Saturday, July 25, 2026

Islamic Philosophy - Thematic Sources

General Reference Works and Collections


The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge University Press.

Philosophy in the Islamic World. Oxford University Press.



Existence / Being

Izutsu, T. (1971). "The Concept and Reality of Existence." Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies.

McGinnis, J. (2010). "Avicenna." Oxford University Press. (Specifically chapters on essence and existence)

Morewedge, P. (1973). "The Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ibn Sina)." Routledge & Kegan Paul. 

Adamson, P. (2013). "The Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the Theology of Aristotle." Duckworth.




Motion

McGinnis, J. (2010). "Avicenna's Natural Philosophy: A Translation of the Physics of the Kitab al-Shifa." Brigham Young University Press.

Mulla Sadra. (2008). "The Elucidation of Substantial Motion" (Trans. M. H. Faghfoory). ICAS Press.

Sajjad, R. (2015). "Time and Motion in Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy." Journal of Islamic Philosophy, 11, 45-68.

Akbarian, R. (2005). "Mulla Sadra and the Theory of Trans-substantial Motion." ICAS Press. 



Psychology

Black, D. L. (1993). "Estimation (Wahm) in Avicenna: The Logical and Psychological Dimensions." Dialogue, 32(2), 219-258.

Hasse, D. N. (2000). "Avicenna's De Anima in the Latin West." Warburg Institute.

Epistemology

Kaukua, J. (2014). "Self-Awareness in Islamic Philosophy: Avicenna and Beyond." Cambridge University Press.

Haeri, M. (1992). "The Elements of Islamic Metaphysics." ICAS Press. (Focus on al-'ilm al-huduri or presential knowledge)

McGinnis, J. (2007). "Ibn Sina’s Argument for the Self-Awareness of the Soul." Philosophical Topics, 35(1/2), 77-96.


Necessary Being

Davidson, H. A. (1987). "Proofs for Eternity, Creation and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy." Oxford University Press. 

Mayer, T. (2001). "Ibn Sina’s Burhan al-Siddiqin." Journal of Islamic Studies, 12(1), 18-39. 

Rizvi, S. H. (2009). "Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being." Routledge. 



Causality

Adamson, P. (2007). "Ibn Sina and the Transmission of Greek Philosophy." In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. 

Dutton, B. (2001). "Avicenna and the Argument for Divine Causality." Journal of the History of Philosophy, 39(4), 481-502. 

Kukkonen, T. (2000). "Possible Worlds in the Twelfth Century: The Proof of the Occasionalists." Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 10(1), 47-75.



Unity and Plurality

Corbin, H. (1971). "The Concept of Comparative Philosophy." (On the interplay between wahdat al-wujud and tashkik al-wujud). 

Morris, J. W. (1981). "The Wisdom of the Throne: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra." Princeton University Press. 



Ethics

The Virtuous City. Oxford University Press.

Selected Aphorisms: Fuṣūl al-Madanī. Cambridge University Press.

Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq (The Refinement of Character). Great Books of the Islamic World.



Politics

Alireza Omid Bakhsh, 2013, The Virtuous City: The Iranian and Islamic Heritage of Utopianism. The Pennsylvania State University

AL-FĀRĀBI, Fuṣūl al-madani “Aphorisms of the Statesman.” Ed. with an English translation, introduction, and notes by D. M. DUNLOP. — Cambridge, University Press 1961. 208 pp

Muhsin S. Mahdi, 2001, Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy. The University of Chicago Press

al-Farabi’sPhilosophy of Society and Religion - Stanford


Monday, February 13, 2023

Islam, Peace-Building and Conflict Management

 

Description

Islam, Peace-Building and Conflict Management” is a unit in a module on “Religion, Conflict Management and Resolution.” The unit discusses in brief Islamic teachings related to Peace-building and conflict management both at individual-personal and social levels, highlighting potential opportunities and challenges of peacebuilding and conflict resolution in different situations, especially interreligious contexts. “Islam” literally derived from the lexical root which means “Peace” is a holistic worldview and value-system that presents its particular picture of man in the universe and puts forth its own roadmap for what it takes to be the ultimate perfection for man. As a systematic ideology, there are fundamental Islamic teachings about peace and conflict resolution which can be utilized in different situations to facilitate peace and minimize misunderstandings.

Objectives

·      To familiarize students with peace and conflict resolution-related teachings in Islam,

·      To make available potential means and tools for peacebuilding and conflict resolution in different interreligious contexts and situations,

·       To enable students to constructively engage in or build peace-related dialogues with interreligious dimensions.

 

Outline

·      Introduction

o   Literal sense of Islam and its relevance to peacebuilding,

·      Fitra or man’s state of nature in the Islamic scripture

·      Roots of conflict and the respective peacebuilding tactics in Islam

o   Individual and social dimensions of peace and conflict

·      Peacebuilding and justice

·      Jihad and struggle, types, roles and controversies

 

Assignments

1-     What is the Islamic teaching about “man’s state of nature” and how does it relate to peacebuilding and conflict resolution?

