mona abaza - a note on henry corbin and seyyed hossein nasr

8/2/2019 Mona Abaza - A Note on Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr

1/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y C O R B I NA N D S E Y Y E DH O S S E I N A S R.... ... ............. ..........,..................... ... , . ,...... .... , . ... . .. .. ...... . .,............................................. ......... ... ...... ..... . . .... ............

A N o t e on HenrvCorbin and S e ~ e dHossein Nasr: Affinitiesand DifferencesMona AbazaTheAmerican Universityin CairoCairo, Egypt

Tout nest que rkvdation; il nepeuty avoir que rkvklation. Or la rkvklationuient de 1esprit,et il n y a point de connaissance de 1Esprit.Cest le crepuscule biendt, mais maintenant les nuages sont encore clairs, lessapins ne sontpas encore sombres, car le lac les klaire de transparence. Ettout est uert, dun vert qui seraitplus riche que tout un eu dotgue, au rkcit. I1faut lentendre assis, trgsproche de lu Tewe, les bras bien clos, lesyeux aussi,faire semblant de dormir.Car il ne fautpas sepromener comme un vainqueur, et vouloir donner unnom aux choses, d toutes les chose$ cest elles qui te diront qui elles sont, si tukcoutes soumis comme un amant; car soudain pour toi, dans la pa ix sanstrouble de cette for& du Nord, la Teme est venue a Toi, visible comme un Angequi serait emme, peut-i?tre, et dans cette appamtion, cette solitude tr& verte ettrespeuplke, oui, 1Xnge aussi est v6tu de vert, cest-d-dire de cripuscule, desilence, de vkritk. Alors ily a en toi toute la douceur qwi estprksente en laban-don d une Ptreinte qui triomphe de toi.Tewe, Ange, Femme, tout cela en une seule chose, que jadore et qui est danscette for6t. Le crkpuscule sur le lac, rnon Annonciation. La montagne: uneligne. L?coute! I1 va se passer quelque chose, oui. L attenteest immense, 1 airfdssonne sous une bruine d peine visible; les maisons qui allongent au ras dusol leur bois rouge et rustique, leur toit de chaurne, sont ld, de 1autre cGtk dulac.


2/17

T H E M U S L I M W O R L D . V O L U M E 9 0 . S P R I N G , 2 0 0 0

Everything is but revelation; there can only be revelation. Now,revelation comes from the mind, and there can be no knowledge ofthe mind.It will soon be dusk, but now the clouds are still clear, the pine treesa re not yet shadowy, for the lake is illuminating them with transpar-ent light. And everything is green, a green that is richer than the soundswelling from an organ stop, narrating. One should listen to i t sitting, verynear to the Earth, the arms crossed, the eyes closed,pretending to sleep.For one should never walk about like a conqueror, wanting to give a name tothings, to all things; they will tell you what they are, if you listen submissive asa lover, suddenly for you, in the untroubled peace of this forest of the north,the Earth has come to you, visible like an Angel that would be woman, per-haps, and in this vision, this very green and populous solitude, yes, the angel isalso dressed in green, of the dusk, of silence, of truth. And then there is in youall the sweetness that is present in the surrender to an embrace whichtriumphs over you.Earth, Angel, Woman, all this is one and the same thing, which Iadore and which is in this forest, twilight on the lake, my annuncia-tion. The mountain: a line. Listen! Something is going to happen,yes, the anticipation is immense. The Air is quivering under a finebarely visible drizzle. The houses, with their red rustic wood andthatched roofs are there, on the other side of the lake.Henry CorbinLeksand enDalecarlieau bord du lac de Siljan24 aout 1932, 38 heures.Henry Corbin,LHerne, aris, 2981, p. 62.

t is nothing new to argue that there is a close affinity and many simi-larities in the discourse of Orientalists and the Orientals. TheFrench Orientalist Henry Corbin, for example, was an innovative con-tributor to Iranian spirituality and spurred the revival of interest in

Iranian philosophy, in both the East and West. This paper will first discussthe affinities and differences between the Iranian Seyyed Hossein Nasr andthe French Orientalist Henry Corbin concerning spirituality, and then con-


3/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y O R B I NA N D S E Y Y E DH O S S E I N A S R

sider the peculiarity of the intricate East/West intercultural exchange.Indeed, Nasrs intellectualism owes a great deal to Henry Corbin. InTraditionalbook is worth reading for many reasons, not the least of which is the insighti t provides with regard to East-West interaction.resenting one trend among the I~l amizer s,~e would be alone in acknowl-edging his debt towards Orientalism and, in particular, towards Corbin.Seyyed Hossein Nasr, like the Palestinian American Ismail Raji al-Faruqi,and the Malaysian philologist S. H. al-AttasI5 ook part in the MeccaConference wherein the term Islamization of knowledge was first devised.The First World Conference on Muslim Education was held at Mecca fromMarch 31 to April 8, 1977. Nasr, al-Attas and al-Faruqi later developed dif-ferent understandings of the concept of Islamization of Knowledge. Atthe conference, al-Attas presented a paper entitled Preliminary Thoughtson the Nature of Knowledge and the Definition and Aims of Education.6Seyyed Hossein Nasr wrote On The Teaching of Philosophy in the MuslimWorld, which he subsequently published in Hamdard Islamicus. In thispaper, Nasr stressed the significance of teaching Islamic philosophy, atheme he was to expound upon throughout his career.

