Sophia

SOPHIA
Volume 13, Number 2 Winter 2007-2008

The Foundation for Traditional Studies
Board of Directors
President
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Vice-President
Huston Smith
Secretary
James Cutsinger
Sachiko Murata
Osman Bakar
Executive Director
Katherine O'Brien
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4) 2007 by The Foundation for Traditional Studies
ISB. ' 978-0-9798429-1-7 I ISSN 1531 123
0 . ...,.., Jerusalem, from a 15th century manuscript.
(Courtesy of the BibliotMque Nationale. Paris)
Table of Contents
Health and Harmony: Earth as Sacred Presence . . ....... . . . .. 5
by HRH The Prince of Wales
The Contemporary Islamic World
and the Environmental Crisis ... ... . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . ....... 13
by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
An Interview with Huston Smith .. .. . . ... . . .. . .. ... . .. .. . 37
The Wisdom of Christian Kabbalah . .. .. .. . . .. . ...... . . .. . 41
by Wolfgang Smith
The Question of Sufi Influence
on the Early Kabbalah .. . .. . ...... . .... ... ... .. . .... 69
by Tom Block
Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Phi losophy ...... .. .. 87
in the Twentieth Century
by Zachary Markwith
Ananda Coomaraswamy Invites Shiva to Dance .. ..... _ . . .. 141
by Dan Rudmann
Reviews .. ... .... ...... .. .... ......... ... ..... ... .
In Print .. .. ...... ... .. ..... ........ ....... .. .... .
160
168
Notes on Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 172
Health and Harmony:
Earth as Sacred Presence
by HRH The Prince of Wales
The following is a speech given by HRH The Prince of Wales
on receiving the 10th Global Environmental Citizen Award
from Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the
Global Environment at the Harvard Club, New York City,
in January 2007.
l
am flattered and honoured to be receiving this award from Mr. Gore
on behalf of the Center for Health and the Global Environment
at Harvard Medical School. I have known Al for many years and
greatly admire his commitment to environmental issues. That com-
mitment has been maintained, I may say, through times when-as I
know all too well myself-such issues were far from fashionable and
merely daring to talk about them was a positive handicap for anyone
in public life.
I suspect that many of you will have seen AI's remarkable film
' An Inconvenient Truth' . Interestingly, or worryingly, we both pro-
duced personal statements on the environment as long ago as 1990,
with remarkably similar titles. Al very kindly took the risk of being
associated with my film for the BBC, called 'Earth in Balance' . And
he was equally articulate and thoughtful in his own book, Earth in the
Balance, which appeared just a little later. Great minds think alike!
I made that film because of my personal and profound sense of
unease, which even then dated back almost 20 years, about the way
that we, as mankind, were treating the environment on which we all
ultimately depend. Since then, of course, every passing year has seen
further evidence emerge of the damage we are doing to this poor old
planet-the only one we've got that sustains life in such a miraculous
and well- ordered way.
A hundred years ago, few people thought that we might be
damaging our life support system, and those who did were unable
5
HRH The Prince of Wales
to substantiate their concerns in any meaningful way. But over the
ensuing years the evidence has emerged, bit by awful bit, to the point
where no-one can surely be in any doubt whatsoever about the nature
and scale of the damage we are causing. That doesn' t, of course, make
the message any more palatable, which is perhaps why Al has called
his film' An Inconvenient Truth' .
But if the facts are now so clear-and no-one who has seen the
film can be in any doubt about that-it is surely the duty of each and
every one of us to find out what we can do to make the situation bet-
ter. However, if we are to do this, I think we need first to stop and ask
how we could have allowed ourselves to reach this point in the first
place? In my own attempts to draw attention to environmental issues
I have always tried to ask what it is about our society and its value;
that has led us to act with such thoughtless destructiveness. With
all our knowledge, our resources and our capacity for sophisticated
analysis of any and every problem known to man, how on earth did
we arrive at this point? Ifwe could answer that question, we could be
more confident about our ability to look for and implement solutions
before it really is too late.
The crux of the problem, I believe, is that we have come to see
ourselves as being outside of Nature and free to manipulate and control
her constituent parts, imagining somehow that the whole will not suffer
and can take care of itself, and of us, whatever we do. I happen to
think that this illusion of separateness conceals from us the degree to
which we are still entirely dependent on those natural systems for our
basic needs, notwithstanding Our technological genius. Surely, if we
are to find our way through to a wiser, more balanced future we must
learn to see the world differently-and our role in it. To me this is a
"crisis of perception" which we have to face up to. Ifwe don' t we
will inevitably end up making all the same mistakes, all over a g ~ i n .
This is not, you will no doubt be relieved to hear, going to be
the occasion for a lengthy discourse on mankind and Nature or the
dominance of empirical argument over intuitive thought! (That will
have to be reserved for a much more unfortunate audience at a later
dare!) But I do just want to introduce some thoughts which, whilst not
~ ~ feature of the average after-dinner speech (although I can't
believe you have taken the trouble to invite me across the Atlantic
.. bear mere platitudes .. . i), are nevertheless central to many of the
6
Health and Harmony: Earth as Sacred Presence
things I have argued for so vigorously over the years. One of these is
the relationship between health and harmony.
Health is the practical measure by which we judge the effective-
ness of things, and it can be applied to abstract concepts such as the
economy, democracy or an argument, just as well as to a farm, a
lifestyle or indeed a person. But both biology and the latest discov-
eries in quantum physics demonstrate just how profoundly health
depends on organisms or particles operating in harmony with their
surroundings. This is neither a debating point nor a coincidence. It
is a fundamental fact of natural law. All organisms depend on a state
of harmony to be healthy. Yet our species has made such powerful
and unhealthy changes to this planet that we are increasingly out of
harmony with our environment. We are no longer dancing in tune
with Nature's rhythms. As a direct result, our environment is losing
its capacity to sustain us.
I want to suggest that before we even start thinking about the posi-
tive and practical steps needed to reverse environmental degradation
and limit climate change, we really do need to look hard at ourselves.
We need to recognize that to a large extent we have lost our capacity
to see beyond our individual, and in many cases urbanized, lifestyles.
Three quarters of the population of your country now lives in a city,
and the proportion is much the same in Europe. This means that many
people now have little or no physical contact with the Earth. They may
see excellent programmes about Nature on their television screens,
but they have little--if any-<lirect experience of their own. Nature
has become a simplified and sanitized, arm's-length experience, to
be switched on or off at will. It is no longer the "Mother Nature" that
animated the entire world for generations of our forebears. As a result,
so many have lost what I would call a "sense of harmony".
Having become disconnected from Nature, we have discarded our
sense of awe and reverence for the natural world. Tragically, we have
also largely lost the once common belief that mankind is, above all, a
participant in the natural world, with a sacred-yes, a sacred-<luty
of stewardship to fulfil. In some of Our actions we now behave as if
we were "Masters of Nature", and in others as mere bystanders. If
we could rediscover that "sense of harmony", that sense of being a
part of and not apart from Nature, and so regain our sense of steward-
ship, we would perhaps be less likely to see the world as some sort
7
of gigantic production system, capable of ever-increasing outputs for
our benefit-at no cost. And we would be more willing to recognize
the Earth for what it is-a complex, living organism, dependent on
harmony for its health-and ours.
With this approach, Ladies and Gentlemen, we would take full
responsibility for our actions and give greater weight to our instinctive
and intuitive responses. These instincts have been an essential guide
to actions over thousands of years. They are actually part of our
survIval kIt, handed down over all those generations, but they have
become blunted through lack of use, with their messages drowned
out by the clutter and static of Our daily lives. Yet they are still there,
If only we could find the time to listen ....
Many times in my life I have come across people who remain
deeply conscious of this older, more natural perspective.
Years ago, in Northern Australia, I remember seeing the aftermath
of a temble typhoon in Darwin and being told that the Aboriginal
people there, together with the birds, had sensed that disaster was
imminent and had disappeared to find a safer place. I heard exactly
the same story just two years ago when I saw for myself the awful
aftermath of the Asian Tsunami when I visited Sri Lanka. The tiny
Andaman and Nlcobar Islands were close to the epicentre of the
earthquake off Sumatra and bore the brunt of the devastation. But
the small tribes who have lived there for 50,000 years and who are in
contact with the Earth used their instinctive powers of partici-
patIOn to save nearly all of their people. Coastal tribes like the Onge
and Jarawa on South and LIttle Andaman noticed subtle changes in
thebehavlOur of bIrds and fish. These warning signs are woven into
therr folklore and they responded immediately, wasting no time in
moving quickly to higher ground and the shelter of the forest. In this
way, they survived.
. Such people do not observe the world from the outside. They con-
Sider themselves participants in it and define life on Earth as "sacred
sensitive to the importance of the innate Harmony
I have Just mentIoned and do something about it when it starts to
Dagment. They also take direct responsibility for the future and listen
C2refully to their well-learnt and thus instinctive responses.
_ I come across many people who say they feel deeply ill at ease
!be way we use the world today-that we misuse it and waste its
,"'::som ..... .,..., u:s."" Deep down, in their inner-most being, they sense that we
8
Health and Harmony: Earth as Sacred Presence
are heading towards some kind of catastrophe. Perhaps unconsciously,
they are reading the signs and, like many of us, I suspect, they know
in their hearts that, somehow, we must change our ways. But all too
often we continue to turn a blind eye to these intuitive feelings. Why?
Is it because we feel that such an intuitive response has no place in a
world so dominated by the one response of rationalism? If that is so,
then I would argue that such a reduced response is far from rational. It
is irrational! Not least because it persuades us that all we have to do is
invent our way out of the problems we have created-that technology
will fix everything. But it seems to me that however effective they may
be, technological fixes are not enougb on their own. Only by widening
and deepening our focus will we begin to recognize that we cannot
carry on the way we do now as if it were "business as usual."
I happen to think that intuition is a much-maligned faculty. And
yet the word itself is a clue to what it truly is. Our "in-born tutor"is
the voice of the soul; the link between the body and mind and there-
fore the link between the particular and the universal. If we were to
recognize this truth we would once again begin to see our existence in
its proper place, within creation and not in some specially-protected
and privileged category of our own making.
I realize that saying such things in one of the commercial capitals
of the world may seem somewhat nalve-<>r, as the British press like
to observe so frequently, "eccentric"!-but it does seem to me that
the business community-which, oddly enough, often recognizes
the value of instinct and "gut feel"-has a particular responsibility
to see and understand the broader relationship between mankind and
the natural world. As Professor Herman Daly once said so eloquently,
"the natural world is the envelope that contains, sustains and provi-
sions the economy" and not the other way round.
There seems to be a view in some quarters that in commerce
there is only a ruthless "law ofthe jungle" to be observed. Yet this is
a much-abused metaphor, because a jungle is in fact a vivid example
of an immensely complex natural system, in which the various parts
survive-and tlrrive-as much tlrrough co-operation as competition.
If we really lived by the law of the jungle, properly understood, then
we would treasure diversity in our economy, reward collaboration,
build skills to manage complexity, and maintain all those subtle
checks and balances that keep any economy, or eco-system, vibrant
and healthy.
9
There are, of course, many far-sighted businesses which do take
a longer and broader view of their responsibilities. It is instructive
for instance, to look at the major oil companies and see the differen;
approaches it is possible to take to the science of climate change.
Some of them still seem to be in a state of increasingly desperate
demal. Others are ahead with strategies that will, gradually,
but probably not qUICkly enough, position them and their shareholders
for the reality of a carbon-constrained future. I know where I would
prefer to invest!
Companies in many other sectors have also seen the future and
are adapting their corporate behaviour accordingly. In San Francisco,
In 2005, I met representatives of several United States businesses who
are already taking action to limit their contribution to climate change.
There are so many shining and practical examples of what can be done
that It would be invidious to name just one or two of the companies
that are settIng the pace. But, as a general observation, the things that
are done do not require either huge investment or extraordinary
IngenUity. They mostly need clear thinking, a proper understanding
of the Issues and possibilities, determination and good management.
These are, ?f course, among the hallmarks of any successful company,
and I certaInly understand why some business analysts are starting to
claIm that the companies which succeed in tackling climate change
are those that wIll achIeve long-term success in other areas too.
In for every company, large and small, in every sector,
to follow theIr example we have to recognize another factor, which is
that the pressures on businesses come from two main sources: govern-
ments and consumers. If those pressures are aligned and consistent
t?en It IS much easIer for companies to see where their best interests
lie and then take effective action. It is for governments to establish
policy frameworks to encourage and enable companies to take the
necessary steps to make major reductions in their emissions of green-
house gases. And consumers can make it clear that they regard this
as essenlJal and that they will remove their custom from businesses
which are not moving fast enough. This is another area where each
of us as individuals can make a real difference.
like therest of the world, I am watching with enor-
mous Interest the grOWIng debate now taking place here in the United
St!res on. c!ffitate change. Indeed, it was particularly encouraging to
a1 !be JOmt statement published only last week in Washington by
10
Health and Hannony: Earth as Sacred Presence
evangelical leaders and leading scientists in America calling for.a
change in "values, lifestyle and public policy" to protect the Earth. ThIS
followed a gathering in South Georgia under the auspices of our host
tonight, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard
Medical School, and the National Association of Evangelicals. As thIS
report said, "there is no excuse for further delays" and "business as
usual cannot continue yet one more day". As you may have gathered
by now, I have been in no doubt for a considerable number of years
that climate change represents a fundamental and critical threat to
our survival and to any kind of future for millions of people. When I
say that the British Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David
King, told me recently that we are living today with the consequences
of carbon emissions from 30 years ago, it perhaps becomes more
starkly apparent-or should do-that the dramatically increased emis-
sions since then are rapidly accelerating the whole process of climate
change. Our successors will pay most dearly for our dilatoriness and
inaction as it is, but we surely owe it to them to take urgent
now-not just by "2020"-to halt and reverse that ever-acceleratIng
graph of global temperature rise shown to such alanning effect in Al
Gore's film. Perhaps we should see this as a war we simply have to
win-and in wartime it is remarkable how solutions can be found to
challenges that were previously considered insolvable.
Finally Ladies and Gentlemen, as on so many occasions in the
past, and as I said when I was here some 18 months ago, I can tell you
that the rest of the world, where alann is growing exponenlJally as the
evidence mounts, is looking to this great country to provide the leader-
ship and commitment that could transform the situation and bring us
that much-needed element of hope. Meanwhile, I am deeply grateful
to you for raising my morale by giving me this splendid Award.
II
12
The Contemporary Islamic World
and the Environmental Crisis
by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
The Significance of the Issue
B
oth people and governments in the Islamic world, as elsewhere,
are naturally paying attention to sundry problems, but outside
the purely spiritual and religious dimensions of life, nothing
is more important and worthy of consideration today than the environ-
mental crisis. This crisis encompasses the natural ecological system of
the globe as well as the human ambience, the air we breathe, the food
we consume, the water we drink, and even the inner workings of our
bodies. The crisis also endangers the harmony of the whole fabric of
life on Earth and the system that makes human life possible. And yet,
most Muslims, much like their fellow human beings, are wandering
through this unprecedented crisis like sleepwalkers, barely aware of
what goes on about them or of the deeper causes of a crisis that threatens
human existence itself here on Earth. And this sleepwalking by the
majority is taking place despite the powerful and persuasive spiritual
teachings ofIslam about the natural world and the relation of human
beings to it.
My own concern with issues of the environmental crisis goes back
to the early 1950s and my student days at the Massachusetts Institute
ofTecbnology and Harvard University. Always sensitive to the beauty
of nature, I used to walk alone, like Thoreau, around Walden Pond
when the natural scenery of the area was still well preserved. It was
the construction of Route 128 around Boston and the consequent
separation, ecologically speaking, of the area inside the beltway from
the relatively unhindered countryside beyond that brought horne to
me the fact that something was basically wrong in our relationship to
nature. As a result of this human experience and of years of study not
only of modern but also of traditional science along with religious
perspectives concerning the natural world, I was led to foresee a ma-
jor environmental crisis, whose real causes were spiritual, looming
13
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
on the horizon. I saw the blind development of modem industry as a
cancer in the body of nature; this development was like a cancerous
substance which would finally lead to the destruction of the harmony
and balance of the natural world and to its "death" in the form that
we knew it.
Upon returning to Iran in 1958, I took every opportunity to speak
about the subject of the environmental crisis, and in 1966 I delivered
the Rockefeller Series Lectures at the Divinity School of the Univer-
sity of Chicago on the theme of the encounter of human beings and
nature and the spiritual crisis of the modern world, which predicted
the environmental crisis and pointed to its spiritual roots. Although
my book Man and Nature' containing the text of these lectures ap-
peared in 1968 and was translated into several European languages,
it was not translated into Persian until a couple of years ago and
has never appeared in Arabic. Despite my efforts and those of a small
number of Islamic scholars wbo turned to the subject from the 1970s
onward, general indifference to the environmental crisis and apathy in
seeking to find solutions to it based on Islamic principles continued
until the 1980s and 1990s when, gradually, voices began to be heard
concerning this issue among both members of the general public and
various governmental agencies. Yet, even now those voices are often
drowned out by those of others whose agendas do not put a priority
on the preservation of the environment. Furthermore, among
religious scholars in the Islamic world, who wield so much influence
among ordinary people, only a few have risen to strongly defend the
Islamic teachings about the natural environment and to criticize
in depth actions taken by both governmental and non-governmental
agencies wbich are detrimental to the health of the environment.
One can say, therefore, that despite a gradual rise in recognition of
the seriousness of the environmental crisis in many Islamic countries
and the reformulation in a contemporary language of both legal and
philosophical/theological teachings of Islam about the natural envi-
ronmental, tbere is still a general lack of aware ness of thi s crucial
matter. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of the will that is necessary
lO prevent further deterioration of the environment, a deterioration
brought about through actions often carried out in the name of human
..-dfiIre. but whicb result in the destruction ofthe health of the natural
<AJdd without whicb human welfare, and in fact human existence it-
self; vrould not be possible. We must ask, therefore, why it is that the
14
The Contemporary Islamic World and the Environmental Crisis
Islamic view of nature and concrete directives for buman action in the
natural world are not being emphasized by governme.ntal authontles
or even by the majority of 'ulamii', who are.the traditional guardians
of Islamic knowledge in its various d1ffienslOns.
Obstacles to Realizing and
the Islamic View ofthe Natural Envrronment
When one studies the Islamic view of nature and rela-
tion to the natural environment, as well as the way IslamiC
civilization created a society and especially an urban settmg 10 har-
mony with nature, and when one compares these With the
situation in tbe Islamic world today, it becomes obvIOUS that neither
governments nor most people in Muslim countries are follow1Og
Islamic principles in their treatment of the natural Nor
are most of the 'ulamii' teaching and preach10g the IslamiC view of
this subject to the public. Furthermore, many Mushms, especially
those uprooted from their villages and the countryside and resld10g
often in squalid conditions in larger towns and CItieS, are not even
continuing the practices of their parents and grandparents back 10 their
villages as far as matters pertaining to the natural environment are
concerned. One must tberefore ask what tbe obstacles are to know-
ing and then implementing Islamic teachings concern1Og the natural
environment. . .
This question becomes particularly pertment If one. remembers
that throughout nearly the whole Islamic world, the rehglOn ofIslam
is still strong. The mosques are full, and on thousands upon
thousands listen to preachers discussing vanous Issues .. Books and
media programs dealing with Islam have a vast readership and audi-
ence. To answer this question, we must tum to deeper causes that
concern not the religion oflslam, which places so much responslblhty
on beings in their relation to nature, but tbe external o.bstacles
that prevent these teachings (to which we: sball tum later 10 thiS essay)
from being propagated and implemented 10 a society 10 wblch the vOice
of religion is still very strong and where all ethics, they be
personal, social, or environmental, have a rehglOus foundatIOn.
Let US then tum to a number of the major obstacles:
I. The present environmental crisis is directly related tfo theduse
of modem technology and the various apphcatlOns 0 mo em
15
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
science. One can see this in problems as far apart as the rise
m populatIOn due to the practice of modem medicine and
global wanning caused by a set of complex industrial factors.
But modem science and technology also provide those who
possess them with power and are in fact the main reason the
West can exercise domination over other societies, including
the IslamiC countnes. Consequently, both Muslim govern-
ments and many Muslim individuals want to gain access to
the very technology which has had devastating environmental
consequences. Seeking to gain power for themselves in the
intricate political and economic situation of today's world,
they are, at best, always at the receiving end of a technology
that is ever changing and needs to be constantly borrowed
anew from the West and, to some extent, Japan. There is no
pause in the dev.eloprnent of ever newer forms of technology,
a pause that might allow Islamic societies to create some
form of equilibrium with the technology that is borrowed to
"humanize" certain aspects of it to the degree possible, and to
mlmmlze Its environmental impact.' The governing
classes m the Islarmc world have their eyes only on emulat-
mg the West when it comes to the question of science and
technology, but they are emulating an ever-changing model.
They therefore remain constantly on the receiving end in a
situation in which it is difficult, although not impossible, to
apply Islamic principles to the economic and environmental
fields while still being part of what is euphemistically called
the global economic order. They seem to have neither the
insight nor the courage and will to create an Islamic economic
order in which the Islamic view of the relation of human be-
ings to the natural environment would be central. And being
at the receiving end, they are even less prepared than the
highly industrialized countries to ameliorate, to some extent
at least, the negative effects of modem technology.
2. In the present period of human history, the agenda for major
and economic matters, including the applications of
science and technology, is set by the West, while the rest of
the world tries its best to provide answers on the basis of its
own cultures. Rarely do non-Western cultures and societies
16
have the power to set the agenda themselves. This includes
newer factors contributing to the environmental crisis itself
and proposals for its solution. For example, recently the
West has developed biotechnologies that are already havmg
a global impact not only in medicine but also in agriculture.
Muslims did not invent the problems arising from genetically
altered crops. That agenda was set by the West. But they must
now grapple with them, as they must grapple with the ethi-
cal consequences of cloning. Muslims, like nearly all other
non-Westerners except perhaps the Japanese, have to accept
the fact that in so many crucial issues the technologically
more powerful West chooses both the playing field and the
rules of the game. Obviously, this constitutes a formidable
challenge to Islamic governments and societies if they wish
both to implement the Islamic principles involved and to
play the game. Ifthey choose not to do so, external pressures
become so great as to force them to enter the playing field.
Only smaller units can in some cases remain separate and not
have to participate in the game ofthe day, whose rules are set
beyond one's borders.
3. Such rapid transformations are made possible by those who
constitute the vanguard of what one could call "Faustian Sci-
ence," to use the language of Goethe. There are only a few
Muslims in that vanguard group, but they are for the most
part different from others only in that they have Muslim
names. Otherwise, they usually accept completely the mod-
em scientistic worldview and are champions of "Faustian
Science." They also usually look upon Islamic science as
simply a prelude to modem science, not as a science based
on a sacralized and not secularized view of nature. Although
the number of such advanced scientists in the Islamic world is
small, scientism has a fairly substantial following, especially
among the ruling classes in various Islamic societies. In fact,
modernists as well as so-called fundamentalists are all in favor
of the propagation of modem science and technology, to the
extent possible, and of increasing Muslim participation in
furthering the growth of "Faustian Science."Needless to say,
such an attitude constitutes a major obstacle to the propagation
17
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
of the Islamic view of nature and the cultivation of sciences
based on Islamic principlesJ
4. On a ~ o r e practical level there is the major obstacle of the
mIgratIOn of the vast number of people from the countryside
to urban areas. Typically, such people lived in ecological
harmony WIth theIr environment back home in their villages.
They cared for animals and plants and were careful not to
pollute their water resources. But once cut off from their tra-
ditional surrounding, they become uprooted people, dislocated
not only on the human plane but also in their relation to the
natural world. In urban settings usually impoverished and
full of all kinds of pollution, their task becomes solely the
survIval of themselves and their families with little interest
in anything else. Even if the municipality' plants trees before
theIr houses, they usually care little for them and are often
instrumental in their destruction. In contrast to the earlier
population, which occupied the centers of the older Islamic
cities and lived with an awareness of its responsibilities to-
ward its environment, the new occupants, although from the
countryside, wreak havoc not only upon shanty towns but also
upon the old urban centers they now occupy. One need only
to look at the old CIty In Fez or the heart of Cairo to reali ze
the problem and to see how difficult it is to reeducate the
more recent migrated groups in environmental concerns and
make them regain the same respect for their new environment
that they displayed back home in the countryside where they
felt that the tree outside was their tree to be protected and
the stream flowing by their house was iheir stream, not to be
polluted. The mass migration of people from the countryside
to the cities, which is a global phenomenon and one of the
results of modem industrialization, is as fully evident in the
IslamIC world as elsewhere. Its effect on both the cities and
the countryside has been devastating as far as the natural
environment is concerned.
5. Governments in the Islamic world are, needless to say,
confronted WIth these and many other social and economic
difficulties not all of their Own making. But solutions offered
18
even by relatively benign governments interested in the wel-
fare of their people have been and remain to a large extent
based on Western models. Nearly always they seek to apply
attempted Western solutions to problems ofIslamic society.
Although there have been a few changes here and there
in recent years, blind imitation of the West in this domain
remains the norm in most places. Now, these governments
wield power over their societies and use their power to op-
pose by force any movement which would challenge them.
Since they base their solution to the environmental crisis on
various Western models, they remain, naturally, opposed to
any voice which seeks Islamic solutions, unless there is a
situation in which such a solution would be favorable to the
government in question.
6. The autocratic, and in some cases dictatorial, nature of regimes
in many Islamic countries makes an environmental movement
based on Islamic principles a threatening undertaking if it
challenges government policies and plans-many of which
are dangerous from the environmental point of view. One
needs only to recall the opposition of the Ministry of Hous-
ing in Egypt two generations ago to the remarkable village
built by the great Egyptian architect Hasan Fathy, because his
philosophy of architecture-based on the use oflocal materi-
als with full awareness of the necessity of the integration of
architecture and the natural environment-was opposed to
the views of the Ministry, which were based completely on
prevalent Western ideas of the day. Considering how vola-
tile opposition to state planning can be in such instances, in
many Islamic countries open criticism of environmentally
dangerous programs supported by the government can be
politically dangerous. It is true that there are now "green
groups" in certain Islamic countries, such as Iran, and that
these groups assemble here and there to resist the destruction
of the environment. And it is true that some governments have
ministries and bureaus in charge of environmental matters.
Nevertheless, in much of the Islamic world, open opposition
to governmental policies which are environmentally danger-
ous can be politically risky, as is also the case in India, China,
19
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
and many other countries. This lack of freedom to oppose
openly government policies which endanger the environment
IS a major obstacle in many countries from Bangladesh to
Malaysia. This IS one of the tragic conditions of our times
just when we so need to have heard those voices which speak
for the health of the whole planet, and do not only claim to
address the need for self-gratification of only one species
that is, human beings. '
7. Strangely enough, movements in the Islamic world which
have sought revive Islamic teachings, often in opposition
to pohlical orders, have been for the most part blind
to IslamiC teachIngs about the natural environmental. When
such groups have opposed modernists and secularists on many
Issues, they have for the most part agreed completely with the
latter group in their blind imitation of Western technology,
se':'ltude toward modern science and its application, and
Indifference to the consequences of the adoption of modern
technology for the natural environment, as well as for the
souls and minds of Muslims. They always speak of jusiice,
but not of JUS lice for all forms oflife; although they espouse
the causes of Islamic revival, they do not contribute to the
revival of the Islamic understanding of the natural environ-
ment and of our responsibilities toward God's creation beyond
the human world. It is interesting to note that Saudi Arabia
which is dominated by Wahhabism and which is usually called
"fundamentalist," was the theater in the I 970s and 1980s for
the largest transfer of Western technology in hi story. Yet,
very few voices were raised concerning the consequences
of this technology on the environment. Such concerns are
only now being expressed in that country and some action
is being taken. Also, when the Islamic Revolution of 1979
in Iran occurred, there was at first strong opposition to the
national park system created during the royal regime and
many protected animals were killed. It was years before the
government realized the importance of environmental issues
and created the position of a vice president to deal with the
subject AJtogether, the political revival ofIslam has not meant
an automatic revival oflslamic teachings concerning nature.
20
The revival of the latter has come through individuals and
small groups who have made governments, whether modernist
or "fundamentalist," gradually realize the crucial significance
ofthe environmental crisis and the role that Islamic teachings
can play in solving that crisis.
8. Finally, in enumerating the obstacles in Islamic societies
confronting the task of reformulating Islamic teachings about
the environment and implementing them in society at large,
one must mention the lack of awareness and preparation of
the traditional scholars ('ulamii ') who are the custodians of
Islam and who have the ear of the vast majority of Muslims
in all matters, including those pertaining to the environmen-
tal crisis. There are several reasons for this state of affairs.
First, human beings traditionally were not a danger to the
environment and lived more or less in equilibrium with it.
Preachers in mosques, when addressing the relation between
human beings and nature, usually spoke about ethical matters,
including kindness to animals and the virtue of planting trees
as the Prophet had cornmanded. They did not have to address
the dangers of the destruction of bio-diversity and global
warming. Second, during the past two centuries. Islam was
attacked by intrusive colonialists and aggressively prosely-
tized by either Christian or secularist missionaries from the
West. Much of the energy of Muslim religious scholars was
spent defending Islam from those attacks and preserving the
people's religious identity. Third, as modermsm spread WithIn
Islamic society itself, the 'ulamii ' saw their duty primarily as
one of guiding people to the right path amid the chaos cre-
ated within sectors ofIslamic society itself, and they did not
spend their energies studying in depth what was occurring in
the West.
As far as the environment is concerned, even in the West
itself Christian and Jewish theologians and thinkers did not
turn to the "theology" of nature until the 1980s and 1990s;
in the Islamic world the same trend is now gradually being
seen. There are now a few eminent Muslim 'ulamii ', such as
the grand mufti of Syria, Shaykb Ahmad Kiftaru, who speak
often of the Islamic teachings about the environment. But
21
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
the majority are still unaware of the urgency of this matter.
When they do speak about it, it is often at the instigation of
governments which want people to clean up the stream near
theIr home or not to litter the park next door-but nothing
more basIC that could threaten various government projects.
Governments know full well the power of the 'ulama' to
mfluence the public at large. The problem, as far as the
environment is concemed, is that most 'ulama' still remain
unaware of the centrality of environmental issues. Nor do
they realize how important their contributions can be to the
physical, psychological, and social health of their communi-
ties. These traditional scholars need to become fully aware
of Islanuc teachmgs about the environment and be willing
to speak about. and act on them with courage in the face of
ImmedIate poittlcal considerations and contingencies.
Islamic Sources and Their Teachings
on the Environment
As in the case of everything else Islamic, the primary source of Is-
lamIC teachmgs about the natural environment is the Quran, in which
the foundatIOn of the relation between human beings and the world
of nature IS clearly stated. Then there are the collections of hadith
in which one can find numerous sayings of the Prophet
the treatment of nature by human beings. After these twin sources of
Islam, one must point to the injunctions oflslamic Law, or Sharl'ah.
Although is not considered a distinct and separate
of the Shan ah 10 the same way that it has developed as a dis-
tmct domam of law in the West, recently there have been numerous
shar,'ite injunctions dealing specifically with the environment, with
matters as water, soil, animal, and plants-issues that have a
distmct beanng on the natural world and, in fact, constitute the natural
enVIronment. Likewise, texts of Islamic ethics are of significance, in
therr concern both WIth such human passions as greed, which have
such a devastatmg effect on the environment in the modem context
and with animals and even plants. '
On ::nother level, one must mention texts of Islamic philoso-
phy_ dealing WIth nature. The main schools of Islamic theology, or
toliim, did not pay much attention to a "theology of nature" which
22
would be of significance in the present-day environmental crisis. By
contrast, numerous works oflslamic philosophy provide not only an
Islamic philosophy of nature, but what in the West would be a
"theology of nature." This is also true of Sufism, whIch contams the
most profound expressions of an Islamic "metaphysIcs and theology
of nature." Certain Sufi texts bring out the most mward meanmg of
the Quranic doctrine concerning the cosmos and human beings' rela-
tion to the world of nature.
