THE Sufi master is the representative of the esoteric function of the Prophet of Islam and by the same token the theophany of Divine Mercy which lends itself to those willing to turn to it. The sharî’a, the Divine Law, is meant for all Muslims and, in fact from the Islamic view, for all men […]
Category: Articles
Iranians Celebrate National New Year
Iranian oral tradition takes Norouz as far back as 15,000 years — before the last ice age. King Jamshid (Avestan Yima) is said to be the person who introduced Norouz celebrations, which symbolises the transition of the Indo-Iranians from animal hunting to animal husbandry and a more settled life in human history. The Historians however, […]
Extracts from the Letters of Shaikh Al-`Arabi Ad-Darqawi
THE first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, published in 1913, while admitting the importance of the Darq?w? order (see Derk?w?) in Morocco and Algeria adds: "There are also a few zaw?y?[1] of little importance in Tunisia, Tripolitania and the East…
Frithjof Schuon and René Guénon
The following is the text of a talk given at the Temenos Academy on July 14, 1999 to an audience by no means altogether familiar with the writings of these two men.
The Role of Appearances
FOR exoterism, appearances have little importance, unless it be that Revelation and Tradition concern themselves with them to a certain degree; for pure esoterism, on the contrary, appearances have all the importance that results from their nature on the one hand, and from the nature of man on the other.
The Degrees of Art
TRADITIONAL art derives from a creativity which combines heavenly inspiration with ethnic genius, and which does so in the manner of a science endowed with rules and not by way of individual improvisation; ars sine scientia nihil.
Forgiveness in Religious Thought
A STRIKING emphasis in Jesus's ethical thought is his insistence upon multiple or unlimited forgiveness. The most conspicuous example of it is his reply to Peter's question, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
Paths That Lead to the Same Summit
THE constant increase of contacts between ourselves, who for the purposes of the present essay may be assumed to be Christians, and other peoples who belong to the great non-Christian majority has made it more than ever before an urgent necessity for us to understand the faiths by which they live.
A Thomist Approach to the Vedanta
WHEN I was asked to read a paper to this Society on some aspect of the Eastern religions I was glad to accept, not because I have the kind of scholarship I think would be necessary to speak about so vast a field, but because I have been engaged in what may be called the […]
Recollecting the Spirit of Jihad
If the words quoted above were true in 1860, when the Emir wrote them, they are sadly even truer today. In the aftermath of the earth-shaking events of September 11 many in the West and in the Muslim world are rightly appalled by the fact that the mass-murder perpetrated on that day is being hailed […]