Sayyed Hossein Nasr was born in Tehran in 1933. It is this authorsopinion that the finest biography of him to this date was written by aTurkish scholar who chose Nasr as the subject of his doctoral thesis in phi-losophy at the University of Lanca~ter .~dnan Aslans unpublished thesisfaithfully follows the trajectory of Nasrs career, which peregrinatedbetween Tehran and the States. Originating from a family of religiousscholars and physicians in Iran, Nasr was sent to study to the United Statesin 1945, at the age of twelve.O After receiving an undergraduate degree inphysics at MIT, he obtained a Ph.D. in history at Harvard. According toAslan, Nasrs thinking during this time was primarily influenced by F.Schuon and Henry Corbin.l2 Nasr became familiar with the writings of F.Schuon when he undertook the job of editing them.3 Nasr stayed inTehran from 1958 until 1979, the year when the Iranian revolutionoccurred. He immersed himself in and wrote about the school ofSuhrawardi and the rise of the Illuminationist school, both topics whichdeal with Corbins legacy.* In 1975, Corbin and Nasr founded the ImperialAcademy of Philosophy under the auspices of Empress Farah of Iran.I5 Thepair were later criticized for their association with the regime of the Shah.After he left Tehran, Nasrs first appointment was Professor of IslamicStudies at Temple University, Philadelphia. He remained there until 1984.16

Nasr dedicates a chapter as hommage o Corbin. Nasrs

Corbin was also Nasrs spiritual mentor. If we consider Nasr as rep-

93


4/17

T H E M U S L I M W O R L D . V O L U M E 0 , S P R I N G , 0 0 0

It was Nasr who introduced Corbin to Iranian religious scholars likeAllamah Tabatabai, who traveled from Qom to Tehran just to meet withCorbin. Corbin conducted several intense dialogues with the Iranian reli-gious scholars who sought him out. Nasr, in contrast to Corbin, developeda more esoteric ype of religious thought, probably due to the fact that hewas so deeply influenced by Rend Guenon (1886-1951), whom h e citesextensively in his work.18What particularly attracted Nasr to Guenon wasthe latters critique of modern science as a product of its reductionism.Nasrs attraction to esoteric Western thought extends to what he called theanti-history and anti-philosophy and non-rationalisitic philosophies, suchas hermeticism and the Kabbalah. He often refers in his writings to roman-tics such as Goethe and Shelling as critical philosophers in an effort to con-vey his disappointment with the philosophy of Western science.

There are several reasons why I chose to analyze Nasrs writings.Firstly, he was connected with the Mecca conference and the enormousproject of creating Islamic universities. Secondly, his writings are very pop-ular today throughout the Muslim world, particularly Malaysia, primarilybecause of his focus on the spirituality of the East and the melding of sci-ence with revelation. Some of Nasrs Malay students currently teach inMalaysia.20As with other protagonists of the Islamization of knowledge,Nasr was critical of the ulumu and, as a result, was called anti-clerical bysome scholars.

Nasr was critical too of the Western propensity for analyzing sacredtradition in light of secularized reason. Like al-Faruqi and al-Attas, his pro-ject was to revive the lostsense of wonder. In writing of resurrectingand rediscovering the sense of the sacred, Nasr stressed an activation ofintuition, a viewpoint he shared with al-Attas and, of course, Corbin. Heaspired to a cosmology that had withered away in the Western world.which h e expresses many doubts) and fundamentalist Islam. AlthoughNasrs writings are good examples of hybrid knowledge in the sense that heextensively quotes Western Orientalists and philosophers like T.Burckhardt, Henry Corbin etc., he seemed to be cognizant and wary of thefusion of different trends, such as Marxism with Islam. In his view,Marxism and Islam were irreconcilable. In fact, Nasr professed stronganti-Marxist sentiments. In several passages of Traditional Islam in theModern World,Nasr defines traditional Islam as an immutable cultural enti-ty which had been damaged by the intrusion of modern an d secularizingtrends:

Nasrs agenda was to highlight forms of traditional Islam (about

Time is in fact a most important factor because the withering influ-ences of secularizing ideologies and false philosophies continue to

94


5/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y C O R B I N N D S E Y Y E DH O S S E I N A S R

erode the foundations of Islamic tradition before our very eyes 2*For Nasr, there existed a corpus of traditional Islam which had

been maintained for centuries, an authentic tradition. He also saw a pseu-do-tradition within Islam, one which was counter-traditional. What Nasrcalls as pseudo-traditional is in fact fundamenta li~m.~gain, there aresimilarities in thought between Nasr and those called authenticators whofind tradition and modernity to be opposites. The implication is that tradi-tional Islam has been static for centuries, which is again what theOrientalists have always maintained.ious forms of authority were colored with a sacral tone:

