Entries by simar

The Wine Song (Khamriyyah) of Ibn Al-Farid

The Wine Song of Ibn Farid Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid was an Egyptian scholar of Islamic law, and a teacher of Hadith.  His poetry is considered by many to be the the very height of Arabic Sufi literature.

The Mystic Rose Garden (Gulshan i Raz) by Mahmud Shabistari

The Mystic Rose Garden The Gulshan i Raz  is a collection of poems written in 1317 A.D. (717 A.H.) by Shaykh Sa’ad Al-Din Mahmud Shabistari in the mathnawi form. It is considered to be one of the greatest Persian works of Sufism.  The poem is in response to a series of fifteen questions on Sufism asked of Shabistari by […]

The Garden of Fragrance (Bustan) of Sadi

The Garden of Fragrance The Bustan is a book of poetry by the the great Persian poet Sa’adi Shirazi.  Written in the mathnawi style it was completed in 1257.

Islamic Art and Spirituality

Islamic Art and Spirituality By Seyyed Hossein Nasr   Islamic Art has been the subject of study by Western scholars since the nineteenth century and by Western-trained Muslim savants for several decades. It has, moreover, come to receive special attention during the past two or three decades by the larger public as a distinct category […]

Response to Stephen Hawking’s Physics-as-Philosophy

Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies, Volume 16, No 2, 2011, pp. 5-48. The Grand Design,1 to be sure, is not simply another “Physics for the Millions” production, nor is Stephen Hawking, its primary author, just another scientist addressing the public at large. What stands at issue is rather to be seen as the crossing of […]

An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines

An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE AND METHODS USED FOR ITS STUDY BY THE IKHW AN AL-~AFA’, AL-BIRUNI, AND IBN SINA   This study opens up a relatively unexplored, hence unfamiliar, aspect of Islam. The ~ajority of mo?ern Muslim ration~lists will no doubt join in chorus with the formalist orthodox theologians to […]