TASAVVUF ARAŞTIRMALARIJOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE
ENSTİTÜSÜ DERGİSİ TAED JISS FOR SUFI
STUDIES
From Mysticism to Philosophy: Toshihiko Izutsu and Sufism
Tasavvuftan Felsefeye:
Toshihiko Izutsu ve Tasavvuf
Makoto
Sawai*
Abstract
In Islāmic studies, Toshihiko Izutsu is well known as
a scholar of the Qur’ān and Sufism, thanks to his published works in English.
As to his image in Japan, however, he is known as a thinker of Oriental
philosophy. After his return from Iran to Japan, he published several
publications on Oriental philosophy in Japanese. As such, his final
achievement, which was his Oriental philosophy, was veiled from readers who do
not know Japanese, while his detailed study on Islāmic studies is not known by
Japanese readers. In structuring his Oriental philosophy, he refers mainly to
Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy known as waḥdat al-wujūd. Before publishing his work in
English, he had already considered Ibn ‘Arabī and mysticism in his Japanese
work in which he emphasizes the essential role of experience in understanding
mysticism. Based on the theoretical development from mysticism to mystical
philosophy, Izutsu delineates the theoretical development from Sufism to
Islāmic philosophy. In studying Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy, waḥdat al-wujūd or
‘Unity of Existence’, Izutsu uses Islāmic philosophy as the framework for his
Oriental philosophy.
Keywords: Toshihiko
Izutsu, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī, waḥdat
al-wujūd, Sufism, Islāmic philosophy, Oriental philosophy.
Özet
Toshihiko Izutsu, İngilizce yayımlanmış eserleri
sayesinde, özellikle Kur’ân ve tasavvuf alanındaki İslâmî çalışmalarıyla
bilinen ünlü bir akademisyendir. Ancak onun Japonya’daki bilinirliği, daha
ziyade bir Doğu felsefesi düşünürü olduğu yönündedir. İran’dan Japonya’ya
döndükten sonra Doğu felsefesi üzerine Japonca çeşitli eserler kaleme almıştır.
Fakat nasıl ki Izutsu’nun İslâm üzerine yaptığı çalışmalar Japon okuyucular
tarafından bilinmemekteyse, Doğu felsefesi üzerine kaleme aldığı bahsi geçen bu
son eserler de Japonca bilmeyen okurlardan gizli kalmıştır. Izutsu, Doğu
felsefesini yapılandırırken, temel olarak İbnü’l-‘Arabî’nin vahdet-i vücûd
olarak bilinen düşüncesine atıfta bulunur. Çalışmasını İngilizce olarak
yayımlamadan önce, tasavvufu anlamlandırmada mistik tecrübenin hayatî rolünü
vurguladığı Japonca eserinde, İbnü’l-‘Arabî ve tasavvufun kapsamlı bir biçimde
ele alındığı görülür. Izutsu, mistisizmden mistik felsefeye uzanan nazarî
gelişimden yola çıkarak tasavvuftan İslâm felsefesine doğru giden teorik
gelişimi tasvir etmektedir. İbnü’l-‘Arabî’nin, vahdet-i vücûd ya da varlığın
birliği düşüncesini ele alırken İslâm felsefesini, Doğu felsefesi için bir
çerçeve olarak kullanır.
Anahtar
Kelimeler: Toshihiko Izutsu, Muḥyīddīn İbn ‘Arabī, vahdet-i vücûd,
tasavvuf, İslâm felsefesi, Doğu felsefesi.
* Lecturer,
Oyasato Institute for the Study of Religion, Tenri University. E-mail:
mvsawai@sta.tenri-u.ac.jp.
Introduction: Sufism in Izutsu’s Study of Islām
Toshihiko Izutsu (1914-1993), one of the most
accomplished scholars in Islāmic Studies, is known worldwide as a Japanese
scholar of the Qur’ān and Sufism. However, the breadth of his work and
understanding has not been fully appreciated, especially in terms of how he constructed
his views on Oriental philosophy through his deep learning of the Qur’ān,
Sufism, and Islāmic philosophy.
