The Essence of Reality : : A Defense of Philosophical Sufism /

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

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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 earl...

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Bibliographic Details
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
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource
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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

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