The Transformation of the Subject and the Metaphysics of Lights as its Expression

On Suhrawardī’s Ontology

Abstract

In his writings, Šihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (d. 1191) – one of the leading philosophers of the medieval Islamic world, and known as al-Šayḫ al-išrāq – sets forth the idea that a subject as a human transcends from the material realm to the realm of light. This transcendence requires the transformation of the subject, and which Suhrawardī depicts so drastically that it does not seem, at fi rst glance, that the subject can remain the same as before. As such, it is seemingly diff icult to believe that “I” can continue to be “me” even after the transformation. However, according to him, the subject does not lose its identity in the process where, to use his term, “the commanding light” detaches and transcends as “the abstract light” from materiality toward “the light of lights.”

In this paper, I hypothesize that Suhrawardī uses the concept of intensity (šiddah) to explain such a transformation and that he incorporates it into his system of illuminative philosophy by expressing it through the metaphysical language of light. This paper aims to show, via the aspect of his theoretical philosophy, that the concept of intensity – which he established through his criticism of the Peripatetics – constitutes the basis of his theory of the transformation of the subject.

In the scholarship of Suhrawardī, there remains a lack of scrutiny of the so-called Peripatetic works, especially al-Mašāriʿ wa-al-Muṭāraḥāt, when compared to studies of Ḥikmat al-išrāq and the vision

ary tales written by mainly in Persian. I shall, however, indicate the fact that his discussion of natural philosophy – as discussed in al-Mašāriʿ and which is hitherto little-known – provides, to some extent, a clue to a rational and consistent analysis of his prima facie “mystical” metaphysics.