Over the centuries Islam produced a major scientific tradition
which dealt with the world of nature and at the same time functioned
within an Islamic universe of discourse. This scientific tradition has
much to offer in the process of formulating a contemporary language
expressing Islamic views of the relation of hum.an beings and the
natural environment. This contemporary IslamIC VIew, m conjunctIOn
with various forms of technology developed in Islamic civilization,
could help find a way out of the impasse created by the current en-
vironmental crisis.
Islamic art complements Islamic science and its expressions, espe-
cially in architecture, landscaping, and urban design. These are visible
applications and embodiments of the Islamic sciences of nature. and
cosmology. A careful study of the traditional Islamic arts, especIally
those just mentioned, could be an important source of both knowledge
and inspiration for creating human living spaces in harmony, rather
than discord, with the natural environment.
One of the Islamic arts is literature, which, in the form of poetry
especially, has been able to propagate the most profound
about the spiritual significance of nature among mtellectual ehte and
ordinary people. Numerous Arabic-speaking peoples recall the verse
of the Arab poet Abu Nuwas:
Wa li-kulli shay 'in lahu iiyatun,
Tadullu 'ala annahu wai}idun.
In everything there resides a sign of Him,
Providing proof that He is one.
And, is there a Persian speaker who has not heard the verse of Sa' di
in his Gulistan?
23
Seyyed Hossein N asr
khurram az iinam ki jahiin khurram az ust
'Ashigam bar hama 'alam ki hama 'alam az ust. '
I amjoyous in the world of nature for the world of nature is
JOYous through Him,
I am in love with the whole cosmos for the whole cosmos
comes from Him.
Various of the Islamic people, ranging from Arabic and
Persian to Bengali and Swahili, contain a vast wealth of material on
the Islamic view of the relationships between human beings and the
natural envlfonment. Literature is also an excellent means for the
propagation of that view among contemporaries, not only through
recourse to classical works, but also through the help of present-day
and poets, some of whom could surely tum their attention to
this subject If they were to be made aware of its crucial importance
If w.e were to examine these sources, what would we learn about Is:
lamlc teachmgs concerning the environment? Some work has already
been done in this domain, and here one can only summarize some of
ItS most relevant and salient features. The Quran in a sense addresses
the cosmos as well as human. beings, and the world of nature partici-
pates 10 the Quramc revelatIOn. The cosmos itself is in fact God's
first revelatIOn, and upon the leaves of trees, the faces of mountains,
the of ammals, as well as in the sounds of the winds and
gently flowmg brooks, are to be found the signs of God. These are the
messages ofthat primordial revelation. That is why classical Islamic
thought to both the recorded Quran (al-qur 'an al-tadw'inf) and
the cosrruc Quran (al-qur 'an al-takw'inf). Furthermore, the verses of
the Quran, the phenomena in the world of nature, and events within
the souls of human beings are all referred to as portents or (iiyat)
of God by the Quran itself, as in the verse, "We shall show them
?ur portents (ay,at) upon the horizons and within themselves, until
It becomes mamfest unto them that it is the truth" (41:53, Pickthall
translatIOn). LikeWise, alI the in the natural world sing the
PIalse of God. In destroymg a speCies, we are in reality silencing a
whole class of God's worshipers.
_ In the Quranic view creation is sacred but not divine, for divin-
ny be.longs to God alone. Nature is sacred because it is the effect of
the Divme Creative Act to which the Quran refers in the verse "But
, ,
24
His command, when He intendeth a thing, is only that He saith unto
it: 'Be!' and it is (kunfa-yakiin)" (36:81). What issues directly from
the Will of the One who is also called the All-Sacred (al-Quddus) in
Islam and what reflects His Wisdom carmot but be sacred. Nature
reflects the Wisdom (hikmah) of God and His Will (iriidah), as also
the Quran repeats in different places that it was created in truth and
not falsehood. Nature is not there only for our use. It IS there to reflect
the creative Power of God, and grace, or barakah, also flows in the
arteries and veins of the universe. Human beings are created to be a
charmel of grace for the cosmic ambience in which they live. Creatures
in the world of nature not only have a relation with human beings and
through them with God, they also have a direct relation with God and
possess an eschatological significance. The IslamiC paradise !S full of
animals and plants and is not only crystalline. Creatures Will speak
directly to God on the Day of Judgment. As Rumi says, "They are
silent here but eloquent there." He adds in another poem:
If only creatures had tongues (here below),
They could lift the veil from the Divine mysteries.
In fact like the Quran whose verses have levels of meaning, the phe-
of nature possess inward levels of meaning and significance.
The reality of nature is not exhausted by its outward appearance. Each
phenomenon is precisely "an appearance" of a noumenal reality. The
phenomena of nature are not only facts but are primarily symbols
related to the higher states of being. Nature is not only the domam of
quantity, the source of power and resource. It is above all the abode of
spiritual presence and source for the
of divine wisdom. Our need for nature IS not only 10 ItS ablhty to feed
and shelter our physical bodies, but also and above all in its ability
to nurture our souls. As the complement to the Quran as revelatIOn,
nature responds to our spiritual needs.
A central concept of Islam cited often in the Quran is i,ulqq (pI.
/:luquq), which means at once truth, reality, right, law, and due; The
term al-Ifaqq is also a Name of God as well as of the Quran: It IS
also of the utmost importance for understanding the IslamiC view of
human beings in relation to the natural environment when it is used
in the case of creatures. According to Islam, each being exists by
virtue of the truth (/:laqq) and is also owed its due (i,ulqq) according
25
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
to its nature. The trees have their due, as do animals or even rivers
and mountains. In dealing with nature, human beings must respect
and what IS due to each creature, and each creature has its rights
accordmgly. Islam stands totally against the idea that we human be-
ings have all the rights and other creatures have none except what we
deCIde to gIve them. The rights of creatures were given by God and
not by us, to be taken away when we decide to do so.
The Quran speaks of human beings as both servants of God
('abd Alliih) and vicegerents of God (khalifat Allah). We have the
right to practice our vicegerency on Earth only on the condition that
we remain God's servants and obey His Will and His Laws. Even
the permission to dominate (taskhlr) the earth is given to us on the
condition that we remain in a state of submission to and servanthood
of God. God dominates over His creation, but He also cares for it.
In contrast to the interpretation of certain Muslim modernists and
fundamentalists, the Quran does not under any condition
gIve human bemgs the right to dominate nature without protecting
It and actmg ItS steward. We cannot take away the f;aqq of vari-
ous creatures gIven to them by God, but must pay each being its due
(f;aqq) in accordance with the nature of that creature. As for our rights
(I,tuqiiq) over nature, like other rights, they must follow our respon-
sibilities toward God and the world of nature. In Islam there are no
human rights without human responsibilities. Rights follow and do
not precede responsibilities'
The Prophet ofislam, who was the first and surest guide for the
understandmg of the Quran and whose sayings (af;adlth) and actions
and deeds (sunnah) complement the Quranic teachings about the
natural world, reflected the Quranic teachings about the treatment
of the natural world in his daily life. He encouraged the planting of
trees, banned destroymg vegetation even during war, loved animals
and displayed great kindness to them, and encouraged other Muslims
to do likewise. He even established protected areas for natural life
which may be considered Islamic prototypes for contemporary natu:
ral parks. and conservancies. The books of f;adlth are replete
WIth saymgs pertammg to the world of nature and the attitude of
human beings to it, including strong opposition to wastefulness and
the needless destruction of nature based only on greed and avarice.
TIle al,tadith emphasize cleanliness and disapprove of the pollution
26
of water and other substances that support life. It is the Prophet who
said that it was a blessed act to plant a tree, even if it were the day
before the end of the world.
There is a traditional account which displays the Prophet's
attitude toward the natural environmental and which should serve as
a powerful lesson for contemporary Muslims. It has to do with
famous reclining palm tree of Seville, which the celebrated Andaluslan
Sufi Ibn 'Arabi mentioned in his account of the life of the Prophet.
He considered the Prophet's dealing with the tree to be one of his
miracles. The account given by Ibn' Arabi is as follows:
In the vicinity of the Cemetery ofMushka [in Seville] ". there
was a palm tree which, as one could see, was leaning over a
great deal. The people in the neighboring houses, fearing that
it might fall on their homes and damage them, complamed to
the local ruler who, in response to their concern, ordered It to
be cut down. Those who were going to cut it down arrived at
the place after the evening prayer and said: "It will soon be
dark. Let us cut it down tomorrow, if God wills"" ..
Now, it so happened that one of our companions [had a vision
in which] he saw the Envoy of God-may God bless him and
give him peace-sitting in a mosque situated in the middle
ofthe Cemetery ofMushka. [And he saw how] the palm tree
in question was ploughing through the ground with its roots
until it arrived at his side. It then complained to him that the
people wanted to cut it down on account of its curvature, for
fear that it might harm their houses, and it said to him, "0
Envoy of God, pray for me!"
The person who had the vision related that the Envoy of God
then placed his hand on the palm tree, which immediately
straightened, remaining upright and erect, and returned to
its place.
In the morning, when the people got up, I went with a group
of individuals to establish the veracity of that vision and we
all saw that it had straightened up and become erect, without
any curvature.'
Would that present-day Muslims remember this account when they
27
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
next try to cut trees only for the sake of convenience or greed!
. As forthe Divine Law, or Shar/'ah, it contains numerous injunc-
tions pertaInIng to the natural environment. These include insistence
on making natural resources that are used by the community as a
whole, such as water and forests, public and not private property, and
on guardIng and protectIng them. They also include the just treatment
of ammals and plants and the prohibition of killing living beings for
wasteful or needless purposes. The ritual sacrifice of animals that can
be eaten and whose flesh then becomes or permissible, is itself of
the greatest importance in creating a spiritual relation between human
beings and the animal world. Also, sharT'ile teachings about economic
matters, !Dcluding opposition to usury, to wasteful consumerism and
to the amassing of wealth, are of the greatest direc; and
IndIrect unport for human beings' relation to the natural environment.
Altogether the SharT'ah contains both concrete laws and principles
for the regulatIOns needed to help the Islamic community confront the
cntlcal envIronmental situation today and to find sol utions that would
be much easier to implement than secular laws and regulations, be-
cause Mushms would be more willing to accept and implement them.
They would see the.m as God's Laws, rather than simply governmental
regulatIOns to be cIrcumvented whenever possible.
What Is to Be Done?
Facing the environmental crisis, which threatens human life itself is
of the utmost urgency precisely because of the rapidity with which
the natural environment is being destroyed. The solution to this crisis
requires the most urgent action, a turning to a sacralized vision of
nature, as well as performing concrete actions on the earthly plane.
In hght of the IslamIC teachings about the natural environment and
the present situation, a number of actions can be taken in the Islamic
world to ameliorate the severe crisis caused by the human treatment
of the natural world today. Some of these actions are briefly outlined
below:
I. Since the nineteenth century, scientism and the blind adula-
tion of modem technology have spread gradually within
the Islamic world so that today, among those who rule over
various Muslim societies, as well as among most modernized
Muslims and even a number of religious scholars there ex-
28
ists a prevalent scientism outwardly not different from
that existing in the West. Whether there IS a modenust or a
so-called fundamentalist government ruling over a Muslim
society, there is a blind acceptance of modem .Western science,
and Western technology is adopted as rapIdly as poSSIble,
with little interest in the environmental consequences of such
actions. Where the Islamic world differs from the West is that
the Western scientistic world-view-with its reduction of both
human beings and nature to a set of complicated molecular
structures bereft of any sacred significance, except In a sentI-
mental sense-has a less tenuous hold upon the Muslim mind
than it has in the West, which has had several centuries of
confrontation with the materialistic and quantitative view of
nature. The first step in the Islamic world must be to criticize
this stifling scientistic view of reality and to demonstrate why
it is opposed to the authentic Islamic and more generally re-
ligious point of view as such. There is no way to reconstruct
the edifice of the Islamic view of human beings and nature
without clearing the ground of all the decrepit ideological
ruins posing as immovable monuments and cleanSing the
mental space of the Islamic world of all of the. result-
ing from scientism, reductionism, and matenahsm Just as the
Prophet cleared the Ka'ba of idols in the Age oflgnorance.
2. Having cleared the mental space and removed the obstacles
which exist in the minds of so many Musluns and whIch
prevent them from comprehending their own traditional
universe, the Islamic understanding of the natural envlTon-
ment and humanity's relation to it must then be formulated
and expressed in the clearest language one that is
comprehensible to contemporary Mushms. The formulation
of these Islamic teachings, drawing from the sources already
mentioned, must be made on several levels. These formula-
tions must be able to address the philosopher as well as the
cobbler, the religious scholar as well as the peasant. There
must exist the deepest metaphysical exposition comprehen-
sible to those few rooted in the Islamic intellectual tradition
and/or well aware of Western philosophy, as well as poetic
expressions to attract the large numbers drawn to literature
29
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
and to sermons preached to the multitudes in mosques. There
IS no reason why, Ifthere is the will, in a few years the Islamic
teachmgs about humanity's relationship to the environment
cannot be made known to all levels ofIslamic society using
contemporary language. Much has been done, but has not as
yet been widely disseminated.
3. Those who run the affairs of Islamic society are men and
women who, obviously, have been trained in various schools
and disciplines. It is essential to introduce courses on the en-
vironment at all levels of education and to emphasize themes
and subjects pertaining to the environmental dimensions of
other within those disciplines. For example, it is
almost cnmmally to teach various fields of engineer-
mg WIthout acquamtmg the students with the environmental
impact of this or that engineering project. Likewise, economic
plannmg should never be taught without consideration ofthe
envIronmental costs involved. The West has been more suc-
cessful in this matter in recent years than the Islamic world
because modern educational institutions in the Islamic world
emulate the West and are therefore usually a step be-
hmd. In many places educational systems are still following
older, obsolete currIcula of their Western models.
Courses on the environment, and emphasis upon subjects
pertammg to the environment in other courses, should not
however, be limited to modern educational institutions bu;
most definitely should include the traditional or
madariS, in which the future religious leaders of the
munity are trained. These leaders are much more effective
than governmental officials in turning the attention of the
populace to a particular issue, and their role is crucial in
creating awareness of the environmental crisis and ofisiam's
answers to it. But the religious teachers and scholars must
first become aw.are of these issues themselves through ap-
propnate educatIOn. They must be educated to realize that the
is not going .to be solved by condoning
outlandIsh mdustnal projects whIch do irreparable harm to
the.enVlronm.ent but which are supported by the government,
while preachmg against the urban poor who pollute streams
30
with garbage. In order for this educational effort to succeed,
there is the need to teach these matters from the Islanuc pomt
of view, not just from the Western one, and for governments
to gain the approval of religious authorities in charge of the
madaris rather than trying to force the issue through some
governmental decree which will only backfire. Fortunately,
as already mentioned, there are a number ofleadmg rehglOus
authorities throughout the Islamic world who are aware ofthe
great danger of the environmental crisis, but there has not, as
yet, been a concerted effort to make this issue to the
curricula of religious schools throughout the IslamIC world.
4. While such religious scholars are being trained, those who are
already aware of the various dimensions of the environmental
crisis must be encouraged by governments which control the
media in the Islamic world to spend as much effort as pos-
sible in their weekly sermons in mosques and in daily contact
with ordinary people, radio and television talks, and writings
to increase awareness of environmental issues. As matters
stand today, in most Islamic countries what the religious
scholars say and preach is controlled by the government.
And when the government does not want a hotly contested
political or economic issue to be discussed, it usually orders
the preachers in mosques to speak about bodIly cleanlmess,
keeping the water pure, and not molesting cats and dogs in
the street. These admonitions are fine, but they are not suf-
ficient, especially when the government itself is the primary
agent causing the deterioration of the environment. In such
cases, little freedom to criticize the government IS gIven to
either religious scholars or civil leaders or teachers. Hence,
the lack of political freedom becomes a factor in weakening
efforts to solve the environmental crisis.
Nevertheless, there is still much that can be done in the edu-
cational field, so that a few years from now both government
leaders and those outside of government will see the stark
reality of the problem. For this to be realized, it would be
much easier to have the efforts of the two sides be comple-
mentary, and to have religious scholars, preachers, and imams
31
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
who have the ear of the people, spearhead efforts to save the
environment with governmental approval, rather than having
ordinary people blame the government and the government
ordmary people. Because faith in Islam is still strong, joint
efforts by rehglOus scholars and political and social leaders
would have much more success in combating the increasing
detenoratlOn of the natural environment we see in so many
parts of the Islamic world today.
5. Only recently have non-governmental institutions begun to
have some Impact m the Islamic world, despite opposition in
many cases by local governments. Now that such institutions
are taking root, it is important to create some institutions
which deal primarily with the environment, rather than with
economic and social issues independent of the environment
as we see so often today. Such environmentally aware institu:
hons have sprung up in the West during the past few decades,
and a few have been mstrumental in realizing laudable goals
m .the preservation of the environment through the purchase of
pnstme land and the protection offorests. There is no reason
why such institutions cannot expand in the Islamic world if
they are created more in keeping with Islamic teachings and
norms, including the institutions of religious endowments
(awqaj), rather then simply imitating Westem models. There
are many religious endowments for the creation of mosques,
schools, and hospitals. There is no reaSOn why endowments
could not be created for the preservation of water, soil, trees,
and ammals. Of course, the degree of freedom of non-gov-
ernmental in the Islamic world is restricted by
regulatIOns, but here again, there is a wide margin
wlthm which such institutions could function and flourish.
6. Both blindness to the dangers of many forms of modem
technology and external and internal economic and political
pressures have caused nearly all governments in the Islamic
world to disregard their indigenous technologies, ranging
from lITIgatIOn to medical drugs, in favor of Western sub-
stitutes. There must be a major campaign by those aware of
the significance of many of the traditional technologies to
32
preserve such technologies and to use, whenever possible,
alternative technologies that usually need less energy and
have much less negative impact upon the natural environ-
ment. One sees such an awareness growing here and there,
but much more work needs to be done. The implementation
of alternative technologies can have a major impact, reduc-
ing the destructive effects of modem technology upon the
environment.
7. In the contemporary Islamic world various forms of encour-
agement are used to further the cause of what the governments
or various private or religious organizations consider to be
important. There are national and international awards given
within the Islamic world for the best book, artistic creation,
and service to the cause ofislam, but there is little encour-
agement when it comes to the question of the environment.
It would not be difficult to attract the attention of the gifted
to this field through various forms of encouragement, such
as are also beginning to appear in the West.
There are, of course, many other steps that could be taken,
but the few enumerated here are among the most important
and most feasible.
Concluding Comments
In conclusion, one must ask who is going to carry out the program
thus outlined, and what force can confront the powerful international
economic and technological engine that is wreaking havoc upon the
earth on nearly every continent? The answer for the Islamic world can-
not be governments alone because, although they wield great power,
they are more a part of the problem than the solution. The solution,
at the present moment, lies for the most part with individuals and
small groups which can perhaps expand in the future. What is certain
is that, first of all, the environmental crisis must be recognized in its
spiritual and religious depth as well as its outward effects. Second,
the authentic Islamic view must be resuscitated with rigor and clarity
and without compromise. Those who can be awakened must be made
to open their eyes and to realize that the modem world is walking on
the edge of a precipice and needs only to take another "forward step"
33
Seyyed Ho.ssein Nasr
to. face its o.W? perditio.n. Awareness leads to. further awareness. The
IslamIc teachmgs abo.ut Go.d, human beings, nature, and the relatio.n
between them all co.nstitute a clario.n call fo.r this awakening fro.m the
dangerous dream o.fsclentIsm and humanity's selfish co.nquest o.fna-
ture. can set Muslims again o.n the co.rrect path to. a harmo.nio.us
modus vIvendI WIth nature, and they can also. help the Western wo.rld
to. regam and. recollect Its o.wn fo.rgo.tten traditio.n co.ncerning the role
o.fhuman bemgs m Go.d's creatio.n. Let us ho.pe that this awakening
takes place through proactiv.e human effo.rts and no.t as a co.nsequence
of the rude resultmg from eco.logicai disasters that threaten
the very pOSSIbIlIty of human life o.n earth. In discussing such mo.men-
tous It IS to remember the Islamic teaching that
the future IS m Go.d s hands. UltImately, God is, as one of His Sacred
Names, al-Muhil, tells us, literally, o.ur "environment."
34
The Co.ntempo.rary Islamic Wo.rld and the Environmental Crisis
Notes
I. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern
Man (I 967; Chicago: ABC Inlemational, 2000).
2. The analyses of Ivan lllich made a generation ago still hold true. See
his Tools for Conviviality (New York: Harper, 1980). Also, although
Jacques Ellul holds a rather anti-Islamic stand, his works have been
well received in certain circles in the Islamic world precisely because
he deals with the issue of the negative impact of modem technology
upon human society in such a way that his words speak eloquently to
those Muslims aware of the deeper issues involved in the introduction
of modem technology into their own societies.
3. During the past two decades a number of both religious philosophers
and scientists in the Islamic world have become aware of this ques-
tion and of the necessity for reviving Islamic science along lines that
I suggested several decades ago in Science and Civilization in Islam
(1968; Chicago: ABC International, 200 I) and several other works.
Today, there are a number of centers in Malaysia, India, Pakistan, lran,
Turkey, and elsewhere concerned with the Islamic meaning of Islamic
science and the danger of imitating modem science as ifit were simply
a continuation of the Islamic scientific tradition.
4. See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need for a Sacred Science (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1993), 129 ff.
5. See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for
Humanity (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2002), 281-82.
6. Ibid., 273 ff.
7. See Pablo BeneitoArias, "Life ofthe Prophet and Miracles of the Palm
Tree," Journal of Muhayiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society 30 (2001): 88-91.
This vision was made famous throughout the Islamic world through
al-Qazwini's mention of it in his Athar al-bi/ad.
8. This task has already begun and, besides my own works, a number of
books and essays from different perspectives have appeared on this
subjec!. See, for example, Richard C. Foltz, ed., Worldviews, Religion,
and the Environment (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2002), 357-91;
Akhtaruddin Ahmad, Islam and the Environmental Crisis (London: Ta-
Ha Publishers, 1997); and Fazlun M. Khalid and Joanne O'Brien, eds. ,
Islam and Ecology (New York: Cassell, 1992). See also the Journal of
Islamic Science 16, no. 1-2 (2000), where several essays are devoted
to the issue of Islamic teachings on the environment.
Reprintedwilh permission of the author from Islam and Ecology (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, 2004).
35
The empty silhouette in this Jain icon represents
the liberated soul, the one who has allained
moksha.
36
An Interview with
Huston Smith
H
uston Smith is in-
ternationally known
and revered as the
premier teacher of world re-
ligions and for his bestselling
books including The World's
Religions and Why Religion
Matters. He was the focus
of a five-part PBS television
series with Bill Moyers, and
has taught at Washington
University, the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology,
Syracuse University, and
the University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley. Through his
landmark books and docu-
mentary films, Huston Smith
has opened the eyes of the
world to the "invisible geom-
etry" that shapes human spirituality. He possesses in himself a treasure
house of spiritual wisdom which he generously shares through his
works. In his own words from a recent interview, "I've spent the last
50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done
my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions
and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've ap-
prenticed myself to them."
The Foundation of Traditional Studies, publisher of Sophia, has
had the privilege of his guidance as a board member and contributor
since its beginning. In October this year Professor Smith granted the
following interview to Sophia:
37
An Interview with Huston Smith
Sophia: There are many important issues confronting humanity today.
What in your view are the most pressing?
Huston Smith: The most pressing problem today is how to save our
planet. Ifwe cannot save it indefinitely, the question is how, for the
sake of future generations, can we delay its demise.
Sophia: What is your view of the causes of the environmental crisis?
How should humanity face and try to solve this crisis?
Huston Smith: Ignorance and greed are the causes of our environ-
mental crisis. Science is not ignorant-scientists are fully aware that
if the rate of automobiles to popUlations were the same throughout the
world as it is in America, Our planet's ozone sheath would instantly
evaporate and our planet would be a cinder.
Sophia: In many of your writings you have criticized the scientism
which is to be found in many different domains. Do you think it is
possible to avoid scientism in the midst of the prevalent uncritical
glorification of modem science?
Huston Smith: Science is good, but scientism is not, for adding the ism
transforms the search for truth into the false dogma that that science is
the sole oracle of truth. This is manifestly false, for science can only
see what is visible. But no one has ever seen a thought, no one has
ever seen a feeling, and these are what consciousness consists of.
Sophia: There is a great deal of distress felt by many people as we are
faced with the seeming "runaway train" of bioengineering, especially
human bioengineering. What are the criteria from your perspective
for determining what is and is not acceptable in this uncharted realm?
Can any degree of meaningful consensus be achieved among bioethi-
cistslphilosophers/theologians?
Huston Smith: On the issue ofbioengineers I side with Lewis Thomas,
author of The Lives of a Cell and erstwhile columnist on biology,
who saId that he would rather be dragged into the pilot's seat of a
Boeing 707 at cruising altitude than tamper with the genetic code.
The components are irmumerable and we have no idea how they are
orchestrated.
38
Sophia: How do you see the state of relations among the religions?
What steps can be taken to improve relations?
Huston Smith: God implodes into history like Big Bangs, Revelations
that spawn religions which give rise to c u l t u r ~ s which fur?ish.out into
civilizations. Throughout most of human hIstOry, rehglOn-msplred
cultures were self-contained; they lived in their respective cocoons,
unaware of other such cocoons.
Globalization has emerged gradually, and with it religion-inspired
cultures, and now civilizations, start to rub shoulders. This raises the
question of how they should rub their shoulders, which translates into
how religions should relate to one another. The answer as to how they
are relating is, variously, in innumerable ways that must be addressed
case by case. On the other hand, how they should relate to one another
has a singular answer. In their various idioms they all subscnbe to the
sura in the Quran that reads, "Had We willed We could have made of
you one people. As it is, it is better this way, so vie with one another
in good works. In the end it will all be revealed to you."
Sophia: On the subject of globalization: This is another area in which
people worldwide feel as if we are no longer at ~ crossroads, but .are
already racing headlong down a road full of pItfalls and. promIse.
Clearly one negative result of globalization is the destruCllon of lo-
cal cultures and traditions. Yet studies show that today's teenagers
from around the world, those whose world this will soon be, over-
whelmingly embrace globalization. Do you see a way forward that
can accord with the "altermondialistes," those who say that "another
world is possible"?
Huston Smith: Languages and cultures evolve, and have been doing
so for nearly seven millennia. But now, with instant communication
around the world through radio and television, the rate of change has
entered a new order of magnitude, and globalization is now full blown.
Studies show that teenagers are stampeding toward it. They want it to
be known that they don't live in backwaters, so they wear Nike shoes
and sport the American hairdos that they see on television ..
This has a severe downside: sameness, homogemzatlOn. Who
would want a painting that was monochrome and did not have a
variety of colors?
39
Sophia: What have been the consequences of the loss of authentic
metaphysIcs In the contemporary world on the spiritual intellectual
mental and psychological planes? "
Huston Smith: Metaphysics joins symbolism as being the science of
the relatIOns between the mUltiple levels of reality. As such, it demands
from ~ s everythIng that we have, for virtue increases as we climb
reahty s ladder. ThIs holds true. not only cognitively-underslanding
the hIgher rungs-but eXlstenltally, conforming our lives to them.
.; -*" -
40
The Wisdom of
Christian Kabbalah
By Wolfgang Smith
T
he question presents itself whether there is in truth a Chris-
tian Kabbalah, that is to say, a valid formulation of Christian
doctrine based upon Kabbalistic principles. It is true that a
movement known as Christian Kabbalah emerged in the fifteenth
century, which gained considerable prominence during the Renais-
sance and continued to exert a recognizable influence up to the time
of Franz von Baader (1765-1841); but the question remains: was that
so-called Christian Kabbalah authentically Christian? It may seem that
it was not. One must recall that the Kabbalah transcends in principle
the notion of creatio ex nihilo upon which Christian theology appears
ostensibly to be based.' Does not the Apostolic Creed begin with the
words "I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and
earth"?' And is not "creation" the production of a thing in its entirety
"out of nothing"?' But does it not follow, then, that to deny the creatio
ex nihilo is to deny the Apostolic Creed? And moreover, would not
that denial be tantamount to the heresy of pantheism? Acceptance of
the theological status quo on the subject of creation appears thus to
be indeed a sine qua non of Christian orthodoxy. It is no accident that
the first proposition of Meister Eckhart condemned in 1329 by Pope
John XXII reads as follows: "God was not able to make the world
first (prius) because He cannot make things before He is; therefore,
as soon as God was, He intmediately created the world"; and that the
second, moreover, was this: "Likewise, it can be granted that the world
existed from eternity.'" But the very fact that such propositions have
been enunciated by a Master and condemned by the Church makes
it clear that the question of the creatio ex nihilo is not as simple as
it may appear.
No one denies that the idea of "creation", as commonly con-
ceived, has its place, which is to say that there are levels of discourse
at which the concept applies, and is in fact needful; these levels,
however, do not cover the entire ground. It is to be admitted that the
41
Wolfgang Smith
accomplished or authentic jnani has access to a plane of
VIsIon whIch radIcally transcends our normal conceptions of cosmic
reality, and therefore also our concept of creation: for him, as the
Zen master puts it, "mountains are not mountains, and clouds are not
But as this may seem, it should really surprise no
one: It IS mevltable that a stage is eventually reached in the spiritual
ascent where "mountains" are no longer "mountains"; deep down,
all of us know that.
In the present article I propose to reflect upon the encounter
between Kabbalah and Christianity which took place in the Renais-
sance. I hope to show not only that the resultant Christian Kabbalah
is legitimate, but that in fact it gives access to a higher level of
understanding, an interpretation of Christian themes that transcends
the conventional conceptions and may properly be termed "esoteric"
in relation to the official theology.
I
t is customary to assume that Christian Kabbalah came to birth in the
year 1486, when a 23-year-old Count, named Pico de la Mirandola,
proposed 900 Conclusions to be examined by scholars and publicly
debated m Rome. The latter included 119 specifically Kabbalistic
tenets, divided into a group of 4 7 drawn from Hebrew sources, plus
a group ?f 72 saId to be "secundum opinionem propriam," in other
hIS own. His objective is to demonstrate that the teachings of
begmmng WIth the twin mysteries of the Trinity and the
IncarnatIOn, can be confirmed on Kabbalistic grounds. What is more,
the Count wishes to show, by the combined strength of his 900 tenets,
that the sacred beliefs of all nations are consonant with the Christian
religion, which he conceives to be the end and culmination of them
all. It appears that what Pico de la Mirandola advocated was indeed
a specifically Christian version of what in our time has come to be
known as the transcendent unity of religions.
It is to be noted that documented contact between Kabbalah and
Christianity goes back to the thirteenth century. To cite at least one
example, I will mention Arnold of Villa nova (1238-1312), a physician,
alchemIst, and Franciscan no less: driven apparently by aspirations
Dot unlike those motivating Pico de la Mirandola, Arnoldus proposed
a Kahbalishc "derivation" of the Trinity which altogether accords
with Renaissance Christian Kabbalah.' As one might expect, most
42
The Wisdom of Christian Kabbalah
documents of this genre produced in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries are the work of Jewish converts to Christianity, who wished
presumably to justify their conversion and defend themselves against
the charge of apostasy. One knows today that this endeavor has at times
resulted in the falsification of Kabbalistic treatises, and the question
has been raised to what extent Christian Kabbalists of a later era,
beginning with Pico de la Mirandola, may have been misled by such
"doctored" texts. In any case, while Jewish converts were claiming
to have confirmed their Christian beliefs on Kabbalistic grounds,
Talmudic Jews opposed to Christianity responded with a polemic of
their own, arguing in effect that the Kabbalah constitutes a Christian
heresy. By the middle of the fifteenth century, moreover, a third group
of documents began to emerge, consisting of Latin translations of
Kabbalistic texts, produced in the name of the Church. As we leam
from Pico himself, a set of seventy such treatises were translated by
order of Pope Sixtus IV (1471 -1484).
