The Controversy over the Application of Theosophy to Islamic Philosophy between Ha iri and Corbin

The present paper is concerned with the study of a controversy over the application of the term theosophy to Islamic philosophy. From the point of view of Corbin and his followers, the application of the term philosophy in its current secular meaning to the Islamic philosophy is misleading and in contradiction with some significant elements of this philosophy and its teachings. They prefer the term theosophy due to its meaning and application since the beginning of the Hellenic philosophy. On the other hand, Ha’iri considers Islamic philosophy similar to Hellenic philosophy and from his point of view Islamic philosophers have provided commentaries on and interpretations of Aristotle’s philosophy along with Quranic references and narratives. On this basis, for him the term philosophy rather than theosophy is applicable to the Islamic tradition in philosophy. The present paper argues for the insufficiency of Ha’iri’s reasoning and Corbin’s reasoning for distinguishing between Hellenic philosophy and Islamic philosophy. The conclusion is that the Islamic philosophy is substantially based on the Hellenic philosophy but it includes a lot of innovatory additions. For this reason it is more appropriate to use the transliterated form of ‘Al-Hikmah al-Ilahiyyah’ or ‘Islamic Hikmah’ to refer to Islamic philosophy.