Twisted Representation of Promethean Man's Worldview and Pontifical Man's Teaching

Twisted Representation of Promathean Man’s Worldview and
Pontifical Man’s Teaching: Problem of Cognition in the Adoption of

Modern Education in Islamic World
By Wardah Alkatiri
Lincoln University New Zealand
Abstract
This study is an attempt to venture an opinion that the widespread adoption of
modern sciences highly profane and materialistic in character by the education world in the
countries where religions and traditions are being taught at school as well, may potentially
have caused twisted of representation when the individual fails to reconcile both
worldviews of contradictory nature and cognize them meaningfully. In an attempt to
balance out the material and spiritual content of education in Indonesia and many countries
in Islamic world as those countries going through rapid modernization since the second
half of this century, there were imperatives to place religious education in literally ‘side by
side’ position with modern sciences in the school curriculum. But precisely because of this
reason student approaches religious teaching with exact same modality of knowing he/she
uses to cognize those scientific subjects like mathematic and physics. As a result, religious
teaching evolves into mere academic discourses divorced from the reality in daily life. The
author hypothesized that this was the departure point where religion started to become
alien to its follower. When religious teachings were failed to be comprehended intelligibly,
they were either abandoned or in mutilated forms harden into mere ideologies rather than
once means of spirituality besides ways of life. This failure might have been one of the key
factors stimulating radicalism in Islamic world these days which in some cases outbursts
with violence, although in lesser occurrence the same also found in other Oriental
traditional world. Another chief cause identified by the author is the social psychological
problems stem from long historical events of colonialism in those part of the world and the
exclusive truthfulness interpretation by specific groups of religions with the implications of
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untruthfulness and illegitimacy of other religions and traditions, to which issues the author
had addressed her thesis research in Master program in Islamic Philosophy which is now
being processed for publication in Bahasa Indonesian language.
Author’s keyword
Cognition, Representation, Bewilderment, Promethean Man, Pontifical Man, Modern,
Tradition, Psychological Dissonance, Spiritual Intelligence
Introduction
Modern man is imposed to accept and follow the very complex and complicated
thoughts of modern world. He/she is a being who thinks too much and often wrongly, and
so to speak, is ‘over-cerebral’. To the situation of Muslim in particular, the impact of
modern world upon Islamic world during the past century has brought havoc and confusion
beyond comparison with anything that Islamic history has witnessed since its origin. The
contemporary Muslim must and cannot but wage a continuous holy struggle not only
within him/herself to keep their mind and soul healthy and intact but also outwardly to
protect what they can of the spiritual heritage their forefather expected them to preserve
and transmit to the next generations. The Muslims of earlier generation not only did not
suffer from many of the problem faced today, but they were also more fully aware of many
dimensions of the teachings of Islam which provided for them a complete worldview and
satisfied their need of causality, for the explanation of the nature of things, and for the
meaning of life.
One can find in the Islamic world today a full spectrum of people ranging from
purely traditional, through those who are caught between traditional values and
modernism, to so-called fundamentalism, to the blatant modernist, who nevertheless still
move within the Islamic orbit, and finally to the few who no longer considers themselves
to belong to the Islamic universe at all. The contemporary Muslim who lives in the far
corners of the Islamic world and has remained isolated and secluded from the influence of
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modernism may be said to live still within a homogeneous world in which the tension of
life are those of normal human existence. But the Muslims who live in the centers of the
Islamic world touched in one degree or another by modernism lives within a polarized
field of tension created by two contending world views and system of values. This tension
is often reflected within his/her mind and soul, and he/she usually becomes a house divided
against itself, in profound need of reintegration.
Through modern education adopted in schools and universities all over Islamic world,
contemporary Muslims are taught the basic assumptions of the modern civilization, nearly
all are the very antithesis of the Islamic principles he/she cherishes.
1. He/she studies philosophies completely divorced from experience of a spiritual

nature, philosophy which is nearly synonymous with logic, philosophy as a mental
play or discipline which does not transform one’s being, which is meaningless and
in fact dangerous.
2. He/she sees philosophies based either on man considered as creature in rebellion
against Heaven or on the human collectivity seen as an “ant-heap” in which man
has no dignity worthy of his real nature, upon which basis he/she easily slips into
seeing man as raw material of sociology and economy, as role occupants, or as
nameless numbers in payroll and statistics in a government report.
3. He/she sees the Universe reduced to a single level of reality – the spatio-temporal
complex of matter and energy, and all the higher levels of reality relegated to the
category of myths and tales.
4. He/she sees the power of man upon earth emphasized at the expense of his
servanthood so that he is considered to be not the khalifah Allah, the vicegerent of
God, but the khalifah of his own ego or some worldly power or collectivity.
5. He/she sees the theomorphic1) nature of man is either mutilated or openly negated.
1) see Attachment-2
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6. He/she reads the arguments of Western philosophers and scientists against the
symbolic concept of nature, a concept which is usually debased by being called
“totemistic” or “animistic” or some other term of this genre.
7. He/she is made to believe that everyone is independent and separated individual,
and that everyone’s efforts in life should be directed towards the fulfillment but to
satisfy him/herself.
8. He/she learns sciences as human attempts to collect an ever increasing number of
facts without ever reaching the Center and understanding the ultimate aim of that
knowledge.
9. He/she is made to believe that the transformation from seeing the phenomena of
nature as the portents or signs (ayat) of God to viewing this phenomena as ‘brute
facts’ - full stop! It is the major acts of progress which only prepares nature for that
ferocious rape and plunder for which modern man is now beginning to pay so
dearly.
10. He/she is taught that law is nothing but a convenient agreement within human
collectivity and therefore relative and ever-changing, with implication that there is
no such thing as Divine Law which serves as the immutable norm of human action
and which provides the measures against which man can judge his own ethical
standards objectively.
These and many other intellectual and philosophical questions beset constantly the
mind of that contemporary Muslim who is touched in one degree or another by the
influence of modernism. But not all the questions present themselves with the same force
to everyone, nor is every modernized Muslim modernized to the same degree. For this
reason, the dilemma of every contemporary Muslim is not the same. But, nevertheless, the
tension between two world views of a contradictory nature is to be observed widely, the
kind and degree of tension differing, of course, from one milieu and even one individual to
another. In more modernized circles of the Islamic world, even small children face this
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tension, as on the one hand they still learn the various traditional stories which contain the
profoundest wisdom in simple language from grandparent or nanny, on the other hand they
are trained to discipline their mind according to the highly rationalistic and empirical
conception of modern education they obtain. They also watch television, listen to the radio,
read articles from internet, exchange text from cell-phone, and other forms of mass media
transmitting cultures of modern and postmodern values and the poor imitations of various
celebrity models. In general, many Muslim today who have been exposed to the modern
world in a sense carry both Islam and the Modern West as two poles and tendencies within
themselves. What confusions are created within the mind of a person who is attracted by
the pull of both ideas!
Basic Tenet
Perennial Philosophy, or the traditionalist school of thought2) is the basic tenet to
identify the problem in this study and to frame the answer to the defined problem.
Hypothesis
There are three basic hypotheses I wish to adduce concerning the state of confusion in
question, in which only the second one to be exercised in this thesis. I wish to replace the
word ‘confusion’ in the rest of this paper with a word referring to more serious than just a
state of mixed up with things without order or clearness. That new word is ‘bewilderment’
having the connotation of being led into complete perplexity (The New Grolier Webster
International Dictionary of the English Language).
1. The shock received by all Muslims and the Orientals in general from the
domination of the European powers since early seventeen century posed a crisis of
cosmic dimensions. The colonial experience has developed sense of inferiority vis-
à-vis the West among the educated groups of Easterner whereas among the other
2) see Attachment-1
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group, the less educated one, in most cases it manifests as hatred and enmity to
anything Western. This is a social psychological phenomena namely social
categorization, in which the Easterner society gives Western an attribute of, either
‘brilliant’ or ‘evil’, and reciprocally, the social categorization and attribution also
happens in the Westerner part where the society teaches individual to view
Easterner with an attribute of ‘stupid-uncivilized’ or ‘the poor and the miserable’.
2. The colonial experience left most Eastern countries with two educational systems,
one traditional and the other Western, either brought by foreigners, most of whom
were missionaries, or established by modernized Western oriented Easterner ‘elites’
on the model of Western institution of learning. These two types of institutions
possess completely different philosophies of education. The impoverished
cosmology of modern sciences that limits itself to spatio-temporal complex of
matter and energy has created serious problem to a student studying as well the
traditional and religious teachings which requires an intuitive comprehension of
complete cosmology in which, matter and energy is just one aspect of it.
3. Additionally, the proclaims of exclusive truthfulness by certain group of religions
with clear implication of untruthfulness and illegitimacy of other religion and
tradition have significantly exacerbated bewilderment, particularly among
youngster regardless from what religious community, as they are faced with
troubling questions of theodicy or questions of divine justice, because they now
live in even more borderless and blended world where different nations, cultures,
and religions are present in every particular place and time. Ironically, serious
communication between different religions is becoming more difficult to achieve as
they are more and more set apart by insuperable chasm because they are cut off
from the umbilical cord that connect them to the common Divine ground.
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In what follows, I am going to present a range of problems shown in three case studies, to
demonstrate concrete problems manifested from this kind of bewilderment. Case-3 is by no
means unique to Muslim youngster. It is the general challenge to agnostic modern
education when it is given to highly talented individual, that can be inferred from what
reported by James T Webb’s, one of the most influential psychologists on gifted education
in the US. He consults with schools, programs, and individuals, and found particular social
and emotional needs of gifted and talented children and youngster due to their unique
mental predisposition. I would suggest in this thesis that besides social and emotional,
talented or gifted individual has particular spiritual needs as well. The problem in case-3 is
becoming serious challenges that need attentions from mature scholars because it is
suggested by some studies that there is a surge of talented children born in the last two
decades termed as “indigo children phenomena”. My thesis will show that only esoteric
dimension of religions (mysticism) and the traditional philosophy can resourcefully face
the challenge.
Case Study-1:
Some Indonesian parents today are reluctant to introduce their children into
religious community as they fear disorientation their child might develop in
viewing the world when they get in touch with religious thoughts while remains
going to regular schools.
Case Study-2:
Darwin’s theory of evolution underlying biology and other life sciences in school
subjects can not but create confusion in Muslim child who in one hand is taught
Islamic religion which views man as khalifah (the vicegerent of God) and abd (the
servant of God), while at the same time in those sciences he sees man as mammal
walking upright.
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Case Study-3:
Mental predisposition of talented youngster, taken in verbatim from James T
Webb paper.
“It has been my experience that gifted and talented persons are more likely to
experience a type of depression referred to as existential depression. Although an
episode of existential depression may be precipitated in anyone by a major loss or
the threat of a loss which highlights the transient nature of life, persons of higher
intellectual ability are more prone to experience existential depression
spontaneously. Sometimes this existential depression is tied into the positive
disintegration experience referred to by Dabrowski (1996).
Existential depression is a depression that arises when an individual confronts