For Nasr, traditional Islam in the political domain meant that the var-

In the political domain, the traditional perspective alwaysinsists upon realism based upon Islamic norms. In the Sunniworld, it accepts the classical Caliphate and, in its absence, theother political institutions, such as the Sultanate, which developedover the centuries in the light of the teachings of the Shariah and

the needs of the community.26

Nasr considered the divine aspect in the institution of the sultanateas a fait accompli. He differentiated what he called traditional Islam frommodernist ideas, which were popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-turies. By Nasrs time, these ideas were an integral part of the traditionalbody.tutions was well known, and his publications on all branches of scienceimpressive. Certainly, he has proven to be one of the most prolific andinteresting of Islamic academics. Aslan states that Nasr published ove rtwenty books and two hundred articles, which Aslan divides into twobranches: Islamic sciences and perennial philosophy. His esoteric andSufi vision of Islam found a particularly receptive audience in Malaysia.28Again, like al-Faruqi and al-Attas, Nasr emphasized the idea of science withrevelation. He wrote:

Seyyed Hossein Nasrs vast knowledge of Islamic sciences and insti-

In a traditional civilization like that of Islam, the cosmologicalsciences are closely related to the Revelation because in suchcivilizations, the immutable revealed principle, or the presidingidea manifests itself everywhere in social life as well as in thecosmos in which that civilization lives and breathesz9

95


6/17

T H E M U S L I MW O R L D . V O L U M E 9 0 . S P R I N G , 2 0 0 0

Nasrs conception of spirituality and mysticism were seen through thescreen of his unique focus on astrology, alchemy and the occult sciences.Because of this, some Islamizers went so far as to allege that Nasr had pro-posed an alternative form of science:

Nevertheless, Nasr manages to convey the feel of an alternativescience in action: a science that is just as objectiveand rationalas Western science, but draws its legitimacy and its philosophicaland sociological framework from the all-encompassing epistem-ology ofNasrs idea of searching for an alternative science can be traced

back to the circles he frequented in the fifties,when he was active in thecounter culture group of Theodore Roszak. It was during his participationwith this group that Nasr discovered Oriental wisdom. Moreover, hisinterest in Islamic esoterism and spirituality followed from his interactionwith T. Burckhardt, a well-known participant in counter culture

If it is spirituality that connects Corbin to Nasr, we must clari-fy a nuance in Corbins posture in order to better understand Nasr. Corbinwas not inspired by esoterics. He tended to follow the world of dream, theworld of active imagination, the world of imaginary forms, (le monde desfomzes imaginales)or mundus imaginalis,which he translated from Arabicas d a mal-mithdl. 33 He was sensitive to the call of the angel and in factwrote extensively about angelology in Oriental theosophy. Rather, Corbinwas interested in the metaphysics of active imagination (la metaphysigue delimagination a~tive) .~orbin wrote an article on his concept of Mundusirnaginali~,~~n which he compared such a concept among Muslimtheosophes that roughly translated to the eighth climate lehuitiGmeclimat. Corbin analyzed the visionary tales of spiritual initiation composedby Suhrawardi and elaborated on the idea of colps ubtils,subtle bodiesthat create a link between the pure spirit and the material body.36According to Corbin, active imagination is a pure, spiritual faculty, indepen-dent of the physical organism. It replaces the physical organism after thelatters disappearance. Two articles of great interest on this subject areincluded in a volume by Roger Caillois and Gustdv E. Von Grunebaum enti-tled Le due et les sociktks humaines.38The first is by Henry Corbin Le songevisionnaire en spiritualite islamique and the second is by Fazlur Rahmanwith the title of Le rgve, limagination et Zlam al-mitha1.39 n his article,Corbin develops the significance of the visionary dream in Islamic spirituali-ty. Corbin looks at Ibn Arabis concept of active imagination and the giftof visualizing or visionary imagination. He associates spiritual ethos and

96


7/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y O R B I N A N D S E Y Y E D O S S E I N A S R

the visionary dream with the structure of prophetology. He also closelyexamines the concept of the Prophet and the idea of the Imam in Shiismand analyzes the idea of mundus imaginalis,which was propagated byseveral Sufi mystics and which Corbin translates as d a mal-mithal:

Or, nos spirituels en ont pris admirablement eux-mgmes conscience.A plusieurs reprises, notament en parlant du monde mysktrieuxourkside llmam cache, nous avonsprononck les mots de Slam al-mithal. Pour ktablir la portke ou la valeur noktique de leurs songesvisionnaires, de leurs perceptions suprasensibles en gknkral, nosspirituels ont btk amenks a dkvelopper lontonlogie dun tiers monde,intermkdiaires entre le monde de la perception sensible et le mondeintelligiblepur . 40Nevertheless, our spiritual thinkers have themselves become ad-mirably aware. In several instances, notably when speaking ofthe mysterious world where the hidden Imam resides, we havepronounced the words of damal-mithal. To establish the sig-nificance of the noetic value of their visionary dreams, in generalof their oversensitive perceptions, our spiritual thinkers came todevelop an ontology of a third world, intermediary between theworld of the perception of senses and the pure intelligible world.

