is that reality by which it is distinguished which is the Name itself - not that which it shares. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
580:Peace, Salma, and peace
to those who halt awhile
at al-Hima. It is right
for one like me to greet you.
Would it have hurt her
to return the greeting?
Ah, but a statuette
goddess is beyond control.
They left as night
let its curtains down in folds.
I told them of a lover
strange and lost,
Surrounded by yearnings,
struck by their arrows
on target always,
wherever he goes.
She smiled, showing her side teeth.
Lightning flashed.
I couldn't tell which of the two
split the darkness.
Isn't it enough she said
I am in his heart
where each moment he sees me,
isn't it, no?
~ Ibn Arabi, At Night Lets Its Curtains Down In Folds
,#NFDB
581:The wind then became calmed in some degree: when, after sun-rise, we perceived that the mountain we had seen was in the air, and that we could see light between it and the sea. I was much astonished at this: but, seeing the sailors in the utmost perturbation, and bidding farewell to one another, I said, Pray what is the matter? They said, What we supposed to be a mountain, is really a Rokh,1 and if he sees us, we shall assuredly perish, there being now between us and him a distance of ten miles only. But God, in his goodness, gave us a good wind, and we steered our course in a direction from him, so that we saw no more of him; nor had we any knowledge of the particulars of his shape. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
582:When they searched for Musa (after he had killed the Copt), he left in flight, fearful
outwardly and in the meaning, it was love of deliverance for movement is always by love, but
the onlooker is veiled from it by other causes, which are not the movement. This is because
the root is the movement of the universe from non-existence which was immobile in
existence. That is why it is said that the matter is movement from immobility. The movement
which is the existence of the universe is the movement of love. The Messenger of Allah, may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, quoting Allah, "I was a hidden treasure, therefore I
wanted (lit. loved) to be known. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
583:La lecture répétée du Qorân peut très certainement “ouvrir” beaucoup de choses, mais, bien entendu, à la condition d’être faite dans le texte arabe et non pas dans des traductions. Remarquez d’ailleurs que, pour cela et aussi pour certains écrits ésotériques, il s’agit là de quelque chose qui n’a aucun rapport avec la connaissance extérieure et grammaticale de la langue ; on me citait encore l’autre jour le cas d’un Turc qui comprenait admirablement Mohyid-din [Ibn Arabi], alors que de sa vie il n’a été capable d’apprendre convenablement l’arabe même courant ; par contre, je connais des professeurs d’El-Azhar qui ne peuvent pas en comprendre une seule phrase !
Le Caire, 26 juin 1937. ~ Ren Gu non,#NFDB
584:15: The Seal of the Wisdom of Prophethood
in the Word of 'Isa (Jesus)
He was manifested from the water of Maryam
and the breath of Jibril in the form of man existing from clay.
The spirit was in an essence purified of nature
which it called prison.
For that reason, the spirit stayed in it
for more a thousand years in the designation of time. (1)
A spirit from Allah, no other.
For that reason, he revived the dead and formed the bird from clay.
Since his relation with his Lord is proven,
by it he has effective action in both the higher and lower worlds.
Allah purified his body, and made his spirit pure,
and He made him a model of taking-form. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
585:With my very own hands I laid my little daughter to rest
because she is of my very flesh,
Thus am I constrained to submit to the rule of parting,
so that my hand is now empty and contains nothing.
Bound to this moment we are in,
caught between the yesterday that has gone
and the tomorrow that is yet to come.
This flesh of mine is as pure silver,
while my inner reality is as pure gold.
Like a bow have I grown,
and my true posture is as my rib.
My Lord it is who says that He has created me
in a state of suffering and loss.
How then can I possibly hope for any rest,
dwelling as I do in such a place and state?
~ Ibn Arabi, I Laid My Little Daughter To Rest
,#NFDB
586:The Names of Allah are endless because they are known by what comes from them, and what
comes from them is endless, even though they can be traced back to the limited roots which are the matrices of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but one of the
Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but One Reality which assumes all
these relations and aspects which are designated by the Divine Names. The Reality grants
that each of the Names, which manifest themselves without end, has a reality by which it is
distinguished from another Name. It is that reality by which it is distinguished which is the
Name itself - not that which it shares. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
587:The wisdom of the killing of the male children in respect to Musa was in order to give him
the support of the life of each of those killed for his sake because each of them was killed for
being Musa. There is no ignorance, so the life of the one killed for his sake had to return to
Musa. It is pure life in the natural state (fitra). The desires of the self have not soiled it; rather,
it is in its natural state of "Yes (bala)." (1) Musa was the sum of the lives of those killed for
being him. All that was prepared for the murdered ones in the way of the predisposition of
their spirits was in Musa, peace be upon him. This is a divine favour to Musa which no one
before him had. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
588:It is absurd to think that the scientific views of a Muslim scientist are necessarily connected with his religious belief, or that he necessarily derives inspiration for his scientific work from faith. This was as true a thousand years ago as it is now. Alchemy provides an excellent example. Developed extensively by Jabir Ibn Hayyan and AI-Razi, and based on certain myths going back to Arius and Pythagoras, it was one of the most important Muslim contributions. Of course, today everyone knows that alchemy was scientific nonsense: there cannot be anything like the Philosopher's Stone, and the transformation of base metals like copper or tin into silver or gold by chemical means is an impossibility ~ Pervez Hoodbhoy, #NFDB
589:For two thousand years, the closer to Carthage (roughly the site of modern-day Tunis) the greater the level of development. Because urbanization in Tunisia started two millennia ago, tribal identity based on nomadism—which the medieval historian Ibn Khaldun said disrupted political stability—is correspondingly weak. Indeed, after the Roman general Scipio defeated Hannibal in 202 B.C. outside Tunis, he dug a demarcation ditch, or fossa regia, that marked the extent of civilized territory. The fossa regia remains relevant to the current Middle East crisis. Still visible in places, it runs from Tabarka on Tunisia’s northwestern coast southward, and turns directly eastward to Sfax, another Mediterranean port. The ~ Robert D Kaplan, #NFDB
590:Peace, Salma, and peace to those who halt awhile at al-Hima. It is right for one like me to greet you. Would it have hurt her to return the greeting? Ah, but a statuette goddess is beyond control. They left as night let its curtains down in folds. I told them of a lover strange and lost, Surrounded by yearnings, struck by their arrows on target always, wherever he goes. She smiled, showing her side teeth. Lightning flashed. I couldn't tell which of the two split the darkness. Isn't it enough she said I am in his heart where each moment he sees me, isn't it, no? [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells
~ Ibn Arabi, As Night Let its Curtains Down in Folds
,#NFDB
591:His strategy for survival was a kind of spiritual withdrawal, similar to what his hero,
Hayy Ibn Yaqzān, chooses once he understands the limitations of ordinary society.
Ibn Tufayl’s choice was not heroic. In a way, it was escapist. But a more outspoken
philosopher might never have lived to write a book at all. Ibn Tufayl’s modus viven-
di was neither isolation nor self-immolation, but accommodation. He could not
take many others with him, but he did not travel entirely alone, and the book he left
behind was his invitation to others, including many whom he never met, to join
him on the flights that took him beyond the realm Plotinus so tellingly had called
“this blood-drenched life. ~ Lenn Evan Goodman,#NFDB
592:When trouble arose between 'All and Mu'awiyah as a necessary consequence of group feeling, they were guided in (their dissensions) by the truth and by independent judgment. They did not fight for any worldly purpose or over preferences of no value, or for reasons of personal enmity. This might be suspected, and heretics might like to think so. However, what caused their difference was their independent judgment as to where the truth lay. It was on this matter that each side opposed the point of view of the other. It was for this that they fought. Even though 'Ali was in the right, Mu'awiyah's intentions were not bad ones. He wanted the truth, but he missed (it). Each was right in so far as his intentions were concerned. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
593:In the Middle Ages, the Elements was translated into Arabic three times. The first of these translations was carried out by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar, at the request of Caliph Harun ar-Rashid (ruled 786 - 809), who is familiar to us through the stories in The Arabian Nights. The Elements was first made known in Western Europe through Latin translations of Arabic versions. English Benedictine monk Adelard of Bath (ca. 1070 - 1145), who according to some stories was traveling in Spain disguised as a Muslim student, got hold of an Arabic text and completed the translation into Latin around 1120. This translation became the basis of all editions in Europe until the sixteenth century. Translations into modern languages followed. ~ Mario Livio, #NFDB
594:Men sometimes come and question me
How many years my age may be,
Seeing my temples silver now
And flecks of snow upon my brow.
This is the answer that I give
"When I count up the life I live
Applying all my reason's power,
I make the total just one hour."
"And how", my questioner replies
In accents of amazed surprise,
"Mak'st thou this sum, which seems to me
Beyond all credibility?"
"One day", I answer," she I love
All other earthly things above
Lay in my arms, and like a thought
Her lips with mine I swiftly sought.
"And though the years before I die
Stretch out interminably, I
Shall only count my life in truth
As that brief hour of happy youth." - ~ Ibn Hazm Al Andalusi,#NFDB
595:Their spring meadows are desolate now. Still, desire for them lives always in our heart, never dying. These are their ruins. These are the tears in memory of those who melt the soul forever. I called out, following after love-dazed: You so full with beauty, I've nothing! I rubbed my face in the dust, laid low by the fever of love. By the privilege of the right of desire for you don't shatter the heart Of a man drowned in his words, burned alive in sorrow. Nothing can save him now. You want a fire? Take it easy. This passion is incandescent. Touch it. It will light your own. [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells
~ Ibn Arabi, In Memory of Those Who Melt the Soul Forever
,#NFDB
596:A feeling of discouragement when you slip up is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds. Your desire to withdraw from everything when Allah has involved you in the world of means is a hidden appetite. Your desire for involvement with the world of means when Allah has withdrawn you from it is a fall from high aspiration. Aspiration which rushes on ahead cannot break through the walls of destiny. Give yourself a rest from managing! When Someone Else is doing it for you, don't you start doing it for yourself! [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ Ibn Ata Illah, A feeling of discouragement when you slip up
,#NFDB
597:Before I was, Thy mercy came to me, inverting void and being Thou madest me to be. Who wrought my image, poured my essence into the crucible and gave me shape? Who breathed a soul into me opened the belly of Sheol and took me out? Who led me from childhood until here? Who taught me to understand, caused me to marvel? Indeed I am clay in Thy hand. Thou didst make me, in truth, not I myself. I shall confess my sins, and not say to Thee "The serpent deceived me and led me astray." How can I hide my guilt from Thee? For indeed before I was, Thy mercy came to me. [1482.jpg] -- from Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems, Translated by Bernard Lewis
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Before I was, Thy mercy came to me
,#NFDB
598:Ibn Mas'ud said, "When 'Umar died nine-tenth of all knowledge vanished with him." The people were shocked and said, "How can this be when among us now are still many of the great companions?" Ibn Mas'ud replied,"I am not speaking of the knowledge of fiqh and the science of judgements, I'm speaking about the knowledge of Allah." This struggle of isolation, hunger, sleeplessness, weeping, fear and endless service to men was for this end. The journey is only for knowledge of Allah and the whole of it lies in detachment from everything that passes away. First from what is displeasing to Allah, then from one's self-illusion and desires, and then from all men and all otherness until there is only isolation and extreme nearness to Allah. ~ Khalid Muhammad Khalid, #NFDB
599:He spoke about cognition.”
“Is that all you know? Don’t you remember anything?”
“I remember the verses he interpreted.”
“Whose verses?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me hear.”
“Ahriman knows not
The secret of God’s unity.
Ask Asaf, he knows.
Can a sparrow swallow the mouthful of the Anka-bird?
‘Can a single jug take in
The waters of a great sea?’”
“Those are the verses of Ibn Arabi.They say that the perception of God’s wisdom is possible only for the chosen, only for a few.”
“And what remains for us?”
“To comprehend what we can. If a sparrow cannot swallow the mouthful of the Anka-bird, it will still eat as much as it can. You cannot scoop up the whole sea with a jug, but whatever you scoop up is also the sea. ~ Me a Selimovi,#NFDB
600:The pseudonymous apostate Ibn Warraq makes an important distinction: there are moderate Muslims, but no moderate Islam. Millions of Muslims just want to get on with their lives, and there are--or were--remote corners of the world where, far from Mecca, Muslim practices reached accommodation with local customs. But all of the official schools of Islamic jurisprudence commend sharia and violent jihad. So a "moderate Muslim" can find no formal authority to support his moderation. And to be a "moderate Muslim" publicly means standing up to the leaders of your community, to men like Shaker Elsayed, leader of the Dar al Hijrah, one of America's largest mosques, who has told his core-ligionists in blunt terms: "The call to reform Islam is an alien call. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
601:In place of the confinement of the infinitesimal, beneath the weight of the Infinite is found the limitlessness or a humanly bearable share in the limitlessness which is the freedom of God. For Ibn Tufayl, at least, this was the meaning of Islam: the progressive assimilation of self to God (so far as lies in human power). This entails acceptance of the divine will, but not as something alien. The transmuting of selfish purpose to the will of God need not imply a surrender of will because the assimilation of self to God does not imply a surrender of self. On the contrary, as Plato and Ibn Tufayl are agreed, this assimilation is the meaning of man's fulfillment qua man, the substance of Plato's answer to the cryptic challenge of the oracle, "Know thyself! ~ Lenn Evan Goodman, #NFDB
602:We are the heirs and propagators of Paganism. Happy is he who for the sake of Paganism bears the burden of persecution with firm hope. Who else have civilised the world and built cities if not the nobles and kings of Paganism? Who else have set in order the harbours and the rivers? And who else have taught the hidden wisdom? To whom else has the Deity revealed itself, given oracles, and told about the future, if not the famous men amongst the Pagans? The Pagans have made known all of this. They have discovered the art of healing the body, they have also made known the art of healing the soul; they have filled the earth with settled forms of government and with wisdom which is the highest good. Without Paganism the world would be empty and miserable. Thabbit Ibn Qurra ~ Tim Freke, #NFDB
603:It is ignorance if, when Allah afflicts someone by what gives him pain, he does not call on Allah to remove that painful matter from him. The one who has realization must supplicate and ask Allah to remove that from him. For that gnostic who possesses unveiling, that removal comes from the presence of Allah. Allah describes Himself as "hurt", so He said, "those who hurt Allah and His Messenger." (33:57) What hurt is greater than that Allah test you with affliction in your heedlessness of Him or a divine station which you do not know so that you return to Him with your complaint so that He can remove it from you?
Thus the need which is your reality will be proven. The hurt is removed from Allah by your asking Him to repel it from you, since you are His manifest form. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
604:The possible or impossible for Allah Most High involves the divine attribute of qudra or omnipotence, “what He can do”. This attribute in turn relates exclusively to the intrinsically possible, not to what is intrinsically impossible, as Allah says, “Verily Allah has power over every thing” (Qur’an 20:29), “thing” being something that in principle can exist. For example, if one asks “Can Allah create square circle?” the answer is that His omnipotence does not relate to it, for a square circle does not refer to anything that in principle could exist: the speaker does not have a distinct idea of what he means, but is merely using a jumble of words.
"On the validity of all religions in the thought of ibn Al-‘Arabi and Emir ‘Abd al-Qadir: a letter to `Abd al-Matin ~ Nuh Ha Mim Keller,#NFDB
605:The texts of agreements made by the Prophet (saas) and those who succeeded him with various Christian, Jewish and other religious groups are today conserved as important documents. In the text of an agreement he had prepared for the Christian Ibn Harris bin Ka'b and his co-religionists, for instance, the Prophet (saas) first had the following words written: "The religion, churches, lives, chastity and goods of all Christians living in the East are under the protection of Allah and all believers. None of those living by Christianity will be forced to turn to Islam. If any Christian is subjected to any killing or injustice, Muslims must help him"65 and then read this verse from the Qur'an: "Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way …" (Surat al-'Ankabut: 46) ~ Harun Yahya, #NFDB
606:Lord of the world, He reigned alone While yet the universe was naught. When by His will all things were wrought. Then first his sovran Name was known. And when the All shall cease to be, In dread lone splendour He shall reign, He was, He is, He shall remain In glorious eternity. For He is one, no second shares His nature or His loneliness; Unending and beginningless, All strength is His, all sway He bears. He is the living God to save, My Rock while sorrow's toils endure, My banner and my stronghold sure, The cup of life whene'er I crave. I place my soul within His palm Before I sleep as when I wake, And though my body I forsake, Rest in the Lord in fearless calm. [1835.jpg] -- from The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, Edited by T. Carmi
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Lord of the World
,#NFDB
607:During his travels in the Malian empire, Ibn Battuta wrote about his observations of the people, their ruler, their customs and beliefs. He gave one of the highest compliments to a nation of people about justice: Of all peoples the Negroes are those who most abhor injustice. The Sultan pardons no one who is guilty of it. There is complete and general safety throughout the land. The traveler here has no more reason than the man who stays at home to fear brigands, thieves or ravishers … The blacks do not confiscate the goods of any North Africans who may die in their country, not even when these consist of large treasures. On the contrary, they deposit these goods with a man of confidence … until those who have a right to the goods present themselves and take possession. ~ Patricia C McKissack, #NFDB
608:Similarly, the existence of Allah has multiplicity and the many Names. It is this or that according to what appears from it of the universe which demands the realities of the Divine Names by its development. They are doubled by it and stand in opposition to the unity of multiplicity. It is one by source in respect to its essence, as the primal substance (hayûla) is a single source in respect to its essence, while it has many forms which it supports by its essence. It is the same with Allah through the forms of tajalli which are manifested from Him. So the locii of the tajalli are the forms of the universe, in spite of the intelligible unity (ahadiyya). Look at the excellence of this divine instruction which Allah gives by granting its recognition to whoever He wishes among His slaves. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
609:to bid each other adieu
You would have thought that we were
Like a double letter
At the moment of union and embrace.
Even if we are made up
Of a double nature,
Our glances see only
One unified being...
I am absent and therefore desire
Causes my soul to pass away.
Meeting does not cure me
Because it persists both in absence
and in presence.
Meeting her produced in me
That which I had not imagined at all.
Healing is a new ill,
Which comes of ecstasy...
Because as for me, I see a being
Whose beauty increases,
Brilliant and superb
At every one of our meetings.
One does not escape in ecstasy
That exists in kinship
With beauty that continues to intensify
To the point of perfect harmony.
