Muhammad Amin al-Shirwani's Treatise on Eschatology: An Analysis and Critical Edition of Risalah fi tahqiq al-mabda' wa-al-ma' ad

Muhammad Amin al-Shirwani was a seventeenth-century Ottoman thinker known for his works in the rational and traditional sciences. In this article, his treatise on the corporeal afterlife (ma'ad al-jismani) was analyzed, translated, and edited. The text conveyed the claim that several aspects concerning the states of the afterlife (e.g., the resurrection, the intermediate realm, heaven, and hell) could be elucidated by setting out of the world of imagination (mundus imaginalis). The mainstays of his argument were the expositions of the Illuminationists and Ibn 'Arabi concerning the world of images. On this matter, he focused upon the world of images provided by the Qur'anic verses. By the end of the treatise, four concepts (viz,. spirit, soul, heart, and intellect) borrowed from alGhazali's Ihya' 'ulum al-din, and the matters of the heart, were explicated with respect to the human reality.