MA'RIFAH & ILM:…

 

By: Prof. Nicholas Heer

 

 

Throughout much of Islamic history Sufis and theologians have ignored each other's approach to the question of how knowledge is best attained.  Sufis have in general stressed insight and inspiration and other forms of mystical experience rather than reason as primary sources of knowledge, whereas the theologians, or mutakallimun, have considered sense perception and rational demonstration to be the only sources of knowledge, and have been sceptical of claims that any kind of knowledge could be attained through mystical experience. This paper examines the problem of essence and existence as it was conceived by Islamic thinkers, and attempts to explain and compare the different solutions to this problem which were advanced by Sufis on the one hand and by theologians on the other as a result of their respective epistemological methods.

 

 

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