THREE MUSLIM SAGES –
Avicenna, Suharawardi, Ibn ‘Arabi
Three Muslim Sages is an introduction to important intellectual and spiritual perspectives in Islam through the lives and ideas of particularly eminent representatives of three Islamic scholars: Avicena of the philosopher scientists, Suhrawardi of the Illuminationists, and Ibn ‘Arabi of the Sufis. Since in the Islamic world an individual has been most often the representative of a school and particular point of view, special emphasis is given to the relation between the particular figure and the school to which he belonged. The book is a structural as well as historical study of Islamic intellectual life. The author says: “the three personalities whose doctrines form the subject of our present study are of course of great importance in their own right and play a particularly significant role in the school with which they are connected. But, in addition, they each speak for a perspective, which has been lived, and a worldview, which has been contemplated by generations of sages and seers over the centuries. Moreover, although these schools are not the only ones to have existed in Islam, they are among [he most important to have come into being after this early period, and they demonstrate in their totality a very significant aspect of Islamic intellectuality, revealing horizons which have determined the intellectual life of many of the great sages of Islam.” He concludes that these perspectives in Islam have for the most part subsisted to the present day and that the ideas of the medieval figures studied became a permanent heritage of the Islamic world.
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