Ibnu Tufail

This is the table of contents and introduction to "the Polished Mirror," published by Oneworld:

Islamic philosophy and Sufism evolved as distinct yet interweaving strands of Islamic thought and practice. Despite differences, they have shared a concern with the perfection of the soul through the development of character. In The Polished Mirror, Cyrus Ali Zargar studies the ways in which, through teaching and storytelling, pre-modern Muslims lived, negotiated, and cultivated virtues. Examining the writings of philosophers, ascetics, poets, and saints, he locates virtue ethics within a dynamic moral tradition.

The present contribution is the natural continuation of several studies recently devoted to the reception of the Ras…’il Ikhw…n al-Ÿaf…’ in al-Andalus and whose results imply a thorough reconsideration of the chronology still prevailing in modern scholarship for both the original compilation of the corpus and its introduction in the western part of the Islamic world in the Middle Ages. The purpose of the present essay is to focus on the works of al-Andalus which appear to have referred to the Ikhwān or to their encyclopaedic corpus under the form of disguised and secret allusions. Although not aiming at being exhaustive, the present survey includes texts from Ibn Masarra, Maslama al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Baṭalyawsī, Ibn Ṭufayl and Ibn ‘Arabī. This selection of texts is
clear evidence of the fact that the Brethren’s encyclopaedia widely circulated through the Iberian Peninsula, and this from a date much earlier than has been acknowledged in modern scholarship thus far.

Originally written as a philosophical work, Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan incorporates in its story many elements that could be regarded as elements of the civilizational process in modern times. In this paper we will analyze these elements of the civilizational process and try to reassemble them into a clear theory of civilization. In order to conduct these analyses, the elements found in the story will be contrasted and perceived through the concepts of civilization found in the works of Ibn Khaldun and Arnold J. Toynbee. The resulting conclusion will point out many similarities between these authors in conceiving civilizations, especially in the notions of the development of intellect and the unity of humankind. But it will also show us the crucial divergence in the importance and existence of society and its binding elements such as 'aṣabiyya. Still, Ibn Tufayl's uniqueness and originality will be seen in his tripartite definition of existence and his own take on the goal/s of the civilizational process.

Ernest Buckler, who grew up in the village in the Annapolis Valley described in The Mountain and the Valley,  eventually took degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy from Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto. After working in Toronto, he returned to the Valley to farm and write on a property just beyond Bridgetown on the South Mountain side of the road to Annapolis . This is the side of the Valley where his family lived. Interpreting The Mountain and the Valley is assisted by some knowledge of the deep mutual assimilation between Platonism and the Abrahamic Religions on the ascent from the Cave up to Union with the Good. The attached Powerpoint was prepared as a lecture in my "Philosophy and God" course in the Dalhousie Department of Classics. It may be of some use to some of you.

lebih dikenal dengan nama Avicenna. Ia dikenal sebagai seorang filosof Islam terbesar dengan gelar Syaikh ar-Ra'is (Kyai Utama). Dilahirkan dalam keluarga yang bermazhab Syi'ah pada tahun 370 H / 980 M, di desa Efsyanah ( kawasanBukhara ).Di Bukhara,ia dibesarkan dan belajar falsafah, kedokteran dan ilmu-ilmu agama Islam. Dalam usia 10 tahun, ia telah banyak mempelajari ilmu agama Islam dan menghafal Al-Qur`an seluruhnya.

This article traces the motif of the blind man made to see, also known as the Molyneux problem, from the writings of Irish philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries to 20th-century Irish plays. The narrative of restoring sight to the blind is taken as a paradigmatic example of overcoming a disability, with a cure that normalises the blind persons and allows them to reintegrate into society. The paper argues that this narrative was problematised by Irish philosophers and playwrights from Molyneux and Berkeley to Yeats, Synge, Beckett and Friel.

This course considers humanist values and principles through the reading of canonical works of history, literature, and philosophy from more than one historical period and geographical area. An empathetic understanding of human beings is emphasized through a consideration of what is important to human beings, and how humans relate to others. Readings from the following authors will be included: Aeschylus, Plato, Ibn Tufayl, Rousseau, and Shelley.

Our section of HUMN 101 will focus on texts that try to locate the meaning of human life somewhere between the ideal heights of divine existence and the brute reality of animal experience. Familiarizing ourselves with figures like Aeschylus' Prometheus, Plato's Socrates, Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Rousseau's 'natural man,' and Shelley's Frankenstein, we will aim to uncover this tension between the human urge to pursue godlike power (or knowledge) and the human need to remain within the confines of our material conditions.

Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. A Source for Features of the Ascent in The Mountain and the Valley?
When I first read The Mountain and the Valley my memory was pushed back to parts of the passage I insert here from Ibn Tufayl Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale. That Ernest Buckler should have carried features of the mysticism of Ibn Tufayl into his novel may seem unlikely. However, like the Hellenes, Buckler is a philosopher mystic and Islamic mysticism is especially tied into philosophy. Those of you acquainted with the writings of al-Fārābī (870-950), Ibn Sīnā (called Avicenna by the Latins, 980-1037) and al-Ghazālī (1058-1111), Ibn Rushd (died 1198, called by the Latins, “Averroes” and “The Commentator”), will hear echoes of their teachings in Ibn Tufyal (c. 1105- 1185). Lenn Goodman is correct to say in his introduction that for these Islamic philosophical mystics and mystical philosophers “nothing revealed in a beatific experience can contradict the truths we learn through the use of reason”. The inverse is also true: nothing rigorously demonstrated through the use of reason can contradict the truths of prophecy. Thomas Aquinas would say the same.
Ibn Tufayl was attached to both the occidental (rational) and the oriental (mystical) Arabic philosophies. He had introduced Ibn Rushd (Averroes) to the Caliph, was succeeded by Averroes as court physician, and was behind the commissioning of Averroes’ commentaries on Aristotle.
Hayy Ibn Yaqzan was widely influential. It had a large following in the Arab world, was summarized to the Royal Society in England in 1672 and in the 18th and 19th centuries became a best seller in the West. Translated to English and Dutch in the first decade of the 18th century, it played a role in the European Enlightenment (see Samar Attar, The Vital Roots of the European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl’s Influence , Lexington Books, 2007). Hayy is “the man of reason,” whose most well-known appearance is in Robinson Crusoe, and in the idea of the tabula rasa, it enables an escape from the framework imposed by the Augustinian opposition of nature and grace and a revival of Aristotelian philosophy.
At the level of fundamentals there is much in common between The Mountain and the Valley and Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. In the latter, there is a step by step ascent by way of a correspondence between individual, social, philosophical, mystical and religious developments which is represented as inherent to the cosmic structure. However, crucially “wide awake” (the name of the solitary who makes the ascent) cannot live in the social world. He attempts to bring enlightenment to it but is rejected and forced to flee back to his island.
Suggesting any connection between the two works is somewhat daring and it is clear that there is no identical repetition but there are images and concepts and programmatic elements in common. Enough I judge to make me suggest that reading this will be a worthwhile for some of you.

This course considers humanist values and principles through the reading of canonical works of history, literature, and philosophy from more than one historical period and geographical area. An empathetic understanding of human beings is emphasized through a consideration of what is important to human beings, and how humans relate to others. Readings from the following authors will be included: Aeschylus, Plato, Ibn Tufayl, Rousseau, and Shelley. Our section of HUMN 101 will focus on texts that try to locate the meaning of human life somewhere between the ideal heights of divine existence and the brute reality of animal experience. Familiarizing ourselves with figures like Aeschylus' Prometheus, Plato's Socrates, Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Rousseau's 'natural man,' and Shelley's Frankenstein, we will aim to uncover this tension between the human urge to pursue godlike power (or knowledge) and the human need to remain within the confines of our material conditions.

Vsebina 8 Transliteracija arabske abecede 9 Uvod 9 Prvi del Muqaddimat Ḥay Ibn Yaqẓān 20 Drugi del Muqaddimat Ḥay Ibn Yaqẓān 25 Živi sin budnega 25 Neobljuden otok 28 Začetek zgodbe Živega sina budnega za zanikovalce prihajajočega rojstva [al-ṭawaludu] 30 Začetek zgodbe za tiste, ki verjamejo v rojstvo 35 Gazela, ki je vzgojila Živega sina budnega 36 Živi sin budnega preučuje živali ter preizkuša različna pokrivala [al-kisā'] in orožja [al-silāḥ] 38 Gazelina smrt 39 Raziskovanje vzroka gazeline smrti 40 Odkritje [kašf] srca 43 Kam je izginil upravitelj [al-muṣarif] telesa? 44 Krokarji učijo, kako pokopati telo 45 Ogenj in okusen obrok 46 Živalski duh (izvira) iz bitnosti plamena 48 Razvoj snovnih vidikov 50 Mnogoterost [al-kuthra] in enost [al-waḥda] 54 Gibanje 55 Teža in lahkost [al-thuql wa al-khiffa] 56 Telesnost in njej dodana lastnost 56 Živalskemu duhu je dodana lastnost telesnosti 60 Snov [al-mādda] in substanca [al-huyūlī] 62 Nadzor nad umskim svetom [al-'ālam al-'aqlī] 64 Preučevanje nebesnih teles 65 Sfera [falak] v obliki žoge 68 Ali je kozmos [al-kawn] ustvarjen ali večen [qadīm]? 72 Bitja [al-mawdžūdāt] so odvisna od [iftiqār] Stvarnika 73 Stvarnikove lastnosti 75 Kako je spoznal Stvarnika [bi ay šay adrak al-fā'il]?

