Kanz Philosophia A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism
December 31, 2020
Imandega Muhammad
2 citations
Neuroscience often interprets religious experience as a symptom of brain disorders, equating the soul with measurable brain activity, which would reduce prophetic revelations to neurological malfunction. This paper argues against that view by examining the ontological and epistemological foundations of religious experience through the lens of Al-Ḥikmah Muta’āliyah, the philosophical school founded by Mulla Ṣadrā. Using a descriptive-analytic method, the study shows that Ṣadrā's concept of graded levels of existence (wujūd) includes the soul as an immaterial substance capable of perceiving metaphysical objects, such as divine emanations. This framework provides a basis for understanding religious experience as genuine rather than pathological.
Kanz Philosophia A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism
December 31, 2020
Fereshteh Jafari
2 citations
The paper compares Gnostic and Islamic mystic beliefs about divine knowledge (Ma'refat). It first clarifies Gnosticism and then presents a brief history of Islamic Mysticism. Through a comparative analysis of Islamic mystical books and Gnostic texts, the study finds many similarities between the two traditions' views on knowledge. Some scholars argue that the Islamic Sufi theory of divine knowledge originates from Gnostic ideas, but the paper concludes that while Gnostic beliefs have influenced Islamic mysticism, this claim is not completely true.
Kanz Philosophia A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism
December 8, 2025
Müfit Selim Saruhan
1 citation
Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Rushd offer contrasting conceptions of the soul rooted in Aristotle's four causes but shaped by different metaphysical commitments. Ibn Sīnā, influenced by Neoplatonism, views the soul as an immaterial, self-subsistent substance that transcends the body and seeks perfection through union with the Active Intellect via rational contemplation and ethical purification. Ibn Rushd, adhering to Aristotelian naturalism, sees the soul as inseparable from the body, its form and actuality, with human perfection realized in civic virtue and rational engagement within empirical life. The article applies Aristotle's four causes to both models and argues that re-examining these classical Islamic philosophies informs contemporary debates on consciousness, personhood, and moral responsibility.
Kanz Philosophia A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism
June 25, 2026
Taufik Hidayatulloh, Khairil Ikhsan Siregar, Hery Purwosusanto
The crisis of religious authority, identity polarization, and informational disruption in the public sphere creates tension between religious truth claims and the demands of rational deliberation in plural societies. Abdolkarim Soroush's thought distinguishes religion as a transcendent reality from religious knowledge as a historical construction, allowing a reinterpretation of mysticism and political rationality. His ontology of mysticism fosters epistemic humility, which grounds dialogical ethics and deliberative rationality by rejecting absolutized interpretations and affirming intersubjective argumentative validation. This normative foundation supports inclusive political ethics that uphold interpretative pluralism and equality of arguments, integrating spirituality with public rationality and strengthening deliberative democracy through metaphysical awareness and argumentative responsibility.