certain basic issues of existence. Yalom (1980) describes four such issues (or
"ultimate concerns")--death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Death is an
inevitable occurrence. Freedom, in an existential sense, refers to the absence of
external structure. That is, humans do not enter a world which is inherently
structured. We must give the world a structure which we ourselves create. Isolation
recognizes that no matter how close we become to another person, a gap always
remains, and we are nonetheless alone. Meaninglessness stems from the first three.
If we must die, if we construct our own world, and if each of us is ultimately alone,
then what meaning does life have? As remedies, they need something addressing
philosophical sources of the issues including rational thought, morale, discipline,
and coming to terms with the catastrophies.
Why should such existential concerns occur disproportionately among gifted

persons? Partially, it is because substantial thought and reflection must occur to
even consider such notions, rather than simply focusing on superficial day-to-day
aspects of life. Other more specific characteristics of gifted children are important
pre disposers as well.
Because gifted children are able to consider the possibilities of how things might
be, they tend to be idealists. However, they are simultaneously able to see that the
world is falling short of how it might be. Because they are intense, gifted children
feel keenly the disappointment and frustration which occurs when ideals are not
reached. Similarly, these youngsters quickly spot the inconsistencies, arbitrariness
and absurdities in society and in the behaviors of those around them. Traditions are
questioned or challenged. For example, why do we put such tight sex-role or age-
role restrictions on people? Why do people engage in hypocritical behaviors in
which they say one thing and then do another? Why do people say things they
really do not mean at all? Why are so many people so unthinking and uncaring in
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their dealings with others? How much difference in the world can one person's life
make?
When gifted children try to share these concerns with others, they are usually met
with reactions ranging from puzzlement to hostility. They discover that others,
particularly of their age, clearly do not share these concerns, but instead are focused
on more concrete issues and on fitting in with others' expectations. Often by even
first grade, these youngsters, particularly the more highly gifted ones, feel isolated
from their peers and perhaps from their families as they find that others are not
prepared to discuss such weighty concerns.
When their intensity is combined with multi-potentiality, these youngsters become

particularly frustrated with the existential limitations of space and time. There
simply aren't enough hours in the day to develop all of the talents that many of
these children have. Making choices among the possibilities is indeed arbitrary;
there is no "ultimately right" choice. Even choosing a vocation can be difficult if
one is trying to make a career decision between essentially equal passion, talents
and potential in violin, neurology, theoretical mathematics and international
relations.
The reaction of gifted youngsters (again with intensity) to these frustrations is often
one of anger. But they quickly discover that their anger is futile, for it is really
directed at "fate" or at other matters which they are not able to control. Anger that
is powerless evolves quickly into depression.
In such depression, gifted children typically try to find some sense of meaning,
some anchor point which they can grasp to pull themselves out of the mire of
"unfairness." Often, though, the more they try to pull themselves out, the more they
become acutely aware that their life is finite and brief (needs sense of continuity*),
that they are alone and are only one very small organism in a quite large world
(needs sense of connection**), and that there is a frightening freedom regarding
how one chooses to live one's life (needs sense of direction***). It is at this point
that they question life's meaning and ask, "Is this all there is to life? Is there not
ultimate meaning? Does life only have meaning if I give it meaning? I am a small,
insignificant organism who is alone in an absurd, arbitrary and capricious world
where my life can have little impact, and then I die. Is this all there is?"
*, ** and ***) are termed and added by me to the original text of James T Webb to classify the
problems into three major issues alluded in this thesis. The thesis suggests that Sense of Continuity
is truly impossible in the matrix of modern scientific worldview, whereas Sense of Connection and
Sense of Direction can perhaps be worked out in the agnostic level. For more account please see
section E and F.
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Such concerns are not too surprising in thoughtful adults who are going through
mid-life crises. However, it is a matter of great concern when these existential
questions are foremost in the mind of a twelve or fifteen year old. Such existential
depressions deserve careful attention, since they can be precursors to suicide.
How can we help our bright youngsters cope with these questions? We cannot do
much about the finiteness of our existence. However, we can help youngsters learn
to feel that they are understood and not so alone and that there are ways to manage
their freedom and their sense of isolation.
The isolation is helped to a degree by simply communicating to the youngster that

someone else understands the issues that he/she is grappling with. Even though
your experience is not exactly the same as mine, I feel far less alone if I know that
you have had experiences that are reasonably similar. This is why relationships are
so extremely important in the long-term adjustment of gifted children (Webb,
Meckstroth and Tolan, 1982).
A particular way of breaking through the sense of isolation is through touch. In the
same way that infants need to be held and touched, so do persons who are
experiencing existential aloneness. Touch seems to be a fundamental and
instinctual aspect of existence, as evidenced by mother-infant bonding or "failure to
thrive" syndrome. Often, I have "prescribed" daily hugs for a youngster suffering
existential depression and have advised parents of reluctant teenagers to say, "I
know that you may not want a hug, but I need a hug." A hug, a touch on the arm,
playful jostling, or even a "high five" can be very important to such a youngster,
because it establishes at least some physical connection.
The issues and choices involved in managing one's freedom are more intellectual,
as opposed to the reassuring aspects of touch as a sensory solution to an emotional
crisis. Gifted children who feel overwhelmed by the myriad choices of an
unstructured world can find a great deal of comfort in studying and exploring
alternate ways in which other people have structured their lives. Through reading
about people who have chosen specific paths to greatness and fulfillment, these
youngsters can begin to use bibliotherapy as a method of understanding that
choices are merely forks in the road of life, each of which can lead them to their
own sense of fulfillment and accomplishment (Halsted, 1994). We all need to build
our own personal philosophy of beliefs and values which will form meaningful
frameworks for our lives.
It is such existential issues that lead many of our gifted individuals to bury
themselves so intensively in "causes" (whether these causes are academics, political
or social causes, or cults). Unfortunately, these existential issues can also prompt
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periods of depression, often mixed with desperate, thrashing attempts to "belong."
Helping these individuals to recognize the basic existential issues may help, but
only if done in a kind and accepting way. In addition, these youngsters will need to
understand that existential issues are not ones that can be dealt with only once, but
rather ones that will need frequent revisiting and reconsideration.
In essence, then, we can help many persons with existential depressions if we can
get them to realize that they are not so alone and if we can encourage them to adopt
the message of hope written by the African Americal poet, Langston Hughes:
Hold fast to dream, for if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird

Hold fast to dream, for if dreams go, Life is a barren field covered with snow
Reference:
- Dabrowski,K.(1966), The Theory of Positive Disintegration, International Journal of Psychiatry,
2(2), 229-244
- Yalom,I.D.(1980), Existential Psychoteraphy, New York: Basic, Books.
Analysis
First of all, I believe this contemporary complex and multi-faceted problems of
bewilderment can only be approached satisfactorily by proper psychological theories in
conjunction with traditional3) philosophy and metaphysics, because some of the problems
simply lies beyond the realm of modern psychological world. In this analysis I used six
conceptual propositions in which three of them are taken from psychological theories,
namely Representation and Cognition; Cognitive Dissonance and Spiritual Intelligence,
followed by another three approaches from traditional school of thoughts.
A. Representation and Cognition:

The term ‘representation’ in cognitive psychology is used to refer to hypothetical
internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality. In a research thesis by Alberto
Greco, University of Genoa Italy, “The Concept of Representation in Psychology”, it is
given more elaborated definitions:
3) please see Attachment-1
11
- “Sometimes internal representations have been called "tokens" or something
similar, and this seems to reflect a topographic conception of cognition, which
postulates ready-made pieces of meaningful material, of meaningful building
blocks. This is the conception of representation as a language of thought”.
- In some areas of psychology (especially in personality theories or in social

psychology) the concept of "representation" is often used (to tell the truth, not so
differently from everyday psychology) to express the assumption that individuals
do not act on the basis of "objective" patterns of the world, but on the basis of their
so-called "internal representations" of it, which do not necessarily correspond to
what actually happens in the world, but can be abstractions, simplifications,
perhaps misrepresentations or even illusions. Even if this does not necessarily
involve the earlier-mentioned risk of a dualism between reality as it is and as it
appears, representation as a "subjective" reality here is strongly opposed to the
"objective" reality, (which - by the way - usually happens to be the one of
psychologists).
The main ideas from those two paragraphs are:
1. Representation is a language of thought,

