Ontological and gnoseological viewpoints of sufis in the light of metaphysical and theosophical traditions

Abstract

This paper discusses the sufi concepts which tackle metaphysical and theosophical issues. They imply that a great part of theosophical and metaphysical traditions within Islamic philosophical thought is inspired by original concepts dating from the formative period of sufism. Those concepts were the result of transcribing a mystical experience. Their essence can be best described as a reflection on the nature of love and realization in poems by Rabia el-'Adeviye, Hallaj, Dhul-Nun, Muhasibi and other sufis. Sufis' views on the nature of comprehension and love are more profound in later philosophers and theosophists to be deemed initiators of various philosophical notions such as, for example, philosophy of light, philosophical intuitionism and high theosophy. Hence in this paper we aim to illustrate the internal connection between teachings of the following sufis and philosophers-mystics: Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi among others, and this will create a substantial metaphysical and theosophical reference work. Owing to these (and many other) philosophers, sufism is joined with philosophy or, more precisely, it creates its philosophy which undoubtedly deserves its own entity by means of its approach to the issue of realization and reality or to the being.

Keywords

• being
• realization
• love
• reality
• mystical experience
• theosophy
• metaphysics