Nikāmakarma: how desireless need one be?1

In the Bhagavadgītā K a advises Arjuna to act without desire. He also describes the nikāmakarmin as possessed of perfect equanimity. Some scholars have argued that K a's advice is a contradiction. Because action requires desire, desireless action is impossible. Others have claimed that this fact only suggests that K a's prohibition is against a subset of desires and not desire as a whole. These ‘subset’ positions, however, are not consistent with the equanimity requirement. The conclusion that K a's advice is a contradiction can be avoided however. The word ‘desire’ in English is ambiguous. In one sense it means ‘whatever motivated’, and in another sense it means a ‘desire proper’ in contrast to beliefs and other mental states. If it is possible that not only desires proper motivate, then it is possible to act desirelessly in this sense. This distinction, I will argue, makes the best sense of K a's advice.     

Impossible Antecedents and Their Consequences: Some Thirteenth-Century Arabic Discussions

The principle that a necessarily false proposition implies any proposition, and that a necessarily true proposition is implied by any proposition, was apparently first propounded in twelfth century Latin logic, and came to be widely, though not universally, accepted in the fourteenth century. These principles seem never to have been accepted, or even seriously entertained, by Arabic logicians. In the present study, I explore some thirteenth century Arabic discussions of conditionals with impossible antecedents. The Persian-born scholar Afdal al-Dīn al-Khūnajī (d.1248) suggested the novel idea that two contradictory propositions may follow from the same impossible antecedent, and closely related to this point, he suggested that if an antecedent implies a consequent, then it will do so no matter how it is strengthened. These ideas led him, and those who followed him, to reject what has come to be known as ‘Aristotle's thesis’ that no proposition is implied by its own negation. Even these suggestions were widely resisted. Particularly influential were the counter-arguments of Naīr al-Dīn al-Tūī (d.1274).     

Prophetic models in Islamic and Christian spirituality in the thought of Ibn Arabī and Meister Eckhart

A comparative study of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad in Christianity and Islam reveals common background, basic similarities, and differences. Ibn Arabī (d. 1240) and Meister Eckhart (d. 1327) regard Moses and Jesus not only as prophetic models but also as mystical examples for the Mūsāwī type of saints and ‘Jesus‐like’ (‘īsāwī) saints in both traditions. However, the two experts understandably differ with regard to the divine nature of Jesus. Eckhart considers Christ as the image of God (imago Dei), ‘the Only‐Begotten Son of God’, while Ibn Arabī perceives Jesus as having both a human nature (nāsūt) and a divine nature (lāhūt). Eckhart sees Jesus as the best model, but Ibn Arabī sees the best model as Muhammad. Eckhart regards Jesus as the source of existence, whereas Ibn Arabī perceives Muhammad as the source of the chain of prophecy and sainthood, wihc derives from the Muhammadan reality (aqīqa Muammadiyya).     

The majority principle in Islamic legal and political thought1

This article studies the concepts of ijmā, al‐sawād al‐a am, jumhūr, al‐tarjī bi‐al‐kathra and legal maxims al‐qawaid al‐fiqhiyya at some length and relates them to the majority principle. These concepts represent a rich field of legal rules, principles and opinions, and the study has found that most—if not all—of them could strengthen the case for the legitimization of the majority principle in Islamic political thought and decision‐making processes. The article also considers Islamic political thought in relation to popular sovereignty, equality, popular consultation and the adoption of majority decisions by all the participants in political processes. While it is by no means conclusive, the article clearly favors the adoption of the majority principle—alongside other principles validated in Islam—in shūratic processes in an Islamic state.     

Waiting

Many people have heard of the sacred sound Aum, but do we really understand what it means or what it is? This article answers that question by examining the original text in which the sacred syllable of Aum is introduced. The three letters that make up the sound Aum each represents a corresponding psychological state. Waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep are the three main states of consciousness explored in the Mā ūkya Upaniad, a small section contained within the larger Hindu text known as the Upaniads. Some of these texts date back to around the second millennium b.c.e. What can these ancient explorations of human consciousness teach us today and how do they relate to modern depth psychology? The shortest of the Upaniads, the Mā ūkya Upaniad, may be said to hold some of the most profound psychological reflections in all of Indian religious philosophy. In addition to these three states of being, the elusive fourth state, known as Turīya, is also explored in relation to the sacred syllable Aum. This article integrates the commentaries of various Indian gurus with a perspective from analytical psychology. The sounds comprising Aum are explored symbolically and in terms of their psychological meaning, and the psychological role and function of spiritual practices, both East and West, are considered.     

Symbolism and allegory in the Qurān: Muhammad Asad's modernist translation

This paper will analyze Muhammad Asad's translation of the Qurān, which provides us with the means to explore the ‘mythic’ language of sacred text. Despite its modernist agenda, it is a coherent translation which brings into sharp focus a particular modernist discourse on the Qurān. The outcome of this approach is precisely in its style of picking and choosing meanings and interpretations which best suit the modernist project. The paper provides examples of this from the translation which has extensive footnote explanations. What distinguishes its approach from that of the classical commentators? Does the Qurān contain mythical or legendary accounts, and if so, what purpose do they serve? The paper focuses on these and other questions.     