In light of this prehistory one may well ask what Pico brings to
the table that is new. In the first place, let it be said, he brings himself:
a native Christian, a Count, and a genius; and this combination, most
assuredly, is something new. One might recall, in this connection,
that Pico's Conciusiones were condemned by Pope Innocent VIII
(1484-1492)-at first 13 tenets, then all 900 en bloc-following
which Pico fled to France, was arrested and imprisoned by the Pope's
men in Lyon, and might well have died at the stake if it had not been
for the protection of his friend, Lorenzo de Medici, who secured his
release. Pico, thus, was a man who could not be suppressed, could
not be silenced, a man who in fact commanded the admiration and
respect of a new generation. He laid claim to being the first to expound
"the true Kabbalah" before the Christian world; and there can be no
doubt that he was perceived as such by the Christian Kabbalists who
followed in his wake. What fascinated Pico, and inflamed him, was
the conviction that by way of the Kabbalah he could demonstrate the
consonance and perfect harmony of the Jewish, Greek, Islamic and
Christian traditions. To be sure, this "ecumenical" aspiration was very
much in the spirit of prisca the%gia espoused by Marsiglio Ficino,
founder of the Florentine Academy to which Pico belonged; yet it is
apparent that Pico added a distinctive touch of his own. Fully per-
suaded that Hebrew constitutes indeed the primordial tongue, and that
what he termed ''prima et vera Cabala" was revealed to Moses by God
43
Wolfgang Smith
himself, he believed that by way of this supreme doctrine one could
penetrate into the mysteries enshrined in all the sacred traditions of
mankind. As he himself tells us in De Hominis Dignitate, in reference
to certam rare Hebrew books of Kabbalistic provenance:
When I procured these works at a very high price, and had
studied them with great concentration and without inter-
ruption, I recognized in them-and God is my witness-a
confirmation not only of the Mosaic faith, but of the Christian.
Here is to be found the secret of the Trinity, the Incarnation of
the Word, the divine nature of the Messiah; here one speaks
to us of original sin and its atonement through Christ, of the
heavenly Jerusalem, of the fall ofthe demons, of the angelic
hIerarchIes, of purgatory and the pains of hell, in the same
way as we read daily in the writings of Paul and Dionysius,
of Jerome and Augustine. And as concerns the philosophic
content of these books, one has the impression of finding
there, quite simply, the thought of Pythagoras and Plato. Now,
one knows well that the doctrines of these thinkers are near
to the Christian faith to such a degree that Augustine thanked
God profusely for permitting him to gain acquaintance with
the Platonist books. In brief, in that which separates us from
the Jews there is hardly a disputed point on which we cannot
with the help of the Kabbalah, refute them so cogently tha;
they have no more ground upon which to stand.
It is hardly surprising, let us add, that the Talmudic Jews countered
by attacking the Kabbalah itself.
It is traditional to conceive of the Kabbalah as being comprised
of two parts-the doctrine of the Sefiroth,' and the science of Divine
Names-and clearly, Pico makes ample use of both. Let us begin with
the fourth tenet of the second Kabbalistic series, the one said to be
"secundum opinionem priopriam," in which Pico addresses the great
questIOn how the ten Sefiroth stand to En-So/, the absolute and infinite
Godhead. T ~ e text reads as follows: "En-Sof cannot be counted among
the numeratIOns [Sefiroth) because it constitutes their unity, abstract
and addItIOnal, and not the unity associated with these numerations."
Pico distinguishes here between two kinds of unity: the unity of En-
So/, and that of each Sefirah. Every S<ifirah has of course its own
unity; but the unity of En-Sof transcends each of these unities: it is
44
"abstract and additional." What, then, does it unify? Clearly, it unifies
the ten Sefiroth, or the "world" comprised of these ten emanations.
But whereas En-So/, as the non-emanated origin of the ten Sefiroth,
transcends not only each Sefirah, but the entire ensemble of ten, it is
nonetheless "non-separate" from them, in as much as it constitutes
their unity, "abstract and additional" though that unity may be. What
Pico affirms in proposition H.4 amounts to a Kabbalistic formulation
of non-dualism.
Let us now consider how Pico proposes to interpret the Christian
Trinity in Sefirothic terms. To begin with, he informs us in H.20 that the
Hebrew word az, when "interpreted by the Kabbalists," throws light
upon the Trinity: "de trinitatis mysterio multum illuminabuntur." Now,
this Hebrew word of two letters is not a nomen Dei, but simply the
common adverb "then", which on the face of it has obviously nothing
to do with the mysterium trinitatis-unless, that is, the word is indeed
interpreted according to the Kabbalistic art.
7
Such an interpretation is
in fact to be found in the Book of Foundations, a Hebrew text which,
as Chaim Wirszubski has shown, was known to Pico in a Latin transla-
tion' It states that the letter Aleph in the word az "refers to the three
superior Sefiroth," whereas the letter Zayin refers to the remaining
septenary. It is clear, therefore, that the concordance to which Pico
alludes associates Kether Elyon ("Supreme Crown") with the Father,
Hokhmah ("Wisdom") with the Son, and Bina ("Intelligence") with
the Holy Ghost. One might add that this is evidently the most natural
among all conceivable Sefirothic interpretations of the Trinity, and
the one most commonly encountered in the writings of Christian
Kabbalists. The partition, moreover, of the Sefiroth into a supreme
triad and a septenary is firmly established, and it is recognized that
there is, as it were, a "break" between the two groups, in keeping
with the fact that the seven lower Sefiroth, commonly referred to as
the Sefiroth of Construction, correspond precisely to the Seven Days
of Genesis.
But does the aforesaid concordance imply that the Christian
Trinity has been simply identified with the given Sefirothic triad?
There are those who think that it does; Joseph Blau, for example, has
made the point very clearly:
From the time of Pi co [the doctrine of the S<ifiroth) was adapt-
ed into the Christian system by considering the three highest
Sefiroth, Kether, Hokhmah, and Bina, as the representation
45
Wolfgang Smith
of the Trinity ... The only other emanation which was treated
with any thoroughness was the sixth of the Sefirolh, Tiferelh
("Glory"), which was conceived as the representation of Jesus
Incamate. Thus, if anything, the doctrine of the Sefirolh aided
the Christian interpreters of the Kabbalah, for it gave them the
opportunity to distinguish between the Son as divine Wisdom
and the Son as the incarnate Redeemer; it also resolved the
difficulty of explaining the triune God by making the Persons
of the Trinity manifestations or emanations of the Limitless
God, by considering the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
as Three out of One, rather than Three in One.
9
Certainly it must be admitted that the conception ofthe Trinity would
be greatly simplified were one to adopt the stipulated identification;
but it is by no means clear that Pico, for one, does adopt it. Nowhere
does he say so. What he does say, in 11.20, is that the Trinity is mani-
fested--or represented by-the highest Sefirothic triad, and that this
concordance is illuminating, that it sheds light on the myslerium Irini-
lalis. But that is all; the rest is speculation on our part. It is of interest
to note, in this connection, that the letter Aleph, which is said to refer
to the supreme Sefirothic triad, has the numerical value I, whereas
the Zayin, which refers to the septenary, has in fact the value 7. This
appears to indicate that the former is viewed as a unity. Could it be,
then, that the Christian Trinity is to be conceived as that unity, which
is indeed "abstract and additional"? Again, Pico does not say.
He does however affirm something else which seems to speak
against Blau's "Three out of One" interpretation: in 11.6, namely, he
propounds a second concordance between the Persons of the Trinity
and a Sefirothic triad, this time composed of the first, sixth and tenth
Sefirah. The text reads as follows: "The three great Divine Names
comprised offour letters, which pertain to the secrets of the Kabbalah,
are to be associated unequivocally with the Persons of the Trinity, so
that name EHYE corresponds to the Father, the name YHVH to the
Son, and the name ADNY to the Holy Spirit; whosoever is versed
in the Kabbalistic science will understand this." Now, the first of
these Names is none other than Ehyeh, the "I AM" of Exodus 3.14;
the second is the "unspeakable" Name commonly referred to as the
Tetragrammaton; and the third is Adonai, perhaps the most beloved
ame of God among the Jews. There can be no doubt, moreover,
46
. The Wisdom of Christian Kabbalah
that the reference to "whosoever is versed in the Kabbalistic science"
alludes to the identification of the three Names with Kelher Elyon,
Tiferelh, and Malkhuth, the tenth Sefirah, also known as Shekhinah,
a correspondence which is in fact based upon Kabbahshc pnnclples.
What is especially enlightening here is the associatIOn ofthe Son With
Tiferelh, whom Kabbalists are wont to identify with Adam Kadmon,
primordial and universal Man. To be sure, this correspondence does
prepare the ground for a Kabbalistic understandmg oft.he. IncarnatIOn;
yet, even so, what Pico enunciates in IL6 is a Kabbahshc mterpreta-
tion of the Trinity. The Sefirothic triads associated With the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost in IL6 and 11.20 are not the same; yet both
Trinitarian. One can say that the respective correspondences pertam
to different points of view or darshanas in the. Hindu sense.
Besides the two representations of the Tnmty, PICO proposes a
Kabbalistic view of the Incarnation, that is to say, of Jesus Christ,
which he bases upon the Hebrew name Yeshou (from which the name
"Jesus" is derived). He does so in 11.7, immediately after proposmg
one of the aforesaid Trinitarian correspondences, the one which as-
sociates the Son with Tifereth; here is the text: "No Jewish Kabbalist
can deny that the name Jesus, when interpreted accordmg to the
principles of Kabbalah, means precisely and unequivocally God, the
Son of God and Wisdom of the Father, related to human nature m the
unity ofthe Person by the third Person of the Deity, which is the most
ardent fire How, then, does the name Yeshou lend itself to
this interpretation? Pico gives us a clue i? 1I .. l4:."By the letter Shin,
found in the center of the name of Jesus, It IS mdlcated to us, m Kab-
balistic mode that the world finds complete repose in its perfection
when the Yod'is related to the Vav, which is realized in Christ who is
at once authentic Son of God and man." One thing, at least, is clear
from the start: the "repose" of which Pico speaks can be none other
than what the Kabbalah knows as the Sabbath resulting from Tikkun,
the Restoration of all things in Malkhuth, the Kingdom of God. But
the question remains, of course, how Pico's contention,as formulated
in ILI4, can be justified by Kabbalistic means. Now, It appears that
the key to this riddle was discovered by Hermann Grelve m a foot-
note to a 1596 edition of the Adversus Haereses of St. Irenaeus. \0 The
annotated text reads as follows: "According to the original language
of the Jews, the name of Jesus is composed of two letters surround-
ing a central letter, as say their scholars, and denotes the Lord who
47
Wolfgang Smith
embraces heaven and earth." And this is what the footnote tells us by
way of explanation:
However, in order that it [the name of Jesus] designates the
Lord of heaven and earth, it is necessary to write it, in the
manner of the ancients, with three letters, Yod-Shin-Vav. and
interpret it by means ofNotarikon, which consists of interpret-
ing the individual letters as expressing entire words, so that
Yod, which is the first letter of the Tetragrammaton YHVH,
expresses the word "Lord". Moreover, the Shin is the first
letter of .the word Shamayim. which means "heaven"; and
finally, the Vav stands at the beginning of the word Vaarets.
which means "and earth". In this manner, the three letters
of the name Yod-Shin-Vav. when interpreted with the aid of
Notarikon, designate the Lord of heaven and earth.
It is to be noted that this not only justifies Pico's main contention in
11.14, but also in a way confirms the association between the Second
Person of the Trinity and the Tetragrammaton proposed in 11.6.
However, as Greive likewise points out, one can interpret II.I4
also by an alternative approach based upon the numerical values of the
letters Yod and Vav: for these values, which are 10 and 6, designate God
and man, respectively. If, now, one takes the letter Shin as signifying
the Hebrew word she (meaning "which"), one sees that Yod-Shin-Vav
can be read as "the God which is man." And thi s enables us, at the
same time, to understand what Pico has in mind when he writes, in
11.43, that "by the mystery of the two letters Vavand Yod, one is able
to understand how the Messiah, as God, is his own proper principle
as man." By this simple Kabbalistic modus operandi, what is clearly
the intended meaning of 11.14 and of 11.43 has become manifest. As
Eugenio Anagnine observes: "The mystery of the Incarnation of the
Word is represented in the Kabbalah by means of the union of the
letters Vavand Yod. "11 Now, that union was effected in principle by
Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah: I say " in principle," because the
plenary manifestation of that union remains for us unrealized. What
stands at issue here is precisely the distinction between what theol-
ogy knows as the First and Second Coming of Christ: the former took
place when Mary conceived and bore a Son, whereas the latter will
be realized when Christ shall return in Glory. One knows, moreover,
on Kabbalistic grounds, that the Name of Jesus emerges out of the
48
Tetragrammaton through the addition of the letter Shin, a fact which
signifies that Jesus is indeed the manifestation or "utterance" of the
Tetragrammaton. One can therefore say that the latter becomes "ef-
fable" through the union of Yod and Vav, as Pico himself suggests (in
11.15). Before the birth of Christ, therefore, the Name was "ineffable"
in a twofold sense (corresponding to the two Advents), whereas after
His historical birth it is in a way "effable" and "ineffable" at once,
and will remain so until the Parousia. On the other hand, the Name
of Jesus is in truth the "utterance" of the Tetragrammaton; and that
is manifestly the reason why that Name is "above every name," and
why, before the Name of Jesus, "every knee must bend. "12 One can
thus understand Kabbalistically why this Name is endowed with the
power to heal, to sanctify, and to enlighten.
W
e propose now to consider what Pico has to tell concerning
the Fall of Adam and the Redemption wrought by Christ. He
broaches the subject almost immediately, that is to say, in 1.4, which
reads: "Peccatum Ade fuit truncatio regni a ceteris plan tis" ("The
sin of Adam has severed the Kingdom from the other plants"). Now,
in the first place, it is to be noted that one sometimes refers to the
Sefiroth as "plants", a usage which Pico evidently adopts in this pas-
sage. What he is saying is that by the Sin of Adam the tenth Sefirah,
known as Malkhuth ("Kingdom") or Shekhinah, has been cut off, as
it were, from the remaining Sefiroth: the unity of the Sefirothic realm
has been compromised. This is the idea behind the so-called "Exile
ofthe Shekhinah .. an expression commonly used in Jewish parlance.
Despite the popular nature ofthis belief, however, the doctrine which
stands at issue here is profoundly Kabbalistic: in fact, Moses de Leon
(the presumed author of the Zohar) regarded it as extremely danger-
ous for the unprepared." Yet that Kabbalistic doctrine appears to have
been widely disseminated among savants of the Renaissance: even
Leibniz still speaks somewhere of Adam's Fall as "a severance of
Malkhuth from the other plants."
It is clear, from what Pico tells us in 1.4, that he aligns himself
from the start with the Kabbalistic view of man; and this, as we
know, is an anthropology based on a creatio in Deo as opposed to
the theological creatio ex nihilo. What in effect replaces the latter is
precisely the aforesaid "severance of Malkhuth," which brings into
49
Wolfgang Smith
being what we take to be the world. Moreover, since there is in truth
no "second creation," but only a severance from the first, it follows
that the "world" said to result from that severance cannot be distinct
in its essence from the Sefirothic realm. Redemption may therefore
be conceived in principle as a cognitive ascent culminating in the
attainment of true gnosis, which is the knowledge of God and of the
Sefirothic realm. Now, it is this, precisely, which Pi co himself af-
firms, in terms as Platonist as they are Kabbalistic: "If the soul grasps
that which she is capable of grasping," he writes in 1.44, "and unites
herself thus with the superior soul, she casts off her terrestrial robe,
so that she becomes thereby severed from her earthly ambience and
united with God." The superior soul of which Pico speaks is what
the Kabbalah knows as Neshamah, which is, as Gershom Scholem
explains, "substantially the same as God."'4In reality, that soul is never
separated from God, not severed from the Sefirothic world which
theology knows as Paradise. To be "united with" that superior soul
is thus tantamount to the lower soul's entry into Paradise, which is
none other than the plenary realm of the Sefirothic septenary; for as
Pico himself explains in 1.10: "It is more correct to say that Paradise
is the entire edifice, and not only the tenth [Srah]." Such then is the
Kabbalistic conception of Redemption and of Paradise; and as regards
the latter, let us note that in its center "there resides the great Adam,
who is Tifereth," as Pico goes on to say.
It is evident that Pico speaks of the spiritual Ascent in initiatic
terms: for example, in II.lI, where he distinguishes between a so-
called separation of the soul from the body-constituting what has
sometimes been called "death by a kiss"-and the separation of the
body from the soul which takes place in ordinary death. It is the
first-named "separation" that consummates the spiritual quest; as
one reads in a Jewish text: "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the
death of his saints." One may note parenthetically that this explains
the Hindu practice of preserving the body of an enlightened sage-of
one who has "died by a kiss"-whereas the bodies of persons who
die by the ordinary death are cremated: for a sage who has entered
into Mahiisamiidhi need not in fact be separated from his earthly re-
mains, which is to say that the departed may still be able to use that
body as a vehicle of grace. The subject of death ex binsica ("by a
kiss") is brought up again in 11.13, where Pico tells us that those who
"operate in Kabbalah" over a long period of time without recourse to
50
"that which is strange" will attain this coveted death, whereas those
who fall into error, or who engage in this work without the requisite
purification, will be "devoured by the fire of Azazel, on account of
the rigour of judgment."
But whereas Pico's conception of the spiritual Ascent is evidently
both Platonist and Kabbalistic, it is Christian as well, because in fact
it identifies the Eschaton with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God:
it is in Him and through Him that we are to be united with God. That
Redemption, however, is destined to include the cosmos in its entirety:
this is what the Kabbalah knows as the Great Jubilee, and what St.
Peter refers to as apocatastasis, "the restitution of all things."" Pico
conceives of it Kabbalistically as the perfect union of the fod and the
Vav realized in Jesus Christ.
One more point needs to be
made: Pico has not only given
a Kabbalistic interpretation of
Christian tenets, but has also
applied Kabbalistic principles
to the exegesis of certain New
Testament texts. Consider John
8.56, for example, the verse
which quotes Jesus as saying:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day; and he saw it,
and was glad." Pico gives us the
requisite key in 11.37, where he
speaks of a "subordination of
Piety to Wisdom on the right."
As Wirszubski points out, the
Kabbalah associates Abraham
with Hesed, the fourth Sefirah,
which Pico designates by the
term Pietas.
16
If now we call
to mind the customary repre-
sentation of the Sefirothic Tree,
one sees that Hesed is situ-
ated directly below Hokhmah
("Wisdom") on the right! All
that is yet needed to understand
51
Wolfgang Smith
what Pico is saying is to recall that the Sefiroth are often referred to
as "days". It then becomes clear that "the day of Christ" can be none
other than Hokhmah, the Wisdom of God, which moreover explains
what Pico is telling us in Il.37: namely, that Abraham, "in his day,"
saw "the day of Christ," as Pico says, "per rectam lineam" ("along
a straight line"): along the very line connecting Hesed to Hokhmah
in the Kabbalistic diagram to which we have referred! Now, this
reading of John 8.56, which Pico was apparently the first to discern,
far exceeds in depth what even St. Irenaeus, Origen, and others have
written, who perceived the text as referring to a premonition on the
part of Abraham concerning the future Messiah. It would be hard to
overstate the significance of this breakthrough: for it demonstrates
that there are levels of meaning in the New Testament as well-that
may conceivably include the highest!-which prove to be accessible
only by Kabbalistic means. And this implies that Christian Kabbalah,
as Pico conceived of it, so far from being in any way secondary or
marginal, proves in fact to be central, and in a sense "esoteric".
T
he movement initiated by Pico de la Mirandola spread almost
immediately to France, Germany and England. There can be
little doubt, moreover, that the dominant figure of the succeeding
generation was Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), a Swabian disciple of
the Count, who rose to become not only a Kabbalist of note, but the
most distinguished Christian Hebraist of the time. He too is inspired by
the ideal of prisca theologia emanating from the Florentine Academy,
and like his predecessor, regards Hebrew as the primordial tongue, in
essence the Language by means of which God created the world. But
his thought is more orderly, more systematic and rigorous than that
of the meteoric genius who first opened his eyes to the splendors of
the Kabbalah: where Pico gives us inspired fragments, the Swabian
expounds a doctrine. Reuchlin is moreover imbued with a deep and
abiding interest in the Pythagorean tradition, which he takes to be
of Kabbalistic origin. He has no doubt that the "numbers" to which,
according to Pythagorean lore, all things in creation are reducible, are
none other than the Sefiroth. which are indeed "numerations," given
that the Hebrew word is derived from safar, "to count." In line with
this belief, he perceives the Pythagorean tetractys as connected at
52
once with the Sefiroth and with the Tetragramrnaton, the Name said
to embody the mystery of their origin.
Reuchlin's major work, De arte cabalistica (1517), takes the
form of a dialogue, a genre much used in those days, perhaps partly to
protect the author against the dreaded charge of heresy. The colloquy
has a cast of three characters: Philolaus, a Pythagorean; Marranus,
a Muslim; and Simon, a Jewish Kabbalist, who evidently speaks
for Reuchlin himself. The discourse is amiable, and as we would
say nowadays, "ecumenical" in the extreme. The positions assumed
by the disputants blend, and seem to merge on the exalted plane of
Kabbalistic wisdom. Philolaus begins the discourse by expounding
the symbolism of the Pythagorean doctrine, which he declares to be
based upon "number", and Murranus closes the discussion of the first
day in the words: "Out ofthe infinite sea ofthe Kabbalah, Pythagoras
brought his river into the bounds of the Grecian fields.""
What strikes one most in Reuchlin's thought is that, in the end,
everything becomes centered upon the Tetragrammaton, the "unutter-
able" Name which is said to represent ineffably the Essence of God. In
Reuchlin's system everything becomes reduced somehow to a Divine
Name, and all Divine Names reduce in principle to the Tetragramma-
ton. The Sefiroth too corne thus to be viewed as Names: "They are the
ten Divine Names we mortals conceive of God" we are told. And since
they are also "numerations", or "numbers", if you will, this means
that these "numbers" are themselves Divine Names. It is presumably
this transcendent identity of "numbers" and "names" which underlies
the very concrete association between actual numbers and the letters
ofthe Hebrew alphabet, or the Hebrew words comprised thereof, and
which moreover permits the Kabbalist to identify one Divine Name
with another having the same numerical value.
Reuchlin's magnum opus is well titled: for it deals precisely with
the Kabbalistic "art", which however can equally well be described
as a "science". The objective of this art or science is ostensibly to
derive the Names of God-the multiplicity of which is beyond reck-
oning-from the one supreme and "ineffable" Name, which is the
Tetragrammaton. And because we mortals are able to conceive of
this Name only by way of its four component letters, these deriva-
tions require an inherently algebraic procedure, involving letters and
their numerical values. One is reminded of the mathematical physics
53
Wolfgang Smith
practiced in our day, which likewise operates with symbols that do
not admit of interpretation in terms of "observable" realities, except
at the very end, so to speak, in the form of the predicted value of an
observable. What in Kabbalah corresponds to these observables are
the "utterable" Names of God which take the form of a Hebrew word
found in the Torah. Let us recall that the three basic operations of
the Kabbalistic calculus are Gematria, which consists of replacing a
word by another having the same numerical value' Notarikon which
proceeds from the letters of a word to a group of ~ o r d s , in which the
letters of the first appear as the first letters ofthe successive words, or
which operates in the reverse direction, by collapsing each word in a
group into its first letter; and finally, Themura, which operates through
the permutation ofletters according to certain rules. By means of these
operations, which are indeed "algebraic", the Kabbali st is enabled
in principle to make his way up or down the Sefirothic Tree, whose
branches and leaves constitute the plethora of "utterable" Names;
as Paul Ricci, another sixteenth-century Christian Kabbalist, states
explicitly: "All the other Names insert into the Tetragrammaton even
as the branches and leaves of a tree insert into the trunk. "IS
The Kabbalistic art may thus be viewed as a means of uncover-
ing the occult unity beneath the formal diversity of manifestation, as
given in the "effable" Names of God. That unity, however, is not itself
"effable", but pertains to the Divine Essence, which, qua creature,
we can never know. Now, for the Kabbalist-and most assuredly, for
Reuchlin-that unity is represented by the Tetragrammaton, upon
which moreover his entire art is based. The Tetragrammaton is thus, in
a way, for the Kabbalist, what an axiom system is for the mathemati-
cian: there is, in Kabbalah, no probing into the Tetragrammaton, no
"getting behind" that most basic of Names, even as there is no probing,
for the mathematician, into the rationale of his axioms. This is where
the pure mathematician is obliged to start, and this too is where per-
force he ends: for the theorems he discovers are all in a way already
contained in that foundation. So it is, logically speaking, in Kabbalah.
And as, for the mathematician, the axiom system-to which nothing
is prior, and outside of which nothing in truth exists-is something
"given", so too, for the Kabbalist, is the Tetragrammaton: only, in this
case, the Giver is God Himself.
It is clear that Reuchlin in effect "situates" the Tetragrammaton
on the supreme level of En-So/, the Unknown God as He is "before"
54
manifesting Himself in Creation. But what is the Creation? It appears
that for Reuchlin it is the eternal "world" comprised of the "effable"
Names of God, what the Kabbalah knows as Atsiluth, "the world of
emanation." This leaves a total of three conceptual domains: that of
the Absolute Godhead, represented by the "ineffable" Tetragram-
maton; that of Atsiluth, the eternal world in Deo, comprised of the
"effable" Names of God; and lastly, the realm of what Reuchlin
sometimes terms "the things that are not," which in fact includes all
that we normally conceive of as comprising the created universe. It
goes without saying, moreover, that the Swabian Kabbalist does not
attribute that universe to a creatio ex nihilo, for the simple reason
that from his point of view this so-called universe does not exist; in
a word, Reuchlin is a non-dualist.
The great question, now, is this: how is the Unknown God-the
En-So! of the Kabbalah-related to the Christian Trinity? It appears
that Reuchlin responds to this question through the mouth of Simon,
in words ostensibly addressed to Christians:
It is, in effect, written in the book Bahir: there is no principle
besides Wisdom. To which it seems well to reply by saying
that the Infinitude of the three highest numerations, which
you are wont to call the three Divine Persons, is the Absolute
Essence, since it is hidden in the abyss of darkness .. . Likewise
one calls it Nothing, or Non-Being and Without End, that is to
say, En-So/, because we, who are smitten with such feebleness
of intelligence in regard to divine realities, do not judge of
realities which do not manifest otherwise than of those that
do not exist. But when they present themselves as something
that really exists, then the Aleph that is dark is changed into
the Aleph that is luminous.
l
'
In the first place, "there is no principle besides Wisdom": that is to
say, besides Hokhmah, the second Sefirah. This is indeed the "trunk"
or "root" from which "the branches and leaves" of the Sefirothic Tree
take their rise; as the Psalmist declares: "In wisdom hast thou made
them all." But for us, "feeble" as we are, that "root" itself remains
unmanifested. For us manifestation begins with the Sefirothic sep-
tenary, that is to say, with the Elohim, the Seven Days. The supreme
Sefirothic tri-unity, therefore, stands for us on the side of the Unknown
God, the Godhead whom we conceive as the "Divine Essence." TIle
55
Wolfgang Smith
crucial point, now, is this: Reuchlin does evidently identify the first
three Sefiroth with the corresponding Persons of the Trinity, conceived
however, not as "Three out of One," as Joseph Blau assumes, but in-
deed as "Three in One," as orthodox Christian theology insists. Why
is that so? Evidently because the Three stand yet on the side of the
Unknown God, the God who is the Divine Essence, "since it is hidden
in the abyss of darkness." The Three, in other words, are "in One,"
because they have not yet come "out o/One": have not yet emerged
from the Divine Essence. The point, obviously, is as subtle as it is
decisive: the Mystery of Christianity hangs on that point.
It is however to be noted that Simon tells us more: having identi-
fied the Three with the Divine Essence, he goes on to say: "But when
they present themselves as something that really subsists, then the
Aleph that is dark is changed into the Aleph that is luminous." What
exactly does this mean? There can be no doubt, in the present context,
that the Aleph of which Simon speaks is none other than Hokhmah,
the Wisdom of God, besides which "there is no principle."'o And hav-
ing identified Hokhmah with the Second Person of the Trinity, "the
Aleph that is dark" is evidently Christ, the Son of God, as He is "in
the Father." But then, what is "the Aleph that is luminous"? Clearly,
it can only be the Incarnate Christ. Thus, having given a Kabbalistic
interpretation of the Trinity, Simon goes on to interpret the second
Christian mystery: that of the Incarnation. However, what stands at
issue here is first of all a "Sefirothic" Incarnation, an Incarnation
that "precedes" the human birth of Jesus, and which therefore differs
profoundly from the "historical" upon which the theologian has his
eye. Suffice it to say that despite this fundamental discrepancy, the
Christian Kabbalist is able to understand and interpret, from his own
point of view, all that conventional theology teaches concerning the
Incarnation, "historical" though it be; it is however open to question
whether the theologian, for his part, fares as well. Getting back to
Silllon, one sees that "the Aleph that is luminous" can be none other
than the "Sefirothic" Christ: the Son of God manifesting in infinite
splendor of Light, the very Light of which Peter, James, and John
caught a glimpse on Mount Tabor. And it is of interest to note that
the Orthodox consider this Light to be "uncreated", which in fact it
is: for that Light pertains to the Sefirothic world, the creatio ex Deo
as opposed to ex nihilo, which is indeed eternal. Anticipating Jacob
Boehme, one can say that this Light constitutes the "precious Sub-
56
stance" out of which the Bndy of the Incarnate Christ is composed.
The question presents itself: if the Tetragrarnmaton stands for
the Unknown God, or for the "Aleph that is dark," what then is the
rightful Name of "the Aleph that is luminous"? Reuchlin answers,
as every Christian would, that it is the name of Jesus. But now two
further questions arise: what is the Hebrew orthography of that Name?
and how can it be derived Kabbalistically from the Tetragrammaton?
Reuchlin responds by taking the name of Jesus to be the Tetragram-
maton with the letter Shin inserted between the YH and the VH.
The Tetragrammaton is thus transformed into the Pentagrammaton
YHSVH, an "effable" name which has come down to us as the name
of Jesus. We need not concern ourselves with Reuchlin's proposed
Kabbalistic derivation of that Name, which in fact appears to be
somewhat strained. One wonders whether it might not be preferable
to consider that Pentagrarnmaton as "axiomatic", that is to say, as not
being "derivable" at all: to consider it, thus, as something known by
way of a special Revelation bestowed by Jesus himself. In any case,
the fact remains that the Tetragrammaton turns into the Name of the
Incarnate Christ precisely by way of the letter Shin.'l
Let us recall at this point that Pico de la Mirandola conceives of
these matters somewhat differently. In the first place, as we have seen,
he associates the Tetragrammaton, not with the Unknown Gnd, but
with Tifereth, the sixth Sefirah, representing Adam Kadmon, or Uni-
versal Man. He also employs a different orthography for the name of
Jesus, which he takes to be YSV. One needs however to understand that
this is not a matter of "right or wrong," but a question of standpoint.
One can say that Reuchlin has his eye primarily upon the emergence
of the Sefirothic Incarnation, as represented by Tifereth, of which the
Trinity is the principle, whereas Pico is chiefly concerned with the
historical Incarnation, of which Tifereth is the prototype or immediate
principle. But this means that, from Pico's standpoint, Tifereth in a
way replaces the Trinity as the source of the Incarnation; and this also
explains why the Tetragrammaton may be legitimately associated with
both. The same consideration, moreover, accounts for the difference
between the two spellings of the Name Jesus: why that Name takes
the form YHSVH when conceived as emerging out of the "ineffable"
Tetragrarnmaton, but takes the form YSV when conceived as emanat-
ing from the Sefirothic septenary, whose Kabbalistic designation is
indeed SV, meaning "heaven and earth." It is finally to be noted that
57
Wolfgang Smith
the respective positions entail different conceptions of ineffability: for
Reuchlin, the Tetragrammaton is "ineffable" because it represents God
"before" His manifestation on the plane of the Sefirothic septenary,
whereas for Pico it is "ineffable" so long as Heaven and Earth have
not been united by the Messiah, a union which is to be realized fully
at the Second Coming of Christ. But again one sees that both are right,
each from his own point of view.
