Volume 12. December 2011 Transcendent Philosophy

others. The fruit has become the seed.  
 
The means of reaching this station is seeking piety in physical and 
mental life. It is achieved through intellection which is an escalated 
form of intelligence, by concentrating on ideas and laws of nature 
through meditation, dhikr and prayer. It is the balancing act of one’s 
moral, social and psychological intelligence. Intelligible life celebrates 
wisdom or Hikmah. Quran says: 

246 Seema Arif 
“The acquisition of Hikmah is incumbent upon you and the good 
resides in Hikmah.” 
 
Ibn Arabi has referred to Hikmah as wisdom and Mulla Sadra has 
written in Al- shawahid al-rububiyyah, “Through Hikmah man 
becomes an intelligible world resembling the objective world and 
similar to the order of universal existence.” The ascent of Hikmah, 
explained in Islamic context, therefore begins from plain knowledge of 
existence of things to the realization of their objective reality to both 
micro and macrocosm to the illumination of the purpose of their being, 
and understanding of The Creator. In plain words, Hikmah is education 
and training of all: body, mind and soul, which transforms both the 
mind and soul and which is ultimately never separated from spiritual 
purity and retains the ultimate sanctity of the creator. Loving kindness, 
tolerance, forgiveness, chivalry, eloquence are the ultimate virtues 
celebrated here with a blissful sense of eternal peace inside – Nafs-
Mutmainna – the ultimate good Islam holds for humanity. 
 
Implications of the Model 
 
Human being is an integrated whole of body, mind and soul. Influenced 
by Cartesian Dualism and Sophist approach towards life, modern 
science tends to look at its functional parts body and mind only, while 
completely ignoring soul.  Body seems to be growing and changing 
from one state to another, whereas, soul seems to be constant. But 
through deep analysis we find that though changes in body are more 
frequent and obvious, they are less permanent and are transient. On the 
other hand changes in soul are slower, not very obvious and visible but 
are more permanent in nature. When it enters the final light stage 
purifying itself of all worldly pollutions, no more change in its state or 
station is required. What is that light stage and how can we get rid of 
these worldly pollutions is well demonstrated by Allama Taqi Jafari in 
his theory of life styles. The natural life style is indicative of the 
“worldly pollutions” any individual person can get exposed to during 
the course of life, while intelligible life is indicative of the gradual 
movement towards enlightenment. 

Transcendence Model of Intellectual Evolution 247 
Conforming to Sadrian principle of Transbutation, the soul does not 
remain static and with growth attaches a corporeal element with it. Its 
first target is to achieve the full potential of the body – the physical 
maturity and adulthood. Since soul does not die it cannot be corporeal, 
however, it does not develop fully and may have to leave this world as 
an unfinished product. Therefore, we may require even multiple 
generations for soul to realize its full potential. It can be done only 
through maintaining the life of the body by transferring the seed of life 
to the next generation. The soul is the DNA then? At least it appears to 
be its bodily representative as I do not want to reduce the dynamic 
identity of soul to its corporeal representative. Potential is contingent 
upon some source and in case of the potential of soul, in one aspect it 
appears to be contingent upon DNA and the repository of inherited 
characteristics on one hand and on the other upon quality of 
communication with divine intellect, which is achieved through the 
faculty of internal perception.  
 
What sets limits to realization of potentiality of the soul? 
 
DNA is the contingency, the potential that human heredity endows a 
child with. If DNA is soul then one must have two souls within the 
body, if one has one soul then the challenge is choice between right 
potential. Whether intellect is an independent mediating force between 
the two, body and mind which sets the direction and level of the drive 
of soul? If the intellect is overpowered and dominated by the carnal 
soul, the whole capacity of the intellect will be served in satisfaction of 
basic needs. The dissatisfaction will persist, people will behave in the 
same loops and one will not be able to come out the red sphere of 
bestial soul. The soul will be ever returning to earth for its development 
in search of another body like so many seeds scattered on earth wishing 
to become a fruity tree.  
 
