Unsaying God

INTRODUCTION Why Sufism, and Why the Thirteenth Century? A Guide to Negative Theology: Are the Mu'tazilites Negative Theologians? Can We Still Speak of Negative Theology Tout Court? Moving Forward Coming to Terms: "Apophasis", "Performance", and God's Gender Compass PATH ONE. DOUBLE NEGATION: ISMAILI APOPHATICISM The Background: "Radicals of All Radicals" Thingness of God? Double Negation: the Repetitive Form Permutations and Performances Disseminations: Ismaili Apophaticism beyond Ismailis Later Developments Tusi: Sufi Paths of Ismaili Apophaticism Dimension of Apophatic Theology in Later Sufi and Ismailli Connections Summary PATH TWO. NECESSARILY DISSIMILAR: PHILOSOPHICAL APOPHATICISM Beginnings: the End-less The Kindian Dilemma in the Tenth Century Discursive Thought and Non-Discursive Intellection Protectors of the Divine Oneness: al-Tawhidi's Circle in Baghdad Philosophical Apophaticism in Andalusia: Ibn Masarra Twelfth-Century Andalusia: From Philosophy to Sufism Aristotle in Andalusia: al-Batalyawsi, Maimonides, and Ibn Sab'in Jewish Mysticism and Arabic Philosophical Apophaticism: Eyn Sof and Lam Yazal Sufis and Genies: Philosophical Apophaticism within Sufi Epistemology Summary PATH THREE. "YES AND NO": PARADOXICAL APOPHATICISM AND DIALECTICAL LOGIC Paradox in Literature and Sufism: an Overview Paradox of Human Apotheosis: from Sufism to Philosophy? Paradoxes of Late Antiquity in Philosophy Paradox in Theological Questions The Divine Paradox: When Incomparability and Immanence are Balanced Symmetrical Approach to Language, and Dialectical Logic Logic and Nomenclature in Paradoxical Apophaticism Healing with Opposites: Performativity in Paradoxical Apophaticism Summary PATH FOUR. AGAINST DISCOURSE: AMODAL APOPHATICISM The Background: "Bila Kayfa" as a Theological Concept Divine Nature Uninterpreted: Between Anthropomorphism and Apophaticism Bila Kayfa Apophaticism and Early Hanafism Early Ash'arism: From Anti-Interpretivism to Anti-Anthropomorphism Anti-Interpretivism among Early Sufis? Anti-Interpretivism during the Formalization of Sufism Interpretivism in Persian Sufism Hanbali Sufism and the Qadiriyya The Emergence of the Rifa'iyya Suhrawardiyya and the State-Sponsored "Sunni Bila Kayfa" Project Kubrawi Interpretivism Bila Kayfa Mysticism in Andalusia: the Background Sufism and Bila Kayfa in the Thirteenth-Century Muslim West Summary CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY