Hamza Yusuf | The Global Philosophy of Religion Project
Hamza Yusuf | The Global Philosophy of Religion Project
The Importance of Sufism in Chinese Islam (with Sachiko Murata)
Abstract:
“Cemalnur Sargut Hocam asked us to say something about the significance of the Kenan Rifai Chair of Islamic Studies at Peking University, which we inaugurated in the Spring of 2012. As many of you know, the Kenan Rifai Chair is housed in Te Institute of Advanced Humanistic Studies. The Institute was founded by Professor u Weiming in 2010 shortly after he retired after thirty years at Harvard. During our timein China we taught one course at Peking University, another at Minzu University, and we participated in several conferences and workshops. We met many of the foremost Chinese scholars of Islam and we had a number of talented students“
ISLAM, YOGA AND MEDITATION (from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies) – Patrick DSilva
Abstract:
“How have Muslims responded to, engaged with and developed original versions of yoga and meditation? This chapter provides a brief historical overview with an emphasis on Muslim communities in South Asia, especially during the Mughal period. This first part of the chapter establishes the basic framework for understanding the earliest surviving texts demonstrating Muslim engagement with yoga in South Asia, as well as the most important texts and individuals who stand out as key examples of how this engagement develops over subsequent centuries. This chapter also pays special attention to the translation and circulation of a set of Śaivite divination techniques centred on the breath known as Śiva-svarodaya (sometimes svara-yoga or svara-jñāna) from Sanskrit and Hindi into Persian and Arabic as ilm-i dam/ilm al-dam (‘the science of the breath’).1 The second part examines meditation, with an emphasis on the Sufi rituals known as dhikr, the ‘remembrance’ of God. The third section analyses contemporary concerns and controversies regarding Muslims and yoga“
Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Seal of Absolute walāya: A Shīʿī Response to Ibn ʿArabī – Mohammed Rustom
Abstarct:
In Ibn ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) highly developed theory of walāya (‘sainthood’ or ‘friendship with God’), Jesus is conceived of as the ‘Seal of Absolute walāya’ whereas Ibn ʿArabī is the ‘Seal of Restricted walāya’. After explaining how Ibn ʿArabī understands these two designations, we shall move on to Sayyid H aydar Āmulī’s (d. ca. 787/1385) critique of Ibn ʿArabī’s hagiology. Although Āmulī was one of Ibn ʿArabī’s most prominent Shīʿī admirers, he was opposed to the identification of Jesus as walāya’s Absolute Seal and Ibn ʿArabī himself as its Restricted Seal. Instead, Āmulī contends, these titles can only apply to ʿAlī b. Abī T ālib (the first Shīʿī Imam) and the Mahdī (the twelfth Shīʿī Imam) respectively. In order to demonstrate his point, Āmulī deploys his arguments from three different perspectives, namely those of transmission (naql), the intellect (ʿaql), and unveiling (kashf). Since Āmulī’s understanding of the Seal of Restricted walāya turns out in many ways to be a natural corollary to his identification of the Seal of Absolute walāya, this article will only be concerned with Āmulī’s explication of the latter. It is hoped that this investigation will help shed greater light on a key feature of Āmulī’s Imamology, which is inextricably tied to his simultaneous critical reading of, and commitment to, Ibn ʿArabī.
The Incantation of the Griffin (Simurgh) and the Cry of the Eagle: Islam and the Native American tradition
Abstract:
“The incantation of the Simurgh awakens those who are asleep and its abode is on the cosmic mountain (Qāf ). Its incantation reaches everyone but few listen to it. Everyone is with it and yet the majority are without it. . . . This Simurgh flies without moving and takes to the air without wings, and approaches without traversing distances. All forms issue from it but it itself is formless. Its nest is in the East but the West is not deprived of it. Dancers wear and use whistles made of the wing bone of the eagle to which eagle plumes are attached. In recreating the cry of the eagle to the powerful rhythm of song, dance and drum, the Eagle is present in voiceand being, man’s vital breath is united with the essence of sun and life.Through such ritual use of the sacred form man becomes Eagle, and the eagle in his plumes is the Sun.”
Two Brothers
“At the end of July, I was amongst 60 people who retreated from our daily lives, in a valley called Pontbriand, high in the Appalachians of Quebec. There, for six days, we followed a rhythm of existence that centred around devotion, reflection, and seeking of wisdom and meaning. We gathered early morning to pray and invoke God. We rested before midday, and then reconvened to learn about how to let our hearts flower and open up to the Love of the Divine. We ate wonderful meals together, prepared by a loving soul who poured her care into each dish. After lunch, we’d meet again to meditate and let the lessons of the day seep into our hearts and out again in shared reflections”
THE ESSENTIAL VEDANTA – A NEW SOURCE BOOK OF ADVAITA VEDANTA
Abstract:
“If we are to form a proper understanding of the meaning and scope of “Revelation,” we do well to forget at once the implications of the term in the Mediterranean religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Strictly speaking, “revelation” is a misnomer, since ultimately there is no revealer. The Sanskrit term for it is śruti, literally “the hear- ing,” which means an erudition acquired by listening to the instruction of a teacher. This instruction itself had been transmitted to the teacher through an uninterrupted series of teachers that stretches to the beginning of creation.Revelation, therefore, is by no means God’s word—because, paradoxically, if it were to derive from a divine person, its credibility would be impugned. It is held to be authorless, for if a person, human or divine, had authored it, it would be vulnerable to the”
WRITINGS FROM THE PHILOKALIA ON PRAYER OF THE HEART
Abstract:
“The ‘Philokalia’ is a collection of writings of the Fathers from the earliest times after the Declaration of Constantine the Great. It shows the way to awaken attention and consciousness, and to develop them ; it provides the means of acquiring the quickest and most effective conditions for training in what the Fathers, who reached the highest levels, called the art of arts and the science of sciences, leading a man towards the highest perfection open to him. The present selection is extracted from the ‘Philokalia’ in order to make the task easier for the mind which undertakes this training. The selection represents the essential lines of that training, and the practice of centuries has given it a definite value”