The Essence of Reality : : A Defense of Philosophical Sufism / / ʿAyn al-Quḍāt.

• VerfasserIn: al-Quḍāt, ʿAyn,
• MitwirkendeR: Kohn, Livia,; Rustom, Mohammed,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2023]; 2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

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 ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, 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 Qurʾanic verses, prophetic sayings, Sufi maxims, and poetry. In conversation with the work of the philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghazālī, 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 ʿAyn al-Quḍāt's foundational argument-that mystical knowledge lies beyond the realm of the intellect.

Table of Contents

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