His study of the Qur’ān in both God and Man in the Koran (1964) and Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’ān (1966) continues to draw
many Muslim readers, many of whom are highly distinguished and consider his
perspective unique. In Japanese academia, he also produced colloquial style
Japanese translations of the Qur’ān, since in his opinion, there was an
importance in maintaining the literal sense of the Arabic term Qur’ān (recitation). In these
publications, Izutsu commonly adopts the analytical perspective of “semantic
analysis” (imironteki bunseki).[1]
The semantic perspective is what he used in his linguistic approach of the
Qur’ān;[2]
in it, he focused on key concepts in the text that
represented the relationship between God and human
beings, arranging those passages and comparing them to each other.
After publishing his Japanese translation, he put
aside further studies of the Qur’ān and undertook a study of Sufism, where he
continued with his semantic analyses and applied it to his comparative study of
religious traditions. His Sufism and
Taoism (1966) and The Concept and
Reality of Existence (1965) are regarded as classic books for understanding
Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī’s (d. 638/1240) philosophy, generally known as the
Unity of Existence or Unity of Being (waḥdat
al-wujūd).
It is noteworthy that Izutsu considers not only
Sufism and Islāmic philosophy, but also Taoism and Buddhism, as shown by his
work on comparative perspectives of religious traditions in the East.[3]
He compares key concepts of Islāmic philosophy to those of other religions and
discovers common structures that religious philosophies in the Orient share,
which is what Izutsu calls Oriental philosophy.[4]
As Shigeru Kamada points out, Izutsu is mostly regarded
as a Qur’ānic scholar in the West, whereas most Japanese readers are mainly
familiar with his Oriental philosophy.[5] In
other words, there is a gap in understanding regarding Izutsu’s body of work
between his English and Japanese readers.
He began drawing up a plan of his Oriental
philosophy during his stay in Iran, reifying his vision by referring to Sufism
and Islāmic philosophy. After returning to Japan in 1978 due to the Iranian
revolution, Izutsu was involved in constructing his Oriental philosophy (tōyō tetsugaku). This shows that his
academic track of studying Islām to build his Oriental philosophy was a process
of the extreme achievement of his thought. However, the extent and significance
of Izutsu’s study of Sufism and Islāmic philosophy and the role they played in
Oriental philosophy is not well known.
As previously stated, choosing Japanese as the
language for his undertaking of Oriental philosophy veiled what Izutsu truly
thought in later life from foreign scholars. Izutsu’s Oriental philosophy
embraces Islām, zen Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, and Indian philosophy, all of
which are expressed in non-Western languages.[6] In
this paper, I would like to fill the gap in the understanding of Izutsu’s work
by tracing his engagement with Sufism and referring to his works on Sufism in
Japanese.
I. Experience and Its Verbal Expression
Izutsu was interested in languages since his youth.
He started learning Russian at 19 years old and multiple languages like Hebrew,
Arabic, and Greek in his early 20s. Around the same time, he learned Islām and
Arabic from Abdurreshid Ibrāhim (1857-1944) and did Islāmic philosophy and
theology from Musa Bigiev (1875-1949), also known as Mūsā Jār Allāh. Through
his encounter with both these Tatar Muslim scholars visiting Japan, he improved
his linguistic ability and acquired his Islāmic knowledge.
In 1941, he published his first book, Intellectual History in Arabia: Islāmic
Theology and Islāmic Philosophy (Arabia
Shisōshi: Kaikyō Shingaku to Kaikyō Tetsugaku). In 1949, he later wrote Mystical Philosophy: The Part of Greek (Shinpi Tetsugaku: Girishia no Bu).[7] As
he considered in both works, he was interested in mysticism since his early
career. In Mystical Philosophy, he
rephrases the term “naturmystik” (natural mysticism, Shizen-shinpishugi) as a “kind of distinct experience”, “primordial
experience”, and “absolute experience in an assertive way”.[8] These
phrases express the same sentiment as unio
mystica, albeit using different
words.
