The second BILDEV Talk was held on January 10, 2021, at the Marmara Ilahiyat Cultural Center in Istanbul. The speaker, Hiroaki Kawanishi from Tübingen University, delivered a thought-provoking lecture titled “Transcendence Above Transcendence: Abdal-Ghani al-Nabulusi’s Reception of Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Sanusi’s Metaphysics.”
This presentation examined how al-Nabulusi—a prominent early modern Sufi thinker—engaged with and reinterpreted the metaphysical doctrines of al-Sanusi, a central figure in the Islamic theological tradition. Kawanishi explored the intellectual dynamics between the two thinkers, emphasizing notions of divine transcendence and how metaphysical language shapes religious experience.
The event drew participants interested in Islamic philosophy, theology, and Sufism, and contributed to ongoing efforts to revisit classical Islamic texts through contemporary scholarly dialogue.