Level 4: Mysticism 1: The Unity of Existence and the Sufi Path of Knowledge

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Students in need of further financial assistance should contact the education team at education@almahdi.edu to enquire about the possibility of further fee waivers. 

 

This course focuses on the ontological scheme which is advocated by Ibn ʿArabī’s followers and the notion that all existence is in some way united by one existence—namely God’s existence—which presents itself in multiple forms through different manifestations and theophanies. The key philosophical problem dealt with is that of whether or not our immediate phenomenal experience of multiplicity returns to a primeval form of unity and the place of divine names and attributes in the broader scheme of our existence. To examine these themes, this course examines the Muqaddima of Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī, one of the most influential commentators on Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam.

 

Lesson Breakdown

Lesson 1      Introduction

1. On Being, and that It is the Truth (fī al-wujūd wa annahu al-ḥaqq)

Lesson 2      The meaning of contingent and necessary

                    That Being is not just conceptual

                    The meaning of iʿtibārī

Lesson 3      Absolute and qualified modes of being

                    Concept of self-disclosure

                    Proofs for why Being is one

Lesson 4      Privative attributes of Being

                    Indivisibility of Being

                    Incapability of Being to accept intensification/debilitation in essence

                    Positive attributes of Being

Lesson 5      No differentiation or multiplicity in Being

Absolute singularity and considering His essence in light of attributes

Generic notion of Being

Quiddities are forms of perfection for Being

Lesson 6      A note for those seeking insight into the language of the philosophers

Lesson 7      Another note

Lesson 8      Another note

Lesson 9      Corollary

Lesson 10    Concerning some of the universal degrees and the terminology of the group

Lesson 11    Concerning some of the universal degrees and the terminology of the group (continued)

                    Another note

Lesson 12    2. The Divine Names and Attributes (fī asmāʾihi wa ṣifātihi)

Lesson 13    Classification of divine names

Lesson 14    Note

                    Another note

                    Another note

Lesson 15    Another note

 

Prerequisites

Please note that level four courses are only available to those who have completed all courses in levels one, two, and three. This is because the topics covered in level four require the historical and conceptual foundations which are built in the previous levels.

 

Hours of Study

18 hours

 

Assessment Method

Written exam (100%)

 

Course Instructor

Dr Wahid Amin

Dr Wahid Amin completed a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London and a PGCE from the Institute of Education, University College London. He then began his studies at the Al-Mahdi Institute and simultaneously completed a BA in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham, graduating from both in 2008. He went on to read for an MSt in the Study of Religions at the University of Oxford. His DPhil, also from Oxford, studied the metaphysics of necessary existence in the thought of the Persian polymath Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274). He joined AMI in 2015 as a Lecturer in Islamic Philosophy where he teaches courses on Islamic philosophy, theology, logic, and mysticism. He is also the Head of Publications at AMI Press and an Associate Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham. As an intellectual historian of Islam, his primary research interests revolve around post-classical Islamic philosophy and theology. He also maintains an interest in contemporary Islamic philosophy, the intersection between Islamic philosophy and political theory, and modern Shīʿī legal theory.