In his understanding of mysticism, Izutsu emphasizes
an aspect of experience and its verbal expression. Izutsu argues that there is
theoretical development from expressing mystical experience in words to
philosophizing one’s experience. At the beginning of mysticism, however, there
is a gross experience that is before or beyond language:
As to them (i.e., sages before Socrates), they had an
idea not “In the beginning was the thought” but “In the beginning was the
intuition.”[9]
At the beginning of the whole thing, there was an absolute all-encompassing
experience. I would like to call this primordial experience “naturmystik”,
following the tradition of the intellectual history of mysticism in the West.
The experience of naturmystik is the human experience as a finite existence,
but the experience of “nature” as the absolute existence. It means not that
human beings have experience of nature, but that nature has experience of human
beings. nature is the subject of experience.[10]
In mysticism, human beings generally have an
experience of nature that is absolute. However, Izutsu relates to naturmystik,
that is, the natural style of mysticism in which nature experiences human
beings. This is the same structure as Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought of the Unity of
Existence.[11]
As in unio
mystica, a Sufi has experience of Allāh. However, Ibn ‘Arabī argues that
Allāh makes a Sufi witness Himself. This means that the subject in a mystical
experience is not human existence but Allāh. In the ontology of Ibn ‘Arabī’s
thought, the Real (al-Ḥaqq) is understood
as absolute Existence (al-wujūd).
Moreover, nothing other than absolute Existence has and does exist.
In self-disclosure (al-tajallī) of the Existence, there is a framework in which the
absolute Existence manifests Himself to the whole existent (mawjūd)[12]
through entification (ta‘ayyun). In
other words, the Real manifests Himself to human beings through
self-limitation. The framework of Ibn ‘Arabī’s entification is the same as that
of the experience in naturmystik: that nature has an experience of human
beings. That is, nature limits itself in the way of human beings.
In the same manner as Greek philosophers, Ibn
‘Arabī’s mystical philosophy is based on his experience of unio mystica. Izutsu emphasizes personal experience unified with
the absolute, which is essential for philosophizing mysticism. In other words,
a philosophical understanding of mysticism does not exist without passing
through a level of mystical experience. Thus, concerning the theoretical
relationship between mysticism and mystical philosophy, Izutsu argued, as in
his early work, that mysticism based on mystical experience theoretically
transits to mystical philosophy. Mystical experience, according to him, is
equal to the self-consciousness of absolute transcendence. In Greek metaphysics,
the “experience of the absolute ‘One’” unceasingly flows from the physics of
the Ionian school to neo-Platonism in Alexandria. As such, the earliest period
of Greek philosophy was fully decorated with mystical experiences.
His experience-based understanding of mysticism is
adapted in his earliest article entitled “Revelation and Reason in Islām” (Kaikyō ni okeru Keiji to Risei, 1944). According to Izutsu, Sufism is a
“religious reformation” against a rational understanding of Islām. This means
that Sufism “regards revelation not only as the Qur’ān but also as revelation
to each individual.”[13]
In other words, divine revelation to human beings indicates the Qur’ānic
revelation to the Prophet Muḥammad, as well as personal experience. He sums up
that Sufis “emphasize the absolute and mystical experience of each Muslim. It
is widely known as Islāmic mysticism or Sufīism.”[14]
Before Islāmic mysticism, or Sufism coming into
existence as a result of theoretical formation, Sufis had an experience of the
beginning. Sufis then verbalize their experience in spite of its ineffable
characteristics.
First, those people (i.e., Sufis) try to pursue the
way of mortification by single-mindedly chanting the names of God, without
getting involved in rational interpretation. As I told you in the section on
philosophy, however, neo-platonic thought had a deep impact on such people
after it flowed from Greece. Later, an inclination at the time that they longed
for salvation in the Hereafter by ascetic practices suddenly changed and they
became speculative. At last, the so-called thought of Islāmic mysticism
emerged. In the West, [the thought] becoming speculative in this way is called
Sufīism.[15]
Religious studies has developed by
emphasizing the aspect of experience (taiken
or keiken in Japanese) in the
academic area of mysticism. Although some point out that the study of mysticism
puts too much emphasis on the aspect of experience, Izutsu thinks that reading
mystics’ texts from the point of personal experience is still useful in deeply
understanding the characteristics of Sufism. Moreover, he holds the framework
of theoretical development from mysticism to mystical philosophy and adopts the
framework of Sufism or taṣawwuf, and
mystical philosophy in Islām or ḥikmah.
Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought plays a pivotal role in Izutsu’s structure of Oriental
philosophy.
II. Encountering and Reuniting between Izutsu
and Ibn ‘Arabī
In the former part of A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and
Taoism, Izutsu focuses on considering Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought. Izutsu
encountered Ibn ‘Arabī for the first time in Japan and published a small paper
in his early academic career in Islāmic Studies.
Mainly referring to Ibn ‘Arabī’s The
Formation of the
Circles (Inshā’ al-dawā’ir),[16]
Izutsu considers the philosophical and ontological aspects of his thought, not
the mystical ones. Although he mentions the names of Ibn ‘Arabī’s greatest
masterpieces, The Makkan Revelations
(al-Futūḥāt al-makkīyah) and The Bezels of Wisdom (Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam), he does not consider
them at all. Concerning the academic study of Ibn ‘Arabī, Abū al-‘Ilā ‘Afīfī
(1897-1966) published The Mystical
Philosophy of Muḥyid Dīn-Ibnul ‘Arabī
(1939), which is a classical work on Ibn ‘Arabī and later published his
edited volume of Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam in
1946. However, due to World War II, it was difficult for him to purchase
‘Afīfī’s works during and after the war.
With this academic history in the background, he
published a paper entitled “Mystical Philosopher of Islām: Ibn al-‘Arabī’s
Ontology” (Kaikyō Shinpishugi
Tetsugakusha: Ibunu-ru-Arabī no Sonzai-ron, 1944). He introduced Ibn ‘Arabī
as the first thinker who philosophized “Islāmic mysticism or Sufism (original
term, al-taṣawwuf)” which is “neither
a doctrine nor an ism.”
The Islāmic world has produced extinguished mystical
devotees everywhere: Ḥallāj who was famous for being cruelly crucified for the
crime of heresy, and other mystical poets in Persia who immortalized the
Enduring name in world literature by putting deep thought into a profound poem.
However, no one worthy of being called a mystical philosopher existed before him.
Because of this, Ibn ‘Arabī’s place in Islāmic
thought is extremely special; he is the only exception; that is, he is a mystic
as well as a philosopher. He descends from the tradition of Aristotelian
philosophy. Moreover, he was a mystic who tried to systematize his deep
experience with the help of this brilliant Aristotelian philosophy and was an
unprecedented philosopher who tried to devote his life to this great
enterprise.[17]
Izutsu recognizes that Abū al-Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d.
505/1111), a Sufi as well as a theologian before Ibn ‘Arabī, is a “great theo-
logian-philosopher” as well as an influential
“mystic”. However, Izutsu believes that the
Sufi thinker who has philosophically systematized
“deep experience” in mysticism is Ibn ‘Arabī. Such is the place that Ibn ‘Arabī
has maintained in Izutsu’s perspective of Sufism. Yet, Izutsu had not
considered Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought until he went abroad and researched at McGill
University.
From november 1960 to April 1961, Izutsu conducted
research at the Institute of Islāmic Studies at McGill University with a
scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1962, Izutsu was appointed as a
visiting scholar at McGill University. From the next year, he spent half a year
at Keio University and the other half at McGill until moving to Iran. According
to Seyyid Hossein nasr, “from that time on he was going to put aside his study
of Qur’ānic semantics and devote himself to later Islāmic philosophy.”[18]
Before he met with nasr at McGill University, Izutsu
published the first Japanese translation of the Qur’ān, which he directly
translated from Arabic to Japanese, and published the aforementioned works
related to the Qur’ān. Pausing his study of the Qur’ān, he shifted his academic
subject to mystical philosophy in Islām.
