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

74 Part 2: Philosophical Issues
ever-present element prevented the speculative mind of the majority
of Islamic philosophers either from mistaking the act of wuj¶d for the
existent that appears to possess wuj¶d on its own while being cut off
from the absolute Being, or from failing to distinguish between the
concept of wuj¶d and its blinding Reality. 30
THE UNITY, GRADATION, AND PRINCIPIALITY OF WUJŪD
The Transcendent Unity of Being (wa÷dat al-wuj¶d)
The crowning achievement of Islamic philosophy in the domain of
metaphysics and especially in ontology is to be found in the later
period in Persia in the school that, as already mentioned, has now
come to be known as the School of Isfahan, 31 whose founder was M¥r
Dåmåd and whose leading light was S • adr al-D¥n Sh¥råz¥. It is in the
numerous writings of this veritable sage that the rigorous logical discussion
of al-Fåråb¥ and Ibn S¥nå, the critiques of al-Ghazzål¥ and
Fakhr al-D¥n al-Råz¥, the illuminative doctrines of Shihåb al-D¥n
Suhraward¥, and the supreme experiential knowledge of the Sufis as
formulated by such masters of gnosis as Ibn ‘Arab¥ and |adr al-D¥n al-
Qunyaw¥ became united in a vast synthesis whose unifying thread
was the inner teachings of the Quran as well as the ¡ad¥th and the
sayings of the Shi‘ite Imams. 32 All of the discussions about wuj¶d and
måhiyyah that were going on for some seven centuries before the advent
of the School of Isfahan in the tenth/sixteenth century (and that
have been summarized above) are to be found in the grand synthesis
of S • adr al-D¥n whose metaphysical doctrine is based upon the unity
(wa÷dah), gradation (tashk¥k), and principiality (a„ålah) of wuj¶d.
As far as the “transcendent unity of Being” or wa÷dat al-wuj¶d is
concerned, it must be said at the outset that this doctrine is not the
result of ratiocination but of intellection and inner experience. If correctly
understood, it stands at the heart of the basic message of Islam,
which is that of unity (al-taw÷¥d) and which is found expressed in the
purest form in the testimony of Islam, Lå ilåha illa˘Llåh, there is no
divinity but Allah. This formula is the synthesis of all metaphysics
and contains despite its brevity the whole doctrine of the Unity of the
Divine Principle and the manifestation of multiplicity, which cannot
but issue from that Unity before whose blinding Reality it is nothing.
The Sufis and also Shi‘ite esoterists and gnostics have asked, “What
does divinity (ilåh) mean except reality or wuj¶d?” By purifying themselves
through spiritual practice, they have come to realize the full