In fact, Corbin differentiates between the imagined world and hallucination.He argues as follows,

Nos auteurs Ibn Arabi,Moll& Sadrb de Shiraz enparticulier, ontdonnk des dkveloppements considkrables ct la thkorie de la puissanceimaginante, 1 imaginatrice, PnonGant avec soin les criteres quiper-mettent de discriminer entre 1Imagination vraie et ce que nousappellerions hallucination. Plus encore:Moll& Sadr& revientfrkquemment dans ses livres sur la thke qui lui est chire, h savoirque 1 Imagination active est, comme Iintellect, une acultk pure-ment spirituelle, dont 1existencen estpas conditionbepar celle de1organismephy~ique.~Our authors Ibn Arabi and in particular Mulla Sadra of Shiraz havecontributed considerably to the theory of imaginante, limagina-trice he imaginative strength, proclaiming with care the criteriathat would allow differentiation between real imagination and whatwe would call hallucination. Even more: Mulla Sadra frequently

97


8/17


refers in his works to the thesis dear to him, which is that activeimagination is similar to the intellect, a pure spiritual faculty whoseexistence is not conditioned by the physical organism.In his study of Mulla Sadra, Corbin notes that for this mystic, active

imagination was not an organic faculty related to the world of matter andthe perishing of the body, but rather a spiritual faculty, which the soul takesaway with it.** While Nasrs emphasis is upon esoterism, one can still arguethat Nasrs spirituality has great affinity with Corbins phenomenology andthe world of mundus imaginalis.Although he expressed a strong interest in gnosis, alchemy and visionary lit-erature, he was clearly against obscurantism:

Corbin never considered submerging himself in esoteric thinking.

Mais nulle complaisance ~2 I ksoterisme rivialement entendu, dloccultisme obscurantiste. Bien au contraire, sil refusait de suivreDescartes h considkrer les kciencescurieuses comme pures supersti-tions, simples vksanie, s il nous invitait hpenser ces penskes, cktaitafin que la Raison senrichit assezpour quelle se rendit capable decompter avec leur e~ pkr ie nc e. ~~But no submissiveness to esoterism, rivially understood as obscu-rantist occultism. On the contrary, if he refused to follow Descartes,who considered the curious sciences pure superstitions, and whenhe was inviting us to think such thoughts, it is so that reason is en-riched and becomes capable of relating to their experience.The subtle differences between lem6itre Corbin and Nasr the dis-

ciple can also be seen as a metaphor for the larger issue of East-West inter-action. Corbin saw the East as a mirror of the West and a continuation ofideas, which, although born in various places, played analogous roles with-in different mystical traditions. This is an intellectual position mostIslamizers dispute. Corbinsgenius was in fusing and rediscovering theelective affinity between the East and West in terms of philosophies andcultures. His achievement was to read and associate Suhrawardi with JacobBoehm by arguing that since the (image) is magic in the texts of the greattheosophes, so also should it be for our contemporary world.** Corbinswork on Iranian Sufism was original because he explored and interpretedShi ignosis in relationship to Christian and Jewish g n o ~ i s . ~ ~borders and moved between different spiritual and geographical spaces

Corbins life and what he represented as an intellectual who crossed


9/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y C O R B I N A N D S E Y Y E D H O S S E I N N A S R

holds great meaning for many. The countries of Iran and Germany werecrucial geographic and spiritual points for him. From 1954,Corbin traveledevery year to Iran. He had previously spent six years in Istanbul, duringWorld War 11.

Cest ains i que llran et IAllemagne u ren t lespoints d e repGregkographiques du ne Qu2te qu i sepoursuivait e n ai t d an s lesrigions spirituelles qu i n e so ntpo ints s ur nos cartes.46This is how Iran and Germany became geographic points of refer-ence of a quest that was in fact pursued in spiritual regions whichare in no way to be found on our maps.There was also Eranos. De lran ri Eranos is an article written by

Henry C ~ r b i n ~ ~bout the scholarly meeting-place in Ascona. Great histori-cal figures such as Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade, T. Isutzu, G. Durand, C.G.Jung gathered there to discuss issues of the day.48 t is this constant travelbetween the East and West, this constantly shifting life style, that character-ized Corbins life.

More importantly, Corbin used Heideggarian terminology and phi-losophy as a key with which to open a lock, to understand Iranian Sufism:

I1 ne sagissait m& me as dep ren dre H eidegger comm e un e clefmais de se seruir de la clef do nt il sktait h i-m 2m e semi, et qu i ttaith la disposition d e to ut le m ~ n d e . ~ ~It was not a question of using Heidegger like a key, but of using thesame key which he himself had used, and that was at the disposiionof everybody.Corbin thus drew on Western spirituality in order to understandEastern Iranian Sufism. It is perhaps this element that Islamizers ignore in

denying the connection between East and West. Indeed, it is this authorscontention that many Islamizers unconsciously suppress the sources of theirideas. For example, ISTAC (The Institute of Islamic Thought andCivilization in Kuala Lumpur) published a thesis by Alparslan Acikgenc ona comparison between the metaphysics of Mulla Sadra (born in Shiraz in1571) and Heidegger. Both philosophers greatly influenced Henry Corbinslife and work. There is no mention, however, in the entire book of Corbinsmajor contribution to the work of Mulla S ad ~a .~ lcikgenc attempts to draw