Progressively, year by year, he gradually shifted
his research institution from Japan (Keio University) to Canada (McGill
University) and finally to Iran (Tehran Branch of McGill University and
Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy),[19]
where he started to tackle Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought in earnest. As clearly shown in
the publishing plan of the “Wisdom of Persia Series”,[20] he
seriously engaged with the philosophized development of Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought
and considered the metaphysical philosophy of Mīr Dāmād (d. 1041/1631) and
Mullā Hādī Sabzawārī (d. 1289/1872).
Inspiring Izutsu, Ibn ‘Arabī plays an essential role
in his construction of his Oriental philosophy. Indeed, the more deeply Izutsu
studied Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought, the more intensely he was convinced that his
thought was useful in constructing his understanding of Oriental philosophy. In
“An Analysis of Waḥdat al-Wujûd”:
Toward a Metaphilosophy of Oriental Philosophies”, he clearly stated that the
theory of waḥdat al-wujūd was
valuable in his endeavor:
I am interested in this particular aspect of this
particular problem out of all the interesting problems offered by the history
of Iranian Islām, not necessarily because of my own personal philosophical
attitude, but rather, and primarily, because of my conviction that the concept
of waḥdat al-wujûd is something which, if structurally analyzed and elaborated
in a proper way, will provide a theoretical framework of thinking which
characterizes Oriental philosophy in general ─ not only Islāmic philosophy, but most of the major
historical forms of Oriental thought.21
In A
Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism,
Izutsu considers Ibn ‘Arabī in the former part and Taoism in the latter part
and compares each other in the conclusion. Moreover, after his move to Iran, he
deeply studied Ibn ‘Arabī’s waḥdat al-wujūd and later development. Izutsu came to
recognize that Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought should be placed at
Studies, Tehran Branch of McGill
University, had pre-planned the publishment plan of twenty volumes. According
to the list, Izutsu has engaged with four out of twenty volumes.
21 Toshihiko
Izutsu, The Concept and Reality of
Existence, (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 1971), 35.
the center of his Oriental philosophy. Hence, his
study of waḥdat al-wujūd gradually
transitioned from mere Islāmic studies to the theoretical framework of Oriental
philosophy.
III. Theoretical Development from Mysticism to
Mystical Philosophy
In the Archetypal
Image of Islāmic Philosophy (Isurāmu Tetsugaku no Genzō, 1980) and Consciousness and Essence (Ishiki to Honshitsu, 1984), he argued
for a theoretical development from mysticism to mystical philosophy. However,
he academically reconsidered how to deal with the phenomenon known as “Sufism”
or “Islāmic mysticism” and pointed out the difficulty of researching Sufism.
Insomuch as [Sufism] is already a subjective
understanding, it goes without saying that it is extremely personal. If there
were a general idea that being objective was a fundamental condition for
academic knowledge, such a kind of subjective depiction may not be academic. As
far as mysticism is concerned, however, I wonder if being thoroughly subjective
is paradoxically and truly objective. A so-called objective attitude does not
bring us anything here. When we observe a mystical experience from the outside
and comprehend it objectively, we will not find anything there other than a
dead figure because the anima of mysticism has already disappeared. As to our
purely objective attitude toward mystical experience, it is as if a car is on
the surface of ice: the more we push the car to go forward, the more it runs
idle and does not proceed. If we still wish to go forward despite this
situation, there is no way to get us out of our car and move forward by turning
ourselves to the ice itself. Likewise, concerning mystical experience, there is
only one true way to stop turning our “objective” condition needlessly, dive
into a vortex of our experience, and identify ourselves with it from the inside
subjectively. Here, mysticism opens its subtle secret to us. That is, to be
truly subjective is to be objective.[21]
Izutsu demonstrates a paradoxical answer to the
question of who on earth truly understands the phenomena called mysticism. It
is sure for an academic scholar that the study of mysticism is an academic
field, but for those who have had a mystical experience, they are constantly
searching for the word to describe an ineffable experience. In the study of
mysticism, scholars try to consider that verbal expression of experience. Since
fully verbal expression is impossible, however, an objective study of mysticism
is almost impossible. According to Izutsu, taking a subjective attitude in the
study of mysticism is the best way to understand mysticism. Thus, an immanent
approach is the most objective rather than subjective one. Although Izutsu did
not personally practice Sufism, he stressed the subjective approach to Sufism,
as if he were himself a practitioner of Sufism.[22]
He analyzed the phenomena of mysticism as a fine
balance in terms of “experience”, which is a concept formulated in modernism. A
comparative perspective that has fully expressed the way for spiritual training
is “tao (way), that is ṭarīqa in Islām”.[23]
The conceptual formation of mysticism contains a comparative view of religions
around the world. It is, therefore, in the name of mysticism that Izutsu also
juxtaposes spiritual phenomena in religious traditions and finds the same
structure in each of them.
