The Philosophy of Illumination 1st Edition
by Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (Author), John Walbridge (Translator), Hossein Ziai (Translator)
4.7 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
Shihäb al-Din al-Suhrawardi was born around 1154, probably in northwestern Iran. Spurred by a dream in which Aristotle appeared to him, he rejected the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy of his youth and undertook the task of reviving the philosophical tradition of the "Ancients."
Suhruwardi's philosophy grants an epistemological role to immediate and atemporal intuition. It is explicitly anti-Peripatetic and is identified with the pre-Aristotelian sages, particularly Plato. The subject of his hikmat al-Ishraq—now available for the first time in English—is the "science of lights," a science that Suhrawardi first learned through mystical exercises reinforced later by logical proofs and confirmed by what he saw as the parallel experiences of the Ancients. It was completed on 15 September 1186; and at sunset that evening, in the western sky, the sun, the moon, and the five visible planets came together in a magnificent conjunction in the constellation of Libra. The stars soon turned against Suhrawardi, however, who was reluctantly put to death by the son of Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, in 1191.
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About the Author
John Walbridge is professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Indiana University Bloomington.
Product details
Publisher : Brigham Young University; 1st edition (April 1, 2000)
Language : English
Hardcover : 323 pages
ISBN-10 : 0842524576
ISBN-13 : 978-0842524575
Item Weight : 1.81 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inchesBest Sellers Rank: #418,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)#668 in Religious Studies (Books)
#1,141 in Philosophy (Books)
#1,739 in Other Eastern Religions & Sacred Texts (Books)Customer Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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Charles R. Ward
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read for those looking for a new Philosophical perspective.Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2013
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I gave this book a five because I found something I was looking for in the text. The book as a whole is Peripetetic Jibberish, sprinkled with extreme logic and critical thinking. It does, however, have two sentences that I found rather Illuminating. lol
I've found through my reading that Al-Suhrawardi was a very kind and spiritual person. If I had to guess, I'd say this book was written by either one or many people other than Suhrawardi, with the addition of two sentences by Suhrawardi.
On the surface, it seems to me that if someone understood this book and the completely new paradigm it suggests, they would have a very clear mind and an even better heart!
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Peter Hubral
4.0 out of 5 stars The Philosophy of Illumination cannot be understood with familiar reasoning.Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2015
SUMMARY
I would have given my review of this book 10 stars (twice as much as possible) if I would have to rate the original Hikmat al Ishraq (Philosophy of Illumination), which I see in good agreement with my Taoist school, Taijixue, and the Pythagorean/Platonic philosophía. As this beautiful book of ancient Iranian wisdom is offered to me, however, as an insufficient translation, I give it only 4 stars. This is no criticism of the literary competence of the translators. They have certainly done the best they could. If they would, however, know the SUHRAWARDI CODE, they would have translated the book in various passages quite differently.
REVIEW
I studied this very fine and difficult book extensively jointly with John Walbridge’s 'The Leaven of the Ancients', Horten’s 'Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung nach Suhrwardi (1191 †)' and the support of Iranian friends. I was motivated to thoroughly investigate it, because of the long practical experience, which I gained in the Taoist school of Illumination (Taijixue) that is rooted in ancient philosophical Taoism (See taijixue.de) that goes back to 7000 BCE.
I expected some similarity of it with the Hikmat al Ishraq, which I wanted to corroborate. I am happy with my conclusions, which show that both teachings match very well from the perspective of my experience with Taijxue. I came in contact with Taijixue in 1997 (See my book, 'The Socrates Code', or the review: “Man, the measure of all things?” in The Philosopher, V. 102 No. 2, 2014). I have also dedicated a section to Suhrawardi in 'The Plato Code (Lotus Press, 2014)'.
I know from my long interaction with Taijixue that any translation of its theory (WRITTEN doctrine) is, irrespective of the competence of the translators, mostly a distortion satisfying the Italian proverb:
Traduttore traidore (Translators are traitors).
The distortion results from ignoring the personal practical experience that any Illuminationist school offers to its practitioners. By ignoring it, the translation is then mostly little more than "poetry", which may nevertheless please the translators and readers. But nice words need not necessarily be true.
I am confident that the Hikmat al Ishraq belongs to the same category of ancient wisdom traditions like Taijixue and the Pythagorean/Platonic philosophía. This means that these cannot be understood by familiar reasoning, which ignores the UNWRITTEN (non-oratory) doctrine on which the literature is based. There is, however, a CODE to grasp it, irrespective if one has gained practical experience with these traditions or not.
I call the CODE with respect to Taijixue the Lao Tzu code and with respect to the Pythagorean/ Platonic philosophía the Socrates code or Plato code. I could call it with respect to the Hikmat al Ishraq the SUHRAWARDI CODE. All codes turn out to be identical. The Lao Tzu code is based on Wuwei, the Socrates (Plato) code on philía and the SUHRAWARDI CODE on mahabba. Wuwei, philia and mahabba are identical. They are the HIGHEST PRINCIPLE in all three wisdom traditions.
I call the code to understand Taijixue the Lao Tzu code, because Lao Tzu (6th century BCE) is a master of my school, which offers an uninterrupted genealogy of masters from his and earlier times until this day and age. This incessant lineage is a necessary requirement. My Tao-teacher views himself to be part of it.
