The present paper mainly seeks to elaborate on how the problem of soul and its temporality or eternity occupied Mulla Sadra and Plato's minds. What reasons made Plato to believe in eternity of soul? Why Muslim philosophers, especially Mulla Sadra, did not face such constraints in spite of the fact that they did not accept these reasons? To this end, the present paper reviews not only these two thinkers' works but also their social status and intellectual concerns, which resulted in (...) developing their specific thoughts. It seems that the problems related to the issue of soul cannot be solved except with Muslim philosophers' existential view and particularly with Mulla Sadra's innovations in philosophy. (shrink)

The metaparadigm concept of person as a core emphasis for nursing theorizing has attracted considerable attention in western literature, but has received less attention in the context of eastern philosophical contexts. In this philosophical inquiry, we sought to clarify the concept of what it is to be a human being according to ideas deriving from Islamic tradition, drawing on concept analysis as general approach to advance an understanding of how nursing within an Islamic context might operationalize metaparadigm conceptualization. Specifically, we (...) considered person as human being on the basis of its definition, attributes/characteristics and boundaries to explore the anatomy of the concept in this context. Our analysis revealed that Islamic thought is relevant to two distinct understandings of the holistic concept of human being. Reciprocal interaction worldview organizes the dimensions of being human (cognitive, emotion, social and spiritual) into a whole. Simultaneous action worldview emphasizes that the human is a coherent and unified creature in harmony with the universe. In Islamic thought, these two worldviews are integrated and operate concurrently. Nurse–patient interactions arising from an integrated perspective that aligns both of these worldviews will allow for informed applications of knowledge to practice and enhanced patient care. (shrink)

Euthanasia is one of the most controversial issues in medical ethics and one of the ten major ethical challenges in medicine and health sciences. The present study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between moral sensitivity and attitudes toward euthanasia among nursing students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2020. Birjand University of Medical Sciences has four nursing schools. Cluster sampling method was used for selection of samples. After sampling Ferdows nursing school was selected. Nursing students of Ferdows School (...) were 156 person which 144 participated in the study based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Students completed demographic information questionnaire, moral sensitivity questionnaire and euthanasia attitude questionnaire. Data were entered into SPSS software version 19 using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Findings of this study showed that among nursing students, the mean score of moral sensitivity was 59.59 ± 11.21 and was moderate. The mean score of attitudes towards euthanasia was 0.981 ± 0.336. In addition, according to the results, correlation test showed that there is a significant direct but weak relationship between moral sensitivity and attitude to euthanasia in students. According to the findings of the present study, moral sensitivity as a scientific concept is one of the determining factors in attitudes toward euthanasia, but other factors can also affect nurses' attitudes toward euthanasia, which should be investigated and determined in future research. (shrink)

This study deals with the sceptical arguments by one of the most important figures in the philosophical Sufi tradition (the Akbarian school) and the foremost disciple of Ibn ʿArabī, Ṣadr al‐Dīn al‐Qūnawī. Though not a sceptic in the strict sense, Qūnawī employs sceptical arguments from relativity of rational knowledge and disagreement among philosophers to prove inefficacy of reason and rational procedures of knowledge in terms of achieving certain knowledge of metaphysical matters, namely of God and the ultimate principles of (...) things. The paper questions Qūnawī's implicit assumption that, if there is disagreement on a proposition p, then p is relative and thus cannot provide certain knowledge. It aims to philosophically analyse and assess his scepticism as well as to shed light on the largely unknown terrain of scepticism in the mediaeval Islamic world. (shrink)

In the Qur’an, human distinctiveness was first questioned by angels. These established denizens of the cosmos could not understand why God would create a seemingly pernicious human when immaculate devotees of God such as themselves existed. In other words, the angels asked the age-old question: what makes humans so special and different? Fast forward to our present age and this question is made relevant again in light of the encroaching arrival of an artificial superintelligence (ASI). Up to this point in (...) history, humans have exceeded other creatures in various respects; now a possibility has arisen that another entity, namely ASI, will exceed humans at least on the level of intelligence and power. In relation to the age of angels, pre-modern Sunni exegesis construed human distinctiveness along the axes of reproductive knowledge and stewardship. Both brittle, distinguishing markers will disappear in the age of the ASI. Conversely, a more resilient and creative Islamic response can be derived from Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 1240) views on God and the imago Dei. Inspired by the Akbarian perspective, this paper construes human distinctiveness in relation to a capacity to expansively respond to God’s love to be recognized, a response that relies on (a) imitating divine virtues that operate in counterintuitive and illogical ways, and (b) exhibiting fragility and lack rather than exceptionalism. ASI, while responding already in part to God’s love, needs to make strides towards these traits before it can answer divine love as commensurately as humans can. (shrink)

The history of sufism entered a new process called “period of muhaqqiqs /period of metaphysical sufism/ tasawwuf” with Ibn al-Arabī one of the most important intellectuals of sufi/tasawwuf thought. Ibn al-Arabī is the leading muhaqqiqs formulating the understanding of this period which is peculiar to itself with his books. However, the person who regulated the knowledge inherited from him and produced a new doctrine from it is Sadr al-Din al-Qunawī. His book in which he exhibited this contribution is Miftāḥ al-ghayb (...) acceptedas an essential book by muhaqqiqs after Qunawī and assigned to principles and orders of theoretical tasawwuf thought. Because of its complicated and important content, many commentaries were written on Miftāḥ al-ghayb. Thus, theoretical tasawwuf thought by the commentators of Qunawī have taken Akbarian-Qunawian form and gained a place in Turkish-Islamic thought. In this article, characteristics of metaphysical term in history of sufism will be mentioned shortly, the content and influences of Miftāḥ al-ghayb will be stated and the Akbarian-Qunawian movement consisting from commentators of Miftāḥ al-ghayb, which have shaped the theoretical Tasawwuf thought will be introduced in general. (shrink)

This article explores the relationship between the philosophy of the limit of Eugenio Trías and the sufism of Ibn ʿArabī. Firstly, it explains the function of the philosophy of religion in the triasian system and why the andalusian master has a privileged position. Secondly, it presents some essential aspects of the akbarian doctrine obtured by the philosophy of limit, as the declaration of the unity of Being, the path of servanthood, the transit from the sudden passion of love to (...) the spiritual love, the spiritual knighthood and the station of no-station. All of them share a common element: the trascendence of the egoic and the interest on the other as other. Finally, the article defends that Trias obturates the andalusian master doctrine due to the influence of Henry Corbin and mainly to the own limitations of its own philosophical project. The absent Ibn ʿArabī will be its shadow. (shrink)

In Intellectual Life in the Ḥijāz before Wahhabism, Naser Dumairieh argues that, as a result of changing global conditions facilitating the movement of scholars and texts, the seventeenth-century Ḥijāz was one of the most important intellectual centers of the Islamic world, acting as a hub between its different parts. Positioning Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī (d. 1101/1690) as representative of the intellectual activities of the pre-Wahhabism Ḥijāz, Dumairieh argues that his coherent philosophical system represents a synthesis of several major post-classical traditions of Islamic (...) thought, namely kalām and Akbarian appropriations of Avicennian metaphysics. Al-Kūrānī's work is the culmination of the philosophized Akbarian tradition; with his reconciliation of Ibn ʻArabī's ideas with Ashʻarī theology, Ibn ʻArabī's ideas became Islamic theology. (shrink)