Concerning his usage of “philosophy”, Izutsu again
defines “philosophizing” as “theorizing” and “systematizing”. Thus, philosophy
based on mystical experience is equal to theorizing one’s own mystical
experience. In a theoretical transition from mysticism to mystical philosophy,
one passes through mystical experience and metaphysics. In Sufism, this level
of mystical consciousness corresponds to baṣīrah
meaning “spiritual eyesight” or “inner vision”, its primary meaning being
“eyesight”.
Mysticism is an experience of getting a glimpse of
the truth (i.e., depth) of the Real through baṣīrah
[inner vision]. Incorporating it with today’s idea on semiotic semantics, what
is called baṣīrah is as if
“nothingness” (mu) or “emptiness” (kū) that is not still articulated (bunsetsuka) at all. Or baṣīrah is a capability of newly
articulating non-articulated and ontological chaos in the new form, and newly
re-articulating in the level of consciousness differing from the ordinary
experience.[24]
For Izutsu, mysticism offers a new vision of the
world. One newly recognizes the world through articulating the “world”. In the
theory of self-disclosure in waḥdat al-wujūd,
the absolute Existence articulates Itself into each existent (mawjūd) in the world. Through such
limitation of the absolute Existence, an exis-
tent comes into existence with a thing (shay’) represented by the name of
existence. When Sufis gaze at the world with an ordinary eye and a spiritual
one, they know the ontological roots behind the world.
As a result of acquiring new insight, Sufis argue a
worldview or Weltanschauung based on
mystical experience. However, it is well known that there is no Arabic
terminology that means “experience”. In his or her mystical experience,
transformation of one’s consciousness occurs; moreover, language is a tool for
expressing such transformation. Concerning such verbalization of the
experience, each language constructs a worldview reflecting its linguistic
recognition of the world. Verbal expression in Sufism also demonstrates how
Sufis articulate the world in words:
Mysticism means that one realizes directly oneself,
that is, the true self or the true reality, and next comprehends the ultimate
existence which manifests a special horizon of recognition of consciousness
breaking the ground of self-consciousness.[25]
Concerning the special horizon that Sufis acquire,
there is a term, dhū al-‘aynayn meaning
“one who has dual visions”. With one’s two eyes, one reaches the level of dhū al-‘aynayn by gazing at the visible
world with one eye and the invisible world with the other eye. The perfect man (al-insān al-kāmil) who obtains such
insights knows how the world ontologically comes into existence.
Conclusion
After returning to Japan, Izutsu tries to construct
his Oriental philosophy and argue its characteristics by referring to Ibn
‘Arabī’s thought. In his far-reaching plan of Oriental philosophy, he intended
to construct the philosophy of the “world” called the Orient. Moreover, his
Oriental philosophy indicated how he understood the characteristics of the
Oriental way of articulating the world.
In the name of “synchronical structuralization” (kyōjiteki kōzōka), he tried to clarify a
common structure of the existentialization of the world seen among philosophers
in the Orient.
Izutsu’s idea of synchronical structuralization took
on the characteristics of mysticism, as it was one of the reasons that led to
his interest in mysticism and mystical philosophy throughout his life. However,
he discovered the philosophical framework of Oriental philosophy from Ibn
‘Arabī’s waḥdat al-wujūd, the
mystical philosophy in Islām. In absorbing that philosophical framework, he
started referring to the term “experience” in his study of mysticism and
delineated the theoretical development from mysticism to mystical philosophy.
