Aug 22, 2005

Koranic phenomenological investigations
I chosed this title as starting point from which the thesis of Koranic phenomenology will travil.
Husserl started his phenomenological journey by writing his masterpiece : logical investigation(1900), so phenomenology was discovered after hard searching & investigations rather than just armchair speculations & opinions.
Phenomenology was present before Husserl being born,but it was in the form of practice (praxis)rather than theoritical/formal construction .The practical ,pragmatic nature of phenomenology-like that of language- is responsible for its being so unnoticed as subjectt of thinking/ theoretical reasoning,we use our self/consciousness rather studying her .Phenomenology is just description of what happened when our concsiousness are in relation to anything, so it try to show us the way of thinking/grammer of our thinking& the intuition of meaning .It enable us to see the original meanings of things(manner of giveness),it make them revealed in ourselves directly/authentically. this coincided with the aim of Koran which is also directed toward revealing the original manner of givenness of things & peoples to God/Allah. Koran provide us with horizon in which things must be meant originally.If we combine phenomenologicl method in reaching the essence of things with the koran horizons of the reality we can travil to the things themselves safely.
we can start our thesis by the first verse of Koran which contain the full intention of religions:
By the name of Allah, Most compassionate, Most Merciful.1:1
What message does this verse try to make us see ?
this question must be asked to any verse, because if we approach anything without being in question state/dialogue attitude there will be nothing to be disclosed .
This verse is so important in our Islamic life to the degree of being mentioned in evry occasion.This verse as whole has two interdependent parts ,the first one is epistemological ,in which we perform reduction of our consumed names(our concepts) which imply that we must know them first before reducing them & this is what make epistemology proceed ontology.The aim of this reduction is to suspend any absolute standpoint ,it is atype of postponing the jugdement of any naturally giving objector belief,in other words bracketing the existence of our natural,social ,cultural,psychological names,only the the name of God WHO is represnting the absolute,transcendental realty (the Truth).
So this verse order us to perform reduction in every situation whether religious or not ,in the aim of reaching the meaning of the situation, as it is seen by God, So this meaning must be absolute ,transcendental one.
This REDUCTION LEAD US TO THE REALM OF PURE EGO,because reduction is a kind of purification,in which we put everythings between bracket,suspending the judgement, intending to reach the essences.
What is the ontological effect of this epistemological shift?.The ontological outcome is mentioned in verse which is the compassion & mercifulness.Which is called by Husserl the transcendental ego /intersubjectve,also called empathetic ego which is compassonate & merciful due to reaching to the transcendental realm in which the intersubjectve ego disclosed.
So this verse has apivotal role in my thesis , it give us the way/path /approach to things themselves ,rather than just words uttered for purpose of rewards. for this reason we must start any thing by mentioning it. It is the heart of the koran which any verse must be reduced to it.It learn us how we see things & in which manners things must be given to us,so it is responsible for creating our phenomenal world.So both koran & phenomenology put acondition to reach the truth ,things themselves,which is egological transformation from the natural/emprical/everyday/pragmatic attitude to the phenomenological/reflective/transcendental one.
In short We must be transcendental to be immament ,
We must be outside ourselves to see ourselves.Simply speaking in same manner in which we see our faces, we either use a mirror or trust the other description. Koran is the clearest mirror which can reflect our image without distortion.
Phenomenology enable us to use the mirror correctly&enable us to verbalize our experience of our experiences & describe our self & others experiece.This mirror is the pure consciuosness.Which is metaphorically speaking The light which is appaant in itself &make other things appear.

3 comments:

Blogger User said...