2. Individuals do not act on the basis of objective patterns of the world but on the
basis of their internal representations, which do not necessarily correspond to what
actually happens in the world.
The next proposition, "cognition", refers to all processes by which the sensory input is
transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used, which apparently means
cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do. Therefore, every
psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon.
But an important question concerning these two elements is “how does representation
relate to cognition”?
In his thesis Alberto Greco defined representations as symbols to be interpreted: The

causal power of representations doesn't come from their mere existence, but rather from
their interpretation. As such, interpretation seems to be the central theme in internal
process of representation which in itself can be regarded as the whole phenomenon of
cognition.
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From this standpoint, the presence of confused symbols to be interpreted by the student
portrayed by case-1 and 2, seem to be inescapably causes what I term “twisted
representation” when in one hand a student tried to interpret the pontifical man4)’s teaching
when he/she learns religion, and in the other hand he/she has to as well interpret the
promethean man5)’s worldview when he/she learns modern sciences in school, moreover
as they are exposed to the fragmented reality of modern life. As an evidence, in
modernized Islamic countries a deep chasm appears to exist in societies between two
educated classes (traditional and modern) with the same ethnic background, religion,
language, etc. but unable to understand each other because they interpret the world through
two different prisms. My thesis holds that ‘twisted representation’ is the departure point of
other psychological phenomena, leading to cognitive dissonance in particular and the
general state of bewilderment.
B. Cognitive Dissonance
Leon Festinger in his theory of cognitive dissonance holds that individual strives
toward consistency within himself, the kind of consistency between what a person knows
or believes and what he/she does. For one reason or another, attempts to achieve
consistency may fail and the inconsistency then continues to exist. Under such
circumstances-that is, in the presence of inconsistency- there is psychological discomfort.
In his work he replaced the word “inconsistency” with a term which has less of a logical
connotation, namely, dissonance, and the word “consistency” with a more neutral term,
consonance. His two basic hypotheses are:
1. The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate
the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance.
2. When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will
actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the
dissonance.
4) and 5) see Attachment-3
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Festinger was proposing that dissonance, that is, in the existence of nonfitting relations
among cognitions, is a motivating factor in its own right. By the term cognition, he meant
any knowledge, opinion or belief about the environment, about oneself, or about one’s
behavior. Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent condition which leads to
activity oriented towards dissonance reduction just as hunger leads to activity oriented
toward hunger reduction.
Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance perfectly corroborates my hypothesis
concerning the state of bewilderment resulted from modern education adopted in Islamic
world and oriental traditional world, which eventually manifest in the abandonment of
religion and tradition or on the contrary, in extreme radicalism spiced up with violence,
because in one hand a student studies modern sciences built around, and pervaded by,
Newtonian’s view of God as ‘clockmaker’ who does not need to exist or participate once
the clock was made and runs, and in the other hand he/she must study religion and live
accordingly to the religious norms that he/she cherishes. Two elements are dissonant if, for
one reason or another, they do not fit together. In this case, the two elements: desacralized6)
modern sciences and religions, are clearly inconsistent and contradictory.
Let us consider two elements which exist in a person’s cognition and which are
relevant to one another. The two elements are in dissonance relation if, considering these
two alone, the obverse of one element would follow from the other.(Festinger, 1957.p13),
in other word, two elements may be dissonant only if both resides in the same level. Given
the defined problem of bewilderment in question, the presence of religion subjects among
modern sciences in school must have placed religion in a position of ‘relevant to’ the other
subjects, which thus creating dissonant relation, because the obverse of religion is in the
position of ‘head to head’ to sciences. In operation mode, the situation prompts a student to
approach either subject using the same modality of knowing, thus using the same limited
and impoverished cosmology to cognize religions and its tradition.
6) see Attachment-2
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Besides, there are motivation and desired consequences that may also be factors in
determining whether or not two elements are dissonant (Festinger, 1957. p13). On the
condition of highly material and profane character of modern sciences, the atmosphere of
education evolves into extremely material, profane, and quantitative. The results are easy
to be seen in any modern education institution today, where material motivation becomes
the only valid objective of a student’s scholastic endeavor. In such a situation motivations
and desires become additional factors in determining whether or not two elements are
dissonant. Muslim and oriental student being faced by the reality of materially much more
prosperous Western nations easily feels dissonant relation between religious or traditional
ideas that he/she cherishes with modern sciences or civilization that was taught in or
imported from the West. This problem mostly afflicts highly educated classes, especially
produced by overseas modern universities, upon completion of which they can no longer
touch the reality of their own people and country and therefore the objective of such
scholarship becomes unachievable not to say futile for their country at the most and
community at the least, given that the learned is obliged to discharge his/her knowledge
and the ignorant is rightful to be taught, as traditionally understood.
Let us now consider the magnitude of dissonance in question. It is probably safe to
assume that it is rare for no dissonance at all to exist within any cluster of cognitive
elements (Festinger, 1957. p16). For almost any action a person might take, for almost any
feeling he might have, there will most likely be at least one cognitive element dissonant
with this “behavioral” element. Therefore, all dissonant relations are not of equal
magnitude. It is necessary to distinguish degrees of dissonance and to specify what
determines how strong a given dissonant relation is. If two elements are dissonant with one
another, the magnitude of dissonance will be a function of the importance of the elements.
The more these elements are important to, or valued by, the person, the greater will be the
magnitude of a dissonant relation between them. The pressure of dissonance gives rise to
pressures to reduce or eliminate the dissonance. The strength of pressure to reduce the
dissonance is a function of the magnitude of the dissonance. In other words, dissonance
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acts in the same way as a state of drive or need or tension. Given the defined problem of
bewilderment among Muslim, because not every modernized Muslim modernized to the
same degree, the dilemma of every contemporary Muslim is not the same, the kind and
degree of tension differing, from one milieu and even one individual to another. The higher
modern education he/she might have gone the more dissonance he/she might be afflicted
and therefore - in reflection to what Gandhi says that man will not be happy until what he
thinks, what he says, and what he does are all in harmony - it can be concluded, without an
intention at this point to examine the validity of modern sciences itself, that simply placing
religion subject in parallel with other sciences at school might have provoked dissonance,
and in the long run potentially afflicts unhappiness to the student.
Festinger sees various possible ways in which dissonance can be reduced. Firstly is
by changing behavioral cognitive elements which means the change of the person’s
behavior toward more consonance, secondly, by changing environmental cognitive
element meaning the changes of the environment-engendered dissonance, and lastly by
adding new cognitive element that can be seen as ‘manipulative way’ to introduce new
parameters against which he/she might find his/her dissonance reduced. To sum up, it can
be concluded that when religious teaching fails to be comprehended intelligibly and to be
proved as empirical reality, a person will try to reduce dissonance by either completely
abandoning religion or by being radically reinstate it, mostly with emotional outbursts and
sometimes with violence.
Some intellectuals have argued that Islamic knowledge is supposed to be
responsible for the development of modern sciences because Western sciences owe a great
deal historically from Islamic sciences. In fact, this kind of argument is no different than
the claim of the Muslim fundamentalist who simply sees all modern sciences originally
Islamic. They both have failed to pinpoint that the Western sciences have never accepted
Islamic philosophical framework at all, and this obscurity is caused by his/her failure to
distinguish between the philosophy of pontifical man (traditional man) and the philosophy
of promethean man (modern man). To understand the process of gradual desacralization of
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knowledge in the West the role of the teachings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd
(Averoes) in the Latin world are of some importance. Avicennian philosophy which was to
serve in the Islamic world as the basis for the restatement of the sacramental foundation of
knowledge and intellection by Suhrawardi and many later sages reached the west in only
truncated version and under a much more rationalistic garb. But even what did reach the
west and led to what has been called Latin Avicennism never enjoyed the same popularity
or influence as the more rationalistic Latin Averroism. Furthermore, even in the case of Ibn
Rushd (Averous), who was much more rationalistic than Ibn Sina and did not emphasize
illumination of the mind by the angel as did the latter, there is no doubt that again the Latin
Averroes is more of a secularized and rationalistic philosopher than the original Ibn Rushd
when read in Arabic. When the West was moving toward more rationalistic interpretation
of these two masters the Islamic world was moving in the other direction to reaffirm the
primacy of intellection over ratiocination. The appearance of Suhrawardi and the school of
illumination (al-ishraq) testifies to a new assertion of the scared quality of knowledge and
the ultimately illuminative character of all knowledge in the Islamic intellectual universe.
(Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1989).
At this point we can see the importance of inoculating traditional philosophy to the
student and youngster in Islamic world in question, without which no one can be
completely successful and honest, intellectually speaking, by simply rejecting science and
philosophy and refusing to understand it. Without traditional philosophical framework,
modern philosophical ideas will simply creep in through the back door in a thousand
different ways and student will then be much less prepare to confront them since they will
not have been properly inoculated against them through a vigorous study and refutation of
their false theses. What must be done, therefore, is to define philosophy itself from
traditional point of view and then to re-appraise the current meaning or meanings of
philosophy in the light of the Islamic perspective. Once student acquire intuitive notion
about his/her traditional philosophy and be aware of the historical course in which the
desacralization of knowledge took place that depleting knowledge of its sacred character
17
and creating complete profane sciences, there will be far less chance of bewilderment, even
when posed by the most challenging theory to religions, the Darwin’s theory of evolution,
since they have got in the back of their mind complete worldview encompassing physical
and metaphysical world, intuitive understanding of hierarchies of existence, and being
aware of the availability of direct access to Reality besides the intellectual theories and
reasoning. In section F, I wish to brief how traditional philosophical ideas are taught and
cognized epistemologically and ontologically.
C. Spiritual Intelligence:
Cognitive science is a science of intelligence, but only since not long ago (1980s) it
gives attention to a human’s intelligence, namely ‘spiritual intelligence’. One of the most
well known psychologists in the theory of spiritual intelligence is Danah Zohar and his
husband Ian Marshall, psychiatrists from Harvard University. They defined spiritual
intelligence as intelligence of the deep self, with which one asks fundamental questions
and understands complex spiritual subjects. It is the intelligence that gives one his
integrity. With spiritual intelligence one develops an awareness about the Centre, that all
existents in are interconnected to each other and linked to the Centre, and the awareness
that everything is united in single Oneness. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall in their work
have identified the twelve qualities that define person’s complex adaptive systems. Those
principles are:
• Self-Awareness: Knowing what I believe in and value, and what deeply motivates me
• Spontaneity: Living in and being responsive to the moment
• Being Vision- and Value-Led: Acting from principles and deep beliefs, and living
accordingly
• Holism: Seeing larger patterns, relationships, and connections; having a sense of
belonging
• Compassion: Having the quality of "feeling-with" and deep empathy
18
• Celebration of Diversity: Valuing other people for their differences, not despite them
• Field Independence: Standing against the crowd and having one's own convictions
• Humility: Having the sense of being a player in a larger drama, of one's true place in the
world
• Tendency to Ask Fundamental "Why?" Questions: Needing to understand things and
get to the bottom of them
• Ability to Reframe: Standing back from a situation or problem and seeing the bigger
picture; seeing problems in a wider context
• Positive Use of Adversity: Learning and growing from mistakes, setbacks, and suffering
• Sense of Vocation: Feeling called upon to serve, to give something back
Before we step into a series of discussion on traditional thoughts in the following sections,
we can already acquire at this point an intuitive notion that spiritual intelligence might be
the core idea in psychology attributed to the characteristic of individual with regard to
his/her tendency to raise ultimate questions and his/her capacity to understand complex
spiritual subjects. Ironically, the property of this intelligence might as well significantly
contribute to the talented youngster existential depression reported by James T Webb, if
he/she studies sciences limited to spatio-temporal complex devoid of integral cosmology
which characterizes the mainstream of modern sciences in modern education world.
Moreover, the challenge is heightened if he/she is exposed to the fragmented society (and
family) characterizing the texture of modern society, and additionally, the disappearance of
traditional institutions in modern world who is supposed to be the guardian of immutable
knowledge or tradition, whereby in the past one could refer to when there is troubling
question arises. I wish to present, in section F, the traditional methods of developing one’s
spiritual intelligence.
19
D. Eastern and Western Mentalities: Contemplation and Action.
After preceding steps were concluded, there is an intriguing question left, why in
the world is the Eastern cultures incline more to the contemplation than action, unlike the
other way around of their Western counterpart implying to more attraction toward tradition
in the Eastern part? In this section I would like to briefly present the compilation of
theories from the traditionalist school, concerning the question.
In traditional societies in every nations including the West up until about 12th century
everyone is born into a certain profession or caste. He makes the most of what he has. If a
troubling question arises, take it to the guru or master or mursyid or the holy person.
Average person does not strive for such intense individuality. This was equally true
including in the West when the priest was the carrier of the splendor of God. At that time,
it never occurred in the average person that he or she could have our modern sense of
individuality. Perennial philosophy or the traditionalist schools recognizes different mental
constitutions in every person. The traditional science of man sees the concept of caste as a
key for the understanding of human type. This is the principle of the division of humanity
into castes in Hindu which must be understood in their essential reality and without
pejorative connotations which have become associated with them in the modern world.
a) There are those who are contemplative by nature and drawn to the quest of
knowledge, who have sacerdotal nature, and in normal times usually fulfill the
priestly and intellectual function in their society.
b) There are those who are warriors and leaders of their people who posses the
courage to fight for the truth and to protect the world in which they live, who are
ready to sacrifice themselves in battle as the person with sacerdotal nature
sacrifices himself in prayer to the Divinity. Members of this second caste have a
knightly function and in normal times would be the political leaders and warriors.
c) There are those given to trade, to making an honest living and working hard to
sustain and support themselves and those around them. They have a mercantile
20
nature and in traditional societies comprise those carry out the business and
economic function.
d) Finally, there are those whose virtue is to follow and to be lead, to work according
to the dictates of those who lead them.
These castes which Hinduism identifies as the Brahman, Ksatriya, Waisha and
Sudra are not necessarily identified with birth in all societies. In traditional Galenic
medicine which has their counterparts in other schools of traditional medicine the four
temperaments: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and bilious concerns not only the physical
body but also the psychic substance and in fact all faculties which comprise what we call
the soul. They affect: sentiments, will and also the mode of operation of intelligence. The
same could be said of the three gunas of Hindu cosmology, the three fundamental
tendencies: Sattva: the ascending, Raja: the expansive, and Tama: the descending. Vedic
philosophy classifies human temperaments into predomination of those basic qualities
sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. The three gunas (qualities) are always together, but the
degrees are different in every object/existent. To human, these individual differences in
psychological and moral dispositions and their reactions to socio-cultural and physical
environments are described in all the classic texts of Ayurvedic.
1) Sattvic qualities imply essence, reality, consciousness, purity and clarity of

