What is Love?

May 7^th

Introduction

• William Chittick, Divine Love, Foreword and Preface
• Prince Ghazi, Love in the Holy Qur’an “Introduction” (Chps. 1-3) and “Stages of Love” and “Falling in Love,” (Chps. 22 and 23)
• Plato’s Symposium, In Our Time Podcast

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May 14^th

Love in Islamic Philosophy and Theology

• Chittick, Divine Love, Chapter 1
• Ali Altaf Mian, “Love in Islamic Philosophy”
  
  • Al-Ghazali on Love, Longing, Intimacy, and Contentment. Eric Ormsby (trans.)-Introduction and Chp. 1

• Suhrawardi, “Treatise on the Reality of Love”

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May 21^st

The Sufi Story of Love

• Chittick, Divine Love, Chapter 2
• ‘Ā’isha al-Ba’uniyya “Epilogue on Love”

Poem:

• Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, "Two Loves"

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May 28^th

Layla and Majnun

• Nizami, Layla and Majnun
• Majnun Layla, Qaṣida Mu’nisa, (and recitation)
  
  • Story of Wallāda and Ibn Zaydun,
  • Ibn Zaydun’s Nūniyya   (and translation)
  • Al-Qayrawanī, “O Night”

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June 4^th*

Rumi

• Chittick, “The Need for Need”
• Rustom “The Ocean of Nonexistence”

Poems:

• Rumi, Mathnawi, Intro and First Story, Moses and the Shepherd,
• Divan-i Shams: "Show your face," "Your hair is laylat al-qadr”, "Come I've lost my mind in your love"

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June 11^th

Ibn al-‘Arabī

Hany Ibrahim, “Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Metaphysics of Love”

Poems:

• Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Munajat

• Ibn al-‘Arabi, “Gentle now”
• Al-Shushtarī: “Layla stole my reason,” “There is no life in the camp but Layla,” “Every time I say”
• Ibn al-Fāriḍ, “Increase me in love for you,” “I hide love, but my tears reveal it,” “Pass round the remembrance of the one I love”
• Al-Harraq, “Are you seeking Layla”

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June 18^th

Ḥāfiẓ

• Leonard Lewisohn, “Hafiz and the Religion of Love”
• Listen: Commentary and context on “For years my heart asked”

Ghazals:

The troubador of love

Ghazal, "Last night I saw the angels....”

, Lover's Anthem

I said, "I suffer for you,"

Three Ghazals

Ghazal 1

“For years I pawned my book for wine,”

“For the world’s boundless suffering”

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June 25^th

Love of the Prophet

Ogunnaike, Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection, 1-74.

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Hassān ibn Thābit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcYFBTw2Sdc

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Sa‘dī:

https://archive.blogs.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/2015/12/23/for-the-mawlid/

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Al-Buṣīrī, Qaṣīdat al-Burda:

https://www.qasidaburda.com/

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“How long have I complained of my love for you?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvIym-UWzsM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLJZcg2k_L0

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Muhammad al-Majdhūb:

https://archive.blogs.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/2020/11/17/mawlid-2020-mu%e1%b8%a5ammad-majdhubs-praise/

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Ibrahim Niasse:

“Poem of the One Who Lost His Mind”

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Ogunnaike, Layla Left (recording)

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Amir Sulaiman: “The Lover, The Love, and The Beloved”

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