Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the ...

40 Part 1: Islamic Philosophy and Its Study
such as Hermeticism, Neopythagoreanism and Neoplatonism were
integrated into Islamic esoterism through the light of Islamic gnosis
as we see in the writings of Ibn ‘Arab¥. It is interesting to note,
however, that while Ibn ‘Arab¥ was called “the Plato of his day,” he
was critical of the rationalistic philosophers who had preceded him.
In the second case there is a greater criticism of ratiocination
(istidlål) for spiritual reasons, and throughout Islamic history followers
of this type of Sufism have criticized falsafah, particularly of the
Peripatetic kind, severely, in order to open before people the luminous
skies of illumination and gnosis while they have emphasized the
centrality of love which in the Sufi context is not, however, in any way
opposed to ma‘rifah or gnosis as we see so clearly in the Mathnaw¥ of
R¨m¥. In fact the Mathnaw¥ has been called quite rightly “an ocean of
gnosis.” 39 Without Sufism and other aspects of Islamic esoterism contained
in Shi‘ism the rise of a Suhraward¥ or a Mullå S • adrå would be
inconceivable. In fact both tendencies within Sufism have played a
critical role in the later history of falsafah, one more positive, and the
other in a sense more negative, while both aspects of Sufism have
remained the guardians and in many cases expositors of traditional
falsafah or ÷ikmah in its profoundest and most essential sense or what
in Western parlance is called the “philosophia perennis.” Falsafah for its
part benefited immensely from this interaction with Sufism and gradually
became itself the outer courtyard leading those qualified to enter
the inner garden of gnosis and beatitude.
The criticism of Sufism against falsafah and the rebuttals of the
÷ukamå˘ are well illustrated in the following assertion of R¨m¥ and the
responses it brought forth. In his Mathnaw¥, he says:
The leg of the syllogisers is a wooden one,
A wooden leg is very infirm. 40
This verse was answered by M¥r Dåmåd in his own well-known
poem in these terms:
O thou who hast said that reasoning is like a wooden leg
—Otherwise Fakhr al-D¥n Råz¥ would have no peer—
Thou hast not distinguished between intellect and fantasy,
Do not reproach demonstration, O thou who hast not
understood correctly. 41
Later in the twelfth/eighteenth century the famous Sufi master
of Shiraz, Mawlånå Sayyid Qu†b al-D¥n Mu±ammad Sh¥råz¥, rose to