Al-Shajarah Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC)
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IBN AL-'ARABI'S CONCEPT OF DREAMS
No full textAs a universally experienced phenomenon which transcends time, place and people the dream has perplexed humankind over the ages. Much thought and research have gone into discovering its nature and causes, the role it plays in societies as well as interpreting its content. The same preoccupation with it can be said to be found among Muslims who view it as a rich source of knowledge. The article looks at one of the greatest Muslim sages Ibn al-‘Arabī’s contribution to understanding the dream (ru’yā) which he conceived as an imaginal (mithāl; khayāl) reality manifested in both the objective and subjective realms of existence (wujūd) and hence has an intermediate (barzakh) nature. His conception of dreams is thus grounded in metaphysics. It is based on the Qur’ān and Ḥadīth as veritable sources and is considered to be one of the most profound ever expounded on the subject. It contrasts with the modern Western perspective which focuses on the psychological, sociological and historical aspects of the phenomenon. It brings into question the weakening power of the human faculty of imagination (khayāl) in themodern era as a source of knowledge of the metaphysical and spiritual realms, represented by symbols and images (amthāl) in the cosmos, the world of Images (ālam al-mithāl) and the human soul. Hence, the science of the interpretation of dreams (ta‘bīr) is significant in revealing the meanings of the nature of existence and reality
LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY PENYENGAT ISLAND, RIAU:: The Works of Raja Ali Haji
No full textMalay society has a variety of historical heritages one of which is Malay manuscripts. They are valuable treasures containing knowledge that informs the world about the soul, spirit, thinking, and civilisation of the Malays, and that will be of interest to future generations. This article introduces the works of Raja Ali Haji of Penyengat Island (c. 1808 – c. 1873), one of the great Malay writers of the nineteenth century, and will briefly discuss the history of Bugis domination in the Johor-Riau Lingga region in the eighteenth century. The discussion will also cover the development of Malay historiography and literary activities in the early nineteenth century to which Raja Ali Haji and other scholars brought about significant changes. The findings of the study reveal that he was a prominent figure not only in the aspect of religion but also in literature, language, politics, and history. His prowess was inherited by his family and descendants who formed a movement known as the Rusydiah Club to stimulate feelings of nationalism among the community with the view of opposing the Dutch in Riau
Interpreting Islam In China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, & Language in the Han Kitab
No full textSince the serendipitous “discovery” of the intellectual treasures of the Sino-Muslim literature following the historic international seminar on Islam and Confucianism, held at University of Malaya on 12-14 March 1995, this literature has increasingly become a salient subject of scholarly inquiry, resulting in the emergence of scores of scholarly books, PhD dissertations, and Masters theses. Textual analysis has emerged as an attractive aspect of these new studies of Sino-Muslim literature. Following the footsteps of Murata’s painstaking analysis and translation of Wang Di-yu’s Qingzhen Daxue (the Great Learning of Pure and Real) in her book titled Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Dai-yu’s Great Learning of Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm, and of Liu Zhi’s Tianfang Xingli (Nature and Principle of Islam) in her book titled The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic Thought in Confucian Term, the young scholar Kristian Petersen is now revealing his scholarly talent in the field of textual analysis of Sino-Muslim literatur
PROBING THE THEORY OF SUBJECTIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MULLA SADRA'S EPISTEMOLOGY
Full text linkMullā Ṣadrā’s approach to the reality of knowledge to a large extent slopes down to a kind of subjectivism. He viewed the process of obtaining knowledge as an extension of the human soul from existential potential to actuality and from existential deficiency to perfection. Considering his understanding of realism, a question of consonance with his subjectivist inclination requires inquiry. The author applies an interdisciplinary approach in a close examination of Ṣadrā’s epistemology that reveals a kind of subjectivism contained in his epistemic exposition, especially in his emphasis on the existential perfection of the human soul. The effort helps us reconsider the foundations of his pioneering work on transcendent theosophy
The Civilisational and Cultural Heritage of Iran and The Malay World: A Cultural Discourse
No full textThere has been a long-standing debate among historians and researchers about the forms and patterns of cultural interconnections, interactions and influences that took place along with the spread of Islam to various part of the world. Similarly, the interconnection between the Persian civilization and the Malay world is no exception. By Persian civilization I mean the civilization that was established long before the existence of the present Islamic Republic of Iran. Historically, the interaction between the Middle East (including Persian) and Southeast Asia (including Malay Archipelago) had already taken place as early as during the first and second century Islam