perception which are responsible for goodness and happiness. The people in whom
satvic qualities predominate are religious, loving, compassionate and pure minded.
Following truth and righteousness, they have good manners, behavior and conduct.
They do not get easily upset or angry. Although they work hard mentally, they do
not get mental fatigue, so they need only several hours of sleep each night. They
look fresh, alert, aware, full of luster, wisdom, joy and happiness. They are
creative, humble and respectful of their teachers. Worshipping God and humanity,
21
they love all. They care for people, animals, trees, and are respectful of all life and
existence. They have balanced intuition and intelligence.
2) All movements and activities are due to Rajas. It leads to the life of sensual
enjoyment, pleasure and pain, effort and restlessness. The people in with rajasic
mental constitutions are egoistic, ambitious, aggressive, proud, competitive, and
have a tendency to control others. They like power, prestige, position, and are
perfectionists. They are hard working people, but are lacking in proper planning
and direction. They are ungrounded, active and restless. Emotionally, they are
angry, jealous, ambitious, and have few moments of joy due to success. They have
a fear of failure, are subject to stress, and soon lose their mental energy. They
require about eight hours of sleep. They are loving, calm and patient only as long as
their self interests are served. They are good, loving, friendly and faithful only to
those who are helpful to them. They are not honest to their inner consciousness.
Their activities are self- centered and egotistical.
3) Tamas is darkness, inertia, heaviness and materialistic attitudes, tendency of self

destruction. There is certainly a constant interplay of these three gunas (qualities)
in the individual consciousness, but the relative predominance of either sattvas,
rajas, or tamas is responsible for individual psychological constitution. The people
in whom tamasic qualities predominate are less intelligent. They tend towards
depression, laziness, and excess sleep, even during the day. A little mental work
tires them easily. They like jobs of less responsibility, and they love to eat, drink,
sleep, and sex. They are greedy, possessive, attached, irritable, and do not care for
others. They may harm others through their own self interest. It is difficult for them
to focus their minds during meditation.
22
In the yoga discipline, it is believed that proper and regular yoga training consisting of
physical exercise, asanas, and the meditation, will transform the disciple into higher self
and reaching the balance between three tendencies and ultimate perfection.
Once it is understood that there are different modes of operation of intelligence, and
so as of sentiments and wills in every individual, we are tempted to investigate if there are
different predominance within different races of humanity. Rene Guenon (sometimes
known as Sheikh ‘Abd Al Wahid Yahya) (1886-1951), one of the great luminaries of the
twentieth century, held an opinion that the main aspects of the opposition that at present
exists between Eastern and Western mentalities which coincides with the opposition
between traditional and the anti traditional, are essentially the opposition between
“contemplation” and “action”, or in a difference of opinion as to their relative importance.
Further, he brought a premise that these differences have root in the mental constitution in
racial realms.
Doubtless, recognition of superiority in one of the two tendencies will lead to a

maximum development in preference to the other; but in practice it is nonetheless
true that the particular capacity of each person has to be taken into account, and the
places held by contemplation and action in the life of a man or a people will
therefore always be to a great extent determined by his or their nature. It is obvious
that the aptitude for contemplation is more widespread and more generally
developed in the East, and probably nowhere more than India, which can therefore
be taken as representing most typically what we have called the Eastern mentality.
On the other hand, it is beyond dispute that the aptitude for action, or rather the
tendency resulting from this aptitude, is predominant among the people of the
West, at least as far as the great majority of individuals is concerned. Even if this
tendency were not exaggerated and perverted as it is at present, it would
nevertheless continue to exist, so that in the West contemplation would always be
bound to the province of a much more restricted elite, it is for this reason that it is
commonly said in India that, if the West returned to a normal state and had a
regular social organization, there would be many Ksatriya, but relatively few
Brahmans. [1]
23
Contemplation and action are in fact the respective functions of the two first castes, the
Brahmans and the Ksatriyas, the relationship between them is the same as that between the
spiritual authority and the temporal power.
“- and this is a point of great importance – in ancient times, and especially in the
Middle Ages, the natural bent of Westerners for action did not prevent them from
recognizing the superiority of contemplation, or in other words, of pure
intelligence. Why is it otherwise in modern times? Is it because Westerners have
come to loose their intellectuality by over-developing their capacity for action that
they console themselves by inventing theories that set action above everything else,
and even, as in the case of pragmatism, go so far to deny that there exists anything
of value beyond action; or is it the contrary true, namely, that it is the acceptance of
this point of view that has led to the intellectual atrophy we see today? [2]
“In both instances – and if, as is probable, the truth lies between the two, the results
are exactly the same, things have reached a point at which it is time to react; and
this, be it said once more, is where the East can come to help the West (assuming
the West is willing), not by thrusting upon it conceptions that are foreign to its
mentality, as some persons seem to fear, but by helping it to recover the lost
meaning of its own tradition. [3]
If Rene Guenon was right, we are really in trouble, because that premise implies that
modern sciences whose foundation are built around Newtonian’s view on God as
‘clockmaker’, are more deadly to the Easterner’s soul than to their Westerner
counterpart’s. Such highly reductionistic and materialistic sciences framed in the
limited cosmology, are simply incompatible with Easterner mental predisposition.
E. Religion and Rationality:

