Islam - Religion, History, and Civilization

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ISLAM

such philosophers as Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī, Āqā ‘Alī Mudarris, and Hājjī Mullā Hādī Sabziwārī and are still very much . alive in both Persia and Iraq today. As for the Indian Subcontinent, many figures in the twelfth/eighteenth and thirteenth/nineteenth centuries, such as Shah Walī Allāh of Delhi and Mawlānā Mahmūd Jawnpūrī, were deeply influ. enced by him. He remains very much a living intellectual figure as Islamic philosophy continues its traditional life in the eastern lands of Islam and finds new life in certain parts of the Arab world, especially Egypt, where Islamic philosophy was revived in the past century by Jamāl al-Dīn Astrābādī, usually known as al-Afghānī, who was a follower of the school of Mullā Sadrā before his migration from Per. sia to the Ottoman world. In studying the Islamic religion, it is important to remember the long history, diversity of perspectives, and continuous vitality of the various schools of Islamic thought. Far from having died out in what the West calls the Middle Ages, for the most part the life of these schools continues to this day, although a particular school may have died out in a particular region during a certain period. To understand the total reality of Islam as religion and also the interactions of Islam with the modern world, it is necessary to be aware of this rich intellectual tradition of a religious character that is over a millennium old and contains some of the most profound meditations on God, the universe, and humanity in its existential situation in a universe in which human beings are condemned to seek meaning by virtue of being human.


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