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The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism by ʿAyn al-Quḍāt; Mohammed Rustom; Livia Kohn is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism about?

**A groundbreaking exposition of Islamic mysticism** __The Essence of Reality__ was written over the course of just three days in 514/1120, by a scholar who was just twenty-four. The text, like its author ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which that it is in all likelihood the earliest philosophical exposition of mysticism in the Islamic intellectual tradition. This important work would go on to exert significant influence on both classical Islamic philosophy and philosophical mysticism. Written in a terse yet beautiful style, __The Essence of Reality__ consists of one hundred brief chapters interspersed with Qurʾanic verses, prophetic sayings, Sufi maxims, and poetry. In conversation with the work of the philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghazālī, the book takes readers on a philosophical journey, with lucid expositions of questions including the problem of the eternity of the world; the nature of God’s essence and attributes; the concepts of “before” and “after”; and the soul’s relationship to the body. All these discussions are seamlessly tied into ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s foundational argument—that mystical knowledge lies beyond the realm of the intellect.

Who reads The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism?

Author

ʿAyn al-Quḍāt; Mohammed Rustom; Livia Kohn

Publisher

New York University Press

Published

2023

Language

EN

ISBN

9781479826216

Category

nonfiction