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Al-Ghazali’s Reflections on the Metaphysics of Metaphor in the Mishkāt al-Anwar

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Abstract

Mythological language is sometimes understood as a way of representing, by concrete imagery, more abstract notions. In this paper, we will pose some metaphysical questions about the possibility of such a representation. These questions will serve to motivate a brief tour of Mishkāt al-Anwār (Niche of Lights)—Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s commentary on the famous ayat al-nur (“verse of light”) of the Qur’an—wherein is discussed, among other things, how symbolic imagery is possible, and “the respect in which the spirits of the meanings are specified within the frames of the similitudes.”

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Notes

  1. Sahih Bukhari 9.608.

  2. Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid. The Niche of Lights. David Buchman, translator. Brigham Young University Press. Provo, Utah. 1998.

  3. See Gianotti, Timothy J. Al-Ghazali’s unspeakable doctrine of the soul: unveiling the esoteric psychology and eschatology of the Ihya (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, 0920–8607, vol. 104) Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2001.

  4. See Landolt, Hermann. “Ghazali and ‘Religionswissenschaft’: Some Notes on the Mishkat al-Anwar for Professor Charles J. Adams’ Asiatische Studien (Etudes asiatiques) 45, no. 1 (1991):1–72; Gairdner, W. H. T. “Al-Ghazali’s Mishkat al-Anwar and the Ghazali Problem.” Der Islam 5 (1914):121–53; Wensinck, A. J. “Ghazali’s Mishkat al-Anwar (Niche of Lights)” In Semietische Studien: Uitde Nalatenschap. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij N. V., 1941, and “On the Relation between Ghazali’s Cosmology and His Mystiscism.” Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde 75 (series A) no. 6 (1993):183–209; Watt, W. Montgomery. “A Forgery in al-Ghazali’s Mishkat? Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1949, pp. 5–22.

  5. Ghazali 4.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid 4–5.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid 6.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid 13.

  14. Ibid 14.

  15. Ibid 15.

  16. Ibid 16.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid 25.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid 26.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid 27.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid 28.

  26. Ibid 31.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Ibid 30.

  31. Ibid 33.

  32. Ibid 32.

  33. Ibid 33.

  34. Ibid 34.

  35. Ibid 36, 39.

  36. Ibid 36.

  37. Ibid 36–7.

  38. Ibid 37.

  39. Ibid 40.

  40. Ibid 41.

  41. Ibid 37.

  42. Ibid 38.

  43. Ibid 36.

  44. Ibid 39.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Ibid 34.

  48. Ibid 35.

  49. Ibid 34.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, National University of Singapore, 3 Arts Link, Singapore, 117570, Singapore

    Edward Omar Moad

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Moad, E.O. Al-Ghazali’s Reflections on the Metaphysics of Metaphor in the Mishkāt al-Anwar . SOPHIA 46, 163–175 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-007-0020-9

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