The next valid question arises as the discussion forges ahead, “are religious beliefs
rational”? The short answer the traditionalist gives is ‘No’. The following discussion seems
to be rather swerved from the psychological discourse but it is indispensable in order to
frame the defined problem of bewilderment in a proper perspective. I would like to begin
with Wittgenstein’s philosophical proposition about religion which, in one way or another,
24
gives somewhat support to the traditionalist point of view. For Wittgenstein, religious
belief is not rational nor irrational, but something separate and distinct from the concept of
rationality. Rationality plays a role in the language-game of science, not religion. One
cannot justify one's religious views from the standpoint of science, just as it would be
absurd to assert the theories of quantum mechanics from a religious point of view. He
rejects the notion that science is able to answer all the questions of the world. He concedes
that science is very helpful in explaining how the world operates, but maintains that it
cannot give answers to why there is a world at all. For Wittgenstein, science and religion
are independent and necessary to life, and because the goal of each activity is different they
cannot judge the merit of one another. The role of religion is important because it gives
humankind an avenue from which essential existential and religious questions can be
addressed. The goal of the religious language-game is not to determine how the world
operates, but rather to help solve the "riddles of life" (Wittgenstein, in his lectures on
religious belief). In other word, Wittgenstein held an opinion that reason is not the only
modality of knowing when it comes to religion.
In perennial philosophy, the philosophy which includes spiritual experience as a way of
knowing, religion is regarded as lingua franca, common language, with which community
of faith can share with each other their numinous encounter with the Divine presence.
Religion is not only the key to the understanding of this universe but also the central means
whereby man is able to journey from the lower stages of existence to the Divine Presence
(this journey is nothing other than human life itself as it is understood traditionally). The
doctrine, symbols and rites of a religion possess meaning which is not confined to the
spatio-temporal realm.
The original meaning of the word ‘religion’ (from the Latin religare) is to relate or to
reconnect – to put back together again, heal the wound of separation, and to make whole. It
is what binding man to God and at the same time man to each other. But the limited
meaning of the word religion in European language has caused certain authors limits this
term only to exoteric expression of religion thus distinguishing Abrahamic religions7) from
25
Hindusim, Taoism, Buddhism, and the like which they call tradition. The Arabic word of
religion al-din carries a lexical meaning of “obedience, reward and subjugation” is
inextricably related to the meaning of the term ‘tradition’. The all-embracing nature of
tradition needs to be noted. In a civilization characterized as traditional, nothing lies
outside the realm of tradition. There is no domain of reality which has a right to exist
outside the traditional principles and their applications. “To live in the traditional world is
to breathe in a universe in which man is related to a reality beyond himself from which he
receives those principles, truths, forms, attitudes, and other elements which determine the
very texture of human existence”. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2001). He who has no sense of
the sacred cannot perceive the traditional perspective, and traditional man is never
separated from the sense of the sacred, thereby saved from the terror of the nihilism and
skepticism which accompanies the loss of the sacred dimension of existence and the
destruction of the sacred character of knowledge.
To sum up, again, from the given standpoint, to place religious discourse in the
position of ‘relevant to’ modern sciences at school has inevitably created a condition where
student is made to approach religious knowledge the same way he/she does approach the
other subjects.
F. The Epistemology of Metaphysic

Our discussion so far must have raised the questions of epistemology and ontology
concerning the esoteric knowledge of religion, around which basis one can investigate the
conception of reality (being or existence) and the origin, nature, and methods of
knowledge. The mystic8), (known as the Sufis in Islam) are those who refer to themselves
as the guardians of the Divine Mysteries (asrar). These secrets they obtain not through the
exercise of theoretical intellect and reasoning, but rather by a process of successive grades
7) Abrahamic religion often used to designate Judaism, Christianity and Islam emphasizing their common
origin and values rooted from Abraham
8) see Attachment-4
26
of self-purification granting them inner intuitive insight (basirah) or sometime called ‘eye
of the heart’ (ayn-al-qalb) corresponds to the third eye of the Hindus, an insight which
provides them with Godly knowledge (ma’rifah) and an overflowing of divine love. As
Allamah Tabatabai, a great sage of Islam declares:
“Gnosis is a perfect way of worship, based on love, not on fear or hope. It is a way
of understanding the inner facts of religion instead of being contended with its
outward and perceptible form.”
Successive grades of self purification are in fact the process of developing what is known
as “spiritual intelligence” in section C. It includes and engages every aspect of our lives –
concretely, individually, constantly and totally. The process of developing spiritual
intelligence brings about ‘reflective heart’ as the only means to comprehend and ultimately
to cope with all kind of difficult realities in life. The ‘heart’ here has rather different and
broader meanings from what that word ordinarily suggests in English. In this part of
discussion, which is mainly taken from Islamic philosophy point of view, the ‘heart’ refers
to the writings of Ibn Arabi (1165-1245, Andalusia-Arab Sufi mystic and philosopher) and
Rumi (1207-1273, Persian poet, jurist, theologian and mystic), in which it means the ‘heart
of the theomorphic, the fully-realized human being’.
Knowledge, for the mystics, is only that by which one becomes aware of the true
nature of things, to know in divinis, and an awareness which is characterised by absolute
certainty:
“…since it derives from a verified unveiling which is not seized by obfuscation.
This contrasts with the knowledge which is actualised through reflective
consideration (ilm al-hudhuri or al-nazar al-fikri), which is never safe from
obfuscation and bewilderment, nor from rejection of that which leads to it.” [4]
Moreover, Syaikh al-Akbar Ibn Arabi (syaikh-al-akbar the equivalent of the Latin
doctor maximus) explains that knowledge which does not lead back to God by a road of
felicity does not deserve to be called knowledge. Instead he refers to it as “surmise” (zann).
27
He also states that “knowledge of other than God is a waste of time (tadyi al-waqt), since
God created the cosmos only for knowledge of Him.”[5]
Hence what the mystics consider as deserving to be called knowledge is best described in
the words of Ibn Arabi once again:
“…By knowledge I mean only knowledge of God, of the next world, and of that
which is appropriate for this world, in relationship to that for which this world was
created and established.” [6]
Indeed, the mystics categorize only as hakim (possessor of wisdom, or sage) the one who
has detached himself from the limitation of body, form and individuality by a process of
spiritual journey. As Ibn Sina (980-1037, known in the West as Avicenna, Persian
physician, philosopher, scientist, and teacher) observes:
“When an initiate (salik) practices enough ascetic discipline as spiritual effort, his
or her soul and secret (sirr) becomes a mirror which reflects the Real (al-
Haqq).”[7]
And Rene Guenon explains that:
“It is the attainment of effective consciousness of supra-individual states that is the

real object of metaphysics, or better still, of metaphysical knowledge
itself…Theoretical knowledge, which is only indirect and in some sense symbolic,
is merely a preparation, though indispensable, for true knowledge.”[8]
So although true knowledge is only that which is by unveiling, philosophy also has its
place in the scheme, as every seeker of the Truth, be he/she philosopher or mystic, is
classified only in accordance with their correspondence to the Centre. And since
ontological status reflects epistemological standing, it follows that the knowledge of one
should be more exoteric and of the other more esoteric. Al-Ghazali (1058-1111, Persian
theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist, and mystic) explains this as
follows:
28
“You should know that intellectual sciences are holistic in their content, and from
which theoretical knowledge issues. It is both theoretical knowledge and
intellectual knowledge that form Sufi knowledge. There are many aspects of Sufi
knowledge, such as hal, waqt, shawq, wajd, sukr, sahw, ithbat, mahw, faqr,
walayah and iradah. Hikmah can be attained only through the given knowledge.
Those who do not reach that cannot be named “sage” (al-hakim) since wisdom is a
gift o God.”[9]
Having said this, we should note that ibn al-‘Arabi makes absolutely clear the difference in
status between the various types of knowledge. Here we quote him in this regard:
“The sciences are three levels.
The first, is the science of reason…
The second, is the science of states (ahwal) which cannot be reached except
through tasting…
The third knowledge is the science of the mysteries (asrar). It is the knowledge
which is “beyond the stage of reason.”
…The knower of this last kind – the science of mysteries – knows and exhausts all
sciences…So there is no knowledge more noble than this all-encompassing knowledge,
which comprises all objects of knowledge… Sound knowledge is only that which God
throws into the heart of the knower. It is a divine light for which God singles out any of
His servants whom He will, whether angel, messenger, prophet, friend, or person of
faith.”[10]
Finally, we end this section with a chilling phrase, form al-Shaykh al-Akbar, that echoes in
the mind long after one has read it, and which exquisitely sums up the epistemological
system of the mystics:
“He who has no unveiling has no knowledge (man la kashf lah la ilm lah).”[11]
It would be understandable if the discussion presented so far led one to believe that
mystical knowledge is limitless, and indeed this is true from a certain aspect. As al-Kindi
29
says, the soul is a light from God, which when detached from the limitations of the body is
able to know everything and therefore nothing is hidden from it.
Moreover, as God Himself is infinite, the objects of God’s knowledge are infinite. So for
man, the seeker of knowledge, the acquisition of knowledge is endless. Hence human
knowledge is potentially infinite, though only a finite number of objects of knowledge
exist at any given time and only a finite number can be known by a finite thing. Here are
the characteristic of mystical knowledge.
“One of the characteristics of metareason is that its perception of the Supreme

Truth is accompanied by an intense ecstasy inexpressible in words.”[12]
“One of the characteristics of the realm of metareason is love.”[13]
“If he crosses from spiritual exercise to attainment of the Truth…The lofty

