A Review on the Distinction Between Islamic Philosophy and Theoretical Mysticism as Knowledge

Many real and arbitrary criteria have been mentioned in order to differentiate the knowledge from each other, such as the difference between subject, predicate, method, goal, cognation of propositions, position (stipulation) and consideration (validity), etc. Theoretical mysticism, which is an attained knowledge (Arabic: العِلم الحصولی) and responsible for rational explanation of mystical intuition has relied on some of these criteria to differentiate itself from philosophy. The question, by considering that many theological, cosmological and anthropological issues of theoretical mysticism are common to philosophy in manner and subject matter, is whether theoretical mysticism (speculative Sufism) can actually be considered as a distinct knowledge from philosophy, especially Islamic philosophy. It seems that the separation of theoretical mysticism from philosophy despite the efforts of theoretical mysticism in this field is doubtful and the evidence of theoretical mysticism is not sufficient in the justification of the distinction or the proof of honor (virtual manner) and the excellence of this knowledge to philosophy in proving claims is not sufficient. Although these criteria prove the distinction between intuition, reasoning, practice or intuitive mysticism from practical mysticism and philosophy. However, it does not seem sufficient to prove theoretical mysticism as a separate knowledge. One of the main criteria presented for distinguishing theoretical mysticism from philosophy, which is the difference in the subject has been analyzed and studied in this article, and has been disputed from two aspects, i.e., the realization of the subject and the ability to create distinction.