Πολύ πριν από τον Βολταίρο, το φιλοσοφικό διήγημα είχε ένδοξη προϊστορία. Χρωστούμε χάρη στον Παύλο Καλλιγά που έκανε προσιτό στη γλώσσα μας έναν από τους σπουδαιότερους κρίκους στην αλυσίδα των προδρόμων του είδους. Ο "Χάυυ ιμπν Γιακζάν" είναι ένα μικρό σουφιστικό μυθιστόρημα που ενσωματώνει επεισοδιακά μοτίβα, σκηνοθεσίες ή τυπικά πρόσωπα από λογής-λογής θρύλους, παραμύθια, διδακτικές παραβολές ή περιπετειώδεις αφηγήσεις του καιρού του. Ουσιαστικά, ο Ιμπν Τουφάυλ σχεδιάζει μια τελεολογική πορεία της ανθρώπινης πολιτισμικής εξέλιξης προς τον μυστικισμό, που προβάλλεται ως το ευγενέστερο επίτευγμα του πνεύματος. Ολόκληρος ο πολιτισμός, οι τέχνες και οι επιστήμες επινοούνται και αναπτύσσονται με τελικό στόχο την εξύψωση της ανθρώπινης ψυχής στη θέαση του θείου. Ο κόσμος υπάρχει για να καταλήξει σε ένα συνεχές εκστατικό όραμα. Αυτή είναι η κεντρική ιδέα του έργου, που ξεκινάει με την πρωτόγονη ανατομική επέμβαση στην καρδιά ενός ελαφιού για να καταλήξει στη μυστικιστική ένωση με το Απόλυτο.

Συγχωνεύοντας ετερόκλιτα αφηγηματικά υλικά, ο Ιμπν Τουφάυλ δημιούργησε κάτι μοναδικό στην ιστορία της λογοτεχνίας: ένα φιλοσοφικό διήγημα βασισμένο σε αμιγώς μυστικιστική διδασκαλία. Ο Παύλος Καλλιγάς μετέφρασε αυτό το ανεπανάληπτο έργο σε λόγο ευθύβολο, ακριβή και εκπληκτικά σύγχρονο. Αν το κείμενο αποδιδόταν λόγου χάρη στον Μπόρχες, και ο μυστηριώδης Άραβας φιλόσοφος που το υπογράφει παρουσιαζόταν σαν λόγια επινόηση συγγραφικής πλαστοπροσωπίας, δεν θα μας παραξένευε. Για την ακρίβεια, κάποιος σαν εμένα, που δεν πιστεύει στα οράματα του μυστικισμού και λογαριάζει τη μεταφυσική και τη θεολογία σαν κλάδους της φανταστικής λογοτεχνίας, είναι δύσκολο να πειστεί ότι το κείμενο δεν έχει γραφτεί τωόντι από τον Μπόρχες. Ο μακρινός μας Άραβας ιατροφιλόσοφος, που πίστευε πως είχε ατενίσει τη θεϊκή αλήθεια σε μυστική έκσταση, εφηύρε τρόπους και τεχνικές της φανταστικής γραφής που έμελλε να ανακαλυφθούν ξανά πολύ αργότερα από τον Βολταίρο, τον Wells ή τον Eco, και να εφαρμοστούν σε αλλόκοτους κόσμους της σύγχρονης μυθοποιίας, όπως το μυστηριώδες νησί του Μορέλ, το παραδείσιο σύμπαν της Περελάντρα ή ο ιδεαλιστικός πλανήτης Tlön. Αναρωτιέμαι αν ο Ιμπν Τουφάυλ έλαβε ποτέ κάποια πρόγνωση της μελλοντικής επιτυχίας του κατά τις εκστατικές του εμπειρίες. Τελικά, η αφηγηματική του τέχνη μάλλον επιζεί και διατηρείται καλύτερα από τον κάπως υπεροπτικό μυστικισμό και τον απρόσωπο υπερβατικό θεό του — δοξασμένος να είναι.

The reality of plurality in the context of humanity is something that Allah Almighty has desired, and the human task is to nurture and develop mutual respect and appreciation among people (tolerant). In this regard, the purpose of this study is to explore and explain exactly what kind of religious construction of kiai pesantren about pluralism and multiculturalism, the basis of references used, because it is related to the kiai's point of view in resolving social conflicts that sometimes occur in the community. The data research was collected through survey and depth interview with some kiai pesantren in East Java. Data analysis was conducted with qualitative narrative and through Forum Group Discussion (FGD). The result shows that the mapping of religious construction of kiai pesantren in East Java consists of (1) religious construction with inclusive and exclusive categories and (2) religious construction with exclusive categories.