The Mantra for evolution  
 
Aristotle and all Neo-Platonic philosophers have aimed at happiness. 
Can we safely assume that happiness has its origin in Love? Isn’t Ishq 
(lovethe guiding force, the purpose, the coordination, that convinces the 

248 Seema Arif 
nature what is desired by Aashiq (lover)? Isn’t the Ishq the naturalizing 
influence the appropriation agent that diminishes the differences 
between the two, created by artificial worldly perception – thus moves 
towards unity bridging all gaps covering all distances, whether they are 
of gender, age, race, religion, status, wealth, education, or any other 
discriminating agent. Iqbal says: 
 
Ishq ki aik hi just nay kar diya fasla tamam 
Is zameen o aasman ko bay karan samjha tha main  
 
(Ishq took one plunge and distance between heavens and earth were 
parted which I thought were limitless (Referring to Miraj-e-Rasool – 
holy ascension of Prophet Muhammad [SAW]). 
 
The process of self-creation is the transformation of the potential into 
the actual, and the fact of such transformation includes the immediacy 
of self-enjoyment (real happiness as discussed in Iqbal’s concept of 
building selfhood [egoism] or Sadra’s view of transcendence of human 
soul or Ibn-Sina’s travel to Nafs Mutmaina). Indeed, self-creation is the 
concept developed into self-actualization later by Carl Rogers and 
Abraham Maslow. 
 
However, it is very simple to understand the order of life in universe, 
since human beings are superior in their being, and their mental activity, 
they have right to claim superiority over the life-less or nature of lower 
order so to speak. The talisman is how will we proclaim it? What will 
be the magic words? Definitely it can be none other than Kalam Allah, 
which is revealed to individual hearts in form of Dhikr to initiate 
actualization and to reach their potential limit, however, small or big? It 
brings qualitative changes in personality by enriching soul and 
redefining self, its identity, sense of self-esteem and goals for 
development. This qualitative change is observed in the exterior by 
others, but it recodes the genetic make-up, thus brings reform in the 
future generations and improves life as a whole. The more the people 
are able to realize this purpose and bring personal transformations in 
their lives, the more the change will be observed in the society bringing 
a social and cultural transformation. This change may take years to 

Transcendence Model of Intellectual Evolution 249 
realize to reach the desired destination – the time that was taken from 
Adam to Abraham or from Abraham to Muhammad. Words are sacred 
and sounds are magical – music is one of the evidence. May be sound 
waves are changed into light waves and enlighten us awakening us 
from sleep of ignorance and neglectfulness. Amen! 
 
Further Readings 
 
Allama Jafari, T. 2000, Translation and interpretation of Nahj-ol-Balaghe (27 
volumes). Tehran: The Allama Jafari Institute  
Allport, G. W. 1950, The individual and his religion. New York: The Macmillan 
Company.  
Ellis Albert, 1980, Psychotherapy and atheistic values: A response to A. E. Bergin’s 
“Psychotherapy and religious issues.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 
48, 635–639. 
Frankl Viktor, 1966, Self-transcendence as a human phenomenon. Journal of 
Humanistic Psychology, 6(2), 97-106. 
Freud Sigmund 1930, Civilization and its Discontents: The Standard Edition of the 
Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The 
Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works, 57-14 
Husserl Edmund, 1970, Crisis of European sciences and transcendental 
phenomenology. TriQuarterly Books. 
Husserl Edmund, 1990, Ideen: Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a 
phenomenological philosophy. Kluwer Academic Publications. 
Ibn al Arabi, 1980, The Bezels of Wisdom.  Trans. Austin, R.W.J. NJ. Paulist Press 
Ibn Sina, 1405, Al-Shifa, Edited by Ibrahim Madkur, Egipt: Al-Moassast al-
Jameiiyyaj. 
Ibn Sina, 1981, Al-Mabda’ wa al-Ma’ad, edited by Abdollah Nurani, Tehran: Tehran 
University Press 
Iqbal Mohammad, 1934, Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam [online] 
available at: http://www.tolueislam.com/Bazm/drIqbal/AI_Reconstruction.htm 
retrieved [18-06.2002] from Tolu-e-Islam database 
James William, 1994, The varieties of religious experience. New York: The Modern 
Library. (Originalwork published 1902) 
Kamal, M, 2006, Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy, Ashgate. 
Maslow Abraham, H. 1971, The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking 
Rogers Carl, 1995, On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. 
Mariner Books. 
Wilson Edward, O. 1978, On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 
Press. 
Wilson Edward, O. 1998, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Knopf 
Endnotes 

