College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

The contemporary

Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si” (“Praised be You”), is a clarion call to all of humanity. It also provides an important opportunity to expand the conversation regarding the relationship between religion and the environment. Many scientists maintain that we have reached “decade zero” for addressing climate change. We thus have no choice but to mine the riches of all the world’s traditions to create new paradigms and new solutions to environmental degradation.

Sufi Metaphysics is composed of two essential dimensions-doctrine and method. Because the subject matter of metaphysics is the truth, which is one, these two dimensions inevitably intertwine and overlap, for they are symbiotic parts of a greater whole.

For Mulla Sadra the station (maqam) and way - station (manzil) of every human being corresponds to the quality of his faculties of perception. In the fi nal mashhad of ash - Shawahid ar - rububiyya," On Prophethoods and Saint hoods", he outlines four way - stations of man which correspond to four levels of perception. In the first three levels, man perceives only through the faculties of sense, imagination (khayal) and estimation (wahm).

From the first centuries of