Yearning For the Prophet (Sal'lal'laho Aleyhe Wasallam)

Pir Mehr Ali Shah (Golra Sharif, Rawalpindi, Pakistan)pppp

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Why is it that the yearning for the Loved One (i.e., the Holy Prophet) is especially strong today?
Why is my heart sadder today than even before?
Why does longing penetrate every tissue of mine?
And why are the eyes shedding tears like a shower of rain?

May this Face (of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H)) remain before my eyes,
In my last moments (of life) and on the Resurrection Day!
Then (also) in my grave, and at the time of crossing the (razor-sharp) Bridge (on the Judgment Day as a test to separate the virtuous ones from the sinners);
Only then shall the fake ones become pure (in the sight of Allah).

-

Abida Parveen



Atif Aslam

Courtesy:
http://sufipoetry.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/kithe-meher-ali-kithe-teri-sana-pir-meher-ali-shah/

The Concept of Religion i.e. "Din" in Its Most Basic Form

Sayyid Naquib al-Attas

The concept couched in the term din, which is generally understood to mean religion, is not the same as the concept religion as interpreted and understood throughout Western religious history. When we speak of Islam and refer to it in English as a ‘religion’, we mean and understand by it the din, in which all the basic connotations inherent in the term din are conceived as gathered into a single unity of coherent meaning as reflected in the Holy Qur’an and in the Arabic language to which it belongs.

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The word din derived from the Arabic root 'DYN' has many primary significations which although seemingly contrary to one another are yet all conceptually interconnected, so that the ultimate meaning derived from them all presents itself as a clarified unity of the whole. By ‘the whole’ I mean that which is described as the Religion of Islam, which contains within itself all the relevant possibilities of meaning inherent in the concept of din. 

 Since we are dealing with an Islamic concept which is translated into a living reality intimately and profoundly lived in human experience, the apparent contrariness in its basic meanings is indeed not due to vagueness; it is, rather, due to the contrariness inherent in human nature itself, which they faithfully reflect. And their power to reflect human nature faithfully is itself clear demonstration of their lucidity and veracity and authenticity in conveying truth.

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The primary signification of the term din can be reduced to four: (1) indebtedness; (2) submissiveness; (3) judicious power; (4) natural inclination or tendency.  

In what presently follows, I shall attempt to explain them briefly and place them in their relevant contexts, drawing forth the coherent ultimate meaning intended, which denotes the faith, beliefs and practices and teachings adhered to by the Muslims individually and collectively as a Community and manifesting itself altogether as an objective whole as the Religion called Islam.

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The verb dana which derives from din conveys the meaning of being indebted, including various other meanings connected with debts, some of them contraries. In the state in which one finds oneself being in debt – that is to say, a da’in – it follows that one subjects oneself, in the sense of yielding and obeying, to law and ordinances governing debts, and also, in a way, to the creditor, who is likewise designated as a da’in. There is also conveyed in the situation described the fact that one in debt is under obligation, or dayn. Being in debt and under obligation naturally involves judgement: daynunah, and conviction: idanah, as the case may be. All the above significations including their contraries inherent in dana are practicable possibilities only in organized societies involved in commercial life in towns and cities, denoted by mudun or mada’in. A town or city, a madinah, has a judge, ruler, or governor – a dayyan. Thus already here, in the various applications of the verb dana alone, we see rising before our mind’s eye a picture of civilized life; of societal life of law and order and justice and authority. It is, conceptually at least, connected intimately with another verb maddana which means: to build or to found cities: to civilize, to refine and to humanize; from which is derived another term: tamaddun, meaning civilization and refinement in social culture. 

Thus we derive from the primary signification of being in a state of debt other correlated significations, such as: to abase oneself, to serve (a master), to become enslaved; and from another such signification of judge, ruler, and governor is derived meanings which denote the becoming mighty, powerful and strong; a master, one elevated in rank, and glorious; and yet further, the meanings: judgement, requital or reckoning (at some appointed time). 

