Apprehension and Existence, Appearance and Reality: The Reception of Nafs al-amr Debates after the 13th Century

The structure of human cognition and the means of apprehension is suitable only for partly and gradually conceiving reality. This limitation has led to a certain distance between appearance and reality. This means that there will always be a gap between the judgments of the mind about the external world and its contents, which are entities, cases, facts, and states. This partiality and partiteness of human understanding has produced the truth-maker problem with regard to mind judgments. Muslim scholars who admit the correlation between the structure of reality and the categories of the mind but reject the notion of the construction and the determination of reality by the mind refer to the realm that is independent of the mind’s personal judgments as nafs al-amr. This realm is concerned with the all degrees of reality, namely—from the existent to the non-existent, from the necessity to the contingency and impossibility, from the absolute to the relative, from the material to the non-physical, from the external to the mental, and from the real entities to the abstracted ones—which step into the shot of human cognition or not. Carrying the concept of nafs al-amr from the logical plane to the metaphysical realm that intersects epistemology and ontology has led to debates that pave the way for various treatments. In particular, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s (d. 672/1274) nafs al-amr epistle that posited it to the cosmic sphere resulted in criticisms of this conception of nafs al-amr, and these criticisms are the same ones directed to the Avicennian theory of emanation and its epistemological implications. Scholars who use this concept free from any metaphysical presumption and implication argue against his leap from the logical to the cosmic sphere. During the following period, this tension occasioned debates that led to the approaches that refer to the various degrees of reality, i.e., to the cosmic spheres, the spiritual realms, and the divine realms. This work aims to create a map of treatments, arguments and problems with regard to the concept of nafs al-amr.

Expansion or Contraction of the Prophetic Experience? An Analysis of the Prophetic Dream Theory of ʿAbd al-Karīm Surūsh

This paper analyzes the theory that ʿAbd al-Karīm Surūsh proposes through an article series called The Prophet Muhammad: The Messenger of Prophetic Dreams, in light of previous approaches about revelation (waḥy) with regard to dreams and imagination. For this purpose, the first chapter of this paper centers on the distinction between the word “dream” (ruʾyā), as in Surūsh’s theory, and traditional approaches to revelation to determine differences in terms of content. The second chapter associates the explanation of revelation with dreams in order to compare alternative “imagination” (خيال، متخيلة) based approaches in Islamic philosophy and Sufism, in turn clarifying how Surūsh distinguishes them and resolves the relevant problematics.

Discourse Strategies and Narrative Repetition in the Qurʾān: A Special Reference to al-Shuʿarāʾ

This paper attempts to explain some discursive strategies in relation to the cyclic structure of narratives in the Qurʾānic context of Sūrat “al-Shuʿarāʾ.” To that end, the paper works on three essential interrelated aspects of study. First, it detects the cyclic structure that interconnects the seven prophets’ narratives within the Sūrah. Second, it investigates the cross-Sūrah interconnections by examining the (re)occurrence of each prophet’s narrative in the preceding and following sūrahs. Third, it discusses how such coherent interrelationships among the relevant sūrahs can reveal certain discourse strategies such as narrative extension, intention, expansion, juxtaposition, and inversion among these sūrahs. Another, yet interrelated, aspect of the study is to explain the “Us/Them” distinction counted in the Qurʾānic narratives involved, and to show how such dichotomy is realized through the use of referential and predicational strategies. The study adopts and adapts Reisigl and Wodak’s strategies to address this aspect. Within this analytical approach, the narratives are examined on the basis of two strategies; namely, “despatialization” (actionyms, perceptionyms, anthroponyms, and metaphors of spatiality) and “collectivization” (pronouns and possessive determiners). The analysis of data reveals some striking findings that can be summarized in two major points: first, each of the narrative’s topoi in the social actors representation evinces the dominance of predicational strategies; second, the Qurʾānic discourse is bias-free and is, thereby, drastically distinguished from other types of discourse such as political discourse.

Once the First Button is Put Wrong… An Assessment of A Study by Judith Pfeiffer on Kashf al-asrār fī ilzām al-Yahūd wa-l-aḥbār by Yūsuf Ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Dayyān

Refutations by native or converted Muslims to reject religions other than Islam have been produced for ages, including during the Ottoman era. However, studies about such refutations have mainly focused on the Ottoman world from the 19th century until the 2000s. One of the exceptions is Judith Pfeiffer’s study on Kashf al-asrār fī ilzām al-Yahūd wa-l-aḥbār by Yūsuf Ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Dayyān. This paper intends to demonstrate that the conclusion reached by Pfeiffer, i.e., that the text, which she dates to 17th century within the context of the Qāḍīzādelis-Sivāsīs debate and uses as a reference, is actually a tract called al-Radd ʿalá l-Yahūd by Ṭāshkuprīzādah, is not accurate. This paper also aims to demonstrate that Ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Dayyān actually lived in the 16th century and wrote this work in relation to the Jews who had become gradually more visible in the social and cultural life of Istanbul following their migration from Spain and that the use of the reference is actually the use of the book of Ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Dayyān by Ṭāshkuprīzādah.