250 Seema Arif 
 
1
 See Intelligible Life by Allama Taghi Jafari, Translation by Beytollah Naderlew and 
edited by Seema Arif.  (In Press)  
2
 See Maulana Jalal ud Din Rumi’s Mathnawi Ma’anvi ( vol. III) Translation by 
Nicholson, P. 219
 
3
 See Frankl Viktor’s From Death-Camp To Existentialism, Boston, MA: Beacon 
Press, 1959. 
4
 See Thomas Luckmann’s Shrinking Transcendence, Expanding Religion? Sociology 
of Religion, 51 (2): 127-138. 1990. 
5
 See R. L. Piedmont’s Does Spirituality Represent the Sixth Factor of Personality? 
Spiritual Transcendence and the Five-Factor Model. Journal of Personality, 
67: 985–1013, 1999. 
6
 Luckman, 1990, op.cit. 
7
 See Mulla Sadra’s Asfar (9 Vols). Beirut: Dar Ihiya’al-Tarath al-‘Arabi, 1981. 
8
 See Alfred Whitehead’s Modes of Thought. New  York: Macmillan, 1938. 
9
 See Seyed Safavi’s Philosophical comparison between the perspective of Mulla 
Sadra and Descartes on Soul, Transcendental Philosophy, Volume 11, pp. 5-20, 
2010. 
10
 See Seema Arif’s  Following the Footsteps of Mevlana Jalal ud Din Muhammad 
Rumi in the Pursuit of Knowledge. Transcendental Philosophy,8, December, 2007. 
11
 See Ibn-Sina in Seyed Hossein Nasr & Leaman Oliver’s (Eds.) History of Islamic 
Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 2001. 
12
 See Shams Inati on Ibn-Sina in Nasr & Oliverman Op.cit. 
13
 See Javad Rezaei & Mahdi Dasht Bozorgi’s  A Study of Mulla Sadra’s Views on the 
Theory of Individual Unity of Existence, Journal of Religious Thought, 22, Spring 
2007. 
14
 Ibrahim Kalin’s, Mulla Sadra's Realist Ontology of the Intelligibles and Theory of 
Knowledge, Journal for Comparatiue Philosophy and Mysticism 1(1): 73-91, 2000. 
15
  Cited in Kalin (See The Pick of the Throne: 9, V: 1, p. 494).  
16
 Razaei and Bozorgi, op.cit. 
17
 See Ibn Sina’s, Al-Isharat wal Tanbihat, with commentary of Khawja Nasir al-Tusi, 
edited by Karim Feydi, (2, V: 3, p. 319) Qom: Moassasat Matbuat Dini.  
18
 see Inati in Nasr & Oliverman, op.cit. 
19
 Ibrahim Kalin, op.cit. 
20
 Ibid.  
21
 Corresponding to Ibn-Arabi’s  philosophy of “unity of perception. See 
Arabi’s Fatuhat or Fusus al Hikam 
22
 See Titus Burckhardt’s Abd al-Karim Al Jili’s Universal Man: Extracts translated 
with commentary, Sotland:  Bashara Publications,1983. 
23
 See Alfred Schütz, & Thomas Luckmann’s The Structures of The Life-World (Vol. 
1). Northwestern University Press, 1980. 
 

