About this text: The Temples of Light

Ibn Sīnā: the proofs of the soul, necessary and contingent being, and the emanation of the intellectsFalsafa (Arabic philosophy) · firm

Several parts of the Temples rework Ibn Sīnā's positions. These include the argument that self-awareness survives when every bodily part is forgotten, the three modalities, and the procession of intellects and spheres. Suhrawardī read Ibn Sīnā closely and wrote Persian recitals that answer his.

Carried byroot وجب“wājib al-wujūd, the Necessary Existent”

In the library:Ḥayy (Ibn Sīnā)al-ʿAyniyya

• Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Three Muslim Sages: Avicenna, Suhrawardī, Ibn ʿArabī (1964): Places Suhrawardī's illuminationist philosophy in relation to Ibn Sīnā's Peripatetic system, which he studied and transformed.
• John Walbridge, The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardī and the Heritage of the Greeks (2000): Studies Suhrawardī's philosophical sources, including his debt to and departures from Avicennan Peripateticism.

Suhrawardī, The Occidental Exile: the climb to Sinai and the father of the lineageIshraqi philosophy · firm

The Temples states in argument what the Occidental Exile tells as a story: the soul is held captive by bodily powers, climbs toward its holy father the Active Intellect, and joins a lineage of lights that ends in the One. The Exile itself continues Ibn Sīnā's visionary recitals.

Carried byal-ab al-muqaddas“the holy father”

In the library:al-Ghurba al-gharbiyya ¶42al-Ghurba al-gharbiyya ¶43Path: The fall and the return of the soul

• Henry Corbin, Avicenne et le récit visionnaire (1954): Studies Ibn Sīnā's visionary recitals together with Suhrawardī's Recital of the Occidental Exile, which continues them.

Plotinus, Enneads, through the Arabic 'Theology of Aristotle': one from the One, and the soul's ascentNeoplatonism · probable

The principle that the One produces a single first effect, and the image of the soul that rises out of the body to look on the lights, reached Arabic philosophy through the paraphrase of Enneads IV to VI known as the Theology of Aristotle. Suhrawardī works inside this inheritance.

Carried byἕνhen“the One”

In the library:Ennead VI.9, ch. 1Ennead VI.9, ch. 9

• Peter Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the 'Theology of Aristotle' (2002): Documents how Plotinus's Enneads were paraphrased in Arabic and entered the falsafa tradition.

Aristotle, Metaphysics Λ: the unmoved mover moves as the object of loveAristotelianism · probable

Suhrawardī says that the spheres move voluntarily, that each has a beloved light above it, and that their motion never ends because what they seek is unending. This continues Aristotle's idea that the prime mover moves as a beloved moves, which reached him as reworked by Ibn Sīnā.

Carried byعشقʿishqroot عشقἐρώμενονerōmenon“the beloved that moves”

• Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (1988): Documents Ibn Sīnā's reception and reworking of Aristotle, the channel through which Aristotelian cosmology reached Suhrawardī.

Gospel of John 14:26 and 16:7: the Paraclete who will teach all thingsEarly Christianity and the Fathers · probable

Suhrawardī quotes Jesus' promise of the Paraclete. He identifies the Paraclete with the most luminous manifestation, which is entrusted with esoteric interpretation, and ties it to the Holy Spirit, the Active Intellect.

Carried byفارقليطfāraqlīṭπαράκλητοςparaklētos“Paraclete”

• Henry Corbin, En Islam iranien: aspects spirituels et philosophiques, tome II: Sohrawardî et les Platoniciens de Perse (1971): Treats Suhrawardī's angelology, the Holy Spirit as the angel of humanity, and his use of scriptural figures.

Mazdean xwarrah: the royal and cosmic Glory (Persian khurra)Zoroastrian and Mazdean · suggestive

The word khurra for the Glory that overflows from the Real comes from the Zoroastrian vocabulary of light. How far Suhrawardī drew on actual Zoroastrian sources, and how far he used a literary picture of ancient Persian wisdom, is debated.

Carried byخرّهkhurra“Glory”

• Henry Corbin, En Islam iranien: aspects spirituels et philosophiques, tome II: Sohrawardî et les Platoniciens de Perse (1971): Argues for a real Mazdean dimension in Suhrawardī, including the notion of xwarnah.
• John Walbridge, The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardī and Platonic Orientalism (2001): Argues that Suhrawardī's Persian claims belong largely to a Greek-derived 'Platonic orientalism' and do not show direct use of Zoroastrian texts.

Mullā Ṣadrā: the gradation of being (tashkīk al-wujūd)Ishraqi philosophy · probable

Suhrawardī's lights differ only in intensity, ranked from the weakest to the Light of Lights. Mullā Ṣadrā read Suhrawardī and applied this model of gradation to existence itself.