99


10/17


a parallel between the doctrine of wahdat al-wujad, which is translated asunity of Being in Sadra and Heideggers terminology. The author consid-ers both as philosophers of Being. Hence, the Heideggerian term Sein,which Acikgenc translates as Being,means wujUaPn the terminology ofSadra.* Acikgenc constructs a common ground between these two philoso-phers, Sadra and Heidegger, who are separated in time by nearly three cen-turies, by arguing that both are existentialists. Both take Being as the start-ing point in their philosophy, not only as a beginning for their system but asa necessary foundation and an inevitable element of their th o~ gh t. ~

What is interesting here is the renewed interest in Heidegger withinIslamic circles: Heidegger, the philosopher who ambiguously collaboratedwith the Nazi regime, the philosopher of existence and transcendentalismand the jargon of authenticity so well criticized by Adorno. It is this interac-tive aspect which reveals that it has become practically impossible todivorce the discourse of Islamization from mainstream Western philosophy.Fazlur Rahman, who did not predict the Islamization of Knowledgedebate, most of the Islamizers seem to be unaware of Corbins significancein religious studies. Nasr himself has stated that before discovering Iraniantranscendentalism, Henry Corbin expressed a growing interest in the philos-ophy of Heidegger, Husserl and Scheler. Corbin was an impressive man; ahumanist, highly cultured and well versed in German philosophy as well asin Islamic culture:

Apart from Nasr, who acknowledges the teachings of Corbin and

Si lon demande autour de soi qui est Heny Corbin, on recevra desrkponses apparemment incompatibles: comment le mCme hommepeut-il sgtre vouk ri la rksurrection desphilosophes de lancien Iran,ri la traduction de Heidegger, ri lherrnkneutique luthkrienne? E nfait sonprojet. ut de bouleverser notre paysage mental en multipli-ant les rapports, en tendant des ponts entre les dijfkrentesgnoses desreligions du L i ~ r e . ~ ~If on e asks who Henry Corbin is, he will apparently get incompati-ble anwers. How is it that the one and the same man was dedicatedto the resurrection of ancient Iranian philosophers, to the translationof Heidegger, and also to Lutheran hermeneutics? In fact, hisproject aimed at revolutionizing our mental landscape bymultiplying the relations and bridging the different gnoses with thereligions of the Book.

100


11/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y C O R B I N A N D S E Y Y E D I l O S S E I N N A S R

Corbin was the first to translate Heideggers major work, Quest ceque la mktaphysique? nto French.55 He corresponded with Heidegger(about Sein und Zeit) and Karl Jaspers, exchanging ideas about the variousphilosophical interpretations and translations. Corbin visited Heidegger inFreiburg in April 1934 and July 1936 to discuss the translations of Quest-ceyue la mktaphysique.pGCorbin also translated Heideggers text onHoelderlin and the Essence of Poetry. 57Heideggers Existenz-philosophieand Iranian philosophy. These twover-sions reveal how the Muslim vision locates a contradistinction of Westernphilosophy vis-A-vis the mystical East. One is Nasrs interpretation, whichemphasizes Corbins disappointment in Heideggers philosophy. Nasr stat-ed:

There are twodifferent explanations for Corbins relationship to

I once asked Corbin, How did you become interested inSuhrawardi? having in mind the fact that no one has renderedgreater service to the knowledge of Suhrawardi and later Islamicphilosophy in the West than Corbin. He said, For several years, Iwas studying Martin Heidegger and the German Existenz-philoso-phie and had gone several times to Freiburg to meet Heidegger buthis philosophy did not satisfy me.58

Until Massignon gave him a lithograph edition of Hikmat al-ishraqofSuhrawardi...

Henceforth I put Heidegger aside on the shelf and became interest-ed in serious philosophy, as Corbin told N a ~ r . ~ ~

Corbin, on the other hand, refuted the above statements and insisted uponHeideggers significance for him. He wrote the following:

Jeus lep?-ivil&eet le plaisir de passer quelques moments inoubli-ables avec Heidegger, ri Freiburg, en avriE1934 et enjuillet 1936,donc pendant la pkriode ou jklaborais la traduction d u recueil destextes publiks sous le titre Qu est ce que la mktaphysique? I1 m estarmvk dapprendre avec ktonnement que, si j e m ktais tourne vers lesoufisme, cest parce que jaurais ktk dkgu par la philosophie deHeidegger. Cette version est completement ausse. Mes premi6r-epublications sur Sohrawar-di datent de 1933 et 1935 (mon d@l6mede I kcole des langues Orientales est de 1929); ma traduction deHeideggerparait en 1938.60

1 0 1


12/17

T H E M U S L I MW O R L D . V O L U M E9 0 . S P R I N G , 0 0 0

I had the privilege and pleasure to spend an unforgettable timewith Heidegger in Freiburg in April 1934 and in July 1936. Thus,at the time when I was working o n translating the collection oftexts published under the title What is Metaphysics? To myastonishment, I happened to learn that I had drifted towardsSufism because I was disappointed in the philosophy of Heidegger..This version of the story is completely false. My first publicationson Suhrawardi date from 1933 and 1935 (I obtained a diploma fromThe School of Oriental Languages in 1929) and my translation ofHeidegger appeared in 1938.

