| Shahab-ud-Din Suhrawardi and Illuminationist School |
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| An excerpt from 'History Of Muslim Philosophy' |
| The paradigm involves a subject (mawdu), consciousness (idrak) in the subject as well as relating to it, and creativity (khallaqiyyah). It is gradual transition from subject to knowing subject and then to knowing creating subject, which finally marks the transformation of human beings as subject in natural (unknowing) stage to a creative spiritual master. |
| Illumination |
| At cosmic level the higher lights illuminate the lower in degree and rank, e.g. The sun illuminates the moon, which themselves are being illuminated by the Creator. Similarly the higher in knowledge should illuminate young souls, because they themselves are being charged through the Nur al-anwar, the Light of Lights. It is this dual activity of the process of vision which is spread through the whole universe has been empowered through self consciousness. Everything which seems to know its own degree of perfection, an act of self knowledge induces a state of desire (shawq) to see the being just above it in perfection, and this act of progressive seeing through triggers the process of illumination an invaluable search for knowledge, not just for one�s own self but for all who aspire to acquire it. And everything can be known, felt expressed or learnt through this process of illumination, whether pertaining to physical world relating to pure sciences or the spiritual world. |
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| The Masters of Vision |
| It is a process through which light is generated from its highest origin to the lowest elements. Illumination is also the principle by which celestial motion is regulated. Illumination is propagated from the Light of Lights to the human level by means of certain intermediary principles. These are �controlling lights� (al-anwar al-ghahirah) and �managing lights� (al-anwar al mudabbirah). Among the later the principle lights which directly affect the human soul are the �isfahbad lights�. It is further explained in the concept of �mundus imaginalis� or Imaginal World referred in mystic writings as �Alam al Imthal� or the concept of �Holy Enclave� by Shah Wali Ullah. (click for detail) |
| Suhrawaradi was of view that darkness is not real but simply the total lack of light, and the peripatetic view that non-being is the privation of being (or the darkness is the privation of light) are both rejected. Light and dark entities differ in terms of intensity. Just as there is a continuum of dark entities, Illuminationist philosophers vehemently deny that this position is a dualist one. Dualism in the Islamic period was identified with ancient Persian infidel beliefs, referred to as Manichaean idolatry. |
| When the �heavenly illuminations� reach the human soul through the intervention of isfahbad lights, all knowledge is given to the person. Such moments are the vision of apocalyptic lights, foundation of visionary experience and means of obtaining unrestricted knowledge. Human souls who have experienced the apocalyptic lights are called �souls separated from matter�, because they have torn away from the physical bondage of body. They obtain �the idea of the Light of God�, which the faculty of imagination imprints upon the �tablet of the sensus communis�. By means of this idea, they obtain control over �creative light� which ultimately gives power to know. |
| As Suhrawardi explains the physical nature of vision in his vision theorem for physics, he also assigns the spiritual meaning to it as well. The spiritual vision may have no temporal or extension, and there may be no need for any relationship between the seer and the thing seen. Vision may exist prior to thinking and is superior to it. It takes place in durationless moment (an), which is the moment of illumination. Intuition is the activity of habitual intellect, which is through constant experience and introspection learns to establish cause effect relationships. After a certain maturity it is able to activate the �holy intellect�. This state of expertise may be acquired even in the absence of a teacher. |
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| The Light of Lights controls everything. It is the most apparent to itself, and thus it is the most self-consciousness being in the Universe. It is the most apparent to itself, and thus it is most self-conscious being in the Universe. All abstract lights are illuminated by the Light of Lights whose luminosity (nuriyyah, Essence (dhat) and power are all one and the same. Light of Lights is self-emanating and its attributes and Essence are one. |
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| The moment of illumination which is experienced by the Brethren of Separation from Matter and Masters of Vision is described by Suhrawardi as gradual experience of �light� in fifteen steps, starting with the experience of the �flashing pleasurable light� and ending with the experience of light so violent that it may tear the body apart at joints. |
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