Dear Dr.Ali,
Very interesting article.but the problem with Husserl's phenomenology is the transcendental ego reached by phenomenological reduction is still the subjective ego not the absolute ego .In his later works like Cartesian Meditations he reduces all objects of intuition to products of self and this ultimately leads him to Solipsism.
“Without doubt . . . [phenomenology] condemns us to a solipsism.” Cartesian Meditations.page 30

Now the phenomenological reduction only contain eidetic reduction in other words firstly reduction from appearances to essences and secondly from essences to the knowing self or transcendental ego.But in the Sufism of Ibn arabi and Mulla Sadra and the philosophy of Heidegger there are two more steps to the real.

The third is from the transcendental ego to ego as presential cognition and the fourth is from presential cognition to Being and the return to the phenomenal world through Being.

This is the suluk of salik(safarullah,safarillah,safarfillah and safarbillah)

Heidegger also mentions such a further reduction in his "The Basic Problems of Phenomenology"

"For Husserl the phenomenological reduction, which he worked out for the first time expressly in the Ideas Toward a Pure Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy (1913), is the method of leading phenomenological vision from the natural attitude of the human being whose life is involved in the world of things and persons back to the transcendental life of consciousness and its noetic-noematic experiences, in which objects are constituted as correlates of consciousness. For us phenomenological reduction means leading phenomenological vision back from the apprehension of a being, whatever may be the character of that apprehension, to the understanding of the being of this being (projecting upon the way it is unconcealed

Phenomenological reduction as the leading of our vision from beings to being nevertheless is not the only basic component of phenomenological method; in fact, it is not even the central component. For this guidance of vision back from beings to being requires at the same time that we should bring ourselves forward toward being itself. Pure aversion from beings is a merely negative methodological measure which not only needs to be supplemented by a positive one but expressly requires us to be led toward being; it thus requires guidance. Being does not become accessible like a being. We do not simply find it in front of us. As is to be shown, it must always be brought to view in a free projection. This projecting of the antecedently given being upon its being and the structures of its being we call phenomenological construction

But the method of phenomenology is likewise not exhausted by phenomenological construction.It is for this reason that there necessarily belongs to the conceptual interpretation of being and its structures, that is, to the reductive construction of being, a destruction - a critical process in which the traditional concepts, which at first must necessarily be employed, are de-constructed down to the sources from which they were drawn. Only by means of this destruction can ontology fully assure itself in a phenomenological way of the genuine character of its concepts.

These three basic components of phenomenological metho - reduction, construction, destruction - belong together in their content and must receive grounding in their mutual pertinence."-The Basic Problems of Phenomenology

And here is Ibn Arabi

"Certainly,the eternal Essence knows Itself;but it is not known as Divinity before one knows that which depends on It,and which is thus the symbol which proves It.Then only ,in the second state of knowledge ,you will have the intuition that God Himself is the symbol of Himself and of His Divine Nature,that the world is but His own revelation in the form of unalterable essences,which do not exist in any fashion outside Him,and that He assumes diverse forms and modes following the realities which are implied by the essences,and according to the states.But we receive this intuition only after having realized through God that we depend on a Divinity.After (these two consecutive states of consciousness)there opens yet a last intuition,according to which our forms appear to you in God ,so that beings manifest themselves ,the one and the other in God,recognising one another and distinguishing one from another.Certain of us know of this reciprocal knowledge in God,and others are ignorant of the Divine Presence in which is revealed this knowledge of ourselves".(Fusus al Hikam-Word of Abraham)
lathief

Ali Tareq said...

My dear Dr.lathief
I had read Heideggar &all those who refused the transcendental ego.
I know their problem,which is to seprate phenomenology from theological commitment.
Transcendental ego is descrptive term of experience in which the intersubjective dimension appeared,this what make empathy(compassion )possible.
transcendental ego is intersubjective rather than subjectve,it is free from being contextualized by nationality or ideological context.It is the reason behind being responsible.
It is what make the social,interlingual discourse understandable.it is what make the dialogue possible.
It is the Quranic ego which is fulfilled by the prophets &their sucessors.

ChildrenVoiceIraq said...

dear DR. Ali I invite you to visit my blog thank you
Ala'a