A Study of Qunawi s Philosophical Gnosis

Sadr al-Din Qunawi’s Miftah al-ghayb, as the first book on theoretical gnosis, provided the basis for theoretical or philosophical gnosis. This is because Ibn Arabi, who is known as the father of Islamic theoretical gnosis, did not have enough time for doing so, thus it was Qunawi who accomplished this task. Alongside the Peripatetic and Illuminationist schools of philosophy, Qunawi founded a school that can be called philosophical gnosis. In spite of his pessimistic view of theoretical intellect, Qunawi acknowledged that unveiling and gnostic taste agree with the theoretical intellect at all stages because they find no contradiction in the proofs of this kind of intellect. Nevertheless, he believes that the perception of such proofs is beyond the capabilities of human imagination. Qunawi tried to reconcile gnostics’ principles of unveiling and philosophical theories. In developing many of his views, he benefitted from Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat and, particularly, Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi’s commentary on this book. As a result, one can equate the philosophical language used by Qunawi with that used in the Peripatetic philosophy, particularly with the language employed in Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat, which plays a significant role in granting a philosophical nature to Qunawi’s gnosis.