In the west, the common picture of a Muslim woman is the stereotype of a woman hidden behind a veil, a voiceless, silent figure, bereft of rights. It is a picture familiar to all of us, in large part because this is invariably how the western media portrays women in Islam.
Tag: Article
The Message of the Human Body
To say that man, and consequently the human body, is made in the image of God,” means a priori that it manifests something absolute and for that very reason something unlimited and perfect…
Who Is “Satan” and Where Is “Hell”?
That in this day and age, when "for most people religion has become an archaic and impossible refuge," [1] men no longer take either God or Satan seriously, arises from the fact that they have come to think of both alike only objectively, only as persons external to themselves and for whose existence no adequate […]
On Jihad and Holy war
In the Islamic tradition a distinction is made between two holy wars, the "greater holy war" (el-jihadul-akbar) and the "lesser holy war" (el-jihadul-ashgar). This distinction originated from a saying (hadith) of the Prophet, who on the way back from a military expedition said: "You have returned from a lesser holy war to a great holy […]
Fundamental Keys
Fundamental Keys Meditation, concentration, prayer: these three words epitomize the spiritual life, while at the same time indicating its principal modes. Meditation, from our standpoint, is an activity of the intelligence in view of understanding universal truths; concentration, for its part, is an activity of the will in view of assimilating these truths or realities […]
Suhrawardi on Sacred Symbolism and Self-Knowledge
Amongst the writings of the founder of the school of Illumination and key figure in post-Avicennan Islamic philosophy, Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (d. 587/1191)1, are a series of mystical/philosophical narratives or ‘recitals’ written in Persian….
Man and the Presence of Evil
OF the main theories to account for the existence of the world, or its apparent existence,one is the theory of emanation (or manifestation) and another is the Christian theory of creation. The theory of emanation—it may be called Platonic (and this includes its neo-Platonic developments) since it is in this form that it presents itself […]
Discovering the Interior Life
This title was originally chosen by the Lama Trungpa for a talk he was to have given at a conference of Catholic religious headmistresses just after New Year 1968 at "Spode House" near Rugeley, Staffs. Being unexpectedly prevented from keeping this date, the Lama asked me to act in his stead; this new version of […]
No Activity Without Truth
This paper was originally composed, by request, to be read at a congress convened for the purpose of considering the deeper causes of the crisis through which the world is passing with a view to positive remedial action in the light of religion. The congress was held in Japan in 1961, hence the number of […]
Signs of the Times
IN the Uncreated Principial Substance, which Hinduism terms Prakriti, there is perfect equilibrium between the upward, the expansive and the downward tendencies, sattva, rajas and tamas. The creation itself breaks this equilibrium, being in a sense a "victory" of tamas over sattva.