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.

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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.”

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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”

Two Brothers (Karim)
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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”

Essential Advaita
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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”

Philokalia
PhilokaliaDownload

Answers to Some Questions Posed about Religion and the Environment – (Nasr)

Answers To Some Questions Posed About Religion And The Enviornment (Nasr)
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Islam and Secularism – Syed Muhammad Naquib Al – Attas

Abstract:

“About ten years ago* the influential Christian philoso­pher and one regarded by Christians as among the fore­ most of this century, Jacques Maritain, described how Christianity and the Western world were going through a grave crisis brought about by contemporary events arising out of the experience and understanding and interpretation of life in the urban civilization as manifested in the trend of neo-modernist thought which emerged from among the Christians themselves and the intellectuals philosophers, theologians, poets, novelists, writers, artists“

Al-Attas, Islam And Secularism
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Sam’ani on the Secret of Love in Adam’s Felicitous Sin -William C. Chittick

Abstract:

“does not follow the pattern of Arabic books in this common genre, for he avoids linguistic analysis and theological abstractions and instead spends most of his time addressing the repercussions of the divine names in the human soul. He makes constant use of imagistic language, poetry, anecdotes, stories of the prophets, accounts of Muhammad and his Companions, and sayings of the great Sufi teachers. The result is one of the most wide-ranging expositions of Islamic spirituality ever written. The book and its author, however,were almost completely forgotten until the text was published in 1989.In 1992 I introduced a few of its teachings about Adam at a conference on Persian Sufism organized by our late and dear friend Leonard Lewisohn, and later I quoted many excerpts in my study of love”…..

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The Mosque The Heart of Submission – Rusmir Mahmutćehajić

Abstract:

This is a remarkable little book. As I read it through I was astonished
at Dr. Mahmutc´ehajic´’s ability to reformulate classical positions of
Muslim thinkers and spiritual teachers in fresh and original ways. Despite
his use of a nondenominational language, he is completely in
line with the Islamic intellectual tradition founded by the Qur’an and
the Prophet and echoed down through the ages in the writings of………

(The Abrahamic Dialogues Series, No. 3) Rusmir Mahmutcehajic - The Mosque_ The Heart Of Submission (Abrahamic Dialogues)-Fordham University Press (2006)
(The Abrahamic Dialogues Series, No. 3) Rusmir Mahmutcehajic – The Mosque_ The Heart Of Submission (Abrahamic Dialogues)-Fordham University Press (2006)Download

‘God Surrounds all Things’: An Islamic Perspective on the Environment

Abstract:

In attempting to understand the Islamic view of the envi­ronment, we have to begin by asking how
Islam has tra­ditionally discussed the concept with which we are dealing. How does one say “environment”
 in the language of the Koran?.

God_Surrounds_all_Things_An_Islamic_Per
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