Abstract
Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980 - 1037) was one of the most excellent philosophers in eastern Islamic lands. The present article analyses the theme of love (hubb / ishq) in the broader context of his psychological and cosmological teachings.
This analysis is mainly based on the interpretation of two philosopher's works dealing with this theme namely The Treatise on Love (Risala fi 'l-'ishq) and The Living, Son of the Vigilant (Hayy ibn Yaqdhan). In the first part of the article attention is paid to the phenomenon of love as means to the perfection of the form (i.e. soul), proceeding in a hierarchy of beings from the roughest to the purest.
The second part draws up a brief picture of Avicenna's opinion on love between humans, describing gazing at a beautiful face and embracing and kissing of a beloved person as enobling activities. The third part is dedicated to love between man and God, a topic which was allways considered controversial.
While Islamic philosophy denounced the possibility of God's love for man, Islamic mysticism (sufism) focuses on this motive. At this moment Avicenna seems to stand just on the boundary between these two different ways, when he describes God as loving his own manifestation in the Universe.