The Sufi Doctrine of Man: Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī’s Metaphysical AnthropologyBy Richard Todd

Abstract

Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (d. 1274) has long been recognized as the ‘foremost disciple’ (p. 1, partially citing the title of an article by William Chittick) of the ‘Great Shaykh’ ( al-shaykh al-akbar ) Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240), whom some sources actually report to have been al-Qūnawī’s stepfather. Despite al-Qūnawī’s formative role in the emergence of the so-called ‘Akbarian’ tradition of speculative Sufism, his works and thought have received relatively scant attention to date. Richard Todd’s monograph, partly based on unpublished manuscript sources, makes a highly welcome contribution towards filling this gap and considerably enriches our understanding of Islamic intellectual history during the Middle Period. Todd’s monograph is divided into two parts. Part One, titled ‘Qūnawī’s Life and Work’, opens with a chapter on al-Qūnawī’s biography and a helpful description of his main works. Todd then attempts a summary delineation of his author’s relationship to earlier thinkers and schools of thought. With regard to Ibn ʿArabī, he observes that al-Qūnawī does not merely style himself as elucidating the writings and teachings of his master but stakes out an independent claim to mystical inspirations (p. 45, cf. pp. 29f. and p. 42). While al-Qūnawī shares Ibn ʿArabī’s view of ‘existence envisaged as continual theophany’ and employs other signature Akbarian concepts and ideas, Todd emphasizes that his works also contain ideas which are novel or only marginally present in the writings of Ibn ʿArabī (p. 46), such as the theory that ‘determination’ ( taʿayyun ) must be ontologically preceded by ‘non-determination’ (cf. pp. 83–6). Todd accepts that al-Qūnawī’s writings display a more systematic quality than those of Ibn ʿArabī and that he is familiar with Peripatetic concepts and ideas (pp. 49f.), the use of which is duly noted at several junctures throughout the monograph (e.g., p. 55 or pp. 77f.). Nevertheless, Todd is sceptical about the characterization of al-Qūnawī as more ‘rationalistic’ than his teacher and underscores that, like Ibn ʿArabī, al-Qūnawī is ‘at pains to point out the limitations of syllogistic reasoning’ (p. 50; cf. also p. 73 and p. 177). In passing, it may be remarked that Todd’s discussion of al-Qūnawī’s ‘critique of rational inquiry’ (pp. 51–5) might usefully have explored the extent to which the latter’s stance is not only indebted to his teacher Ibn ʿArabī but also continues an attitude to Peripatetic philosophy previously articulated by al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) and Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 1191). Particularly reminiscent of the latter is al-Qūnawī’s appeal to the ‘ancient sages’ ( al-ḥukamāʾ al-awāʾil ) and to the ‘divine Plato’ (p. 54 and pp. 61f.) as embodying a venerable philosophical alternative to the Peripatetic tradition. 1