Let's Talk Religion

Iblis (Satan) refused to bow to Adam, and the Qur’an condemns him for it. But some of the most daring Sufi mystics read that refusal very differently: as the act of a perfect monotheist and a tragic lover who would not bow to anything but God, even at the cost of eternal separation. In this video we explore how Iblis was reinterpreted in Islamic mysticism, from Mansur al-Hallaj’s Kitab al-Tawasin to the Persian “School of Love” (madhhab-i ‘ishq) of Ahmad Ghazali and ‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani.

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Sources/Recommended Reading:

Knysh, Alexander (2000). "Islamic Mysticism: A Short History". Brill.

Lumbard, Joseph E.B. (2016). "Ahmad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love". SUNY Press.

Massignon, Louis (1979). "The Passion of Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam". Vol. 1-4. Translated by Herbert Mason. Princeton University Press.

Pourjavady, Nasrollah (translated by) (2015). "Sawanih: Inspirations from the World of Pure Spirits". Routledge.

Rustom, Muhammed (translated and edited by) (2022). "The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism". New York University Press.

Rustom, Muhammed (2024). "Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of Ayn al-Qudat". State University of New York Press.

Safi, Omid (2019). "Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition". Yale University Press.
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What is the Anqa? In this episode we explore the Anqa (عنقاء), the elusive, legendary bird of Arabic and Islamic tradition, often compared to the phoenix and the Persian Simurgh. We look at its origins in pre-Islamic Arabian lore, the story of how it vanished from the world, and how "the Anqa of the West" (ʿanqāʾ mughrib) became a proverb for something that exists in name but can never be found. We also trace how Sufi mystics like Ibn ʿArabi and Farid al-Din ʿAttar turned this mythical creature into a powerful symbol of the hidden, the unknowable, and the divine.

Find me and my music here: https://linktr.ee/filipholm
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Or through a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/talkreligiondonate

Sources/Recommended Reading:

Chittick, William (1989). "The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn 'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination".

Elmore, Gerald T. (1999). "ISLAMIC SAINTHOOD IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME - Ibn al-Arabl’s Book of the Fabulous Gryphon". Brill.

Jaffray, Angela (translated by) (2006). "The Universal Tree and the Four Birds". Anqa Publishing.

Ron-Gilboa, Guy (2021). "ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib: The Poetics of a Mythical Creature". Journal of Abbasid Studies 8 (2021) 75–103.

Ibn 'Arabi - "The Openings Revealed in Makkah: al-futuhat al-makkiyya". Translated by Eric Winkel. Volumes 1-7. Pir Press.
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In this episode, we explore the fascinating history of alchemy in the Islamic(ate) world, from the writings of Jabir ibn Hayyan, to the Emerald Tablet, Abu Bakr al-Razi & the Sufis.

Music by: Filip Holm

Find me and my music here: https://linktr.ee/filipholm
Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion
Or through a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/talkreligiondonate

Sources/Recommended Reading:

Abt, Theodore (ed.) (2007). "Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum: Book of the Explanation of the Symbols Kitab Hall Ar-Rumuz". Psychological Commentary by Marie-Louise Von Franz. Living Human Heritage Publications.

Adamson, Peter (2021). "Al-Rāzī". Great Medieval Thinkers. OUP USA.

Corriente, Federico & Ed Emery (translated by) (2004). "Twenty-seven Muwashshashaat and One Zajal by Ibn al-'Arabi of Murcia (1165-1240)".

Dodge, Bayard (translated by) (1998). "The Fihrist: A 10th Century Ad Survey of Islamic Culture". Kazi Pubns Inc.

Grimes, Shannon (2018). "Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt". Rubedo Press.

HamadnAllah, Shabaan (2025). "The 14th-century alchemist al-Jildakī and his book al-Miṣbāḥ fī asrār ʿilm al-miftāḥ". Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies , 25, 2025, 109–131.

Hirtenstein, Stephen (translated by) (2018). "The Alchemy of Human Happiness (Mystical Treatises of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi)". Anqa Publishing.

Melvin-Koushki, Matthew & Noah Gardner (2017). "Islamicate Occultism: New Perspectives". Brill.

Pingree, David (1981). “Between the Ghaya and the Pixatrix”. In “Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 44, 1981”. University of Chicago Press.

Principe, Lawrence (2013). "The Secrets of Alchemy". University of Chicago Press.

Saif, Liana (2015). "The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy". Palgrave Macmillan.

Saif, Liana; Francesca Leoni; Matthew Melvin-Koushki & Farouk Yahya (2021). "Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice". Brill.

Savage-Smith, Emily (ed.) (2004). "Magic & Divination in Early Islam". Ashgate Publishing.
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Ibn 'Arabi's famous "Religion of Love" verses are some of the most striking lines in Islamic mysticism - a declaration that the heart can take the form of every temple, church, and shrine. In this episode, we do a deep dive into the poem itself, its context in the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, and what it reveals about Ibn 'Arabi's views on love, God, and universality in Sufi thought.

Find me and my music here: https://linktr.ee/filipholm

Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion
Or through a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/talkreligiondonate

Sources/Recommended Reading:
Abdel-hadi, Faris (2024). "Ibn ‘Arabi’s Religious Pluralism: Levels of Inclusivity". Routledge.

Addas, Claude (1993). "Quest for the Red Sulphur". The Islamic Texts Society.

Ali, Mukhtar H. (2023). "Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi". Routledge.

Chittick, William (1989). "The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn 'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination".

Caner Dagli (translated by) (2004). Ibn 'Arabi - "The Ringstones of Wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam)". Great Books of the Islamic World. Kazi Pubns Inc.

Dickson, William Rory (2024). "Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy". Anqa Publishing.

Ibn 'Arabi - "The Openings Revealed in Makkah: al-futuhat al-makkiyya". Translated by Eric Winkel. Volumes 1-7. Pir Press.

Nicholson's Translation of the Tarjuman (Published by different houses.

Sells, Michael (translated by) (2021). "The Translator of Desires: Poems". Princeton University Press.
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The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) is one of the most mythologized institutions in history, but what do the actual medieval sources say? In this video, we separate legend from evidence, tracing what the House of Wisdom really was in Abbasid Baghdad & what role it played in the translation movement.

Find me and my music here:
https://linktr.ee/filipholm

Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion
Or through a one-time donation:
https://paypal.me/talkreligiondonate

Sources/Recommended Reading:

Dodge, Bayard (translated by) (1970). "The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture". Columbia University Press.

El-Hibri, Tayeb (2021). "The Abbasid Caliphate". Cambridge University Press.

Gutas, Dimitri (1998). "Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasaid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.)". Routledge.

Kennedy, Hugh (2006). "When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty". Da Capo Press.

The Encyclopedia of Islam. Brill.
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