Ishraq

(Arabic, literally “radiance”) a term in medieval Muslim philosophy signifying intuitive attainment of truth through the “illumination” of a soul freed from ties with the material world. The doctrine of ishraq, which synthesizes ideas of Zoroastrianism and Neoplatonism, was regarded in the medieval Islamic world as a typically eastern doctrine and was contrasted to the western (Aristotelian) theory of knowledge based upon a discursive (conceptual) method of thought. The concept of ishraq shared the Neoplatonic idea of the world and its existence, movement, and beauty as an emanation of divine light. A detailed exposition of the philosophy of ishraq is contained in a treatise of the same name by the medieval Middle Eastern thinker Shihab al-Din Suhravardi (12th century).