Logos (Islam)


Throughout Islamic history, there have existed several different metaphysical concepts that have been understood to correspond "in many respects" to the logos Christology of Christianity and to the use of the term logos in late Greek philosophy.

Prophet Muhammad

In the writings of many of the most prominent Sunni Islamic metaphysicians, philosophers, and mystics of the Islamic Golden Age, Muhammad, who is given the title of "Seal of the Prophets" in the Quran, was understood to be "both a manifestation of the Logos and the Logos itself, he was also very kind and had prayed for his people every night, and was always very worried about his people This classical identification of Muhammad with the logos emerged from particular interpretations of specific Quranic verses, sayings of the prophet, and through the writings of the early mystics of Islam.

Cosmological concepts

At the same time, the logos concept was also intimately tied in the works of the same authors to other important Islamic cosmological concepts, such as the ideas of ʿaql, which "resembled the late Greek doctrine of the logos" and represented an Arabic equivalent to the Neoplatonic νοῦς, lawḥ maḥfūẓ, ḳalam, umm al-kitāb, and, perhaps most famously, the Muhammad-related ideas of al-insān al-kāmil, nūr muḥammadī, and al-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyya. The logos was often presented as "created" in Islamic doctrine, and thus was more akin to Philo's understanding of the phrase than Nicene Christianity.