Bidayah Al-hikmah (arabic-english) [the Elements of Islamic Metaphysics]{edited}

INTRODUCTION

In the Name of God, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.

All praise belongs to God and to Him refers all eulogy in its reality.

May benedictions and peace be upon Muhammad,

His Apostle and the best of His creation,

and upon the Pure Ones of his family and progeny.

THE DEFINITION, SUBJECT AND END OF HIKMAH

Metaphysics (al-hikmat al-ilahiyyah , literally, ‘divine wisdom’) is a discipline that discusses being (mawjud ) qua being. Its subject deals with the essential properties of being qua being. Its end is to achieve a general knowledge of existents and to distinguish them from that which is not really existent.

To explain, when man considers himself, he finds his own self as possessing a reality. Ke also finds that there is a reality lying beyond liis self that is within the reach of his knowledge. Accordingly, when he seeks something, that is because it is what it is, and when he avoids something or runs away from something, that is because it is what it is. For instance, an infant groping for its mother’s breast seeks real not imaginary milk. Similarly, a man running away from a lion, runs away from what he considers to be a real wild beast, not something imaginary.

However, at times he may mistakenly regard something unreal as existing in external reality; for instance, luck and giants. Or, at times, he may consider something existing in external reality as unreal; for instance, the immaterial soul (al-nafs al-mujarradah ) and the immaterial Intellect (al-‘aql al-mujarrad ). Hence it is necessary, first of all, to recognize the characteristics of being qua being in order to distinguish it from that which is not such. The science that discusses these matters is metaphysics.

Metaphysics is also called the First Philosophy and the Higher Science (al-‘ilm al-a’la ). Its subject is being qua being and its end is to distinguish real existents from that which is not real, and to recognize the higher causes (al-‘ilal al-‘aliyah ) of existence, especially the First Cause (al-‘illat al-ula ), in which terminates the entire chain of existents, and Its most beautiful Names and sublime Attributes; that is, Allah, exalted is His Name.