Now the very notion of law and order and justice and authority and social cultural refinement inherent in all these significations derived from the concept din must surely presuppose the existence of a mode or manner of acting consistent with what is reflected in the law, the order, the justice, the authority and social cultural refinement – a mode or manner of acting, or a state of being considered as normal in relation to them; so that this state of being is a state that is customary or habitual. From here, then, we can see the logic behind the derivation of the other primary signification of the concept dinas custom, habit, disposition, or natural tendency. 

At this juncture it becomes increasingly clear that the concept of din in its most basic form indeed reflects in true testimony the natural tendency of man to form societies and obey laws and seek just government. The idea of a kingdom, a cosmopolis, inherent in the concept din that rises before our vision is most important in helping us attain a more profound understanding of it, and needs to be reiterated here, for we shall have recourse to it again when we deal with the religious and spiritual aspects of man’s existential experience.“

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Read more: http://seekersguidance.org/blog/2010/02/who-is-muhammad-god-bless-him-and-grant-him-peace-sayyid-naquib-al-attas/

PROF. DR SYED MUHAMMAD  NAQUIB AL-ATTAS

A Contemporary Malaysian Philosopher/Theologian, Syed Muhammad Naquib bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Muhsin al-Attas was born in 1931 in Bogor, Java. His adolescent experiences were spent in Java during the height of the Indonesian struggle for Independence in 1945. 

Al-Attas in his person resembles the universal character of scholars of the past in the mastery of many branches of learning: religion, metaphysics, theology, philosophy, education, philology, letters, art and architecture, and military sciences.  He is also an able calligrapher.

He has contributed importantly to the history and origin of the modern Malay language.  

His commentaries on the ideas of Fansuri and al-Raniri are the first definitive ones on early Malay Sufis based on 16th and 17th century manuscripts. In fact, al-Attas's writings in Malay on Islamic subjects are unique in their poetic prose, and serve as literary models for the Islamic-oriented scholars and writers of Malaysia. This marks the first time that modern Malay is used intellectually and philosophically, thereby creating a new style of language. 

In addition, and even more importantly, his discourses on Islam and its relationship to cultural and historical identity has attracted vast audiences. He was a Principal Consultant to the World of Islam Festival held in London in 1976, and was speaker and delegate at the International Islamic Conference held concurrently at the same place. He was also a speaker and an active participant at the First World Conference on Islamic Education held at Mecca in 1977, where he chaired the Committee on Aims and Definitions of Islamic Education. From 1976-77, he was a Visiting Professor at Temple University Philadelphia, USA.

He authored Rangkaian Ruba’iyyat a literary work that was among the first ever published in 1959 and the classic work, Some Aspects of Sufism as Understood and Practised Among the Malays, in 1963. His two-volume doctoral thesis on The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri, which is the most important and comprehensive work to date on one of the greatest and perhaps the most controversial Sufi scholars in the Malay world earned him the PhD in the UK in 1965. 

Read full biography:
http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=1826

THE ISLAM SEMINAR: Lecture on 'THE SYMBOLISM OF QURANIC ILLUMINATION'

Syed Tajammul Hussain 

There is a common belief that Islamic art is aniconic and non figurative and that the imagery or iconography is prohibited. This erroneous belief is due to the confusion between Sacred and non-Sacred or secular art. Unlike the art of the West where the split between Sacred and Secular traditions took place in the 15th century AD with the commencement of the Renaissance, this split took place in the world of Islam within its very first century. If the art was secular not only do we find paintings of living beings but indeed statues some of which date from the Ummayad period. Throughout the Islamic world, across the geographical space and time, iconography has been alive and well, be it Abbasid period paintings, Mamluk, Saffavid, Ottoman, Mughal or Qajar.

However where the Sacred Art of Islam is concerned and this applies to the Art of the Holy Quran and indeed the Mosque then the art is indeed aniconic, vegetal and abstract being also based on geometry.