It is this fine distinction that requires our attention. Perhaps where Nasrjoins Corbin is on the issue of secularization as a negative phenomenon anda destruction of the transcendental. Nasr and Corbin are united in theiraversion towards secularization. In Robert Avens examination of Corbin,one sees that Corbin considered secularization a negative modern phenom-enon, a banalization, a reduction of the Mundu imaginalis:

Secularization is disorientation, he loss of orient, the illam al-mithdl. In the case of the West, this loss is marked by a transitionfrom eschatological Christianity to historical faith, fides historica -a gradual adaptation to the external historical condition and thereplacement of the freedom of prophetic inspiration with the dog-matic magisterium of the Church.Corbin wished the process of secularization be confined only by

rediscovering the polar dimension of man (italics added), and by develop-ing a gnoseology which culminates in the figure of the angel as the datorformarurn. 62 This is best exemplified in Corbins understanding of spiritu-al form and the individual being. According to Avens,

Corbins ppint, stressed throughout his work, is that we mustnot limit the notion of the concrete to the sensible world, be-cause there are also spiritual concrete entities (spiritual realism)possessing their own kind of unity and their own concretedetermination.63Perhaps Corbin was more a dreamer and visionary. He shared with

Nasr the problem of refusing to see ho w modern man is religious and


13/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y O R B I NA N D S E Y Y E DH O S S E I N A S R..................... ..........., ........................ .. .. . . . . .. . . ... ....... ...................... ...... .... ....... ..,....,........ .. .......... . ... . . ........ ,

how the secularization thesis no longer applies. Since the seventies, theworld has witnessed a strong religious revivalism in all religions -- paradoxi-cally, under strongly secular and modern conditions.

Corbin has been blamed for over-exaggerating spirituality at theexpense of neglecting existing processes of secularization. It is possiblethat he overlooked the dimension of political Islam and the impact of thewide-ranging effects of the Iranian revolution. It is no coincidence that in aconference on Averroes in 1976,commemorating the 850th anniversary ofhis birth, Corbin refused to separate philosophy from theology. He arguedthat there were philosophers who were not metaphysicians, but he did notbelieve that one could do metaphysics without being a philosopher. Oneconsequence of Corbins position was that the Egyptian philosopherAbderrahaman Badawi was advocating the technical Occidental philosophywhile the WesternCorbin was drawing parallels between Western mysti-cism, philosophy, on the one hand and on the other, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabiand the mystical philosophers of Isfahan, Khorassan and Tehran.64Theparadox that secularism has to be defended by an Egyptian or Orientalversus the great mystical Orientalist is extremely interesting for us. It is nocoincidence that Corbin saw that the disappearance of the intermediaryangelic hierarchy in Averroes and Averroism was related to the loss of lemonde imaginal in his thought. What he defines as the imaginaPis nolonger the usual idea of imaginary (limaginaire). From that moment, wecan perceive the divergence from the Occident and, in the words of Corbin,the triumph of Latin Averroism, in contrast to the Orient, where the IranianAvicenna was p~pu la r .~

Peut-stre aut-il, en Occident, faire commencer cette dkcadenceavec le moment ou laverroisme rejeta la cosmologie avicennienneavec sa bierarchie angklique intemediaire des Animae ou Angelicklestes. Ces Angeli cklestes (bierarchie au-dessous de celle desAngeli intellectuales) avaient en effet leprivilege de lapuissanceimaginative a lktatpur.66In the Occident, perhaps, one should trace this decadence from themoment when Averroism rejected the Avicenian cosmology withits hierarchical, intermediary angelology, Animae or Angeli cae-lestes.These A n ~ e l iaelestes(a hierarchy beneath that of the Angeliintellectuales)had the privilege of the imaginative intensity of thepure state.


14/17


Avicennas philosophy is still subject to heated debate among Arabintellectuals, who regard it as a point of departure for criticizing rationalityand transcendentalism in Arab thought. A discussion of the extensiveOrientalist and Muslim writings dedicated to Islamic philosophy and in par-ticular to Avicenna and AverroedIbn Rushd (born in 1126 in Cordova), thetwo most celebrated philosophers in the West, is beyond the scope of thispaper. What is relevant here is the contemporary reading of these earlyphilosophers fo r modern purposes. On the question of science and ratio-nalism in early Islam, we can contrast Nasrs writings with the critical contri-bution of the contemporary Moroccan philosopher Muhammed Abidal-Jabiri, who throws into question the official writing of history and philoso-phy. Nasr adopts a scientificapproach, dividing Islamic thought into thestream of reason, the rational (maQul)and the a-rational or the fantastictendency (alla mu quo. Al-Jabiri advocates a scientific, ounter ahistori-cal reading of the turath (Islamic heritage) and in particular the establishedunderstanding of the Islamic history of science. The works of Avicenna,according to al-Jgbiri, are thus reinterpreted in a new light and classifiedbetween the skilled scientific medical doctor on the one hand and the a-rational, or fantastic, philosopher on the other.67Avicenna is thus dissectedand analyzed by his political opponents, professional adversaries and thevarious cultural, ideological influences of his time. Avicenna is often com-pared to al-Farabi and understood as the philosopher of the soul (naf.1 er-sus al-Farabi, who was the philosopher of reason (al-aql).

