The Mashriqiyya Principle of “Light and Darkness” and the Illuminationist Theory of “Resurrection”

Document Type : علمی پژوهشی

Author

• Ṭāhira Kamālī

10.22067/philosophy.v44i1.6297

Abstract

Department of Islamic Philosophy and Wisdom, University of Zanjan
The “mashriqiyya principle”, trusted by the Persian theosophists and the basis for their light wisdom that Suhrawardī tried to revive, is the principle of light and darkness. Philosophy of illumination (ḥikmat ishrāq), as a discursive-intuitive philosophy, is a light-oriented metaphysical wisdom. In this wisdom, light is the secret of “awareness” and “self-consciousness”. Thus, the focus of attention in Suhrawardī’s philosophy is “knowledge” and the Illuminationist Philosopher is preoccupied with nothing but “Illuminationist knowledge”.
In this metaphysical system, ma‘rifat (divine knowledge) is like a principle, which other discourses originate from and end up to. Pleasure, in this system, is not an entity apart from ma‘rifat.
Illuminational Resurrection (ma‘ād), like perception and pleasure, is also analyzed on the basis of the mashriqī principle of “light and darkness”. Therefore, the ranks of the people, after being released from their stronghold of darkness, are determined and explained in terms of their enjoyment of rays of knowledge or the degree of their attachment to the darkness of purgatory.

Keywords

• : philosophy of illumination
• mashriqiyya principle
• light and darkness
• illuminative knowledge
• perception
• Resurrection
• pleasure
• pain

---