A few words, at least, should be said regarding the reception of
Reuchlin's thought. So far as Christian Kabbalists are concemed, his
influence has been profound, and can be traced well into the eighteenth
century;" on the other hand, it appears that the guardians of the Church
were not especially pleased with Reuchlin's ideas. The Dominicans
of Cologne, in particular, took pains to persecute him, going so far as
to order the destruction of his books. This explains presumably why
the De arte cabalistica is prefaced by a dedication to Pope Leo X,
a Medici with a more liberal outlook than was the custom in those
days, which does in fact allude to the Battle of the Books, in what is
evidently a plea for papal protection against Reuchlin's Dominican
antagonists. It may be of interest to note that in contrast to the con-
freres and disciples of Aquinas, the Franciscans of the Renaissance
seem not to have been unfriendly to the ideas of Christian Kabbalah;
and as a matter of fact, beginning with the aforementioned Arnold
of Villanova, the Order itself has contributed an impressive array of
Christian Kabbalists, the best known of which are Archangelus of
Borgo Nuovo and Jean Thenaud. It is tempting to wonder how the
Church might have fared if the dominance of the Dominicans, and
later of the Jesuits, had been tempered by a Franciscan influence.
W
e tum now to Egidio di Viterbo (1465-1532), a Cardinal and
Superior General of the Augustinians, who ranks among the
greatest Christian Kabbalists of his time. A man of many parts, rang-
ing from papal confidant and emissary to preacher and shepherd of
souls, Egidio was also an eminent scholar and linguist, having acquired
proficiency in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. It is known that he as-
sembled an outstanding collection of rare books and manuscripts, a
remnant of which is now housed at the National Library in Paris; and
one knows also that the Cardinal himself translated into Latin a number
of major Kabbalistic texts, and employed a sizable staff, comprised
58
mainly ofJewish converts, to produce an entire Kabbalistic library in
translation. A great admirer of Johann Reuchlin, he too looked upon
Hebrew as the Ursprache, the primordial tongue, and regarded Kab-
balah as the God-given means to uncover the secrets encrypted in the
Mosaic text, and by implication, in the New Testament as well. He
emphasizes that this sacred science is, as he puts it, "not foreign, but
domestic," meaning thereby that the Kabbalah, Judaic though it be,
pertains by right to Christianity as well. One could say that the two
traditions share a common esoterism. The Cardinal appears moreover
to acknowledge the formally esoteric character of his Kabbalistic
speculations by not publishing his pertinent writings, thus restricting
their use to a chosen circle of qualified friends. A man of distinctly
lyrical cast, Egidio di Viterbo brings to his Christian Kabbalah a
human warmth and poetic beauty not to be encountered in the austere
speculations of his Swabian predecessor; if Reuchlin represents the
jnanic side of the movement, the Italian Cardinal personifies its bhaktic
complement. And whereas Reuchlin's mystical inquiries were centered
upon the Tetragrammaton, the Unspeakable Name of the Unknown
God, Egidio, in keeping with his more bhaktic temperament, appears
to have his heart set upon the Shekhinah: upon Her "whose delights
were with the sons of men. "23
Let us recall that the Shekhinah constitutes the tenth and last
Sefirah, also known as Malkhuth ("Kingdom"). The term itself traces
back to the first century A.D., and derives apparently from the Hebrew
root SKN, which means "to reside." It consequently refers to God
conceived as "residing" in His manifestations, and thus to the fullness
and splendor of the manifested Deity, as does also the term Malkhuth.
The name, moreover, is feminine, which is to say that the Shekhinah
embodies the feminine aspect of God, in keeping with Genesis 1.27,
which speaks of God implicitly as "male and female." But whereas
in reality the Shekhinah resides in the divine or Sefirothic world, in
what the Zohar terms the alma de-yihuda or "world of union," Judaic
tradition, as we have seen, speaks of Her as being now "in exile,"
that is to say, as residing here below, in the world of fallen human-
ity. She is thus Emmanuel, "God with us." Now, it is to Her that the
Cardinal has devoted his magnum opus, a voluminous work entitled
simply "Scechina". It is clearly a labor of love, completed just two
years before his death." The Cardinal seems to behold the Shekhinah
in virtually all the divine manifestations spoken of in Judeo-Christian
59
Wolfgang Smith
tradition, from the Burning Bush and the Ark of the Covenant to the
theophanies of the New Dispensation and the Celestial Jerusalem.
These perceptions, moreover, stir him deeply, and inspire an abun-
dance of literary allusions; as Jacques Fabry has expressed it: 'The
work of Egidio di Viterbo is traversed by a stream of images and
symbols drawn from the Kabbalistic literature as well as from the
Greek and Latin poets and the Neo-Platonist philosophers.""
. It is of prime importance to note that the Cardinal evidently con-
ceIves of the Shekhinah as the manifestation of Bina, the third Siifirah,
whom Christian Kabbalists identify in a way with the Third Person
of the Trinity.' Moreover, he associates Bina with the Hebrew letter
He, a letter depicted by a horizontal stroke, followed on the right by
a vertIcal stroke, and on the left by a small vertical mark, which he
mterprets as representing the Shekhinah; and by way of explanation,
he puts the following words in the mouth of the Shekhinah herself:
The point adjoined to it [the letter He] represents me, who am
She that is submissive to Her [Bina] as to a mother, and who
am submissive to the other Siifiroth as to brothers. A proof of
this is what is written concerning the Messiah: "and he was
subject unto them.""
The passage is clearly of major interest, first of all because in it the
Shekhinah identifies herself with the Messiah. What is however
equally significant are the words relating to the letter He, which con-
nect wIth the mystery of the Tetragrammaton. For the latter as one
knows, consists of three letters, one of which-namely the He- oc-
curs twice. Could it be that the alphabetical triad (Y, V, H) represents
the Persons of the Trinity, whereas "the second He" stands for the
Shekhinah, who in a sense "completes" the Trinity? It appears that
the Cardmal does uphold this view: "Even though there is no Fourth
Person," he writes, "if you understand things correctly, it is neces-
sary ... to Suppose that in a way there is."" To "understand things
correctly" means evidently to perceive the matter from an esoteric
that is to say, from a Kabbalistic point of view. One then sees that t h ~
Tetragrammaton holds the key to the two fundamental mysteries of
ChristIaruty: to that of the Trinity, namely, and that ofthe Incarnation
which is none other than the mystery of the Shekhinah. Who, then:
is the Shekhinah? Is She perhaps a Fourth Person? Not exactly, the
Cardmal goes on to explain: She is a "blessed nature" which "neither
60
engenders nor is engendered," but which embodies and makes its own
something that "has not been given to the Three, but which they pos-
sess in common ... " The Cardinal is manifestly struggling to express
in terms of human conceptions something that seems to be inherently
inexpressible-which is precisely why one speaks of "mystery" with
regard to both the Trinity and the Incarnation. Perhaps, in the final
count, it may not be possible to "de-symbolize" the Tetragrammaton,
to formulate what it signifies in conceptual or theologically explicit
terms. What in any case the Cardinal appears to have recognized, and
what indeed stands beyond doubt for those who "understand things
correctly," is that the Tetragrammaton bears witness to the truths of
Christianity: to the Trinity by virtue of its alphabetical triad, and to
the Incarnation by virtue of "the second He." It is highly significant,
moreover, that this "splitting of the He" is depicted in very the form
of the Hebrew character, wherein "the point" is said to refer to the
Shekhinah.
Now, this "splitting of the He" is indicative of the separation, or
seeming separation, of Bina and the Shekhinah, the transcendent or
"supernal" and the immanent or "celestial" Mother. One must bear in
mind, once again, that the Shekhincih resides in reality, not in what we
deem to be the universe, but in the divine Creation, the creatio ex Deo
et in Deo which immeasurably exceeds all that we are able to grasp or
anticipate, even in our highest flights of thought and aspiration. Hers
is the realm to which St. Paul alludes when he declares: "Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared for those that love him. "'9 Kabbalistically
speaking, what God has prepared "for those that love him" is indeed
the Shekhinah, clothed in the infinite Splendor of God.
Like Reuchlin, the Cardinal distinguishes between the tran-
scendent "world" of Bina, the eternal world of the Shekhinah, and
the temporal world, comprised of what Reuchlin terms "the things
that are not"; but he does so from a different point of view, which
one might characterize as "theological". Here is what he makes the
Shekhinah say:
But Bina represents the incorporeal world, I the corporeal;
She the immortal world, I the mortal world; She the world
that was, I the world that is to come. That is why She is the
mother of all, and I, as the Apostle says, am yours.'
61
Wolfgang Smith
The "world" associated with Bina is indeed "incorporeal" and "im-
mortal": the former, because it is unmanifest, and the latter, because it
is above time, and above even what the Scholastics term aeviternity.
It is the "world" in which nothing exists except the Holy Trinity. But
then, what shall we say concerning the "world" the Shekhinah claims
as her own: is it the Sefirothic, or is it our world? The first adjective,
"corporeal", could be interpreted in either sense; but the second can
not: mortality pertains to this nether world alone. One sees that the
Cardinal conceives of the Shekhinah primarily as resi ding "with us"
here below; in other words, he conceives of Her "in exile." Yet he does
also refer to the Sefirothic world; it is only that he conceives of it, in
keeping with the theological point of view, as "the world to come."
And that world, too, the Shekhinah claims as her own. Moreover,
from this same point of view, the realm assigned to Bina is indeed
"the world that was," since it is the source of all that exists; and that
is why Bina is also "the mother of all," as the Shekhinah declares.
Only one thing remains yet to be explained: namely, why the Shekhina
adds "and I, as the Apostle says, am yours."
The explanation is simple: the Shekhinah is "our" mother, be-
cause it is She who brings us into "the world to come." And this
transformation constitutes what is known as the "second birth," which
is none other than the Birth of Christ in us. Whereas Bina is indeed
the Mother of Christ the Eternal King, it is the Shekhinah who, as
the Virgin Mary, gives birth to Jesus of Nazareth, and in the fullness
of time gives birth, Deo valente, to the "Christ in us." Now, it is of
this second birth that St. Paul speaks in the passage alluded to by
the Shekhinah, a discourse which begins with the words: "My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you. "" It is evident to a Kabbalist that the Apostle is here speaking
as the Shekhinah Herself. And what does he go on to say? He dis-
tinguishes between two "mothers" and two "births": there is Agar,
the "bondwoman", who gives birth "after the flesh," and there is the
"freewoman", who gives birth "after the spirit," whom St. Paul likens
to "Jerusalem which is above," of which he declares that it is "the
mother of us all": a more unequivocal reference to the Shekhinah as
"our mother" could hardly be imagined.
62
H
aving duly considered how the Shekhinah is related to Bina-
their mystical identity-it remains to consider Her relation with
Tifereth, which is of a different kind. To begin with, let us recall
that it is customary to regard the Sefirothic septenary as consisting
of six "masculine" plus one "feminine" Sefiroth, the latter being of
course the Shekhinah. It is moreover traditional in Kabbalah to regard
Tifereth, the third in the septenary, as the "heart" and mystical cen-
ter of the six, which in effect reduces the septenary to the couple
Tifereth-Shekhinah. This Divine Couple, therefore, manifests on the
plane of the eternal Creation the transcendent bi-unity of Hokhmah-
Bina. And as the Kabbalah has always recognized: here, in that
utterly transcendent Bi-Unity, lies the Source of the divine Eros from
which all worlds, all bliss, and all blessedness derive. This Eros, then,
is manifested in the relation of Tifereth toShekhinah: mystically speak-
ing, the former stands to the latter as Bridegroom to Bride-which
is why, in the Cardinal's treatise, the Shekhinah refers to Tifereth as
"my spouse." Like Hokhmah and Bina, Tifereth and Shekhinah are
likewise conjoined: they too comprise a bi-unity.
To the eye of a Christian Kabbalist, not only the Torah, but the
New Testament as well contains allusions to that bi-unity or non-
separation of Tifereth and Shekhinah, beginning with the words of
St. John in his Prologue: "and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us." For whereas the Evangelist identifies Jesus, by the first
affirmation, with the Word, and therefore with Tifereth, who personi-
fies the Word on the plane of eternal manifestation, he identifies Him,
by the second, with the Shekhinah. The Word that was "in the begin-
ning," that was "with God" and ''was God," has become the God who
"dwells among us." Yet if Tifereth has thus "become" Shekhinah, He
nonetheless remains what He is: for in becoming the one, He does
not cease to be the other. And that is possible because, in truth, the
two are one.
Numerous are the passages in the New Testament which identify
Jesus with the Son of God; yet there are passages as well in which
Jesus identifies Himself implicitly with the Shekhinah: He does so,
for instance, when He says "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from
me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls." 12 Almost every second word here speaks to us of the Shekhi-
nah! It is She who is "meek and lowly in heart," who is "submissive";
and it is in Her that the meek and lowly "shall find rest unto their
63
Wolfgang Smith
souls." Even the words "my yoke" evoke Her, since the expression
"the yoke of the Shekhinah" is a byword in the Judaic world. So too, as
Genevieve Javry points out," all Christian Kabbalists have perceived
a reference to the Shekhinah in Matthew 23.37, where Jesus cries out:
"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem! ... how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!"
For again, "under the wings of the Shekhinah" is a common expression
among the Jews. We find in Jesus a perfect balance of masculine and
feminine virtues and attributes: He is the King who rules and yet is
"meek and lowly in heart," who commands and is yet "submissive" to
all, the Judge of kings and the Friend of sinners. Wise men perceive
Him as the Divine Androgyne, "in whom dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily."" But though in a way Jesus embodies both
Tifereth and Shekhinah, He nonetheless personifies the Word that "was
in the beginning," the Word that is God.
But if Jesus is the Word of God, who then is the Shekhinah? The
answer is clear: She is His Bride. And therefore, when theologians
speak of the Church as the Bride of Christ, or as His Mystical Body,
they are actually speaking in Kabbalistic terms. Yet there is a differ-
ence: what, for the theologian, is a kind of sacred metaphor, becomes,
for the Kabbalist, a fact on the Sefirothic plane: here "poetry" turns
into a science, a gnosis. For the Kabbalist, the Church is the Bride
of Christ, because it is the Shekhinah. All sacredness here on Earth
derives from Her presence, from Her "indwelling". It is She that
founds every sacred rite, that bestows every sacrament: what theo-
logians know as the sacramental order rests in Her. It can indeed be
said: where Christ is, there is the Shekhinah, and where She is, there
is the Church.
Such is the vision of Christianity, the Christian Kabbalah, be-
queathed to posterity by Cardinal Egidio di Viterbo in his magnum
opus; and let us note that the doctrine could not have passed theologi-
cal muster before the Roman authorities. This surely explains why
this work, which oddly enough was written at the request of Pope
Clement VIII, to whom it is dedicated, was nonetheless left un-
published. What confronts us here might well be described as the
emergence of a formal Christian esoterism, kindled by the living flame
of the Kabbalah. We do not know whether that esoterism was destined
to survive; yet it is safe to surmise that no Roman Cardinal was ever
again to be counted among its ranks. It is clear that the teachings of
64
Egidio di Viterbo, as set forth in his Scechina, are "incurably esoteric"
in relation to the official theology, to which they stand much as the
Kabbalah itself stands to Talmudic Judaism.
65
Wolfgang Smith
Notes
I. See my article, "Transcending the Creatio Ex Nihilo," Sophia, VoU3,
No. 1.
2. The dogma was rendered more precise at the Lateran Council, in 1215,
through the addition of the phrase "who by his own omnipotent power
at once from the beginning of time created each creature from nothing"
(Enchiridion Symbolorum, 428).
3. St. Thomas Aquinas writes that "creation, which is the emanation of
all being, is from the not-being which is nothing" (Summa Theologiae,
1.45. 1). But whereas this formulation is evidently designed to carry an
esoteric sense, I submit that the customary theological interpretation
of the creatio ex nihilo is none the less distinctly exoteric.
4. Enchiridion Symbolorum, 501& 502.
5. He associates the Yod in the Tetragrammaton with the Father, the Vav
with the Son, and the He with the Holy Ghost. See Gerschom Scholem,
"Considerations sur I'histoire des debuts de la Kabbale chretienne," in
Kabbalistes Chnitiens, edited by Antoine Faivre and Frederick Tristan,
Cahiers de I'Hermetisme (Paris: Albin Michel, 1979), p. 26.
6. According to the Kabbalah, there exist ten divine "emanations" or
principles known as Sefiroth.
7. It is not unusual in Kabbalah to assign an esoteric meaning to common
words, such as mi ("who"), eleh ("these"), and mah ("what"). See my
article, op. cit..
8. "L' Ancien et Ie Nouveau dans la confirmation kabbalistique du chris-
tianisme par Pic de la Mirandole," in Kabbalistes Chretiens. op.cit.,
p.187.
9. The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance (Port
Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1965), p. 15.
10. "La Kabbale chretienne de Jean Pic de la Mirandole," in Kabbalistes
Chretiens, op. cit., pp.169-70.
II. Pico della Mirandola (Bari, 1937), p. 183.
12. Phil. 2.9, 10.
13. Gershom Scholem, Major Trends of Jewish Mysticism (New York:
Schocken Books, 1954), pp. 231-32.
14. Op. cit., p. 241.
15. Acts 3.21.
16. Op. cit., pp.174-76.
17. A summary of the dialogue is given in Joseph Blau, op. cit., pp. 49-
59.
66
18. See Genevieve Javary, "A propos du theme de la Sekina: variations sur
Ie nom de Dieu," in Kabbalistes Chnitiens, op. cit., p. 290.
19. The passage is quoted by Genevieve Javary in her excellent article
(op. cit., p. 291). References are to the French translatton of De arte
cabalistica by Fran90is Secret (La Kabbale, Pans, Aubler-Montalgne,
1973).
20. It is true that the letter Aleph can also be associated with the Tetragram-
maton and with Kether Elyon, depending on the context.
21 . The letter Shin itself can be associated Kabbalistically with "fire" and
thus with the Holy Ghost.
22. Reuchlin's influence is apparent, for example, in the case of Friedrich
Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), who, oddly is connected to the
Swabian by way ofa Princess, named Anatorua (1613-1679). EVidently
an ardent Kabbalist, she is known chiefly on account of a remarkable
plaque she had installed in a small church in Wiirtenburg.Now famous
as the Lehrtafel or Master Tablet of the Princess Anatoma, It contams
an elaborate symbolization of Kabbalistic doctrine.
23. Provo 8.31.
24. The work was published in 1959 by Francois Secret, with Egidio
di Viterbo's Libellus de Litteris hebraicis (Rome: Centro mtemazlOnale
di studi urnanistici).
25. "La Kabbale chretienne en Halie au XVI' siecles," in Kabbalistes
Chretiens, op. cit., p. 59.
26. According to the Kabbalah, it is Bina who gives birth to the Sefirothic
septenary, which thus corresponds to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spmt
spoken of in Christian theology.
27. Fol. 323 in the 1959 edition, op. cit.. The reference here is to Luke
2.51.
28. Fol. 328, op. cit.
29. I Cor. 2.9 (based upon Isaiah 64.4).
30. Fol. 328, op. cit.
31. Gal. 4.19.
32. Matt. 11.29.
33. Op. cit., p. 300.
34. Col. 2.9.
67
Zachary Markwith
von Leibnitz, who understood and appreciated the perennial wisdom
in the various religions that they encountered. We will also examine
the Islamic equivalents to this term, such as ai-I;ikmat ai-khiiiidah
and jiivfdiin khirad.
Islam, like the perennial philosophy, is governed and shaped by the
principle of Divine Unity (tawl;fd). God, as the Absolute and Infinite
Reality, is One (ai-Al;ad). In Islam, man, religion, philosophy, art,
nature, and the whole of the cosmos, all reflect the principle of Divine
Unity. Each messenger and prophet came to revive the doctrine of
Divine Unity. Within the Quran itself, as well as the Sunnah of the
Prophet one finds some of the most universal expres-
sions of the religio perennis. Indeed, the Prophet himself
simply revived the primordial religion (ai-dfn ai-l;anifJ of Adam
and Abraham. More than anything else, we contest that it was direct
knowledge of the doctrine of Divine Unity, as well as the unity of the
divinely sent messengers and prophets, which inspired the writings
of Guenon, Schuon, Burckhardt, Lings, and Nasr. This is true of not
only their texts that speak directly about Islam, but also those that
appreciate the Truth and Beauty in other religions, and also point to
the transcendent unity of religions.
We will also examine the perennial philosophy and its expressions
in the Islamic intellectual tradition, including the Muslim philosophers,
Suhrawardi's lshriiqf school, Ibn ' ArabI's Akbarl school-which all
found a synthesis in the writings of Mulla $adra. Further, we will pay
close attention to Islamic esoterism or Sufism, and the poetry and
prose of the Sufis, which culminated in Persian Sufi poetry, and the
writings of lalal aI-Din RiimI, Hafiz, and Mahmiid Shabistarl. These
writings clearly emphasize the unity of religions, and
issue from the inner reality (I;aqlqah) of the Quran and the soul of
the Prophet We will also look at other streams related to
the perennial philosophy in the Islamic tradition, such as Ithna 'asharl
ShI' ism and spiritual chivalry (futuwwah).
After establishing the imperati ve link between Islam and the
perennial philosophy, we will examine the lives, writings, and intel-
lectual contributions of Guenon, Schuon, Burckhardt, Lings, and
Nasr. Not only did they help, more than any other group of scholars,
to bring the teachings of the Islamic intellectual traditional and the
perennial philosophy to the attention of the West, but perhaps more
importantly, they benefited from the initiation, doctrine, and methods
88
Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Philosophy
ofIslam and Sufism. These Muslim intellectuals were not simply con-
cerned with theoretical metaphysics, but gained-through the inner
reality of the Quran and soul of the Prophet-a Way to the Ultimate
Reality-the Eternal Sophia contained at the center of the Intellect,
which transcends and is at the same time the source of our rational
faculty. Therefore, it must be stated that their immense contributions
to the fields of the perennial philosophy, which includes metaphysics,
ontology, cosmology, symbolism, comparative religion, art, science,
as well as a critique of modernity, scientism, secularism, and the
environmental crisis, was made possible because of their attachment
to the exoteric and esoteric aspects of the Islamic tradition. While all
of these men wrote about other traditions, and knew that all orthodox
religions lead to salvation and Truth,' they believed in and practiced
the religion of Islam, which enabled them to know the transcendent
unity of Being (wal;dat ai-wujud), as well as the transcendent unity
of religions.
6
This article will demonstrate the providential link between Islam
and the perennial philosophy in the twentieth century, while defend-
ing the role that orthodoxy and orthopraxy play in any authentic
expression of the perennial philosophy, with a particular emphasis
on Islamic orthodoxy and the perennial philosophy. For one cannot
realize the One who transcends forms, except by adhering to a form
that the One has revealed. Most of the leading traditionalists in the
twentieth century believed in and practiced Islam, and as a result,
their message was universal and helped to revive an authentic ap-
preciation and understanding of other religions, which are also paths
that lead to salvation and sanctification for different individuals and
communities.
The Perennial Philosophy
T
he essence of the perennial philosophy is metaphysics. Every
religion begins with a descent of the Logos from Heaven, a
descent that allows man to ascend vertically from the relative to the
Absolute and have a direct taste of principial knowledge. The peren-
nial philosophy is first and foremost concerned with the vertical axis
of religion, which enables man to return to his Source. Yet, when a
sage encounters the multiplicity of religious forms and recognizes the
Truth and Beauty in these forms-which he has discovered through
89
Zachary Markwith
his own tradition-he cannot ignore that at the heart of all religions
is a common and perennial Truth. While many scholars mistakenly
attribute this unity to historical borrowing, the perennial philosophy
sees in the variety of religious forms unique and direct manifesta-
tions of the same Divine Wisdom or Sophia. Therefore, the perennial
philosophy is concerned with knowing the Absolute Truth through
a particular religion and the perennial manifestations of the Truth in
various religions.
While it was commonly believed that Gottfried von Leibniz was
the first to use the term the philosophia perennis in 1714, according to
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "the term was probably employed for the first
time by Agostino Steuco (1497-1548), the Renaissance philosopher
and theologian who was an Augustinian.'" S.H. Nasr also states,
The work of Steuco De perenni philosophia was influenced by
Ficino, Pico, and even Nicolas of Cusa, especially the De pace
fidei which speaks of harmony between various religions.
Steuco, who knew Arabic and other Semitic languages and
was a librarian of the Vatican Library where he had access
to the "wisdom of the ages" as far as this was possible in
the Occident at that time, followed the ideas of these earlier
figures concerning the presence of an ancient wisdom which
had existed from the dawn of history.
8
Steuco and the earlier perennialists in the West believed this wis-
dom extended beyond Christianity and was present in Judaism, Islam,
Zoroastrianism, Greek philosophy, and the ancient Egyptian tradition.'
While the perennial philosophy has been articulated in important re-
ligious and philosophical texts, its appearance does not always come
in the same form. The greatest masterpieces of traditional art and
architecture are clear signs of a living intellectual traditional, even if
religious or philosophical manuscripts are absent. I. In addition, many
esoteric traditions continue to be transmitted orally." The perennial
philosophy has existed as long as man has. While the great works of
traditional prose and poetry, and especially sacred art and architecture,
aid in our return to the Source, not all of these arose in every tradition.
For example, wisdom in the heart of a Nati ve American shaman is not
dependent upon its written articulation, and in many cases nature or
the cosmic revelation serves as a support for intellection.
90
There are direct equivalents of the term the philosophia perennis
in various religions, such as sanatana dharma in Hinduism and al-
lJikmat al-khiilidah andjavidan khirad in Islam," which pre-date its
use in the West, and may have also influenced its formal construction.
It was not until the twentieth century however, that the meaning of
the perennial philosophy was expounded with such clarity and depth
by traditionalists such as Rene Guenon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy,
and especially Frithjof Schuon. According to Frithjof Schuon:
"Philosophia perennis" is generally understood as referring
to that metaphysical truth which has no beginning, and which
remains the same in all expressions of wisdom. Perhaps it
would here be better or more prudent to speak of a "Sophia
perennis", since it is not a question of artificial mental con-
structions, as is all too often the case in philosophy; or again,
the primordial wisdom that always remains true to itself could
be called "Religio perennis", given that by its nature it in a
sense involves worship and spiritual realization ... 13
When referring to the perennial philosophy, Schuon and other
traditionalists use several terms interchangeably. While these terms
each possess different shades of meaning, they all refer to the pri-
mordial wisdom that is all the heart of all authentic expressions of
the Truth, whether religious or philosophical. One must keep in mind
that the original meaning of the latter term is the love of wisdom,
which modern and postmodern philosophy has apparently forgotten.
In any case, Schuon preferred the terms religio perennis and sophia
perennis, while Guenon used the term tradition instead of religion
because of its negative connotations in the France of his time, and
A.K. Coomaraswamy added the term universalis to the philosophia
perennis.
14
S.H. Nasr states:
In one sense, sanatana dharma or sophia perennis is related to
the Primordial Tradition and therefore to the Origin of human
existence. But this view should not in any way detract from
or destroy the authenticity of later messages from Heaven in
the form of various revelations, each of which begins with
an origin which is the Origin and which marks the beginning
of a tradition that is at once the Primordial Tradition and its
adaptation to a particular humanity, the adaptation being a
Divine Possibility manifested on the human plane."
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Zachary Markwith
Therefore, while the perennial philosophy fully appreciates vari-
ous manifestations of the Primordial Tradition, it is also concerned
with understanding and preserving particular manifestations of tradi-
tion, each of which contains in its heart the Primordial Tradition. The
perennial philosophy rejects syncretism and the attempt to create a
meta-religion, which is devoid of religious forms, such as doctrines,
rites, and laws. It is only through attaching oneself to a specific Rev-
elation and tradition from Heaven that one can reach the transcendent
Source of all religions. Unlike the pseudo-esoteric and New Age
movements, which deny the validity of anyone religion in the name
of universalism, traditionalists who have articulated the perennial
philosophy live in one religious uni verse, while understanding and
appreciating other religions.
Further, all religions in their original form contain exoteric and
esoteric dimensions.' The exoteric doctrines, rites, and laws of a
religion, provide a means of salvation in the hereafter for the faith-
ful. Those who wish to see God here and now must also embark on
the initiatic and spiritual path, which is synonymous with esoterism.
The mistake of many in the West (who are often encouraged by false
teachers from the East) is to attempt to practice esoterism without the
necessary doctrines, rites, and laws of a particular tradition, which
provides the necessary foundation and protection for those on the
spiritual path. We should not confuse the perennial philosophy or
the transcendent unity of religions with a false uniformity that strips
all religions of their unique doctrines and methods that make the
journey to the One possible. Moreover, it is only at the level of the
esoteric that the religions begi n to converge and finally meet in the
common Principle. Only the gnostic whose heart has been illuminated
by sacred knowledge, which is the goal of esoterism, can penetrate
into his own and other religious forms, and perceive the One True
Reality as it reveals itself through all orthodox religions, in nature,
and the heart of man.
92
The Quran, Sunnah, and the Perennial Philosophy
P
erhaps more than other religions, Hinduism and Islam are able
to accept the multiplicity of religions, which lead to the Divine
Reality because they stand at the alpha and omega points in this
cycle of creation. In the case of Islam, one simply has to examine the
writings of Jalal ai-DIn RiimI or Ibn ' ArabI to see how ubiquitous
the principle of Divine Unity and all of its ramifications has been
throughout Islamic history, even if it was not fully elaborated until
the twentieth century by leading Muslim traditionalists. The wnt-
ings of great Muslim sages, philosophers, and poets are rooted in the
Quranic revelation and Sunnah of the Prophet MUQammad, whIch
emphasizes the unity of the Divine Principle (tawJ.!id) , as well as the
chain of messengers and prophets sent by Heaven to restore the mes-
sage of Divine Unity.
Therefore, to understand why the restating of the perennial
philosophy in the twentieth century came primarily from Muslim intel-
lectuals, it is necessary to understand the essential link between Islam
and the perennial philosophy. According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
Islam sees the doctrine of unity (al-tawJ.!id) not only as the
essence of its own message but as the heart of every religion.
Revelation for Islam means the assertion of al-tawJ.!id and all
religions are seen as so many repetitions in different climes
and languages of the doctrine of unity. Moreover, wherever
the doctrine of unity was found, it is considered to be of
divine origin.' 7
Muslims believe that the Absolute Reality revealed sacred mes-
sages to different communities through 124,000 prophets. The Quran
affirms, "Every community has had a messenger." ( 10:47)'8 Many
specific prophets, whose sacred stories are also found in the Bible,
are extensively referred to in the Quran, prophets such as Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Mary and Jesus. Wbile the Quran
does not explicitly name prophets, avatars, or sages, from the iranian,
Indian, or Shamanic religions,' it firmly establishes the principle of
the transcendent unity of religions, which extends to all the world' s
great religions
20
According to the Quran:
Verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ],
as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Chris-
93
Zachary Markwith
tians, and the Sabians-all who believe in God and the Last
Day and do righteous deeds-shall have their reward with
their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall
they grieve. (2:62)
Therefore, we can assert that the Quran affirms the variety of
sacred forms as paths for different communities that all lead to the
Transcendent Reality. It has been stated by some that thi s verse and
others like it were abrogated," and that Islam only accepts other
religions in their original form. While it is true that many religions
that pre-date Islam have decayed (including some modernist and
"fundamentalist" currents within Islam itself!), the Quran does not
expect other religions to be carbon copies of Islam.
