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ABSTRACT: This article aims to study Sufism (taṣawwuf) and inspiration (ilhâm), which is the main means of the mystical knowledge, in the thought of Ibn Taymiyya who is known generally as an exponent of a tradition grounded on the understanding of Salaf. He is considered by majority to be a rigid opponent of Sufism because of his unconventional interpretations of Sufi terminology. Also, since Ibn Taymiyya constantly offers the Qur’ān, ḥadīth, and the opinions of Salaf as the base of religious knowledge, the idea that he does not lean toward inspirational and rational knowledge and he does not give a place for them in his epistemology came out and has grown in the course of time. As a result of our research, however, we realize Ibn Taymiyya admits the epistemological value of inspiration along with Sufism conditionally. While he divides Sufism into Early and Later periods, he examines inspiration in the context of knowledge (bâb al-ʿilm) which is considered to be a subcategory of supernatural events. Ibn Taymiyya, who believes that inspirational knowledge must be tested by means of the Qur’ān, Sunna, and the opinions of Salaf, without rejecting its reality, assesses the subject matter in detail through his own criteria. Therefore, this article, in which the subject is elaborated critically and descriptively, focuses on the approach of Ibn Taymiyya to Sufism and inspiration that is the basic element of Sufi knowledge.SUMMARY: Ibn Taymiyya, who is one of the most influential, productive, and controversial Muslim scholars in history of Islam, exerted sincerely to find out the best and the most reliable way of acquiring religious knowledge. Through his fruitful works, his enormous knowledge of the Qur’ān, ḥadīth, Kalām, and Islamic and Greek philosophy can be witnessed. His works where his epistemological, theological, and philosophical statements are found dispersedly, are dealing with many issues such as revelation, the human intellect, inspiration (ilhām), Sufism, Aristotelian logic, the doctrines of Shia sect, methods of commentary of the Qur’ān, ḥadīth, creation of the world, the divine names and attributes, jihad, and juridical ones. Of all issues about which Ibn Taymiyya provided his opinions, Sufism obviously has been one of the most problematic ones. Since Ibn Taymiyya criticizes Ibn al-ʿArabī who is considered to be the Greatest Master in Sufism, he has been acknowledged to be a virulent opponent of Sufism and its complements like knowledge of inspiration- unveiling which is bestowed to the heart of believers by God. It is correct to say that Ibn Taymiyya has objections to the conceptions of unification (ittihād), incarnation (ḥulūl), oneness of the existence (waḥdat al-wujūd), the fixed entities (aʿyān al-thābita), and the seal of the friends of God (khatam al-awliyā’) all of which are encountered abundantly in the studies of Ibn al-ʿArabī and Sufism. In addition to these conceptions, Ibn Taymiyya refutes kinds of unification including general unification and particular or specific unification.Through detailed investigations of the works of Ibn Taymiyya it is possible to realize that Ibn Taymiyya elaborates Sufism under the categories of Early Sufism and Later Sufism. The Later Sufism, which is mostly heretical, is also elaborated with the distinction of philosophical and practical aspects. Furthermore, it is realized that along with criticisms of the practical aspects, his objections intensify on the philosophical Sufism, which may be called pantheistic, monistic, and metaphysical Sufism, imported noticeably from non-Islamic sources like Greek philosophy, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. While Ibn Taymiyya persistently defends that the validity of Sufism depends on obedience to the Qur’ān and ḥadīth only, he interprets in his own way the conceptions of the friendship of God and inspiration (ilhām). According to Ibn Taymiyya, those, who are counted among the Early Sufism methodologically, even if not historically, like ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Sahl Ibn al-Tusterī, and Maʿrūf al-Karkhī follow the Qur’ān and ḥadīth precisely.As for inspiration itself as a way of acquisition of knowledge, it is worth noting that in Ibn Taymiyya’s teaching inspiration or unveiling (kashf) is not argued concerning its reality. It is neither a sort of active communication nor is it a superstition. On the contrary, Ibn Taymiyya suggests that inspiration is a kind of supernatural events (khawāriq), which can be seen as an effect (ta’thīr) or knowledge (ʿilm). In this respect, inspiration is examined under the category of knowledge. He believes that when God has lifted the cover from the heart of believers, the heart will be under the control of God. As a result of this divine control, the servants can find out the correct, valid, and permissible way to follow. Thus, Ibn Taymiyya, who classifies inspirational knowledge as divine (raḥmānī) and devilish (shayṭānī), emphasizes importance of religious and spiritual training for purification of the heart.When the validity or acceptability of inspirational knowledge is in question, Ibn Taymiyya offers a test in the light of the Qur’ān, ḥadīth, and the opinions of the Salaf. According to him, the soundness of inspirational knowledge can be verified as long as it is weighed on the scale of these sources of Islamic sources. The reason for offering a test to verify the accuracy of inspirational knowledge received by a person is based on his idea that receiving inspirational knowledge is not an indication of being one of the friends of God at all. According to Ibn Taymiyya, it is very possible to perform or receive inspirational knowledge as a supernatural event not only for the friends of God but also for polytheists, disbelievers, people of the Book, and people of the innovation. He, as is said above, does not argue the validity of inspiration concerning its epistemological reality and value. What is more, he would rather give precedence to inspirational knowledge over weak ḥadīth reports, weak argumentations, and weak analogies. Therefore, it can be said that if we had to constitute an epistemological hierarchy of Ibn Taymiyya, it would be something like that the revelation, the human intellect, and inspiration, respectively. Finally, it may be propounded that even if there are several conditions to accept inspirational knowledge, it is a reality in Ibn Taymiyya’s epistemology.