~ Ibn Arabi, When We Came Together
,#NFDB
610:The Khazars provided an emporium for the northern goods that the Swedes brought, but more importantly, they gave the Rus access to the far more lucrative markets of the Muslim world where the Rus could sell their slaves. The bulk of these unfortunates were acquired by the Rus from the Slavic populations of present day Russia, and were destined for the markets of Baghdad. The scale of this slave trade – and its profitability – can be glimpsed by the amount of silver that made its way back to Sweden. More than ten thousand Islamic silver coins have been found in various hoards, surely only a fraction of what was acquired. The Arab geographer Ibn Rustah claimed that slaves were virtually the only thing the Rus cared to import. "They sail their ships", he wrote, "to ravage the Slavs... ~ Lars Brownworth, #NFDB
611:As for the wisdom of tajalli and the discourse on the form of the fire, this was because it was
the object of Musa's desire. Allah gave him a tajalli in what he was searching for so that
Musa would turn to Him and not turn away. If Allah had given the tajalli in other than the
form which he was seeking, Musa would have turned away because his interest was
concentrated on a particular goal. If he had turned away, his action would have rebounded on
him, and Allah would have turned away from him. Musa was the chosen one and the one
brought near. When Allah brings someone near to Him, He gives him a tajalli in the object he
desires, without him knowing it.
Like the Fire of Musa
which he saw as what he needed.
It was Allah,
but he did not perceive it. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
612:Dream and Reality
so called 'reality', the sensible world which surrounds us and which we are accustomed to regard as 'reality', is, for Ibn 'Arabi, but a dream. we perceive by the senses a large number of things, distinguish them one from another, put them in order by our reason, and thus end up by establishing something solid around us. we call that construct 'reality' and do not doubt that it is real.
According to Ibn 'Arabi, however, that kind of 'reality' is not reality in the true sense of the word. in other terms, such a thing is not Being (wujud) as it really is. living as we do in this phenomenal world, Being in its metaphysical reality is no less imperceptible to us than phenomenal things are in their phenomenal reality to a man who is asleep and dreaming of them ~ Toshihiko Izutsu,#NFDB
613:tons. Marco Polo, who sailed from China to Persia on his return home, described the Mongol ships as large four-masted junks with up to three hundred crewmen and as many as sixty cabins for merchants carrying various wares. According to Ibn Battuta, some of the ships even carried plants growing in wooden tubs in order to supply fresh food for the sailors. Khubilai Khan promoted the building of ever larger seagoing junks to carry heavy loads of cargo and ports to handle them. They improved the use of the compass in navigation and learned to produce more accurate nautical charts. The route from the port of Zaytun in southern China to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf became the main sea link between the Far East and the Middle East, and was used by both Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, among others. ~ Jack Weatherford, #NFDB
614:We subjected the mountains to glorify with him in the evening and sunrise, and also the
birds, flocking together, all of them turned to him." Then Allah combined the kingdom and
speech and prophethood in Da'ud when He says, "We made his kingdom strong, and gave
him wisdom and decisive speech." (1) Allah clearly and openly appointed Da'ud Khalif. This
was Da'ud, peace be upon him. His freedom of action in the kingdom with this subjection
was by a mighty command which was not completed in him alone. Allah also gave it to
Sulayman who shared in it as He says, "And We gave knowledge to Da'ud and Sulayman
who said, 'Praise be to Allah who has favoured us.'" (27:15) He says, "We gave Sulayman
understanding of it. We gave each of them judgement and knowledge."(21:79) ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
615:I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
616:The fifth stage is one of waste and squandering. In this stage, the ruler wastes on pleasures and amusements the treasures accumulated by his ancestors, through excessive generosity to his inner circle. Also, he acquires bad low-class followers to whom he entrusts the most important matters of state, which they are not qualified to handle by themselves, not knowing which of them they should tackle and which they should leave alone. The ruler seeks to destroy the great clients of his people and followers of his predecessors. (...)Thus, he ruins the foundations his ancestors had laid and tears down what they had built up. In this stage, the dynasty is seized by senility and the chronic disease from which it can hardly ever rid itself, for which it can find no cure, and eventually it is destroyed. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
617:It is ignorance if, when Allah afflicts someone by what gives him pain, he does not call
on Allah to remove that painful matter from him. The one who has realization must
supplicate and ask Allah to remove that from him. For that gnostic who possesses unveiling,
that removal comes from the presence of Allah. Allah describes Himself as "hurt", so He
said, "those who hurt Allah and His Messenger." (33:57) What hurt is greater than that Allah
test you with affliction in your heedlessness of Him or a divine station which you do not
know so that you return to Him with your complaint so that He can remove it from you?
Thus the need which is your reality will be proven. The hurt is removed from Allah by your
asking Him to repel it from you, since you are His manifest form. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
618:Thou art One, the beginning of all computation, the base of all construction. Thou art One, and in the mystery of Thy Oneness the wise of heart are astonished, for they know not what it is. Thou art One, and Thy Oneness neither diminishes nor increases, neither lacks nor exceeds. Thou art One, but not as the One that is counted or owned, for number and change cannot reach Thee, nor attribute, nor form. Thou art One, but my mind is too feeble to set Thee a law or a limit, and therefore I say: "I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue." Thou art One, and Thou art exalted high above abasement and falling -- not like a man, who falls when he is alone. [1568.jpg] -- from The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences, by Joseph Dan
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Thou art One
,#NFDB
619:La raison qui m’a conduit à proférer de la poésie (shi‘r) est que j’ai vu en songe un ange qui m’apportait un morceau de lumière blanche ; on eût dit qu’il provenait du soleil. « Qu’est-ce que cela ? », Demandai-je. « C’est la sourate al-shu‘arâ (Les Poètes) » me fut-il répondu. Je l’avalai et je sentis un cheveu (sha‘ra) qui remontait de ma poitrine à ma gorge, puis à ma bouche. C’était un animal avec une tête, une langue, des yeux et des lèvres. Il s’étendit jusqu’à ce que sa tête atteigne les deux horizons, celui d’Orient et celui d’Occident. Puis il se contracta et revint dans ma poitrine ; je sus alors que ma parole atteindrait l’Orient et l’Occident. Quand je revins à moi, je déclamai des vers qui ne procédaient d’aucune réflexion ni d’aucune intellection. Depuis lors cette inspiration n’a jamais cessé. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
620:Pour Ibn Arabî, il n’est pas question de «devenir un » avec Dieu : le contemplatif « prend conscience » de ce qu’il «estun» avec Lui; il «réalise» l’unité réelle. Dans le Christianisme, la « déification »,complément nécessaire de l’ « incarnation », n’implique aucune « identification» sur un même plan de réalité; que l’homme comme tel « devienne » littéralement Dieu, cela impliquerait qu’il y ait entre Dieu et l’homme une commune mesure et une confrontation symétrique; c’est sans doute cette réserve qu’a en vue Shankara quand il affirme que le délivré (mukta) n’a pas le pouvoir créateur de Brahma. Quoi qu’il en soit, l’expression « devenir Dieu » n’a pas à
être rejetée, pas plus que la formule d’ « identité » d’un Shankara, car elles
gardent toute leur valeur d’indication antinomique et elliptique. ~ Frithjof Schuon,#NFDB
621:Allah only applied "between His two hands" to Adam as a mark of honour, and so He said to
Iblis, "What prevented you prostrating to what I created with My two Hands?" (38:76) That is
none other than the union in Adam of the two forms - the form of the universe and the form
of the Real: and they are the two hands of Allah. Iblis is only a fragment of the universe
and does not possess this comprehensive quality. It is because of this quality that Adam was a
khalif. Had he not had the form of the One who appointed him khalif, he would not have been
khalif. If there were not in him all that is in the world, and what his flocks, over whom he is
khalif, demand of him because of their dependence on him (and he must undertake all they
need from him) he would not have been khalîf over them. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
622:Similarly, the existence of Allah has multiplicity and the many Names. It is this or that
according to what appears from it of the universe which demands the realities of the Divine
Names by its development. They are doubled by it and stand in opposition to the unity of
multiplicity. It is one by source in respect to its essence, as the primal substance (hayûla) is a
single source in respect to its essence, while it has many forms which it supports by its
essence. It is the same with Allah through the forms of tajalli which are manifested from
Him. So the locii of the tajalli are the forms of the universe, in spite of the intelligible unity
(ahadiyya). Look at the excellence of this divine instruction which Allah gives by granting its
recognition to whoever He wishes among His slaves. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
623:There's one other thing I'd like to remind you of, my dear. There've been many times when you've sworn to me that after all that life has dealt you, it was no longer possible for you to believe in anything. I replied that both life and my studies had led me to the same conclusion. I asked you, 'What is a person permitted, once he's realized that truth is unattainable and consequently doesn't exist for him?' Do you remember your answer?"
"I do, ibn Sabbah. I said something like this: 'If a person realized that everything people call happiness, love and joy was just a miscalculation based on a false premise, he'd feel a horrible emptiness inside. The only thing that could rouse him from his paralysis would be to gamble with his own face and the face of others. The person capable of that would be permitted anything. ~ Vladimir Bartol,#NFDB
624:When we came together to bid each other adieu You would have thought that we were Like a double letter At the moment of union and embrace. Even if we are made up Of a double nature, Our glances see only One unified being... I am absent and therefore desire Causes my soul to pass away. Meeting does not cure me Because it persists both in absence and in presence. Meeting her produced in me That which I had not imagined at all. Healing is a new ill, Which comes of ecstasy... Because as for me, I see a being Whose beauty increases, Brilliant and superb At every one of our meetings. One does not escape in ecstasy That exists in kinship With beauty that continues to intensify To the point of perfect harmony. [1564.jpg] -- from Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks) , by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
~ Ibn Arabi, When we came together
,#NFDB
625:Ibn Rushd caressing her body had often praised its beauty to the point at which she grew irritated and said, You do not think my thoughts worth praising, then. He replied that the mind and body were one, the mind was the form of the human body, and as such was responsible for all the actions of the body, one of which was thought. To praise the body was to praise the mind that ruled it. Aristotle had said this and he agreed, and because of this it was hard for him, he whispered blasphemously in her ear, to believe that consciousness survived the body, for the mind was of the body and had no meaning without it. She did not want to argue with Aristotle and said nothing. Plato was different, he conceded. Plato thought the mind was trapped in the body like a bird and only when it could shed that cage would it soar and be free. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
626:I wonder at the house He has built and shaped,
placing therein a noble spirit, putting it to the trial.
He destroyed it utterly, as if He had not built it.
Who can put it together for me, who can make it last?
He knew full well what He had set up -
Would that I knew what He knew!
Why did He not from the first build that house
as a lasting structure whose life does not disappear?
It did nothing to make it deserve ruin,
so why did He raise it up, and why did He lay it waste?
The hand of trial toyed with us and it
and after a time restored it and raised it high.
Returned to the house, the spirit mounted upon its throne
as a king, making its inhabitants immortal,
Blessing it with an Eden and an everlasting Garden,
causing it to dwell in paradise and shelter.
~ Ibn Arabi, The Hand Of Trial
,#NFDB
627:Dynasty and government serve as the world's market place, attracting to it the products of scholarship and craftsmanship alike. Wayward wisdom and forgotten lore turn up there. In this market stories are told and items of historical information are delivered. Whatever is in demand on this market is in general demand everywhere else. Now, whenever the established dynasty avoids injustice, prejudice, weakness, and double-dealing, with determination keeping to the right path and never swerving from it, the wares on its market are as pure silver and fine gold. However, when it is influenced by selfish interests and rivalries, or swayed by vendors of tyranny and dishonesty, the wares of its market place become as dross and debased metals. The intelligent critic must judge for himself as he looks around, examining this, admiring that, and choosing this. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
628:Muslims pursued knowledge to the edges of the earth. Al-Biruni, the central Asian polymath, is arguably the world's first anthropologist. The great linguists of Iraq and Persia laid the foundations a thousand years ago for subjects only now coming to the forefront in language studies. Ibn Khaldun, who is considered the first true scientific historian, argued hundreds of years ago that history should be based upon facts and not myths or superstitions. The great psychologists of Islam known as the Sufis wrote treatise after treatise that rival the most advanced texts today on human psychology. The great ethicists and exegetes of Islam's past left tomes that fill countless shelves in the great libraries of the world, and many more of their texts remain in manuscript form.
In the foreword of "Being Muslim. A Practical Guide" by Dr. Asad Tarsin. ~ Hamza Yusuf,#NFDB
629:Satu kekuatan kursus tamadun Islam di IPT Barat - jika kita ketepikan sikap prejudis dan perkiraan strategiknya - ialah kesungguhan ilmiahnya.... Setiap pelajar diwajibkan membaca keseluruhan terjemahan al-Qur'an, berpuluh-puluh hadits pilihan daripada pelbagai kitab-kitab hadits, terjemahan sirah Ibn Ishaq, serta terjemahan karya-karya agung Islam yang lain. Setiap pelajar diwajibkan membaca hampir 50 mukasurat setiap hari dan diwajibkan menulis kertas kerja serta ujian yang meletihkan. Kita juga diberikan peta dunia lama yang kosong di mana pelajar diwajibkan menanda nama bandar, sungai, laut, teluk, gunung, dan daerah, negara yang kini sudah tiada lagi atau sudah berubah nama!!! Ini perlu kerana apabila pelajar membaca karya-karya terdahulu, mereka boleh memastikan tempat dan kawasan yang dimaksudkan itu dengan tepat dan lebih bermakna. ~ Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, #NFDB
630:Being eclectic in terms of his theology, Fat listed a number of saviors: the Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus and Abu Al-Qasim Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Abd Al-Muttalib Ibn Hashim (i.e., Muhammad). Sometimes he also listed Mani. Therefore, the next Savior would be number five, by the abridged list, or number six by the longer list. At certain times, Fat also included Asklepios, which, when added to the longer list, would make the next Savior number seven. In any case, this forthcoming savior would be the last; he would sit as king and judge over all nations and people. The sifting bridge of Zoroastrianism had been set up, by means of which good souls (those of light) became separated from bad souls (those of darkness). Ma'at had put her feather in the balance to be weighed against the heart of each man in judgment, as Osiris the Judge sat. It was a busy time. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
631:Then the matter is as we have confirmed. So know that you are imagination and that which you perceive and of which you say, "It is not me" is also imagination. All of existence is imagination within imagination. True existence is Allah, the Real, in particular in respect to essence and source, not in respect to His Names, because the Names have two meanings. One meaning is His source which is the same as the "Named", and the other meaning is what it indicates and that by which the Name is separate from this other Name, and so distinct. The Ever-Forgiving is separate from the Manifest and the Hidden, and the First is distinct from the Last. Thus it is clear to you that each Name is the same as the other Name, and yet it is not the other Name. Inasmuch as the Name is the same, it is the Real, and inasmuch as it is not it, it is the imaginary Real which we discussed. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
632:He saw the lightning in the east and longed for the east,
but if it had flashed in the west
he would have longed for the west.
My desire is for the lightning and its gleam,
not for the places and the earth.
The east wind related to me from them
a tradition handed down successively,
from distracted thoughts,
from my passion,
from anguish,
from my tribulation,
From rapture,
from my reason,
from yearning,
from ardour,
from tears,
from my eyelid,
from fire,
from my heart,
That 'He whom you love is between your ribs;
the breaths toss him from side to side.'
I said to the east wind, 'Bring a message to him
and say that he is the enkindler of the fire within my heart
If it shall be quenched, then everlasting union,
and if it shall burn, then no blame to the lover! '
~ Ibn Arabi, He Saw The Lightning In The East
,#NFDB
633:When she kills with her glances,
her speech restores to life, as tho she,
in giving life thereby, were Jesus.
The smooth surface of her legs is (like) the Tora in brightness,
and I follow it and tread in its footsteps as tho' I were Moses.
She is a bishopess, one of the daughters of Rome,
unadorned: thou seest in her a radiant Goodness.
Wild is she, none can make her his friend;
she has gotten in her solitary chamber
a mausoleum for remembrance.
She has baffled everyone who is learned in our religion,
every student of the Psalms of David,
every Jewish doctor, and every Christian priest.
If with a gesture she demands the Gospel,
thou wouldst deem us to be priests
and patriarchs and deacons.
The day when they departed on the road,
I prepared for war the armies of my patience, host after host.
~ Ibn Arabi, Wild Is She, None Can Make Her His Friend
,#NFDB
634:Then the matter is as we have confirmed. So know that you are imagination and that which
you perceive and of which you say, "It is not me" is also imagination. All of existence is
imagination within imagination. True existence is Allah, the Real, in particular in respect to
essence and source, not in respect to His Names, because the Names have two meanings. One
meaning is His source which is the same as the "Named", and the other meaning is what it
indicates and that by which the Name is separate from this other Name, and so distinct. The
Ever-Forgiving is separate from the Manifest and the Hidden, and the First is distinct from
the Last. Thus it is clear to you that each Name is the same as the other Name, and yet it is
not the other Name. Inasmuch as the Name is the same, it is the Real, and inasmuch as it is
not it, it is the imaginary Real which we discussed. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
635:When Allah gives something to someone, and He gives it to him by a request which arises
from a divine command, He does not take him to account for it in the Next Abode. When
Allah gives something to someone, and He gives it by a request which is not by a divine
command, the business in it is up to Allah. If He wishes, He will take him to account for it,
and if He wishes, He will not take him to account for it. I hope for knowledge from Allah in
particular for which He will not call one to account, for He commanded the Prophet, may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, to seek increase of knowledge, and it is the same
command which is addressed to the Prophet¹s community. Allah said, "You have an excellent
model in the Messenger of Allah," (33:21) and what greater model is there than this model
who is a source of solace (20) to the one who possesses understanding from Allah? ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
636:According to Ibn ‘Abbās, may God be pleased with him and his father, the Prophet David, God bless him and give him peace, used to say in his intimate Prayers: ‘My God, who inhabits Your House? And from whom do you accept the Prayer?’ Then God told him by inspiration: ‘David, he who inhabits My House, and he whose Prayer I accept, is none but he who is humble before My Majesty, spends his days in remembrance of Me and keeps his passions in check for My sake, giving food to the hungry and shelter to the stranger and treating the afflicted with compassion. His light shines in the sky like the sun. If he invokes Me, I am at his service. If he asks of Me, I grant his request. In the midst of ignorance, I give him discernment; in heedlessness, remembrance, in darkness, light. He stands out among ordinary people as Paradise towers over earthly gardens, its rivers inexhaustible and its fruits not subject to decay. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
637:As for the knowledge of Sulayman, Allah said of him, "We gave Sulayman understanding of
it (in spite of his opposite judgement to that of Da'ud), and Allah "gave each of them
judgement and knowledge." (21:79) Da'ud's knowledge was knowledge given by Allah, and
Sulayman's knowledge was the knowledge of Allah in the matter inasmuch as He is the Judge
without intermediary. So Sulayman is the interpreter of Allah in the seat of sincerity.(12) It is
like the man who is striving to hit on the judgement of Allah by which Allah would judge the
question. If he were to find it by himself or by what was revealed to His Messenger, then he
would have two rewards. The one who errs in this particular judgement has one reward as
well as its being knowledge and judgement. The community of Muhammad was given the
rank of Sulayman in judgement (13) and the rank of Da'ud in wisdom, (14) so there is no
better community than it. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
638:Listen, O dearly beloved!