2-     What does “Jihad” mean (literally and technically) and what is the role of two types of Jihad in the Islamic ideology?

 

Sources

All related sources are accessible in the following link:

https://hlatifi.blogspot.com/2022/03/islam-peacebuilding-and-conflict.html


Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Islam and Politics

Outline

  •  Islam
    • As a religion and abstract ideology
    • Muslim communities with their unique historical and sociopolitical conditions
  • Politics
    • Governance and Administration
    • Power and dominance
  • Political activity
    •  Liberative or resistive to oppression
    • Dominative or bullying
  • Political activities’ format
    •  Movement and revolutionary
    • Institution and fixed
  • Political Concepts in Qur'an (Islamic scripture)
  • Politics in Sunna (practice and sayings of Muhammad)
  • Politics in the Muslim Community (Umma) after Muhammad
    • Main political/theological split in Islam
      • Sunni (majority) Caliphate
      • Shia (Minority) Imamate
    • other early political movements
      • Kharijites
    • Historical stages and dynasties
      • First four Caliphs
      • Umayyads dynasty
      • Abbasid dynasty
      • Mongolian conquest
      • three Islamic empires 
        • Ottoman
        • Safavid
        • Mughal
      • WW I and Colonization
      • Salafism
      • Sharia and Civil Law

Political Concepts in Qur'an

Taghut (tyranny; Lexical meaning of Taghut: one that has steps outside his limits, demands and takes more than he deserved.)

Those who have faith fight in the way of God, and those who are faithless fight in the way of the Taghut. (4:76)

Certainly, We raised an apostle in every nation [to preach:] "Worship God, and keep away from the Taghut." (16:36)

Arrogant powers (Mustakbir) and the oppressed (Mustad’af)

And We desired to show favor to those who were abased (oppressed) in the land, and to make them leaders, and to make them the heirs. (28:5)

Why should you not fight in the way of God and the abased men, women, and children, who say "Our Lord, bring us out of this town whose people are wrongdoers, and appoint for us a guardian from You, and appoint for us a helper from You"? (4:75)

Immigration of the oppressed

Indeed, those whom the angels take away [their soul at the moment of death] while they are wronging themselves (they are not in state of practicing their faith), they ask "What state were you in?" They reply, "We were abased in the land." (we had not enough freedom to practice our faith) They say, "Was not God's earth vast enough so that you might migrate in it?" The refuge of such shall be hell, and it is an evil destination. Except the abased among men, women and children, who have neither access to any means nor are guided to any way. (4:97-98)

Alliance with the Oppressors

And do not incline to those who are unjust, Lest the fire touch you, and you have no guardians besides God, then you shall not be helped. (11:113)

Tradition of Previous Prophets

O David! Surely We have made you a vicegerent/ruler in the earth; so judge between men with justice and do not follow desire, lest it should lead you astray from the path of God. (38:26)

It does not behoove any human that God should give him the Book, judgement and prophethood, and then he should say to the people, "Be my servants instead of God." Rather [he would say] "Be a godly people, because of your teaching the Book and because of your studying it." (3:79)

Commanding Right and Forbidding Evil

There has to be a nation among you summoning to the good, bidding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong. It is they who are the felicitous. (3:104)

But the faithful, men and women, are comrades of one another: they bid what is right and forbid what is wrong and maintain the prayer, give the zakat, and obey God and His Apostle. It is they to whom God will soon grant His mercy. Indeed God is all-mighty, all-wise. (9:71)

[The faithful are] penitent, devout, celebrators of God's praise, wayfarers, who bow [and] prostrate [in prayer], bid what is right and forbid what is wrong, and keep God's bounds; thus give good news to the faithful. (9:112)

any who have been driven from their homes unjustly, merely because they say: "Our Lord is God [Alone]." If it were not because God repels some men by means of others, cloisters, churches, synagogues and mosques -where God's name is mentioned frequently- would have been demolished. God supports anyone who supports Him-God is Strong, Powerful. those who, if We granted them power in the land, would maintain prayer and pay Zakat (charity), bid what is right and forbid what is wrong. And with Allah rests the outcome of all matters. (22:40-41)

Shura (consultation)

[faithful are] those who answer their Lord, maintain the prayer, and their affairs are by counsel among themselves, and they spend out of what We have provided them with. (42:38)

It is by God's mercy that you are gentle to them; and had you been harsh and hardhearted, surely they would have scattered from around you. So excuse them, and plead for forgiveness for them, and consult them in the affairs, and once you are resolved, put your trust in God. Indeed God loves those who trust in Him. (3:159)

Self-determination

Surely God does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition. (13:11)

Sources

Theocracy and Democracy by M Ja'fari

Islam and Democracy by F al-Samak

Islamic Political Theory by M Mesbah Yazdi

Shia Political Thought by A Vaezi

Imam Ali's Book of Governance by M Reyshahri