Shabeer Ahmad Lone
Theology, in its most profound /timeless sense and as the essence of theological vision transcends the confines of abstract speculation or institutional dogma. It is, above all, a sacred quest-a luminous, inward pilgrimage of the soul to engage with the Infinite, Living Reality of God(Allah). It is not primarily about constructing systems or erecting conceptual idols, but about allowing one’s very being to be reconstituted in the light of the Divine Presence. True theology is as much about silence as it is about speech, as much about surrender as about understanding. It belongs not merely to scholars or clerics, but to every heart that aches for Truth, every soul that seeks intimacy with the Source of all that is. The metaphysical/ existential/ mystical/spiritual engagement/reorientation of theology unites prophets, sages, mystics, and lovers of God across centuries and civilizations-whether in the deserts of Arabia, the forests of India, the cloisters of Europe, or the mountains of Tibet.
Indeed, the Qur’an itself gestures toward this deeper theological vision: “Say, Allah; then leave them in their play of vain discourse” (Qur’an 6:91), reminding us that theology at its core is a matter of remembrance, of inward atonement, of tasting the Real (al-Ḥaqq)-not merely talking about It. Quote sufis upheld “Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord”, suggesting that the knowledge of God is bound up with inner transformation and self-realization. It is this encompassing, contemplative, and living approach to theology that restores its relevance in our time of fragmentation and spiritual forgetfulness, inviting us not merely to believe in God, but to be reshaped by the Divine gaze.
The most foundational insight across mystical and metaphysical traditions is that God is not an object among other objects, nor a being among beings, but Being itself-self-subsisting, infinite, necessary. This idea, powerfully expressed in the Abrahamic, Vedantic, and Platonic lineages, rejects anthropomorphic projections in favor of a Reality that is at once immanent and transcendent. The Qur’an affirms, “There is nothing like unto Him, yet He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Qur’an 42:11)-a statement that negates all likeness while affirming profound nearness. Augustine’s Confessions begin with an invocation of a God who is “more inward to me than my innermost self,” and Rumi speaks of the One who is “closer to us than our jugular vein,” resonating with the Qur’anic phrase “And We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein” (Qur’an 50:16). Such language suggests not a dualistic distance but an intimate interiority, a radical nearness that transcends spatial metaphors.
“Kufr kuch chahiye Islam ki raunaq ke liye,” writes Mir, capturing a paradox that has echoed throughout Islamic intellectual history. Mir conveys a deep truth: every vibrant spiritual tradition needs the “other”-not as mere disbelief, but as challenge, perspective, difference, and dialogue. Without confronting alternative views, a faith cannot unveil its true depth, openness, and authenticity.This verse evokes the rich legacy of Islamic thought shaped through deep engagement with traditions once labeled as kufr/Other-Greek philosophy, Persian illuminationism, Indian Vedanta, and Western rationalism. Mir Taqi Mir’s verse,captures a timeless paradox-the enrichment of faith through engagement with the ‘other.’ This theme reverberates across traditions: Ghalib contrasts Kaaba and Church to evoke spiritual tension; Rumi transcends the binary of Islam and kufr in the desert of divine love; Hafiz celebrates love that blurs all doctrinal lines; Ahad Zargar,echoes this in his poignant line “Kafer sapdith korum iqrar” (The unbeliever made me confess [the truth]), suggesting spiritual awakening through unlikely sources. Western poets mirror this vision-Rilke finds the divine in beauty’s terror, Hugo in the infinite within the finite. Such voices, across Islam and beyond, affirm that the radiance of faith often emerges through bold, paradoxical encounters with what lies outside it.Thinkers like al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Arabi, al-Ghazali, Rumi, Shah Waliullah, and Iqbal, along with modern voices like Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ali Shariati, Fazlur Rahman, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Mohammed Arkoun, and Ziauddin Sardar, critically engaged with these diverse currents. Through reinterpretation and dialogue with ideas once considered foreign or even heretical, they revitalized Islam’s intellectual and spiritual luminosity-thus affirming Mir’s profound insight that Islam’s brilliance often unfolds through creative encounters with the ‘other.
Contemporary Muslim theology is undergoing a transformative renewal, shifting from abstract scholasticism to an ethically engaged, context-responsive discourse. Thinkers like Dr. Mohammad Rais Khan emphasize the urgency of reorienting Kalām toward lived ethics, justice, and human dignity, while Kasno and colleagues advocate moving from a purely theocentric to a human-centered theology grounded in contextual realities. Mahmoud Muhammad Taha reinterprets Islamic revelation by distinguishing between the universal ethical principles of the Meccan verses and the context-bound Medinan verses, thereby foregrounding freedom and equality. Fazlur Rahman’s “double movement” hermeneutic and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd’s insistence on the co-creative role of reader and text deepen the methodological framework for such reform, while Mohammed Arkoun’s call for a “critique of Islamic reason” integrates insights from modern philosophy, linguistics, and historical consciousness to liberate Islamic thought from dogmatic ossification. This renewal is reinforced by institutions like the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and academic initiatives in Vienna and beyond, advancing practical theology that addresses gender justice, interfaith relations, and spiritual care. Together, these efforts embody a morally grounded, spiritually attuned, and intellectually rigorous reimagining of Islamic theology for the complexities of the contemporary world.
Ibn ʿArabi’s doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) provides one of the most refined philosophical expressions of this insight, insisting that the Real (al-Ḥaqq) is the only true existence, and all apparent multiplicity is a veil over the singular Reality of God. For Ibn ʿArabi, all creation is theophanic-it discloses aspects of the Divine names. This echoes the Prophetic hadith: “Allah has ninety-nine names; whoever knows them will enter Paradise” (Sahih al-Bukhari)-a tradition implying that the knowledge of these Names leads to the recognition of the Divine presence in all things. Likewise, in the Christian mystical tradition, Meister Eckhart declared, “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” Such statements are not mere poetic flourishes but profound metaphysical affirmations of non-duality, dissolving the rigid boundaries between subject and object, self and Other.