I am the reality of the world,
the centre of the circumference,
I am the parts and the whole.
I am the will established
between Heaven and Earth,
I have created perception in you
only in order to be the
object of my perception.
If then you perceive me,
you perceive yourself.
But you cannot perceive me
through yourself,
It is through my eyes
that you see me and see yourself,
Through your eyes you cannot see me.
Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often
and you have not heard me
I have shown myself to you so often
and you have not
seen me.
I have made myself fragrance so often,
and you have not smelled me.
Savorous food,
and you have not tasted me.
Why can you not reach me
through the object you touch
Or breathe me through sweet perfumes?
Why do you not see me?
Why do you not hear me?
Why? Why? Why?
~ Ibn Arabi, Listen, O Dearly Beloved
,#NFDB
639:From my insufficiency to my perfection, and from my deviation to my equilibrium
From my sublimity to my beauty, and from my splendor to my majesty
From my scattering to my gathering, and from my rejection to my communion
From my baseness to my preciousness, and from my stones to my pearls
From my rising to my setting, and from my days to my nights
From my luminosity to my darkness, and from my guidance to my straying
From my perigee to my apogee, and from the base of my lance to its tip
From my waxing to my waning, and from the void of my moon to its crescent
From my pursuit to my flight, and from my steed to my gazelle
From my breeze to my boughs, and from my boughs to my shade
From my shade to my delight, and from my delight to my torment
From my torment to my likeness, and from my likeness to my impossibility
From my impossibility to my validity, and from my validity to my deficiency.
I am no one in existence but myself, ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
640:Knowledge is perfected in the breasts of those who are given knowledge, "and
none denies Our signs but the unbelievers," (29:47) for they cover up the signs when they
recognise them through envy, meanness and injustice. We only see from Allah in respect of
Himself disconnection (tanzih) or non-disconnection by definition in any ayat which He has
sent down or in transmissions which have reached us from Him. Otherwise He has the Great
Mist (al-'Ama') (13) which has no air above it and no air beneath it. Allah was in it before He
created creation. Then He mentioned that He "established Himself firmly on the Throne."
(57:4) This is also definition. Then He mentioned that "He descends to the nearest heaven."
(14) This is also definition. Then He said that "He is in the heaven and in the earth," (15) and
"He is with us whever we are." (16) and He tells us that He is our source. We are limited, so
He only describes Himself by limitation. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
641:Know that among the special qualities of the spirits (arwah) is whenever they touch anything
life flows into it. This is why the Samiri (2) seized a handful of dust from the track of the
messenger, who was Jibril, and he is the Spirit. The Samiri had knowledge of this matter.
When he recognised that it was Jibril, he knew that life would flow into whatever he had
walked on, so he took a handful of dust (3) from the track of the messenger or he filled his
hand or the ends of his fingers, (4) and threw it into the Calf. The Calf made a noise like the
sound of a cow mooing. If it had been in another form, the name of that form's sound would
have been ascribed to it - as grumbling to the camel, baa-ing to rams, bleating to sheep, and
voice or articulation and speech to man. That power from the life which flows in things is
called lâhût. The nâsût is the locus on which the spirit is based. The nâsût may be called a
spirit by what is based on it. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
642:Who can do as Thy deeds, when under the throne of Thy glory Thou madest a place for the spirits of Thy saints? There is the abode of the pure souls, that are bound in the bundle of life. Those who are tired and weary, there will they restore their strength. There shall the weary be at rest, for they are deserving of repose. In it there is delight without end or limitation, for that is the world-to-come. There are stations and visions for the souls that stand by the mirrors assembled, to see the face of the Lord and to be seen, Dwelling in the royal palaces, standing by the royal table, Delighting in the sweetness of the fruit of the Intelligence, which yields royal dainties. This is the repose and the inheritance, whose good and beauty are without limit, and "surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." [1568.jpg] -- from The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences, by Joseph Dan
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Who can do as Thy deeds
,#NFDB
643:Selon Ibn Khaldoun, il ne faut jamais oublier l'importance du climat. Le visage soucieux et l'allure renfrognée du Fassi, s"expliqueraient par le climat rugueux qu'ils endurent avec cet hiver givré de glace et de ce vent mordant qui souffle du nord. Je me demande pourtant si le climat a une telle importance pour déterminer la place de le séduction dans une culture donnée. A fès, il y a un mot pour désigner celui ou celle qui sourit sans raison. On dit qu'il "Farnass". C'est ce qu'on dit de quelqu'un qui a la lèvre supérieure qui fuit quelque peu et découvre les dents de devant. Petite, je m'entendais dire sans cesse: " Seul l'âne farnass". Serrer les lèvres 'avait donc rien à voir avec le froid! Cette attitude traduisait plutôt un certain un certain recroquevillement de l'être, une certaine absence de générosité au niveau du sentiment. A Fès, même un sourire doit être calculé, doit avoir un prix, une signification bien précise dans un réseau de comportements déterminés.... ~ Fatema Mernissi, #NFDB
644:When man witnesses Allah in women, his witnessing is in the passive; when he witnesses
Him in himself, regarding the appearance of woman from Him, he witnesses Him in the
active. When he witnesses Him from himself without the presence of any form from him, his
witnessing is in the passive directly from Allah without any intermediary. So his witnessing
of Allah in the woman is the most complete and perfect because he witnesses Allah inasmuch
as He is both active and passive. Regarding himself, He is passive in particular. For this
reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, loved women because of the
perfection of the witnessing of Allah in them since one does not ever witness Allah free of
matter. Allah by His essence is independent of the worlds. So from this aspect, the business
is impossible, yet witnessing only occurs in matter. The witnessing of Allah in women is the
greatest and most perfect witnessing. The greatest union is marriage. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
645:Who could accomplish what you've accomplished in establishing under the Throne of Glory a level for all who were righteous in spirit? This is the range of pure soul gathered in the bond of all that's vital. For those who've worked to exhaustion -- this is the place of their strength's renewal, where the weary will find repose; these are the children of calm, of pleasure that knows no bound in the mind: this is the World to Come, a place of position and vision for souls that gaze into the mirrors of the palace's servants, before the Lord to see and be seen. They dwell in the halls of the king, and stand alongside his table taking delight in the sweetness of intellect's fruit which offers them majesty's savor. This is the rest and inheritance that knows no bounds in its goodness and beauty, flowing with milk and honey; this is its fruit and deliverance. [2610.jpg] -- from The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, Edited by Peter Cole
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Who could accomplish what youve accomplished
,#NFDB
646:According to one Islamic model, the soul has three stages. In the first seven years, it is known as the appetitive soul. The primary concerns of children in this stage are eating and wanting attention. The second stage is the next seven years, the age of anger, when kids react strongly to stimuli and are annoyed easily. The third is the rational stage, when reasoning and discernment reach their full capacity. ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib encouraged parents to play with their children during the first stage, to indulge them, for they are discovering the world. They had been in a spiritual realm and have only recently entered the realm of the sensory. In the second stage, Imam ʿAlī counseled that parents should focus on training and discipline, for, in this stage, young people have a heightened capacity to receive and absorb information and thus learn new things. In the third stage, parents should befriend them and form a relationship that is amicable and full of kindness and companionship. After this, their children, now adults, should be set free. ~ Hamza Yusuf, #NFDB
647:There is no way to neutralize causes because the source-forms necessitate them. They only
appear in existence by the form on which they are based at the source since "there is no
changing the words of Allah." (10:64) The words of Allah are not other than the sources of
existent things. Timelessness is ascribed to Him in respect to their permanence, and in-time
ness is ascribed to them in respect of their existence and appearance. Thus we say, a certain
man or guest happened (26) to be with us today." That does not mean that he did not have
any existence before this event. For that reason, Allah says about His Mighty Word which is
timeless, "No reminder (dhikr) from their Lord comes to them lately renewed (27) without
their listening to it as if it were a game," (21:2) and "but no fresh (28) reminder reaches them
from the All- Merciful, without their turning away from it." (26:5) The Merciful only brings
mercy, and whoever turns away from mercy advances the punishment which is the absence of
mercy. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
648:Whenever a person of unveiling sees a form which communicates to him
gnosis which he did not have and which he had not been able to grasp before, that form is
from his own source, no other. From the tree of himself he gathers the fruits of his
cultivation, as his outer form opposite the reflected body is nothing other than himself, even though the place of the presence in which he sees the form of himself presents him with an
aspect of the reality of that presence through transformation. The large appears small in the
small mirror and tall in the tall, and the moving as movement. It can reverse its form from a
special presence, and it can reflect things exactly as they appear, so the right side of the
viewer is his right side, while the right side can be on the left. This is generally the normal
state in mirrors, and it is a break in the norm when the right side is seen as the right and
inversion occurs. All this is from the gifts of the reality of the Presence in which it is
manifested and which we have compared to the mirror. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
649:Language was critically important to the religious transition. The rise of Islam meant not just the eclipse of Christianity but the near annihilation of what had hitherto been the commonly spoken vernaculars of the Middle East and the Mediterranean world: of Syriac, Coptic, Greek, and Berber. Already in the eighth century, Arabic was the language of politics and administration from Spain into central Asia, although Persian and Turkish would both become critical vehicles for Islamic thought and culture. From the earliest years of the Muslim era, the Arabic language and its attendant culture exercised a magnetic pull for non-Muslims, even for church leaders. As early as 800, Christians like Theodore Abu Qurrah, a Melkite bishop born in Edessa, were publishing their treatises in Arabic. The greatest Eastern Christian philosopher of the tenth century, Yahya ibn 'Adi, wrote in Arabic and lived in a thoroughly Arabized intellectual world. Even in the self-confident world of Syriac literature, ninth-century hymn writers began introducing the Arabic poetic device of rhyme.14 ~ Philip Jenkins, #NFDB
650:It is important to note that the meaning of the Arabic word
nafs
should not be limited here to the soul, for this word is found in the Arabic translation of the saying in question, while its Greek equivalent
psyche
does not appear in the original.
Nafs
should therefore not be taken in its usual sense, for it is certain that it has another much higher significance, which makes it similar to the word essence, and which refers to the
Self
or to the
real being
; as proof of this, we can cite what has been said in a
ḥadīth
that is like a complement of the Greek saying" 'He who knows himself, knows his Lord'.
When man knows himself in his deepest essence, that is, in the center of his being, then at the same time he knows his Lord. And Knowing his Lord, he at the same time Knows all things, which come from Him and return to Him. He knows all things in the supreme oneness of the Divine Principle, outside of which, according to the words of Muhyi 'd-Din Ibn Al-Arabi 'there is absolutely nothing which exists', for nothing can be outside of the Infinite. ~ Ren Gu non,#NFDB
651:Rububiyyah: Lordship, the quality of being a lord. A term derived from the Qur'anic
descriptions of Allah's lordship over creation. One might say the ecology of natural existence.
It is an essential element in Sufic cosmology and is a most sophisticated concept which
surpasses the crude specificity and mechanistic views of evolutionist biology. It is an energy
system of relationships in constant change and altering dynamics. It functions through the
different realms, the atomic, the mineral, the plant, and so on. It relates the levels of living
organisms from the uni-cellular up to man, and the interpenetrations of organism and
environment. It re-defines "event" from crude historicity to a picture of organism/event in a
unified field. It is the underlying concept which allows us to abandon the dead mind/body
split of the dying culture. It permits us to utilize and develop the energy concepts of
Islamic/Chinese medicine - which hold a common energy concept at base. Rububiyya permits
us to observe ONE PROCESS at work throughout every level of the creational realities. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
652:The moment they appeared on the scene, the first optical devices (Al-Hasan ibn al-Haitam aka Alhazen's camera obscura in the tenth century, Roger Bacon's instruments in the thirteenth, the increasing number of visual prostheses, lenses, astronomic telescopes and so on from the Renaissance on) profoundly altered the contexts in which mental images were topographically stored and retrieved, the impera- tive to re-present oneself, the imaging of the imagination which was such a great help in mathematics according to Descartes and which he considered a veritable part of the body, veram partem corporis. Just when we were apparently procuring the means to see further and better the unseen of the universe, we were about to lose what little power had of imagining it. The telescope, that epitome of the visual prosthesis, projected an image of a world beyond our reach and thus another way of moving about in the world, the logistics of perception inaugurating an unknown conveyance of sight that produced a tele- scoping of near and far, a phenomenon of acceleration obliterating our experience of distances and dimensions. ~ Paul Virilio, #NFDB
653:Maybe in the case of true human, their mind, their soul, their consciousness flows through their bodies like blood, inhabiting every cell of their physical being, and so Aristotle was right, in humans the mind and body are one and cannot be separated, the self is both with the body and perishes with it too. She imagined that union with a thrill. How lucky human beings were if that was the case, she wanted to tell Geronimo who was and was not Ibn Rushd: lucky and doomed. When their hearts pounded with excitement their souls pounded too, when their pulses raced their spirits were aroused, hen their eyes moistened with tears of happiness it was their minds that felt the joy. Their minds touched the people their fingers touched, and when they in turn were touched by others it was as if two consciousnesses were briefly joined. The mind gave the body sensuality, it allowed the body to taste delight and to smell love in their lover's sweet perfume; not only their bodies but their minds, too, made love. And at the end the soul, as mortal as the body, learned the last great lesson of life, which was the body's death. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
654:Le hasard, on le sait, n’existe pas en Islam, car tout est écrit (maktüb) et se fait selon la science et la volonté de Dieu. Ibn El Hâjj dans son Madkhal cite le Shaykh Abd er Rahmân Es-Saqqali qui aurait dit : « Chaque individu participe de son nom [lahu Naslb fi ismihî]. »
Tous les grands théologiens musulmans sont d’accord sur la base du Hadith ou d’une autorité comme l’Imâm Mâlik, pour dire que le nom influence le nommé. Ils se fondent pour cela sur le fait que le Prophète de l’Islam changeait quelquefois le nom de musulmans en des noms plus heureux. Ici nous sommes cependant plus près de l’aspect extérieur de l’Islâm (Sharï ah) que de l’initiation spirituelle elle-même. Le plan extérieur, comme nous le verrons (chapitre VI), admet une dynamique du changement qui est d’ailleurs d’une manière générale inhérente au monde sensible ('Alamu El Hiss).
Sur le plan initiatique, le nom représente effective ment l’essence d’un être. Mais ce nom, seul le processus de l’initiation lui-même peut le révéler. Or ce processus implique le passage par plusieurs degrés ontologiques liant l’individu à son archétype divin. (p. 35) ~ Faouzi Skali,#NFDB
655:Thabit ibn Qurra (AD 836-901, and also born in Harran), would have had little patience with loaded terms like "star idolatry" which seek to place the "paganism" of the Sabians on a lower level than the deadly, and often bigoted, narrow-minded and unscientific clerical monotheism of religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Thabit was well aware that, underlying the ancient Sabian practices misunderstood by these young religions as "star idolatry," were indeed exact sciences of great benefit to mankind, and thus he wrote: 'Who else have civilized the world, and built the cities, if not the nobles and kings of Paganism? Who else have set in order the harbors and rivers? And who else have taught the hidden wisdom? To whom else has the Deity revealed itself, given oracles, and told about the future, if not the famous men among the Pagans? The Pagans have made known all this. They have discovered the art of healing the soul; they have also made known the art of healing the body. They have filled the earth with settled forms of government, and with wisdom, which is the highest good. Without Paganism the world would be empty and miserable. ~ Graham Hancock, #NFDB
656:You are wise, and wisdom is a fountain and source of life welling up from within you, and men are too coarse to know you. You are wise, and prime to all that's primeval, as though you were wisdom's tutor. You are wise, but your wisdom wasn't acquired and didn't derive from another. You are wise, and your wisdom gave rise to an endless desire in the world as within an artist or worker -- to bring out the stream of existence from Nothing, like light flowing from sight's extension -- drawing from the source of that light without vessel, giving it shape without tools, hewing and carving, refining and making it pure: He called to Nothing -- which split; to existence -- pitched like a tent; to the world -- as it spread beneath sky. With desire's span He established the heavens, as His hand coupled the tent of the planets with loops of skill, weaving creation's pavilions, the links of His will reaching the lowest rung of creation -- the curtain at the outermost edge of the spheres... [2610.jpg] -- from The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, Edited by Peter Cole
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, You are wise (from From Kingdoms Crown)
,#NFDB
657:Then know that Allah has described Himself as the Outawardly Manifest and the Inwardly
Hidden; He brought the universe into existence as a Visible world and an Unseen world
so that we might know the Hidden by the Unseen and the Manifest by the Visible. He
described Himself with pleasure and wrath, and so He brought the world into existence as a
place of fear and hope so we fear His wrath and hope for His pleasure. He described Himself
with majesty and beauty, so He brought the universe into existence with awe and intimacy. It
is the same for all that is connected with Him, may He be exalted, and by which He calls
Himself. He designates these pairs of attributes by the two hands which He held out in
the creation of the Perfect Man. Man sums up all the realities of the universe and its
individuals. So the universe is seen and the Khalif is unseen. It is with this meaning that the
Sultan veils himself, even as Allah is mentioned and described as having with veils of
darkness, which are natural bodies, and luminous veils which are subtle spirits (arwâh). The
universe is composed of both the gross and the subtle. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
658:To begin with, let us recall the /J,adltlt which all our mysticr
of Islam untiringly meditate, the adltlt in which the Godhead
reveals the secret of His passion ( his pathos): "I was a hidden
Treasure and I yearned to be known. Then I created creatures
in order to be known by them." With still greater fidelity to Ibn
rArabi's thought, let us translate: "in order to become in them
the object of my knowledge." This divine passion, this desire to
reveal Himself and to know Himself in beings through being
known by them, is the motive underlying an entire divine
dramaturgy, an eternal cosmogony. This cosmogony is neither
an Emanation in the Neoplatonic sense of the word nor, still
less, a creatio ex niltilo. It is rather a succession of manifestations
of being, brought about by an increasing light, within the
originally undifferentiated God ; it is a succession of tajalliylit,
of theophanies.15 This is the context of one of the most charac-
teristic themes of Ibn rArabi's thinking, the doctrine of divine
Names ( which has sometimes been termed, rather inexactly, his
"mythology" of the divine Names). ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
659:Ibn Khaldun wanted to discover the underlying causes of this change. He was probably the last great Spanish Faylasuf; his great innovation was to apply the principles of philosophic rationalism to he study of history, hitherto considered to be beneath the notice of a philosopher, because it dealt only with transient, fleeting events instead of eternal truths. But Ibn Khaldun believed that, beneath the flux of historical incidents, universal laws governed the fortunes of society. He decided that it was a strong sense of group solidarity (asibiyyah) that enabled a people to survive and, if conditions were right, to subjugate others. This conquest meant that the dominant group could absorb the resources of the subject peoples, develop a culture and a complex urban life. But as the ruling class became accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle, complacency set in and they began to lose their vigour. They no longer took sufficient heed of their subjects, there was jealousy and infighting and the economy would begin to decline. Thus the state became vulnerable to a new tribal or nomadic group, which was in the first flush of its own asibiyyah, and the whole cycle began again. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
660:As for the subjection which was the privilege of Sulayman, peace be upon him, and by which
he was distinguished fom others, and the kingdom which Allah gave him which none after
him would have, it is from his command when He said, "We gave him the fiercely blowing
wind, speeding at his command." (21:81) It was not subjection in itself, for Allah said in
respect of each of us without exception, "He has made everything in the heavens and
everything on the earth subservient to you." (45:13) He also mentioned the subjection of the
winds, stars and other things, (17) but that is not by our command. It is from the command of
Allah. If you reflect with your intellect, Sulayman was privileged by this command neither by
mental concentration nor by aspiration (himma) rather, it was by nothing more than the
command itself. We said that because we recognise that the physical bodies of the world can
be affected by the himma of the self when someone is in the station of concentration. We
have seen such things happen in this Path. Sulayman only had to articulate the command in
whatever he wished to subject without either concentration or himma. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
661:Isa brought the dead to life because he is the Divine Spirit, and bringing to life belongs to Allah. The breath which 'Isa has is like the breath which Jibril has. The word belongs to
Allah. The bringing the dead to life by 'Isa is an actual revival inasmuch as it was manifested
from his breath as he was manifested from the form of his mother. His bringing to life is also
imagined to be from him, but it actually belongs to Allah. He joined the two by the reality on
which he is based even as we said that he is created from imaginary water and actual water.