Carried byتشكيكtashkīkroot شكك“gradation by intensity”

• Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī and his Transcendent Theosophy (1978): Describes Mullā Ṣadrā's sources, among them Suhrawardī's school of illumination, and his doctrine of the gradation of being.

al-Ghazālī, The Niche of Lights: God alone is light in the true senseSufism · probable

Both define light as what is manifest in itself and makes other things manifest. Both rank lights up to a first light that is hidden by its own brightness. They build on the same Avicennan psychology and the Quran's Light Verse, each in its own way.

Common ancestor: The Light Verse (Q 24:35) read through Ibn Sīnā's psychology

Carried byẓuhūrroot ظهر“manifestness”

In the library:Mishkāt al-anwār ¶45Mishkāt al-anwār ¶47Mishkāt al-anwār ¶59Path: Light and its veils

• Alexander Treiger, Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: al-Ghazālī's Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation (2012): Documents the Avicennian basis of al-Ghazālī's theory of light and cognition, including the Niche of Lights.

Ibn Ṭufayl, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān: the animal spirit in the left cavity of the heartFalsafa (Arabic philosophy) · probable

Both place the vital spirit, a subtle vapour, in the left cavity of the heart and treat it as the carrier of the soul's powers. Ḥayy finds that cavity empty when he opens the gazelle. Both draw on the Galenic physiology that came to them through Ibn Sīnā's medicine.

Common ancestor: Galenic pneuma physiology as taught by Ibn Sīnā

Carried byالروح الحيوانيal-rūḥ al-ḥayawānīroot روحπνεῦμαpneuma“animal spirit”

In the library:Ḥayy (Ibn Ṭufayl) ¶77Ḥayy (Ibn Ṭufayl) ¶80

• Lawrence I. Conrad (ed.), The World of Ibn Ṭufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (1996): Essays on the philosophical and medical background of Ibn Ṭufayl's tale, including its debt to Ibn Sīnā.

Suhrawardī, The Sanctification of the Sun: the prayer to HūrakhshIshraqi philosophy · firm

The Temples gives the sun, Hūrakhsh, the same titles found in the author's own solar litany, such as vanquisher of the dusk, chief of heaven and maker of the day, and calls it the supreme likeness of God. Both texts come from Suhrawardī's hand. Which was written first, and whether one draws on the other, is not established here, so the tie is recorded as shared wording within one body of work.

Carried byHūrakhsh“Hūrakhsh, the sun as a living light”

In the library:Taqdīs al-shams ¶1Taqdīs al-shams ¶2Path: Light and its veils

Ibn ʿArabī, The Ringstone of Seth: the Real seen in the mirror according to the receiverAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · probable

Suhrawardī compares the unchanging Real to a person facing mirrors of different sizes and quality, so that the images vary with the receivers. Ibn ʿArabī, his younger contemporary, says that the one who receives the self-disclosure sees his own form in the mirror of the Real. The images resemble each other, and no influence is claimed.

Carried byمرآةmirʾātroot رأي“mirror and the receiver's preparedness”

In the library:Faṣṣ Shīth ¶11Faṣṣ Shīth ¶12Path: The mirror

René Descartes, Meditations II: the thinking self known while the body is doubtedEarly modern philosophy · probable

Both argue that the self is not the body from the fact that self-awareness persists while the body or its parts are absent from the mind. No line of transmission from Suhrawardī to Descartes is claimed.

Carried by“awareness of self”

Dante, Paradiso: heavens moved by love and ranked by lightModern literature · suggestive

Dante's heavens turn out of love for what is above them and grow brighter as they near God. Suhrawardī's spheres likewise move for a beloved light and are overwhelmed by the rays of the Self-Subsistent. Both inherit Aristotelian cosmology, and no contact between them is claimed.

Carried by“love that moves the heavens”

Ibn Sīnā, Ode on the Soul: the dove that descends from the loftiest stationFalsafa (Arabic philosophy) · probable

The Ode pictures the soul as coming down from a higher dwelling that it remembers and mourns. The Temples argues that the soul cannot have existed before the body. It comes to be when the body is ready, as a wick catches fire from a flame without lessening it.

Carried byhubūṭroot هبط“descent”

In the library:al-ʿAyniyya ¶1al-ʿAyniyya ¶15Path: The fall and the return of the soul

The Quran's God who loves, and Ibn ʿArabī's prayer for a love cast from GodQuran and hadith · probable

In the Temples the First loves only its own essence and pays no attention to what is lower, while everything below loves it. The Quran's God and the Akbarian litany speak of, and ask for, a love that reaches out from God to the servant.

Carried byمحبّةmaḥabbaroot حبب“love”

In the library:al-Dawr al-aʿlā ¶6Path: Love: the soul's longing back