pleasures are then poured on him.”[14]
“By God, I feel so much love that it seems as though the skies would be rent
asunder, the stars fall and the mountains move away if I burdened them with it:
such is my experience of love…”[15]
It is the direct tasting (dhawq) of Reality that is the source of this, and is more
pleasurable than anything in the world. [15]
The following passage by Rene Guenon brings out certain aspects of mystical knowledge
and its ultimate goal:
“To comprehend universal principles directly, the transcendent intellect must itself
be of the universal order; it is no longer an individual faculty…it is this that makes
metaphysical knowledge possible, and that knowledge is not a human
knowledge…because this being that is human in one of its aspects is at the same
time something other and more than a human being…it is from this human state,
itself contingent, that we are at present compelled to start in order to attain higher
states and finally the supreme and unconditioned state…The highest objective is
the absolutely unconditioned state, free from limitation; for this reason it is
completely inexpressible…In this Unconditioned State all other states of being find
their place.”[16]
30
Conclusion
1. The study shows that teaching religious knowledge at regular school where other
modern sciences are taught prompts student to experience twisted cognition
between pontifical man’s teaching and promethean man’s worldview of
contradictory nature which then stimulates cognitive dissonance accompanied with
psychological discomfort and ultimately lead to complete bewilderment.
2. This situation is very much of disadvantageous and even injurious to the student
and the religion itself. Religious subject at school should be limited to the level of
ethical teaching and peace education, and the basic teaching of religious knowledge
should be put back to the hand of traditional guardian rather being transmitted by
mere any school teacher who might be far from qualified intellectually and
spiritually to assume such responsibility.
3. However, with respect to the children and youngster’s spiritual intelligence, it is
highly important in the society level that the esoteric knowledge and training be
given to them as it was in the past, to nurture reflective heart as the seat of their
intelligence. For the bright and talented children and youngster in particular,
Muslim needs to resuscitate their intellectual tradition around their traditional
philosophy.
4. In the light of highly fragmented society in modern times Muslim needs to revive
their own family value and to reintegrate their life. They must cease to live on the
state of a psychological and cultural sense of inferiority. In fact, inferiority and
hatred lies back to back in the same coin, so to speak, just as superiority and
humiliating does. It can be said that this is the great task of social psychologist
today, because only when there is no more inferiority there is no more hatred on the
Muslim and Eastern part toward the Western, and reciprocally, only when there is
no more superiority the Western are able to sincerely and honestly understand their
Eastern counterpart. It is only this way that humanity can work together to face the
present day challenges.
31
5. There are three senses, namely: sense of continuity, sense of connection, and sense
of direction that are needed by youngster in general and the bright and talented ones
in particular, to develop their sense of being and doing. This is the avenue where
only esoteric knowledge or mystical dimension of religions can play the role
because no sciences can answer such existential questions.
6. After everything that happened in the past and the globalization taking place today,
the boundaries of traditional universes have been broken, and there is a need for
Muslim and non-Muslim to know and understand each other and to reach a
harmony which is in fact possible only in the “Divine Stratosphere”- to use the
term in perennial philosophy - not in human atmosphere or agnostic humanism
which kills the divine in man and woman.
*************
32
Notes:
[1] Rene Guenon, The Crisis of the Modern World, Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale, NY. 2001,
p.34-35.
p.35-36).
p.36).
[4] Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 2 297.33, rewritten by William Chittick, The
Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.149)
[6] Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 2 370.4, rewritten by William Chittick, The Sufi
Path of Knowledge, p.148)
[7] Ibn Sina, al-Najat, ed. Al-Kurdi (Tehran, n.d.): 268, (History of Islamic Philosophy,
p.948)
[8] Rene Guenon, “Oriental Metaphysics”, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman
(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950)
[9] Al-Ghazzali, Risalat al-laduniyyah, ed. M. al-Kurdi (Cairo, 1910): 22-31, (History of
Islamic Philosophy, p.952)
33
[10] Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 1 31.11 & 1 218.19, rewritten by William
Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.170)
[12] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif A’sirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, Chapter
20, (Yahaya Yasrebi, The Epistemology of the Mystics part 1)
[13] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif A’sirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, Chapter
26, (Yahaya Yasrebi, The Epistemology of the Mystics part 1)
[14] Ibn Sina, al-‘Isharat, Section 9, Chapter 16
[15] Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya
[16] Rene Guenon, “Oriental Metaphysics”, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman
(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950 - 951)
34
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a paper presented at the 12th annual workshop of the European Society for the
Study of Cognitive System, Camogli, (Genoa, Italy) 12-14 April 1994.
2. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: “Wealth We Can Live By”,
Bloomsbury, 2004
3. Leon Festinger, “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance”, Stanford University Press,
California, 1957.
4. James T. Webb, BPP-CL, “Mental Predisposition of Talented Youngster”. 1999.
5. James Winston Morris, “Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn Arabi’s
Meccan Revelation”, Fons Vitae, Canada.
6. Leon Festinger, “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance” , Stanford University Press,
Stanford, California, 1957.
7. Rene Guenon, “The Crisis of the Modern World”, Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale, NY.
2001.
8. Rene Guenon, “Oriental Metaphysics”, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman
(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950)
9. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1989, “Knowledge and the Sacred”, State University of
New York Press, Albany, US.
10. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1993, “The Need for a Sacred Science”, Curzon Press,
Ltd. United Kingdom.
11. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam and The Plight of Modern Man, ABC International
Group, 2001
12. William Stoddart, “Outline of Hinduism”, Foundation for Traditional Studies, 1996
13. William C. Chittick, “The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Ibn Arabi Metaphysics of
Imagination”, State University of New York Press, Albany.
14. History of Islamic Philosophy, ed Al-Kurdi (Tehran, n.d): Ibn Sina, al-Najat, Al-
Ghazzali, Risalat al-laduniyyah.
35
15. Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif A’sirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1990.
36
Glossary
Words Source Definition

Entelechy The Grolier Webster Be in fulfillment and completion.
[Gr. Entelecheia] International Dictionary Philos. a realization or actuality as
of English language: opposed to a potentiality
Grolier Incorporated
New York, 1976
Principial The Grolier Webster First or fundamental principle,
[L. principium] International Dictionary element.
of English language:
New York, 1976
Vicegerent The Grolier Webster An officer who is deputized to
[Fr. Vicegerent – International Dictionary exercise the powers of another; a
vice, and L. gerens, of English language: substitute; one having a delegated
gerentis, ppr. of Grolier Incorporated power.
gero, to act] New York, 1976
Gnosis The Grolier Webster Special knowledge of spiritual
[Gr. Gnosis] International Dictionary things, such knowledge as is
of English language: divinely revealed.
New York, 1976
37
Attachment-1
Perenial Philosophy – The Traditionalist School of Thought
Tradition in this writing is not meant to be habit or custom or the automatic

transmission of ideas and motifs from one generation to another, but rather a set of
principle which have descended from Heaven and which are identified at their origin with
a particular manifestation of the Divine, along with the application and development of
these principles at different moments of time and in different conditions for a particular
humanity.
Tradition as used in the ‘traditionalist’ here implies both the sacred as revealed to
man through revelation and the unfolding and development of the sacred message
in the history of the particular humanity for which it was destined in a manner that
implies both horizontal continuity with the Origin and a vertical nexus which
relates each movement of the life of the tradition in question to the meta-historical
Transcendent Reality. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World:
Kegal Paul International Ltd, London, 1987).
Moreover, tradition is both immutable and a living continuity containing within itself the
science of Ultimate Reality and the means for the actualization and realization of this
knowledge at different moment of time and space. From that way of viewing, tradition has
its root in religion, and as wel religion is a tradition, as expounded by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
concerning the Islamic tradition in particular.
Tradition is at once al-din in the vastest sense of the word which embraces all
aspect of religion and its ramifications, al-sunnah, or that which, based upon sacred
models, has become tradition as this word is usually understood, and al-silsilah, or
the chain which relates each period, episode, or stage of life and thought in the
traditional world to the Origin, as one sees so clearly in Sufism. Tradition therefore
is like a tree, the root of which are sunk through revelation in the Divine Nature and
from which the trunk and branches have grown over ages. At the heart of the tree of
tradition resides religion, and its sap consist of that grace or barakah which,
originating with the revelation makes possible the continuity of the life of the tree.
Tradition implies the sacred, the eternal, the immutable Truth; the perennial
wisdom, as well as the continuous application of its immutable principles to various
conditions of space and time. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern
World : Kegal Paul International Ltd, London, 1987).
Understood that way, given that tradition contains within itself the science of Ultimate
Reality and the means of the actualization and realization of this knowledge, therefore it
gives an answer to the question why a society in modern time that is deprived of its
38
tradition can hardly feel the existence of God as Reality. This is one of the issues discussed
in the traditionalist school of thought.
Perennial philosophy is a philosophy which suggests the existence of universal set
of truths and values common to all peoples and cultures. In this philosophical viewpoint
Tasawuf or Sufism and Irfan, which is employed much in this paper, are seen as the
Islamic pinnacle of wisdom to which all other philosophical currents such as the Vedanta
and Yoga of the Hindu, the Mahayana of the Buddhism, the Christian Gnosticism of the
Christianity, the Kaballa of the Judaism, and other currents from earlier religions such as
Jainism in India, Taoism and Confucianism in China, Hellenic and Hermetic in Greek,
Zoroaster in Persia, and many more, in one way or another point.
In opposite to the ‘tradition’ there is ‘modern’ in the other end of the pole. Modern
here means the changes of society and the whole system of thought due to the industrial
age, and modernism is an array of cultural and philosophical movement rooted in the
changes of Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted from
the rebellion against tradition considered as ‘that which was holding back progress’, being
the aftermath of renaissance. In discussion about modern vs. tradition in present time, it
does not necessarily mean to confronting the West and the East, because both has got each
elements, although in reality the one has got more than another due to the disappearance in
the West of most traditional elements since the renaissance. Much less to comparing a
religion with other religion because what is meant by tradition in perennial philosophy as
mention above, is the principles descended from Heaven which thus includes all religions
of the world. It represents at once the sacred tradition of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam and earlier religions. Perennial philosophy sees a unity which underlies
the diversity of forms and practices, a unity which resides within that quintessential truth at
the heart of religion, and that none other that the perennial philosophy itself.
Perenial philosophy or Philosophia Perennis means perennial wisdom, a

knowledge which has always been and will always be and which is universal in
character both in the sense of existing among people of different climes and epoch
and of dealing with universal principles. This knowledge is available to the
intellect. It is contained at the heart of all religions or traditions which illuminate
the meaning of religious rites, doctrine and symbols. Its realization and attainment
is possible only through those traditions and by means of methods, rites, symbols,
images and other means sanctified by the message from Heaven or the Divine
which gives birth to each tradition. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need for Sacred Science:
Curzon Press, London, 1993).
However, it is important to mention the distinction between perennial philosophy and

