Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Master of Science in Islamic Mysticism, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Theology and Political Science, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
Abstract
Addressing the question of how beauty affects the cognizing subject (the perceiver) and what kinds of affective responses it arouses within the perceiver’s soul is, in contemporary aesthetics, most often examined under the rubric of “aesthetic experience.” Shaykh al-Ishrāq regards light as the most perfect instantiation of beauty and, in his analysis of the meaning of light, characterizes it as identical with cognitivity and self-manifestation. Attributing such characteristics to the reality of light provides the ground for diverse forms of aesthetic experience within the realm of lights. The present study adopts a descriptive–analytical approach to elucidate aesthetic experiences in the world of lights and to examine their implications from ontological and epistemological perspectives. The findings indicate that Shaykh al-Ishrāq discusses love, pleasure, and longing as the most significant effects of beauty upon the cognizing subject (the perceiver) and structures the intersubjective relations and interactions among lights on this very basis. According to his view, the outcome of such interactions in the realm of lights is the order and coherence of the entire cosmos, encompassing both the spiritual and the corporeal domains. Moreover, Suhrawardī interprets all movements and transformations within the world of being in light of this framework, and it is precisely from here that a path toward the journey toward God (sayr ilā Allāh) is opened.
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