Al-Jabiris long-term project is thus to contrast Ibn Rushd, thephilosopher of the Western Muslim world, with Avicenna, the philosopherof the Eastern Muslim World and to promote Averroism in an Arabic culturewhich is rationalist, realist and critical.69According to al-Jabiri, thisapproach is more Descartian and in tune with our times. The adoption ofAverroism thus entails an epistemological break with Avicennas late ishraqiilluminative tream of thought, which is accredited to Iranian philosophyand Sufism and is, according to al-Jabiri, obscurantist. Al-Jabiris goal ofactualizing a Descartian vision proposes one program (among others) ofsalvation for the Arab World against the growing confusion and politicalrivalry in interpreting Islamic heritage. Here again, according to al-Jabiri,the Avicennian vision which seems to have triumphed in history is inter-preted as magically~riented,~bs~urantist,~nd metaphysical in shapingthe overall understanding of Arabic culture which led to its decadence. Al-Jabiri also criticizes Avicennas followers and students fo r adopting the mag-ical and metaphysical vision versus reason.


15/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y O R B I N A N D S E Y Y E DH O S S E I N A S R

ConclusionIt is a mistake to say that Corbin overestimated the spiritual dimen-sions of Iranian thought at the expense of the political aspect of Islam.

Corbin died in 1978,one year before the Iranian revolution. He probablyoverlooked the Shahs politics and the growing political force behind theMullas. Corbin insisted on depolitisizing Shti Islam. For instance, hefailed to see the dynasty of the twelve Imams as a political dynasty compet-ing in worldly matters against other dynastie~.~t is precisely this emphasison the concept of spirituality which was been picked up by the Islamists;however, it is used today for instrumental, political purposes.

Endnotes1 This paper is part of a chapter of a German Habilitationschrift submitted at the FreeUniversity of Berlin, 1988, with the title of Re-%inking the Social Knowledge of Islam;Critical Explorations in the Islamization of KnowledgeDebate: Ma1ay.sia and Egypt.2 I would like to stress that this is merely rough translation, aimed at giving the gist of theoriginal nuances and subtleties, which might be lost in English language.3 S. H. Nasr, Henry Corbin: The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile in Quest of theOrient of Light, in Traditional Islam in theModern World (Kuala Lumpur: Foundation forTraditional Studies, 1987), 273-91.4 Nasrs son, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, published a paper in the series Islamization ofKnowledge. Vali Nasr, while being mildly critical of the project of Islamizationof social sci-ences which was launched three decades ago, reproduced the jargon of Islamization toplead for Islamic economics. Islamic economics differs from Western capitalism because it isspiritual and fulfills mans function as Khalifat Allah. This is because, according to Vali Nasr,religion and spirituality do not exist in the Western definition of rationality. Seyyed Vali RezaNasr, Islamizationof Knowledge: A Critical Overview, Occasional Papers N o . 17(Islamabad: International Institute o Islamic nought, 1992).5 There are nevertheless basic differences in orientation between al-Attas and al-Faruqisviews of Islamization of knowledge. Al-Attas stresses strong Sufi inclinations with intuitionas a form of knowledge, while al-Faruqi expressed strong sympathy tow ardsjqh . In addi-tion, there were very strong personal antipathies between al-Attas and al-Faruqi.6 Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, %e Concepto Education in Islam, A framework foran Islamicphilosophy ofEducation, International Institute of Islamic Thought andCivilization (Kuala Lumpur: 1991).7 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, OnThe Teaching of Philosophy in the Muslim World,HamdardIslamicus,Vol. IV, No. 2, 53-72.8 See my Some Reflections on the Question of Islam and Social Sciences in theContemporary Muslim World, Social Compass,Vol40, N o. 2 (1993), 301-21.9 See Adnan Aslans unpublished thesis UltimateReality and its Manifestations in theWritingsof John Hick and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, thesis submitted in candidacy for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Religious Studies (UK: University of Lancaster,September, 19951, in particular, 20-42.10 Aslan, Ultimate Reality, 20.11 Pervez Hoodbhoy, Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle o r Rationality


