Paradoxically...

Paradoxically, therefore, it is in a sense more accessible to those possessing intellectual intuition than traditional schools of Islamic philosophy which can also play and in fact must play an important role in the contemporary intellectual life of the Islamic world.

As already mentioned, in the traditional Islamic world theoretical gnosis was not only opposed by certain, but certainly not all, jurists, theologians and philosophers; it was also opposed by certain Sufis who claimed that gnosis is the result of what is attained through spiritual states and not through reading books on gnosis.

Titus Burckhardt once told us that when he first went to Fez as a young man, one day he took the Fusūs with him to a great teacher to study this basic text of ma‘rifah or ‘irfān with him. The teacher asked him what book he was carrying under his arm. He said it was the Fusūs.

The teacher smiled and said, “Those who are intelligent enough to understand the Fusūs do not need to study it, and those who are not intelligent enough are not competent to study it anyway.” The master nevertheless went on to teach the young S. Ibrāhīm (Titus Burckhardt) the Fusūs but he was alluding to the significance of realized gnosis and not only its theoretical understanding, a knowledge that once realized delivers man from the bondage of ignorance, being by definition salvific knowledge.

Burckhardt went on to translate a summary of the Fusūs into French, a translation which played a seminal role in the introduction of the School of theoretical gnosis and Ibn ‘Arabī to the West.

In fact, although the magisterial exposition of gnosis and metaphysics by traditional masters such as René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Burckhardt himself and others were directly related to inner inspiration and intellection as well as teachings of non-Islamic origin, they were also inextricably linked with the tradition of ‘irfān discussed in this essay. Of course, one does not become a saint simply by reading texts of ‘irfān or even understanding them mentally.

One has to realize their truths and “be” what one knows. Nevertheless, the body of knowledge contained in works of theoretical gnosis and doctrinal Sufism are a most precious science which Muslims must cherish as a gift from Heaven.