Bringing-to-life is ascribed to him by means of actualisation in one aspect, and by
imagination in another aspect. In respect to actualisation, it is said of him that he brings the
dead to life. In respect to imagination (tawahhum), it is said that he breathes into it and it
becomes a bird by the leave of Allah. (7) The agent is in the prepositional phrase "by Allah's
permission", even though He did not breathe into it. It is also possible that the agent is the
one who breathes into it. It became a bird as regards physical form. In the same way, 'Isa
healed the blind and the lepers. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
662:All this is part of the effect of the young on the old. That is due to the strength of his station.
The young has a new covenant with his Lord because he has newly come into being. The old
person is further from Him. Whoever is nearer to Allah subjects whoever is further away
from Him, just as the elite of the near angels subject the further ones. The Messenger of
Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to expose himself to the rain when it
came down and to uncover his head so that it would fall on him. He said that it has a new
covenant with Allah. Look at this recognition of Allah on the part of this Prophet! What is
more glorious, more sublime and clearer than this? The rain subjected the best of men due to
its proximity to its Lord. That is a likeness of the Messenger on whom the revelation
descends. The rain called him by its own state, (2) and so he exposed himself to the rain in
order to receive from it what it brought from his Lord. If he had not received this divine
benefit from it by the rain, he would not have exposed himself to it. This is the message of
water from which Allah has fashioned every living thing ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
663:How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is manifest by everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is made manifest in everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is manifest to everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He was the One who was Manifest before there was anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is more manifest than anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One with whom there is nothing else? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is nearer to you than anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when if it had not been for Him, there would not have been anything? A marvel! See how existence becomes manifest in non-existence! How the in-time holds firm alongside Him whose attribute is eternal! [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
~ Ibn Ata Illah, How can you imagine that something else veils Him
,#NFDB
664:Ibn-Ishaq tells how it happened: “When Muhammad saw that his own people turned their backs on him, he was pained by their estrangement from what he brought them from God, and longed for a message that would reconcile him with his own people. He would gladly have seen those things that bore down harshly on them softened, so much so that he kept saying it to himself, fervently wishing for such an outcome. Then God revealed Sura 53, beginning with ‘By the star when it sets, your comrade does not err, nor is he deceived, nor does he speak out of his own caprice.’ But when Muhammad reached the words ‘Have you thought on Lat and Uzza, and the third one, Manat?’10 Satan added this upon his tongue: ‘These are the three great exalted birds, and their intercession is desired indeed.’” And here they were: the infamous Satanic Verses. The three “daughters of God” were no longer false gods, but giant high-flying birds covering the earth with their wingspans, graced with the power to intercede for those who worshipped them. The moment Muhammad recited these newly revealed verses in the Kaaba precinct, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “When they heard them, people rejoiced and were delighted,” ibn-Ishaq ~ Lesley Hazleton, #NFDB
665:The Sabians were allowed to build a new Temple of the Moon God, and to continue their religious rites, after the Arab General Ibn Ghanam conquered Harran in the seventh century AD. This in itself is a sign of most unusual favor, since Islamic armies normally offered "pagans" the choice of either conversion or death. Even more interesting, however, is the Sabians' encounter with the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jafar Abdullah al-Ma'mun, who passed through their city in AD 830 and reportedly quizzed them intensively on their religion.
Remembering the Sabian pilgrimages to Giza, it is reasonable to wonder whether there is any connection with the fact that in AD 820, a decade before he visited Harran, it was Ma'mun who tunnelled into the Great Pyramid and opened its previously hidden passageways and chambers. Indeed, it is through "Ma'mun's Hole" that visitors still enter the monument today. Described by Gibbon as "a prince of rare learning," it seems Ma'mun's investigation was prompted by information he'd received about the Great Pyramid, specifically that it contained: 'a secret chamber with maps and tables of the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Although they were said to have been made in the remote past, they were suppposed to be of great accuracy. ~ Graham Hancock,#NFDB
666:But again we must be
careful to bear in mind that for Ibn Arabi fana is never absolute annihilation ( the failure to do so has been a source of
countless misunderstandings in regard both to Sufismm and to
Buddhism ). Fana and baqa are always relative terms. Accord-
ing to Ibn Arabi, one must always state toward what there is
annihilation, and wherein there is survival, persistence. In
the state of fana, of concentration, of "Koran," in which the
essential unity of Creator and Creature is experienced, the
Divine Attributes become predicables of the mystic ( discrimi-
nation is suspended ). Then we may say not only that the mystic
"creates" in the same sense as God Himself creates ( that is to
say, causes something which already existed in the world of
Mystery to be manifested in the sensible world ), but in addi-
tion that God creates this effect through him. It is one and the
same divine operation, but through the intermediary of the
gnostic, when he is "withdrawn" (fana) from his human at-
tributes and when he persists, survives ( baqa' ) in his divine
attributes. The mystic is then the medium, the intermediary,
through whom the divine creative power is expressed and
manifested. ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
667:What explanation does Ibn Arabi give for these phenomena ?
A first explanation invokes the hierarchical planes of being, the
Hadarat, or "Presences." There are five of these Presences,
namely, the five Descents ( tanazzulat); these are determina-
tions or conditions of the divine Ipseity in the forms of His
Names; they act on the receptacles which undergo their influx
and manifest them. The first Hadra is the theophany ( tajalli) of
the Essence ( dhat) in the eternal latent hexeities which are
objects, the correlata of the Divine Names. This is the world of
Absolute Mystery ( alam al-ghayb al-mutlaq, Hadrat al-Dhat).
The second and the third Hadarat are respectively the angelic
world of determinations or individuations constituting the
Spirits ( taayyunatt ruhiya ) and the world of individuations
constituting the Souls ( taayyunaatt nafsiya). The fourth Hadra
is the world of Idea-Images ( alam al-mithal), typical Forms,
individuations having figure and body, but
in the immaterial
state of "subtile matter. " The fifth Hadra is the sensible and
visible world (alam al-shahada ), of dense material bodies. By
and large, with minor variations, this schema is constant in our
authors.19 ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
668:In fact Sind’s governors had already had a foretaste of what lay ahead. Muhammad ibn Qasim may have pushed east towards Kanauj, Junaid certainly tried his luck in western India, and later governors may have followed suit. Their experiences, in so far as they can be inferred from the scanty evidence, would not be encouraging. Al-Biladuri claims conquests for Junaid which extended to Broach in Gujarat and to Ujjain in Malwa. From a copper plate found at Nausari, south of Broach, it would appear that the Arabs had crossed Saurashtra and so must have squeezed through, or round, the Rann of Kutch. This was the incursion which put paid to the Maitrakas of Vallabhi, they of the dazzling toenails whose enemies’ rutting elephants had had their temples cleft. It was also the incursion which was finally halted by, amongst others, a vassal branch of the Chalukya dynasty. The date is thought to have been c736. Ujjain and Malwa look to have been the target of a separate and probably subsequent offensive by way of Rajasthan.7 It too was defeated, in this instance by a rising clan of considerable later importance known as the Gurjaras. Clearly, when the subcontinent first faced the challenge of Islam, it was neither so irredeemably supine nor so hopelessly divided as British historians in the nineteenth century would suppose. ~ John Keay, #NFDB
669:Ibn al-Qayyim has a profound statement in his book Al-Fawaid. Referring to the effect of negative and sinful thoughts, he said: “You should repulse a thought. If you do not do so, it will develop into a desire. You should therefore wage war against it. If you do not do so, it will become a resolution and firm intention. If you do not repulse this, it will develop into a deed. If you do not make up for it by doing the opposite [the opposite of that evil deed], it will become a habit. It will then be very difficult for you to give it up”. Another similar quote: “You should know the initial stage of every knowledge that is within your choice is your thoughts and notions. These thoughts and notions lead you into fantasies. These fantasies lead towards the will and desire to carry out [those fantasies]. These wills and desires demand the act should be committed. Repeatedly committing these acts causes them to become a habit. So the goodness of these stages lies in the goodness of thoughts and notions, and the wickedness of these thoughts lies in the wickedness of thoughts and notions”. May Allah be pleased with him! He offers a deep insight into something so subtle. We should all memorise these words and use it whenever we feel unable to control the tsunami of negative thoughts that overtake our minds. ~ Mohammed Abu Productive Faris, #NFDB
670:All existent things are the words of Allah which are inexhaustible (18) because they are from
"kun" and "kun" is the word of Allah. Is the word ascribed to Him according to what He
really is? His what-ness is not known. Or is it that Allah descends to the form of the one who
says, "kun", and so the word "kun" is the reality of that form to which he descended or in
which He is manifest? Some of the gnostics take one side and some take the other side, and
some of them are bewildered in the business and do not know. This is a question which can
only be recognised by taste (dhawq), as was the case with Abu Yazid al-Bistami when he
breathed into the ant which he had killed and it returned to life. He knew in that action by
Whom he had breathed, and that was an 'Isawian witnessing. As for the revival of meaning
by knowledge, that is the divine life, essential, eternal, sublime, and luminous, about which
Allah said, "Is someone who was dead and whom We brought to life, supplying him with a
light by which to walk among the people..." (6:123) Whoever gives life to a dead soul by the
life of knowledge in a particular problem connected to knowledge of Allah, has brought him
to life by it, and it is "a light for him by which he walks among the people, i.e. among his
likes in form. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
671:According to a hadith, the Prophet said to Ibn’ Abbas,
Be mindful of God, and God will protect you. Be mindful of God, and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, ask of God. If you seek help, seek help from God. Know that if the whole nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that God had prescribed for you. And if [the whole nation] were to gather together to harm you, it would harm you only with something that God had already prescribed for you. The pens have been lifted and the ink has been dried.
This does not mean that one should be reckless with his or her safety, nor does it mean that one should not take precautions. In the Battle of Ubud, the Prophet wore two coats of chainmail, and no one knew more of God’s power and authority than he.
Having awareness of God’s attributes does not imply that people should stop using their intellects, for we live in a world of causes. There is room for diplomacy and discretion, particularly if knowing when it is best to say the truth. This discretion, however, is not informed by the fear of blame but rather by the clarity of regarding one’s objectives. Having wisdom is completely different from seeking the approbation of others. The Prophet said that the highest form of struggle (jihad) is to speak the truth in the face of a tyrant. ~ Hamza Yusuf,#NFDB
672:A potential dajjalic interruption is an excessive esoterism. All of these people on a grail quest and looking for the ultimate secret to Ibn Arabi’s 21st heaven and endlessly going into the most esoteric stuff without getting the basics right, that is also a fundamental error of our age because the nafs loves all sorts of spiritual stories without taming itself first. The tradition that was practiced in this place for instance (Turkey) was not by starting out on the unity of being or (spiritual realities). Of course not. You start of in the kitchen for a year and then you make your dhikr in your khanaqah and you’re in the degree of service. Even Shah Bahauddin Naqshband before he started who was a great scholar needed 21 years before he was ‘cooked’. But we want to find a shortcut. Everything’s a shortcut. Even on the computer there’s a shortcut for everything. Something around the hard-work and we want the same thing. Because there seems to be so little time (or so little barakah in our time) but there is no short cut unless of course Allah (SWT) opens up a door of paradise or a way for you to go very fast. But we can’t rely on that happening because it’s not common. Mostly it’s salook, constantly trudging forward and carrying the burden until it becomes something sweet and light. And that takes time, so the esoteric deviation is common in our age as well. ~ Abdal Hakim Murad, #NFDB
673:At the banquet were present the Khān’s jugglers, the chief of whom was ordered to shew some of his wonders. He then took a wooden sphere, in which there were holes, and in these long straps, and threw it up into the air till it went out of sight, as I myself witnessed, while the strap remained in his hand. He then commanded one of his disciples to take hold of, and to ascend by, this strap, which he did until he also went out of sight. His master then called him three times, but no answer came: he then took a knife in his hand, apparently in anger, which he applied to the strap. This also ascended till it went quite out of sight: he then threw the hand of the boy upon the ground, then his foot; then his other hand, then his other foot; then his body, then his head. He then came down, panting for breath, and his clothes stained with blood. The man then kissed the ground before the General, who addressed him in Chinese, and gave him some other order. The juggler then took the limbs of the boy and applied them one to another: he then stamped upon them, and it stood up complete and erect. I was astonished, and was seized in consequence by a palpitation at the heart: but they gave me some drink, and I recovered. The judge of the Mohammedans was sitting by my side, who swore, that there was neither ascent, descent, nor cutting away of limbs, but the whole was mere juggling. ~ Ibn Battuta, #NFDB
674:But . . . but . . . my Muslim friends tell me Islam is peaceful! Your Muslim friends may indeed be peaceful and reject these teachings. Or they may not know about them, because their teachers did not emphasize them. Or, they may be lying. It’s unfortunate, but true: Islam is the only major religion with a developed doctrine of deception. Many believe this doctrine, called taqiyya, is exclusively Shi’ite, but actually it is founded upon Koranic passages. Chief among these is this one: “Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them” (3:28). Ibn Kathir explains that in this verse, “Allah prohibited His believing servants from becoming supporters of the disbelievers, or to take them as comrades with whom they develop friendships, rather than the believers.” However, exempted from this rule were those believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers. In this case, such believers are allowed to show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda’ said, “We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.” Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, “The Tuqyah [taqiyyah] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection. ~ Robert Spencer, #NFDB
675:Budimo iskreni prema samima sebi pa priznajmo da smo, zaista, daleko odlutali od učenja koje nude Kur'an i sunnet. Ima ona jako stara priča o sinu nekog bogataša koji je spiskao svoju očevinu i sada se valja u jarku. To je priča o nama! Stoljeća intelektualne letargije, nijemo slijeđenje fraza, otrovne svađe zbog sitnih stvari, ljenčarenje, praznovjerje i društvena korupcija zatamnili su ona prepoznatljiva slavna pregnuća u vrijeme naših velikih početaka. Mi smo već nekoliko stoljeća prestali da se zanimamo naučnim istraživanjima iako naša vjera naučno istraživanje smatra svetom obavezom; mi se dobro narazgovaramo o Al-Farabiju i Ibn Sini, o Al-Battaniju i Ibn Hayyanu, pa onda u samozadovoljstvu odemo da spavamo nad ovim našim dostignućima; mi diskutiramo o divnom društvenom programu islama, o njegovim ispravnim, pravednim i prirodnim ciljevima, a cijelo vrijeme nasrćemo jedan na drugoga, eksploatišemo jedan drugoga ili se bijedno odajemo svakoj vrsti eksploatacije na temelju beskrupuloznih pravila. Mi smo uvijek pretendirali da vjerujemo da je Kur'an siguran vodič u svim pitanjima koja se tiču ljudskog života – a, unatoč tome, navikli smo se na to da u njemu gledamo samo štivo za podučavanje koje učimo u našim molitvama i na vjerskim svečanostima; uokvirena u svilene ghilafe, ukrašena i (p)ostavljena na najvišim policama u našim sobama, mi Kur'an ne uzimamo kao stvarnog vodiča u našoj svakodnevnici. ~ Muhammad Asad, #NFDB
676:But even if that were true, the key phrase “begin not hostilities” doesn’t necessarily mean what many Westerners assume or hope it means. The command to fight until “there prevail justice and faith in Allah” suggests there is an aspect to the warfare that is not purely defensive: Muslims must continue the war until Allah’s law prevails over the world, which implies a conflict without end. The passage concludes, “And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah” (2:193). Ibn Ishaq explains that this means that Muslims must fight against unbelievers “until God alone is worshipped.”11 Ibn Kathir also contends that the verse instructs Muslims to fight “so that the religion of Allah becomes dominant above all other religions.”12 Bulandshahri puts it in starker terms: “The worst of sins are Infidelity (Kufr) and Polytheism (shirk) which constitute rebellion against Allah, The Creator. To eradicate these, Muslims are required to wage war until there exists none of it in the world, and the only religion is that of Allah.”13 That bears repeating. “The worst of sins are Infidelity (Kufr) and Polytheism (shirk) which constitute rebellion against Allah, The Creator. To eradicate these, Muslims are required to wage war until there exists none of it in the world, and the only religion is that of Allah.” That’s an open-ended declaration of war against every non-Muslim, in all times and in all places. ~ Robert Spencer, #NFDB
677:Let us return to those gifts which are either the gifts proceding from the Essence or the
Names. As for the favours, gifts and graces of the Essence, they only come by means of
divine tajalli. (7) Tajalli only comes from the Essence by means of the form of the
predisposition of the one to whom the tajalli is made. It never occurs otherwise. The one who
receives the tajalli will only see his own form in the mirror of the Real. He will not see see
the Real, for it is not possible to see Him. At the same time, he knows that he sees only his
own form. It is the same as a mirror in the Visible world inasmuch as you see forms in it or your own form but do not see the mirror. At the same time, however, you know that you see
the forms, or your own form, only by virtue of the mirror. Allah manifests that as a model (8)
appropriate to the tajalli of His Essence, so that the one receiving the tajalli knows that he
does not see Him. There is no model nearer or more appropriate to vision and tajalli than this.
