The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1080 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Illuminative Way
.
The second of the
Three Ways
of the spiritual life. After being purified from sin in the
purgative way
the soul is illuminated and enabled to attain a true understanding of created things (‘natural contemplation’) and thus prepared for the
unitive way
.
Illuminism
:
Illusion
(in Advaita Ved
nta philosophy)
:
see
M
Y
(2)
and
MITHY
.
‘Ilm
(Arab.). Knowledge, especially of
fiqh
and
kal
m
. ‘Ilm, of all kinds, has particularly high status in Islam, because a strong doctrine of creation (all things coming from God and potentially being revelatory of him, as ayat) is combined with an absence of anything resembling
original sin
(which might make humans incapable of appreciating God's self-revelation in the created order). The capacity for ‘ilm is thus a gift from God.

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