Transcendence Model of Intellectual Evolution 251 
 
24
 See Sigmund Freud’s New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. WW Norton 
& Company,1964.  
25
 See Sigmund Freud’s Instincts and Their Vicissitudes. WW Norton & Company, 
1957. 
26
 See Sigmund Freud’s, Beyond the Pleasure Principle. WW Norton & Company, 
1957. 
27
 Freud, New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, op.cit.  
28
 Freud, Beyond The Pleasure Principle, op.cit. 
29
 Ibid. 
30
 See Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, New York: Bantam Boks, 
1995. 
31
 See Seema Arif’s Axiology of Mathnavi Maulana Rumi: The Art of Human 
Relationship and the Science of Peace, Transcendent Philosophy, Volume 11, pp. 
75-92, 2010. 
32
 See Sartre’s The Transcendent Ego 
33
 see Tara Bennet’s Emotional Alchemy. NY: Harmony Books, 2001.  
3434
 Whitehead, op.cit. 
35
 Seema Arif 2007, op.cit. 
36
 Asfar, op.cit. 1, 1, p.54 
37
 Ibrahim Kalin, op.cit. 
38
 See Intelligible Life, p. 22 
39
 See Intelligible Life, p. 19 
40
 Ibid, Chapter no. 2, p.  
41
 Ibid, Chapter no. 3, p.  
42
 Ibid,  
43
 Ibid. preface, p. 
44
 See William Chittick’s The Elixir of The Gnostics: Translation of Mulla Sadra’s 
(Iksir al – Arifin. Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005: 67 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

252 Seema Arif 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Transcendent Philosophy © London Academy of Iranian Studies 
 
 
 
Foundations and Development of Absurdism in Western 
Thought: Reflections from  Perennialist Perspective 
 
Bilal Ahmad Dar 
Bonapora Batamaloo, Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir 
  
   
Abstract 
 
Absurdism, understood as the sense of conveying total 
meaninglessness, despair, nausea, eternal alienation from God and 
an irresolvable tussle between being and becoming and head and 
heart, has been one of the most disturbing developments in recent 
Western history. Absurdism has always been with man but in 
somehow contained manner: it did not grow into a full fledged 
autonomous philosophy with a philosophical school of its own. Its 
roots are discernible in certain ways throughout history, especially in 
the western history. The present paper seeks to unearth those threads 
of thought that can be viewed as the precedent causes and 
preparation for the development of absurd philosophy in the modern 
West and its absence in the esoteric metaphysical and mystical 
traditions of the world. Fundamental limitations and contradictions 
of the absurdist project are also briefly highlighted. 
 
Keywords: Absurdism, Western Thought, Philosophy, mystical 
traditions.  
 
Introduction 
 
The history of man is the history of metaphysics. Man is a metaphysical 
animal, a meaning-seeking animal. All his endeavours somehow 
revolve round seeking meaning. Religion, art, poetry, philosophy, 
science all are connected with this meaning-seeking endeavour or in 
fact could be seen as explorations in discovering/seeking/expressing 

254 Bilal Ahmad Dar 
meaning. Life itself is synonymous with meaning for those who choose 
to live instead of die or commit suicide. Do what he may, regardless of 
his material conditions and ideologies, man always finds that there are 
some fundamental, inevitable and inescapable questions that he has to 
confront as a thinking being, a metaphysical animal. These fundamental 
questions are what man (or life/existence) is, what for, and why, or how 
he flourishes best, finds peace/contentment/fulfilment and overcomes 
sorrow or pain. Man is condemned to choose values or reduce himself 
to beast, to dust. According to traditionalist authors all traditional 
civilizations have given similar answer to these questions and it is only 
modern Western thought that has been led to give a partly different 
answer though the answer of traditional Christian West has not been 
different from other traditions. In fact the founding fathers of Western 
thought have also not given a different answer. But there were certain 
orientations in the Western thought from the ancient times much 
developed in the West than in other traditions where such attitudes and 
orientations were effectively contained that concealed a 
nihilistic/absurdist seed. That is why scholars trace absurdism to 
ancient Greeks. Absurdist trend in modern thought starts from the 
premise that there are no values out there or ontologically grounded and 
given this fact one can still proceed to live with dignity. Man can create 
his own meaning in a supposedly meaningless universe. Absurdism, 
though in many ways is a modern phenomenon, unprecedented in 
history, is discernible in certain ways through out history especially in 
the Western history. Absurdism understood in its broader sense that 
connotes such things as purposelessness of life, despair, 
meaninglessness, failure of communication, life as a morass of 
ambiguities and contradictions, disbelief in the traditional grand claims 
of reason and science – pessimism in short – is the hall mark of 
twentieth century literature though it has always been with man but 
some how it didn’t develop into full fledged philosophy.  
 