When you see a form in a mirror, try to see the body of the mirror as well - you will never see
it. It is true that some people who perceive this say that the reflected form is imposed between
the vision of the seer and the mirror. This is the most that it is possible to say, and the matter
is as we have mentioned. We have clarified this in the The Makkan Revelations. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
678:Where, Lord, will I find you: your place is high and obscured. And where won't I find you: your glory fills the world. You dwell deep within -- you've fixed the ends of creation. You stand, a tower for the near, refuge to those far off. You've lain above the Ark, here, yet live in the highest heavens. Exalted among your hosts, although beyond their hymns -- no heavenly sphere could ever contain you, let alone a chamber within. In being home above them on an exalted throne, you are closer to them than their breath and skin. Their mouths bear witness for them that you alone gave them form. Your kingdom's burden in theirs; who wouldn't fear you? And who could fail to search for you -- who sends down food when it is due? I sought your nearness. With all my heart I called you. And in my going out to meet you, I found you coming toward me, as in the wonders of your might and holy works I saw you. Who would say he hasn't seen your glory as the heavens' hordes declare their awe of you without a sound being heard? But could the Lord, in truth, dwell in men on earth? How would men you made from the dust and clay fathom your presence there, enthroned upon their praise? The creatures hovering over the world praise your wonders -- your throne borne high above their heads, as you beat all forever. [2610.jpg] -- from The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, Edited by Peter Cole
~ Solomon ibn Gabirol, Where Will I Find You
,#NFDB
679:They placed the palaquins
on the finest workhorse camel mares,
and within their embroidered canopies
full moons and marbled statuettes.
They promised my heart
they'd return
but what are the promises of a soft girl
but illusions.
They beckoned goodbye,
fingertips dyed with henna,
set tears scattering
and stoked the fire.
They turned
back toward Yemen,
seeking Khawarnaq
then Sadir,
Damn it! I called
as they left.
They answered:
If you want to cry damn it,
Why settle for
a single, lonely damn?
Damn it, damn it,
Damn it all over!
Easy now,
dove of the thorn berry thicket,
her leaving
has sharpened your cry.
Your coo, dove,
stirs the lover
and inflames
the already burning,
Melts the heart,
compounds our longing
and our sigh
Death hovers
over a dove that coos.
We beg of him
a stay.
Maybe a breath
from the East wind
from Hajir
will bring us clouds of rain.
You who pasture the stars
be my drinking companion!
and you, awake-all-night lightning watcher,
my night friend!
And you who'd rather
sleep the night away
before you die
you live entombed
If you'd only loved
a bravesouled beauty
you'd have found in her what you desired
and been satisfied.
You'd be sharing with the belles
intimate drink,
speaking secrets to the sun, and to the moon
whispering nothing
~ Ibn Arabi, Reality
,#NFDB
680:There is one exception to this trend, however, and that is that after the debacle of Arab nationalism, a number of secularized Arab thinkers, having no access to the earlier Islamic philosophical tradition except through Western eyes, in contrast to the living Islamic philosophical tra- dition, which has had a continuous life in such places as Iran, have adopted the view of Western rationalism. Then they have tried to look within the Islamic world for a figure with whom they could identify, and they have turned to Ibn Rushd, whom they are now interpreting as the last serious Islamic philosopher, who was also a rationalist. Many gov- ernments have been in favor of this trend, because they have thought that this would create a kind of secularism against the Islamic sentiments of the population and expedite modernism.
In recent years, there have been a number of conferences in Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt, as well as Turkey (which claims to be secu- larist), and other places on Ibn Rushd, trying to present him as the last Islamic philosopher and a rationalist to be used as a model by present- day Muslim thinkers. That phenomenon is there, I agree, but that is not the most important phenomenon, because most of the people who talk in these terms, although they are now popular in the Arab world, do not have that much of a philosophical substance to carry the day; nor is their thought connected to the worldview of their society. ~ Seyyed Hossein Nasr,#NFDB
681:173 Or (lest) you should say: Only our fathers ascribed partners (to Allah) before (us), and we were (their) descendants after them. Wilt Thou destroy us for what liars did?a 173a. The Arabic word is mubtil, which means one who says a thing in which is no truth or reality (R-LL). 174 And thus do We make the messages clear, and that haply they may return. 175 And recite to them the news of him to whom We give Our messages, but he withdraws himself from them, so the devil follows him up, and he is of those who perish.a 175a. Balaam, Umayyah ibn Abi Salt, Abu ‘Amir, and all the hypocrites, have been respectively indicated as the persons referred to here, but the best explanation is supplied by Qatadah, who says: It speaks generally of everyone to whom guidance is brought but he turns aside from it. This view is corroborated by what is stated at the conclusion of the parable in v. 176, such is the parable of the people who reject Our messages. 176 And if We had pleased, We would have exalted him thereby; but he clings to the eartha and follows his low desire. His parable is as the parable of the dog — if thou drive him away, he lolls out his tongue, and if thou leave him alone, he lolls out his tongue. Such is the parable of the people who reject Our messages. So relate the narrative that they may reflect. 176a. Earth here stands for all that is earthly, for things material. The people spoken of here are those who do not care for the higher values of life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
682:Once he has recognized his invisible guide, a mystic sometimes decides to trace his own isnlld, to reveal his spiritual genealogy, that is, to disclose the "chain of transmission" culminating in his person and bear witness to the spiritual ascendancy which he invokes across the generations of mankind. He does neither more nor less than to designate by name the minds to whose family he is conscious of belonging. Read in the opposite order from their phenomenological emergence, these genealogies take on the appearance of true genealogies. Judged by the rules of _our historical criticism, the claim of these genealogies to truth seems highly precarious. Their relevance is to another "transhistoric truth," which cannot be regarded as inferior (because it is of a different order) to the material historic truth whose claim to truth, with the documentation at our disposal, is no less precarious. Suhrawardi traces the family tree of the IshrlqiyOn back to Hermes, ancestor of the Sages, (that Idris-Enoch of Islamic prophetology, whom Ibn rArabi calls the prophet of the Philosophers) ; from him are descended the Sages of Greece and Persia, who are followed by certain ofis (Abo Yazid Bastlmi, Kharraqlni, I;Ialllj, and the choice seems particularly significant in view of what has been said above about the Uwaysis}, and all these branches converge in his own doctrine and school. This is not a history of philosophy in our sense of the term; but still less is it a mere fantasy. ~ Henry Corbin, #NFDB
683:Integral Psychology presents a very complex picture of the individual. As he did previously in The Atman Project, at the back of the book Wilber has included numerous charts showing how his model relates to the work of a hundred or so different authors from East and West.57
57. Wilber compares the models of Huston Smith, Plotinus, Buddhism, Stan Grof, John Battista, kundalini yoga, the Great Chain of Being, James Mark Baldwin, Aurobindo, the Kabbalah, Vedanta, William Tiller, Leadbeater, Adi Da, Piaget, Commons and Richards, Kurt Fisher, Alexander, Pascual-Leone, Herb Koplowitz, Patricia Arlin, Gisela Labouvie-Vief, Jan Sinnot, Michael Basseches, Jane Loevinger, John Broughton, Sullivan, Grant and Grant, Jenny Wade, Michael Washburn, Erik Erikson, Neumann, Scheler, Karl Jaspers, Rudolf Steiner, Don Beck, Suzanne Cook-Greuter, Clare Graves, Robert Kegan, Kohlberg, Torbert, Blanchard-Fields, Kitchener and King, Deirdre Kramer, William Perry, Turner and Powell, Cheryl Armon, Peck, Howe, Rawls, Piaget, Selman, Gilligan, Hazrat Inayat Khan, mahamudra meditation, Fowler, Underhill, Helminiak, Funk, Daniel Brown, Muhyddin Ibn 'Arabi, St. Palamas, classical yoga, highest tantra yoga, St Teresa, Chirban, St Dionysius, Patanjali, St Gregory of Nyssa, transcendental meditation, Fortune, Maslow, Chinen, Benack, Gardner, Melvin Miller, Habermas, Jean Houston, G. Heard, Lenski, Jean Gebser, A. Taylor, Jay Early, Robert Bellah, and Duane Elgin. ~ Frank Visser, Ken Wilber Thought as Passion,#NFDB
684:I marveled at an Ocean without shore,
and at a Shore that did not have an ocean;
And at a Morning Light without darkness,
and at a Night that was without daybreak;
And then a Sphere with no locality
known to either fool or learned scholar;
And at an azure Dome raised over the earth,
circulating 'round its center - Compulsion;
And at a rich Earth without o'er-arching vault
and no specific location, the Secret concealed...
I courted a Secret which existence did not alter;
for it was asked of me: 'Has Thought enchanted you? '
- To which I replied: 'I have no power over that;
I counsel you: Be patient with it while you live.
But, truly, if Thought becomes established
in my mind, the embers kindle into flame,
And everything is given up to fire
the like of which was never seen before!'
And it was said to me: 'He does not pluck a flower
who calls himself with courtesy 'Freeborn'.'
'He who woos the belle femme in her boudoir, love-beguiled,
will never deem the bridal-price too high!'
I gave her the dower and was given her in marriage
throughout the night until the break of Dawn -
But other than Myself I did not find. - Rather,
that One whom I married - may his affair be known:
For added to the Sun's measure of light
are the radiant New Moon and shining Stars;
Like Time, dispraised - though the Prophet (Blessings on him!)
had once declared of your Lord that He is Time.
~ Ibn Arabi, An Ocean Without Shore
,#NFDB
685:When the family of Pharaoh found him in the river by the tree, Pharaoh called him Musa. Mu
is water in Coptic and sha is tree. He named him by where he found him, for the ark stopped
by the tree in the river. Pharaoh wanted to kill him. His wife, speaking by divine articulation
in what she said to Pharaoh about Musa since Allah had created her for perfection as Allah
said about her when He testified that she and Maryam, daughter of 'Imran, have the
perfection which men have (8) - said, "he may be a source of delight for me and for you."
(28:9) She would be consoled by him with the perfection which she received as we have said.
The consolation of Pharaoh was with the belief Allah gave him when he was drowning. So
Allah took him pure and purified. There was no impurity in him since He took him in his
belief before he had acquired any wrong actions. Islam effaces what was before it. He made
him a sign of His concern so that none might despair of the mercy of Allah, for "no one
despairs of solace from Allah except for the unbelievers." (12:87) If Pharaoh been of those
who despair, he would not have embarked on belief. Musa, peace be upon him, was, as the
wife of Pharaoh said, "a source of delight for me and for you. Do not kill him. It may well be
that he will be of use to us." That is what happened. Allah gave them use of Musa, although
they were not aware that he was a prophet who would destroy the kingdom of Pharaoh and
his family. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
686:He called them women (an-nisâ') which is a plural which does not have a singular form. For
that reason, he said, "He made me love three things in your world: women..." and he did not
say, "woman". He took note of the fact that they came after him in existence. The word an-
nisa' also means postponement. Allah says, "The month postponed is an increase in
disbelief," (9:37) and the sale of "nasi'a" is said to be by postponement, that is, by credit. That
is why he said an-nisa'. He loved them only by rank, and they are the place of the passive.
They are to him as nature is to Allah in which Allah opened the forms of the world by the
projection of the will and the divine command which is marriage in the world of elemental
forms, and aspiration (himma) in the world of luminous spirits, as in the order of premises
and their meanings through deduction. All of that is the marriage of the first uniqueness in
each of these aspects. Whoever loves women in this measure, loves with a divine love.
Whoever loves them in respect to natural appetite in particular, deprives himself of the
knowledge of this appetite. For him it is a form without a spirit (rûh). That form in the heart
of the matter is the essence of a spirit, but it is not witnessed by the one who comes to his
wife or any woman by pure gratification, and he does not perceive the one it is for even so, he
has no knowledge of himself, as others have no knowledge of him, since he has not been
verbally named so that he could be known. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
687:Ibn Sina was born in a tiny settlement called Afshanah, outside the village of Kharmaythan, and soon after his birth his family moved to the nearby city of Bukhara. While he was still a small boy his father, a tax collector, arranged for him to study with a teacher of Qu’ran and a teacher of literature, and by the time he was ten he had memorized the entire Qu’ran and absorbed much of Muslim culture. His father met a learned vegetable peddler named Mahmud the Mathematician, who taught the child Indian calculation and algebra. Before the gifted youth grew his first facial hairs he had qualified in law and delved into Euclid and geometry, and his teachers begged his father to allow him to devote his life to scholarship. He began the study of medicine at eleven and by the time he was sixteen he was lecturing to older physicians and spending much of his time in the practice of law. All his life he would be both jurist and philosopher, but he noted that although these learned pursuits were given deference and respect by the Persian world in which he lived, nothing mattered more to an individual than his well-being and whether he would live or die. At an early age, fate made Ibn Sina the servant of a series of rulers who used his genius to guard their health, and though he wrote dozens of volumes on law and philosophy—enough to win him the affectionate sobriquet of Second Teacher (First Teacher being Mohammed)—it was as the Prince of Physicians that he gained the fame and adulation that followed him wherever he traveled. In Ispahan, where he had gone at ~ Noah Gordon, #NFDB
688:When a blind man gets his sight back, he says "I am a divine seer,
an oracle." With the excitement of the change he's a little drunk. A drunk becoming sober
is very different from the ecstatic change that comes in the living presence of an
enlightened one. There's no way to say how that is, even if Abu ibn Sina were here. Only by
the great Names, or by meditation inside music that plays without instruments, can
coverings be lifted. Not by sermons or mental effort. One who tries to do that
will cut off his hand with his famous sword. This is all metaphoric: there is no covering
or hand. It's like the country saying, Yeah, if my aunt had testicles, she'd be my uncle.
It's what-if talking: the distance from words to living is a journey of a hundred thousand years,
but don't be discouraged! It can happen any moment. It takes thirty-five hundred years
to get to Saturn, but Saturnine qualities are constantly here making us solemn and serious.
Influence goes the other way too. An enlightened master, which is to say the inner
nature of each of us, is continually affecting the universe. Philosophers say a human being is
the universe in samll, but it is more true that the essence of a human is the whole
from which the cosmos grew. It looks as if fruit grows from a branch, but growth comes more
truly from the gardener's hope and the work of sowing the seed that grew inside the fruit.
The tree of the universe grows out of the fruit and its seed, even though in form the tree
bears the fruit. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
689:The opinion that the survival of Islam itself depended on the use of military slavery was shared by the great Arab historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun, who lived in North Africa in the fourteenth century, contemporaneously with the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt. In the Muqadimmah, Ibn Khaldun says the following: When the [Abbasid] state was drowned in decadence and luxury and donned the garments of calamity and impotence and was overthrown by the heathen Tatars, who abolished the seat of the Caliphate and obliterated the splendor of the lands and made unbelief prevail in place of belief, because the people of the faith, sunk in self-indulgence, preoccupied with pleasure and abandoned to luxury, had become deficient in energy and reluctant to rally in defense, and had stripped off the skin of courage and the emblem of manhood—then, it was God’s benevolence that He rescued the faith by reviving its dying breath and restoring the unity of the Muslims in the Egyptian realms, preserving the order and defending the walls of Islam. He did this by sending to the Muslims, from this Turkish nation and from among its great and numerous tribes, rulers to defend them and utterly loyal helpers, who were brought from the House of War to the House of Islam under the rule of slavery, which hides in itself a divine blessing. By means of slavery they learn glory and blessing and are exposed to divine providence; cured by slavery, they enter the Muslim religion with the firm resolve of true believers and yet with nomadic virtues unsullied by debased nature, unadulterated with the filth of pleasure, undefiled by the ways of civilized living, and with their ardor unbroken by the profusion of luxury. ~ Francis Fukuyama, #NFDB
690:The main characteristic of the approaches of the Hour is escalating disorder and confusion and that there shall be such turbulence affecting both the world of ideas and that of events that, as other hadiths say, even stable intelligent people will be in danger of losing their bearings.
Only those will be able to find their way that have armed themselves with the knowledge of how to understand these times and guard themselves against their dangers.
When as Muslims we speak of dangers, it must be understood that the gravest of all as far as we are concerned is disbelief, not physical danger. Next to disbelief comes moral confusion leading to corruption of such magnitude as to lead, even in the presence of faith, to punishment in Hell.
This is why the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—warned of this worst kind of danger, saying: 'Seditions will occur, when a man shall awaken in the morning a believer, becoming a disbeliever by nightfall, save he whom God has given life to by means of knowledge.'
[Ibn Maja, Sunan, Kitab (36) al-Fitan, Bab (9) Mā yakūn min al-fitan, 3954].
*
This then is how to approach the subject: first one should familiarize oneself with the details, meditate on them at length, while applying the knowledge to the surrounding phenomena and events, then strive to extract and grasp the patterns, after which one may move on to deduce the principles, which are the all-inclusive cosmic laws involved. Principles, precisely because of their all-inclusive nature, are few, but need effort and time to be adequately comprehended. Having understood these, one is under obligation to transmit this knowledge and discuss it frequently with one’s children, relatives, friends, and as far as possible transmit it to the entire upcoming generation. ~ Mostafa al Badawi,#NFDB
691:To become a Compassionate One is to become the likeness of
the Compassionate God experiencing infinite sadness over
undisclosed virtualities; it is to embrace, in a total religious
sympathy, the theophanies of these divine Names in all faiths.