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The crisis of religious identity can occur not only in the Diaspora that is separate from its Motherland but even in the mainstream. This crisis due to a lack of religious and cultural ties are more common in the Diaspora, where under the influence of the dominant culture comes to integration, asimiliation and sometimes in order to preserve the religious identity to isolation. This essay deals with the issue of religious identity of Bosniaks in Germany, first second and third generation, who tells us about their relationship to faith and the manner of their own identities.
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New museum reacts to criticism from religious groups and others, removing offending part and calling this a learning experience.
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Life under late ruler Karimov was tightly controlled, but stable and largely free of ethnic conflict, local Jews say.
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Isus Krist Superstar kasnih je šezdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća komponiran kao rock opera, a 1971 godine postavljen kao musical na Broadwayu u New Yorku. Njegovi autori, Andrew Lloyd Webber i Tim Rice time su započeli trend demontaže osnovnih kršćanskih dogmi u for mi javne sablazni, propitkujući Isusovu ličnost metodama psihologije, sugerirajući i njegovo razočarenje svojom misijom, popuštanje nagonima tijela te žeđ za popularnošću kao Kralj Židova.
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Complex reflects the close ties between religion and politics, two centuries after it was first planned.
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The Italian occupation created new circumstances for the Muslim Community and Albanian Muslims. The leaders of KMSh (Albanian Muslim Community) faced a very difficult situation. In some circles it was openly discussed that Muslims must flee to Asia. This pushed the chairman of the KMSh and clerics to back the invaders. The conformism of the president, Dr. Bexhet Shapati aroused the discontent of the Muslims. A petition addressed to the Prime Minister, signed by 40 pious, asked the reformation of the KMSh. As a result, according to them, it was necessary to form an assembly, which would review the ongoing activity of this institution, determine the necessary measures and construct the General Council. To indulge the clergy, the fascist invaders used several tactics. Firstly, they revised the secular and modem reforms that had been implemented during the republic and monarchy in the field of education, where the subject of religion had been extremely reduced. As part of their policy, Italians reformed the KMSh, by removing from office all clerics who were considered nationalists and anti-fascists. The unification of Kosovo with the Albanian state created new circumstances for the KMSH. This resulted in the unification of Islamic religious institutions. The congress held in Prizren, formulated essential issues regarding the path to be followed for the unification of the Islamic community. During the German occupation, the KMSh faced unexpected situations. Unlike the Italians, the Germans did not have the time needed to intervene directly in the problems of the administration and the management of the KMSh. These and related issues faced by Albanian Muslims and the KMSh during World War II consist the focus of this article.
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The status of the firstborn in the ethno-legal tradition and in medieval folk songs (the epos of the brave men and the ballads) is fixed as a legal status (including inheritance-testamentary rights), as an ethical status (in the code of conduct) and as a lordship status. These statuses are superimposed on the status of the firstborn in the Scriptures. Could Ethem Haxhiademi change the relationship between Abel the firstborn and the second brother Cain towards this conditional canon? Moverover, taking into consideration the fact that the gallery of Abels and Cains in European literature and art was so complete and timeless that one could hardly think of another like them and dissimilar to them? In his tragedy, Haxhiademi aims to transform the tragic fate that is prewritten in the Scriptures and reconfirmed in the Albanian tradition into a tragic guilt and to transfer it to the injustice in the family, to the unequal treatment of children. In this work Abel foretells the philosophy of the Redeemer in the quality of humanity, while Cain symbolizes the man who revolts because of injustice. But injustice itself, unlike the doctrinal and canonical meaning, does not come from heavenly curse and original sin, but from the crooked order in the first family in history according to the book of Genesis. Is this because of a new unit in its first test as a family, or philosophically because of the archetypal anthropological opposition between agriculture and livestock, migrants and dwellers, or does the conflict descend to the human level? Haxhiadem's tragedy Abel conveys the message that God is love, evils cannot be explained by divine will (even when a reference can be found in the Scriptures), but by human relationships built on injustice.
