Overview

The book consists of seventeen chapters which cover a selection of early, medieval, modern and contemporary Problems of Muslim Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism. This book argues that the terms are never neutral; ideas thrive upon terms and travel in history. If they are false they go on coloring the understanding and interpretation of other ideas. At times it takes centuries for someone to identify them and straighten them and that most of the problems of Muslim Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism which kept the Muslims occupied in early and medieval centuries, and then in the modern period too, could not arise had the Muslims' not accepted un-Qur'anic philosophical notions from Greeks (through Christians and others) and then formulated their problems in these notions. The book argues that the Contemporary Problems relating to the above disciplines are no exception. We are repeating the same mistake over and again. Seventeen articles discuss 17 main and many secondary problems relating Muslim theology, Philosophy, Sufism and Reconstruction of Islamic Religious Thought to prove the above contention. Each article reconstructs the problem in Qur'anic notions in accordance with the Qur'anic teachings. One article examines as a Comparative Study, the Christian theologian and philosophers' views on the problem of Divine Omniscience. The Qur'an is the fundamental religious document and basic source of Islamic faith. Sufism is a phenomenon which organized itself into a discipline in the early centuries of Islam. A great majority of Muslims have always believed it quite coherent with the spirit of their faith. But the question is: Where does lie its origin in the Qur'an! First time in the 14 centuries of the history of Muslim culture, an article included in this book traces the origin of Islamic spirituality in the Qur'anic term 'Shahid' (the certified witness/the verifier) and explains its development into a discipline on Qur'anic grounds. Al-Haqq means the standard of truth. For centuries the Muslims have believed al-haqq to be the comely Name of God. The first article in this book differs with this concept and argues that al-haqq is the title used in the Qur'an for the Word of God, and not for God. God is the Descender of the truth. The belief, the idea, the ideology, the notion, the simile, the vision, imagination, the religious experience or whatever is in accordance with the truth is truth, what is against it is untruth. All the articles of this book examine on their respective themes how this principle is overlooked and how it has created problems for Muslim Thought. Writers like Martin Schreiner, Ignacz Goldziher, R. Nicholson Franz Rosenthal, Harry Austrian Wolfson all argue that the Islamic teachings are predestinarian in nature. Religious scholars like Dr. Muhammad Fethullah Gulen promote such views about Islam. Eight articles included in this book differ with this view and define the limits of human freedom in Qur'anic perspective. Examining antinomies relating Omniscience, Omnipotence, Predestinarian verses of the Qur'an, Inexorability of the Appointed Term, Pre-ordained Sustenance, Divine Pleasure and Divine Will etc., it has been argued in these articles that not a single person ever born including Iblis (Satan), Pharaoh, Abu Lahb (who is condemned by name as sinner in the Qur'an) was ever born such that it was predetermined in Allah's Knowledge that he/she will leave the world as sinner. The most significant thing about this book is that everything argued in this book is argued on the authority of the Qur'an; that nothing said in this book is without the authority of the Qur'an.

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9781523213146

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Dr. Abdul Hafeez Fazli, the author, has retired as Professor and Chairman from the Department of Philosophy, University of the Punjab Lahore, Pakistan in 2012. Muslim thought is his area of special interest. He is author of many research articles published in national and international journals on various aspects of Muslim philosophical thought. He believes that the Qur'an is the standard of truth and an idea, ideology, term, concept, imagination, unveiling, vision or tradition which does not correspond to its teachings cannot be true. In his articles he traces the origin of most of the problems of Muslim theology, philosophy and spirituality in the acceptance of un-Qur'anic terms and reconstructs these problems in Qur'anic notions. His writings depict an original creative approach to perennial problems of Muslim thought. He is especially interested in problems relating freewill and predestination and argues that Qur'anic teachings support man's freewill. Eight out of his seventeen articles in this book, study this problem in its various aspects.

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