REL 102
World Religions: Near East
“Islamic Theology
and Mysticism”
Professor Rick Colby
May 26, 2010
Outline for Class on 05/26/10
• Issues in Islamic Theology (kalam)
 Grave sinner? Free will? God does evil?
Status of divine attributes? Qur'an created?
• Islamic Philosophy (falsafa)
 Key thinkers, tried to reconcile revelation and reason
• Islamic Mysticism (tasawwuf = Sufism)
 Famous early figures, famous mystical poets
 Sufi ritual and mystical orders
• REMINDER:
Turn in your papers on Friday at 11 am
Islamic Theology (kalam)
and Islamic Philosophy (falsafa)
• Indebted to Greek metaphysics,
to Jewish and Christian "dialectical theology"
• Translations into Arabic in the
Abbasid capital of Baghdad
• Not mere "preservers" of Plato and Aristotle
• Flourished among elites in the first six
centuries of Islamic history
Issues in Early Theology (kalam)
• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim?
• God as creator of evil?
• Free will vs. predestination
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal?
Mu'tazili Responses to
Issues in Early Theology (kalam)
• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim?
 INTERMEDIATE STATUS (neither in nor out)
• God as creator of evil?
 GOD IS GOOD, CANNOT BE SOURCE OF EVIL
• Free will vs. predestination
 HUMANS MUST HAVE FREE WILL
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal?
 QUR'AN IS CREATED, NOT GOD
Ash'ari Responses to
Issues in Early Theology (kalam)
• Status of the grave sinner: still a Muslim?
 GOD KNOWS; THE MATTER POSTPONED
UNTIL JUDGMENT DAY
• God as creator of evil?
 GOD RESPONSIBLE FOR GOOD AND EVIL
• Free will vs. predestination
 HUMANS PREDESTINED, BUT....
• Qur'an as God's speech – created or eternal?
 QUR'AN IS UNCREATED, DIVINE ATTRIBUTE
Islamic Philosophy (falsafa)
• Sought to harmonize revelation & philosophy
 use reason to prove the truths of the Qur'an and
example of the Prophet (sunna)
 Prophet as a type of "philosopher king,"
dispensing truths in symbolic form palatable to
and comprehensible by the masses
• Came under attack, decline in many lands
Famous Muslim Philosophers
from the Formative Period
• AL-FARABI (d. 950) = "Alpharabius"
• IBN SINA (d.1037)
= "Avicenna"
• IBN RUSHD (d.1198) = "Averroes"
AL-GHAZALI (d.1111) known as
"Proof of Islam" ; Algazel
• Defender of Sunni Islam in Nizamiya madrasa
• Ash'ari theologian
• Spiritual crisis, journey, enlightenment
• Key works:
 The Incoherence of the Philosophers
 Deliverance from Error
 Revival of the Religious Sciences
Definitions of Islamic Mysticism
• Recall the definition in World Religions, 404-406
• Remember that Sufism is
NOT a theological school
NOT a legal school
NOT a "sect"
• Insider terms and definitions; controversies
Famous Early Sufi Figures
• RABI'AH (d.801)
• BAYAZID ( =Abu Yazid Bistami,
d.ca.848)
• HALLAJ (d.922)
• JUNAYD (d.910)
• SULAMI (d.1021)
• QUSHAYRI (d.1074)
Muhyidin IBN 'ARABI (d.1240)
• Known as “al-Shaykh al-Akbar”
• Educated in al-Andalus, went to central lands
• Human beings as manifestation
of God's attributes
 God: "I was a hidden treasure...."
• His major works:
 Meccan Revelations
 Ring-settings of Wisdom
 Interpreter of Desires
ATTAR (d.1220):
The Conference of the Birds
• Hoopoe leads
the rest of the
birds on a quest
for their King,
the Simurgh
• Only 30 birds
complete the quest
and arrive at the
King’s palace
Jalal al-Din RUMI (d.1273)
• Born near Balkh, he and his family came West
 Became established in Anatolia
 Came to be called "Mevlana"
• Contemporary hagiography
• His major works, composed in Persian:
 Masnavi
 In It is What is In It
 Divan of Shams
Mevlevi Ritual & the Mevlevi Order
as an Example of later Sufism
• Mevlevi sama’: one type of “remembrance”
(dhikr)
• Foundation of the
Mevlevi order
• Rumi's tomb complex
in Konya, Turkey
 veneration of
"saints" as
intermediaries