Metaphysics of Muhammad

The Nur Muhammad from Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765) to Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 672/1274)

Bibliographic Data

ID22342480
AuthorsKhalil Andani (Augustana College, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue2
Pages99-175
Publication date2020-10-22
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sufi Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2210-5948 • E-ISSN: 2210-5956
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/22105956-12341317
OpenAlexW3106461211
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This study analyzes the development of the theme of the “Light of Muḥammad” ( al-nūr al-Muḥammadī ) or the “Muḥammadan Reality” ( al-ḥaqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya ) among several Shiʿi and Sufi thinkers through the seventh/thirteenth century. These thinkers include Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765), Sahl al-Tustarī (d. 283/896), the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (early to mid 4th/10th century), the Ismaili dāʿīs Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (d. after 361/971) and Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 411/1020), Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and ʿAyn al-Quḍāt (d. 526/1131), Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī (d. 548/1153), and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274). I argue that the “Light of Muḥammad” as a theological and metaphysical idea evolved historically through three distinct but cumulative phases of conceptualization: mytho-cosmological narrative, Neoplatonization, and ontological theophanization. Through these developments, the theological status of the Light of Muḥammad underwent a gradual but decisive shift from being reckoned as the first spiritual creation of God in the early period to being revered as the ontological self-manifestation of God in later periods

Art · Conceptualization · Literature · Metaphysics · Narrative · Theology · Education and Islamic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Philosophy

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