Shihāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardī[

Shihāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardī[ was a Persian philosopher and founder
of the Iranian school of Illuminationism, an important school in Islamic philosophy. The
"light" in his "Philosophy of Illumination" is the source of knowledge. He is referred to by the
honorific title Shaikh al-ʿIshraq "Master of Illumination" and Shaikh al-Maqtul "the
Murdered Master", in reference to his execution for heresy. Mulla Sadra, the Persian sage of
the Safavid era described Suhrawardi as the "Reviver of the Traces of the Pahlavi (Iranian)
Sages",and Suhrawardi, in his magnum opus "The Philosophy of Illumination", thought of
himself as a reviver or resuscitator of the ancient tradition of Persian wisdom

Suhrawardi’s life:

Suhraward is a village located between the present-day towns of Zanjan and Bijar
Garrusin Iran, where Suhrawardi was born in 1154. He learned wisdom and jurisprudence
in Maragheh (located today in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran). His teacher was Majd
al-Dīn Jīlī who was also Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s teacher. He then went to Iraq and Syria for
several years and developed his knowledge while he was there.
His life spanned a period of less than forty years during which he produced a series of works
that established him as the founder of a new school of philosophy, called "Illuminism"
(hikmat al-Ishraq). According to Henry Corbin, Suhrawardi "came later to be called the
Master of Illumination (Shaikh-i-Ishraq) because his great aim was the renaissance of
ancient Iranian wisdom".which Corbin specifies in various ways as the "project of reviving
the philosophy of ancient Persia".
In 1186, at the age of thirty-two, he completed his magnum opus, The Philosophy of
Illumination.
There are several contradictory reports of his death. The most commonly held view is that he
was executed sometime between 1191 and 1208 in Aleppo on charges of
cultivating Batiniteachings and philosophy, by the order of al-Malik al-Zahir, son of Saladin.
Other traditions hold that he starved himself to death, others tell that he was suffocated or
thrown from the wall of the fortress, then burned by some people

Suhrawardi’s Philosophy

Illuminationism (Persian ‫ حكمت اشراق‬hekmat-e eshrāq, Arabic: ‫ حكمة اإلشراق‬ḥikmat

al-ishrāq, both meaning "Wisdom of the Rising Light"), also known as Ishrāqiyyun or
simply Ishrāqi(Persian ‫اشراق‬, Arabic: ‫اإلشراق‬, lit. "Rising", as in "Shining of the Rising Sun") is
a philosophical and mystical school of thought introduced by Shahab al-Din
Suhrawardi (honorific: Shaikh al-ʿIshraq or Shaikh-i-Ishraq, both meaning "Master of
Illumination") in the twelfth century, established with his Kitab Hikmat al-Ishraq (lit: "Book
of the Wisdom of Illumination"), a fundamental text finished in 1186. Written with influence
from Avicennism, Peripateticism, and Neoplatonism, the philosophy is nevertheless distinct
as a novel and holistic addition to the history of Islamic philosophy

In his Philosophy of Illumination, Suhrawardi argued that light operates at all levels
and hierarchies of reality (PI, 97.7–98.11). Light produces immaterial and substantial lights,
including immaterial intellects (angels), human and animal souls, and even 'dusky
substances', such as bodies. Suhrawardi's metaphysics is based on two principles. The first is
a form of the principle of sufficient reason. The second principle is Aristotle's principle that
an actual infinity is impossible.

Ontology of his Suhrawardi’s Philosophies:

Suhrawardi adhered to the traditional ontology as far as the hierarchical structure of

