Level 4: Mysticism 2: The Five Divine Presences and the Perfect Human

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This is the second course on theoretical mysticism which continues the close reading of Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī’s Muqaddima, a commentary on Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. Having previously been introduced to the concept of Being, students will further explore the Akbārian framework which involves the descent of unity into multiplicity in the form of the Immutable Archetypes and their existence as well as the Five Presences in which the Absolute Existence is continually being manifested. This course concludes by examining the notion of the Perfect Man.

Lesson Breakdown

Lesson 1      On the Fixed Archetypes and a Comment on the Manifestations of the Names (fī al-aʿyān al-thābita wa al-tanbih ʿalā al-maẓāhir al-asmāʾiyya)

Lesson 2      On the Fixed Archetypes and a Comment on the Manifestations of the Names (fī al-aʿyān al-thābita wa al-tanbih ʿalā al-maẓāhir al-asmāʾiyya) (continued)

Lesson 3      On the Fixed Archetypes and a Comment on the Manifestations of the Names (fī al-aʿyān al-thābita wa al-tanbih ʿalā al-maẓāhir al-asmāʾiyya) (continued)

Lesson 4      On the Fixed Archetypes and a Comment on the Manifestations of the Names (fī al-aʿyān al-thābita wa al-tanbih ʿalā al-maẓāhir al-asmāʾiyya) (continued)

Lesson 5      On the Universal Worlds and the Five Divine Presences (fī bayān al-ʿawālim al-kulliyya wa al-ḥaḍarāt al-khams al-ilāhiyya)

Lesson 6      On the Universal Worlds and the Five Divine Presences (fī bayān al-ʿawālim al-kulliyya wa al-ḥaḍarāt al-khams al-ilāhiyya) (continued)

Lesson 7      On the Imaginal World (fīmā yataʿllaq bi-l-ʿālam al-mithālī)

Lesson 8      On the Imaginal World (fīmā yataʿllaq bi-l-ʿālam al-mithālī) (continued)

Lesson 9      On the Imaginal World (fīmā yataʿllaq bi-l-ʿālam al-mithālī) (continued)

Lesson 10    On the Imaginal World (fīmā yataʿllaq bi-l-ʿālam al-mithālī) (continued)

Lesson 11    The Degrees of Unveiling and its Main Types (fī marātib al-kashf wa anwāʿihā ijmālan)

Lesson 12    The Degrees of Unveiling and its Main Types (fī marātib al-kashf wa anwāʿihā ijmālan) (continued)

Lesson 13    The World is the Form of the Human Reality (fī anna al-ʿālam huwwa ṣūrar al-ḥaqīqa al-insāniyya)

Lesson 14    On the Muḥammadan Reality and that it is the Ultimate Pole (fī bayān khilāfat al-ḥaqīqat al-Muḥammadiyya wa annaha quṭub al-aqṭab)

Lesson 15    Prophethood, Messengership, and Sainthood (fī al-nubuwwa wa al-risāla wa al-wilāya)

Lesson 16    Prophethood, Messengership, and Sainthood (fī al-nubuwwa wa al-risāla wa al-wilāya) (continued)

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

22 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.