But this sympathy, precisely, does not signify acceptance of
their limits; it signifies rather that in opening ourselves to them
we open them to the expansion that the primordial divine sym-
pathesis demands of them; that we increase their divine light to
the maximum; that we "emancipate" them-as the divine
Compassion did in pre-eternity-that is, emancipate them from
the virtuality and the ignorance which still confine them in their
narrow intransigence. By thus taking them in hand, religious
sympathy enables them to escape from the impasse, that is, the
sin of metaphysical idolatry. For this sympathy alone renders a
being accessible to the light of theophanies. Mankind discloses
the refusal of the divine Names in many forms, ranging from
atheism pure and simple to fanaticism with all its variants. All
come from the same ignorance of the infinite divine Sadness,
yearning to find a compassionate servant for His divine Names.
The Gnostic's apprenticeship consists in learning to practice
fidelity to his own Lord, that is, to the divine Name with which
he, in his essential being, is invested, but at the same time to hear the precept of Ibn •Arabi: "Let thy soul be as matter for all
forms of all beliefs. " One who has risen to that capacity is an
• arif, an initiate, "one who through God sees in God with the
eye of God. "Those who accept and those who decline are
subject to the same authority: the God in function of whom you
live is He for whom you bear witness, and your testimony is
also the judgment you pronounce on yourself. ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
692:....It was to complete his marriage with Maimuna, the daughter of Al Hareth, the Helalite. He had become betrothed to her on his arrival at Mecca, but had post-poned the nuptials until after he had concluded the rites of pilgrimage. This was doubtless another marriage of policy, for Maimuna was fifty-one years of age, and a widow, but the connection gained him two powerful proselytes. One was Khaled Ibn al Waled, a nephew of the widow, an intrepid warrior who had come near destroy-
ing Mahomet at the battle of Ohod. He now became one of the most victorious champions of Islamism, and by his prowess obtained the appellation of " The Sword of God." The other proselyte was Khaled's friend, Amru Ibn al Aass ; the same who assailed Mahomet with poetry and satire at the commencement of his prophetic career ; who had been an ambassador from the Koreishites to the king of Abyssinia, to obtain the surrender of the fugitive Moslems, and who was henceforth destined with his sword to carry victoriously into foreign lands the faith he had once so strenuously opposed.
Note.— Maimuna was the last spouse of the prophet, and, old as she was at her marriage, survived all his other wives. She died many years after him, in a pavilion at Serif, under the same tree in the shade of which her nuptial tent had been pitched, and was there interred. The pious historian, Al Jannabi, who styles himself "a poor servant of Allah, hoping for the pardon of his sins through the mercy of God," visited her tomb on returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 963, a.d. 1555. "I saw there," said he, "a dome of black marble erected in memory of Maimuna, on the very spot on which the apostle of God had reposed with her. God knows the truth ! and also the reason of the black color of the stone. There is a place of ablution, and an oratory ; but the building has fallen to decay. ~ Washington Irving,#NFDB
693:In this essential point Ibn rArabi declares concisely: "Those
to whom God remains veiled pray the God who in their belief
is their Lord to have compassion with them. But the intuitive
mystics [Ahl al-Kashf] ask that divine Compassion be fulfilled
[come into being, exist] through them."28 In other words, the
Gnostic's prayer does not tend to provoke a change in a being
outside him who would subsequently take pity on him. No, his
prayer tends to actualize this divine Being as He aspires to be
through and for him who is praying and who "in his very
prayer" is the organ of His passion. The Gnostic's prayer
means: Make of us, let us be, Compassionate ones, that is to
say, "become through us what thou hast eternally desired to
be. " For the mystic has come to know that the very substance of
his being is a breath (spiritus) of that infinjte Compassion; he
is himself the epiphanic form of a divine N arne. Accordingly his
prayer does not consist in a request ( the Ofis have always stood
in horror of that kind of prayer )27 but in his actual mode of
being ( like the prayer of the heliotrope turning toward its
heavenly Lord); it has the value of clarifying the degree of
spiritual aptitude he has attained, that is, the measure in which
he has become "capable of God. " But this measure is itself
determined by his own eternal condition, his archetypal in-
dividuality. "As thou wert in pre-eternity, that is to say, in
thine eternal virtuality, so wert thou manifested in thy present
condition. Everything that is present in the manifest being is
the form of what he was in his state of eternal virtuality. "28
It would be a mistake to find here the source of a causal deter-
minism of the current variety; more appropriately we might
liken this conception to Leibniz' "pre-established harmony. ~ Henry Corbin,#NFDB
694:Make a ritual ablution before each prayer, beginning every action with "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." First wash your hands, intending to pull them away from the affairs of this world. Then wash your mouth, remember and reciting God's name, purifying it in order to utter His Name. Wash your nose wishing to inhale the perfumes of the Divine. Wash your face feeling shame, and intending to wipe from it arrogance and hypocrisy. Wash your forearms trusting God to make you do what is good. Wet the top of your head feeling humility and wash your ears (in preparation) to hear the address of your Lord. Wash from your feet the dirt of the world so that you don't stain the sands of Paradise. Then thank and praise the Lord, and send prayers of peace and blessing upon our Master, who brought the canons of Islam and taught them to us.
After you leave the place of your ablution without turning your back to it, perform two cycles of prayer out of hope and thankfulness for His making you clean.
Next, stand in the place where you are going to make your prayers as if between the two hands of your Lord. Imagine, without forms and lines, that you are facing the Ka'bah, and that there is no one else on the face of this earth but you. Bring yourself to express your servanthood physically. Choose the verses you are going to recite, understanding their meanings within you. With the verses that start with "Say..." feel that you are talking to your Lord as He wishes you to do: let every word contain praise. Allow time between the sentences, contemplating what our Master, the Messenger of God, gave us, trying to keep it in your heart. Believing that your destiny is written on your forehead, place it humbly on the floor in prostration. When you finish and give salutations to your right and to your left, keep your eyes on yourself and your connection with your Lord, for you are saluting the One under whose power you are and who is within you... ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
695:In 1517, few western Christians worried that Muslims might have a more convincing message to offer than Christianity or that Christian youth might start converting to Islam. The Turks were at the gate, it's true, but they weren't in the living room, and they certainly weren't in the bedroom. The Turks posed a threat to the physical health of Christians, but not to the spiritual health of Christianity.
Muslims were in a different boat. Almost from the start, as I've discussed, Islam had offered its political and military successes as an argument for its doctrines and a proof of its revelations. The process began with those iconic early battles at Badr and Uhud, when the outcome of battle was shown to have theological meaning. The miracle of expansion and the linkage of victory with truth continued for hundreds of years.
Then came the Mongol holocaust, which forced Muslim theologians to reexamine their assumptions. That process spawned such reforms as Ibn Taymiyah. Vis-a-vis the Mongols, however, the weakness of Muslims was concrete and easy to understand. The Mongols had greater killing power, but they came without an ideology. When the bloodshed wound down and the human hunger for meaning bubbled up, as it always does, they had nothing to offer. In fact, they themselves converted. Islam won in the end, absorbing the Mongols as it has absorbed the Turks before them and the Persians before that.
...
The same could not be said of the new overlords. The Europeans came wrapped in certainty about their way of life and peddling their own ideas of ultimate truth. They didn't challenge Islam so much as ignore it, unless they were missionaries, in which case they simply tried to convert the Muslims. If they noticed Islam, they didn't bother to debate it (missionaries are not in the debating business) but only smiled at it as one would at the toys of a child or the quaint relics of a more primitive people. How maddening for the Muslim cognoscenti! And yet, what could Muslims do about it? ~ Tamim Ansary,#NFDB
696:Allah manifests Himself in a special way in every creature. He is the Outwardly Manifest in
every graspable sense, and He is the Inwardly Hidden from every understanding except the
understanding of the one who says that the universe is His form (4) and His He-ness
(huwiyya), and it is the name, the Outwardly Manifest. Since He is, by meaning, the spirit of
whatever is outwardly manifest, He is also the Inwardly Hidden. His relation to whatever is
manifested of the forms of the world is the relation of the governing spirit to the form. The
definition of man, for example, includes both his inward and outward; and it is the same with
every definable thing. Allah is defined in every definition, yet the forms of the universe are
not held back and He is not contained by them. One only knows the limits of each of their
forms according to what is attained by each knower of his form. For that reason, one cannot
know the definition of Allah, for one would only know His definition by knowing the
definition of every form. This is impossible to attain, so the definition of Allah is impossible.
Similarly, whoever connects without disconnection has given limits to Allah and does not
know Him. Whoever combines connection and disconnection in his gnosis, and describes
Allah with both aspects in general - because it is impossible to conceive in detail because we
lack the ability to encompass all the forms which the universe contains - has known Him in
general and not in particular, as he knows himself generally and not in particular. For that
reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, linked knowledge (ma'rifa) of
Allah to knowledge of oneself and said, "Whoever knows himself knows his Lord." Allah
says, "We will show them Our signs on the horizons (what is outside of you) and in
themselves (what is your source) until it is clear to them (the contemplators) that it is the
Truth," (41:53) inasmuch as you are His form and He is your spirit. You are to Him as your
body-form is to you, and He is to you as the spirit which governs the body. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
697:Man schreibt das Jahr 1000.
Soeben hat in Bagdad der Buchhändler Ibn an-Nadim seinen „Katalog der Wissenschaften“ veröffentlicht. Das Werk enthält in zehn Bänden die Titel aller bisher in arabischer Sprache erschienenen Bücher aus Philosophie, Astronomie, Mathematik, Physik, Chemie, Medizin.
Studierende aus allen Gegenden des Orients und selbst aus dem Okzident lockt der Ruf von Cordobas hohen Schulen und von seiner Bibliothek, deren halbe Million Bücher einer der gelehrtesten Männer seiner Zeit, der vor vierundzwanzig Jahren verstorbene Kalif al-Hakam II. durch Dutzende von Aufkäufern gesammelt und größtenteils mit seinen Randbemerkungen versehen hat.
In Kairo betreuen mehrere hundert Bibliothekare in den beiden kalifischen Bibliotheken zusammen zwei Millionen zweihundert Bände; das entspricht dem Zwanzigfachen des Bestandes an Buchrollen der einstigen Bibliothek von Alexandrien.
„Es ist notorisch, daß es in Rom niemand gibt, der so viel Bildung besitzt, daß er sich zum Türsteher eignet. Mit welcher Stirn kann der sich anmaßen zu lehren, der selbst nichts gelernt hat!“ stöhnt der Mann, der am besten wissen muß, Gerbert von Aurillac, der im letzten der tausend Jahre nach Christo – 999 – selber in Rom den Stuhl Petri besteigt.
In diesem Jahr verfaßt Abulkasis das durch Jahrhunderte gültige Standardwerk der Chirugie, erörtert Albiruni, an universaler Geistigkeit der Aristoteles der Araber, die Drehung der Erde um die Sonne, entdeckt Alhazen die Gesetze des Sehens und experimentiert mit der camera obscura und mit sphärischen, zylindrischen und konischen Spiegeln und Linsen.
In diesem Jahr, in dem die arabische Welt dem Scheitelpunkt ihres goldenen Zeitalters entgegeneilt, erwartet das Abendland erschreckt, geängstigt das Ende der Zeiten. Mit dem ekstatischen Ausruf: „Jetzt kommt Christus, mit Feuer das Weltall zu richten!“ pilgert der zwanzigjährige Kaiserjüngling Otto III. „wegen begangener Verbrechen der strengen Regel des heiligen Romualdus gehorchend mit nackten Füßen von der Stadt Rom zum Berge Garganus“.
Und der junge Avicenna, eben zwanzigjährig wie er, beginnt die Welt mit seinem weithin strahlenden Ruhm zu erfüllen. ~ Sigrid Hunke,#NFDB
698:What has just been said of the followers of different faiths is even more patent in their mystics. Despite the abrogation of their religions, we do not doubt the possibility of mystics of other faiths reaching a higher spiritual plane, for when the lower soul is negated and sublimated by spiritual disciplines, the powers of the higher soul seldom fail to appear, and it is not impossible that in such a condition it might behold Ultimate Reality, which is, after all, as real and objective as Detroit or anything else in the physical world.
But what a difference between the few hundred Jewish, Christian, or even American Indian mystics of the Western tradition who left any record of their experiences-men and women such as Catherine of Siena, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Francis of Assisi, Moses Cordovero, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John Tauler, Henry Suso, Jakob Böhme, Handsome Lake, Isaac Luria, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross-and the literally thousands of Sufi masters of the Islamic tradition who founded the great mystical orders, had immense influence for centuries at all levels of society, produced an unparalleled and monumental body of mystic literature in poetry and prose, and left countless adepts in the beatitude of the Divine Presence, a living tradition that continues to this day. What other religion has ever seen a Mathnawi like Rumi’s? There is a tremendous difference between a few outstanding spiritual personalities that appeared at times and places in the West, like occasional watering places scattered across a hinterland, and the throngs of mystics of the Islamic milieu, on a sea of the Divine whose tides flooded regularly.
Not only in the numbers of contemplatives, but in the abidingness of their personal experiences, there is a great difference between the mystics of Islam, who proceeded from the light of true monotheism to a state of perpetual illumination, men such as Sahl al-Tustari, al-Ghawth Abu Madyan, Shams al-Tabrizi, Ibn ‘Arabi, Abul Hasan al-Shadhili, and others whose testimony is unambiguous, and those of other faiths, who through self-mortification caught momentary glimpses of the Godhead in “experiences” they then translated to others in spiritual depositions. ~ Nuh Ha Mim Keller,#NFDB
699:- The Azan story -
The five daily ritual prayers were regularly performed in congregation, and when the time for each prayer came the people would assemble at the site where the Mosque was being built. Everyone judged of the time by the position of the sun in the sky, or by the first signs of its light on the eastern horizon or by the dimming of its glow in the west after sunset; but opinions could differ, and the Prophet felt the need for a means of summoning the people to prayer when the right time had come. At first he thought of appointing a man to blow a horn like that of the Jews, but later he decided on a wooden clapper, ndqiis, such as the Oriental Christians used at that time, and two pieces of wood were fashioned together for that purpose. But they were never destined to be used; for one night a man of Khazraj, 'Abd Allah ibn Zayd, who had been at the Second 'Aqabah, had a dream whieh the next day he recounted to the Prophet: "There passed by me a man wearing two green garments and he carried in his hand a ndqiis, so I said unto him: "0 slave of God, wilt thou sell me that naqusi" "What wilt thou do with it?" he said. "We will summon the people to prayer with it," I answered. "Shall I not show thee a better way?" he said. "What way is that?" I asked, and he answered: "That thou shouldst say: God is most Great, Alldhu Akbar." The man in green repeated this magnification four times, then each of the following twice: I testify that there is no god but God; I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God; come unto the prayer; come unto salvation; God is most Great; and then once again there is no god but God.
The Prophet said that this was a true vision, and he told him to go to Bilal, who had an excellent voice, and teach him the words exactly as he had heard them in his sleep. The highest house in the neighbourhood of the Mosque belonged to a woman of the clan of Najjar, and Bilal would come there before every dawn and would sit on the roof waiting for the daybreak. When he saw the first faint light in the east he would stretch out his arms and say in supplication: "0 God I praise Thee, and I ask Thy Help for Quraysh, that they may accept Thy religion." Then he would stand and utter the call to prayer. ~ Martin Lings,#NFDB
700:With my very own hands I laid my little daughter to rest because
she is of my very flesh,
Thus am I constrained to submit to the rule of parting, so that my
hand is now empty and contains nothing.
Bound to this moment we are in, caught between the yesterday that
has gone and the tomorrow that is yet to come.
This flesh of mine is as pure silver, while my inner reality is as pure
gold.
Like a bow have I grown, and my true posture is as my rib.
My Lord it is who says that He has created me in a state of
suffering and loss.
How then can I possibly hope for any rest, dwelling as I do in such
a place and state?
Were it not for that state I would be neither child nor parent.
Nor indeed would there be any to compare with me as is the case
with my Creator.
It is surely a case of the qualification being one with respect to
an essence which is full of implicit multiplicity.
Because I am for my Creator, in our creation like one of a
multitude.
Then my God alighted between us, in the very fabric of existence -
not merely a figment of belief.
All with a firm, well established emergence, to which I may trace
my antecedents with confidence.
Thus, on the one hand, I can say that I am a mortal like yourselves,
while You do vouch for me.
Always, however, on the understanding that I am not ultimately
a 'like', thus to maintain my integrity.
For You have banished all 'being like' from me in the pre-eternal
state; and that is my conviction.
See how sublime and lofty is my garden of paradise, secure in the
company of matchless beautiful maidens.
He speaks of this as we have also in our book the Maqsid ai-Asm'.
Is not created nature His family and people, as also the very
essence of the Unique One?
Consider how He is a consort for her and how they came together
upon my being, so that it split asunder.
These words of mine are not written after long deliberation, but
have been a part of me eternally.
It was none but the apostle of the Eternal One who activated them
within me.
He it was who dictated it, leaving me to write it with my hand.
Thus is the matter, and none truly knows it,
Save a leader of the spirit surpassing in goodness or one of the
golden mean.
Indeed, one who is 'other' cannot know it now or ever.
Every branch reverts to its root, no more in any way than when
it sprang forth.