reality is concerned. Within the context of levels of being, he sought to offer an exposition of
various philosophical nd mystical issues. He retained the notion of hierarchies of being but
changed the matrix of this Ibn Sinian ontology from one of “being" to one of “light." It was
precisely this kind of fundamental change that allowed him to offer an exposition of mystical
and esoteric doctrines as well as many of the traditional philosophical issues, in particular
the relationship between essence and existence. According to Suhrawardi, the nature of light
is axiomatic in that all things are known through it. Light is made up of an infinite succession
of contingent dependent lights
Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination and each light is the existential cause of the light
below it. The ultimate light, which is the same as the Necessary' Being (wdjib -al-wujud) is
for Suhrawardi the light of lights (nur al-anwar) which , he regards as the ultimate cause of
all things.Although Suhrawardi’s ontological scheme was later criticised by some of his
successors, such as Mulla Sadra and Hajji Mulla Uadi Sabziwari,it
neverthelessprovidesameansbywhichontological issues can be analysed. As S.H. Nasr puts it,
for Suhrawardi: The ontological status of all beings, therefore, depends on the degree in
which they approach the supreme light and are themselves illuminated 1 For Suhrawardi,
just as light has degrees of intensity, so does darkness. Finally, after understandings
them, I sought their rational basis in a way such that if I. ignore them, nothing can make me
doubt their validity 2 It is therefore imperative that in any discussion concerning
Suhrawardi’s ontology one has to realise the visionary nature of this ontology and that
ultimately his philosophical analysis is based on his mystical experience.

Epistemology Of His Philosophy:

it is difficult to identify Suhrawardi’s epistemology with any particular epistemological

paradigm (i.e. empiricism, rationalism, etc.). While Suhrawardi argues that ultimately ne can
attain certainty only through the knowledge which is attained by illumination, he does not
discard the possibility of attaining knowledge through other modes of cognition.
Suhrawardi’s philosophical epistemology as has been discussed is made up of the following
three elements.
1. Definition
2. Sense Perception
3. Innate Ideas
 To summarise Suhrawardi’s view on the shortcomings of the above means of cognition,
the following can be said: Suhrawardi maintainsthat definition is problematic because it has
to define not only the essentials of an existent being as Aristotle indicates, but all its
attributes and accidents as well. This is necessary since they are as much a part of a thing as
the so-called essentials are and defining all of them is impossible. Suhrawardi attributes this
problem to the.

Finally, there are the innate ideas that Suhrawardi considers to lx* necessary in order
to connect the other two elements of his philosophy epistemology. The existence of innate
ideas provides the necessary link between Suhrawardi’s view o f knowledge by definition and
sense perception which enables him to offer a coherent and consistent theory of knowledge.
The nature of these ideas and their structure, be it Kantian or Platonic, remains somewhat
un- clear in Suhrawardi’s philosophical writings; what is clear is that for Suhrawardi they
have a limited role and function.
Suhrawardi’s concept of philosophical epistemology, therefore, is based on the idea that
while different modes of cognition and schools of epistemology are useful in some domains,
ultimately certainty comes through illumination, which is the type of knowledge that is
attained without mediation. In the beginning of the Hikmat al-ishrdq Suhrawardi
summarises his view towards his theory of “knowledge by presence.” He states: As we
observe the sensible world, through which we gain certainty of their states of affairs, we
then base a thorough and precise science on this basis (math, astronomy). By analogy, we
observe certain things in the spiritual domain and then use them as a foundation upon
which other things can be based. He whose path and method is other than this will not
benefit from this and soon will be plunged into doubt."
will lead to the innate ideas know Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination
Philosophical Sufism What Suhrawardi has clearly been trying to argue for is that philosophy
in general and epistemology in particular have to have an ishraqi foundation. In
Suhrawardi’s epistemology, light becomes the substance of knowledge and knowledge the
substance of light.
If there be anything that needs no definition or explanation, it has to be obvious by nature,
and there is nothing more obvious and clear than light. Thus, there is nothing that needs no
definition except light. Having argued for the limited role of conventional modes of
cognition, what has not been answered yet is how knowledge as such is possible. What is it
that makes knowing and cognition feasible? We can now proceed to consider Suhrawardi’s
answer to these questions, known as the theory of knowledge by presence.