Unto everyone of you have We have appointed a [different]
law and way of life. And if God had so willed, He could
surely have made you all one single community: but [He
willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what He
has vouchsafed unto you. Vie, then, with one another in do-
ing good works! Unto God you must all return; and then He
will make you truly understand all that on which you were
wont to differ. (5:48)
The Quran defines all of the prophets, including Adam, Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus, as muslims, or those who surrender to the Divine
Reality. Islam, or submission to the Divine Reality, is also seen as
the universal essence of all prophetic messages, while at the same
time corresponding to the crystallization and descent of the Quranic
revelation in the heart of the Prophet Mul)ammad beginning in 610
A.D. In the mind of most Muslims, there is not a clear line of demarca-
tion between the religion of Islam and its various manifestations and
crystallizations in different religions throughout history. Therefore,
some Muslims expect the submission (islam) of Christ or the Buddha,
as practiced among their followers, to look exactly like the Islam that
is practiced in Mecca in the twenty-first century.
While the form of the Quran is clearly situated in the Abrahamic
universe, it is only by examining the inner reality (/Jaqfqah) of the
Quran that one can find close correspondences with other religions
from the East, and also the indigenous traditions. According to the
Quran, "On Earth there are signs [of God's existence, visible] to all
94
who are endowed with inner certainty,just as [there are signs thereof]
within your own selves: can you not, then, see?" (51:20-21) If the
Quran represents the central theophany of the Divine Reality in a
manner similar to the Torah in Judaism, it also draws our attention
to the book of the cosmos and also the soul of man.
The cosmos or nature as Divine revelation is clearly emphasized
among the Native American, Aboriginal, and Shinto traditions, and
well as in Taoism. The soul or spirit of man as revelation, which is
central in Christianity as well as the Indian religions, is also found in
the Quran. Jesus is called "the spirit of God" (rii/:!ullah) in the Quran.
The Arabic term rii/:!ullah can be translated as the breath, spirit, or
word of God. Jesus, and by analogy the avatars in Hinduism and the
inner being of each prophet and man, is a direct revelation from the
Absolute, in a manner similar to the book in Judaism and Islam. By
emphasizing the three grand revelations (the book, the cosmos, and
man), Muslims have the necessary intellectual tools to see the signs
of the Divine Reality in other religions.
There are also various terms in the Quran that directly correspond
to the perennial philosophy and the primordial tradition. Islam re-
newed the primordial religion (ai-din al-/:!anifj, which is associated
with the prophet Abraham.22 The primordial religion in the Quran is
also closely related to man's primordial nature iji!rah), which is hid-
den by forgetfulness and made accessible through religion and the
remembrance (dhikr) of the Divine.
The perennial philosophy was also expressed in the Sunnah or
wonts of the Prophet Mul)ammad (570-632), which complements and
acts as a commentary upon the Quran. According to an account of
the Prophet Muhammad's life when he ordered all of the pre-Islamic
idols in the Ka' bah to be smashed:
Apart from the icon of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus,
and a painting of an old man, said to be Abraham, the walls
inside had been covered with pictures of pagan deities. Plac-
ing his hands protectively over the icon, the Prophet told
'Uthman to see that all the other paintings, except that of
Abraham, were effaced.23
There is a major difference between the idolatry practiced in
Arabia in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah) , and the sa-
cred art and symbols of other authentic religions, which the Prophet
95
Zachary Markwith
respected. The Prophet as the spiritual and
political leader of the new Muslim community (ummah), respected
all of the earlier divinely sent messengers and religions, as well as
the people who practiced these religions. In response to a conflict
between a Jew and a zealous Muslim who wanted to assert the supe-
riority of the Prophet over other prophets, the Prophet
stated, "Say not that I am better then Moses," and "Say not that I am
better than Jonah. ,,2'
The Prophet of Islam married a Jewish woman and a Christian
woman, neither of whom were forced to convert to Islam. He also
consulted with a Christian monk, who was related to his wife Khadljah,
after first receiving the Revelation. Throughout the life of the Prophet,
Jews and Christians in Arabia were not forced to convert to Islam,
but were allowed to practice their religion in peace and security as
long as they did not harm the Muslim community. The Prophet even
established a treaty with the Arab and Jewish tribes in Medina known
as the Constitution of Medina, which guaranteed and outlined cer-
tain basic rights and responsibilities for Arabs and Jews. A Christian
congregation was also allowed to pray in the Prophet's home-the
Medina mosque-according to their own rites."
What is of greater significance for Muslims, as far as the spiritual
dimension of religion in concerned, is the pinnacle of the Prophet's
spiritual life when he made his miraculous Night Journey with the
Angel Gabriel (Jibra' il) on the mythical horse Buraq from Mecca to
Jerusalem where he led a congregation of various prophets in prayer,
and then made a vertical ascension (mi ' rlij) through the heavens,
meeting various prophets and angel s along the way, to the Divine Pres-
ence.
26
It was here that the canonical prayers of Islam were revealed.
The Prophet in fact said, "The daily prayer is the mi' rlij of the
believer." One therefore finds a direct correlation between quintes-
sential esoterism and the exoteric rites of Islam. It is by adhering to
his own tradition, and specifically the Sunnah of the Prophet, that a
Muslim can enter the Divine Stratosphere and gain a direct vision of
the Supreme Reality, as well as of the countless prophets and angelic
beings, and understand the transcendent unity of religions.
The Prophet of Islam is at once the Logos and, like other prophets
in the Islamic universe, a manifestation of the Logos. He represents
the plenitude of the prophetic function, as well as the human norm,
96
which cannot be reduced to the modem standards that define Pro-
methean man.27
It is clear that in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet of
Islam one finds some of clearest expressions of the perennial phi-
losophy and the transcendent unity of religions, which Muslim sages
throughout history as well as in the twentieth century drew from to
elucidate the perennial philosophy. By referring and adhering to their
own traditional doctrines and methods they drew from the Source of
Intelligence, which is peerless in Its expression of the Truth:
Say: We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed
from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed
upon Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their
descendents, and that which has been vouchsafed to Moses
and Jesus, and that which has been vouchsafed to all the
[other] prophets by their Sustainer: we make no distinction
between any of them. And it is unto Him that we surrender
ourselves. (Quran 2: 136)
The Islamic Intellectual Tradition
and the Perennial Philosophy
I
slamic philosophy and esoterism developed along similar lines, and
ultimately made use of the same intellectual faculties, although they
expressed their knowledge of the Sacred in different ways. Unlike
in the West, where philosophy has become divorced from the Intel-
lect (al- ' aq{) and reduced to the rational faculty alone, in the Islamic
world Islamic philosophy was wedded to Revelation and intellection.
In a similar manner, Muslim gnostics and Sufi masters described a
vision of Reality that was based on the inner reality of Revelation
and intellectual intuition, and not a sentimental form of love that is
detached from sacred knowledge. Therefore, the expressions of the
perennial philosophy that derive from the Islamic intellectual tradition
are objective visions of Reality that are based on the Quran, Sunnah,
and the central doctrine of Divine Unity, and not simply theoretical
metaphysics or profane philosophy that is divorced from an operati ve
tradition. After the Quran and Sunnah, the writings of sages from the
Islamic intellectual tradition are of the greatest significance for the
understanding of the perennial philosophy in general and the Islamic
97
Zachary Markwith
tradition in particular. What is remarkable about the Muslim intel-
lectuals in the twentieth century we are di scussi ng is that they were
responsible for not only restating the perennial philosophy, but also
preserving and demonstrating the importance of the Islamic intel-
lectual tradition, not to mention the Quran and Sunnah. According
to S.H. Nasr,
For [Muslims] the sages of antiquity such as Pythagoras and
Plato were "Unitarians" (muwaJ.!J.!idun) who expressed the
truth which lies at the heart of all religions. They, therefore,
belonged to the Islamic universe and were not considered
as alien to it. The Islamic intellectual tradition in both its
gnostic (ma'rifah or ' irfiin) and philosophical and theosophi-
cal (falsafah-J.!ikmah) aspects saw the source of this unique
truth which is the "Religion of the Truth" (dfn al-J.!aqq) in
the teachings of the ancient prophets goi ng back to Adam
and considered Idris, who is identified with Hermes, as the
"father of philosophers" (Abu' l-J.!ukama'). 2g
From al-KindT to MulHi Muslim philosophers and theoso-
phers preserved and transformed Greek philosophy, as well as Persian
and Indian philosophy, and followed a different trajectory from the
West after the Renaissance, because of their attachment to a living
tradition and Revelation, which could di scern between those sages and
schools who were guided by higher principles and those trends in the
West and the East which were opposed to sacred knowledge. Islamic
philosophy as a whole has always relied first and foremost upon the
Quranic revelation and used the wisdom of ancient philosophers to
describe their vision of Reality, which was the result of their attach-
ment to Islam and Islamic esoterism. Abii Yiisuf Ya' qiib AI-KindT
(801-866) states,
We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth and assimi-
late it from whatever source it comes to us, even if it be by
former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks
the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself; it
never cheapens or abases him who reaches for it, but ennobles
and honors him.3o
The Prophet Mu\:lammad established thi s principle when he said,
"Seek knowledge even unto China." Therefore, the wisdom of the
98
ages, including sacred texts, philosophy, and the writings of gnostics
and sages around the world was considered the rightful inheritance
of Muslims, and was easily incorporated into Islamic philosophy and
esoterism. According to S.H. Nasr,
[AI-FarabT] sought to unify the wisdom of Aristotle and
Plato and, like nearly all other Muslim sages, considered the
wisdom expounded by these men to have come ultimately
from Divine revelation, and could not therefore be contra-
dictory.l'
Abii al-FarabT (870-950), and many Muslim philosophers,
were also conversant with and/or initiated into Sufi orders, and there-
fore helped establish an epistemology, which privileged higher modes
of knowing --especially Revelation and intellectual intuition-without
denying the importance of logic and reason, and those pre-Islamic
currents of philosophy that according to the early Muslim philosophers
were also the result of Revelation and gnosis.32
As mentioned above, one also finds direct references to the peren-
nial philosophy in Islamic philosophy, such as al-J.!ikmat al-khiilidah
in Arabic and jiivfdiin khirad in Persian, which may have influenced
the formulation of the term philosophia perennis by Steuco and
Leibnitz.
33
Referring to al-J.!ikmat al-khiilidah in Arabic andjiivfdiin
khirad in Persian, S.H. Nasr writes,
This is in fact the title of a well-known work by Ibn Mis-
kawayh (Muskiiyah) which contains metaphysical and
ethical aphorisms and sayings by Islamic and pre-Islamic
sages .. .including those from ancient Persia, India, and the
Mediterranean world (Riim).34
The accumulated wisdom of the ages, as well as direct knowledge
of the Sacred, is also clearly seen in the life and works of Avicenna
or Abii 'AlI STna (980-1037) who was not only a Muslim philosopher
and metaphysician, deeply attached to the Quran (which he had memo-
rized), but also a traditional scientist, physician, mathematician, and
psychologist, who, like al-FarabT, wrote about the theory of music."
S.H. Nasr states,
But it was essentially the "esoteric" or "Oriental Philoso-
phy" of A vicenna that had the greatest import in the Orient.
99
Zachaty Markwith
It was his cosmology supported by his angelology that was
elaborated by Suhrawardi and, after being divorced from
the rationalistic and syllogistic mesh in whose matrix it was
at first placed, became integrated into certain schools of
Sufism.
3

While being firmly rooted in the Revelation and gnosis, Avicenna,
as well as Aristotle and the Greek philosophers, was later misappropri-
ated to promote rationalism, which was then critiqued by Ash' arite
theology, Aba i:lamid al-Ghazzali, and Fakhr aI-Din al-Razi, despite
certain excesses on their part as well.37 In response to his critics Avi-
cenna or al-Shaykh al-Ra'is (the Master among Wise Men) wrote,
It is not so easy and trifling to call me a heretic
No belief in religion is firmer than mine own.
I am the unique person in the world and if I am a heretic
Then there is not a single Muslim anywhere in the world.
38
The wisdom of the Muslim philosophers, which included an-
cient Greek, Iranian, and Indian philosophy, was incorporated into
Suhrawardi's Ishraq, school, which relied heavily on pure intellection
and gnosis, and of course the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet of
Islam. S.H. Nasr writes,
Suhrawardi considered himself as the reunifier of what he
calls al-/:!ikmat al-ladun,yah, or Divine Wisdom, and al-
/:!ikmat al- ' aaqah, or ancient wisdom. He believed that this
wisdom is universal and perennial, the philosophia perennis
and universalis, which existed in various forms among ancient
Hindus and Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians, and among
the Greeks up to the time of Ari stotle . . . 3'
Shihab ai-Din Suhrawardi (l153-1191) or Shaykh al-Ishraq (the
Master of Illumination) believed philosophy began with Hermes
or the prophet Idris in the Quran, and therefore has its origin in
prophecy, and cannot be divorced from Revelation in the name of
rationalism. He also believed that he inherited this ancient wisdom
from two schools in ancient Egypt and Persia, which both trace their
chains of transmission back to Hermes.
40
It is interesting to note that
Suhrawardi was martyred in Egypt because of his beliefs and that the
lshraq' school has flourished more in Iran than in the Western Islamic
lands.
41
Suhrawardi states,
100
Whoever is a traveler on the road to Truth is my companion
and aid on this path. The procedure of the master of philoso-
phy and imiim of wisdom, the Divine Plato, was the same,
and the sages who preceded Plato in time like Hermes, the
father of philosophy, followed the same path. Since sages of
the past, because of the ignorance of the masses, expressed
their sayings in secret symbols, the refutations which have
been made against them have concerned the exterior of these
sayings not their real intentions. And the lshraq' wisdom,
whose foundation and basis are the two principles of light
and darkness as established by the Persian sages like Jamasp,
Frashadsbar, and Bazarjumihr, is among these hidden, secret
symbols.
42
The principles of Suhrawardi's Ishraq' school are found in the
Quran, and in all authentic revelations. Suhrawardi made use of the
verse of light in the Quran (24:35), which includes the Divine Name
al-Nur (the Light), and the commentaries on this verse by al-Ghazzali
in his Miskat al-anwar (The Niche of Lights)." He also relied on the
writings of Avicenna, al-l:Iallaj, and the vast intellectual heritage that
he inherited from Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Hermeticism, and Zo-
roastrianism to describe the metaphysics, ontology, cosmology, and
symbolism of Divine Light.
44
Suhrawardi believed that all of reality consists of degrees of
light and darkness. Ultimately, all light finds its origin in the Light of
lights (Nur al-anwar) or the Divine Essence, which is like the Sun of
existence. This Light then radiates and reflects into the cosmos and
in the heart of man through a hierarchy of angels, which are like stars
in the night sky. Our goal is to discover our higher self or the angel of
one's being, which is the luminous source of the immanent Intellect. 45
Suhrawardi identifies the angel of humanity with Gabriel (Jibra"il),
as well as the Holy Spirit (ru/:! al-qudus) and the MUQammadan spirit
(al-ril/:! al-mu/:zammadiyyah), 46 which reminds us of Christ as Christos
Angelos in the Nag Hammadi collection.
47
Suhrawardi's lshraq' school was an essential element in latex
branches of Islamic philosophy and gnosis, such as in the writings of
Ibn ' Arabi and Mulla $adra. According to S.H. Nasr,
101
Zachary Markwith
The perennial wisdom which the Master of Ishraq has sought
to establish, or rather to re-establish, in his short terrestrial
life thus became not only a dominant intellectual perspective
in Shi'ism, and more generally in the eastern lands of Islam,
but also overt'1owed the banks of the Islamic world to reach
other traditions.
4s
Another major light in the firmament of the Islamic intellectual
universe is ai-Din Ibn' Arabi (1165-1240), who made use of
the legacy of Divine wisdom which his predecessors preserved and
transmitted, and also added his own immense contributions. The
great Andalusian gnostic, known as al-Shaykh ai-Akbar (the Great-
est Master), relied heavily on the Quran, lfadlth literature, Islamic
philosophy, and Sufi prose and poetry, to describe his theophanic
visions of Reality. His major works, al-Furuhat al-makkiyah (The
Meccan Revelations) and al-I,likam (The Bezels of Wisdom) are
among the greatest masterpieces of what Joseph Lumbard has called
the "i/.lsaniintellectual tradition," and the perennial philosophy4" He
is famously known in the West for his poem Tarjuman al-ashwaq
(The Interpreter of Desires), in which he describes the beauty of a
young maiden, Nizam, who becomes a symbol for the Beloved. S.H.
N asr writes,
He met a young girl of great devoutness and beauty who
henceforth became the embodiment of the eternal sophia for
him and fulfilled a role in his life which resembles that of
Beatrice in the life of Dante.
5o
Indeed, the symbol of the feminine beloved in a common theme
in the writings of the greatest Sufi masters, and, as we shall see, plays
an important role in Shl'ite esoterism through the daughter of
the Prophet, and also in the life ofFrithjof Schuon and his successors,
through the presence of the Virgin Mary. The archetypal Sophia is a
manifestation of the Infinite Beauty and Wisdom of the Divine. This
beatific vision allows man to see the beauty and wisdom in the various
religions, the cosmos, and in his own heart. This feminine manifesta-
tion and reflection of the Divine in Islamic esoterism is what enabled
Ibn ' Arabi and Frithjof Schuon to see the Truth and Beauty in other
religions. It is only after seeing the archetype of Wisdom and Beauty,
that one can recognize its diverse reflections in the world of forms.
102
It was in the Tarjuman al-ashwaq that Ibn ' Arabi wrote one of
the most powerful set of verses, which describes what Frithjof Schuon
called the religio cordis or religion of the heart and also the transcen-
dent unity of religions. After seeing Nizam, Ibn 'Arabi asserts:
Receptive now my heart is for each form;
For gazelles pasture, for monks a monastery,
Temple for idols, Ka'bah to be rounded,
Tables of Torah and script of Quran.
My religion is love's religion; where'er tum
Her camels, that religion my religion is, my faith.
An example is set us by Bishr, lover
Of Hind and her sister, and likewise the loves
Of Qays and Layla, of Mayya and Ghaylan.
51
Ibn' Arabi's poetry, and Sufi poetry in general, is not based on
eroticism or a sentimental love and attachment, but on knowledge of
the Sacred, which is always wedded to love of the Divine. In Islamic
esoterism, the goal of the Path is union and knowledge that unites,
and there is no better symbol for this than the love and union with
the beloved. What also must be kept in mind is that Ibn ' Arabi saw
the Essence and Formless within all forms and religions, but came
to this realization because of his attachment to Islam and Sufism,
which finds its source in the inner reality of the Quran and soul of
the Prophet
Ibn ' Arabi and his heirs in the Akbari school of gnosis elucidated
the inner meaning of the central doctrine of Divine Unity (tawl,lid)
in Islam, which is based on the first part of the shahadah, La ilaha
illa'Uah, or "There is no god but God," through what became known
as wal,ldat al-wujud, or the transcendent unity of Being. Ibn ' Arabi,
along with ' Abd ai-Karim al-Jili, was also responsible for explaining
the esoteric meaning of the second part of the shahiidah, M ul,lammadun
rasul Allah, or is the messenger of God," through the
doctrine of the universal or perfect man (al-insan al-kamil). It would
not be an exaggeration to say that the whole of Islamic esoterism
is based on the inner meaning of the shahadah, which Ibn ' Arabi
wrote about with remarkable depth and clarity. The realization of this
inner meaning is not dependent upon its written articulation, espe-
cially during the early centuries of Islam. Conversely, the theoretical
knowledge that is gained by reading the works of Ibn ' Arabi, which
103
Zachary Markwith
was the fruit of realization for Ibn ' Arabi, is not the same as realized
knowledge, which requires a living tradition, as well as the guidance
of a spiritual master.
Ibn ArabI's FU$u$ al-I;ikam al so deserves special attention. Ac-
cording to S.H. Nasr:
The work was composed in 62711229, and according to Ibn
' ArabI's own words, stated in the introduction, it was inspired
by a vision of the Prophet holding a book in hi s hand which
he ordered the Shaykh to "take" and to transmit to the world
so that men might benefit by it. The very title, Bezels of Wis-
dom, symbolizes the content of the book in that each "bezel"
contains a precious jewel which symbolizes as aspect of Di-
vine wisdom, each bezel is the human and spiritual nature of
a prophet which serves as a vehicle for the particular aspect
of Divine wisdom revealed to that prophet. "
Each chapter is named after a prophet, such as Adam, Seth,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, and contains the archetypal
wisdom of that prophet, as well as the universal wi sdom of the Di vine
Word.
53
Written completely within the Islamic universe, the FU$U$
al-I;ikam is a summary of Islamic esoterism, as well as the sophia
perennis, which each prophet manifests in hi s own wayS4
AI-Fu!uhiit al-makklyah is a vast ocean of wi sdom, which also
contains some of the most important expressions of the perennial phi-
losophy in the Islamic tradition. William Chittick quotes Ibn ' Arabi
in his Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al- ' Arabi and the Problem of Religious
Diversity:
The People of Unveiling have been given an all-inclusive
overview of all religions, creeds, sects, and doctrines concern-
ing God. They are not ignorant of any of these. Adherents
follow creeds, sects conform to specific laws, and doctrines
are held concerning God or something in the engendered uni-
verse. Some of these contradict, some diverge, and some are
similar. In every case the Possessor of Unveiling knows from
where the doctrine, the creed, or the sect are taken, and he
ascribes it to its place. He offers an excuse for everyone who
holds a doctrine and does not declare him in error. He does
not consider the doctrine to be vain, for God did not create
104
the heaven and the earth and is between them for unreality
[Quran 38:27] and He did not create the human being in vain
[Quran 23: 115]. On the contrary, He created him alone to be
in His form .. ss
Ibn ' Arabi understood the diversity of religious forms is based
on the infinite possibilities within the Divine Names and Nature,
while adhering to the religion of Islam, which provided him a path
to realization and made his universal understanding of forms and the
Formless possible. Ibn' Arabi's defense of the transcendent unity of
religions through the Quran is perhaps best illustrated in the follow-
ing passage:
Those who adore God in the sun behold the sun, and those who
adore Him in living things see a living thing, and those who
adore Him in lifeless things see a lifeless thing, and those who
adore Him as a Being unique and unparalleled see that which
has no like. Do not attach yourself to any particular creed
exclusively, so that you disbelieve in all the rest; otherwise,
you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to recognize the
real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent,
is not limited by anyone creed, for He says, (Quran 2: 109),
"Wheresoever ye tum, there is the face of Allah."s6
Titus Burckhardt quotes Ibn ' Arabi to describe the Muslim view
of sacred art in other religions, which issues from
respect for the icon of the Virgin and Christ referred to above: ' 'The
Byzantines developed the art of painting to its perfection, because
for them the unique nature (fardiiniyyah) of Jesus (Sayyidna ' Isa),
as expressed in his image, is the foremost support of concentrating
on Divine Unity."s7Ibn ' Arabi respected Islamic Law (Shari' ah) and
knew that such forms were not meant for Muslims, who have aniconic
art, but he also clearly understood their importance for other religious
communities and believed they were sanctioned by God.
What must be emphasized when examining the intellectual con-
tributions of Ibn ' Arabi is that his knowledge was based on direct
vision or gnosis of the imaginal and angelic worlds and the Divine
Reality, and not only the rational faculty or other modes of knowing.
S.H. Nasr brings this poinrout when referring to one of Ibn ' ArabI's
vi sions of the spiritual hierarchy of saints in Sufism:
105
Zachary Markwith
During these years the Shaykh continued to have his
theophanic visions. He had already had a vision of the invis-
ible hierarchy ruling the Universe, consisting of the Supreme
Pole (Qurb); the two imiims; the four "pillars" (awtad) govern-
ing the four cardinal points; the seven "substitutes" (abdal)
the influence of each of whom reigns over one of the climates;
the twelve chiefs (nuqabii ' ), dominating the twelve signs of
the Zodiac; and the eight nobles (nujabii ") corresponding to
eight heavenly spheres. He also had a vision of all the spiri-
tual poles of the revelations anteceding Islam, and realized
the transcendent unity of all the traditions revealed by God
to man$8
Ibn' Arabi is one the supreme expOSitors of the perennial philoso-
phy in Islamic history, whose presence and teachings have nourished
generations of Muslim philosophers, gnostics, and aspirants on the
Sufi path, and helped pave the way for some of the greatest philoso-
phers and gnostics in Islamic history, such as aI-DIn Qunyawi,
MaJ:!miid Shabistari, Sayyid l:Iaydar Amuli and Mulla Sadra. The
Akbari school, as well as Suhrawardi's Ishraqi school, an'd the writ-
ings of Avicenna and other Muslim philosophers found a harmonious
union in the Shi' ite world through the writings of Mulla who
also represents one of the peaks of the Islamic intellectual tradition
and the perennial philosophy $9
ai-DIn Shirazi (1571-1640), also known as Mulla Sadra, was
born in Shiraz. He created a harmony between Islamic philosophy,
Ibn ' Arabi's school, and Shi'ism with the help of his predecessor
Sayyid l:Iaydar Amuli (and other important scholars), whose Jami '
al-asrar (The Sum of Divine Mysteries) sought to unify Shi'ism, the
of Ibn ' Arabi, and Sufism in genera\.60 S.H. Nasr writes," It
is Amuli who believed that every true Shi' ite is a Sufi and every true
Sufi a Shi'ite.,,61
Mulla was versed in traditional philosophy and the religious
and intellectual sciences, which had an important impact on his life
and writings. What is of even greater significance is that he may have
been initiated into a Sufi order or received guidance directly from the
Hidden Imam or Khi<;lr.
62
We do know that he spent several years in
retreat where he focused on quintessential prayer and returned as a
realized sage.
63
Therefore, whether he had a regular initiation or re-
106
cei ved guidance from one of the hidden masters of Islamic esoterism,
his knowledge was the fruit of spiritual discipline and gnosis and not
simply the result of the rational faculty.
Mullii is best known for his al-ljikmat al-muta' a/iyah
fi 'l-asfor al- ' aq/iyyat al-arba' ah (The Transcendent Theosophy
concerning the Four Intellectual Jouneys of the Soul), also known
as Asfor (Journeys), but his corpus includes nearly fifty manuscripts
on subjects that include Quran and ljadith commentary, Imamology,
Shi'ite esoterism, philosophy, metaphysics, ontology, cosmogony,
eschatology, symbolism, free will and predestination, epistemology,
logic, and poetry. 64 In breadth and depth few philosophers in Islamic
history can compare to Mulla whose perspective has become
known as transcendent theosophy (al-I.zikmat al-muta' aliyah), not to
be confused with certain pseudo-theosophical movements in the West.
S.H. Nasr writes about Mulla
The symbolism of wayfaring is universal and found in nearly
all religions and the flight of the soul to God is often expressed
in terms ofajourney. The very name Taoism is derived from
the Tao or the "way", while in Islam the names for both the
Divine Law or Shari'ah and the esoteric way or Tariqah mean
literally road and path. The Sufis especially emphasized in
their works the symbolism of traveling. Some Sufi works
such as the Conference of the Birds (Manriq al-rayr) of ' Anar
are based wholly on this symbolism. Ibn ' Arabi even wrote
a treatise whose title includes the name "ai-as for" and he
discusses the meaning of its singular form, safar, in his al-
Mulla was fully conscious of this
tradition and in fact in the introduction of the Asfor mentions
that the gnostics undertake four journeys .. 6S
The path to illuminative knowledge that Mulla writes about
in his Asfor, as well as his other treatises on metaphysics and ontol-
ogy, was inspired by his own journey through the Divine Intellect, and
returns to us as a precious jewel of the Islamic intellectual tradition
and the perennial philosophy, reflecting the light and wisdom of the
Revelation, intellectual intuition, and reason. The teachings of Mulla
continue to be studied and cultivated throughout the Islamic
world, as well as in India and the West, and constitute a living philo-
sophical tradition that is wedded to Revelation and gnosis.
107
Zachary Markwith
We should also note the immense contribution to Islamic esot-
erism and the perennial philosophy that Ismii'm philosophers have
made. They developed a cyclical doctrine of history, which is based
on the cosmological significance of the number seven. Each of the
major prophets had an esoteric representative, who transmitted the
inner dimension of religion. For example, the representative of Adam
was Seth, of Abraham was Ishmael, of Moses was Aaron, and of
was' All
6
The seventh guide in the chain of each rep-
resentative inaugurates a new cycle and who revives the tradition.
Some of the most eminent Ismii'm philosophers include Abu
l:iiitim Riizl, Khusraw, Abu Ya' qub al-Sijistiinl, and l:iamld
ai-Din al-KirmiinL67 These men made great contributions to not only
to Ismii'm thought, but also to the Islamic tradition as a whole and the
perennial philosophy8 Abu l:iiitim Riizl (874-933) defended religion
and the prophets against the accusation that the various religions show
too much formal diversity to come from one Source.
69
Referring to
the essential or transcendent unity of religions, Riizl states,
Whoever is just and is not arrogant, and reflects on the differ-
ences by his intellect and examines the contradictions of the
prophets and what they have revealed in their shariiyi' and
the parables which they have struck and have been revealed
from God the exalted and glorified, - [he will perceive] that
the literal words of the prophets in their symbols (amt/;iif)
differ but in the inner content (or intentions, ma' iinf) they are
consistent. They have not differed in the core value of religion,
such as the Divine unity. They unanimously agree that God,
glory be to His remembrance, is one God . .. 70
The poetry and prose of Sufi masters, especially in the Persian-
speaking world, is without a doubt a central expression of the perennial
philosophy, as well as the transcendent unity of religions. For this
reason, it is often difficult for interpreters and readers of Jaliil ai-DIn
Rumi and in the West to see their essential link to the Quran
and the Prophet of Islam, and falsely attribute to them a universal-
ism that stands opposed to tradition and orthodoxy. Unfortunately,
this same mistake is also made by some interpreters of Guenon and
Schuon, who attempt to detach them from the Islamic tradition.
7I
S.H. Nasr writes,
108
It is by making the distinction between and ma ' nii that
Ruml is able to offer a hermeneutical interpretation of all of
reality, of both the "cosmic Quran" and the "revealed Quran"
and to unveil the transcendent unity of being and of religions.
Jaliil ai-DIn is, along with Ibn' Arabi, perhaps the foremost
expositor of the transcendent unity of religions in the annals of
Sufism as well as one of the grand expositors of the cardinal
doctrine of the unity of being (waf:uiat al-wujUd).
The great Persian Sufi poet Jaliil ai-DIn Rumi (\207-1273) did
not discard the or form (as if such as thing were possible in the
world offorms), but revealed the ma' nii or meaning or essence within
each form. Following the Quranic injunction, Ruml saw signs of the
Beloved in nature, poetry, sacred music and dance, in his companions
Shams and l:iusiim ai-DIn, in Islam and all of the religions he encoun-
tered. Ruml was extremely receptive to Divine Beauty and saw its
reflection everywhere he turned. F. Schuon states:
. . . To be sensitive to the metaphysical transparency of beauty,
to the radiation of forms and sounds, is already to possess-in
common with a Ruml or a Ramakrishna-a visual and audita-
tive intuition capable of ascending through phenomena right
up to the essences and the eternal melodies.
72
Mawliinii (literally our master), as Ruml is known in the Is-
lamic world, wrote extensively about the prophets mentioned in the
Quran, and provided an esoteric commentary on the Quran with his
Mathnawf.
73
His appreciation for the various prophets and other re-
ligions was the result of his knowledge of the inner meaning and the
outer form of the Quran. Referring to the prophets, Rumi states,
Iften lamps are present in (one) place, each differs in form
from the other:
To distinguish without any doubt the light of each, when
you turn your face toward their light, is impossible.
In things spiritual there is no division and no numbers; in
things spiritual there is no partition and no individuals.
74
Referring to what Frithjof Schuon called the religio cordis or the
religion of the heart, Rumi also writes,
109
Zachary Markwith
The creed of love is separated from all religions;
The creed and the religi on of lovers of God is God him-
self.1'
We find numerous examples of the essenti al, not to be confused
with the formal , unity of religions in the writings of almost all Per-
sian Sufi poets. The transcendent unity of religions is almost taken
for granted by anyone who has read and appreciated these Muslim
gnostics. The great Sufi poet (d. 1389), who is buried in Shiraz,
writes:
In love no difference there is between monastery and Sufi
tavern of ruins,
Wheresoever it be, there is the glow of the light of the
Beloved's Face.
