ندوة جوتنجن للدّراسات العربيّة والإسلاميّة

Göttinger Orient-Symposium

Das Göttinger Orient-Symposium und das Graduiertenkolleg "Götterbilder – Gottesbilder – Weltbilder" der Universität Göttingen laden ein zum dem Vortrag:

"Beyond Idol-Worship: Mulla Sadra's (d. 1641) Critique of Mental Constructs of God"

Prof. Dr. Mohammed Rustom

Carleton University, Ottawa, Kanada

Abstract: This lecture will explore the creative manner in which the seventeenth-century Muslim philosopher-mystic, Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. 1641), tackles the problem of idolatry. It is well-known that in Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, idol-worship is forbidden. Yet Sadra does not confine “idolatry” to the worship of material representations of the divine. Drawing on his profound knowledge of the Islamic intellectual sciences, as well as the work of the famous Sufi Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240), Sadra argues that since scripture and being are two sides of the same coin, those who remain on the surface of being, who have a particular idolized conception of the nature of reality, will likewise remain on the surface of scripture. Confined to the exoteric dimensions of being and scripture, one will naturally have an exoteric conception of God. Thus, people may avoid idolatry physically, but, with a superficial understanding of the nature of things, are likely to fall into the trap of what Henry Corbin (d. 1978) calls “metaphysical idolatry.” Although most people will not be able to free themselves from their idolized mental images of God, some, Sadra maintains, will. In order to do so, he proposes that they penetrate being by delving deeply into the ocean of scripture, thereby shattering their intellectual constructs of the nature of reality, and, hence, God.