sentimental ecumenism.
The traditionalist school is opposed to the sentimental ecumenism which sees all
religion as being the same at the expense of reducing them to a common
39
denominator or of putting aside some of their basic teachings. On the contrary, the
traditionalist respects the minutiae of each sacred tradition as coming ultimately
from Heaven and to be treated with reference as every manifestation of the sacred
should be. They are fully aware of the particular spiritual genius of each religion
and its uniqueness and insist that these features are precise proof of the
transcendent origin of each religion and the reality of its archetype in the Divine
Intellect. These characteristic also demonstrate the falsehood of the view which
would reduce a religion to simply historical borrowing from an earlier religion. The
unity to which the traditionalist refer is, properly speaking, a transcendental unity
above and beyond forms and external manifestations. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need
for Sacred Science: Curzon Press, London, 1993).
Those who have spoken from the perspective of the philosophia perennis have
concerned themselves with every aspect of religion: God and man, revelation and sacred
art, symbols and images, rites and religious law, mysticism and social ethics, metaphysics,
cosmology and theology. This school is concerned with religion in its ‘transhistorical’
reality, refusing to accept the historicism of the academic approach.
It is important for those who try to understand this thought to firstly distinguish
between reason and intellect in this current of philosophy.
- Intellect or intelectus is at once being above man and at the center of his being.
The essence of man, that which is essential to human nature, can be understood
only by the intellect through the “eye of the heart” (‘ayn al-qalb’ as
traditionally understood in Islam, or ‘the third eye’ in Hindu). The intellect is
at once at the center of man’s being and encompasses all other levels of his
existence. Once the eye of the heart becomes closed and the faculty of
intellection, in its original sense, atrophied, it is not possible to gain an essential
knowledge of man. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred: State University
of New York Press, Albany, 1989).
- Rational faculty is at once an extension and reflection of the Intellect, like the
relation of the ray and the sun. But it can become Luciferan force and
instrument if divorced from the Intellect and revelation, which alone can
bestow upon knowledge its numinous quality and sacred content. Therefore,
rather than defining man as rational animal one can define man in more
principial manner from this as “a being endowed with a total intelligence
centered upon the Absolute and created to know the Absolute”. (Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred: State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989).
The above overview has summarized the basic account of perennial philosophy to
understand the discussion in this paper. Perennial philosophy does not neglect the fact that
some element of a particular modern philosophical system may be true or some modern
institution may posses a positive feature or be good because complete falsehood could not
40
exist, so, one can say that the traditional world were essentially good and accidentally evil,
and modern world essentially evil and accidentally good.
Attachment-2
Desacralization of Knowledge
In the beginning Reality was at once being, knowledge and bliss (the sat, chit and
ananda of the Hindu tradition, or qudrah, hikmah, and rahmah among the Names of Allah
(the Supreme Being) in Islam). Through the downward flow of the river of time and the
multiple refractions and reflections of Reality upon the myriad mirrors of both
macrocosmic and microcosmic manifestation, knowledge has become separated from
being and the bliss or ecstasy which characterizes the union of knowledge and being.
Knowledge has become nearly completely externalized and desacralized, especially among
those segment of the human race which have become transformed by the process of
modernization, and this bliss which the fruit of union with the One and an aspect of the
perfume of the sacred has become well-nigh unattainable and beyond the grasp of the vast
majority of those who walk upon the earth.
The root and essence of knowledge continues to be inseparable from the sacred, for
the very substance of knowledge is the knowledge of that reality which is the Supreme
Substance, the Sacred as such, compared to which all levels of existence and all forms of
the manifold are but accidents. Intelligence, which is the instrument of knowledge within
man, is endowed with the possibility of knowing the Absolute. It is like a ray which
emanates from and returns to the Absolute and its miraculous functioning is itself the best
proof of that Reality which is at once absolute and infinite. Knowledge continues to
possess a profound relation with that principial and primordial Reality which is the sacred
and the source of all that is sacred. Today, modern man has lost the sense of wonder,
which results from the lost of the sense of the sacred, to such a degree that he is hardly
aware how miraculous is the mystery of intelligence, of human subjectivity, as well as the
power of objectivity, and the possibility of knowing objectively. Man is oblivious to the
mystery that he can turn inwardly upon the infinite world within himself and also
objectivize the world outside, to possess inner, subjective knowledge, as well as
knowledge of a totally objective order. Man is endowed with this precious gift of
intelligence which allows him to know the Ultimate Reality as the Transcendent, The
Beyond and the objective world as a distinct reality on its own level, and the Ultimate
Reality as the Immanent, as the Supreme Self underlying all veils of subjectivity and the
many “selves” or layers of consciousness within him. Knowledge can attain the Sacred
both beyond the subject which knows and at the heart of this very subject, for finally that
Ultimate Reality which is the Sacred as such is both the knower and the known, inner
consciousness and outer reality, the pure immanent Subject and the Transcendent object,
the Infinite Self and Absolute Being, which does not exclude Beyond Being. Despite the
layers of forgetfulness that have covered the “eye of the heart” human intelligence
41
continues to be endowed with this miraculous gift of knowledge of the inward and the
outward, and human consciousness continues to be blessed with the possibility of
contemplating the Reality which is completely other and yet none other than the very heart
of the self, the Self of oneself. Human intelligence remains the central theophany of the
Divine Light and the direct means of access to that Original Reality which was at once the
source of cosmic reality.
(Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1989, “Knowledge and the Sacred”, State University of New
York Press, Albany, US.)
Attachment-3
Promathean Man and Pontifical Man
Cosmology is a science dealing with all orders of formal reality, of which the
material order is but one aspect. It is a sacred science which is bound to be connected to
revelation and metaphysical doctrine in whose bosom alone it becomes meaningful and
efficacious. The very restrictive outlook connected with modern science makes the
veritable knowledge of cosmology impossible in the matrix of the modern scientific world
view, and therefore there is no modern cosmology. In addition, concerning the self or
individual identity, the fruit of several centuries of rationalistic thought in the West has
been to reduce both of the objective and the subjective poles of knowledge to a single
level. In the same way that the cogito of Descartes is based on reducing the knowing
subject to a single mode of awareness, the external world which this knowing self
perceives is reduced to a spatio-temporal complex limited to a single level of reality-no
matter how far this complex is extended beyond the galaxies or into eon of time, past and
future.
Cosmological Vertigo
This is a story about Paul Gauguin, a French writer, suffered acutely from
cosmological vertigo induced by Darwin and other Victorian scientist. In 1890s,
Gauguin ran away from Paris, family and stockbroking career to paint (and sleep)
native girls in the tropics. Like many a troubled soul, he could not escape so easily
from himself, despite great efforts to do so with the help of drink and opium. At the
bottom of his disquiet lay a longing to find what he called the “savage” –
primordial man, humanity in the raw, the elusive essence of mankind. This quest
eventually drew him to Tahiti and other South Sea islands, where traces of a pre-
contact world – an unfallen world, in his eyes – lingered beneath the cross and
tricolore.
In 1897, a mail steamer docked at Tahiti bringing terrible news. Gauguin’s favorite
child, Aline, had died suddenly from pneumonia. After months of illness, poverty
42
and suicidal despair, the artist harnessed his grief to produce a vast painting – more
a mural in conception than a canvas – in which, like the Victorian age itself, he
demanded new answers to the riddle of existence. He wrote the title boldly on the
image: three childlike questions, simple yet profound. “D’Ou Venons Nous? Que
Sommes Nous? Ou Allons Nous?” Where do we come from? What are we? Where
are we going?” (Ronald Wright, a Short History of Progress, Text Publishing,
Melbourne, Australia, 2003).
Gauguin’s cosmological vertigo reflects the increasing cultural malaise of humanity in

