The Hermeneutical Aspects of the Symbols in Islamic Philosophy

It might, in the Muslim world and religious culture, seem that "symbols" as terms are specific to the domain of theosophy and mysticism. Nonetheless, at the very beginning of the appearance of philosophy in the world of Islam, symbols were taken into consideration by Muslim philosophers; in this way they laid their specific philosophical foundations. If we dealt coherently and independently with those foundations and principles, we could reach some ontological study of the symbols with their own hermeneutical aspects in Islamic philosophy. The great Muslim intellectuals such as, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Suhrawardi, Shahrazuri, Khaja Nasiru al-Din Tusi, Mir Dammad, and Mulla Sadra have, on the whole, give an all-inclusive picture of ontology and hermeneutical study of "symbols" which is entirely distinguished from that in modern hermeneutics. In this article, the author, as far as possible, attempts to explain the philosophical and hermeneutical principles of "symbols" in Islamic philosophy.