Izutsu Toshihiko and Islamic Mystical Philosophy

Abstract

Izutsu has left works in different fields of Islamic studies, especially in semantic studies of the Qur’ān and in mystical philosophy. To clarify what aspects of Islamic thought he was interested in, I took up two mystic thinkers he discussed, namely, ‘Aynal-Quḍāt al-Hamadānī (d.1131) and Mullā Ṣadrā (d.1640). ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt offers two different points of view concerning to Reality, the domain of reason (ṭawr al-‘aql) and the domain beyond reason (al-ṭawr warā’ al-‘aql). A mystic wayfarer does not proceed to the higher realm beyond reason without receiving of divine illumination. Mullā Ṣadrā logically formulates the thesis of the fundamental reality of existence together with those of the analogical gradation and the substantial movement. His reasoning is supported by his mystical experience, in which he intuitively grasped that diversified phenomena of the world were different forms of manifestation of Existence as the sole Reality. Both of them in Izutsu’s understanding equally stress importance of mystical experience in their thought. In his last book on the Qur’ān (Koran wo yomu, 1983) Izutsu presents a unique idea that some passages of the Qur’ān can be understood as originating from the depth of consciousness, which is the main field of activity for mystic imagination. He finds a mystical aspect in the Qur’ān. In this way Izutsu’s study of Islam is characterized by his focusing on the mystical aspect.