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Sun at Midnight. Despair and Trust in the Islamic Mystical Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Annemarie Schimmel
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Extract

      In the Name of the One who has no Name,
      He who appears before you, how ever you call Him!

How does Islamic theology and Koran exegesis, some of whose representatives set out to find the most modern developments, such as the atomic bomb, in the Koran, deal with the latest interpretations of quantum physics, of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, and with the question of whether the sub-atomic world is made up of waves or particles? How does a theologian react to the notion that parts of the atom influence each other and that the observer himself plays a role in the shaping of future events? Are these discoveries compatible with the traditional idea of a God who knows all; are they compatible with the various terms for fate: qadar, qada, or qismat?

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 42 , Issue 165 , March 1994 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

Notes

1. M. Iqbal, Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Lahore, 1930), 81. Quotations that are not footnoted may be found in the following works by the author: Rumi. Ich bin Wind und Du bist Feuer (Cologne, 1978); Gärten der Erkenntnis, (Cologne, 1982; Mystische Dimensionen des Islam (Cologne, 1985); Liebe zu dem Einen. Texte aus der Mystik des Islam (Zürich, 1986); Ibn ‘Ata Allah. Bedrängnisse sind Teppiche voller Gnaden (Freiburg, 1987).

2. J.W. von Goethe, Zahme Xenien, Book Six.

3. M. Iqbal, Six Lectures, 81.

4. J.W. von Goethe, West-Östlicher Diwan (Buch Suleika).

5. Ibid. (Selige Sehnsucht).