The Effect of Retinal Eccentricity on Perceiving Collision Impacts

Three experiments examined the role of central and peripheral vision in collision detection and control of braking. Displays simulated observer movement over a ground plane toward obstacles lying in the observer's path (Experiments 1 & 3) or toward a vertical 2-D plane (Experiment 2). Optical expansion was depicted under the constraint that remains constant throughout the approach. Displays employed in Experiments 1 and 2 were masked centrally (peripheral vision) or peripherally (central vision) with mask size ranging from 10° to 30° in diameter in steps of 5°. Participants responded to the optical pattern engendered by with more consistency in the peripheral vision condition than in the central vision condition. Experiment 3 further examined the peripheral advantage by masking the displayed peripheral region from 20% to 80%. Largely unaffected performance across masked areas of the periphery confirmed that the efficacy of the peripheral retina does not lie in more extensive flow vectors but in its inherent sensitivity to optical consequences engendered by . These results were compared with psychophysical findings in self-motion perception and clinical findings in patients with partial vision loss.     

Religious renewal in Syria: the case of Muammad al‐abash

The Syrian Muammad al‐abash, member of the religious establishment and recently elected to parliament, is the leading figure in a movement of religious renewal in Syria. The Islamic vision he has articulated sheds light not only on the existence of a dynamic religious and inter‐religious debate currently taking place in Syria but also on the potential role of Islam in the development of a civil society in Syria that brooks room in the public arena for both the religious and the secular.     

Knowledge,women and gender in the adīth: a feminist interpretation

This article examines gender constructs embedded within the book on ‘Knowledge’ in Bukhārī's adīth collection. This text provides a site for exploring Islamic constructions of human nature, knowledge, rationality and authority. Out of a sum total of 136 adīths contain in Bukhārī's book on ‘Knowledge’, there are eight concerning women. These have multiple levels of meaning and interpretive possibilities. Employing a feminist hermeneutic, the article examines some of the gender ideology implicit in these formative adīths for Islamic understandings of the human person. The article's twofold approach firstly engages critically with dimensions of androcentricism and patriarchy within the texts, and secondly lifts out marginalized aspects embedded within the texts that offer counter–narratives to dominant constructions of gender. The intention of this reading is to name and illustrate both the functioning patriarchy as well as alternative liberatory positions of gender within the legacy. This represents part of an Islamic feminist approach that destabilizes patriarchal gender constructs and provides alternative approaches to the tradition informed by a religious commitment to gender justice.     

Coding for Short-Term Memory as a Function of Age

Twenty-one young (), 21 middle-aged (), and 21 old () female volunteers viewed letter sequences of 12 letters each and were required to recall the letters in exactly the same order as they saw them. In half of the sequences the letters could not be coded into meaningful units, while in the other half the letters could be chunked into three complete four-letter words. The findings indicated that the age groups did not differ from each other in the low-code condition, but that with the high-code sequences the old subjects performed significantly more poorly than either the young or middle-aged subjects. These findings suggest an age-related deficit in the coding of sequentially ordered material.     

The relationship between the inner and outer dimensions in Islam as a foundation for inter‐religious dialogue

This article shows how the relationship between the sharīa and the arīqa in Islam constitutes a specific paradigm for the bond between the interior and exterior dimension in religion, which enriches and challenges the Christian–Muslim dialogue for peace because it reminds both religions of their potential for critical social–political assessments. This is especially important since the public dialogue generally focuses on post‐Enlightenment criteria for evaluating the possibilities for communion in peace by strictly separating the interior from the exterior dimension in religion.     

Ibn al-cArab on the Three Conditions of Tawba

Although generally translated as ‘repentance’, tawba, like its Hebrew equivalent, teshuvah, simply means ‘turn’ or ‘return’. It is used in the Qur'an to describe actions of both human beings and God. Even though the idea of tawba subsumes the notion of ‘repentance’ (from the Latin paenitere, ‘to be sorry’, ‘to grieve’, or ‘to regret’), its meaning is not limited to that. The tendency within much of Western scholarship on Islam to understand tawba simply as repentance, and mostly human repentance, may well reflect certain presumptions about repentance and its place in religious life, which, one might argue, are absent in Islam. This article explores the understanding of tawba in the thought of Ibn al-^cArab (1165–1240 CE), whose most extensive reflections on it appear in chapters 74 and 75 of his Meccan Revelations. It focuses on the first of these chapters which concentrates primarily on the conditions set by many of the religious authorities as the fundamental components of human tawba. Ibn al-^cArab's response reflects certain central motifs that permeate his literary oeuvre. These motifs and their wider relation to his views on tawba will be highlighted as our discussion of this important Sufi maqām (station) unfolds.