An effort has been made all along to strike a balance...

An effort has been made all along to strike a balance between the ipsessima verba of the classical texts consulted and the diction and idiom of modern philosophical thought to make the definitions and explanations of terms as easily and clearly communicable to the Western and West-oriented reader as is possible consistently with accuracy; this, however, could be attempted only by making a free use of cross-references: This dictionary, it is hoped, will be of use not only to the students of Muslim philosophy, for whom it has been primarily designed, but will also be of interest to scholars of Islamics and philosophy generally.

It is further expected to be of some help to the increasing number of scholars who are engaged in forging a new philosophical vocabulary in Arabic, Persian, or Urdu in alignment with the great Muslim intellectual heritage. I wish to place on record my deep sense of indebtedness to my teacher, the late Professor M. M.

Sharif, who urged me to work on this deplorably neglected field, helped me to prepare the original plan and remained my guide and constant source of inspiration, so long as he lived, in its execution in detail. May his soul rest in peace ! To Dr S. M. Ikram, the present Director of the Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, I owe a special debt of gratitude-without his personal interest, encouragement and patience this work would not have seen the light of the day.

I remember with gratefulness the help given me in understanding some passages of highly technical Arabic texts by Maulana M. Hanif Nadawi, an Arabist par excellence. I am equally indebted to Mr. M. Ashraf Darr for the very special care with which he went through the manuscript and the closest attention with which he read the rather difficult proofs. Needless to add that for imperfections and shortcomings which still remain I alone am responsible.

Suggestions for improvement will be gratefully acknowledged. Lahore M.S.S. 23 June 1970 Fine print: A Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy is copyright of the Institute of Islamic Culture, 1970. First Impression, 1970: 1100 copies. Printed by: Muhammad Zarreen Khan at Zarreen Art Press, 61 Railway Road, Lahore. Published by: M.

Munir Sheikh for the Institute of Islamic Culture, Club Road, Lahore-3 Postscript for the HTML version: I would like to state here for the record that this work is presented here with the sole purpose of fair educational use policy. It is not meant as a copyright infringement.