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

46 Part 1: Islamic Philosophy and Its Study
grew while the teachings of Ibn S¥nå were revived by al-apple¨s¥. As a
result, a rich intellectual life came into being, which reached its apogee
in many ways in the Safavid period with M¥r Dåmåd and Mullå
S • adrå 51 and which also played a major role among the Muslims of the
Indian subcontinent. Besides its function in aiding to sustain the intellectual
sciences, which continued to be cultivated in Persia and India—and
also to a certain extent among the Ottomans—up to the
thirteenth/nineteenth century, and besides its role in the various aspects
of the religious life of the community, falsafah or ÷ikmah, which
by now had come much closer to the heart of the Islamic message and
had left the limitative confines of Peripatetic philosophy, became the
bridge for many to Sufism and Sufi metaphysics. In the same way that
in the Arab world one observes in many circles to this day a certain
wedding between Ash‘arite kalåm and Sufism, in Persia and to a certain
extent in the Ottoman world and in the Indian subcontinent there
came into being a notable wedding between ÷ikmah and ‘irfån, and
many masters appeared who were both ÷ak¥ms and ‘årifs (gnostics).
On the one hand, ÷ikmah became profoundly imbued with the gnostic
teachings of Ibn ‘Arab¥ and his school and was able to present in such
cases as Mullå S • adrå a more systematic and logical interpretation of
Sufi metaphysics than found in many of the Sufi texts themselves. On
the other hand, it became in turn the major point of access to the
teachings of Sufism for many of intellectual inclination with a rational
bent of mind who were engaged in the cultivation of the official religious
sciences. As a result of the transformation it received and the
role it fulfilled, falsafah or ÷ikmah continued its own life and remains
to this day in Persia and certain adjacent lands as a living intellectual
tradition independent of kalåm and ‘irfån.
In conclusion and in summary it can be said that falsafah in Islam
satisfied a certain need for causality that exists everywhere among
certain human types, provided the necessary logical and rational tools
for the cultivation and development of many of the arts and sciences,
enabled Muslims to encounter and assimilate the learning of many
other cultures, in its reactions with kalåm left a deep effect upon the
latter’s future course, and finally became wed to illumination and
gnosis, thus creating a bridge between the rigor of logic and the ecstasy
of spiritual union, while influencing in some cases the expression
of gnostic teachings themselves.
What we have said about traditional Islamic philosophy holds
true to a large extent today wherever Islamic philosophy remains a
living intellectual tradition. This philosophy remains of the greatest
pertinence to the contemporary world because of the harmony it has