Contributors: Lund University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences, Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Lunds universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar, Centrum för Mellanösternstudier (CMES), Originator; Lund University, Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Departments, Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, History of Religions and Religious Behavioural Science, Islamic Studies, Lunds universitet, Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna, Institutioner, Centrum för teologi och religionsvetenskap, Religionshistoria och religionsbeteendevetenskap, Islamologi, Originator; Lund University, Profile areas and other strong research environments, Strategic research areas (SRA), MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World, Lunds universitet, Profilområden och andra starka forskningsmiljöer, Strategiska forskningsområden (SFO), MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World, Originator
Abstract: In this paper, I examine ideas on creation, nature, and the ethical self as conceptual- ized by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Brethren of Purity, fl. ca. 350–369/961–980) and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. before 409/1018), with a particular focus on Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111). Drawing from the classical scholarship on kalā m, taṣawwuf, and falsafa, I analyze texts by these ethicists who wrote on nature and the role of the human as part of their ethical understanding of the universe as a means to achieve salvation in the Hereafter. By cross-referencing the abovementioned classical scholars and their ideas, I ask how nature is conceptualized in the classical Islamic tradition as part of the divine creation and how closely it was conceived in relation to obtaining a virtu- ous character. Looking at these three figures who show a degree of cross-influence, indicates that these scholars wrote on creation and nature from an integrative per- spective, encompassing theological, philosophical, and cosmological questions as ethical concerns. Reading these scholars presupposes that nature was not separated from other domains but rather amalgamated in a web of approaches and movements that addressed, for instance, the creation of the cosmos and its conservation based on a utilitarian perspective that was nonetheless ingrained in a metaphysical understand- ing of the universe. In a similar vein, this paper invites us to rethink the contempo- rary designations of nature/environment as a monovalent concept, encapsulated in a particular division of sciences as it appeared in modern Europe, and hence welcomes a critical take on the current debates on environmental sustainability as a common ethical concern. عن الخَلق والطبيعة والذات الأخلاقية: تحليلٌ مقارنٌ لأفكار إخوانِ الصفاء والراغبِ الأصفهانيّ وأبي حامد الغزالي
Processing Request
No Comments.