Prophecy in later Islamic thought : the mystical views of Shah Waliyyullah ad-Dihlawi (d. 1176 ah/1762 ce)

• Main Author: Ariff, Syamsuddin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Darussalam University 2009
• Subjects: BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/12604/1/Prophecy_in_later_islamic_thought__The_mystical_views_of_shah_waliyyullah_Ad.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/12604/; http://tsaqafah.isid.gontor.ac.id/volume-v-1/volume-v-2/prophecy-in-later-islamic-thought-the-mystical-views-of-shah-waliyyullah-ad-dihlawi-d-1176-ah1762-ce.html

Prophecy is so central and essential a concept to Islam that hardly can we find a Muslim thinker who did not talk or write about it. Philosophers and theologians from al-Jahiz, Abu Hatim al-Razi and Ibn Taymiyyah to Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi have set out to establish the legitimacy of prophecy and refute the arguments of pagan thinkers who advocated the sufficiency of human reason to arrive at truth and to attain happiness without the aid of prophets or revelation. The issue of prophecy may be examined in several approaches and in terms of the following questions: What exactly is prophecy? Is there such a thing as prophecy? How is prophecy possible? And, why on earth should there be prophets? This article is an attempt to reconstruct and examine the views of Shāh Waliyyullah ad-Dihlawi on prophecy, drawing mainly on the most accessible and well-known of his works: the ‘Conclusive Proof of God’ (Hujjatullah al-Balighah), the ‘Abundant Good’ (al-Khayr al-Kathir), the ‘Divine Insights’ (al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiyyah), the ‘Full Moon Appearing on the Horizon’ (al-Budūr al-Bazighah), ‘Flashes’ (Sata‘at) and ‘Glimpses’ (Lamahat). It will be noted that while he did not write a special treatise on prophecy, Shāh Waliyyullah’s scattered but insightful remarks pertaining to the subject are nonetheless quite as illuminating as that of Ibn Sina and Ibn Arabī