Types of Knowledge and Levels of Unveiling in Najm al-Dīn Rāzī’s View Based on the Mystical Exegesis al-Taʾwīlāt al-Najmiyya

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Morteza Rezazadeh ¹
• Ali Ashraf Imami ²
• Mohammad Reza Movahedi ³

¹ PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative Religions and Mysticism, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Religions and Mysticism, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

³ Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran

10.22067/jquran.2025.91427.1788

Abstract

This descriptive-analytical study investigates the types of knowledge, intuitive knowledge, and categories of unveiling (kashf) from the perspective of Najm al-Dīn Rāzī, based on his mystical exegesis al-Taʾwīlāt al-Najmiyya. Rāzī, like other Islamic mystics, addresses epistemological issues; however, in this exegesis, such themes are expressed in a completely scattered way. He considers knowledge to be divine in origin, resulting from the primordial movement of love, and views the purpose of creation as the attainment of knowledge by humankind. Given his dual division of reality into the outer and inner realms, he classifies knowledge into exoteric and esoteric types, each with their corresponding sensory faculties. Rāzī deems intuitive knowledge superior to other forms (rational and theoretical knowledge). Though he admits the validity of rational knowledge, he labels it, if detached from the light of divine revelation, as a misleading path that ultimately results in unbelief, and he repudiates both philosophy and its adherents. He outlines various levels of unveiling, including: theoretical unveiling, unveiling at the level of the heart, the spirit, the secret, the hidden (khafī), the attribute, and at the level of the essence, a classification closely resembling that of Ibn ʿArabī.

Keywords

• Najm al-Dīn Rāzī
• al-Taʾwīlāt al-Najmiyya
• knowledge
• reason
• faith
• intuition

Main Subjects

• Qurʾanic Exegesis and its methods

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