%0 Journal Article %T Transition from Intellectual Philosophy to Esoteric Wisdom in the Ideas of Ikhwan al-Safa (An Analysis of Early Encounters of Muslim Thinkers with Philosophy) %J History of Philasophy %I Iranian Society of History of Philosophy %Z 2008-9589 %A Hasan Bolkhari Qehi %D 2014 %\ 2014/06/21 %V 2 %N 5 %P 1-10 %! Transition from Intellectual Philosophy to Esoteric Wisdom in the Ideas of Ikhwan al-Safa (An Analysis of Early Encounters of Muslim Thinkers with Philosophy) %K Philosophy wisdom esoteric wisdom Ikhwan al-Safa history of philosophy %X The present paper initially discusses and explores the early applications of philosophical terms and their meanings in Islamic culture. Then it clarifies the dominant approach followed by those Muslim thinkers who try to reconcile Shari‘ah with philosophy through using an acceptable concept in religion by resorting to the term hikmah (which is a purely Qur’anic term). This is an approach which managed to result in a kind of esoteric wisdom between the second and fourth centuries (AH) through employing such concepts as t’awil (interpretation) in the Qur’an and promoting the interest in piety and gnosis. Ikhwan al-Safa, who exercised a huge influence on the development of wisdom and philosophy in Islamic culture, are among the pioneers of the above approach. By composing a corpus of 54 Epistles, called Rasa’il, they took a great stride towards reconciling Shari‘ah with philosophy and explaining the concept of wisdom and, particularly, Batini wisdom. Here, following an analytic-historical approach, the writer performs a conceptual analysis of the two terms of philosophy and wisdom during the first period of the rise of philosophical thought in Islamic civilization. Besides, he deliberates on the efforts of Ikhwan al-Safa in order to reach a kind of esoteric wisdom, which is a synthesis of a completely philosophical and, at the same time, Qur’anic (and narrative) approach. This was an approach which inevitably advocated the unity of religion and philosophy in order to demonstrate such a synthesis. %U http://rimag.ir/fa/Article/23225