76
These lines illustrate that understanding between various religions
is only achieved through what Frithjof Schuon called, "esoteric ecu-
meni sm," and knowledge of the Transcendent Reality through the
inner dimension of religion.
In the Gulshan-i Riiz (The Garden of Mystery),
Shabistari (d. 1340) demonstrates that esoteric Christianity is very
similar to quintessential Islam and Sufism. While Jesus is seen as a
prophet in Islam, the crystallization of hi s teachings in the Christian
world also point to the spiritual path (!arlqah) and the sole Truth (al-
ijaqq), which is the common goal of all religions. Shabistan writes:
I have seen that Christianity's aim is real detachment; I've
seen it as the breaking of the bonds of imitation. Sacred Uni-
ty's courtyard in the monastery of Spirit where the Slmurgh
of the Everlasting makes Its nest. From God's Spirit, Jesus,
this work of detachment appeared, si nce he was manifested
from the sacred Spirit. There is also a spirit from God within
you; in which is found a trace of the Most Holy. If you should
seek extinction of the earthly self, come into the chamber of
the Holy Presence. Anyone who, angel-like, has detached
from the earthly soul will be risen, Jesus-like, to the fourth
celestial realm. 77
While Shabistarl wrote about the essential unity of Christianity
and Islamic esoterism, this principle applies to all religions, and was
110
not fully elaborated by Muslims until the twentieth century because
most religious communities only encountered a few of the world's
other great religions, and the Quran itself is formally situated in the
Abrahamic universe. Similar expressions were however made by Sufis
when they encountered Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Greek Philosophy,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
78
One of the clearest expressions of the transcendent unity of reli-
gions in Arabic Sufi poetry comes from al-J:lalIaj (858-922),
the Christ-like martyr in Islam who was killed for uttering, "I am the
Truth."
Eamest for truth, I thought on the religions:
They are, I found, one root with many a branch.
Therefore impose on no man a religion,
Lest it should bar him from the firm-set root.
Let the root claim him, a root wherein all heights
And meanings are made clear, for him to grasp. 79
While the transcendent unity of religions was not full y elaborated
until the twentieth century by Frithjof Schuon, the principles of this
doctrine can be found throughout the Quran, Sunnah, the Islamic in-
tellectual tradition, especially in the writings of the Sufis such as Ibn
' ArabI and Jalal aI-DIn RumL There are also other notable streams
that also deserve our attention, and further illustrate the link between
Islam and the perennial philosophy, including Ithna 'ashari Shl' ism
andfutuwwah (spiritual chivalry). Further, this brief overview of these
streams within the Islamic tradition, which also demonstrates the pres-
ence of the sophia perennis in Islam, is not meant to be exhaustive.
Shi' ism bases itself on the reality of Revelation, prophecy, and
waliiyah (the initiatic function) . In a manner similar to Sufism, the
presence and light of the Prophet is perpetuated through
the Twelve Imams, the first eight of whom also exist as poles (aq!iib)
within certain Sufi orders in the Sunni world.
so
Shl'ism demonstrates
the trans-historical reality of Islam, prophecy, and initiation. While
the function and designation of messenger (rasii) and prophet (nabf)
is reserved for the Prophet (and those prophets who pre-
ceded him), the seal of the prophets (khiitam al-anbiyii') in both the
Sunni and Shl'ite world, the presence of the Imams in Shi' ism, like
the saints in Sufism, is a continuation of his inner reality (al-J:zaqlqat
III
Zachary Markwith
The Prophet of Islam said to ' An, the first
Imam in ShI'ism and the fourth rightly guided Caliph, "Are you not
satisfied to be to me what Aaron was to Moses except that after me
there will not be another prophet?" According to the famous
at Ghadlr Khumm the Prophet said, "For whomever I am his master
(mawlii) and the authority whom he obeys, ' An will be his master. Oh
God! Be friendly with the friends of' An and enemy of the enemies
of cAli. "81
Therefore, we find a continuation of the presence and sanctity of
the Prophet ofIslam in ' An, in both ShI'ism and Sufism." Moreover,
this sanctity and initiatic function was transmitted through various
chains. In Ithna 'ashari ShI' ism, there are twelve Imams, of whom
the Hidden Imam is the last and current Imam in the chain. The
Imams transmit the light of the Prophet (al-nilr
to each generation, and also are authorities in the Islamic sciences,
which include Quranic interpretation (tafsir, ta' wfl), J:fadith literature,
theology (kaliim), philosophy and gnosis (' iifiinl
ma'rifah). For a ShI' ite, the perennial wisdom within the context of
Islam was transmitted from the Prophet to the Imams. Within ShI' ite
esoterism, the Imams are the Logos, which in fact can never be absent
in a living tradition.
There is also a distinct feminine presence of sanctity in ShI'ism
through the Prophet's daughter Falimah, who was also the wife of
Imam' An, and is likened to the Virgin Mary. Henry Corbin writes,
The First Imam and Falimah are related to each other in the
same reciprocal way as the two first hypostases, ' aql and
Nafs, Intelligence and Soul, or in terms more familiar to us
(because they go back to Philo): Logos and Sophia. The couple
' Ali-Fiitima is the exemplification, the epiphany on earth, of
the eternal couple Logos-Sophia. Hence we can foresee the
implications of their respective persons ... 83
In the Imam and Falimah, the mother of the second and third
Imams, J:lasan and J:lusayn, one finds the manifestation of the Logos
and the feminine Sophia, or archetypal beauty and wisdom. In a man-
ner similar to the Sufi martyr al-J:lallaj, Imam J:lusayn's martyrdom
at Karbala in the year 680 closely resembles the function and mar-
tyrdom of Christ in Christianity, although ShI' ism was not founded
on redemptive suffering.
112
One also finds in the person and presence of the Hidden Imam,
a role that is analogous to Elias and Khi"r. In Ithna 'ashari ShI' ism,
the Twelfth Imam, Mul:tammad al-MahdI (868-present), had a lesser
occultation, which began in the year 872, and a greater occultation,
which began in 939 and continues until the present. Moreover, his
return is expected before the second coming of Christ and the end
of this cycle of human history, which Muslims also believe. He will
restore peace and justice on earth and openly guide humanity for a
number of years.
84
S.H. Nasr states:
According to Islam, when the MahdI appears before the end of
time not only will he reestablish peace but he will also uplift
the outward religious forms to unveil their inner meaning
and their essential unity through which he will then unify all
religions. Similar accounts are to be found in other traditions
such as Hinduism where the eschatological events at the end
of the historical cycle are also related to the unification of
various religious forms.
85
Nasr makes it clear that the MahdI will uplift the various religious
forms to reveal their essential unity. In other words, he will restore
the form of each religion and then reveal their common substance.
Therefore, according to the Islamic tradition, the MahdI has a pivotal
function that completes the work that many saints and sages have
already begun. Indeed, even before the coming of the Imam or the
Messiah, unity can only be attained by the type of esoteric ecumenism
that Schuon has written about. The parody of this inner unity is seen
in various manifestations of the New Age movement, which discard
religious forms in the name of unity. 8.
There is also a close relationship between ShI' ism, Sufism, the
perennial philosophy, andfutuwwah or spiritual chivalry. In addition
to spiritual chivalry, the termfutuwwah (or jawiinmara. in Persian),
implies courage, honor, nobility, generosity, and beauty, and traces
its origin to the prophet Abraham. According to S.H. Nasr,
Abraham was therefore the initiator of the cycle of futuw-
wah, which according to later authors such as Wa'i? Kashifi
was transmitted like prophecy (nubuwwah) itself. Abraham
passed it to Ishmael and Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and Jacob to
Joseph, one of the chief exemplars offutuwwah. Then it was
113
Zachary Markwith
transmitted to Christianity and finally Islam. The Prophet of
Islam received through the "Mul)ammadan Light" the truth
and power of futuwwah, which he transmitted to ' Ali, who
henceforth became the supreme source offutuwwah in Islam
for both Sunnis and ShI' ites.
87
According to a saying of the Prophet, ''There is no fata (chival-
rous youth) except' AlI and no sword except dhu'l:/iqar," referring
to the chivalry that' AlI displayed on the battlefield and his sword
dhu'l:/iqar, although such chivalry was not possible without the
aforementioned virtues. The virtues offutuwwah are summarized in a
famous story when' AlI had overtaken his opponent on the battlefield,
and decides to show mercy after his opponent spit in his face. RilmI
retells this story in his Mathnawl,
He spat on the face of 'Ali
The pride of every prophet and saint. ..
And 'Ali responded,
He said, "I wield the sword for the sake of Truth,
I am the servant of the Truth, not commanded by the body.
I am the Lion of the Truth, not the lion of the passion,
My action is witness to my religion.
88
In Islam, the virtues and qualities of the prophets are contained
in the universal man (al-insan al-kamil), who embodies the peren-
nial wisdom of the ages and directly reflects the Divine Names and
Attributes here on earth. After the Prophet of Islam, there have been
numerous Muslim saints, whose presence and teachings continue to
inspire and guide ShI'ites and Sunnis. One of the greatest proofs of
the sophia perennis in Islam is the vast number of saints and sages
that it has produced, and, as we shall see, continues to produce.
The Islamic intellectual and spiritual heritage, which derives
from the inner and outer reality of the Quran and soul of the Prophet,
is an ocean of sacred knowledge. Reviewing this tradition in light of
the sophia or religio perennis helps explain why Muslim intellectu-
114
als were largely responsible for restating the perennial philosophy
in the twentieth century. Indeed, for a Muslim sage who knows tbe
Quran, lfadith literature, and the Islamic intellectual tradition----and
has followed the spiritual path (Jarlqah) that leads to the Transcen-
dent-the sophia perennis is ubiquitous. Without knowing something
about the Quran, Sunnah, and the Islamic intellectual tradition, and
their relationship to the perennial philosophy, the connection between
contemporary Muslim traditionalists, as described below, and tbe
perennial philosophy is unintelligible.
Contemporary Muslim Intellectuals
and the Perennial Philosophy
D ene Guenon (1886-1951) or Shaykb 'Abd al-Wiihid Yal)yii as he
Ris known in the Islamic world, lived the last twenty years of his
life in Cairo as a practicing Muslim. He is the reviver of tradition in
the West, and a fierce critic of modernity in all its facets. He wrote ex-
tensively about metaphysics, tradition, initiation, and symbolism in the
context of Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity, and Hermeticism.
His critique of modernity, including scientism, materialism, secular-
ism, democracy, and various precursors to the New Age movement,
was like a sword that discerned truth from falsehood, and a powerful
complement to his appreciation of tradition. Indeed, Guenon's The
Crisis of the Modem World proves the famous saying, "The pen
is mightier than the sword." He is responsible for expounding the
principles of tradition in the modern world. Guenon made the tacti-
cal decision to first express himself through writing about the Hindu
tradition in his Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines and Man
and His Becoming according to the Vediinta because he thought many
in the West would not accept tradition ifitcame in Islamic garb, which
was closely related to the Jewish and Christian traditions which many
had already rejected
8 9
This, as well as the fact that he preferred privacy
and moved to Egypt, concealed the fact that Guenon lived and died
as a traditional Muslim in the fullest sense of the term.
l! is undoubtedly true that Guenon's Catholic upbringing and- --
encounters with people knowledgeable of other traditions, eSie is".!
Hinduism and Taoism, enabled him to appreciate the Truth in 6:se
religions and further understand the essential unity of all traditicm..
115
Zachary Markwith
what is often overlooked is Guenon's providential acceptance oflslam,
both its exoteric shell and esoteric kernel, and how the universality of
the Islamic tradition provided a foundation for Guenon's acceptance
of other religions, as well as nourishment and support for his vertical
journey to the One. Islam is certainly a central theme in several of
Guenon's works including Insights into Islamic Esoterism and Taoism
and The Symbolism of the Cross, which is dedicated to Shaykh 'Abd
al-Ral:lman 'llyash al-Kablr of the Shadhiliyyah order.
Guenon's essay "Islamic Esoterism" in Islamic Esoterism and
Taoism is an essential prerequisite for anyone interested in the in-
ner dimension of Islam, because of its insistence on Islamic Law
(Sharf'ah) and a regular initiatic chain (silsilah) that goes back to the
Prophet Mul:lammad. He also continuously reminds us of the goal of
all wayfaring, which is knowledge of the One True Reality. These
writings on Islam reveal Guenon's own tradition and the spiritual
path he was on to reach the Formless. He reminded the West that all
religious forms and symbols were so many vehicles and signs on the
way to the Transcendent.
In 1912, Guenon was initiated into the Shadhiliyyah order by a
Swedish Muslim, Ivan Gustaf Agueli or ' Abd al-Hadl, who was a
student of Shaykh 'Abd al-Ral:lman ' llaysh al-Kablr. Shaykh 'Abd
al-Ral:lman emphasized the teachings of the great Sufi gnostic, Ibn
' ArabI, which can be seen in Guenon's Symbolism of the Cross. This
text is essentially about the universal man (al-insiin al-kiimil), which
as we have seen is a central doctrine in the Akbarf school. This spiri-
tuallink to Shaykh ' Abd al-Ral:lman, and by extension the Prophet
Mul:lammad, connected Guenon to the heart of the Islamic tradition.
Yet, according to Guenon, the acceptance of another tradition for
initiatic reasons,
[has 1 absolutely nothing in common with any kind of exte-
rior and contingent change, whether arising simply from the
"moral" domain ... Contrary to what takes place in "conver-
sion," nothing here implies the attribution of the superiority
of one traditional form over another. It is merely a question of
what one might call reasons of spiritual expediency, which is
altogether different from simple individual "preference.,,90
Guenon clearly understood the essential identity of all traditions,
yet felt he could not find a proper initiation in Christianity. He also
116
realized the necessity of exoteric and esoteric forms to know the tran-
scendent unity of Being, which is at the heart of tradition. Muslim and
non-Muslim traditionalists continue to benefit from his exposition of
the perennial philosophy. S.H. Nasr writes:
The central figure who was most responsible for the presenta-
tion of the traditional doctrines of the Orient in their fullness
in the modem West was Rene Guenon, a man who was chosen
for this task by Tradition itself and who fulfilled an intellectual
function of a supra-individual nature."1
In addition to the above-mentioned texts, some of Guenon' s most
important books include, The Reign of Quantity & the Signs of the
Times, East and West, The Multiple States of the Being, The Great
Triad, Symbols of Sacred Science, and Traditional Forms and Cosmic
Cycles. Guenon restored the meaning of the word tradition in the
modem world through an authentic understanding of metaphysics,
symbolism, the traditional sciences, and various religious doctrines.
He used the term tradition to designate all of the above realities in a
way that had not been necessary before. He also rightfully condemned
various precursors to the New Age movement, as can be seen in his
Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion and The Spiritist Fallacy.
Finally, he defended tradition against the most powerful pseudo-reli-
gions of the present day, including modernism, scientism, materialism,
secularism, democracy, and individualism. Traditionalists from all
faiths continue to benefit from his immense contributions. A.K.
Coomaraswamy wrote:
No living writer in modem Europe is more significant than
Rene Guenon, whose task it has been to expound the universal
metaphysical tradition that has been the essential foundati on
of every past culture, and which represents the indispensable
basis for any civilization deserving to be called SO2
117
Zachary Markwith
F
rithjOf Schuon (1907-1998), or Shaykh 'Isa Niir aI-Din A ~ m a d ,
exposed universal and esoteric truths, which were directed to all
people, and especially westerners with the necessary aptitude
and intelligence to understand. Among his greatest achievements is
his text, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, which demonstrates the
essential unity of all religions, East and West, through metaphysics,
symbolism, art, logic, and recourse to the perennial wisdom contained
in the sacred texts and the writings of great sages and saints from all
religions. This book issues from and points to the transcendent Real-
ity that is common to all authentic religions, while recognizing and
demonstrating the need for religious differences. All of Schuon' s texts
express pure metaphysics and gnosis from a truly enlightened human
being. Some of his most notable titles include Form and Substance in
the Religions, Esoterism and Principle and as Way, Gnosis-Divine
Wisdom, Stations of Wisdom, In the Tracks of Buddhism, and Logic
and Transcendence.
Schuon emphasized tradition, orthodoxy, and the need to practice
the unique exoteric rites of a particular religion to fully realize the
transcendent unity of religions, and more importantly the transcen-
dent unity of Being. According to Schuon, each religion contains
relatively-Absolute crystallizations of the Logos, which are needed to
know the Absolute, for example, Christ in Christianity or the Quran
in Islam-with all of the laws, rites, prayers, and sacred art that is-
sue from the Logos. The forms of a particular religion are not simply
impediments on the way to the Formless, but necessary keys that
unlock the door to the Divine Mysteries, especially when practiced
with the esoteric dimension of religion.
In a manner similar to Guenon, Schuon did not publicly reveal his
Muslim identity, and wrote exceptional works on the Native American
religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. He wrote about metaphysics, cosmology, philosophy, theology,
epistemology, aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, eschatology, and
sacred art
93
He restated the essential universality of religions and also
wrote scathing critiques of the modern world. What is sometimes
obscured for a reader is Schuon's universal perspective came as a
result of his attachment to a particular religion-Islam-and was not
simply a sentimental appreciation for ancient wisdom, or an attempt
to create a meta-religion that discarded the forms of anyone religion.
Schuon, more than anyone, understood that there are different paths
118
up the mountain, but he also followed one of those paths to reach the
Eternal.
Schuon's Muslim name, '{sa (Jesus in Arabic), certainly suggests
a particular affinity with Christ, who also championed the esoteric
and the universal in a time when many religious people had forgot-
ten about the inner meaning of Revelation and tradition. Yet Schuon
clearly lived and died in the Islamic tradition, and practiced the rites
and essential laws in the Shar[' ah, while also directly benefiting from
an Islamic initiation at the hands of the great Algerian Shaykh, A ~ a d
al-' AlawI. Schuon was most of all concerned with quintessential
prayer, but it was quintessential prayer that derived from the Arabic
name of God (Allah) in the Quran, which was always supported by
the daily prayers, fasting, charity, and all of the necessary pillars and
laws in Islam.
Even before meeting his master, Shaykh ~ a d al-' Alawi, as
a young man in Switzerland Schuon met a Muslim marabout from
Senegal who greatly influenced his perspective.
When the young Schuon talked with him, the venerable old
man drew a circle with radii on the ground and explained:
"God is in the center, all paths lead to Him." This metaphysi-
cal truth is the leitmotiv of all of Schuon' s writings, beginning
with his first book whose title, The Transcendent Unity of
Religions, is very indicative in this respect
94
Yet the greatest spiritual and intellectual influence upon Schuon
came from Shaykh A ~ m a d al-' Alawi and the Shadhiliyyah Sufi order.
It was from Shaykh al-'Alawi that Schuon received initiation and a
spiritual method, which allowed Schuon to ascend from the formal
plane to the Divine Reality-all witltin the context of orthodox Islam.
The connection between Schuon and Islam has already been brought
out in S.H. Nasr's essay "Schuon and the Islamic Tradition: ..
5
Nasr
discusses Schuon' s acceptance of Islam in Paris in 1932, as well as
his study of Arabic and the Quran with the Persian scholar, Sayyid
l:Iasan ImamI.
96
S.H. Nasr writes,
His journey to Algeria in 1932 where he spent several months
and most important of all where he met Shaykh ~ m a d a1-
'Alawi, who initiated the young Schuon into Sufism, only
strengthened his bond to the Islamic tradition in general and
the traditional ambience of the Maghrib in particular.
97
119
Zachary Markwith
Schuon was also made a representati ve of the Shadhiliyyah order
by Shaykh al -'Alawi in the West, and later received a vision of the
Virgin Mary, who blessed a new branch of the Shadhiliyyah order.
S.H. Nasr writes,
It was Islam and the Mu\.lammadan barakah that allowed him
to become a spiritual teacher and a shaykh of the Shadhiliyyah
Order, to found a !ariqah, the Shadhiliyyah ' Alawiyyah
Maryamiyyah, and to reach spiritual states and stations
from whose perspective he was to write his remarkable and
incomparable works'
Schuon's works on Islam are the most salient and essential works
of Islam and the perennial philosophy in a European language. His
Understanding Islam reveals the powerful metaphysical significance
of the shahiidah, in a manner that is unsurpassed in the West. He was
also responsible for formulating what might be called, the transcendent
unity of Sunnism and Shi' ism
99
in his essay "Seeds of a Divergence"
in the text Islam and the Perennial Philosophy. In Sufism: Veil and
Quintessence, Schuon unveils the core of the Islamic tradition and
is not afraid to critique his eminent predecessors on certain issues.
If one examines the texts of Schuon on Islam and Sufism alone,
which also includes Dimensions of Islam and many unpublished
manuscripts, one finds the most important writings on the Islamic
tradition in the West. These texts elaborated the principles oflslam and
Islamic esoterism, which Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, and Seyyed
Hossein Nasr brought to fruition. Schuon dealt with all of the essential
aspects of the Islamic tradition including the Quran, Sunnah of the
Prophet Mu\.lammad, Islamic Law, the Path, theology, eschatology,
the doctrine of Divine Unity (tawJ:zid), and the relationship between
Islam and the perennial philosophy, while always differentiating
between the relative and the Absolute. Schuon writes in Islam and
the Perennial Philosophy,
Revelation is present still, but it is hidden away beneath a
sheet of ice which necessitates that intervention of outward
Revelation; but these cannot have the perfection of what
might be termed "innate Religion" or the immanent phi-
losophia perennis. Esoterism by definition takes account
of this situation; heretics and philosophers are often aware
120
of it too, in their fragmentary way, but clearly they do not
wish to understand that the religions in fact provide the key
to pure and universal Truth. That we should say this might
well appear paradoxical, but every religious world not only
renews the lost Paradise after its own fashion but also bears,
in one way or the other, the stigmata of the fall, from which
only supraformal Truth is exempt; and this inward Truth is,
we repeat, de facto inaccessible without the help of outward
manifestations, objective and prophetic. tOO
Schuon asserts the absolute perfection of the Divine Principle
alone, and the relativity of everything else, but emphatically states
the need for a religious form, both outward and inward, to know
the Truth. He wrote about the transcendent unity of religions and
the Truth and Beauty in other religious forms, and fully realized the
Absolute Truth (al-Haqq) and Beauty (al-Jami) through the exotenc
and esoteric of the Islamic tradition, which he practiced for
more than sixty years until his passing in 1998.
T
itus Burckhardt (1908-1984), or Sidi Ibrahim ' Izz ai-DIn,
was one of Schuon' s most eminent disciples. He reflected
the wisdom of his master and applied the principles Guenon,
Coomaraswamy, and Schuon had established to various intellectual
domains, including metaphysics, cosmology, sacred art, symbolism,
and also traditional astrology and alchemy. He also wrote about many
modern fallacies, including scientism, empiricism, modern psychol-
ogy, and Darwinian evolution. Burckhardt smashed these modern
idols but was wiser than many contemporary Iconoclasts and saw
the and beauty in the world's religions, especially in their
sacred art.
tOt
Burkhardt is perhaps best known for his book, Sacred An in
East and West, which exhibits the perennial wisdom in Hinduism,
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Taoism through the sacred art of
each tradition. In his text, Mirror of the Intellect, one finds imponant
expressions of the sophia perennis, including one important section
which deals with what Burckhardt called the "cosmologia
There is also an essay in the text called, "Perennial Values in Islamic
121
Zachary Markwith
Art," which reminds us of the principle of Divine Unity in Islamic
art, and ultimately all traditions. Burckhardt writes,
Islamic art is fundamentally derived from that is, from
an assent to or a contemplation of Divine Unity. The essence
of is beyond words; it reveals itself in the Quran
by sudden and discontinuous flashes. Striking the plane of
the visual imagination, these fhishes congeal into crystalline
forms, and it is these forms in their turn that constitute the
essence of Islamic art.'02
Burckhardt has written about the arts of Quranic recitation and cal-
ligraphy, geometry, the arabesque, the void, the alchemy of light, and
the mosque. He also demonstrated the connection between these forms
of art and the inner reality of the Quran, and the principle of Di vine
Unity. Burckhardt did for Islamic art what Coomaraswamy did for
Hindu and Buddhist art by demonstrating its profound metaphysical
and cosmological symbolism that, as in other forms of sacred art, can
only be discerned by the Intellect or the eye of the heart. In fact, Huston
Smith said, "No one since the legendary A.K. Coomaraswamy has
been able to demonstrate how entire civilizations define themselves
through their art with the precision of Titus Burckhardt." 'O)
His An of/slam is perhaps, along with S.H. Nasr's Islamic An and
Spirituality, the most important text on the subject in that it highlights
the intellectual and spiritual nature of sacred and traditional art in
Islam. Burckhardt's Fez: City of Islam and Moorish Culture in Spain
demonstrate his vast knowledge of and love for art in the western
Islamic lands, which he knew so well. His writings on Islamic art
are widely studied throughout the Islamic world, especially in Iran,
Turkey, and Morocco.
Burckhardt can in fact be considered the greatest writer on Islamic
art from the West. He also wrote his own treatise on Islamic esoter-
ism called An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine and translated some of
the most important classical texts on Sufism, including Ibn' Arabi's
, Abd ai-Karim Jili's al-Inslin al-klimil, and letters of
spiritual counsel written by Shaykh al-' Arabi al-Darqawi, published
as Letters of a Sufi Master. In this last selection, one also finds quint-
essential and perennial wisdom from a master in Burckhardt's own
spiritual chain (silsilah). In one selection we read about the universal
or perfect man,
122
Discriminative knowledge does not hide unitive knowledge
from such a man, neither does the unitive hide the discrimi-
native. From him, the effect does not hide the cause, nor the
cause the effect; from him, religious law (sharf'ah) does not
hide spiritual truth nor spiritual truth religious
law; from him, method (sulak) does not hide inner attraction
. (jadhb) , nor inner attraction method; and so on. He has at-
tained the aim; he is the perfect one, the gnostic; whereas his
opposite is the man who is lost. .. '04
This letter stresses the need for both the Divine Law and the
spiritual path that leads to the Truth, and further demonstrates that
the message of the sophia perennis is always wedded to a particular
religious form. As mentioned above, Burckhardt was a disciple and
lifelong friend of Frithjof Schuon. Therefore, like Guenon and Schuon,
Burckhardt's writings on the perennial philosophy, and specifically
sacred art, were the fruit of realized knowledge, which he attained
through the Islamic tradition. S.H. Nasr writes,
He was not a Western scholar of Islam in the usual sense but a
person of exceptional intellectual and spiritual gifs who went
to the Islamic world as a young man to master the Islamic
disciplines from within at the feet of masters of both the exo-
teric and esoteric sciences. He was providentially chosen to
express the truths of the Islamic tradition, and in fact tradition
in its universal sense, to the modern world and in a language
comprehensible to contemporary man. His writings in fact
represent one of the major formulations and statements of
traditional Islam in the modern world.'oS
Burckhardt was a visionary figure who could, with the aid of the
Intellect, penetrate into the sacred forms of all traditions and see them
as symbols that suggest and even embody the principle of Divine
Truth and Beauty. While he wrote about and even helped revive the
study of sacred and traditional Christian art (as well as art from other
traditions), as can be seen in his Siena, City of the Virgin and Chartres
and the Binh of the Cathedral, his life was molded after the model
and archetype of the Prophet of Islam. Therefore, his understanding
of the principle of unity and his profound appreciation for the world' s
great religions and their metaphysical doctrines, cosmology, sacred
123
Zachary Markwith
art, and symbolism was a result of his connection to the inner reality
of the Quran and the Prophet MU\lammad.
M
artin Lings (I909-2005), also known as Shaykh Abu Bakr
Sirilj al-Din, was also a disciple of Frithjof Schuon, and a
light and guide representing Islam and the perennial wisdom
of the ages in the darkness that characterizes the modern world. Lings
wrote about the sophia perennis in the context of Islam, Sufism, and
even Shakespeare. Like his predecessors he was deeply concerned
with metaphysics, cosmology, symbolism, sacred art, and the crisis
of the modern world. Lings is perhaps the most celebrated and widely
read European Muslim scholar. He was born in a Protestant family in
Lancashire, England. In 1935, Lings went to Oxford to study English
Literature with C.S. Lewis. 106 According to S.H. Nasr,
Lings reminisced about his days at the University and he told
me how disappointed Lewis was when the young Lings left
Christianity for Islam and told Lings, "What a loss for Chris-
tianity!" As it was, Lings embraced Islam not to deny but to
reconfirm the deepest and oft-forgotten truths of Christianity
as his works reveal amply and he made great contributions
to that religion. 107
In the 1930' s Lings became interested in the perennial philosophy
through the writings of Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon. In 1938,
Lings embraced Islam through Titus Burkhardt.
, 08
Lings also spent
time with Guenon in Egypt, but his most influential teacher was
Frithjof Schuon, who initiated and guided Lings on the spiritual path
and later made him a guide for others. Lings' connection to Guenon
and Schuon is important because it shaped the rest of his life and
writings and influenced a great number of people in the West and in
the Islamic world. Shaykh ' All Juma' a, the Grand Mufti of Egypt,
wrote the following in a tribute to Lings after his passing in 2005,
which demonstrates the influence of Lings and Guenon in the heart
of the Islamic world:
The meeting between Martin Lings and Rene Guenon had the
most profound impact on the emergence of the light of guid-
ance which became known as the Traditionalist School. One
124
of its most conclusive results was a critique of the modern
world which is dominated by materialism and the rediscovery
of the wisdom which is at the heart of all religions, whether
Zoroastrianism or Buddhism or Hinduism, as well as Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. This wisdom is the primordial light
that God created in the hearts of all people, through which
He guides them to the Truth (al-lJaqq).'09
One of Lings' masterpieces is his biography of the Prophet
Mu\lammad entitled, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest
Sources. This text is considered by many to be the most accurate,
elegant, and spiritually efficacious biography of the Prophet in Eng-
lish. Lings' biography conveys accounts of the Prophet Mu\lammad' s
respect for other prophets and religions, and the eternal wisdom he
received from the Transcendent. In one of Lings' last publications
before his death, A Return to the Spirit, he refers to and then quotes
a verse from the Quran, "They believe, all of them, in God and His
Angels and His Books and His Messengers. And say: 'We make no dis-
tinction between any of His Messengers. '" (2:285) Lings understood
the primary Islamic sources well and saw in them the transcendent
unity of religions.
Lings also refused to separate Sufism from Islam, this separation
being a common error in the West. In What is Sufism? Lings writes,
"Sufism is nothing other than Islamic mysticism, which means that
it is the central and most powerful current of that tidal wave which
constitutes the Revelation of Islam.""o Along with the Quran, Lings
states that Sufism is based on the Sunnah or wonts of the Prophet
Mu\lammad. This challenges the assumptions of many Orientalists,
who attempt to prove the Hindu, Buddhist, Neo-Platonic, Zoroastrian,
and/or Christian origin of Sufism.
One of Lings' other gems is his biography of Shaykh AJ:unad
aloe Alawl entitled, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century. We nOl
only learn about the saintly figure who directly initiated Schuon
into Sufism, and catalyzed the revival of tradition in the West, bin
also about the doctrines, methods, and goal of Sufism, such as !be
transcendent unity of Being (wal:zdat al-wujiid), symbolism, rim:!I
purification (wu{iii ' ), and ritual prayer ($aliih), invocation (dhikr).
gnosis (ma' rifah). This volume also contains selections of ~
Al-' Alawl's own poetry rendered into masterful English verse.
125
Zachary Markwith
Lings also translated a book of exquisite Arabic poetry entitled
Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology, which is one of the richest col-
lection of Arabic Sufi poetry in English. He also wrote poems of his
own which have been published in a book entitled, Collected Poems.
