The Essence of Reality
eBook - ePub

The Essence of Reality

A Defense of Philosophical Sufism

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Essence of Reality

A Defense of Philosophical Sufism

About this book

A groundbreaking exposition of Islamic mysticism The Essence of Reality was written over the course of just three days in 514/1120, by a scholar who was just twenty-four. The text, like its author ?Ayn al-Qu??t, is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which that it is in all likelihood the earliest philosophical exposition of mysticism in the Islamic intellectual tradition. This important work would go on to exert significant influence on both classical Islamic philosophy and philosophical mysticism. Written in a terse yet beautiful style, The Essence of Reality consists of one hundred brief chapters interspersed with Qur?anic verses, prophetic sayings, Sufi maxims, and poetry. In conversation with the work of the philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghaz?l?, the book takes readers on a philosophical journey, with lucid expositions of questions including the problem of the eternity of the world; the nature of God's essence and attributes; the concepts of "before" and "after"; and the soul's relationship to the body. All these discussions are seamlessly tied into ?Ayn al-Qu??t's foundational argument—that mystical knowledge lies beyond the realm of the intellect.An English-only edition.

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Yes, you can access The Essence of Reality by ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, Mohammed Rustom in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literatura & Colecciones literarias de Oriente Medio. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Letter from the General Editor
  3. About this Paperback
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Contents
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Foreword
  10. Introduction
  11. Note on the Text
  12. Notes to the Introduction
  13. The Essence of Reality
  14. Preamble
  15. Introduction: The Reason for Writing This Book
  16. Chapter 1: Who Will Benefit from This Book?
  17. Chapter 2: A Proof of the Eternal
  18. Chapter 3: God’s Transcendence
  19. Chapter 4: Categories of Existence
  20. Chapter 5: Divine Names
  21. Chapter 6: Divine Attributes
  22. Chapter 7: The Divine Names Are Relations
  23. Chapter 8: Necessity, Contingency, Impossibility
  24. Chapter 9: Why Did God Effectuate Existence?
  25. Chapter 10: The Face of God and Existents
  26. Chapter 11: God’s Infinite Knowledge
  27. Chapter 12: Knowledge Is a Divine Attribute
  28. Chapter 13: God’s Knowledge Is Changeless
  29. Chapter 14: A Glimpse at the Stage beyond the Intellect
  30. Chapter 15: The Inability to Comprehend God’s Knowledge
  31. Chapter 16: True Faith
  32. Chapter 17: The Intellect’s Proper Place
  33. Chapter 18: The Stage beyond the Intellect and Premises
  34. Chapter 19: The Inner Eye
  35. Chapter 20: Longing for God
  36. Chapter 21: Familiarity with the Spiritual World
  37. Chapter 22: The Stage of Prophecy
  38. Chapter 23: Faith in the Unseen
  39. Chapter 24: The Path to Faith in Prophecy
  40. Chapter 25: The Stage beyond the Intellect and the Divine Attributes
  41. Chapter 26: The Intellect’s Relationship to Love
  42. Chapter 27: The Lover’s Attraction to the Beloved
  43. Chapter 28: The Last Stage of the Intellect
  44. Chapter 29: “The Incapacity to Perceive Is Perception”
  45. Chapter 30: A Transition
  46. Chapter 31: God’s Essence and Attributes
  47. Chapter 32: The Divine Essence and Its Standpoints
  48. Chapter 33: The Way of the Righteous Predecessors
  49. Chapter 34: Scriptural Evidence
  50. Chapter 35: The Divine Attributes Are Relations
  51. Chapter 36: Nonduality
  52. Chapter 37: A Note on the Eternity of the World
  53. Chapter 38: Divine Causation
  54. Chapter 39: The True Nature of Causation
  55. Chapter 40: An Example Using Natural Phenomena
  56. Chapter 41: The Oneness of Existence and Causation
  57. Chapter 42: An Example Using Mirrors
  58. Chapter 43: The Mirror of the Intellect
  59. Chapter 44: The Forms in Mirrors Are Relations
  60. Chapter 45: A Note on the Limits of the Intellect
  61. Chapter 46: Mirrors and the State of Dreaming
  62. Chapter 47: Divine Power and Human Power
  63. Chapter 48: The Possible and the Impossible
  64. Chapter 49: Possibility Means Contingency
  65. Chapter 50: The Creation of the World and Time
  66. Chapter 51: Clarifications on the Term “World”
  67. Chapter 52: The Eternity of the World in the Eyes of the Recognizer
  68. Chapter 53: Do “Was” and “Is” Apply to God?
  69. Chapter 54: God’s Beginninglessness and Time
  70. Chapter 55: A Hint at Perpetual Renewal
  71. Chapter 56: Perpetual Renewal
  72. Chapter 57: Divine Withness
  73. Chapter 58: A Note on Cosmic Order
  74. Chapter 59: Witnessing Perpetual Renewal
  75. Chapter 60: God’s Coextensiveness in the Eyes of the Recognizer
  76. Chapter 61: The Difference between Knowledge and Recognition
  77. Chapter 62: God-Given Knowledge
  78. Chapter 63: Types of Knowledge and Instruction
  79. Chapter 64: Setting Out on the Path of Recognition
  80. Chapter 65: The Next Step on the Path of Recognition
  81. Chapter 66: Spiritual Companionship
  82. Chapter 67: Felicity
  83. Chapter 68: God’s Generosity toward Me
  84. Chapter 69: Finding a Spiritual Guide
  85. Chapter 70: True Spiritual Guides and False Claimants
  86. Chapter 71: Self-Admiration and Spiritual Guidance
  87. Chapter 72: Back to the Question of Divine Priority
  88. Chapter 73: God’s Withness Does Not Mean Human Withness
  89. Chapter 74: Categories of Proximity and Distance
  90. Chapter 75: The Last “Day”
  91. Chapter 76: The Soul’s Relationship to the Body
  92. Chapter 77: The Soul’s Immortality
  93. Chapter 78: Souls Precede Bodies
  94. Chapter 79: The Diversity of Souls
  95. Chapter 80: The Relationship between the Soul and the Body
  96. Chapter 81: God’s Self-Disclosure
  97. Chapter 82: The Annihilation of My Metaphorical Identity
  98. Chapter 83: My Yearning to Return Home
  99. Chapter 84: In the Divine Presence
  100. Chapter 85: A Final Word about My Journey
  101. Chapter 86: Fleeing from This World
  102. Chapter 87: Unhindered Souls
  103. Chapter 88: Faith in the Afterlife
  104. Chapter 89: The Intellect and the Afterlife
  105. Chapter 90: Faith in the Unseen
  106. Chapter 91: Searching for God
  107. Chapter 92: Striving for Understanding
  108. Chapter 93: The Evident and the Mysterious
  109. Chapter 94: The Coming of the Hour
  110. Chapter 95: The Stage beyond the Intellect Is Accessible to All
  111. Chapter 96: The Intellect and the Stage beyond It
  112. Chapter 97: Overcoming the Desire to Know
  113. Chapter 98: Freedom from Time and Space
  114. Chapter 99: Reaching God
  115. Chapter 100: An Invitation
  116. Conclusion: On Yearning
  117. Notes
  118. Glossary of Names
  119. Bibliography
  120. Further Reading
  121. Index of Qurʾanic Verses
  122. Index
  123. About the NYUAD Research Institute
  124. About the Translator
  125. The Library of Arabic Literature