ABSTRACT
We are concerned with the group of falāsifah {the plural form of faylasūf, which is the Arabic transcription of the Greek philosophos), a group to which, it has been claimed, the role of philosophy in Islam is confined. What we have already said makes it unnecessary for us to emphasize the total misconception of such a claim and what a prejudice it represents. It is difficult to trace the exact boundaries between the use of the terms falsafah (philosophy) and ḥikmat ilāhīyah (theosophia). But it appears that after al-Suhrawardī the latter term has been used more and more to designate the doctrine of the complete sage, who is both philosopher and mystic.