Most of all, Izutsu’s investigation of Sufism has
led him to construct his Oriental philosophy through contemplating a transitive
development from verbalizing mystical experience to theorizing it in the name
of philosophy. Without encountering Sufism and thoroughly researching Ibn
‘Arabī, he would not have systematized the structure of his Oriental philosophy
as we know it today.
Bibliography
Izutsu, T. Bewusstsein und Wesen. Translated by Hans Peter Liederbach.
München:
Iudicium Verlag, 1983 (2006).
---, God and Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung.
Tokyo: The Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964.
---, “Mystical Philosopher of Islām:
Ibn al-‘Arabī’s Ontology” (Kaikyō
Shinpishugi Tetsugakusha: Ibunu-ru-Arabī no Sonzairon). The Complete Works of Toshihiko
Izutsu I,
1944 (2013): 172-193.
---, Mystical Philosophy (Shinpi
Tetsugaku). The Complete Works of
Toshihiko Izutsu II, 1949 (2013).
---, “Revelation and Reason in
Islām” (Kaikyō ni okeru Keiji to Risei).
The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu I,
1944 (2013): 212-227.
---, “Sufism and Linguistic
Philosophy” (Sūfizumu to Gengo Tetsugaku).
The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu
VIII, 1984 (2014): 218-255.
---, The Concept and Reality of Existence. Tokyo: The Keio Institute of
Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1971.
James, W. Essays in Radical Empiricism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1912 (1976).
Kamada, S. “‘The Oriental
Philosophy’ and Islāmic Studies” (‘Tōyō
Tetsugaku’ to Isurāmu Kenkyū). In Toshihiko
Izutsu’s Oriental Philosophy: (Toshihiko
Izutsu no Tōyō Tetsugaku), edited by Yoshitsugu Sawai and Shigeru Kamada,
11-32. Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2018.
nasr, S. H. “Some
Recollections: Toshihiko Izutsu” (Izutsu
Toshihiko no Omoide). Monthly
Newsletter (Supplement of The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu 11).
Translated by Makoto Sawai. (2015): 1-6.
nishida, K. An Inquiry into the Good (Zen no Kenkyū). Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko,
1911 (1950).
nyberg, H. S. Kleinere Schriften des Ibn
al-ʿArabī.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1919.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by JSPS KAKEnHI (20H01199).
[1] In God and Man in the Koran, Izutsu explains what semantics means: So
much so that ‘semantics’, as the study of Meaning, cannot but be a new type of
philosophy based on an entirely new conception of being and existence and
extending over many different and widely divergent branches of traditional
science, which, however, are as yet far from having achieved the ideal of a
perfect integration. (Toshihiko Izutsu, God
and Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung, (Tokyo: The
Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964), 10.)
[2] Behind his continuous
interest in semantics, Izutsu also believes that semantic analysis leads to an
objective understanding of texts. According to him, it is possible to clarify
the semantic network of key concepts by considering how a concept relates to
other concepts inside texts.
[3]
His intention fully expresses the title of his English publication on Sufism: A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical
Concepts in Sufism and Taoism: Ibn ‘Arabī and Lao-tsǔ, Chuang-tsǔ (1966).
This book is republished with the title of Sufism
and Tao-
ism: A Comparative Study of the Key
Philosophical Concepts from Iwanami-shoten (1983) and from the University
of California Press (1984).
[4] Izutsu’s semantic way of
reading texts written in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit would not be
accomplished without his extraordinary linguistic ability; his semantic reading
of the texts is fully creative, his work is unique. However, his attitude to
texts and understanding is objective and philological. Even today, Izutsu’s
academic dedication to Islāmic Studies is extremely high, and his academic
influence extensive.
[5]
Shigeru Kamada, “‘The Oriental Philosophy’ and Islāmic Studies” (‘Tōyō Tetsugaku’ to Isurāmu Kenkyū) in Toshihiko
Izutsu’s Oriental Philosophy: (Toshihiko
Izutsu no Tōyō Tetsugaku), eds. Yoshitsugu Sawai and
Shigeru Kamada (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2018), 12.
