This book is a journey through time and space, between past and present, East and West. Its compass traces the workings of the passions—those enduring forces that have stood the test of time, boldly asserting their presence in various forms of expression: philosophy, literature, poetry, and mysticism. At times, they also slip discreetly into unexpected domains: nestled within scientific discourse, epistemological reflections, legal-religious writings, and even beyond moral judgments—in political rhetoric and practice itself, where politics becomes the passion for power and the art of managing passions.
All these expressions reveal the depth and originality of the term "passion" (hawā in Arabic), shedding light on its richness and duality—carrying meanings of both decline and elevation. It is no surprise, then, that passions have been subject to both blame and praise, criticism and admiration, whether in the writings of philosophers or in religious traditions.
This work begins at the gateway of language and meaning, moves through the enigma of human nature, and explores the passions of the "great man" who writes history and shapes events. It pauses at the formation of the "passionate self" (al-anā al-hawā’iyya) in narrative philosophy and in the literature of Arab pride, and follows its fluctuations between the creative artistic passion for beauty and the production of kitsch, ugliness, and repulsion.
Ultimately, the author leads us to the experience of love—or what she calls "the passion of passions" (hawā al-ahwiya). Not in the traditional philosophical sense of inquiring into its essence, but rather as an exploration of its unique, often underestimated wisdom, and of its stirring manifestations: as in the “saturated phenomenon,” where intuition overflows and transcends conceptual boundaries (as in erotic experience); or the "suspension" of the feeling of love—placing it in brackets (epoche of passion); or even the experience of "emotional mourning," understood as a recognition of the loss of a loved one, akin to acknowledging the truth of death.