Annihilation of Qualities from the Viewpoints of Mawlāna and Meister Eckhart

Document Type : علمی پژوهشی

Authors

• Qāsim Kākā’ī
• Ashkān Bahrāmī

10.22067/philosophy.v43i1.11271

Abstract

The existential and epistemological dimension of negative theology is based on two foundations in the works of the mystics from various religions and mystical traditions: God and the self (nafs). In the negative theology, as evident in the coinage, the mystics emphasize the unknowable and indescribable aspects of God, or, in other words, of His Essence. God’s unknowable and indescribable Essence is referred to with such phrases as: tuḥyā (voidness), wāḥa (oasis), non-being or non-existence, and nameless. Nevertheless, in the works of some Middle Ages Christian mystics such as Meister Eckhart, as well as some leading Muslim mystics like Mawlānā and Shams-i Tabrīzī the emphasis in some instances tends to shift from the Essence of God toward the essence nafs. In the works of Mawlānā and Eckhart, the essence of nafs is referred to as waḥdat (oneness), bisāṭat (simplicity), darkness, and voidness. Some learned scholars like Denis Turner have benefitted from this change and these features by coining the phrase negative humanism parallel to the negative theology. In this research we address the discussion concerning the above change of view and the related features under the heading of annihilation of qualities. In continuing, first we study the most important ethical foundations of the annihilation of qualities in the works of Mawlānā and Eckhart and then go on to deal with the two outcomes of the most important virtuous outcomes of the annihilation of properties, i.e. faqr (poverty) and tabattul (asceticism) or inqiṭā‘ (detachment) in the works of these two mystics. Poverty is a doctrine that is evidently and frequently seen in the works of both of the mystics, but asceticism is a special feature or perhaps an invention of Meister Eckhart’s thought system and theological structure.
Keywords: annihilation of properties, Mawlānā, Meister Eckhart, negative theology.

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