[6] After returning to Japan,
he published whole books in Japanese. This is another reason why his final part
of constructing Oriental philosophy is not veiled by non-Japanese readers.
Izutsu’s most distinguished book written in Japanese, Consciousness and Essence: In Search of the Spiritual East (Ishiki to Honshitsu: Seishinteki Tōyō
o Motomete, 1983), is translated into German. Toshihiko Izutsu, Bewusstsein und Wesen, tras. Hans Peter
Liederbach (München:
Iudicium Verlag, 2006).
[7]
Though this book firstly had a publishing schedule in 1947, it was cancelled
since the original publishing company went bankrupt. Moreover, there is an
original plan that this book has three volumes: the first volume of Greek part,
the second volume of Hebrew part, and the third volume of Christian part.
However, only the first was published since the publishment, Hikari no Shobō, also went bankrupt
before the
second
volume was done. Later in 1978, he published two volumes of Mystical Philosophy by revising the
first part.
[8]
In a sense, “natural mysticism” is equivalent to a “pure experience” in the
philosophy of William James (1842-1910) and Kitarō nishida (1870-1945). William
James, Essays in Radical Empiricism,
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1912(1976)); Kitarō nishida, An Inquiry into the Good (Zen no Kenkyū), (Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko,
1911 (1950)).
[9] Izutsu explains the origin
of Greek philosophy by referring to the Bible: “In the beginning was the word
(logos).” (John 1:1)
[10] Toshihiko Izutsu, Mystical Philosophy (Shinpi Tetsugaku): The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu II, (Tokyo: Keio University
Press, 1949 (2013)), 30.
[11] In other words, Izutsu
has a rough structure of mysticism in his early days and gradually
sophisticates it by encountering Sufism at a later date.
[12]
The literal meaning of mawjūd which
is a passive noun in Arabic is: “thing that is made existent.” With regards to
Arabic grammar, this is a derivative form of wujūd. At the same time,
it demonstrates the relationship between the Real and creatures. Creatures,
including human beings, are only a derivative and passive existence of the
Real, that is the Existence, in true meaning.
[13] Toshihiko Izutsu,
“Revelation and Reason in Islām” (Kaikyō ni okeru Keiji to Risei), The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu I,
(Tokyo: Keio University Press, 1944 (2013)), 225.
[14] Ibid. 225. Izutsu uses
the term “Sufīism” consisted of “Sufī” and “ism.” This term is used in the
formative period of the study of Sufism.
[15] Ibid. 225.
[16]
This book edited by Henrik Samuel nyberg (18891974) is the only text of Ibn
‘Arabī’s published in the West. Henrik Samuel nyberg, Kleinere Schriften des Ibn al-ʿArabī, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1919).
[17] Toshihiko Izutsu,
“Mystical Philosopher of Islām: Ibn al-‘Arabī’s Ontology” (Kaikyō Shinpishugi Tetsugakusha: Ibunu-ru-Arabī no Sonzai-ron), The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu
I, (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 1943 (2013)), 173-174.
[18] Seyyid Hossein nasr,
“Some Recollections: Toshihiko Izutsu” (Izutsu
Toshihiko no Omoide), trans. Makoto Sawai, Monthly Newsletter (Supplement of The Complete Works of Toshihiko
Izutsu 11), (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2015), 1.
[19] In 1975, Izutsu moved to
Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy as a professor. He had researched there
until the occurrence of the Iranian Revolution in February 1979.
[20] Under the “Series” name,
the Institute of Islāmic
[21]
Toshihiko Izutsu, Shinpi Tetsugaku,
31-32.
[22] Izutsu practiced zen in
his childhood because his father gave him rigorous zen practice. In other
words, he kept a subjective attitude to zen Buddhism in which he regards
mysticism in Buddhism.
[23] Toshihiko Izutsu, “Sufism
and Linguistic Philosophy” (Sūfizumu to
Gengo Tetsugaku), The Complete Works of Toshihiko Izutsu VIII, (Tokyo: Keio
University Press, 1984 (2014)), 223.
[24] Ibid.
224.
[25] Ibid. 223.