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The organ at the Daruvar parish church was procured in 1925 from Venceslav (Václav, Vjenceslav) Holub, a Požega organ builder. The process of ordering and building a new organ took place from January to May, and during that time V. Holub visited Daruvar several times. During that visit, he examined the current organ and suggested other options for creating a new one. On July 12, 1925, the organ was blessed. The original correspondence between V. Holub and the then Daruvar priest Mijo Ettinger was used as a source for this paper. The Daruvar parish office has part of the correspondence, which includes four letters signed by V. Holub that were written in Požega on January 15, February 23, and 26, and May 2, 1925. The cost estimate for the organ’s construction, which includes a description of the current old organ, is attached to the first letter. A catalog example of model VIII, which was used to order the casing, is also preserved among these correspondences. Reconstructing the events can be done quite precisely based on the correspondence that has been preserved.
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Religiosity/spirituality exerts an influence over conjugal relations and may represent a resource for coping with domestic violence. This study sought to identify and understand the religious and spiritual elements that play a significant role in combating domestic violence. Through qualitative interviews, comprising open questions and narratives, carried out in digital format, involving 10 Brazilian couples aged between 40 and 60, married for more than 15 years and who claimed to have some religious affiliation. The results of this study showed that religiosity/spirituality plays an important role in dealing with marital violence, mainly by highlighting the importance of social groups and in providing and motivating relational elements between spouses that generate Family Social Capital, such as: respect, belonging, tolerance, dialogue, persistence, perseverance, love, among others, enhanced and justified by what is sacred and by members of religious groups, while also taking into consideration the risk factors that these may generate.
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Health professionals, in their daily clinical practice, are often faced with the verbalization of belief in miracles by patients and surrogates, in cases of serious diseases. Many of them consider the content of this belief in decision-making in terminal stages of the disease. However, this topic is little discussed in academic and scientific circles, together with a large gap in health training. The objective of this study is to understand the research scenario for the topic in question, how it has been approached in contemporary times, what perspectives and methodologies have been adopted in published studies, what results they have achieved, and to what extent they are or are not convergent or divergent each other in terms of implications for clinical practice. A literature review was carried out, using the descriptors: faith healing, delivery of health care, belief, miracle, clinical practice and divine cure, in Portuguese and English, in the VHL, PubMed, SciELO, PsycInfo databases. From a total of 2,369 articles initially found, 32 were selected, 14 of which resulted from empirical research, 13 were theoretical in nature and five were opinion-based. Twenty-three articles focused on the professional’s perspective on the topic. In addition to the onesided nature of the studies, which tend to present only the perspectives of health professionals and neglect the experiences of patients and caregivers themselves in relation to the phenomenon of belief in miracles, it was observed that it tends to be stigmatized and interpreted as a mere denial of reality, with the potential to trigger conflicts between patients/surrogates and health professionals. It may be concluded that there is a need for more studies focusing on the genuine experiences of patients and surrogates, in order to support an epistemologically qualified clinical practice, for an understanding of the phenomenon of belief in miracles and its subjective and intersubjective impacts in clinical contexts and, consequently, consistent with a more comprehensive conception of physical and mental health.
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Congenital Foetal Malformity (CFM) is a stress factor for pregnant women, and religiosity and spirituality have an important role to play in coping with it. The aim of this study was to identify the correlation between stress, as perceived by pregnant women with CFM, and the diverse forms of religious/spiritual coping (RSC). This is a cross-sectional study with pregnant women treated in a hospital specializing in obstetrics in the city of Brasília, located in the Federal District in Brazil. The sample comprised 99 expectant mothers. Religious/spiritual coping was measured using the RCOPE scale devised by Pargament, Koenig and Perez (2000) which was subsequently translated into Portuguese and adapted for Brazil by Panzini and Bandeira. Stress was evaluated using the Perceived Stress Scale of Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein (1983), translated and validated by Luft et al. (2007). For the purposes of analysis, the SPSS-IBM 22.0 software application was employed, with a statistical analysis using means, standard deviations and frequencies, along with the Chi-Squared (elevated power of sample – 0.77) and Logistical Regression tests aimed at evaluating the relationship between perceived stress and the type of RSC. The results indicated that 92.8% of pregnant women with CFM presented with positive religious/ spiritual coping (PRSC), with a mean value for perceived stress of 41.17±9.03, there being an inverse relationship between perceived stress and PRSC (p=0.02). Just five of the pregnant women presented with higher levels of stress and negative religious/spiritual coping (NRSC), without any correlation with demographic data (expectant mother’s age, religion, income, schooling, CFM prognosis or time since diagnosis). It was found that 81 (81.8%) of the pregnant women would like this topic to be addressed in the hospital setting, primarily by the doctors (56.6%) treating them.
