Knowledge and Liberation A Treatise on Philosophical Theology
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
Nasir Khusraw was a leading Ismaili poet and theologian-philosopher of the Fatimid period whose writings have had a major formative influence on the Ismaili communities of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The bulk of his surviving work was produced in exile in a remote mountainous region of Badakhshan where he sought refuge from persecution in his native district of Balkh.
This is the first of his doctrinal treatises to be translated into English. Consisting of a series of 30 questions and answers, it addresses some of the central theological and philosophical issues of his time from an Ismaili perspective, ranging from the creation of the world and the nature of the soul to the questions of human free will and accountability in the afterlife.
Preface
Nasir Khusraw’s Hermeneutic Philosophical Theology, Parviz Morewedge
Author’s Preamble
Part One: Cosmogony
1. On the Creator and the Created
2. On the Eternal and the Generated
3. On Time before the Creation
4. On Whether God has a Body
5. On the Subtle and the Dense
Part Two: Ontology
6. On the Different Kinds of Existents
7. On the Meanings of ‘no–thing’ and ‘is not’
8. On the Nature of the Human Soul
9. On the Soul’s Existence and Self–subsistence
10. On the Definition of Substance
11. On the Soul’s Relation with the Body
Part Three: Physics
12. On the Generation of the World
13. On the Two Kinds of Matter
14. On Form and its Relation to Matter
15. On the Movement of Material Particles
16. On the Physical and Spiritual Worlds
17. On the Ascent and Descent of Water
18. On the Precipitation of Water
19. On the Scales of a Balance
20. On the Growth of Plants and Trees
Part Four: Theology
21. On the Qur’an as the Speech of God
22. On the Divine Word as the First Cause
23. On the Kingdom of God and its Oneness
24. On Human Beings as the Servants of God
25. On Knowledge and Ignorance
Part Five: Theodicy
26. On the Liberation of the Soul
27. On the Meaning of the Straight Path
28. On the Meaning of the Reckoning
29. On the Meaning of the Balance
30. On Free-will and Responsibility
Analytical Commentary by Parviz Morewedge
Index 1: General
Index 2: Technical Terms
Faquir M. Hunzai has a doctorate from McGill University, Montreal and is a Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London.