~ Ibn Arabi, With My Very Own Hands
,#NFDB
701:Another obstacle was the stubbornness of the countries the pipeline had to cross, particularly Syria, all of which were demanding what seemed to be exorbitant transit fees. It was also the time when the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel were aggravating American relations with the Arab countries. But the emergence of a Jewish state, along with the American recognition that followed, threatened more than transit rights for the pipeline. Ibn Saud was as outspoken and adamant against Zionism and Israel as any Arab leader. He said that Jews had been the enemies of Arabs since the seventh century. American support of a Jewish state, he told Truman, would be a death blow to American interests in the Arab world, and should a Jewish state come into existence, the Arabs “will lay siege to it until it dies of famine.” When Ibn Saud paid a visit to Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters in 1947, he praised the oranges he was served but then pointedly asked if they were from Palestine—that is, from a Jewish kibbutz. He was reassured; the oranges were from California. In his opposition to a Jewish state, Ibn Saud held what a British official called a “trump card”: He could punish the United States by canceling the Aramco concession. That possibility greatly alarmed not only the interested companies, but also, of course, the U.S. State and Defense departments. Yet the creation of Israel had its own momentum. In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended the partition of Palestine, which was accepted by the General Assembly and by the Jewish Agency, but rejected by the Arabs. An Arab “Liberation Army” seized the Galilee and attacked the Jewish section of Jerusalem. Violence gripped Palestine. In 1948, Britain, at wit’s end, gave up its mandate and withdrew its Army and administration, plunging Palestine into anarchy. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish National Council proclaimed the state of Israel. It was recognized almost instantly by the Soviet Union, followed quickly by the United States. The Arab League launched a full-scale attack. The first Arab-Israeli war had begun. A few days after Israel’s proclamation of statehood, James Terry Duce of Aramco passed word to Secretary of State Marshall that Ibn Saud had indicated that “he may be compelled, in certain circumstances, to apply sanctions against the American oil concessions… not because of his desire to do so but because the pressure upon him of Arab public opinion was so great that he could no longer resist it.” A hurriedly done State Department study, however, found that, despite the large reserves, the Middle East, excluding Iran, provided only 6 percent of free world oil supplies and that such a cut in consumption of that oil “could be achieved without substantial hardship to any group of consumers. ~ Daniel Yergin, #NFDB
702:The New Yorker (The New Yorker) - Clip This Article on Location 1510 | Added on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 5:42:23 PM FICTION THE DUNIAZáT BY SALMAN RUSHDIE In the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd, once the qadi , or judge, of Seville and most recently the personal physician to the Caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub in his home town of Córdoba, was formally discredited and disgraced on account of his liberal ideas, which were unacceptable to the increasingly powerful Berber fanatics who were spreading like a pestilence across Arab Spain, and was sent to live in internal exile in the small village of Lucena, a village full of Jews who could no longer say they were Jews because they had been forced to convert to Islam. Ibn Rushd, a philosopher who was no longer permitted to expound his philosophy, all of whose writing had been banned and burned, felt instantly at home among the Jews who could not say they were Jews. He had been a favorite of the Caliph of the present ruling dynasty, the Almohads, but favorites go out of fashion, and Abu Yusuf Yaqub had allowed the fanatics to push the great commentator on Aristotle out of town. The philosopher who could not speak his philosophy lived on a narrow unpaved street in a humble house with small windows and was terribly oppressed by the absence of light. He set up a medical practice in Lucena, and his status as the ex-physician of the Caliph himself brought him patients; in addition, he used what assets he had to enter modestly into the horse trade, and also financed the making of tinajas , the large earthenware vessels, in which the Jews who were no longer Jews stored and sold olive oil and wine. One day soon after the beginning of his exile, a girl of perhaps sixteen summers appeared outside his door, smiling gently, not knocking or intruding on his thoughts in any way, and simply stood there waiting patiently until he became aware of her presence and invited her in. She told him that she was newly orphaned, that she had no source of income, but preferred not to work in the whorehouse, and that her name was Dunia, which did not sound like a Jewish name because she was not allowed to speak her Jewish name, and, because she was illiterate, she could not write it down. She told him that a traveller had suggested the name and said it was Greek and meant “the world,” and she had liked that idea. Ibn Rushd, the translator of Aristotle, did not quibble with her, knowing that it meant “the world” in enough tongues to make pedantry unnecessary. “Why have you named yourself after the world?” he asked her, and she replied, looking him in the eye as she spoke, “Because a world will flow from me and those who flow from me will spread across the world.” Being a man of reason, Ibn Rushd did not guess that the girl was a supernatural creature, a jinnia, of the tribe of female jinn: a grand princess of that tribe, on an earthly adventure, pursuing her fascination with human men in general and brilliant ones in particular. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
703:Under the impact of Western cultural influences, the souls of many Muslim men and women are slowly shrivelling. They are letting themselves be led away from their erstwhile belief that an improvement of living standards should be but a means to improving man’s spiritual perceptions; they are falling into the same idolatry of ‘progress’ into which the Western world fell after it reduced religion to a mere melodious tinkling somewhere in the background of happening; and are thereby growing smaller in stature, not greater: for all cultural imitation, opposed as it is to creativeness, is bound to make a people small...
Not that the Muslims could not learn much from the West, especially in the fields of science and technology. But, then, acquisition of scientific notions and methods is not really ‘imitation’: and certainly not in the case of a people whose faith commands them to search for knowledge wherever it is to be found. Science is neither Western nor Eastern, for all scientific discoveries are only links in an unending chain of intellectual endeavour which embraces mankind as a whole. Every scientist builds on the foundations supplied by his predecessors, be they of his own nation or of another; and this process of building, correcting and improving goes on and on, from man to man, from age to age, from civilisation to civilisation: so that the scientific achievements of a particular age or civilisation can never be said to ‘belong’ to that age or civilisation. At various times one nation, more vigorous than others, is able to contribute more to the general fund of knowledge; but in the long run the process is shared, and legitimately so, by all. There was a time when the civilisation of the Muslims was more vigorous than the civilisation of Europe. It transmitted to Europe many technological inventions of a revolutionary nature, and more than that: the very principles of that ‘scientific method’ on which modern science and civilisation are built. Nevertheless, Jabir ibn Hayyan’s fundamental discoveries in chemistry did not make chemistry an ‘Arabian’ science; nor can algebra and trigonometry be described as ‘Muslim’ sciences, although the one was evolved by Al-Khwarizmi and the other by Al-Battani, both of whom were Muslims: just as one cannot speak of an ‘English’ Theory of Gravity, although the man who formulated it was an Englishman. All such achievements are the common property of the human race. If, therefore, the Muslims adopt, as adopt they must, modern methods in science and technology, they will do not more than follow the evolutionary instinct which causes men to avail themselves of other men’s experiences. But if they adopt - as there is no need for them to do - Western forms of life, Western manners and customs and social concepts, they will not gain thereby: for what the West can give them in this respect will not be superior to what their own culture has given them and to what their own faith points the way.
If the Muslims keep their heads cool and accept process as a means and not an end in itself, they may not only retain their own inner freedom but also, perhaps, pass on to Western man the lost secret of life’s sweetness... ~ Muhammad Asad,#NFDB
704:When he brought the dead to life, it was said that it was him and not him. The onlookers fell
into bewilderment (hayra) just as the man of intellect becomes bewildered in his logical
reflection when he sees an individual human being bringing the dead to life, as that is one of
the divine qualities - bringing to life with speech, not mere bringing with animation. (12) The
beholder is bewildered because he sees the form of a man who possesses a divine effect. That
led some of them to speak of that as "incarnation" and say that 'Isa was Allah since it was by
Him that 'Isa brought the dead to life. Thus they are charged with disbelief (kufr) which is the
veil because they veil Allah, who brings the dead to life, by the human form of 'Isa. Allah
said, "They are unbelievers who say, 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Maryam.'" (13) They
fell into both error and disbelief at the end of all they said, not because they say that he is
Allah nor by calling him the son of Maryam. But they made the attribution that Allah, insofar
as He brought the dead to life, was contained in the human form of the nasut which is called
the son of Maryam. There is no doubt that 'Isa was the son of Maryam. The hearer imagines
that they have attributed divinity to the form, and so they make divinity the same as the form.
That is not what they do. Rather, they make divine He-ness the subject in the human form which is the son of Maryam. They should differentiate between the form of 'Isa and the
divine principle because they have made the form the same as the principle. Jibril was in the
form of man who did not breathe and then he breathed. One differentiates between the form
and the breath, and the breath from the form. The form existed without the breath - thus the
breath is not part of its essential definition. For that reason, differences occurred among the
people of different [Christian] parties regarding 'Isa and what he was. Whoever looks at him
in respect to his mortal human form, says that he is the son of Maryam. Whoever looks at him
in respect to his mortal representational form relates him to Jibril. Whoever looks at him in
respect to what was manifested from him of bringing the dead to life, relates him to Allah by
the quality of the spirit, and says that he is the Spirit of Allah, (14) that is, by Him life was
manifested in whomever received his breath. Sometimes Allah is imagined to be the passive
principle in 'Isa, and sometimes the angel is imagined in him, and sometimes mortal
humanity is imagined in him. So the conception of everyone is based on what predominates
that person. 'Isa is the Word of Allah, (15) the Spirit of Allah, (16) and the slave of Allah.
(17) That is something which no one else has in the sensory form. Indeed, each person is
attached to his father of form, not to the One who breathed his spirit into the human form.
When Allah fashioned the human body as He said, "When I have shaped him," (15:29;38:72)
then He breathed into Him, that was from His spirit. Thus in its being and source, the spirit is
ascribed to Allah. That is not the case with 'Isa. The shaping of his body and mortal form is
implied in the breath of the spirit. Others, as we mentioned, are not like that. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
705:O who wants a share of the pleasure of closeness
If you want all goodness to appear in you
The councillor is honest, so heed this news:
There is no pleasure in life except accompanying the [fuqara]
for they are the sultans and the masters and the princes [umara]
They are people who are satisfied with little, of clothing
and food, and care not for the world.
Their hearts are free of whispering temptations
So accompany them and show proper manners in their councils
and leave your fortunes behind, no matter how much they offer to bring you upfront
Take their Path if you want to follow them
And leave your claims, and be careful not to question them
abut their purpose, and let their benefit be your intention
And seize the time and always attend with them
and know that pleasure and content distinguish who attended
Be content with them, they elevate you, and you reach.
If they register you, hang on; and if they erase you, vanish;
and if they don't feed you, starve; and if they feed you, then eat.
And abide by silence, except if you are asked, then say
I have no knowledge, and conceal yourself in ignorance
And don't be critical of people's flaws
even if it is apparent to existence
and look with an eye that sees only goodness and that does not see defects in anyone
And see defects only in you; and have faith
that your have a flaw that would have been apparent, but was concealed
With this you attain what you hope for of proper manners [adab]
Humble your self [nafs] to them in doubtless humility
a humility that takes the place of proper manners [adab]
And lay down your head and ask for forgiveness for no reason
and stand up on the feet of fairness apologizing
If you want a light for the Path from them then elevate
above everything they hate of your actions
and make your self [nafs] persist in doing good
If you commit a fault, apologize, and hold up
your apology for what you committed and what happened from you
Flatter them, and say: heal with your piety
with the cream of your pardon, the injury of your wound
It is me who is wrong, so grant me your pure advise
And say: your slave is more deserving of your pardon
so pardon and be lenient and clement, O [fuqara]
If you transgress, don't fear their enthusiasm
they are more sublime than you be harmed by their company
they are not the mighty whose power harm you
They are more deserving of kindness, which is their character
so do not feel or expect from them any evil or harm
If you want want them to guide you along the Path of piety
strive to fulfill what they request of you
immediately and don't delay it saying tomorrow
Always be generous in giving to the companions
actually and figuratively; and overlook if they slip
Always be truthful with them, and don't be dishonest
because they are truthful people, masters and chiefs
and pardon anyone of them who ever offended you
Observe the Sheikh carefully in his states, and hopefully
a trace of his achievement might appear in you.
Ask him to pray for you, you profit from his prayer
and through it you attain what you hope for of his blessing
and improve your assumption of him, and realize his sanctity
Wholeheartedly do the effort, and strive to serve him,
perhaps you please him, and take care not to become bored
And memorize his advise, and increase your attending to him
and answer him immediately if he calls you
and lower your voice in confounding out of obedience
For his pleasure begets The Lord's pleasure and begets obedience
He will be pleased with you, so be cautious not to leave him
And accompany whose self [nafs] is a gentle self [nafs]
in this time, for the selves [nafs] are generally despairing
of them, and their craft is underestimated by the people
And know that the people's Path needs study
and the state who claims it today is as you see.
If they distance me, because of their affection,
I should grieve for what I suffer due to parting with them
due to my breaking from them after accompanying them
When will I see them, and how will I reach seeing them
or reach my ear hearing news about them?
My lagging behind prevents me from being suitable for them
My origins are from them, so blame me, I do not blame them
O Lord, please grant me piety to be suitable to befriend them
I have no one, and how is it possible for the like of me to compete with them
over resources in which I did not know impurity?
Their traits are venerated beyond being countable
their appearances have pointed to their hidden inners
their glory is through obeying The Lord in this world
I love them and shelter them and prefer them
in my heart; specially a group of them.
They have become superior above other people by obediences
their companion adopts proper manners [adab] from them
and how unlucky is he who misses their company
A people with noble characteristics - wherever they sit,
the place continues to be fragrant with their traces
So devote to them and do not part with them and increase in attachment
and if you miss them, then weep out of sorrow
They are a clan who honor whoever relates to them
Sufism presents gifts from their manners and traits.
Their perfect harmony from them delights the eye
I 'wagged the tail' of pride of love because of them
when they accepted me as a slave of their love
and their right to their love I never forget
They are the people I love and my loved ones who
proudly boast dragging the tails of honor
I cut my heart to pieces composing poetry in their love
and I have begged The Lord by them, desiring
that The Lord forgives me together with all the Muslims
I am still united with and connected to them in Allah,
and our sins there by Him forgiven and pardoned
O whoever was in this council with us
please ask The Lord to wipe our sins,
and pray for the one who 'fived' the beautiful original
And then prayers upon the selected one, Sayyidina
Mohammed, the best of whoever fulfilled and whoever pledged
~ Ibn Arabi, Modification Of The R Poem
,#NFDB
27 Poetry
6 Occultism
4 Psychology
3 Fiction
2 Sufism
1 Philosophy
1 Christianity
1 Baha i Faith
16 Solomon ibn Gabirol
7 Carl Jung
5 Ibn Ata Illah
5 Ibn Arabi
3 Jorge Luis Borges
3 H P Lovecraft
2 Al-Ghazali
3 The Secret Doctrine
3 Mysterium Coniunctionis
3 Lovecraft - Poems
3 Aion
3 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
2 The Alchemy of Happiness
2 Labyrinths
1.00 - Introduction to Alchemy of Happiness, #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
The practical religion taught in these homilies will give a favorable opinion of the state of mind of the more intelligent Mussulmans. They contain not the Mohammedanism of the creed or the catechism, but of the closet and the pulpit. The tenor of the book establishes the truth of Ibn Khallikan's remark in his Biographical Dictionary that "Ghazzali's ruling passion was making public exhortations."
While perusing these pages, and noticing how much of the language of Ghazzali corresponds in its representations of God, of a holy life and of eternity, with the solemn instructions to which we have listened from our infancy, we may think of the magicians who imitated the miracles of Moses with their enchantments. Yet assuredly a vivid and respectful interest must be awakened in our minds for the races and nations, whose ideas of their relations as immortal beings arc so serious and earnest.
1.01 - Historical Survey, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Abraham Ibn Wakar, Pico di Mirandola, Reuchlin,
Moses Cordovero, and Isaac Luria, are a few of the more
1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Isaac Ibn Latif (1220-1290 a.d.) also furnishes us with a mathematical definition of the processes of evolution :
" As the point extends, and thickens into a line, the line into the plane, the plane into the expanded body, so God's manifestation unfolds itself."
--
Myers lays down the principle that matter (the spiritual passive substance of Ibn Gabirol) always corresponds with the female passive principle to be influenced by the active or the male, the formative principle. In short, Binah is the substantive vehicle of every possible phenomenon, physical or mental, just as Chokmah is the essence of consciousness.
Its colour is black, since it is negative and receptive of all things ; the precious stone attri buted hereto being the
1.05 - On the Love of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Yahya Ibn Muaz relates, "I watched Bayazid Bistami at prayer through one entire night. When he had finished he stood up and said, 'O Lord! some of Thy servants have asked and obtained of Thee the power to perform miracles, to walk on the sea, and to fly in, the air, but this I do not ask; some have asked and obtained treasures, but these I do not ask.' Then he turned, and, seeing me, said, 'Are you there, Yahya?' I replied, 'Yes.' He asked, 'Since when? I answered, 'For a long time.' I then asked him to reveal to me some of his spiritual experiences. 'I will reveal,' he answered, 'what is lawful to tell you. The Almighty
{p. 128}
1.07 - The Literal Qabalah (continued), #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
" It is beyond a doubt that the resemblance is quite a matter of accident. . . . The philosophy of Salomon Ibn
Gabirol, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Philonism, and other systems have all left indelible traces (i.e. on the evolution of the Qabalah). But Christianity, be it remembered, besides being a debtor to Judaism, is a debtor to these sources as well ; so that what appears to be Christian may be, in reality, Jewish ; a development of the original material by an unbroken succession of Jewish minds. . . . But it is beyond dispute that the Christian Trinity and the trinities of the ten Sefirot lie in quite distinct planes."
1.08 - The Historical Significance of the Fish, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
mention as an example a story told by Ibn Ezra. In Spain, he
says, there was a great sage who was reputed to be unable to
1.12 - The Sacred Marriage, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
The famous Arab traveller Ibn Batutah has described the custom and
the manner in which it came to an end. He was assured by several
1.14 - Bibliography, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Albumasar. See Ja'far Ibn Muhammad (Abu Ma'shar) al-Balkhi.
Alciati, Andrea. Emblemata. Padua, 1621 (another edn., 1661).
--
Ja'far Ibn Muhammad (Abu Ma'shar) al-Balkh I (Albumasar). De
magnis coniunctionibus. Venice and Augsburg, 1489.
--
Muhammad Ibn Jarir Abu-Jafar al-Tabari. Chronique. Translated
(into French) by Hermann Zotenberg. 4 vols. Paris and (vol. 4)
--
Tabari. See Muhammad Ibn Jarir Abu-Jafar al TabarT.
Tabula smaragdina. See (A) Ars chemica, ii; Ruska.
1.15 - Index, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Albumasar (Ja'far Ibn Muhammad
[Abu Ma'shar] al-Balkhi), 75, 76-
--
Ja'far Ibn Muhammad (Abu Ma'-
shar) al-Balkhl, see Albumasar
--
Thabit Ibn Qurrah, 126
Thales, 157, 199
1.63 - Fear, a Bad Astral Vision, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Isaak ben Hiddekel was a Jew of Baghdad. Though not in his first or even second youth, he was in such health, enjoyed such prosperity, and commanded such universal respect and devotion that every moment of his life was dear to him. Among his pleasures one of the chief was the friendship of the aged Mohammed Ibn Mahmed of Bassorah, reputed a sage of no common stature, for (it was said) his piety had been rewarded with such gifts as the power to communicate with Archangels, angels, the Jinn, and even with Gabriel himself. However this may have been, he held Isaak in very great esteem and affection.