Axiology of His Philosophy:

Pure subjectivity,53 which is obtained as a result of reduction, that is, tajrTd, is differ ent
in its ontological status from pure ideas: first, awareness has ideas as its
second, ideas are many, and pure subjectivity is unique; third, pure subjective awareness is
indivisible and self-transcendent and therefore limitless, and ideas are limited. In relation to
the body, tajrld has affective connotations, and pure mental negation (i.e., pure idea) does
not. Last, the content of pure awareness is just pure awareness, not meaning. Suhrawardi
needs a term that would reflect these features in philosophical argument. Two readily
available types of languages, ordinary language and the mystical language of unsaying,54
do not provide the means for such signification: ordinary language refers to the world of
objects, and the language of unsaying can differentiate awareness from what it is not but
does not provide the means for direct positive signification of awareness.55 The remaining
options are either to neologise (as done by Heidegger), or to reify the meaning of ordinary
language so that it invokes the appropriate semiotics (as done by Husserl). Suhrawardi
comes up with the generic term for his essential principle by reification of the ordinary word
for light, nur; widely used in Arabic and Persian Neoplatonic texts.56 Below, I demonstrate
that the emerging connotations of the pure subjectivity of awareness not only meet the
themes in the passages (table 1) but also (128) Since' nOr mujarrad bestows on the
ensemble of barriers (wahib jam match the semiotics of nur.

Teachings Methods According Him:

According to him teaching methodologies should be used according to the needs and
ability of students. Suhrawardi considers a previous existence for every soul in the angelic
realm before its descent to the realm of the body. The soul is divided into two parts, one
remains in heaven and the other descends into the dungeon of the body. The human soul is
always sad because it has been divorced from its other half. Therefore, it aspires to become
reunited with it. The soul can only reach felicity again when it is united with its celestial part,
which has remained in heaven. He holds that the soul should seek felicity by detaching itself
from its tenebrous body and worldly matters and access the world of immaterial lights. The
souls of the gnostics and saints, after leaving the body, ascend even above the angelic world
to enjoy proximity to the Supreme Light, which is the only absolute Reality.
Suhrawardi elaborated the neoplatonic idea of an independent intermediary world,
the imaginal world (ʿalam-i mithal ‫)عالم مثال‬. His views have exerted a powerful influence
down to this day, particularly through Mulla Sadra’s combined peripatetic and
illuminationist description of reality.

Curriculum According To Him:

Curriculum according to Suhrawardi’s Philosophy is that it should be designed according to our

Islamic philosophy and must implement by the teachers and authorities Suhrawardi's
Illuminationist project was to have far-reaching consequences for Islamic philosophy in
Shi'ite Iran. His teachings had a strong influence on subsequent esotericIranian thought and
the idea of “Decisive Necessity” is believed to be one of the most important innovations in
the history of logical philosophical speculation, stressed by the majority of Muslim logicians
and philosophers. In the 17th century, it was to initiate an Illuminationist Zoroastrian revival
in the figure of the 16th century sage Azar Kayvan

Aim and Objective According To Him:

 According to Hossein Nasr since Sheykh Ishraq was not translated into Western
languages in the medieval period, Europeans had little knowledge about Suhrawardi and his
philosophy. His school is ignored even now by later scholars.[17] Sheykh Ishraq tried to pose
a new perspective on questions like the question of Existence. He not only caused peripatetic
philosophers to confront new questions but also gave new life to the body of philosophy
after Avicenna.

According to John Walbridge, Suhrawardi's critique on peripatetic philosophy can be

counted as an important turning point for his successors. Suhrawardi tried to criticize
Avicennism in a new approach. Although Suhrawardi first was a pioneer of peripatetic
philosophy, he later became a Platonist following a mystical experience. He is also
considered as the one who revived the ancient wisdom of Persia by his philosophy of
Illumination. His followers include other Persian philosophers such as Shahrazuri and Qutb
al-Din al-Shirazi who tried to continue the way of their teacher. Suhrawardi made a
distinction between two approaches in his Illuminationism: one approach is discursive and
the other is intuitive.

Suhrawardi and pre-Islamic Iranian thought:

Suhrawardi thought of himself as a reviver or resuscitator of the ancient Persian wisdom.

He states in Hikmat al-'Ishraq that:
“There was among the ancient Persians a community of people guided by God who
thus walked the true way, worthy Sage-Philosophers, with no resemblance to the Magi
(Dualists). It is their precious philosophy of Light, the same as that to which the
mystical experience of Plato and his predecessors bear witness, that we have revived
in our book called Illuminationist Philosophy (Hikmat al-'Ishraq), and I have had no
precursor in the way of such project.”

