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…
Tag: Article
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?
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 […]
Concerning a Paradox in the Divine Comedy
ONE of the contradictions, real or apparent, to be found in the Divine Comedy is the fact that Dante places in hell a saint, namely Pope Celestine V, whom the poet reproaches for having abdicated and for having thus betrayed his charge. Here is the story…
Dharmakara’s Vow
THE notion of "myth" is one which generally evokes an image of traditional stories that are full of symbolism but more or less devoid of historical foundation. Now this latter opinion should not enter too peremptorily into the actual definition of myth; it is sufficient to say that the function of myth is such that […]
The Void in Islamic Art
STRICTLY speaking, the forbidding of images in Islam refers only to images of the Divinity; it is thus situated in the perspective of the Decalogue, or more exactly of Abrahamic monotheism, which Islam renews: in its last as in its first manifestation, this monotheism is directly opposed to idolatrous polytheism…