both worlds today, West and East, the humanity which has lost the vision of who man is
and has thus become useless from a spiritual point of view, which as elaborated in
proceeding sections of having potential to go through the process of perfection to realize
his entelechy to be a perfect man and to know the Absolute. He will then reach eternal bliss
as the fruit of this perfection. Vertigo is a medical terminology. The word comes from the
Latin ‘vertere’, to turn, or a condition of turning about. It is termed to a feeling that one is
spinning or that one's surroundings are spinning around one, causing confusion and
difficulty keeping one's balance. In broader sense it means confused and disoriented state
of mind. Cosmological vertigo is confusion about our place in the cosmos.
The traditionalist school holds that there is primordial or universal nature of man
which is essential and immutable, besides that which subjects to social construction. I think
this notion is what Paul Gauguin was looking for. The doctrine of primordial man seems to
be universal in every tradition. When this doctrine was forgotten or mutilated as the
Western society was going through modernization the belief that man was purely
constructed had lead Gauguin to become alienated from himself and his surrounding.
The history of the modern world during the past few centuries is characterized by a
gradual disfiguration of the image of man. Conceived among Greek Platonists as the
anthropos bearing within himself the divine nous, man was clearly depicted in
Christianity as the theomorphic being bearing the imprint of God and being in his
spiritual reality the imago Dei. Through the rise of humanism the face of man was
declared as independent of the Face of God, culminating in the nineteenth century the
famous Nietzschean declaration of the “death of God”. But the face of man is a
reflection of the Face of God or what the Quran calls wajh Allah. To eradicate His
Face is also to deface man and to announce his death, to which the present century
bears witness. In fact from the point of view of the traditional understanding of the
meaning of the anthropos, the last half millennium marks the gradual disfiguration of
the image of man resulting finally in the death of that humanistic conception of
humanity so highly praised by defenders of modern man and his exploitations. (Seyyed
Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred: State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989).
Just as perennial wisdom in the West and East universally sees man and nature as His signs
or portents, the doctrine of Primordial Man sees man as theomorphic being; the reflection
43
of the Face of God; bearing the imprint of Divinity in his spiritual reality. It therefore
believes on the tragic consequences of humanistic conception of humanity eradicating
God’s Face from man. One may argue that such humanistic conception has come into
being, nevertheless. I would argue on behalf of the traditionalist that the cosmological
vertigo of Paul Gauguin which is shared by millions of modern man today has proved such
failure of agnostic and secular humanism in the sense that it is read and understood. The
works in contemporary literary has been another proof, such as Stranger of Albert Camus
and Nausea of Jean Paul Sartre.
The concept of man as the pontiff, pontifex, or bridge between Heaven and earth,
which is the traditional view of the anthropos lies at the antipode of modern man
conception of man which envisages him as the Promethean earthily creature who has
rebelled against Heaven and tried to misappropriate the role of the Divinity for himself.
Three fundamental aspects of this doctrine:
First of all, man himself is the archetypal reality of the universe (which
means the measure of all things).
Second, man is the receptacle, the instruments or means whereby revelation
descends into the world.
Third, man is the perfect model for the spiritual life and the ultimate
dispenser of esoteric knowledge.
By virtue of the reality of primordial man, terrestrial man is able to gain access to
revelation and tradition, hence to the sacred. Through this reality - which is man’s own
reality actualized - man is able to follow path of perfection which will finally allow him to
gain knowledge of the sacred and to become fully himself.
The traditional doctrine of Primordial or Universal Man with all its variations – Adam
Kadmon, Jen, Purusa, al-insan-al-kamil, and the like – embraces at once the
metaphysical, cosmogenic, revelatory, and initiatic functions of that reality which
constitutes the totality of the human state and which places before man both the
grandeur of what he can be and the pettiness and wretchedness of what he is in most
cases, in comparison with the ideal which he carries always within himself. Terrestrial
man is nothing more than the externalization, coagulation, and often inversion and
perversion of this idea and ideal of the Universal Man cast in the direction of the
periphery. He is a being caught in the field of the centrifugal forces which characterize
terrestrial existence as such, but also constantly attracted by the Center where the inner
man is always present. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred: State University of
New York Press, Albany, 1989).
To sum up, universal or Primordial Man’s reality is realized only by the prophets, the holy
men or great sages since only they are human in the full sense of the word. Islam calls
them Perfect Man or Insan Kamil. Primordial man is the archetype of creation as he is its
44
purpose and entelechy, that is why according to a hadith, God addresses the Prophet of
Islam, whose inner reality is the primordial man par excellence in the Islamic tradition, in
these terms, “If thou wert not, I would not have created the world”.
Based on the doctrine of Primordial Man’s standpoint, humanity can be classified into
two categories, i.e. Pontifical and Promethean man, which corresponds to Traditional man,
a one dimensional man, and Modern man, the two dimensional man who therefore
perceives other people, nature, and even God ‘outside’ of himself. Just to give a hint, the
word ‘promethean’ comes from Greek ‘Prometheus’. In Greek mythology Prometheus is a
brave Titan stealing fire from Zeus, the king of the gods, to help human being. With
regard to critique of modern psychology by account of perennial philosophy I see the
difference between the two men appears to somewhat represent the characteristics of
traditional psychology and modern psychology, as the latter has too much externalized
man from his perennial nature to the point of making him a stranger to himself by
fabricating human concept with the employment of behavior manipulative experiments and
its heavily reliance to computer technological analogies. The perennial philosophical
description of these two men in the following paragraph is the summary in verbatim of
elaborated outlines from Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in Knowledge and the Sacred, chapter VI.
Pontifical man lives in full awareness of the Origin which contains his own perfection and
whose primordial purity and wholeness he seeks to emulate, recapture and transmit. He
understand the nature of man as that pontifical and central creature on this earth who
stands as witness to an origin from which he descends and a center to which he ultimately
returns. He is the vicegerent of God on earth, responsible to God for his actions, and the
custodian and protector of earth of which he is given dominion on the condition that he
remains faithful to himself as the central terrestrial figure created in the “form of God” – a
theomorphic being living in this world but created for eternity. Pontifical man is aware that
he is allowed to rule provided he remains aware of his transient nature of his own journey
on earth, that his actions have an effect upon his own being beyond the limited time and
space (spatio-temporal) conditions in which such action takes place. For such a man, life is
impregnated with meaning. That is why traditional teachings envisage the happiness of
man in his remaining aware and living according to his pontifical nature as the bridge
between Heaven and earth.
In Promethean man’s view, on the contrary, instead of man being seen as the image of
God, the relation was now reversed, God came to be regarded as the image of man and the
projection of his own consciousness. Promethean2) man not only sought to steal fire from
Heaven but even to kill the gods, little aware that man cannot destroy the image of the
Divinity without destroying himself. This modern conception of man envisages man as
earthly creature rebels against Heaven and tries to misappropriate the role of the Divinity
for himself. Promethean man feels at home on earth, earth not considered as the virgin
nature which is itself an echo of paradise, but as an artificial world created by Promethean
man himself in order to make it possible for him to forget God and his own inner reality.
45
Such a man envisages life as a big marketplace in which he is free to roam around and
choose objects at will. Having lost the sense of the sacred, he is drowned in transience and
impermanence and becomes a slave of his own lower nature, surrender to which he
considers to be freedom. He stifled by the prison of his own creation, wary of the
destruction he has wrought upon the natural environment and the vilification of the urban
setting in which he is forced to live. He seeks for solutions everywhere, even in teaching
by which pontifical man, or traditional man, as lived over the ages. But these sources are
not able to help him for he approaches even these truths as Promethean man.
This recently born creature, who has succeeded wracking havoc upon the earth and
practically upsetting the ecological balance of the natural order itself in only some five
centuries is little aware that to overcome the impasse into which modern man has thrown
himself as a result of attempting to forget what it really means to be man he must
rediscover himself. The seventeenth century scientific revolution not only mechanized the
conception of the world but also of man, creating a world in which man found himself as
an alien. Furthermore, the scientism which issued from this century and the apparent
success of Newtonian physics led to the establishment of the whole series of so called
sciences of man which to this day emulate an already outmoded physics. The modern
sciences of man were born in an atmosphere of positivism associated with a figure like
August Comte who simply reversed the traditional rapport between the study of dues,
homo, and natura, and creating his famous three stage theory of human progress, which is
based on the total misunderstanding of the nature of man and is a parody of traditional
doctrines concerning human existence on earth2). Despite the refutation of the mechanistic
physics upon which most sciences of man are based today and strong criticism of the type
of anthropology which sees in man no more than a mammal walking upright, most of those
disciplines usually identified as the social sciences and even humanity still suffer from an
inferiority complex vis-à-vis the natural sciences and mathematic which forces them to
adopt a world view alien to the very nature of man.
On the other end, pontifical man has lived on the earth for millennia and continues to
survive here and there despite the onslaught of modernism, and even during this period of
eclipse of spirituality and the desacralization of life. He is the being who remains aware of
his destiny which is transcendence and the function of his intelligence which is knowledge
of the Absolute. He is fully aware of the preciousness of human life, which alone permits a
creature living in this world to journey beyond the cosmos, and is always conscious of the
great responsibility which such an opportunity entails. He knows that the grandeur of
man does not lie in his cunning cleverness or titanic creation but resides most of all in the
incredible power to empty himself of himself, to cease to exist in the initiatic sense (fana
or die before die), to participate in the state of spiritual poverty and emptiness, which
permits him to experience Ultimate Reality.
46
Attachment-4
Mystic and Mysticism
Mysticism is the supposed experience and exploration of a transcendent realm

beyond our universe. In theistic it is understood as direct relation with God. Mysticism is
also defined as a process whereby the mystic plumbs the depths of the self and reality in a
radical process of meditative self discovery to discover the true nature of reality
experientially. Mystic is the person who practices mysticism.
47
About Wardah Alkatiri
I was born and raised in Surabaya, the capital of East Java. My father is an
Indonesian Arab. His family is an immediate offspring in the Sultanate of South Yemen
and he has got Indian blood from his mother. My mother is mixed Malay, Chinese, and
Arab. I am truly Eastern, indeed, and am a product of ‘globalization’ that had been taking
place in the old days in those parts of the world.
In 1990 I graduated from Chemical Engineering in ITS, Institute of Technology in
Surabaya, and then IBM Indonesia recruited me. I moved to Jakarta since then. I was sent
to IBM education centers in some countries in Asia and trained to be a system engineer. I
got married in 1992, my husband Tafif is Javanese. Our first child was born in 1994. I have
three children, all are girls. After ten years of working carrier in different industries in the
field of Information Technology (IT) and petrochemical, I quit the professional job and
started pursuing my passion in environment, poverty, and social entrepreneurship. I
founded my organization AMANI to promote sustainable agriculture and doing social
initiative activities. In a way, I can say that I was grown up in the organization that I
founded.
In July 2005, I got a horrible traffic accident in Lugano, Switzerland. I was severely
injured from head to toe and had gone to amnesia for a while. I was operated and treated
for two months in Lugano hospital and was flown back to Jakarta with special flight
treatment accompanied by a doctor. I had to stay in bed and used wheelchair for almost ten
months thereafter and underwent six times of surgeries in different part of my body. It was
quite a miracle that I can finally recover almost fully like my present condition. I was at the
first semester in Philosophy at ICAS (Islamic College for Advanced Studies) when the
accident happened. I went back to ICAS as soon as I could walk by myself, and in
November 2008 I completed my Master in Islamic Philosophy.
I would describe my own personality as mystical, anti-fundamentalist,
environmentalist, and humanist. My school of thought is Perennial Philosophy which
suggests the existence of universal set of truth common to all people and culture. It sees
48
human as theomorphic being and cosmos as theophany. I am much influenced by the most
prominent contemporary Islamic philosopher, a Persian origin Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
George Washington University. I see human being as agent in social and environmental
affair because human is the measure of all things, not made to be measured by something
else, except the Supreme Being. Nevertheless, we are not gods, we can not do everything
by ourselves given the limited time and ability we have in this world, so to nudge a little
bit along should be enough.
00000000000
49

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Twisted Representation of Promethean Man's Worldview and Pontifical Man's Teaching

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Twisted Representation of Promathean Man’s Worldview and

Pontifical Man’s Teaching: Problem of Cognition in the Adoption of

1. He/she studies philosophies completely divorced from experience of a spiritual

Existential depression is a depression that arises when an individual confronts

Why should such existential concerns occur disproportionately among gifted

When their intensity is combined with multi-potentiality, these youngsters become

The isolation is helped to a degree by simply communicating to the youngster that

Hold fast to dream, for if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird

A. Representation and Cognition:

- In some areas of psychology (especially in personality theories or in social

The main ideas from those two paragraphs are:

1. Representation is a language of thought,

In his thesis Alberto Greco defined representations as symbols to be interpreted: The

1) Sattvic qualities imply essence, reality, consciousness, purity and clarity of

3) Tamas is darkness, inertia, heaviness and materialistic attitudes, tendency of self

Doubtless, recognition of superiority in one of the two tendencies will lead to a

E. Religion and Rationality:

F. The Epistemology of Metaphysic

And Rene Guenon explains that:

“It is the attainment of effective consciousness of supra-individual states that is the

“The sciences are three levels.

The first, is the science of reason…

“One of the characteristics of metareason is that its perception of the Supreme

“One of the characteristics of the realm of metareason is love.”[13]

“If he crosses from spiritual exercise to attainment of the Truth…The lofty

[14] Ibn Sina, al-‘Isharat, Section 9, Chapter 16

[15] Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya

Words Source Definition

Tradition in this writing is not meant to be habit or custom or the automatic

Perenial philosophy or Philosophia Perennis means perennial wisdom, a

However, it is important to mention the distinction between perennial philosophy and

Gauguin’s cosmological vertigo reflects the increasing cultural malaise of humanity in

Mysticism is the supposed experience and exploration of a transcendent realm

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