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More and more, the elderly population is assuming a fundamental role in the structure of our society. However, this advancement does not appear to be matched by a change in the subconscious of many people in contemporary society who still tend to nurse a certain stigma with regard to old age. Ageism is the term that represents prejudice against and discrimination of the elderly and the ageing process. Religiosity has been suggested as one of the protective factors against ageism. In order to investigate the relationship between ageism and religiosity in future health professionals, this article describes a study carried out with students of Psychology and Medicine in a university in the Federal District of Brasilia. A total of 88 Psychology and 80 Medicine undergraduates took part in the study. The Fraboni Scale of Ageism and the Duke Scale of Religiosity were employed. The results show a predominance of positive attitudes towards the elderly, a prevalence of religious believers in both groups studied as well as a modest relationship between ageism and religiosity. The implications for training in the area of health are discussed.
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In 1816, the Polish branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was established in Warsaw to distribute Catholic and Protestant Bibles in Polish. It operated intermittently throughout the nineteenth century, subordinated to the larger BFBS agencies in Vienna or St Petersburg. The organisation expanded its operations in the interwar period under the leadership of Aleksander Enholc and continued to grow after the Second World War. In 1967, Bar- bara Enholc-Narzyńska was appointed as its head. In 1992, the branch formally became independent and has since operated as the Bible Society in Poland.
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The primary purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the statements and actions of the Catholic Church in Poland with regard to the war in Ukraine in 2022. The subject of the analysis included both the public statements of the leaders of the Catholic Church and the actions of Catholic communities to help refugees in Poland and the activity and provision of aid in the territory of Ukraine. The issues of war and peace occupy an important place in the social teaching of the Catholic Church. It was therefore important to obtain an answer to the question to what extent the statements and attitudes of the representatives of the Catholic Church in Poland coincided with the underlying principles of the social teaching of the Catholic Church relating to the issues of war and peace and with the statements of Pope Francis. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the representatives of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Poland, and especially the community of the believers strongly condemned Russia’s aggression and engaged themselves in helping the attacked side in a comprehensive manner and a variety of ways.
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The development of sharia pawnshops from year to year has become a benchmark for the success of the sharia economy in Indonesia. This research examines the influence of product knowledge and word of mouth on non-Muslim customers' purchasing decisions, with trust as a mediating variable. The method used in this research is quantitative with a causal approach. The data tested in this research came from responses to the questionnaire distributed, namely 101 respondents. The results show that product knowledge and word of mouth positively and significantly affect trust and purchasing decisions. It was also found that trust had a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions and that trust had a positive and significant impact on mediating the relationship between product knowledge and word of mouth on buying decisions of non-Muslim customers.
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The Franciscan Ecological Community at St Casimir the Prince Church in Cracow was founded in the autumn of 1984. The article aims to present the history and activities of this specific organisation, which brought together members of various ages and social backgrounds, focused on ecological, educational, and charitable activities, and played an important role in informing and forming society.
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The article maps a numerically limited and religiously and socially discriminated group of pre tolerance and tolerance non Catholics, thus a group of persons of restricted education, which was except some rare examples limited to the basic level. In this regard, the text offers a more com pendious analysis of one confessional and social group that was most of the time just a restricted recipient of the enlightened ideas and education spread by so-called “plebeian” intelligence and most of all by new protestant preachers. This group showed however a great ability to absorb, transform, create and spread within their community the adopted and own thoughts, the fact that significantly contributed to their emancipation in the following period.
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With the growing scientific knowledge, we are beginning to understand that several phenomena which used to be explained by non physical entities (e.g., demonic possessions) are being logically and systematically explained through the scientific method (e.g., epileptic seizures). The development of the scientific method strongly contrasts with centuries of false beliefs and esoteric ideas which had no logic or were irrational. Nowadays, it is undeniable that science helped increase life expectancy and life quality. Neuroscience is now contemplating problems that used to belong to the philosophical field (e.g. consciousness). Nevertheless, the problem of death makes some scientist exceptical to the principles of science because that would imply for example to accept death as the end of the consciousness. With the apprehension that we are no more than an extraordinary unique combination of matter and energy, it follows that when we die, matter and energy reorganize in a different way and we ceased to exist as individuals. In this article, I attempt to explain that many pseudo scientific approaches trying to unify science with religion are actually based on emotional rather than rational thinking. I propose that, even though accepting the end of our consciousness is something hard to manage, it only have but positive effects in our quality of life and also benefits science by focusing all the efforts of intelligent and capable people into something that might have real effects in our present life and future generations to come.
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