Knowledge In Mystical Thought of Shaykh Najm al-din

Shaykh Najm al-din Kubra (d. 618 H.) is one of the influential thinkers in erea of speculative mysticism. His reflections includes anthropology, philosophy of mind and theory of knowledge. He discussed, amony other issues, the significance of various types of dreams and visions; the different classes of conceptions and images, ie, Luminous and dark, (Khawatir) that engage the mystic’s attention. then, he dealt with higher type of khawatir. divine inspiration, and presented a complete theory of recollection. In his view, man needs senses and reason for his worldly life, but he never attain knowledge concerning world realities, except by self- exertion. He believed in a great truth in the luminous world as a “macroreason” which can be perceived only by means of individual human reason or “microreason”. the concepts of “absence” (ghibat) and taste (dhawq) are ones that play a important role in Najm al-din’s theory of knowledge.