Ali-Al-Omari is a 30 year physician from Baghdad.  He is happily married with one beautiful daughter.  His wide interests include Husserlian phenomenology, Koranic phenomenology and hermeneutics.
You can e-mail Ali at: ali_husserl@yahoo.com. His website address is:  http:/husserlali.blogspot.com

Koranic Phenomenological  Investigations.

I chose this title as starting point from which my thesis of Koranic phenomenology will proceed. Edmund Husserl originally began his phenomenological method by carrying out the logical investigation.  As a consequence of this phenomenology was discovered following dedicated research and prolonged investigation, rather than by  mere speculation and opinion. Phenomenology was present before Husserl was born, but it was in the form of practice rather than theory. The practical, pragmatic nature of phenomenology - like that of language - is responsible for its being so neglected as an  subject of thinking/theoretical reasoning. Phenomenology describes what happens when our consciousness is in relation to anything, and it attempts to show a way of thinking and provides us with the grammar of thinking and the intuition of meaning.  It enables us to see the original meanings of things, and it reveals that meaning within ourselves. This coincides with the aim of Koran which is also directed toward revealing the manner of the givenness of things and people to God. So the Koran provides us with an horizon in which things must be originally meant.
If we combine the phenomenological method of reaching the essence of things with the Koranic horizons of reality we can gain access to the things themselves safely.

I will start these investigation by the first verse of Koran which begins:

By the name of Allah, Most compassionate, Most Merciful.

1:1
What message does this verse impart to assist our understanding?

The same question must be asked of any verse, because if we approach anything without being in a modality of  questioning there will be nothing to be disclosed. This verse is so important in the Islamic life that it warrants mentioning it on every occasion. This verse has two parts ,the first one is epistemological, in which we perform a reduction of our our concepts which implies that we must know them first before reducing them and this is what make epistemology precede ontology. The aim of this reduction is to suspend any absolute standpoint ,it is a method by which we postpone our judgement of any naturally given object. In other words bracketing the existence of our natural, social ,cultural, psychological names, only the the name of God WHO is representing the absolute, transcendental reality (the Truth). So this verse obliges us to perform a reduction in every situation whether religious or not ,with  the aim of reaching the meaning of the situation, as it is seen by God.  So this perception of meaning must be an absolute, transcendental one.

This REDUCTION LEADS US TO THE REALM OF PURE EGO, because reduction is a kind of purification, in which we put everything between brackets, suspending the judgement, with the intention of reaching the essences.

1:2
What is the ontological effect of this epistemological shift?

The ontological outcome is mentioned in the verse which is the compassion and mercifulness. Husserl calls this: *the transcendental ego /intersubjective,* also called: *the  empathetic ego,* which is compassionate and merciful due to reaching to the transcendental realm in which the intersubjectve ego is disclosed. So this verse has a pivotal role in my thesis,  it give us the way/path /approach to things themselves ,rather than just words uttered for purpose of rewards.

    For this reason we must start any human endeavour by mind or by brain by mentioning it. It is the heart of the Holy Koran to which any verse can be reduced. It teaches us how to view and perceive the manner in which  things are given to us.  So both Koran and phenomenology provide a method by which we can reach the truth in relation to things themselves, which is constitutes an egological transformation from the natural/empirical/everyday/pragmatic attitude, to the phenomenological/reflective/transcendental one. In short we must be transcendental to be immanent. We must be outside ourselves in order  to see ourselves with clarity.
Simply speaking, it is a method or manner which enables us we see our own face. Either we use a mirror or we trust  in the descriptions of others, in which usually there is doubt. Phenomenology creates a mirror through which we can describe our self. This mirror is the pure consciousness.

And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the nature of these if ye are right." 2:31

This Koranic verse shows us the superiority of human being over all creatures, and at the same time why he is responsible for them. Knowledge is the reason behind being responsible, this knowledge had been given to Adam who represents the human being as such (including male and female).

So here Adam is not representing only  the male side of humanity.  

1:3  
How does phenomenology relate to the Koran?

Phenomenology provides a technique which allows us to return to the nature of to things(the essences). Phenomenology makes it possible to reach to these natures, (called names in the Koran).

1:4
How does Koran relate to phenomenology?

The Koran is an application by which me may achieve this goal to  return to the essences, applied in the domain of religion.  The Koran identifies the essence of religion as an absolute submission to God only and named this essence Islam. There are many verses which prove this claim, I will discuss them later.

1:5
We can make judgement only if we have experience.

The Koran and phenomenology agree on this experiential  principle, which has major impact on our life in this world. The Koran shows us this fact clearly in this verse:

And follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge; Surely the hearing and sight and the heart, all of these will be asked about it. 17:36).

This verse regards the perception (sensory+mental) as behaviour which must be based on knowledge (consciousness). The sensory and the mental are not separated in the Koran ,they consist of one layer, one moment, as can be found in the categorial intuition of Husserl. Judgement becomes a description of the lived experience and not colligated from others. This is the core of taqua (piety) in the Koran. The phenomenological experience is Koranic & the Koranic experience is phenomenological. Both of them establish a premise which allows and enables us to see the truth, which is the transformation of the ego (self) from empirical one to transcendental one. In the Koran there is verse which describes this principle perfectly:

For each (such person) there are (angels) in succession, before and behind him: They guard him by command of Allah. Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls). But when (once) Allah willeth a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protect)11-thunder .

1:6
The difference is in the way this transformation is achieved.

The Koran seeks a  practical, behaviouristic approach to the transformation of the Ego, through worshipping only one God, praying to only one God, fasting, haj, charity etc. All these strategies are intended to purify the ego from mundane, worldly concerns. So the core of the Koran is reductive.
The reduction of this situated, cultural, social ego to that of  the pure nature of the human being is called in Arabic *futrra.*

So in these verses there is description of the essence of the experience, which is succession of three moments, retention, presence, protention. The Koran speaks about the human being as a unity of these successive horizons, which is due to being an embodied consciousness( being in the world). Then the Koran shows us that the intentional (unity) relationship between subject (noetic part) and object (external dimension) of the experience (noematic part) will not appear unless we change the noetic dimension of the experience. This is the principle of all principles in the Koran

The marriage between east and west had happened since the discovery of Phenomenology by the sealer of philosophers, Edmund Husserl(1859-1938). Husserl phenomenology did the job of the Koran in the west, He made Westerners contemplate on all their presuppositions, concepts, and their prejudices which had become a thick layer between the mind and the things themselves.

So Phenomenology fulfilled God's intention of achieving the essences, by performing reflection concerning our self, initially to purify it from any concepts, (names) which is not given to us in genuine experience. The Koran from the first to the last verse is asking us to reflect, contemplate and to look within ourselves, reducing every name to the name of God.

I am speaking about the Koran more than phenomenology, with the supposition that readers are oriented phenomenological. For an experience to be phenomenological it needs to be outside the experience yet at the same time living in it. This double mode of being is an  essential step in the emergence of the transcendental consciousness. Regarding Go. He does not need to perform this reduction, He is the omnipresence.  This presence in everywhere, at all times, and he obliges us to be ready to take His view into consideration. Phenomenology calls upon us recognize the importance of being present to our object of knowledge (originally given in intuition). Which is regarded as the principle of all principles. My purpose here  is to reveal to you  that the Koran has a phenomenological aspect which is clear to and can be grasped by  those who know the essence of phenomenology.