16/17

T H E M U S L I MW O R L D V O L U M E 0 . S P R I N G ,2 0 0 0

(London: Zed Publications, 1991), 69. Hoodbhoy is extremely critical of the advocates ofIslamizationof Knowledge. Nasr in particular is lumped in one chapter with MauriceBucaille and Ziauddin Sardar.12 See Yann Richard, Lislam chiite(Paris: Fayard, 19911,91.13 The Essential Writingsof Fritjhof Schuon, edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (New York:h i t h House, Amity, 1986).14 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Spread of The Illuminationist School of Suhrawardi, TheIslamic Quarterly,Vol. XIV, N o . 3, July-September (1970).15 Yann Richard, Llslam, 92.16 Aslan, 25.17 Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent, The Ideological Foundation of the Islamiclievolution in Iran (New York University Press, New York and London, 1993), 316.18 Nasr discusses in detail Guenons life and ideas. See, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledgeand the Sacred (New York: Crossroad, 1981), 100-105.19 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World (Kuala Lumpur:Foundation for Traditional Studies, 19871, 209.20 Adnan Aslans thesis reveals that Nasr has an audience in Turkey.21 Leif Stenberg, The Islamization of Science: Four Muslim Positions Developing an IslamicModernity (Lund: Lund Studies in History of Religions, 19961, 302.22 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred (New York: Crossroad, 19811,2.23 Traditional Islam, 219.24 Ibid., 224.25 Ibid., 18.26 Ibid., 17.27 Aslan, 24.28 Besides, he was attacked by the Malaysian sociologist S. Hussein Alatas for his ambigu-ous position in backing the former Shah of Iran and for some of usage of Islamic history, inparticular the nation of prophecy for political ends.29 Seyyed Hossein Nasr,An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: ConceptionsofNature and Methods used fo r its Study by the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Bimni, and Ibn-Sina(Thames and Hudson, revised edition, 1 9 7 8 ) ~ .30 Ziauddin Sardar, Islamic Futures: The Shape of Ideas to Come (Kuala Lumpur: PelandukPublications, 19881,174.31 Aslan, 21.32 Aslan, 22.33 Nancy Pearson translates it as mundus archetypus. Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body andCelestial Earth From Mazdean Iran to Shiite Iran, translated by Nancy Pearson (London: I.B.Tauris, 1976).34 Henry Corbin,ed. Christian Jambet (Paris: LHerne, 1981),49.35 Henry Corbin, Mundus imaginalis ou Limaginaire et Iimaginal,Cahiem Internationauxdu Symbolisme, Bruxelles, Vol. 6 (19641, 3-26.36 Ibid, 10.37 Ibid, 13.38 Roger Caillois and G. E. Von Grunebaum, Le r&e et les sociPtLs humains (Paris:Gallimard, 1967).39 Fazlur Rahman, on the other hand, looks at the term of alamal-mitbal, he World ofimages. He analyzes the notion of imagination among Muslim philosophers like Avicennaand al-Suhrawardi. For this latter philosopher, pure individual souls have the power to cre-ate new objects in the alam al-mithal and to equally project images in the physical reality.Fazlur Rahman ...Le reue et les societies humaines, 410.40 Ibid, 402.41 b i d , 403.42 Henry Corbin, E n islam iranien, aspects spirituels etphilosophiques,Tome IV (Paris:

106


17/17

A N O T E O N H E N R Y OHRlN A N D SEYYED H O S S E I N A S H

Gallimard, 1972), 93.43 Guy Lardreau, Lhistoirec o m e nuit d e Walpurgis, Heny Corbin (Paris: LHerne,19811,footnote 1, 118.44 Jean-Louis Veillard-Baron, Imago Magia, in: Heny Corbin,88.45 Henry Corbin,25.46 Henry Corbin,42.47 See Heny Corbin,le temps dEranos, 256-60.48 See pictures of the volume on Henry Corbin (Paris: Editions de lHerne, 1981).49 Hen ry Corbin,25.50 Alparslan Acikgenc, Being and Existence in Sadra and Heidegger: A ComparativeOntology( Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1993).51 See chapter 11, Molla Sadra Shirazi (1050/1640), E n slam iranien, aspects spirituels etphilosophiques,Tome IV (Paris: Gallimard, 1972).52 Ibid, 9.53 Ibid, 12.54 Christian Jambet, Avant-Propos, Henry Corbin,ed. Christian Jambet (Paris: Editions delHerne, 19Sl), 12.55 S. H. Nasr, Henry Corbin: The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile in Quest of theOrient of Light, Traditional Islam in the Modern World (London: Routledge and KeganPaul, 19871, 266, 276.56 Henry Corbin,24.57 It appeared in Me.$ures,as Hoelderlin et lessence de la poesie, 3, 15July (19371, 120-43 .58 S.H. Nasr, Henry Corbin: The Life and Times of,266.59 Ibid.60 Heny Corbin, 24.61 Roberts Avens, Henry Corbins Interpretation of Imamology a nd Sufism,HamdardIslamicus, Vol. XI, no. 2, Summer 1988, 67.62 Ibid, 68.63 Roberts Avens, Henry Corbin and Suhrawardis Angelology, Hamdard Islamicus,Vol.XI no. 1, (3-201, 14.64 Jean Paul Charney, LeSufi et le faqih, in: Henry Corbin, 275.65 Henry Corbin, fin islam iranien, aspects spirituels etphilosophiques,Tome IV (Paris:Gallimard, 19721, 98.66 Henry Corbin Mundus imaginalis ou limaginaire et Iimaginal,Cahiers Znternationauxdu Symbolisme,Bruxelles, Vol. 6, (1964), (3-26),14.67 Muhammed Abid al-Jabiri, Takwin al-aqlal-urabi, Beirut: Markaz Diras%tal-Wahda al-Arabiyya, 19871, 197.68 Muhammad &bid al-Jabiri, Nahnu wal uruth, (We and The Heritage) (Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-Arabi [The Arabic Institute of Culture], the fifth Edition, 19861, 111.69 Hassan Hanafi also highlighted the significance of a modern reading of Averroes (1982).70 Ibid, Nahnu wal turath, 52.71 Ibid, 165.72 Ibid, 52.73 Ibid, 165.74 H e n y Corbin,17.

mona abaza - a note on henry corbin and seyyed hossein nasr

Documents