Contemporary theologians and philosophers of religion-such as Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner, John Hick, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and David Bentley Hart-continue this discourse in the face of modernity’s secularizing tendencies. Tillich’s notion of God as the “ground of being” and Rahner’s vision of God as “Absolute Mystery” underscore the idea that theology must remain fundamentally open-ended. It is not a closure but an unveiling, never a reduction but a reverent deepening. In a similar spirit, Nasr critiques the desacralized modern worldview and calls for a re-centering of sacred metaphysics to recover the awareness of a God who is both the transcendent source and the immanent presence in all things. The Qur’an reminds: “He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden” (Qur’an 57:3)-a timeless reminder of God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence.
Scriptural and philosophical traditions alike affirm that reason alone, though indispensable, is not sufficient to comprehend the Infinite. Theological reason, when divorced from contemplative insight, often leads to abstract formulations incapable of bearing the weight of lived experience. Thus, some of the greatest theologians-Aquinas, Augustine, Razi, Ghazali-turned to mysticism not as an escape from reason but as its fulfillment. As Ghazali realized after his intellectual crisis, knowledge that does not lead to transformation and nearness to God is hollow. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “He who knows himself knows his Lord” (hadith, often cited in Sufi traditions). Hence, in his Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn, Ghazali reorients theology toward spiritual purification and the realization of Divine proximity.
Theological discourse must also grapple with profound paradoxes and antinomies: God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence; His justice and mercy; His unity and manifestation in multiplicity. These are not logical puzzles to be solved but invitations into the sacred tension that characterizes reality itself. In this sense, theology is closer to poetry, mysticism, and art than to systems of pure logic. The Qur’an describes God as “Severe in punishment and Most Merciful” (Qur’an 5:98), holding together apparent opposites in a unity beyond human comprehension. The Upanishadic statement, “Not for the sake of the beloved is the beloved loved, but for the sake of the Self,” echoes through Sufi, Advaitic, and Christian mystical traditions, suggesting that all love, all knowing, all longing ultimately aims at reunion with the Divine Essence that is our true identity.
The mystical claim that “we live and move and have our being in God” (Acts 17:28) is not a sentimental aphorism but a metaphysical claim with radical implications. It denies ontological autonomy to the creature and asserts that all being is derivative, contingent, and rooted in the Divine. As the Qur’an states: “To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth” (Qur’an 2:284), and again “Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return” (Qur’an 2:156). This is echoed by Spinoza’s Deus sive Natura, by Shankara’s non-dual Vedanta, and even in the poetry of Tagore and Ghalib. To deny or ignore this ontological dependence is to enter into spiritual amnesia-a condition many argue modern secular consciousness suffers from.
This insight has ethical implications too. If God is the Reality in which all beings participate, then every being bears the trace of the Sacred. This is why mystics are often the most compassionate and non-judgmental-having realized the One behind the many, they act with mercy toward all. The Qur’an says: “We have certainly honored the children of Adam” (Qur’an 17:70), reminding us that each human being is a bearer of dignity and sacred value. It is not by accident that some of the most enduring social movements have drawn inspiration from deeply theological visions-Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Ibn Arabi, Teresa of Avila, and Rumi among them.
Modern theological debates, including critiques from figures like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, who are skeptical of mystical formulations, are welcome and necessary, but they must also be willing to confront the limitations of rationalism divorced from experiential knowledge. To reject mystical theology wholesale is to ignore the deepest insights of religious experience and to risk reducing the Infinite to a conceptual idol. As history shows, sterile rationalism often results in fragmented, spiritually desiccated theologies incapable of inspiring the soul or uniting communities. The Prophet said: “There is a piece of flesh in the body; if it is sound, the whole body is sound. If it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. Verily, it is the heart” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)-reminding us that true knowledge is inseparable from spiritual transformation.
Most fundamentally, the highest aim of theology is not to map the infinite through finite categories, but to awaken the human soul to the Divine Presence that is already nearer to us than our own breath. It seeks not to capture God in words but to let God’s Reality illuminate our words, deeds, and consciousness. As the Qur’an declares, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward, and He is Knower of all things” (Qur’an 57:3). This sacred science, then, is not content with intellectual formulation alone-it calls for transformation: of vision, of heart, of life. It is not about speaking about God from a distance but speaking from the depths of an encounter, from proximity, from awe.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Worship God as though you see Him; and if you do not see Him, know that He sees you” (Hadith, Sahih Muslim)-a saying that collapses the gap between knowledge and love, belief and being. The most radiant theology is thus lived theology: the overflowing of a heart illumined by the Light of God (Nūr), a life steeped in remembrance (dhikr), humility, and mercy. Such theology does not divide but unites, does not alienate but awakens, does not stagnate but flows like a clear spring from the source of all Being. It invites us to live as if every act is a prayer, every being a sign, every moment an opportunity to reflect the Divine. In this way, theology becomes not a discipline, but a vocation; not a theory, but a way of love and truth-offering not just knowledge about God, but knowledge with God, in God, and through God. The goal of sacred knowing is to return to the Real with a transfigured being-a timeless and contemporary imperative to guide humanity toward the Infinite amid today’s fractured world.
“He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward, and He is Knower of all things” (Qur’an 57:3).
“There is a piece of flesh in the body; if it is sound, the whole body is sound. If it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. Verily, it is the heart”
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)-
Author can be reached at shabirahmed.lone003@gmail.com