In addition to the art of poetry, Lings was also interested in the art of
Quranic calligraphy and illumination. From 1970-73, he was Keeper
of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum. Lings wrote a book
on the subject that has stunning selections from the treasury of this
sacred Islamic art entitled Splendors of Qur'an Calligraphy and
Illumination. The new edition of this book is truly an epiphany to
behold. This work also contains a foreword by the Prince of Wales,
which illustrates how vast Lings' infiuence has been.
Lings saw truth and beauty in all directions and found expres-
sions of perennial wisdom in places that one would not expect from
a devout Muslim. Another area of Lings' specialization that overlaps
with his study of religion is his work on Shakespeare. In his The Secret
of Shakespeare, Lings demonstrated the spiritual meaning of many
of Shakespeare's plays and explains how the characters in each play
correspond to aspects of the human soul.
Shaykh Abu Bakr will be remembered as a traditional Muslim
scholar who helped revive the perennial philosophy in the twentieth
century through his knowledge and understanding of Islam, Sufism,
sacred art, symbolism, and Shakespeare, and the Unique Source at the
heart of all expressions of wisdom. His words are beautiful and gener-
ous rays of light from an Intellect that clearly perceived the Eternal
Sophia. Many students of Islam, Sufism, and even Shakespeare will
continue to benefit from his priceless contributions to the perennial
philosophy.
S
eyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-present) was infiuenced by all of the
above Muslim sages. Born in Tehran into a family of educators
and physicians, he is a descendent of the Prophet Mul)ammad, as
his name Seyyed suggests, and also a famous Sufi from Kashan, Mulla
Seyyed Mol)ammad Taql PoshtmashhadL At a young age he studied
the Quran, classical Islamic texts, and Persian Sufi poetry, including
the works of FirdawsI, Sa' di, Ruml, and studies that
126
Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Philosopby
undoubtedly shaped the rest of his life. II I At the age oftwelve he left
for the United States to begin an illustrious academic career.
Nasr graduated from M.I.Twith a B.S. in physics, and did his post-
graduate work at Harvard, earning his M.S. in geology and geophysics,
and then his Ph.D. in the history of science and philosophy with an
emphasis in Islamic science and philosophy. His dissertation was later
published in 1964 as An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doc-
trines, which remains the only text of its kind in European languages.
His advanced knowledge of the natural and physical sciences is unique
among traditionalist writers, except for A.K. Coomaraswamy who
began his career as a geologist. Nasr therefore has credibility among
mainstream scientists and philosophers when he objects to the modern
worldview, based as it is on scientism, materialism, and Darwinian
evolution, because clearly these are subjects that he knows well.
He has been teaching in universities in the United States, Iran,
and Lebanon since 1955, and continues to teach courses at the
George Washington University on subjects that include Islam, Is-
lamic theosophy and philosophy, Islamic art, Sufism, Persian Sufi
poetry, mysticism East and West, man and nature, and the perennial
philosophy. He has trained some of the most important intellectuals
and academics in Islamic studies and comparative religion, such
as William Chittick, Sachiko Murata, James Morris,
Pourjavadl, Osman Bakar, Gholam Reza A' vanl, Mehdl AminrazavI,
and Zailan Moris. He also had the opportunity to work closely with
Henry Corbin, Toshihiko Izutsu, Huston Smith, Jacob Needleman,
and Keith Critchlow. He has studied or been acquainted with some
of the most eminent Iranian scholars in the twentieth century, such
as ' Allamah Taha\3ba'I, Abu'I-J::Iasan Qazwlnl, Mul;tammad
Murtac)a MU\3hhari, and JaWJ ai-Din AshtiyanL Of great sig-
nificance also for Nasr were the teachings of Rene Guenon, Ananda
K. Coomaraswamy, and Frithjof Schuon. 11 2
Nasr has received some of the highest honors in the field ohdi-
gious studies and philosophy, and he has used his position to resJl3Il!
the perennial philosophy and the transcendent unity of religions.. His
Knowledge and the Sacred was delivered in 1981 at the Um.-er:say
of Edinburgh as the Gifford Lectures, which are the most piessig __
lectures held in the West on the study of religion. This text de2Is -
tradition and its decline and subsequent revival in the Wes.,,,
ics, traditional anthropology, cosmology, time and Etemiry.nac;.:ilE2I
127
Zachary Markwith
art, the multiplicity of religions, and spiritual realization, all from a
sapiential perspective. Huston Smith has said that Knowledge and
the Sacred was the among the three most important works written on
religion in the twentieth century, the other two being William James'
Varieties of Religious Experience and Schuon's The Transcendent
Unity of Religions. Nasr's Religion and the Order of Nature was
prepared for the Cadbury Lectures in 1994. An immense volume,
The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, was also dedicated to him
in the Library of Living Philosophers series in 2001. To be chosen
for this series is one of the most prestigious honors an academic can
receive in the field of philosophy. These texts signaled the arrival of
the perennial philosophy in academia and more mainstream religious
and philosophical circles.
Nasr has also written other key texts on the perennial philoso-
phy such as The Need for a Sacred Science and edited The Essential
Frithjof Schuon, which is the best collection of Schuon's writings
and which Schuon himself endorsed. Nasr also helped edit the vol-
ume Religion of the Heart: Essays Presented to Frithjof Schuon on
his Eightieth Birthday and translated Schuon's Understanding Islam
into Arabic with He has appeared in countless collec-
tions that deal directly with tradition, modernity, and the perennial
philosophy.
As president of the Foundation for Traditional Studies, established
in 1984, Nasr supports and oversees the publication of its journal,
Sophia, which contains articles by all of the leading traditionalists
mentioned in this article, as well as by esteemed scholars from vari-
ous religions. With Katherine O'Brien, the editor of Sophia, Nasr has
also co-edited the volumes In Quest for the Sacred and The Essential
Sophia, the latter of which contains some of the most pertinent articles
that have appeared in this leading traditionalist journal in English.
Nasr's collected essays and works in Persian also represent a major
contribution to the study of the perennial philosophy in Iran.
In addition to restating the perennial philosophy in so many
academic domains, Nasr has also written some of the clearest and
most accessible works in the West on Islam, Islamic philosophy,
science, esoterism, and art. His Ideals and Realities of Islam, which
was first published in 1966, is still used as a core textbook in many
undergraduate and graduate university courses on Islam. His recently
published The Heart of Islam complements the previous text and deals
128
with the essence of the Islamic tradition as well as crucial issues that
people of all faiths face. Nasr's spiritual biography on the Prophet of
Islam entitled Muhammad: Man of God is a classic text and summary
of the inner life and qualities of the Prophet. This text also includes
important events in the Prophet's life that are missing in many of his
biographies in European languages.
His writings on Islamic philosophy and science are the most
comprehensive and challenging works on the subject to appear in
English. In addition to An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological
Doctrines, some of his other celebrated and influential works include
Three Muslims Sages, which is about Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn
, Arabi, and the schools that they represent, $adr ai-Din Shirazi and
his Transcendent Theosophy, Islamic Science: An IlLustrated Study,
Science and Civilization in Islam, and An Annotated Bibliography
of Islamic Science. Nasr's recent book, Islamic Philosophy from its
Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy, is the
definitive work on the subject.
Nasr's work on Islamic esoterism deals with the most essential
aspects of the spiritual path as well as the intellectual history of Su-
fism. These include Sufi Essays and the two-volume set he edited,
Islamic Spirituality: Foundations and Manifestations. His most recent
book on Sufism, published in 2007, is entitled The Garden of Truth.
Not unrelated to Sufism are his texts on Shl'ism, the most famous of
which is the volume by 'Alliimah Tabii\llbii'i, Shi ' ite Islam, which
Nasr translated and edited, and is the most widely read text on Shl' ism
in English. -
After Titus Burckhardt's corpus, Nasr's Islamic Art and Spiri-
tuality is among the few texts on the subject that penetrates into the
symbolic structure of Islamic art to reveal the very principles of the
religion and the Presence of the One. In this text he has beautifully
written about the intellectual dimensions of sacred art in Persian
culture, ' M\lIf' s Conference of the Birds, the poetry of Rurni, the in-
fluence of Sufism on traditional Persian music, the Persian miniamre,
and the Void. Nasrhas also published two volumes of his own poe!ry
entitled Poems of the Way and The Pilgrimage of Life and lhe WlSdom
of Rumi, which reveal the artist and gnostic behind the scholar.
Perhaps Nasr's most important intellectual contribution to the
world at large are his writings on the spiritual nature of the environ-
mental crisis. In a manner similar to Guenon' s Crisis of the Modem
129
Zachary Markwith
World, Nasr perceived the spiritual roots of this crisis years before
the world took notice. One wonders what affect he had on bringing
more attention, and especially wisdom, to the most crucial issue of
our day. His Man and Nature was first published in 1968, followed
by Ills aforementioned Religion and the Order of Nature in 1996,
and most recently, The Spiritual and Religious Dimension of the
Environmental Crisis in 1999. One often overlooks this key aspect
of Nasr's corpus because he is such a prolific writer on Islam and
the perennial philosophy. Yet he also points out that the ecological
disaster we are heading towards, and are already experiencing, can
only be averted by our attachment to a living Revelation and tradition,
since these provide the necessary tools and grace from Heaven for
man to live in harmony with the earth. Therefore, there is an intimate
relationship between the Islamic tradition, the perennial philosophy
as it manifests in Islam and all traditions, and Nasr's pertinent and
urgent message for the world.
In depth and breath, there is no living scholar in Islamic studies
or the perennial philosophy that begins to match Nasr's knowledge
and insight. Yet we would be mistaken if we think Nasr's interest in
the perennial philosophy and Islam is limited to the academic domain.
He writes in his intellectual autobiography,
I also spent much of the summer of 1957 and 1958 in Mo-
rocco. Those years were crucial to my whole intellectual
and spiritual life. It was at this time that my intellectual and
philosophical orientation received its final and enduring
formation and I embraced Sufism not only intellectually but
also existentially in a form linked to the Maghrib and more
particularly to the spiritual lineage of the great Algerian
master Shaykh Al:lmad al-' Alawi and Shaykh ' isa Niir ai-Din
Al:lmad. These intellectual and existential experiences not
only rooted my mind and soul for the rest of my life in the
world of tradition, intellectual certitude, and faith, but also
led to the discovery of inner illumination, the harmonious
wedding of "logic and transcendence," to use the title of one
of the works of Schuon, and intellectual lucidity and rigor
combined with love for the truth and beauty. 113
Therefore, the philosophy that Nasr espouses is philosophy in
the original sense of the term, combined with an operative tradition
130
Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Pllllosophy
in its exoteric and esoteric dimensions, and not simply the academic
study of the history of philosophy or religion. Nasr is able to write so
powerfully and elegantly about Islam, the Islamic intellectual tradition,
and the perennial philosophy because he has gone beyond theoretical
knowledge of religion and philosophy, and gained sacred knowledge
through the inner dimension of Islam.
It has become all too easy in the West to believe in an abstract
unity of religions, which denies the importance of anyone religion
and therefore the possibility of attaining true knowledge of the One
Reality and of the transcendent unity of religions. Nasr has defended
tradition in general, and his own tradition in particular, because he
understands the tendency in the West to reject forms in the name of the
Formless. Yet those who reject forms, including many false interpret-
ers of Guenon, Coomaraswamy, and Schuon, have rejected the means
of knowing the Formless. One cannot truly know the transcendent
unity of religions unless one knows the Transcendent, and one cannot
know the Transcendent unless one knows and practices religion. Nasr
has preserved tradition and championed sacred knowledge. This is an
immense service for all people concerned with the sophia perennis.
Moreover, he has encouraged people of all faiths to practice
their traditions more fully. Like his predecessors, Nasr is a colossal
intellectual and spiritual figure, and is also responsible for bringing
the light of the sophia perennis and tradition to the modem world.
Nasr applied the principles of the perennial philosophy that were
established by Guenon, Coomaraswamy, and Schuon, to various
intellectual, philosophical, and religious domains it had not reached.
He is also responsible for preserving the tradition of Islam, includ-
ing Islamic philosophy, science, art, Sufism and Shi' ism. There is no
one scholar concerned with the perennial pllliosophy who has written
as many quality works on Islam in all its facets. Nasr has thereby
preserved an integral manifestation of the perennial pllliosophy for
future generations. Yet, his knowledge of Islam and other traditions,
which he applied so perfectly to modernism, scientism, and the en-
vironmental crisis, was also the result of his connection to the inner
reality and barakah of the Quran and the Prophet Mul:larnmad, who
is his biological and spiritual ancestor.
This oriental sage in exile provided the intellectual armor for the
perennial philosophy, and, like the other sages we are examining,
helped to revive the sophia perennis and the tradition of Islam in the
131
Zachary Markwith
twentieth century. As we have seen, this is possible because as a Mus-
lim, Nasr understands the doctrine of Divine Unity, the essential unity
of the revealed books, messengers, and prophets, as well as the Islamic
intellectual tradition, and applies these principles and heritage to the
transcendent unity of religions, and the reformulation of the perennial
philosophy in a way that contemporary man can understand.
Some Conclusions
W
hile a further study of this topic is needed to examine other
important Muslim and non-Muslim scholars who also helped
restate the perennial philosophy in the twentieth century, the names
of some of the other major Muslim traditionalists include Victor
Danner, Lord Northbourne, Whitall Perry, Charles Ie Gai Eaton,
and Jean-Louis Michon, William Chittick, Osman Bakar, and Reza
Shah-Kazemi. While Joseph Epes Brown studied the Native American
traditions and Leo Schaya wrote some penetrating works on Judaism
and the Kabbalah, they both also practiced the religion of Islam. All
of these scholars were influenced by the five Muslim intellectuals we
have researched and also demonstrate the wedding between Islam and
the perennial philosophy in the twentieth century.
It would be an inexcusable omission not to mention Ananda K.
Coomaraswamy and other leading traditionalists from the world's
o t ~ e r religions who were also responsible for restating the perennial
phIlosophy m the modern era. Rene Guenon' s complement in the first
half of the twentieth century came from A. K. Coomaraswamy (\ 877-
1947),. who in his own. way revived the study of tradition through
revealmg the metaphYSIcal, cosmological, and symbolic meaning of
sacred art, especially Hindu and Buddhist art. A.K. Coomaraswamy
also dealt extensively with the excesses of modernity and is perhaps
the most Important non-Muslim traditionalist who was responsible for
restating the perennial philosophy. A.K. Coomaraswamy represents
the perennial wisdom of the Hindu tradition, which like Islam, is more
inclined to accept the validity of other faiths. His writings on sacred
and traditional Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and to some extent Islamic
art, as well as the vicissitudes of modernity represent an intellectual
peak in the modem era.
We must also mention in summary the names of Marco Pallis
who was Buddhist, Elemire Zolla who was a Catholic traditional-
132
ist, Philip Sherrard who was Orthodox, and James Cutsinger who is
also Orthodox. Without doubt, these men were also responsible for
restating the sophia perennis in the twentieth century, which by its
nature embraces all divinely revealed religions that lead to the One
Eternal Reality. The presence of these men, as well as their writings,
demonstrates the universal nature of the perennial philosophy and its
message for people of all religions. We should also note that these
men practiced one tradition fully, whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Or-
thodoxy, or Catholicism. They also realized that the only way to the
Transcendent was through an orthodox and revealed tradition.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that the vast majority of
the leading traditionalists in the twentieth century as well as two of
the three founders of the school practiced the religion of Islam. We
maintain that this was not an accident, but the result of the message
of Divine Unity in the Quran, Sunnah, and the Islamic intellectual
tradition, which guided and inspired the lives and writings of Guenon,
Schuon, Burckhardt, Lings, and Nasr. Therefore, we assert that the
perennial philosophy was restated in the twentieth century to a large
extent because of the Islamic tradition, which inspired the writings
of these eminent Muslim intellectuals.
What must be kept in mind is that when Guenon wrote The Crisis
of the Modem World, Schuon wrote The Transcendent Unity of Reli-
g ion, Burckhardt wrote Sac red Art in East and West, Lings wrote The
Secret of Shakespeare, and Nasr wrote Knowledge and the Sacred,
they were all praying five times a day towards Mecca, consulting the
Quran, and meditating on and invocating the Supreme Name of God
in Arabic. They were not pseudo-universalists who denied Revelation
and tradition, but practicing Muslims who also appreciated all of the
other manifestations of the sophia perennis in the world's religions.
Moreover, they knew that these diverse religions were suited for
people of different temperaments and civilizations, and brought this
knowledge to the attention of the West.
The fact that those most responsible for restating the perennial
philosophy in the twentieth century were Muslims sheds light on the
universality of Islam. In a time in history when Islam is accused of
promoting intolerance and fanaticism because of the actions of some
Muslims, it is important to examine the Islamic tradition through the
writings of its greatest sages and luminaries. In the writings of these
men, and other lights in Islamic history such as Riimi, Ibn C ArabI, and
133
Zachary Markwith
Mum; one finds concrete examples of universal and perennial
wisdom. These Muslim intellectuals were ultimately responsible for
demonstrating to the West that all religions issue from the One Tran-
scendent Reality, and are so many expressions of Divine wisdom and
beauty. While this has become common knowledge in many circles, it
would be a mistake to overlook the origin of this sacred knowledge.
As a relatively recent and living tradition, Islam is also able to
provide a spiritual path to the Truth, which is the Source of all knowl-
edge. Our Muslim sages in the twentieth century took this path, and
shared the fruit of their realizations with the world. So while their
knowledge affirms the transcendent unity of religions and helped
revive so many expressions of the perennial philosophy, it would be
unwise to ignore the tradition of Divine Unity that served as the pri-
mary source of inspiration for writings of these Muslims intellectuals
who helped to revive the religion of Islam and the sophia perennis
for people of all faiths.
Notes
1. We wish to thank Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, whose writings,lectures,
and suggestions made this paper possible. We also wish to express
our gratitude to Farah Michelle Kimball who first introduced us to the
perennial philosophy and the texts mentioned in this paper, edited the
initial draft, and provided many helpful comments on the content of
the paper.
2. While the second error is common in all religious communities, it is
not as destructive at the first. Someone who denies the validity of other
religions can attain salvation through his own religion, while someone
who denies religion-through either syncreti sm or pseudo-esoter-
ism-has rejected a path to salvation.
3. It is beyond the scope of this paper to examine the study of the perennial
philosophy among contemporary Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals
in the East.
4. While this phenomenon has been overlooked or ignored by many schol-
ars, Carl Ernst makes a note of this in hi s review article, ''Traditionalism,
the Perennial Philosophy, and Islamic Studies," Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin, December 1994, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 176-81.
5. The fact that all religions originally provided access to salvation and
sanctification, does not mean that all religions are equally intact, espe-
cially their esoteric dimensions.
134
Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Phllosophy
6. These two doctrines, along with the universal man (al-insan al-kiimil)
are perhaps the most important esoteric commentaries on the Quean
and Sunnah in the Islamic intellectual tradition.
7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred (Albany, NY: Stale
University of New York Press, 1989), p. 69.
8. Ibid. , p. 70.
9. Ibid., p. 70.
10. Ibid., pp. 253-279.
II . This is especially true of the methods of Islamic esoterism.
12. Knowledge and the Sacred, p. 68.
13. The Essential FrithjofSchuon, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Bloomington,
Indiana: World Wisdom, 2005), p. 534.
15. Ibid, pp. 68-69.
16. In Islam, the exoteric is identified with the Shari' ah (Divine Law), while
the esoteric is both the Tariqah (spiritual path) and the /:faqiqah (Truth).
Schuon and others have pointed out that not all religions manifest these
two dimensions in the same manner.
18. The Quranic translations throughout this paper are based on
Asad's The Message of the Quran (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1980).
19. S.H. Nasr states, " .. . Not only have some of the most authoritative
Muslim scholars of the sub-continent during Moghul period called the
Hindus 'ahl al-kitab', belonging to the chain of prophets preceding
Islam and beginning with Adam, but also some of the Muslim Indian
commentators have considered the prophet Dhu'l-Kifl inentioned in
the Quran to be the Buddha of Kifl (Kapilavasta) and the 'Fig Tree'
of surah 95 to be the bodi Tree under which the Buddha received il-
lumination." See "Islam and the Encounter of Religion," in S.H. Nasr,
Sufi Essays (Chicago, IL: Kazi Publizations, 1999), p. 132.
20. For an excellent discussion of this topic see Reza Shah-Kazemi' s '''The
Metaphysics of Interfaith Dialogue: Sufi Perspectives on the Univer-
sality of the Quranic Message," in Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the
Christian East, ed. James Cutsinger (Bloomongton, IN: World Wisdom,
2002), pp. 140-189.
21. Ibn ' Arabi states, "All the revealed religions are lights. Among these
religions, the revealed religion of Muhammad is like the light of the
sun among the lights of the stars. When the sun appears, the lights of
the stars are hidden, and their lights are included in the light of the
sun. Their being hiddef\ is like the abrogation of the other revealed
135
Zachary Markwith
religions that takes place through Muhammad' s revealed religion.
Nevertheless, they do in fact exist, just as the existence of the lights of
the stars in actualized. This explains why we have been required in our
all-inclusive religion to have faith in the truth of all the messengers and
all the revealed religions. They are not rendered null [hatit] byabroga-
tion-that is the opinion of the ignorant." William Chittick, Imnginal
Worlds: Ibn ai-Arabi and the Problems of Religious Diversity (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1994), p. 125.
22. Quran 2:135.
23. Martin Lings, Muhammnd: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
(Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1983), p. 300.
24. Martin Lings, "Do the Religions Contradict One Another?," Sophia,
Summer 2005, Vol. II, No. I , p. 18.
25. Muhammnd: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, p. 324.
26. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Muhammad: Man of God (Chicago: Kazi Pub-
lications, 1995), pp. 29-36.
27. Knowledge and the Sacred, pp. 160-183.
28. Ibid., pp. 71-72.
29. Of course Islamic philosophy, and specifically the perennial philosophy
in Islam, did not begin with al-Kindi or end with Mulla sadra, as this
study intends to demonstrate.
30. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (Delmar, NY: Caravan
Books, 1976), p. II.
31. Ibid., p. 15.
32. Ibid. , p. 16.
33. Ibn Miskawayh's (940-1030) text predated Steuco's (1497-1548) useof
the term philosophia perennis by approximately five hundred years.
35. Three Muslim Sages, pp. 16,20-43.
36. Ibid, p. 50.
37. Ibid, p. 46.
38. Ibid, p. 41.
39. Ibid, p. 61.
40. Ibid, p. 62.
41. It is also interesting to note that the great center of Sunni learning. al-
Azhar University, is located in Cairo, and the center of ShiCite learning
is in Qom, Iran.
42. Three Muslim Sages, p. 63.
136
43. Ibid, p. 60.
44. Ibid, p. 60.
45. Ibid, pp. 69-74.
46. Ibid, p. 73.
49. See Joseph Lumbard, "The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of
Ideology in the Modem Islamic World", in Islam, Fundamentalism,
and the Betrayal of Tradition, ed. Joseph Lumbard (Bloomington, IN:
World Wisdom, 2004), pp. 39-77.
50. Three Muslim Sages, p. 96
51. Martin Lings, Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology (Cambridge: Islamic
Texts Society, 2004), p. 62.
53. Ibid, p. 99.
55. Imaginal Worlds, p. 154.
56. Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (London: Routledge,
Kegan, Paul, 1914), pp. 87-88.
57. Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect, trans. and ed. William Stod-
dart (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), p. 222.
59. It is impossible for us to do justice to the Muslim philosophers and sages
who existed in between these intellectual jiants, such as Mir Damad,
Mir Findiriski, and Shaykh Baha' aI-Din' Amili, who transmined these
teachings to later generations.
60. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, $adr ai-DIn ShirazI and his
osophy (Tehran: Institute for Humanities, 1997), p. 24.
61. Sufi Essays, p. 115.
62. $adr ai-DIn ShirazI and his Transcendent Theosophy, p. 36.
63. Ibid., p. 37.
64. Ibid, pp. 40-50.
65. Ibid, p. 57.
66. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ideals and Realities of Ishun (Cl!ic2ga:
International , 2(00), p. 168.
67. Isma'ilis also believe the enigmatic Ikhwiin al-safii' (!be
Purity) were Isma' ilis, although this link has not been
tablished. The Ikhwan al-safa' were however a map - -
137
Zachary Markwith
the sophia perennis in Islamic history, who preserved Greek philosophy
and Hermeticism. See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Introduction to Islamic
Cosmological Doctrines (Cambridge, 1968).
68. Ideals and Realities of Islam, pp. 16S-166. S.H. Nasr writes in the
same section, "Of great interest is the identification of the esoteric
dimension of the religion, or biilin, by Isma' ilism with theosophy
(hikmah) , which is also called dfn-i haqq (the religion of the truth),
in Persian . . .Isma' ilism believes that this philosophy, or theosophy,
contained in the bli!in of religion leads to spiritual rebirth (willidat-i
rilhlini) through which man is transformed and 'saved' ... By philoso-
phy the Isma' ills meant sophia which was not just a mental play but a
doctrine of a metaphysical and cosmological order closely connected
with means of its realization. "
69. See Latimah-Parvin Peerwani's "AbU Hatim Riizi On The Essential
Unity of Religions", in Beacon of Essays in Honor of
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed. Mohammad Faghfoory (Louisville, KY: Fons
Vitae, 2(03), pp. 269-287.
70. Ibid. , pp. 283-284.
71. We do not mean to imply that only Islam has the necessary forms to
reach the Formless, but that man must choose one religion if he wishes
to know the Essence of all religions.
72. Frithjof Schuon, "Concerning the Proofs of God," Studies in Compara-
tive Religion, Winter, 1973, p. 8.
73. The Persian Sufi poet Jami wrote, "The spiritual couplets of Mawlana
are the Quean in the Persian tongue." See Annemarie Schimmel, Rumi 's
World (Boston: Shambhala, 1992), p. 114.
74. Mathnawf, trans. R.A. Nicholson (Warminster, Wiltshire: E.J.W. Gibb
Memorial Trust, 1990), Book I, v. 678-679. One is reminded of the verse
from the Quean, which states. " ... We make no distinction between any
of His Messengers." (2:28S)
7S. Ibid., Book II, v. 1770.
76. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Heart of Islam (San Francisco: HarperCol-
lins, 2(02), p. 316.
77. The Garden of Mystery (Gulshan-i rliz), trans. Robert Darr (Sausalito,
CA: Real Impressions, 1998) pp. 106- 107.
78. See "Islam and the Encounter of Religions" in Sufi Essays, pp. 123-
lSI.
79. Sufi Poems, p. 34.
80. The names of ' Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-!:Iasan ai-Sib!, al-!:Iusayn al-
Sib!, Zayn al-' Abidin, al-Baqir, Ja'far al-$iidiq, MUsa
al-Ka,:im, and' Ali Ri<;la are on the spiritual chains of the Qiidiriyyah
138
and Shadhiliyyah Sufi orders. All of the Sufi orders trace their lineage
to the Prophet through' Ali, and in some cases through ' Ali and AbU
Bakr.
81. 'Allamah Sayyid !:Iusayn Taba!aba' i, Shi'ite Islam, trans.
and ed. S. H. Nasr (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press,
I 97S), p. 180.
82. See Reza Shah-Kazemi's Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the
Spirituality of Imam 'Ali (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2(06).
83. Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 64.
84. While Sunnis also expect a figure named the Mahdi to come, most
Sunnis do not identify him with the Twelfth Imam.
8S. Knowledge and the Sacred, p. 308.
86. These pseudo-religious movements, which are secular in nature, offer
a counter-initiation, to use GUeDOn'S terminology, and will reach a new
low with the anti-Christ.
87. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Spiritual Chivalry" in Encyclopaedia of Islamic
Spirituality: Manifestations, ed. S.H. Nasr (Lahore: Suhail Academy,
2000), p. 30S.
88. Mathnawi, Book I, v. 372S.
89. "Our works have never been purported to remain exclusively within
one given traditional form; indeed, the acceptance of such a restriction
would be extremely difficult in view of the essential unity of tradition
underlying the diversity of more or less outward forms, which are re-
ally no more than different garments clothing one and the same truth.
In general, we have taken the point of view of Hindu doctrines as our
central one, for reasons that have been explained elsewhere; but that
can be no reason for failing to make use, whenever it seems advisable,
of modes of expression drawn from other traditions-always provided.
of course, that they are authentic ones, that is, traditions that can be
called regular or orthodox ... " Rene Guenon, The Symbolism of the
Cross, trans. A. Macnab (Hillsd.ale, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2(01). p_
I.
90. Rene Guenon, Initiation and Spiritual Realization, trans. Henry Fobr..
ed. Samuel Fohr (Ghent, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2(01), chap. 12. "Ibis
quote nevertheless raises more questions than it answers. Guenoo IlIi!J
not have felt that Islam was inherently superior to other religious..
he did feel that in the twentieth century the esoteric kernel of rdigioa
was more accessible through Islam than through other religioos..
139
Zachary Markwith
92. A.K. Coomaraswamy, The Bugbear of Literacy (Sophia Perennis
l n ~ . '
93. See The Essential Frithjof Schuon, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Bloom-
ington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005).
94. Frithjof Schuon, Christianity/Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ecumenicism,
trans. Gustavo Polit (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 1985).
95. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Schuon and the Islamic Tradition", Sophia,
Summer 1999, Vol. 5, No. I.
96. Ibid. , p. 29.
97. Ibid., p. 30.
98. Ibid, p. 44.
99. This is not a completely accurate description, as Sunnism and Shi'ism
also agree on most exoteric religious principles.
100. Frithjof Schuon, Islam and the Perennial Philosophy, trans. P. Hobson
(London: World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976) pp. 194-195.
101. Burckhardt wrote that Islamic art was aniconic and not iconoclastic.
Therefore. while Muslims do not use naturalistic human or animal forms
to represent the Divine Reality, Islam accepts and respects the various
sacred forms revealed by Heaven to other communities.
102. Mirror of the Intellect, p. 230.
103. The Essential Titus Burckhardt, ed. W. Stoddart (Bloomington, IN:
World Wisdom, 2003).
104. The Shaykh ad-Darqawi, Letters of a Sufi Master, trans. Titus Burck-
hardt (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1998), p. 20.
105. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World (New
York: Kegan Paul, 1990), pp. 291-292.
106. Shaykh Ali Juma' a, ''The Departure ofShaykh Abu Bakr Siraj ai-Din"
Sophia, Summer 2005, Vol. II , No. I, p. 38. '
107. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj ai-Din (Martin Lings):
A Tribute," Sophia, Summer 2005, Vol. II, No. I, p. 31.
108. Ibid., p. 31.
109. ''The Departure of Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj ai-Din," Sophia, p. 40.
llO. Martin Lings, What is Sufism? (Cambridge: Islamic Texts, 1993), p.
15.
III. The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, (eds.) L. Hahn, R. Auxier,
and L. Stone (Peru, IL: Open Court Publishing, 2001), p. 7.
112. Ibid, pp. 3-85.
113. Ibid. , p. 27.
140
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Invites Shiva to Dance
by Dan Rudmann
I
n understanding art, the human consciousness has access to many
sets of eyes. These perspectives may see in art the epitome of aes-
thetic beauty, a key in understanding historic events, the reflection
of concurrent trends or beliefs, or even a biography of the personal
creator. Within each of these dissimilar angles lies a common hurdle,
the acceptance of one point of view is done so often to the detriment
of others. Each mode requires the marginalization of any other per-
ception. Consequently, the anthropologist and psychologist find little
meeting ground. These reductions often lead to the trivialization of
art as leisure activity or commodity.
The work of Ananda Coomaraswamy, however, attempts to merge
art with the macrocosm, producing a singular eye. While he was also
renowned as a scholar of religion, Coomaraswamy dedicated much
of his life to this pursuit. By revealing the underlying significance
of art, its existence beyond categorization becomes apparent. This
perspective is based on the fundamental assertion of primordial unity.
Therefore, Coomaraswamy works to achieve a synthesis in all realms
through the vehicle of art. By exploring his works in the field of art,
the greater landscape of mysticism is revealed. Coomaraswamy's
explanation of art is both symbolic and intrinsic to mysticism, func-
tioning to exemplify and reveal the innate relationship.