It was shortly after leaving his friend's house after a short visit to Baghdad that he met Death. "Good morning," said the saint. "I do hope you're not going to Isaak's, he is a very dear friend of mine." "No!" said Death, "not just now; but since you mention it, I shall be with him at moonrise on the thirteenth of next month. Sorry he's a friend of yours; but no one knows better than you do that these things can't be helped."
1f.lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
sawe for y^e firste Time that fface spoke of by Ibn Schacabao in ye
. And IT said, that y^e III Psalme in y^e Liber-Damnatus holdes
1f.lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
sign or blow the powder of Ibn Ghazi at it, and it is near like them
at May-Eve on the Hill. The other face may wear off some. I wonder
1f.lovecraft - The Festival, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn
Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and
1.ia - As Night Let its Curtains Down in Folds, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Michael A. Sells Original Language Arabic Peace, Salma, and peace to those who halt awhile at al-Hima. It is right for one like me to greet you. Would it have hurt her to return the greeting? Ah, but a statuette goddess is beyond control. They left as night let its curtains down in folds. I told them of a lover strange and lost, Surrounded by yearnings, struck by their arrows on target always, wherever he goes. She smiled, showing her side teeth. Lightning flashed. I couldn't tell which of the two split the darkness. Isn't it enough she said I am in his heart where each moment he sees me, isn't it, no? [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells
1.iai - A feeling of discouragement when you slip up, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic A feeling of discouragement when you slip up is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds. Your desire to withdraw from everything when Allah has involved you in the world of means is a hidden appetite. Your desire for involvement with the world of means when Allah has withdrawn you from it is a fall from high aspiration. Aspiration which rushes on ahead cannot break through the walls of destiny. Give yourself a rest from managing! When Someone Else is doing it for you, don't you start doing it for yourself! [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
1.ia - If what she says is true, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
English version by Maurice Gloton Original Language Arabic If what she says is true And she feels for me The obsessive desire That I feel for her, Then, in the sweltering heat of noon, In her tent, in secret, We will meet To fulfill the promise completely... We will reveal the passion We feel one for the other As well as the harshness of the trial And the pains of ecstasy. [1564.jpg] -- from Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks) , by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi <
1.iai - How can you imagine that something else veils Him, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is manifest by everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is made manifest in everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is manifest to everything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He was the One who was Manifest before there was anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is more manifest than anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One with whom there is nothing else? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when He is the One who is nearer to you than anything? How can you imagine that something else veils Him when if it had not been for Him, there would not have been anything? A marvel! See how existence becomes manifest in non-existence! How the in-time holds firm alongside Him whose attribute is eternal! [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston <
1.iai - How utterly amazing is someone who flees from something he cannot escape, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
by Ibn Ata Illah English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic How utterly amazing is someone who flees from something he cannot escape to seek something that will not last! "It is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts in the breasts are blind." Do not travel from phenomenal being to phenomenal being. You will be like the donkey going around at the mill. It travels to what it set out from. Travel from phenomenal beings to the Maker of Being. "And the final end is to your Lord." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston <
1.ia - In Memory of Those Who Melt the Soul Forever, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Michael A. Sells Original Language Arabic Their spring meadows are desolate now. Still, desire for them lives always in our heart, never dying. These are their ruins. These are the tears in memory of those who melt the soul forever. I called out, following after love-dazed: You so full with beauty, I've nothing! I rubbed my face in the dust, laid low by the fever of love. By the privilege of the right of desire for you don't shatter the heart Of a man drowned in his words, burned alive in sorrow. Nothing can save him now. You want a fire? Take it easy. This passion is incandescent. Touch it. It will light your own. [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells <
1.ia - In the Mirror of a Man, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
English version by Michael A. Sells Original Language Arabic She said: I wondered at a love that struts its glory through the garden's flowers as they blossom. I said: don't wonder at what you see. You see yourself in the mirror of a man. [2240.jpg] -- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells <
1.iai - The best you can seek from Him, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic The best you can seek from Him is what He seeks from you. A sign of being deluded is: sorrow over loss of obedience while failing to get on with it. [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston <
1.iai - The light of the inner eye lets you see His nearness to you, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic The light of the inner eye lets you see His nearness to you. The source of the inner eye lets you see your non-existence by your existence. The truth of the inner eye lets you see His existence, not your own non-existence or existence. "Allah was and there was nothing with Him. He is now as He was." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston <
1.iai - Those travelling to Him, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Victor Danner Original Language Arabic Those travelling to Him are guided by the light of turning their faces toward Him. Those who have arrived have the light of face-to-face encounter. The former belong to lights, but the lights belong to the latter because they belong to Allah, and are His alone. "Say: 'Allah' then leave them plunging in their games." [2166.jpg] -- from Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston <
1.ia - When we came together, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
English version by Maurice Gloton Original Language Arabic When we came together to bid each other adieu You would have thought that we were Like a double letter At the moment of union and embrace. Even if we are made up Of a double nature, Our glances see only One unified being... I am absent and therefore desire Causes my soul to pass away. Meeting does not cure me Because it persists both in absence and in presence. Meeting her produced in me That which I had not imagined at all. Healing is a new ill, Which comes of ecstasy... Because as for me, I see a being Whose beauty increases, Brilliant and superb At every one of our meetings. One does not escape in ecstasy That exists in kinship With beauty that continues to intensify To the point of perfect harmony. [1564.jpg] -- from Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks) , by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi <
1.sig - Before I was, Thy mercy came to me, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Come to me at dawn, my beloved, and go with me, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Ecstasy, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Humble of Spirit, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - I look for you early, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - I Sought Thee Daily, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Lord of the World, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Rise and open the door that is shut, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - The Sun, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Thou art One, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Thou art the Supreme Light, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Thou Livest, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Where Will I Find You, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Who can do as Thy deeds, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - Who could accomplish what youve accomplished, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
1.sig - You are wise (from From Kingdoms Crown), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Solomon Ibn Gabirol
subject class:Poetry
3.04 - LUNA, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[170] In interpreting the words your understanding increases in my sister, etc., it is well to remember that a philosophical interpretation of myths had already grown up among the Stoics, which today we should not hesitate to describe as psychological. This work of interpretation was not interrupted by the development of Christianity but continued to be assiduously practised in a rather different form, namely in the hermeneutics of the Church Fathers, which was to have a decided influence on alchemical symbolism. The Johannine interpretation of Christ as the pre-worldly Logos is an early attempt of this kind to put into other words the meaning of Christs essence. The later medievalists, and in particular the natural philosophers, made the Sapientia Dei the nucleus of their interpretation of nature and thus created a new nature-myth. In this they were very much influenced by the writings of the Arabs and of the Harranites, the last exponents of Greek philosophy and gnosis, whose chief representative was Tabit Ibn Qurra in the tenth century. One of these writings, the Liber Platonis quartorum, is a dialogue in which Thebed (Tabit) speaks in person. In this treatise the intellect as a tool of natural philosophy plays a role that we do not meet again until the sixteenth century, in Gerhard Dorn. Pico della Mirandola appeals to the psychological interpretation of the ancients and mentions that the Greek Platonists described Sol as
251 and Luna as
5.01 - ADAM AS THE ARCANE SUBSTANCE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[552] We must now turn to the question of why it was that Adam should have been selected as a symbol for the prima materia or transformative substance. This was probably due, in the first place, to the fact that he was made out of clay, the ubiquitous materia vilis that was axiomatically regarded as the prima materia and for that very reason was so tantalizingly difficult to find, although it was before all eyes. It was a piece of the original chaos, of the massa confusa, not yet differentiated but capable of differentiation; something, therefore, like shapeless, embryonic tissue. Everything could be made out of it.17 For us the essential feature of the prima materia is that it was defined as the massa confusa and chaos, referring to the original state of hostility between the elements, the disorder which the artifex gradually reduced to order by his operations. Corresponding to the four elements there were four stages of the process (tetrameria), marked by four colours, by means of which the originally chaotic arcane substance finally attained to unity, to the One, the lapis, which at the same time was an homunculus.18 In this way the Philosopher repeated Gods work of creation described in Genesis 1. No wonder, therefore, that he called his prima materia Adam and asserted that it, like him, consisted or was made out of the four elements. For out of the four elements were created our Father Adam and his children, says the Turba.19 And Gabir Ibn Hayyan (Jabir)20 says in his Book of Balances:
The Pentateuch says, regarding the creation of the first being, that his body was composed of four things, which thereafter were transmitted by heredity: the warm, the cold, the moist, and the dry. He was in fact composed of earth and water, a body and a soul. Dryness came to him from the earth, moisture from the water, heat from the spirit, and cold from the soul.21
5.02 - THE STATUE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[560] The statue has a somewhat different significance in the treatise of Senior,50 who speaks of the water that is extracted from the hearts of statues. Senior is identical with the Arabian alchemist Ibn Umail al-Tamimi. He is reported to have opened tombs and sarcophagi in Egypt and to have removed the mummies.51 Mummies were supposed to possess medicinal virtues, and for this reason bits of corpses had long been mentioned in European pharmacy under the name of mumia.52 It is possible that mumia was also used for alchemical purposes. It is mentioned in Khunrath as synonymous with the prima materia.53 In Paracelsus, who may have been Khunraths source for this, Mumia balsamita has something to do with the elixir, and is even called the physical life-principle itself.54 Seniors statues may well have been Egyptian sarcophagi, which as we know were portrait-statues. In the same treatise there is a description of a statue (of Hermes Trismegistus) in an underground chapel. Senior says: I shall now make known to you what that wise man who made the statue has hidden in that house; in it he has described that whole science, as it were, in the figure, and taught his wisdom in the stone, and revealed it to the discerning. Michael Maier comments: That is the statue from whose heart the water is extracted. He also mentions that a stone statue which pronounced oracles was dedicated to Hermes in Achaia Pharis.
[561] In Raymond Lully (Ramon Llull) there is an oil that is extracted from the heart of statues, and moreover by the washing of water and the drying of fire.55 This is an extremely paradoxical operation in which the oil evidently serves as a mediating and uniting agent.
6.0 - Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[Kallid (Khalid Ibn-Jazid Ibn-Muawiyah).] "Liber secretorum." See
(A) Artis auri ferae, iv.
A Secret Miracle, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
96feeling of repentance. His studies of the work of Bhme, of Ibn Ezra, and of
Fludd had been characterized essentially by mere application; his translation
Averroes Search, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
bulgualid Muhammad Ibn-Ahmad Ibn-Muhammad Ibn-Rushd (a
century this long name would take to become Averroes, first becoming
--
vain he had compared the versions of the Nestorian Hunain Ibn-Ishaq and of
Abu-Bashar Mata. These two arcane words pullulated throughout the text of
--
148would not be bought with flattery; he observed that the learned Ibn Qutaiba
describes an excellent variety of the perpetual rose, which is found in the
--
"It is less difficult for me to admit an error in the learned Ibn Qutaiba,
or in the copyists, than to admit that the earth has roses with the profession
--
In praise of Ibn-Sharaf of Berja it has been repeated that only he could
imagine that the stars at dawn fall slowly, like leaves from a tree; if this
--
of the deserts. Alarmed, and not without reason, by Ibn-Sharaf's trivialities,
he said that in the ancients and in the Koran all poetry is contained and he
BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
of Ibn Gebirol," shows the Israelite using "Adonai," (Lord) instead of Eh'yeh (I am) and YHVH, and
adds that, while Adonai is rendered "Lord" in the Bible, "the lowest designation, or the Deity in
--
famous is the Book 'The Agriculture of the Nabatheans,' which has been translated by Ibn Wahohijah.
This book is full of hea thenish foolishness. . . . It speaks of preparations of TALISMANS, the drawing
--
the XIIIth century, as he is accused of being, since Ibn Gebirol gave out the same philosophical
teaching 225 years before the day of Moses de Leon. No true Kabalist or scholar will ever deny the
fact. It is certain that Ibn Gebirol based his doctrines upon the oldest Kabalistic sources, namely, the
"Chaldean Book of Numbers," as well as some no longer extant Midrashim, the same, no doubt, as
--
Zoharic system by Rabbi Moses. Ibn Gebirol never quoted from the Scriptures to enforce the teachings
(vide I. Myer's Qabbalah, p. 7). Moses de Leon has made of the Zohar that which it has remained to
--
of the Zohar (See Ibn Gebirol); the Jewish Sephiroth of the Seven splendours; the seven Gothic deities,
the seven worlds of the Chaldeans and their seven Spirits; the seven constellations mentioned by
BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
clearly expressed by the author of the "Qabbalah, from the philosophical writings of Ibn Gabirol," -"in the treatment of the Primal cause, two things must be considered, the Primal Cause per se, and the
relation and connection of the Primal Cause with the visible and unseen universe." Thus he shows the
BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
* Elsewhere, however, the identity is revealed. See supra, the quotation from Ibn-Gabirol and his 7
heavens, 7 earths, etc.
ENNEAD 06.05 - The One and Identical Being is Everywhere Present In Its Entirety.345, #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Among the Arabian philosophers that follow in his steps are Maimonides and Ibn Gebirol.741
Of the Christian fathers we first have two who paraphrased, rather than quoted him.
The Aleph, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Here are my reasons. Around 1867, Captain Burton held the post of British Consul in Brazil. In July, 1942, Pedro Henrquez Urea came across a manuscript of Burton's, in a library at Santos, dealing with the mirror which the Oriental world attributes to Iskander Zu al-Karnayn, or Alexander Bicornis of Macedonia. In its crystal the whole world was reflected. Burton mentions other similar devices -- the sevenfold cup of Kai Kosru; the mirror that Tariq Ibn-Ziyad found in a tower (Thousand and One Nights, 272); the mirror that Lucian of Samosata examined on the moon (True History, I, 26); the mirrorlike spear that the first book of Capella's Satyricon attri butes; Merlin's universal mirror, which was "round and hollow... and seem'd a world of glas" (The Faerie Queene, III, 2, 19) -- and adds this curious statement: "But the aforesaid objects (besides the disadvantage of not existing) are mere optical instruments. The Faithful who gather at the mosque of Amr, in Cairo, are acquainted with the fact that the entire universe lies inside one of the stone pillars that ring its central court... No one, of course, can actually see it, but those who lay an ear against the surface tell that after some short while they perceive its busy hum... The mosque dates from the seventh century; the pillars come from other temples of pre-Islamic religions, since, as Ibn-Khaldun has written: 'In nations founded by nomads, the aid of foreigners is essential in all concerning masonry.'"
Does this Aleph exist in the heart of a stone? Did I see it there in the cellar when I saw all things, and have I now forgotten it? Our minds are porous and forgetfulness seeps in; I myself am distorting and losing, under the wearing away of the years, the face of Beatriz.
The Book of Certitude - P1, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
Yea, in the writings and utterances of the Mirrors reflecting the sun of the Muhammadan Dispensation mention hath been made of "Modification by the exalted beings" and "alteration by the disdainful." Such passages, however, refer only to particular cases. Among them is the story of Ibn-i-Súríyá. When the people of Khaybar asked the focal center of the Muhammadan Revelation concerning the penalty of adultery committed between a married man and a married woman, Muhammad answered and said: "The law of God is death by stoning." Whereupon they protested saying: "No such law hath been revealed in the Pentateuch." Muhammad answered and said: "Whom do ye regard among your rabbis as being a recognized authority and having a sure knowledge of the truth?" They agreed upon Ibn-i-Súríyá. Thereupon Muhammad summoned him and said: "I adjure thee by God Who clove the sea for you, caused manna to descend upon you, and the cloud to overshadow you, Who delivered you from Pharaoh and his people, and exalted you above all human beings, to tell us what Moses hath decreed concerning adultery between a married man and a married woman." He made reply: "O Muhammad! death by stoning is the law." Muhammad observed: "Why is it then that this law is annulled and hath ceased to operate among the Jews?" He answered and said: "When Nebuchadnezzar delivered Jerusalem to the flames, and put the Jews to death, only a few survived. The divines of that age, considering the extremely limited number of the Jews, and the multitude of the Amalekites, took counsel together, and came to the conclusion that were they to enforce the law of the Pentateuch, every survivor who hath been delivered from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar would have to be put to death according to the verdict of the Book. Owing to such considerations, they totally repealed the penalty of death." Meanwhile Gabriel inspired Muhammad's illumined heart with these words: "They pervert the text of the Word of God." 1 1. Qur'án 4:45.
This is one of the instances that have been referred to. Verily by "perverting" the text is not meant that which these foolish and abject souls have fancied, even as some maintain that Jewish and Christian divines have effaced from the Book such verses as extol and magnify the countenance of Muhammad, and instead thereof have inserted the contrary. How utterly vain and false are these words! Can a man who believeth in a book, and deemeth it to be inspired by God, mutilate it? Moreover, the Pentateuch had been spread over the surface of the earth, and was not confined to Mecca and Medina, so that they could privily corrupt and pervert its text. Nay, rather, by corruption of the text is meant that in which all Muslim divines are engaged today, that is the interpretation of God's holy Book in accordance with their idle imaginings and vain desires. And as the Jews, in the time of Muhammad, interpreted those verses of the Pentateuch, that referred to His Manifestation, after their own fancy, and refused to be satisfied with His holy utterance, the charge of "perverting" the text was therefore pronounced against them. Likewise, it is clear, how in this day, the people of the Qur'án have perverted the text of God's holy Book, concerning the signs of the expected Manifestation, and interpreted it according to their inclination and desires.
the Eternal Wisdom, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
11) The Church does not consist in a great number of persons. He who possesses the Truth at his side is the church, though he be alone. ~ Ibn Masnd
12) Let us not fear to reject from our religion all that is useless, material, tangible as well as all that is vague and in definite; the more we purify its spiritual kernel, the more we shall understand the true law of life ~ Tolstoi
--- Grep of noun ibn
abu ali al-husain ibn abdallah ibn sina
abul-walid mohammed ibn-ahmad ibn-mohammed ibn-roshd
al-hasan ibn al-haytham
fahd ibn abdel aziz al-saud
faisal ibn abdel aziz al-saud
ibn-roshd
ibn-sina
ibn al-haytham
ibn talal hussein
salah-ad-din yusuf ibn-ayyub