Seasonal Offline Courses
Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam Course – Chapters 3-4
· Video Course: Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam – Chapter 3-4
· Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
· Course Package: 4 Episodes
Hello and welcome! I am delighted that you have joined this course and that together we will embark on an exploration of one of the most profound mystical works in history—Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (The Seals of Wisdom) by Ibn ʿArabī.
In this series, I explore the Fuṣūṣ in depth, carefully analyzing its themes and concepts across multiple sessions. Each video provides a detailed interpretation based on the most authoritative commentaries alongside my own analysis. The aim is to make Ibn ʿArabī’s complex and layered insights accessible in English while preserving their intellectual and spiritual depth.
Whether you are a sufism, philosophy, or metaphysics scholar/student, or simply curious about Ibn ʿArabī’s thought, this course offers structured guidance and an opportunity to engage with a text that has inspired centuries of scholarship and devotion.
Thank you for joining me on this journey into Ibn ʿArabī’s masterpiece. I hope these sessions deepen your understanding and inspire reflection on the enduring wisdom of the Fuṣūṣ.
Warm regards,
Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt) - Season 1
COURSE DESCRIPTION
- Video Course (pre-recorded): Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt)
- Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Hello and welcome!
I am delighted that you have joined this course and that together, we will embark on a deep and authentic journey into Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt), the enigmatic teacher of Rumi.
In this series, each episode focuses on one original Farsi discourse, which I carefully read, translate, and analyze in English. Drawing on the best available commentaries as well as modern insights, my goal is to present Shams’ words with accuracy and clarity—free from the simplifications or distortions often found in popular retellings.
Season One is structured as a complete journey of TEN video episodes (videos are hosted on YouTube—exclusively):
· Introduction (link) and Episode 1 (link) are free to all (already published on YouTube).
· Episodes 2–9 are EXCLUSIVE to course participants (links will be immediately accessible upon registration).
Throughout this season, we will explore the meaning of Shams’ words and the larger picture of his ideas, personality, and transformative relationship with Rumi.
Whether encountering Shams for the first time or returning to his voice with deeper questions, this course offers an accessible explanation and rigorous engagement with the original text.
Thank you for joining me on this journey into Shams’s living words. I hope these videos will inspire, challenge, and illuminate your search for wisdom.
Warm regards,
Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt) - Season 2
COURSE DESCRIPTION
- Video Course (pre-recorded): Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt) - Season 2
- Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
- Episodes: 10–17 (seven exclusive, one free for public)
Hello and welcome!
I am delighted that you have joined this course and that together, we will embark on a deep and authentic journey into Shams Tabrizi's Discourses (Maqālāt), the enigmatic teacher of Rumi.
In this series, each episode focuses on one original Farsi discourse, which I carefully read, translate, and analyze in English. Drawing on the best available commentaries as well as modern insights, my goal is to present Shams’ words with accuracy and clarity—free from the simplifications or distortions often found in popular retellings.
Season Two is structured as a complete journey of EIGHT videos: Episodes 10–17 (seven exclusive, one free for public. These episodes are hosted on YouTube. The links will be immediately accessible upon registration).
Throughout this season, we will explore the meaning of Shams’ words and the larger picture of his ideas, personality, and transformative relationship with Rumi.
Whether encountering Shams for the first time or returning to his voice with deeper questions, this course offers an accessible explanation and rigorous engagement with the original text.
Join me on this journey into Shams’s living words. I hope these videos will inspire, challenge, and illuminate your search for wisdom.
Warm regards,
Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Philosophy & Literature (Persian & Western)
Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Course type: Live Video Meeting (Google Meet)
Language: English
Duration: 8 weeks
Duration: November-December 2025; however, recorded meetings are immediately accessible upon registration.
Course Description. This 8-week course is titled “Philosophy and Literature” to emphasize both dimensions of inquiry: the “philosophy of literature,” where philosophy examines literature’s nature, truth, and value; and the dialogue between philosophy and literature, where literary works themselves generate philosophical insight. By combining these approaches, the course investigates how philosophers have theorized about literature and how literature—whether in the form of narrative, allegory, or poetry—functions as a medium of philosophical exploration.
The course engages materials from Islamic and Western traditions. From Plato, Aristotle, and Nietzsche to Rūmī, ʿAṭṭār, Suhrawardī, and Mullā Ṣadrā, students will encounter texts that show literature’s dual role: as an object of philosophical reflection and as a vehicle for philosophical thought. Special attention is given to Persian mystical and poetic traditions, where philosophy and literature intertwine most intimately, articulating experiences and truths often inaccessible to purely discursive reasoning. Students should therefore expect to:
- Analyze key philosophical questions about literature, including its aesthetic value, its relation to truth and knowledge, and the role of language, metaphor, and narrative.
- Explore how literary texts—from epics and allegories to philosophical poetry—convey moral, existential, and mystical insights.
- Compare Western and Islamic perspectives, gaining a cross-cultural understanding of how philosophy and literature enrich one another.
- Develop critical and interpretive skills by engaging directly with both philosophical treatises and literary works.
Ultimately, this course equips students to view literature not merely as art but as a mode of philosophizing—a medium that challenges reason, deepens ethical imagination, and discloses aspects of the human condition and the ineffable.
Course material will be provided before the course begins.
Mystical Philosophy in Persian Literature
Instructor: Rasoul Rahbari-Ghazani
Course type: Live Video Meeting (Google Meet)
Language: English
Duration: 8 weeks
Duration: November-December 2025; however, recorded meetings are immediately accessible upon registration.
Course Description. This course explores mystical philosophy expressed in Persian poetry and prose, focusing on works that use literary form to articulate metaphysical, ethical, and transformative insights. Unlike “philosophical mysticism” (which analyzes mystical experience from outside), “mystical philosophy” proceeds from within, using poetry, allegory, and narrative to convey truths aimed at “transformation” rather than just “information.”
We will examine major Persian poets and thinkers such as Rūmī, Shams Tabrīzī, Shabistarī, Fayḍ Kāshānī, and ʿAṭṭār, alongside modern and contemporary scholarship. Emphasis will be on reading texts philosophically: analyzing how metaphor, paradox, and narrative express conceptions of the self, reality, love, and the path of transformation.
Learning Outcomes. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Distinguish mystical philosophy from philosophical mysticism in the Persian literary context.
- Interpret Persian mystical poems and prose texts philosophically.
- Analyze the role of poetic form and devices in conveying philosophy.
- Compare different Persian authors’ mystical-philosophical approaches.
- Engage with secondary scholarship.
Course material will be provided before the course begins.