In the Masnavi-yi Ma'navi (The Couplets of Esoteric Meaning) written by the famous Muslim mystical poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273 C.E.), countless metaphysical teachings are interwoven into the fabric of the text. It is, as one author has called it, "an ocean of gnosis" (Nasr 1993: 183). For this short paper I have dipped into this "ocean of gnosis" and resurfaced with several of the most important passages in which Rumi lays out his metaphysical teachings concerning the "heart" (lubb, fu'ad, qalb and sirr in Arabic; dil in Persian), which is a key concept in Sufi literature. For the Sufis it is not the eye but the heart that "perceives." In what follows I will first delineate some of Rumi's core teachings on the heart. I will then turn my attention to what he has to say about the heart as a means to seeing the Divine, for both human beings and God Himself.

Modern scholars have been interested in the great Persian Sufi martyr ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131) for over six decades. Despite this fact, many aspects of his life and thought still remain terra incognita. Our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his death is a case-in-point. Although we have a fairly good understanding of the factors which led to ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s demise, there are other “causes” which simultaneously complement and problematize this understanding. Chief amongst these are the underlying reasons for ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s critique of the Seljuk government, as well as something which ʿAyn al-Quḍāt saw as a more subtle cause for his death several years before his anticipated state execution.

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This article offers the first comprehensive survey of scholarly literature devoted to the Quranic works of the famous Muslim philosopher, Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640). While taking account of the merits and shortcomings of studies on Ṣadrā's Quranic writings, we will also be concerned with highlighting some of the methodological problems raised by the diverse range of approaches adopted in these studies. Chief amongst them is the tendency to pit Ṣadrā the philosopher against Ṣadrā the scriptural exegete. Such a dichotomy is not entirely helpful, both with respect to painting a clearer picture of Ṣadrā's religious worldview, and to addressing broader questions pertaining to the intimate relationship shared between the "act" of philosophy and the "act" of reading scripture.