Theology
Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam
In his famous Ihya Ulum al-Din (Reviving the Sciences of Religion), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the celebrated Muslim theologian and mystic, cites an intriguing analogy. He says: “As an architect draws (yusawwir) the details of a house in whiteness and then brings it out into existence according to the drawn exemplar (nuskha), so likewise the creator (f atir) of heaven and earth wrote the master copy of the world from beginning to end in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahf uz) and then
brought it out into existence according to the written exemplar.”
From the Spirituality of Jihad to the Ideology of Jihadism
As for those who exert themselves in Us, We surely guide them unto our pathways (Qur’an 29:69). The principle expressed in this verse is indispensable for a correct understanding of the nature of jihad (holy exertion) in Islam; and it helps to establish a clear criterion by which the deviation of jihadist ideology can be gauged.
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Intercession: Visiting Shrines
The visitation of the tombs of venerated figures, and the cult of both living and dead saints, have been widespread in various parts of the Christian and Islamic worlds, and still exist today in other religions as well. The evolution of the practice within Islam was due in part to the gulf between Creator and creature.
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