What do we mean by Irfan - Presented by Dr Ahmad Jalali - English
Irfan, as a branch of Islamic knowledge, has had different definitions; for example, in contemporary times, Iqbal Lahouri, defines it as: \"a system of verification; a spiritual method by...
Irfan, as a branch of Islamic knowledge, has had different definitions; for example, in contemporary times, Iqbal Lahouri, defines it as: \"a system of verification; a spiritual method by which the ego realizes as fact what the intellect has understood as theory\"; and professor Shafiei Kadkani describes it as: an artistic appreciation of the Divine realm and theology; an art to find out their subtleties. All characteristics of art can be found in Irfan; like: imagination, symbolic expressions and its multifaceted meaningfulness.
Irfan has always been a controversial and challenging discipline. Some of the fuqahaa (Islamic jurists) have rejected its outcomes for they do not regard it to be in conformity with the general Islamic doctrine while some others have embraced it as a complementary discipline for spiritual advancement. On the other hand, the famous irfani figure, Jalaluddin Rumi, describes his book, the Mathnawi as the roots of the roots of the roots of the religion with respect of its unveiling the mysteries of the Truth and of certainty and the cure for sick hearts.
During this talk, we are not going to defend or refute the intellectual paradigm of irfan, our aim is rather to introduce their ideas as examples of the intellectual endeavours of Muslim mystics in the course of Islamic civilization.
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Irfan, as a branch of Islamic knowledge, has had different definitions; for example, in contemporary times, Iqbal Lahouri, defines it as: \"a system of verification; a spiritual method by which the ego realizes as fact what the intellect has understood as theory\"; and professor Shafiei Kadkani describes it as: an artistic appreciation of the Divine realm and theology; an art to find out their subtleties. All characteristics of art can be found in Irfan; like: imagination, symbolic expressions and its multifaceted meaningfulness.
Irfan has always been a controversial and challenging discipline. Some of the fuqahaa (Islamic jurists) have rejected its outcomes for they do not regard it to be in conformity with the general Islamic doctrine while some others have embraced it as a complementary discipline for spiritual advancement. On the other hand, the famous irfani figure, Jalaluddin Rumi, describes his book, the Mathnawi as the roots of the roots of the roots of the religion with respect of its unveiling the mysteries of the Truth and of certainty and the cure for sick hearts.
During this talk, we are not going to defend or refute the intellectual paradigm of irfan, our aim is rather to introduce their ideas as examples of the intellectual endeavours of Muslim mystics in the course of Islamic civilization.