Video link to a discussion of: Vanquisher of the Kingdom of Fear How 18th & 19th century North and West African scholars gave us a way out of this darkness through a living connection with the Prophet ﷺ Farah el-Sharif, Sermons at the Court A knowledgable elder in my family posited this thought-provoking rhetorical question on his social media page:…
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Meditations in Time of War by Charles Upton
YouTube link A New Book (short and compact) by Charles Upton: Meditations in Time of War The wars now burning in our world are reflected within us as invisible fire—and the steel and the flint that first lit that fire are hidden behind the dark curtain of it. War, in the end, always returns to the place where it was…
Read MoreWelcome to the Zāwiya: An inconvenient place of enchantment
DR. RAMI KOUJAH In the northeast of Morocco, there is a small, unassuming town called Al Aaroui. It is home to a proud, stalwart Berber people: the Riffians. You could drive the length of this dusty stretch of buildings in about 5 minutes. But you will not find luxe riads, ornately carved mosques, or any cuisine worth writing home about.…
Read More“Good Sufi, Bad Jihadi”: On the Tragic Taming of Tassawuf
Above image: Shaykh Omar al-Mukhtar, aka. Lion of the Desert, born around 1860 in the village of Zawiyat Janfur, Libya, emerged as a symbol of resistance against Italian colonization as a respected teacher within the Senussi Sufi order. Shaykh Al-Mukhtar led and organized and led guerrilla warfare against the Italian forces. He famously said, “As for me, I will live…
Read MoreSeyyed Hossein Nasr: an organic radical inspiration
Anarchist thinker Paul Cudenec just posted this appreciation of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a leading contemporary perennialist, whose The Study Qur’an is an invaluable resource for English speakers. -Ed. By Paul Cudenec The latest in our series of profiles from the organic radicals website. “There is today no philosophy of nature” Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-) is a contemporary scholar and philosopher…
Read MoreThe Field of Divine Intimacy
On Rumi, meeting, and the places where our categories dissolve DIYAR-E-GHAYR I often wonder whether we have truly grasped the depth of Rumi’s words: “Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there.” And perhaps the moment we think we have exhausted their meaning is precisely the moment we drift furthest from it. These words…
Read MoreFrom Orthodox Monasticism to Sufi Process Theology
YouTube link By Sa’īd Abdul Latif (on Medium.com) author of “The Muslim Priest” This is a talk that I recently gave for the Center for Process Studies. I was terribly sick and severely lacking in sleep when I gave it, but mashallah… it seems to have been well received. I would invite everyone to donate and support the Center for…
Read MoreIbn Arabi: An Introductory Reading List
STUDIO OF MEANING Peace and love, Welcome to the Studio of Meaning book club, where we will be sharing important books on Ibn ʿArabi’s life and thought as well as community discussions about these works in the future. For our first post in this series, we respond to a query which quite a few people have asked about recently, an…
Read MoreThe Heart in the Sino-Islamic Tradition
NAOKI YAMAMOTO MAR 21 A diagram of the “Heart” (心) from the Han Kitab tradition, a classical Sino-Islamic intellectual heritage. The Arabic word for Allah is written within the Chinese character for “heart” (心). At its core, East Asian thought may be understood as a sustained reflection on the harmony of the Three Powers (三才): Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Heaven…
Read MoreWestern Approved Sufism
By Zafar Bangash, Crescent International Given the intellectual decline in the Muslim world, Muslims have adopted practices that are contrary to the teachings of Islam. Who is unaware of the destructive role played by al-Qaeda, the takfiris and ISIS over the last 30 to 40 years? Propped up by the west, primarily the US, they have served as a cover…
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