Absurdism and Nihilism in History of Philosophy 
 
In  The Dark Side: Thoughts on the Futility of Life (1994), Alan Pratt 
demonstrates that existential nihilism, in one form or another, has been 
a part of the Western intellectual tradition from the beginning. 

Foundations and Development of Absurdism in Western Thought: Reflections… 255 
Genealogy of absurdism is to be traced in ancient Greeks because the 
first great adventures of unaided human reason and thus its failure were 
to be found there. The Sceptic Empedocles' observation that the life of 
mortals is so mean a thing as to be virtually un-life, for instance, 
captures the essence of absurdist nihilist thesis. The task that Camus 
issues for the absurd hero Sisyphus is one where man lives on without 
the hope of transcendence. Again, Camus earmarks this theme by 
writing that finally he takes Empedocles as his model, the philosopher 
who lives alone. In antiquity, such profound pessimism may have 
reached its apex with Hegesis. It is because of the fact that Hegesis 
maintains that miseries vastly outnumber pleasures, happiness is 
impossible and subsequently one must advocate suicide. One may 
perhaps begin the history of absurdism with the pessimistic Ionians 
such as Theolognis and Sophocles, who were concerned about the 
uncertainties of life, the certainty of death, the darkness of the future, 
and so on. Nietzsche traces nihilism to Leucian’s statement. Sophists 
were logically committed to a sort of absurdist nihilist thesis.  
 
The philosophical foundations of Absurdism can be traced in the pre-
Socratic philosophy. With the development of what Perennialist 
philosophers such as  F Schoun, Rene Guenon and Syed Hossein Nasr 
call the ‘profane philosophy’ in the
 
sixth century BC, in which the 
‘Greek mind’ revealed itself more as analytical than synthetic, rational 
than metaphysical and political than being mystical. According to 
Heidegger this philosophy was calculative thinking and the ‘forgetting 
of Being’. It was the start of the establishment of a divinely 
independent and humanly dependent tradition of rationalism and 
humanism which, with the passage of time, became the backbone of the 
western philosophy, theology (especially the Christian), and various 
sciences. It was this tradition that was devoid of self sufficing 
metaphysical principles. Metaphysics, according to perennialist 
metaphysicians, is the only kind of knowledge which is really direct 
and thus can’t be based on anything other than itself. It consists of the 
knowledge of universal principles which are the source from which all 
else is derived, including the subject matter of the physical sciences and 
philosophy as understood in modern sense. However the isolation of 
the subject matter by the respective physical sciences for specific and 

256 Bilal Ahmad Dar 
close treatment must be legitimate in so far as such an isolation and its 
procedure and the resulting knowledge is not misunderstood as self 
sufficient and absolute from these principles. This misunderstanding 
permeates through the Greek and the modern rationalism as well as in 
the medieval Scholasticism and its narrow interpretation of Absolute 
Godhead and man. Rationalism in almost all the departments of 
existence works on a faith which is complete self-sufficiency of human 
reason. Its open target is what is metaphysical and suprarational and its 
dream is to set the kingdom of man on earth where all values and 
answers must be human and its domain is the realm of ‘nature’: the 
finite universe and our imaginative exploration and scientific 
understanding of it are to be accepted as the sole reality and complete 
context of human origins, life, thought and destiny. It was this mode of 
thought that sought to explain and understand everything including 
man, Godhead, human destiny on the earth, evolution of man without 
taking recourse to metaphysical principles. In this man’s logic and 
reason become the sole tools for the verification of what is true 
knowledge. And if we consider, besides Greek rationalism, the 
renaissance humanism and the modern philosophy and science as a