I owe my understanding of the Hikmat al Ishraq, which largely differs from that of both translators, to my long Tao-experience (Wuwei-experience). This helped me to grasp its beauty, which significantly increases, like that of any book on philosophical Taoism, if one internalizes the difference between hikma bahthiyya, translated to discursive philosophy, and hikma dhawqiyya, insufficiently translated to intuitive philosophy.
To distinguish between both approaches to understand the world and the self, one has to know the UNWRITTEN Hikmat al Ishraq, which should root in a similar meditative self-observation like that of the UNWRITTEN Taijixue and UNWRITTEN Pythagorean/Platonic philosophía. This offers the indicated two kinds of knowledge (wisdom), which both complement each other.
The hikma bahthiyya equals the (speculative) philosophy based on familiar reasoning. The hikma dhawqiyya, on the other hand, is the first philosophy (falsafah al ula) or what the Pythagorean/Platonic tradition call philosophía.
It is, like Taijixue, composed of a WRITTEN and UNWRITTEN doctrine, of which one cannot be understood without the other. The WRITTEN one is oratory (expressible) and the UNWRITTEN one is largely non-oratory (inexpressible) for those who do not share the practical experience.
The non-oratory hikma dhawqiyya results, like Taijxue and philosophía, from a specific meditative self-observation needed to explore the world beyond the familiar one. It cannot be understood without this. It is for that matter more profound than the oratory hikma bahthiyya (discursive philosophy), which requires no practice, because it is dedicated to the familiar world of the five senses.
The RECOLLECTION (anamnésis) of hikma al huduri
The hikma dhawqiyya, provides, just like the philosophía and Taijixue, the practitioner with the recollection (anamnésis) of non-oratory extrasensory self-observed knowledge that Suhrawardi calls hikma al huduri (knowledge by presence). It emanates (emerges, reveals itself) during the practice from the world beyond (above) the familiar one perceived with the five senses.
The term 'hikma al huduri' is justified, because this unusual knowledge (Greek: epistéme) comes out of itself during the meditative self-observation. This requires the rigorous dedication - in the "here and now" - to the non-dual world, which is the source of the familiar dual one. It is the eternally creative world that brings it to birth. It is the intermediate world between Nonbeing (the unknown) and Being (the known). It is the non-dual world in which the past and the future - and in fact all opposites – coincide (are mixed). It is the essence of the philosophía, the art (téchne) to perceive it with reawakened extraordinary senses, about which Plato writes in perfect agreement with Taijixue (Phaidon 64a):
“Those who happen to grasp the philosophía correctly risk being unrecognized by others, because it is nothing but 'practising to die and to be dead'”.
He refers with his enigmatic and largely misinterpreted words to what he calls in Phaidros (81a) the “pleasurable (phaidros) practice of dying (meléte thanátou)”. This or a similar practice of self-observation is necessary to EXPERIENCE the recollection with the reawakened senses, which is not only the root of Taijixue and the philosophía, but also of the Hikmat al Ishraq. Would this not be the case, this would be much less profound than Taijixue!
THE DISTORTION OF ANCIENT WISDOM
Unfortunately all three extraordinary wisdom teachings (Taijixue, philosophía and Hikmat al Ishraq) are strongly misinterpreted with the logic of familiar (discursive) thinking conditioned by the world that surrounds us. Their correct interpretation requires the deployment of a much deeper LOGIC to unveil them. This is the LOGIC that comes out of itself in function of the regular practical experience.
The distortions from misinterpreting the three WRITTEN wisdom teachings with the familiar (common) logic can, however, be detected and removed, if one is aware of the Socrates code (Plato code, Lao Tzu code, SUHRAWARDI CODE).
This increasingly reveals the TRUE BEAUTY of each wisdom teaching that cannot be questioned by the practitioner, because it is a function of his personal meditation success. With this I do not say that one has to practice to understand the code. Not at all. It is expressed in THE SOCRATES CODE (Lotus Press, 2014) in a way that non-practitioners can understand and use it for the interpretation of the HIkmat al Israq.
See also my critical reviews here on Amazon on:
Plato: Timaeus and Critias (Penguin Classics), translated by Desmond Lee
Plato Symposium (Hackett Classics), translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff,
Plato Republic (Hackett Classics), translated by C. D. C. Reeve,
Theology of Arithmetic, by Robin Butterfield,
The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World, by Gary Lachman
Porphyry's Against the Christians, by Porphyry
The Wisdom of Laotse, by Yutang Lin (Author)
The Gnostic Gospels; by Elaine Pagels.
Divine Matrix, by Gregg Bradan
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Jackie Chan
5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy of illuminationReviewed in the United States on April 8, 2005
This is a magnificient effort. Dr Ziai's efforts with this and his other translations are very generous and clear. This is a major work by an important medieval philosopher. Although I'm not a specialist in Persian or Islamic thought this book gives me confidence that the textual terminology is translated in all its richness and specific rigor. This is a good book for the general reader of philosophy and stands apart from so much new age rubbish written about Sufism. The book is handsomely produced, beautifully designed, and very reasonably priced. I think anyone thinking of the future and with a wit to buying important editions of major philosophical texts shouldn't think twice about acquiring it. This is also a good book for students of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, for reasons that will be clear upon reading it.
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