Suhrawardi uses pre-Islamic Iranian gnosis, synthesizing it with Greek and Islamic
wisdom. The main influence from pre-Islamic Iranian thought on Suhrawardi is in the
realm of angelology and cosmology. He believed that the ancient Persians' wisdom
was shared by Greek philosophers such as Plato as well as by the Egyptian Hermes
and considered his philosophy of illumination a rediscovery of this ancient wisdom.
According to Nasr, Suhrawardi provides an important link between the thought of
pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran and a harmonious synthesis between the two.
And Henry Corbin states: "In northwestern Iran, Sohravardi (d. 1191) carried out the
great project of reviving the wisdom or theosophy of ancient pre-Islamic Zoroastrian
Iran."
In his work Alwah Imadi, Suhrawardi offers an esoteric interpretation
of Ferdowsi's Epic of Kings (Shah Nama)[15] in which figures such as Fereydun, Zahak,
Kay Khusraw[15] and Jamshid are seen as manifestations of the divine light. Seyyed
Hossein Nasr states: "Alwah 'Imadi is one of the most brilliant works of Suhrawardi in
which the tales of ancient Persia and the wisdom of gnosis of antiquity in the context
of the esoteric meaning of the Quran have been synthesized". [15]
 "Whoever knows philosophy (hikmat) and perseveres in thanking and
sanctifying the Light of the Lights, will be endowed with royal glory (kharreh)
and with luminous splendor (farreh), and—as we have said elsewhere—divine
light will further bestow upon him the cloak of royal power and value. Such a
person shall then become the natural ruler of the universe. He shall be given
aid from the high heavens, and whatever he commands shall be obeyed; and
his dreams and inspirations will reach their uppermost, perfect pinnacle."

Writings of Suhrawardi:

Suhrawardi left over 50 writings in Persian and Arabic.

Persian writings

 Partaw Nama ("Treatise on Illumination")

 Hayakal al-Nur al-Suhrawardi [Sohravardi, Shihaboddin Yahya] (1154–91) Hayakil

al-nur("The Temples of Light"), ed. M.A. Abu Rayyan, Cairo: al-Maktaba al-
Tijariyyah al-Kubra, 1957. (The Persian version appears in oeuvres vol. III.)

 Alwah-i Imadi ("The tablets dedicated to Imad al-Din")

 Lughat-i Muran ("The language of Termites")

Arabic writings

 Kitab al-talwihat

 Kitab al-moqawamat

 Kitab al-mashari' wa'l-motarahat, Arabic texts edited with introduction in French by

H. Corbin, Tehran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and Paris: Adrien
Maisonneuve, 1976; vol II: I. Le Livre de la Théosophie oriental

English translations

 The Philosophy of Illumination: A New Critical Edition of the Text of Hikmat Al-
Ishraq, edited by John Walbridge and Hossein Ziai, Provo, Brigham Young
University Press, 1999.
  The Shape of Light: Hayakal al-Nur, interpreted by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi
al-Halveti, Fons Vitae, 1998.

 The Mystical & Visionary Treatises of Suhrawardi, Translated by W.M. Thackson,

Jr., London, The Octagon Press, 1982.

Scholarly views on Suhrawardi:

There are different and contradictory views regarding the character of Suhrawardi's
school.

- Some scholars such as Hossein Ziai believe that the most important aspects of his thought
are his logic and critique of the peripatetic conception of definitions

- On the other hand, scholars like Mehdi Hairi and Sayyid Jalal Addin Ashtiyyani, believe
that Suhrawardi remained within the framework of peripatetic and neo-Avicennian
philosophy.

- Mehdi Amin Razavi criticizes both these groups for ignoring the mystical dimension of
Suhrawardi's writings.

- In turn, scholars such as Henry Corbin and Hossein Nasr view Suhrawardi as a theosophist
and focus on the mystical dimension of his work.

- Viewing in another way, Nadia Maftouni has analyzed Suhrawardi's works to figure out the
elements of philosophy as a way of life. As she holds, the priority of practical reason to
theoretical one, preferring intuitive knowledge over theoretical one, taking philosophy as a
practice of attaining optional death, and proposing ways to heal mental diseases may well be
considered the main elements of philosophy as a way of life in Suhrawardi's allegorical
treatises.