The Philosophical Foundations of Rapprochement among Islamic Schools: From Waḥdat al-Wujūd to Epistemic Pluralism

The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibility of a philosophical reconstruction of the discourse of proximity among Islamic schools of thought based on two different theoretical traditions: the theory of the Unity of Being (Wahdat al-Wujud) in Ibn Arabi’s theoretical mysticism, and the approach of epistemological pluralism in contemporary philosophy of religion.

The main problem of the research is whether the approximation of Islamic schools—which is generally formulated at jurisprudential, political, and social levels—can also find ontological and epistemological foundations that elevate it from a pragmatic level to the level of a philosophical and theological necessity.

The research methodology is descriptive, analytical, and comparative, conducted by rereading classical texts of theoretical mysticism alongside contemporary philosophy of religion literature.

The findings indicate that the theory of the Unity of Being, relying on the gradation of existence (tashkik al-wujud) and the multiplicity of manifestations and divine names, provides an ontological foundation for accepting the multiplicity of religious and sectarian forms. Meanwhile, epistemological pluralism, by emphasizing human cognitive limitations in perceiving the absolute truth and the role of historical and cultural factors in understanding religion, offers an epistemological foundation for inter-sectarian tolerance.

The study concludes that combining these two approaches, without reducing them to one another, proposes a three-level model—ontological, epistemological, and practical—for the approximation of Islamic schools of thought, which is both compatible with Islamic theological foundations and responsive to contemporary challenges of religious pluralism within the Islamic civilization.