Al-'ilm Al-huduri

by Hejazi, S. M. R.

• ISBN13: 9781453779040
• ISBN10: 1453779043
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-30
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

This book explores the issue of knowledge by presence as an epistemological problem in philosophy. Al-'Ilm al-Huduri (knowledge by presence) deserves as an epistemological bridge between philosophy and mysticism. This book is a comparative study of the epistemology of Suhrawardî and Mull' Sadr' Shîr'zî, two Muslim thinkers of the 6th/12th and 11th/17th century. It focuses on two main issues: Illuminative theory of knowledge and, in the framework of this theory, Mull' Sadr''s doctrine of knowledge by presence (al-'ilm al-hudûrî) studied in the context of his philosophical system (al-hikmah al-muta''lîyah). Mull' Sadr''s multidimensional methodology is also discussed in this book. The aim of this study is to explore the Mull' Sadr''s theory of knowledge by presence, al-'ilm al-hudûrî, and examine it as an epistemological bridge between philosophy and mysticism within the context of Mull' Sadr''s philosophical system (al-hikmah al-muta''lîyah). Hence, Mull' Sadr''s doctrine of knowledge by presence is the corner stone of his epistemological system. In the light of this doctrine, he gives a new definition of knowledge, an innovative interpretation of its division into al-'ilm al-hudûrî and al-'ilm al-husûlî, and, finally, a systematic chain of various kinds of knowledge by presence (e.g., self-knowledge, God's knowledge of His Essence and God's knowledge of things). These three aspects of his doctrine have been surveyed and, in comparing them with Suhrawardî's theory, evaluated in this book.