The History of Islamic Philosophy from the Beginning to Today

This book is the result of nearly fifty years of study and reflection on philosophy and significant philosophical issues stemming from the lights of prophetic truths in their objective and inward aspects, as obtained through illumination. In a world where philosophy has been completely separated from revelatory truths and secular thought seeks to limit and even render futile the kind of knowledge imbued with sanctity, it is necessary to revisit, whenever possible, the relationship between philosophy and prophecy through various perspectives and viewpoints. Years ago, we were engaged with the fundamental question of the relationship between knowledge and sacred reality in *Knowledge and the Sacred*, and we returned to this subject from another angle in later works such as *The Need for a Sacred Science*. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (born April 8, 1933, in Tehran) is an Iranian Perennialist philosopher and scholar of Islamic studies at George Washington University in the United States. He has authored numerous academic articles and books. According to the editors of the Seyyed Hossein Nasr volume in the *Library of Living Philosophers* series, he is at the forefront of a group of perennialist philosophers who boldly challenge the assumptions and values of the modern world and contemporary philosophy. However, these critiques are not an external reaction against modernity but result from a conscious engagement with it. From Nasr’s perspective, living outside all authentic traditions leads to rootlessness and the disintegration of nature and humanity. Nasr believes that in perennialism, science is equivalent to sacred science. Sacred science is the knowledge that lies at the heart of every revelation and constitutes the center of the circle that encompasses and defines tradition. The sources of sacred science are revelation and intellectual intuition. These two sources encompass the illumination of the mind and soul of humanity. This knowledge is the immediate and direct awareness that Islamic tradition refers to.