Tag Archive for: Islam
From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic Program – Jun 28-30, 2022
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The Spiritual Meanings of the Hajj – Dr. Zafer Mian
Abstract :
“And [remember] when We assigned for Abraham the place of the House, [saying], “Ascribe no partners unto Me, and purify My House for those who circumambulate, and those who stand, and those who bow and prostrate. And proclaim the hajj among mankind: they shall come to thee on foot and upon all [manner of] lean beast, coming from all deep and distant mountain highways, that they may witness benefits for them and mention the name of God, during known days, over the four-legged cattle He has provided them. So eat thereof, and feed the wretched poor. Then let them be done with their untidiness, and fulfill their vows, and circumambulate the Ancient House.” (The Study Quran – Nasr, 2017)”
Qur’anic terminology, translation, and the Islamic conception of religion – Maria M Dakake
Abstract:
“A key question in the field of religious studies is the extent to which ‘religion’ as a concept ‘translates’ in various cultural contexts, with some arguing that it is a purely Western and academic construct. In this article, I argue that the Islamic understanding of religion as a universal category of human experience with various, distinct manifestations is similar to the concept of religion widely operative in the academic discipline of comparative religion; for this reason, Islamic terms related to religion can easily be translated into terminology broadly found in the study of religion, including the term ‘religion’ itself. I argue, however, that the apparent ease with which one can translate Islamic religious terminology may obscure some important nuances in the Islamic conception of religion that make it both distinct and internally coherent with its broader view of human nature and of its own particular religious system relative to others. Attentiveness to the semantic range and usage of some key terms in Qur’anic and Islamic terminology regarding religion yields a distinctly Islamic conception of religion that is independent of Western, academic theories of religion”
Review of Yousef Casewit’s “The Mystics of al Andalus” – Michele Petrone, Medieval Encounters 26 (2020)
Abstract :
“Before being a work on the life and thought of Barrajān, the book of Y. Casewit is a modern introduction to the mystical movements that sprung up in al-Andalus, starting from the tenth century. In this review I will avoid giving a summary of the work, which is already provided in a thoughtful preface to the book. What seems to be more important to note is the methodology the authoruses to describe the thought of Ibn Barrajān. Contemporary scholarly works on medieval Islamic thought seem to befocused on the reconstruction of networks. The circulation of diverse ideas in al-Andalus has been the object the attention of a number of studies, all reviewed by the author in the introduction of his book. This preliminary over- view is carried out not only as a state of the art. Casewit here dealt with the scholarship devoted to the reconstruction of a framework of historical and philosophical inquiry in tenth- to thirteenth-century al-Andalus. The issues of bāṭinism, Ismaili influences, and the role of the Rasāil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ are synthetically discussed and establish a large framework for the following inquiry. The most important part of the preliminary phase of the research is the definition of the role (if any) played by al-Ghazālī in the formation of Ibn Barrajān’s thought”
THE TRANSCENDENT ETHICS OF TARBIYA: Ibrahim Niasse’s Maqāmāt al-dīn al-thalāth – Oludamini Ogunnaike
Sufism Revived: A Contemporary Treatise on Divine Light, Prophecy, and Sainthood
Abstract:
“In this compilation of spiritual discourses (sing. mudhākara), Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari offers a Sufi commentary on the functions, degrees and implications of prophethood (nubūwa), messengerhood (risāla), and sainthood (wilāya). Major themes include the identification of the Prophet Muhammad with “the supreme intellect” (al-ʿaql al-akbar); the manifestation of the all-encompassing Muhammadan Reality through the different prophetic figures; the notion of prophetic inerrancy (ʿiṣma); the doctrine of the Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil); and the universality of the Muḥammadan nation. In his discussion on sainthood, the Shaykh offers a commentary on the Path to God as expressed in the well-known Holy Tradition (ḥadīth qudsī), narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, in which God proclaims: “Whoever aggresses against one of My friends, I declare war on them…My servant continues to draw near unto Me with supererogatory devotions until I love him; and when I love him, I am his hearing by which he hears, his sight by which he sees, his hand by which he clutches, and his foot by which he walks. If he asks of Me, I will surely give him; and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely give him refuge.” Throughout these discourses, the Shaykh offers practical advice for seekers regarding the complementarity between the exoteric Law (sharīʿa) and esoteric Truth (ḥaqīqa); the love of the Prophet and his descendents; and the attainment of unmediated knowledge of God (maʿrifa). Special emphasis is placed by the Shaykh on the seeker’s visions (mushāhadāt) of God’s Light; recognizing the traces of the Divine Names in creation; and how to derive knowledge of God from one’s spiritual experiences”