'Treasures of Sciences in the Lovely Realm of Sights': An Investigation into Amuli's Manuscript of Nafais al-Funun fi 'Ara'is al-Uyun
No full textThe Library of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), which in 2012 was named SMNA Library after its founder Seyd Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, is custodian to a wide range of manuscripts from all over the Islamic world that includes some 350 titles in Persian. One of such titles is a manuscript of Nafāis al-Funῡn fī 'Arā'is al-'Uyῡn (Treasures of Sciences in the Lovely Realm of Sights), a remarkable work on the classification of sciences authored by the 13th century Iranian scholar and physician Muḥammad bin Maḥmῡd Āmulī. This paper aims at providing an expanded understanding of the volume via pushing the boundaries of conventional codicology, with the hope of a panoramic view that allows its study, not only as an academic source of knowledge, but also as a significant cultural object
THE STUDY OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION IN SEYYED HOSEIN NASRS' WORKS AND COMPARING IT WITH SOME CURRENT DEFINITIONS
No full textThe aim of this article is to probe the concept of spiritual education in Seyyed Hosein Nasr`s thoughts and to compare it with the current definitions of the concept. This study has been done through the qualitative method called transcendental analysis. Therefore, that concept was conceptualized through investigating and eliciting the requisite assumptions from Nasr`s philosophical approach. Findings showed that in Nasr`s thoughts, spiritual education is the process of actualizing all the innate potentialities of human as a whole towards his or her monotheistic nature through developing knowledge, love, righteous actions and acquiring virtues to transcend his or her existential layers to train his or her spirit, to know the Ultimate Reality and to return to his or her prototype in God. It is acquirable by taking action based on a heavenly religion. The aim of spiritual education is to know the Ultimate Reality intuitively. Compared to the current definitions, the concluded concept is more similar to that of Carr’s and Tabatabaie’s ideas while it is different from Miller, Duff and Bigger’s perspectives
Islam in China: History, Spread and Culture, A Pictorial Book
No full textMany publications are available on the history of Islam in China, especially in English language. So, one wonders what new findings are left to be added to this field. The pictorial book under review does not offer any new information on the subject, but it does serve a purpose. In the words of the book’s Editor, Haji Koya Kutty, it is to provide general readers with “a basic idea on the history and spread of Islam in China” (p. viii) through articles gathered from various sources. Illustrated with colourful photographs, the publication would be a good coffee-table book for one to hav
ISLAMOPHOBIA IN INDIA: AN EXPLORATION OF ITS ROOTS, RISE AND HISTORY
No full textAs a product of Hindu Fascists, Islamophobia in India is reviewed from the beginning of the twentieth century through to India’s 2019 Parliamentary elections. A qualitative content analysis clearly shows that Hindutva proponents disseminated the ideology with a view to establish Hindu Rashtra to the exclusion of Muslims. The paper focuses on documented actions taken by individuals, political leaders, parties and various Hindu organisations to cultivate hatred for Muslims by endorsing communal violence, mosque and communal destruction, genocidal murders, and various political movements designed to remove Muslims from India
REPRODUCING THE HUMANITIES: MEVLANA RUMI'S CORPUS IN RESTRUCTURING THE STUDY OF MAN AND SOCIETY
No full textThe paper seeks to examine the corpus of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273) in light of establishing new ways of constituting the Human and Social Sciences. It is based on the assumptions that the existing social and human sciences are anthropocentric in nature, and were produced within a culture and civilization that placed man as the centre and the measure of things. That crucible which has become the origin for the production of knowledge operated within a chaotic West in the early modern and the modern periods. Thus, knowledge produced has been secular and disenchanted and sees man as a material object par excellence. As a result, modern man has lost his sense of origin, why he lives and whither he is going. The Infinite Wisdom to Man does not return to the Primordial, but develops a Faustian trajectory. This paper reattaches Rumi’s corpus to academic and intellectual levels as it informs daily life and consciousness. We need to reconsume the tenets of a ‘devolutionist’ History, Art, Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy. It asks what the Mathnawi and the Fihi Mafihi can contribute to the Humanities from the Islamic perspective. How can they be used to restructure another mode of knowing? What disciplines can the Rumi corpus produce (or reproduce)? The significance of this paper is that it suggests a universalization, and thence, a deethnicization of the Social and Human Sciences, thus embracing the universal while mitigating the uniqueness of man in both his microcosmic and macrocosmic environments