In order to produce a comprehensive understanding of Ananda
Coomaraswamy, this article will examine three major entities in
light of the mystical conception of unity. Primarily, the meaning and
function of art will be explored in order to establish its importaIX::e.
both in contrast to and beyond modern appreciation. By specif)iIlg
this conception to Indian works, the relationship between art and re-
ligion will be revealed. Finally, by focusing on a single work, . -
as Nataraja, the application of theory will serve to unveil !be ==
of both art and Coomaraswamy's work. It is in exploring tbe
faceted relationship between Coomaraswamy and Shiva tba tbe
141
Dan Rudmann
of this thinker is revealed. Through this progression, the urgent nature
ofCoomaraswamy's effort will convey that such a study is necessary
in achieving an informed perspective of the way in which the modem
and ideal struggle together. In order to achieve a knowledge of art and
religion that transcends theory and is directly pertinent, familiarity
with Coomaraswamy' s thought is vital.
For exposition, it is relevant to introduce a rudimentary under-
standing of mysticism. This perspective is primarily concerned with
establishing a relationship between man and Divine Reality. The
realm can also be referred to as God, at once transcendent and in-
nate, beyond and part of the material world. Because the Divine can
be found in all of creation, the universe is viewed as interconnected
by nature. F.C. Happold illustrates this theory and provides examples
for the implication of unity.
Mysticism is like a great fugal pattern, each part interwoven
with the other, sometimes one theme, sometimes another
predominating, but together forming one whole . .. In it are
found four interrelated visions: the vision of Oneness, the
vision of Timelessness, the vision of a Self other than the
empirical self, and the vision of a Love enfolding everything
that exists.'
These visions are the logical consequences of the Ultimate Reality.
Each denotes a function of the unified conception. It is through an
interrelated essence that mysticism observes art. The work of Cooma-
raswamy strives to elucidate this interplay by presenting the aspects of
unity, timelessness, dilution of the self, and pervading love as inherent
to art and symbolic of a greater universality.
While we have set the ground rules for gaining a familiarity
with the viewpoint of mysticism, it is equally important to under-
stand the individual that adheres to this way of life, the mystic. As
Evelyn Underhill explains, the person who hopes to embody such a
perspective must undertake their role as part of a journey. Similar to
the transcendent and innate existence in mysticism, the mystic is a
universal figure.
We meet these persons in the east and the west; in the ancient,
mediaeval, and modem worlds. Their one passion appears
to be the prosecution of a certain spiritual and intangible
142
Ananda Coomaraswamy Invites Shiva to Dance
quest: the finding of a "way out" or a "way back'.' to some
desirable state in which alone they can satIsfy therr cravlOg
for absolute truth.
2
In searching for the interwoven essence, the mystic seeks that which
is real. As we have established many perspectives of art wanting or
incomplete, the mystic is unsatisfied with these answers. Therefore,
such an undertaking begins at the root in hopes of revealing 100tlai
truth. For this reason, undertaking Coomaraswamy' s theory of art
should commence at the historical origin.
Before this inspection begins, however, it is similarly imperative
to establish a general definition of art. While this term is commonly
conceived as concerning paint, clay, or harmonics, the search for a
fundamental basis leaves the types of art unsatisfactory in attempts
to establish connecting factors. Ananda Coomaraswamy provides a
lucid explanation for the crux of art during a radio address.
We have a normal but forgotten view of art, which affirms
that art is the making well, or properly arranging, of anything
whatever that needs to be made or arranged, whether a statu-
ette, or automobile, or garden.'
Through simplicity, the apparent and crucial nature of a.rt is exposed.
It is at once a revealed and inherent aspect of the umverse. These
basic means allow the definition of art to expand over all of mate-
rial existence while specifying, in the idealistic realm, that which is
fashioned in the correct manner. While framed in such a basIC form,
this definition of art will be illustrated as present throughout all of
Coomaraswamy's work. . . .
To arrive at the source in a discussion of art and mystIcIsm UD-
plies two distinct but ultimately corr.esponding definitions. Such a
foundation can be uncovered exotencally, through an exploratIon
of history in order to establish the physical "way back" as described
by Underhill. Esoterically, the basis is .in the core of the
human being, an unfettered and pure state, 10 which absolute truth
is revealed. Coomaraswamy expounds upon the outward Journey by
tracing art back to folklore.
By "folklore" we mean that whole and constituted body of
culture which has been handed down, not 10 books but by
143
Dan Rudmann
word of mouth and in practice. from a time beyond the reach
of historical research in the form oflegends. fairy-tales. bal-
lads. games. crafts. medicine. agricultural and other rites.
and forms of social organization. especially those that we
call "tribal. ..
As a means of arranging a way oflife. folklore provides the back-
bone of art. In relation to the inward aspects. this history also goes
beyond compartmentalization and presents a universal springboard.
This is a cultural complex independent of national and even
racial boundaries, and of remarkable similarity throughout the
world; in other words. a culture of extraordinary vitality.
5
This explanation of the ancient ground of art illustrates further the
basic fact of art as omnipresent throughout the universe. This initial
understanding corresponds with Coomaraswamy's assertion that art
can be found innately through proper cultivation. In locating the means
of art in the material world. it becomes apparent that this period is
intimate with his plainspoken explanation.
After establishing the source's location, it is necessary to un-
cover the form that art enjoys during this period. An in depth look at
Coomaraswamy's radio broadcast, "The Love of Art," from Boston's
Museum of Fine Arts reveals vital characteristics of folklore. His
discussion of art as folklore directly corresponds to the basic defini-
tion art 's essence. This connection affirms that the most basic inward
significance is intrinsically linked to the outward role.
In what were called the Dark Ages, and amongst those we
dare to call "uncivilized" peoples. "art" had no other meaning
than "the right way of making things," "things" beings any-
thing whatever required by man to serve his needs. whether
physical or spiritual; the maker of things was therefore called
an Hartist," or to use the mediaeval word an "artificer," or a
"maker of art."6
Coomaraswamy exemplifies the historic cause of art through a discus-
sion of the ancient artist. By revealing the pragmatic means of this
figure's craft. the exoteric origin is further confirmed as the fulfillment
of a corporeal need.
144
Whatever was made was made by the artists. not for con-
noisseurs. but for consumers. not for exhibition but for use.
It was taken for granted that the consumer is the critic: as
Plato expressed it. "the judge of shuttles is the weaver. the
judge of ships is the pilot.'"
The artist and consumer are united entities in the creation of folk-art.
This symbiotic relationship underlies the definite purpose for the
construction and use of art; it is not merely viewed but observed. Fur-
thermore. it is important to note that the artist's self is not of greater
worth in this arrangement of figures.
Artist and consumer were culturally unanimous. they shared
the same views and tastes and recognized the same needs.
They had a common interest. but it was not in one another's
personalities. unless they happened to be personal friends;
their mutual interest was in "the good of the thing to be made."
No one supposed that the artist was a more sensitive or more
intelligent being than other men. but simply that he was expert
in some department of manufacture. either as a blacksmith.
painter. architect. or in some other field. "
Similar to the implications of mystical unity. the self of the artist is
lost during the process of folklore. Instead. the practicality in both
a spiritual and physical sense pervades. resulting in proper creation.
Coomaraswamy explains that art and the role of the artist cannot
subsist independently. The material consequence is therefore a vital
role in this development and corresponds to both the inner and ourer
source of art.
Further inspection of folklore establishes a deep relation to mys-
ticism. As portrayed by Underhill. in the mystical. or metaphysic21.
journey that has reaching the source as its goal. this primitive period
is also spiritually significant. The intrinsic link between folklore
and mysticism can be initially revealed through a similar e
lli
!4esis
on oneness. Ananda Coomaraswamy illustrates that the diffaen:e
between art and mysticism is found merely in the audience tb!:IeadJ
medium is able to reach.
The actual unity in folklore represents on the popul2r Je,,-d
precisely what the doctrine of the elite represenlS in 2 reb-
145
Dan Rudmann
tively learned environment. The relation between the popular
and the learned metaphysics is, moreover, analogous to and
partly identical with the lesser to the greater mysteries.
9
According to Coomaraswamy, folklore serves as a material explana-
tion of mysticism, accessible to a larger population. Through this
mode, it is clear that implicit in folklore is the transmission of mystical
thought. The basis of art is a means of conveying an understanding
of the Divine.
The content of folklore is metaphysical. Our failure to rec-
ognize this is primarily due to our own abysmal ignorance
of metaphysics and of its technical terms. We observe, for
example that the primitive craftsman leaves in his work
something unfinished ... That seems like nonsense to "us."
And yet there survives in our vernacular the explanation of the
principle involved: the craftsman leaves something undone
for the same reason that the words "to be finished" may mean
either to be perfected or to die. Just as Sanskrit pariniroa is
both "to be completely despirated" and "to be perfected." The
Buddha's parinibbana is a "finish" in both senses. Perfection
is death: when a thing has been altogether fulfilled, when all
has been done that was to be done, potentiality altogether
reduced to act (krlakrtyah), that is the end. 10
Coomaraswamy's example of the craftsman serves to contextualize
the primitive past. We see that although it might be conceptualized
as a distant and therefore insignificant reality, this history is in fact
apparent despite the shifting of time. Therefore, art is revealed as a
"vision" beyond time. This universal nature is further emphasized
as Coomaraswamy connects the model to Indian history. Coo maras-
wamy portrays the fundamental significance of art and mysticism
as existing beyond border and category. Like mysticism, this art
portrays a religious conception of the universe. The purpose of art
and mysticism therefore becomes the elevation of consciousness to
comprehend the Truth.
As we have established that art and mysticism function as kin in
the accrual of knowledge, Coomaraswamy additionally explains that
both deliver their message to the soul in a similar language. Symbols
constitute the transmission of the ideas found in art and mysticism.
146
Congruent to Coomaraswamy's point that the difference between art
and mysticism is found in the accessible audience, these symbols
speak to different groups.
To a very large extent both employ one and the same sym-
bols, which are taken more literally in the one case and in
the other understood parabolically . . . So long as the material
offolklore is transmitted, so long is the ground available on
which the superstructure of full initiatory understanding can
be built."
Coomaraswamy's thought presents a hierarchy of sapience. Art acts as
the gateway for the development of a mystical awareness. The basis
for this conception can also be found by exploring ancient ways of
life. This does not, however, yield corresponding results. Instead, this
look back illustrates the ideal mode of symbols, which have degraded
over time.
The next and most famous characteristic of primitive men-
tality has been called "participation," or more specifically
"mystical participation." A thing is not only what it is visibly,
but also what it represents. Natural or artificial objects are not
for the primitive, arbitrary "symbols" of some higher reality,
but actual manifestations of this reality."
Symbols devolved into signifying that which they reveal. Idealisti-
cally, the significance and purveyor were one in the same. Through
this explanation, Coomaraswamy shows the vital role of symbols
beyond mere snapshots or clues of a world beyond. Instead, they are
revered as integral aspect of mystical wisdom. Therefore, we must now
tum to Coomaraswamy's understanding of the function of symbols
in order to grasp the composition of art.
The symbol is vital, and not inconsequential, to the formation of
art. Coomaraswamy illustrates the intellectual value of these works
by uncovering their cause as pragmatic and functional, beyond the
visual realm. Consequently, it is necessary to comprehend art in these
terms. It is through Coomaraswamy's essay, "Symbols," that the author
uncovers the form and function of the symbol. To begin, art must be
accepted as a comprehensible form.
147
Dan Rudmann
In order to understand composition . .. , we must understand
the logical relation of the parts: just as in order to understand
a sentence, it is not enough to admire the mellifiuent sounds,
but necessary to be acquainted with the meanings of separate
words and the logic of their combinations
n
One must logically ask, therefore, from where is this meaning de-
rived? Coomaraswamy responds that the symbol fulfills the need for
coherence in art.
It is for the sake of the idea, and not for its own sake, that the
symbol exists: an actual form must be either symbolic--{)f
its reference, or merely an unintelligible shape to be liked or
disliked according to taste. I.
While it merely harkens back to the original embodiment of that which
it refers, the symbol still connects the viewer with a higher reality
in art. By providing reason to the rhyme, the symbol transforms a
material object into a mystical signpost, directing the intellect of the
user of art.
By unveiling the mystical nature of art as presented through dis-
course of symbols, Ananda Coomaraswamy reestablishes art's revered
magnitude. However, his accomplishment is not merely an attempt
to elevate widespread understanding. Instead, Coomaraswamy's
voice in the explanation of art is tinged with urgency. Industrial-
ism threatened to forever overshadow the vital role of art in human
life. By advocating staunch specialization, this movement acted to
compartmentalize every mode of art. While the past maintained an
ideal mode, Coomaraswamy's immediate world suffered from the
trivialization of art.
I am going to suggest that the love of art, and the collection
of works of art, when regarded as ends in themselves, imply
the view that art is essentially an emotional luxury, that art can
be divided off from the known apart from every-day social,
industrial, and political activity, and should be seen only in
museums and private collections, or heard in great concert-
halls; just as we have come to think of religion as a luxury
product, distant from social, industrial, and political functions,
and to be considered only in church and on Sundays. 15
148
As we have already demonstrated the interrelation between art and
mysticism, the degradation of art is in fact a spiritual crisis. By cutting
these works off from their everyday application, their higher meaning
becomes of little use or value.
It will be another matter if one proposes not merely to be a
lover of fine sounds and colors, not merely to be a connois-
seur and collector, but to understand the reason of art, to
understand that all peoples and all ages other than our own
have created works of art, not for ornament, but use; and that
to make anything solely for physical and not at the same time
for spiritual uses is something rather less than human. But
everyone who becomes a lover of art in this sense must realize
that he can only do so as an enemy of all that we generally
mean by civilization, he cannot serve God and Mammon at
the same time.
'6
In asserting a proper conception of art, Coomaraswamy advocates a
return to the primitive mode of unity in all realms. He lamented that
such a desire, although inherent to the soul, had become unfamiliar
and strange.
When therefore we propose to bring about such a state of
affairs as is implied in the expressions "art is for everyone,"
and "everyone an artist," we are not trying to bring about
something new to the world but to restore something very
old and very normal. 17
This Divine Truth of interrelation is obscured by the current concep-
tion of separation and distinctness. Art's relegation to specific housing
exemplified the soul's detachment from God. Coomaraswamy, there-
fore, sought a breathing example of the mysticism at work to reverse
such a polarity.
It is through the deep-seated religion of India that Coomaras-
wamy hoped to restore art. Because the n o ~ i o n of innate Oneness is
so ingrained upon the Hindu mindset, its contrast to the philosophy
of Industrialism is apparent. Therefore, mysticism is most apparent
throughout Indian society.
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Dan Rudmann
The most fundamental idea in Indian religious philosophy is
that of unity. ' That art thou": every living thing is an incar-
nation of the one Self. All living things are bound together
by this unity. 18
Religion, and by consequence art, could not exist in a relegated space
within the Hindu superstructure. Both mysticism and Indian religion
also share in the preeminence of knowledge in achieving understand-
ing of this end. The search for Truth, while requiring direct mental
action on the part of the individual, at once transcends and can be
found within.
What, after all, is the secret ofIndian greatness? Not a dogma
nor a book; but the great open secret that all knowledge and all
truth are absolute and infinite, waiting not to be created, but
to be found; the secret of the infinite superiority of intuition,
the method of direct perception, over the intellect, regarded
as a mere organ of discrimination. I.
Coomaraswamy sees India as the bridge between primitive and
contemporary reality. Religion is at once mystical and in everyday
use, staking its claim against cultural and spiritual dismemberment.
Nurtured by the conditions in India, the ability to reach Divine Reality
manifests itself in the confirmation of the essence of art.
By citing the case ofIndia, Ananda Coomaraswamy has no inten-
tion of putting it forward as a supreme nation. Both Indian religion
and mysticism's promotion of an interrelated nature exclaim that no
one is cut off from the Divine. While realizing that Coomaraswamy
was cognizant of this fact, India can be seen here as a light for the
world.
The heart and essence ofthe Indian experience is to be found
in a constant intuition of the unity of all life, and the instinctive
and ineradicable conviction that the recognition of this unity
is the highest good and the uttermost freedom. All that India
can offer to the world proceeds from her philosophy. This
philosophy is not, indeed, unknown to others-it is equally
the gospel of Jesus and of Blake, Lao Tze, and Rumi-but
nowhere else has it been made the essential basis of sociol-
ogy and education.
2o
150
Through successfully enacting the conception of interdependence in
all forms of life, India, states Coomaraswamy, uniquely applies the
innate to an entire society. However, this is only further indication of
the potential latent in the rest of the world.
In defining Indian art, Coomaraswamy expounds upon truth in a
hierarchical sense. Not absolute as perceived by mysticism, but more
contingent upon the external world. In his work "The Transformation
Of Nature In Art," Coomaraswamy identifies a quality that allows for
distinction when understanding art. It is the principle of pramana, or
"self-evident immediate perception of what is correct under given
conditions"21 that relates art to a higher realm oftruth. This condition
exposes the inherent source of validity in art and allows it to be judged
and understood by individual intuition in light of a supreme form.
Pramana means in philosophy the norm of properly directed
thought, in ethics the norm of properly directed action, in art
the norm of properly conceived design.
22
The form of art denotes the pieces' relationship to a higher realm.
Therefore, it is appropriate to explore how a work of art is conceived
and produced in light of the conditions of pramana.
Through exploring the culture of India, Coomaraswamy correlates
the religion of the people with art. He notes similarities between reli-
gious Hindu practice and artistic creation. For example, the practice
of Yoga serves to establish an awareness of unified God.
It will be remembered that Yoga is mental concentration, car-
ried so far as the overlooking of all distinction between the
subject and the object of contemplation; a means of achieving
harmony or unity of consciousness.
23
Corresponding to the primitive mentality, the individual self is ab-
sorbed within the Supreme Reality. This action corresponds to the
primitive artist, who perceives himself as one with all other entities.
Coomaraswamy explains that the Indian artist employs not only the
same theory, but also a practice parallel to the religious acL
The practice of visualization . . . is identical in worship and
in art. The worshipper recites a dhyana man tram descnbing
the deity, and forms a corresponding mental picture, and it is
then to this imagined form that his prayers are addressed and
151
Dan Rudmann
the offerings made. The artist follows identical prescriptions,
but proceeds to represent the mental picture in a visible and
objective form, by drawing or modeling.24
By presenting the process of art as in line with religious action,
Coomaraswamy illustrates the sacred nature of art. In an effort to
align the ideal form of art as purported in the description of the primi-
tive way oflife to the modem world, India succeeded in maintaining
the mystical conception of reality that allows art to flourish in a less
degraded fashion.
This method of conception is an essential characteristic oflndian
art. As we have established art as presenting a higher meaning through
symbols, the application of yoga allows for the artist to conceive of
the Divine Reality apart from the corporeal world.
It cannot be too clearly understood that the mere representa-
tion of nature is never the aim oflndian art. Probably no truly
Indian sculpture has been wrought from a living model, or
any religious painting copied from life. Possibly no Hindu
artist of the old school ever drew from nature at all. His
store of memory, pictures his power of visualization and his
imagination were, for his purpose, finer means: for he desired
to suggest the Idea behind sensuous appearance, not to give
the detail of the seeming reality, that was in truth but maya,
illusion.25
Uninterrupted by the surrounding world, the artist is free to utilize
uninhibited intuition. The state of the material world plays no part
in the representation of God. By entering the world in this fashion,
Coomaraswamy points out that art is man' s closest physical under-
standing of the Divine.
Now that we have established how and why art is created in India,
we must now turn to what the art is in appearance. Coomaraswamy ex-
plains that the interplay between the inner and outer realms makes art
not only symbolically, but also physically, concerned with religion.
Indian art is essentially religious. The conscious aim of
Indian art is the portrayal of Divinity. But the infinite and
unconditioned cannot be expressed in finite terms; and art,
unable to portray Divinity unconditioned, and unwilling to
be limited by the limitation of humanity, is in India dedicated
152
to the representation of Gods who, to finite man, represent
comprehensible aspects of an infinite whole
26
Art in India takes the form of the multitude of deities, symbols and
forms themselves of God. By following Coomaraswamy's thought,
this is a logical consequence to the theory and practice that constitute
this culture. As it is meditation that conjures an image of God and
establishes the artist's subject, it follows that the manifestations of God
would be both prayed to and chiefly represented in art. The conception
and representation of the Divine therefore occurs in proper fashion
with regard to pramana.
It would be inappropriate in a theory of art to omit a discussion
of beauty. One might wonder how to ascertain beauty in a piece of art
that seems to be regimented. However, as stated in the basic definition
of art, and as implicit in a discussion of pramana, beauty is found in
correct arrangement.
What is the ideal beauty implicit in Indian art? It is a beauty
of type, impersonal and aloof. It is not an ideal of varied in-
dividual beauty, but of one formalized and rhythmic.27
Coomaraswarny portrays a synthesis in thought by discussing the
religious foundation for this theory of beauty. As Indian thought
maintains unity in all things, such creation reflects a similar core by
presenting a structure of beauty.
In nature there are three gunas, or qualities, Sa/tva (truth),
Rajas (passion), and Tamas (gloom). These qualities are al-
ways present in nature; their relative proportion determines
the character of any particular subject or object. They must,
therefore, enter into all material and conditioned representa-
tions, even of Divinity, in which, nevertheless, sa/tva guna
must preponderate
28
Beauty, like art in general, is a revealed form omnipresem in the
religious and mystical conception of the universe. Because specific
entities pervade all objects, their proper placement denotes perfec-
tion in form. Indian art, therefore, illustrates the common point of
recognition in art, its beauty, as an aspect of a larger mystical type
of knowledge.
153
Dan Rudmann
We have established an understanding of both art in general and
with regard to India. These two fields of emphasis for Coomaraswamy
have been revealed as essential in his attempt to reassert the sacred
nature of art and importance of mysticism. Coomaraswamy's own
application of his theory becomes apparent by exploring the image
of Shiva as Nataraja. The deity Shiva is recognized as the destroyer
of worlds within the Hindu pantheon. This image of the god presents
a dancing figure, surrounded by various symbols. Coomaraswamy
introduced this work of art to the West through his essay "The Dance
of Shiv a." It is also important to note that this piece is present in many
forms, sculpture, painting, dance, and music, however it is the common
symbols that will be explored. By revealing the importance of this
art, the reason that Coomaraswamy chose to present its significance
will become apparent.
Coomaraswamy' s explanation of Shiva as Nataraja begins by
presenting the mythology that surrounds the depicted scene. In this
manner, the piece is presented in the same fashion that Coomaraswamy
desired art to be understood, as a coherent sentence. He explains that
Shiva's dance follows a confrontation with an impious assembly.
Several of the objects found in the representation are then recognized
as sent by the heretics to attack Shiva.
A fierce tiger was created in sacrificial fires, and rushed upon
Him; but smiling gently, He seized it and, with the nail of His
little finger stripped off its skin, and wrapped it about Himself
like a silken cloth
29
By exposing the narrative of the art, Coomaraswamy invites us to
realize that the application of these objects is not accidental. Instead,
the parts become full of purpose and require deeper explanation. In
this way, the symbols of the image are uncovered.
By identifying these symbols, Coomaraswamy can proceed to
establish their context. The image of Shiv a presents particularly unique
images. It is their quantity, however, that reveals how important an
understanding of symbols is the proper conception of art.
Such are the braided locks, as of a yogi: the Cassia garland:
the skull of Brahma: the figure of Ganga, (the Ganges fallen
from heaven and lost in Shiva's hair): the cobras: the differ-
ent earrings, betokening the dual nature ofMahadev, 'whose
154
half is Uma': and the four arms. The drum also is a general
attribute of Shiv a, belonging to his character of Yogi , though
in the dance it has further a special significance
J O
Despite the complexity and number of entities found in this work
of art, Coomaraswamy is able to capture its fundamental nature in a
concise manner. This explanation is reticent of the revealed nature of
Indian religion and art.
The Essential Significance of Shiva's Dance is threefold:
First, it is the image of his Rhythmic Playas the Source of all
Movement within the Cosmos, which is Represented by the
Arch: Secondly, the Purpose of his Dance is to Release the
Countless souls of men from the Snare of Illusion: Thirdly the
Place of the Dance, Chidambaram, the Center of the Universe,
is within the Heart.
31
These three factors highlight the mystical connotation of Shiva as
Nataraja. Coomaraswamy reveals the inherent message of the piece
as portraying the nature of the metaphysical reality. Nataraja repre-
sents the proper arrangement of the universe, goal of salvation, and
interconnected core to all who experience this art.
However, in understanding why Coomaraswamy chose this work
of art, we cannot be content with the notion that it functioned solely as
proper example. Dedicated to unveiling the union between all realms,
Coomaraswamy was no doubt attracted to this work through seeing
it in it a common end.
But it may not be out of
place to call attention to the
grandeur of this conception
itself as a synthesis of sci-
ence, religion and art. How
amazing the range of thought
and sympathy of those rishi-
artists who first conceived
such a type as this, affording
an image of reality, a key to
the complex tissue of life, a
theory of nature, not merely
satisfactory to a single clique
155
Dan Rudmann
or race, nor acceptable to the thinkers of one century only,
but universal in its appeal to the philosopher, the lover, and
the artist of all ages and all countries.32
According to Coomaraswamy, Shiva as Nataraja not only contains,
but also serves as the symbol of mystical knowledge by combining
multiple realms of thought into one piece. The functions of this work
directly correspond to the "images" of mysticism as presented by
Happold. In this way, Nataraja art is suited to contest the threat of
Industrialization.
In these days of specialization, we are not accustomed to such
a synthesis of thought, but for those who "saw" such images
as this, there could have been no division oflife and thought
into water-tight compartments.
33
Coomaraswamy's choice is significant in proving to be a paradigm of
art, but furthermore, it is viewed as intrinsically connecting modes of
thought. While the presence of Nata raja illustrates symbolic mysti-
cism, the piece as a whole denotes unity.
This has not exhausted the relationship between Coomaraswamy
and Shiva as Nataraja. Further inspection reveals that both figures
possess an identical vocation. While Shiva is known as the destroyer
of worlds, Nataraja highlights a specific aspect of that effect, the
destruction of illusion. According to mysticism, this illusion takes
the form of multiplicity.
Shiva is a destroyer and loves the burning ground. But what
does He destroy? Not merely the heavens and earth at the
close of a world-cycle, but the fetters that bind each separate
soul.
34
As Shiva confronts the impious, he hopes to tum them away from
error. Coomaraswamy's intention in presenting his theory of art is to
dissuade those that oppose mysticism. Both figures work to achieve
the conditions of mysticism.
Where and what is the burning ground? It is not the place
where our earthly bodies are cremated, but the hearts of His
lovers, laid waste and desolate. The place where the ego is
destroyed signifies the state where illusion and deeds are
burnt away.3'
156
As explained by Happold, the loss of individual nature to the Self is
the condition of mystical understanding. Similarly, Coomaraswamy's
work can be understood as the realization of mystical consciousness
through art. Together, Coomaraswamy and Shiva employ the drum.
The drum reverberates throughout the universe, and deny-
ing that the contingent self is other than the true self loudly
proclaims to the world the Truth.3.
With this rhythm, symbolic of order in the universe, the dance is
what Coomaraswamy desires, the transmission of wisdom and Divine
Reality.
The true place of Shiv a's dance as understood by the seers is
explained with almost an esoteric fervour. Ananda Tandava is
the joyous dance of the soul within oneself ... Here the Lord
dances. In fact, all the poets and all the hymnographers have
beseeched Shiva as Nataraja to dance in their hearts
J7
As the purveyor of thought, Coomaraswamy requests this dance
not for himself, but to be portrayed throughout the world. Both
Coomaraswamy and Nataraja seek to enlighten. The direct connec-
tion between these two figures shows this work of art to be vital to
Coomaraswamy's work.
By revealing the true nature of art, Ananda Coomaraswamy pres-
ents the sacred arrangement of the cosmos. Art cannot be observed
through multiplicity just as the Truth can only be found in Oneness.
Coomaraswamy's simple explanation of art as the proper arrangement
or objects illustrates it as reflective of a greater order. By embarking
on a mystical journey back to the source of art, an origin both pbyst-
cal and theoretical is revealed as spiritual and practical. The
employed by art in transmitting these meanings was expressed thwugh
symbols. Coomaraswamy's work can be seen as an attempt to .uric...,
that perception which had once revered art. In India, the possil.-tioy
of this return was given context by the innate mystical theology -
pervades the culture. Furthermore, the link between religion2Dd is
presented through the similarities between a yogi and anN. _
by presenting the work of art, Shiva as Nataraja,
purpose is unveiled as threefold. First, the ability of symbo6 -
connect this world with a higher reality is exemplified. Scarr -
shared process of synthesis between Coomaraswamy and f- r 'IiJI:i:.1Ii
157
Dan Rudmann
art portrays the imperative nature of unity. Third, the corresponding
goal between Coomaraswarny and Shiva in revealing the truth renders
the two figures bound in common desire. Through this study, it is clear
that the work of Coomaraswamy is not about art in the categorical
sense. Instead, art serves as the means of portraying the entire cos-
mos, both in form and through Coomaraswamy's explanation. This
entire scheme stems from the framework of mysticism, proclaiming a
Supreme Truth and inherent relationship throughout. It is this intercon-
nection that Coomaraswarny saw as the antithesis ofIndustrialization.
By combating the trivialization of art, Coomaraswamy strives to bring
appropriate significance to art, allowing for the proper arrangement
of the world thereafter. It is Coomaraswamy's desire to playa tune
that will entice Shiva to dance, revealing Divine Reality.
Notes
I. F. C. Happold, Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology (London: Penguin
Books, 1990), p. 119.
2. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual
Consciousness (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1993), p. 3.
3. A. K. Coomaraswamy, What Use Is Art Anyway? (Third Radio Series,
Station WAAB, Number I, January 14, 1937, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston), p. 1.
4. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "Primitive Mentality," Coomaraswamy, ed.
Roger Lipsey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 286.
5. Ibid., p. 286.
6. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "The Love of Art," Parnassus, Vol. 8, No.4.
(Apr., 1936), p 22.
7. Ibid., P 22.
8. Ibid.
9. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "Primitive Mentality," p. 292.
10. Ibid. , pp. 287-288.
II. Ibid., p. 292.
12. Ibid. , p. 295.
13. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "Symbols," What Is Civilization? (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 126.
14. Ibid., p. 125.
158
15. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "The Love of Art," Parnassus, p. 22.
16. Ibid., p. 23.
17. Ibid., p. 22.
18. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Selected Letters of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy,
ed. Alvin Moore, Jr. and Rama Poonambulam Coomaraswamy (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 367.
19. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Fundamentals of Indian Art, Introduction by S.
Durai Raja Singam (Jaipur: The Historical Research Documentation
Programme, 1985), p. 1.
20. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "What Has India Contributed?" The Dance Of
Shiva: Fourteen Indian Essays (New York: The Noonday Press, 1957),
p.4.
21. A. K. Coomaraswamy, The Transformation of Nature inArt (New York:
Dover Publications, 1956), p. 15.
22. Ibid., p. 17.
23. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "Hindu View of Art: Historical," The Dance of
Shiva: Fourteen Indian Essays, p. 26.
24. Ibid., p. 27.
25. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Fundamentals of Indian Art, op. cit., p. 3.
26. Ibid., pp. 6-7.
27. Ibid., p. 9.
28. Ibid. , p. 10.
29. A. K. Coomaraswamy, "The Dance of Shiva," The Dance of Shiva:
Fourteen Indian Essays, p. 68.
30. Ibid., p. 70.
31. Ibid. , p. 77.
32. Ibid. , p. 77.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid., p. 73.
35. Ibid., p. 73.
36. David Smith, The Dance of Siva (New York: Cambridge UniveJSiIy
Press, 1996), p. 20.
37. C. Sivaramamurti, Nataraja in Art, Thought and Literature (New Delbi:
National Museum New Delhi, 1974), p. 24.
159

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