Inspiration
“ilhām”
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
inspiration · الالهام · al-ilhām · foreboding · ilhām · the passing thought · الايجاس · الخاطر · الهام
in the texts
Kitāb madhāhib al-Aʻrāb wa-falāsifat al-Islām fī al-jinn
The good thought and its bestowal, paired throughout with insinuation as its contrary.
what falls into the heart of the doing of good, that is (inspiration, ilhām).
So the angel casts in inspiration (ilhām), which is his passing upon the heart by the striking of its thoughts:
the praiseworthy thought is called inspiration, and the blameworthy thought, I mean that which summons to evil, is called insinuation.
Risālat al-Wāridāt
Ilhām, inspiration, admitted as a genuine cause of knowledge but limited to particular individuals whom God selects, and so not a public epistemic route.
Inspiration (*ilhām*) is among the causes of knowledge, but it is confined to individuals whom the Real Most High singles out for it.
Kitāb mīzān al-ḥaqq fī al-manṭiq
Inspiration and the associated sudden or unbidden thoughts, enumerated among the roots of cognition in the quoted passage
men's cognitions, in summary statement and approximately, divide in their roots into opinion (*ẓann*), estimation, intuition (*ḥads*), intellect, certainty (*yaqīn*), doubt, the prevailing first presumption, inspiration (*ilhām*), foreboding (*ījās*), the passing thought (*khāṭir*), the thought that comes unbidden (*sāniḥ*), and the thought that gleams (*lāʼiḥ*).