This is an invitation to Khalil Andani’s upcoming Conference Presentation in the NMCGSA Graduate Symposium taking place at the University of Toronto. The presentation will take place on Thursday, February 27, 2014 between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM. It will be followed by some Q/A.
The presentation deals with the all-important concept of Tawhid – the affirmation of the oneness of God – in the Isma’ili Muslim philosophy of Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani and the Sufi mystical thought of Ibn al-’Arabi.
SESSION C: MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC THOUGHT
The Metaphysics of Tawhīd: Ismā‘īlī and Akbarī Perspectives
Khalil Andani
MA Student, Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Specialization: Islamic Theology and Philosophy
Since the first century of Islam, Muslims belonging to various theological camps have struggled to define, delineate and philosophize the exact meaning and parameters of tawhīd. This paper is a preliminary comparative study of the metaphysics of tawhīd in the thought of the eleventh century Fatimid Ismā‘īlī dā‘ī Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. 1021) and the twelfth/thirteenth century Islamic mystic Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1240).
Recent scholarship by Ebstein has demonstrated the transmission of the Ismā‘īlī Neoplatonic doctrines in the Epistles of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ into the Andalusian mysticism of Ibn al-‘Arabī. The thought of the Ikhwān has also exerted an influence upon Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī who was evidently familiar with their epistles. What remains to be explored is how such ideas were further developed in the Ismā‘īlī and Akbarian traditions. This paper demonstrates how Kirmānī and Ibn al-‘Arabī’s share two important metaphysical positions with respect to tawhīd. Firstly, they each draw a metaphysical distinction between the ineffable and suprapersonal Essence of God and a secondary hypostatic level of reality that is the personal Divinity described by Names and Attributes – what Kirmānī and Ibn al-‘Arabī respectively call the First Intellect or the Divinity/Level. Secondly, they each maintain that the direct object or referent of tawhīd is not God as such, but rather, the hypostatic level of God’s Names. The findings of this study build upon the conclusions of prior scholarship and also demonstrate that the concept of wujūd need not be the dominant criterion in the study of Ibn al-Arabī’s thought.
Biography:
Khalil Andani is a Master of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard University. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and holds Bachelor of Mathematics and Master of Accounting degrees from the University of Waterloo. His current research focus is Islamic philosophy and theology, with particular attention to early Shi’i thought, Neoplatonism, Isma’ili thought (particularly cosmology and theories of revelation and exegesis), and Islamic mysticism (particularly the concept of the ‘Oneness of Being’). His forthcoming publications include a chapter on the philosophical thought of Nasir-i Khusraw in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy.
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