The reasoning for this is that unlike Western Christian art which concerned itself with images of Christ and his life and where the Divine Concept is Word made Flesh, in Islamic Sacred Art the Divine concept is Word made BOOK. Thus it can be seen why there is so much emphasis on the art of the book.

Furthermore there are extensive references in the Quran on Reading and indeed Writing. For example the very first Revelation stated Iqra or Read and the Prophet was commanded to Read three times. Another of the earliest Revelations refers to Nun and the Pen by which they write ( Surah Nun ). So it is with such extensive references that the people of the Islamic world developed a civilization which has never been equaled in the art of reading and writing.

Now generally the Western scholars give very detailed descriptions of the art of the Quran without explaining what is the underlying structure or perhaps language and alphabet of this visual language.

This lecture contrasted the prevalent attitudes and approach of this art with the views prevailing on the language of the Pharoahs which appeared at first sight to be Egyptian wall paintings. These were supposed to represent the life of Ancient Egypt. While this was partially true however until the discovery of the Rosetta stone, this view was misleading and could lead the onlooker to the wrong track. With the help of Greek and Demotic which is also inscribed on the Rosetta stone it was possible to translate and indeed understand the so called Egyptian wall paintings which turned out to be a written language and herein referred as hieroglyphics. Similarly the view that since Islamic art supposedly frowns on iconography hence it throws in a few flowers and geometry is reductionist in the extreme. 

The lecturer suggested that this was a sacred visual language and which owed its origins and indeed early development to not one but two of the Khulafa-i-Rashideen, both of whom also were the revered sons in law of the Holy Prophet. For indeed with the evidence so far unearthed it is clear that the earliest Art of the Quran started with the first son in law, the 3rd Khalifa Uthman bin Affan and then was developed by the 4th Khalifa Imam Ali. Subsequent developments took place in the ensuing centuries with the involvement of BOTH temporal and indeed spiritual authorities of the time. Hence any symbol that was frowned upon or considered heretic was destroyed. Over time rules and regulations developed for both the visual language and on the art of calligraphy.

The lecture discussed the development of the main symbols known as alphabets in this visual language of the Holy Quran. The earliest symbol used is the Shamsa which came to be used in the time of the 3rd Khalifa. This is the symbol of the radiant sun was used to indicate a certain number of verse counts and suggested that the Verses of the Quran were like radiant with light. Since radiance was being depicted, the symbol of the sun was thus used in the Quran in the very early period and still continues to be used even in these dark times for Verse endings.

The second symbol of alphabet which makes its appearance towards the end of the 4th Khalifa and continues to develop in the Ummayad times is the Palmette ( or tree of life ) which is used for Surah headings and always points outside the page. This pointing outwards indicates the heavenly origins of the Quran and is also inspired by verses 24 and 25 of Surah Ibrahim which state as follows:

"A good word is like a good tree, its root firm, its branches in heaven....

The 3rd symbol is the hexagram which starts being used in the Ummayad times and is known in the Islamic tradition as the Khatemi Sulaiman. The downward movement of the triangle represents the Descent of the Revelation while the upward movement represents the Ascent of the Soul on Receiving the Divine Revelation. Thus this is the archetype of the man as a mediator between the heavens and earth and is the sign of the Insaan Al Kamil or Perfect Man which by its very definition can ONLY be a Prophet. The hexagram was inspired from the Roman mosaics found in Tunisia as demonstrated by the mosaics found in Roman ruins. It then passed to the Christian magical traditions during the crusader invasions from the Islamic world and very late in the 19th century passed on to the Zionist movement and only in the 2oth century came to symbolize the Star of David or Magen David. According to the Jewish enclyopedia it had no religious or cultural significance before this time in Judaism.

The 4th Symbol is the 8 pointed star which is also inspired from Roman tile mosaics. This came to represent the Divine Throne which is carried by 8 angels as specifically mentioned in Surah Haqqah. The diagram appears in the Ftuthat al Makiya of the great Sheikh Al Akbar and his books had a very wide influence so much so that it can be argued that the Taj Mahal is based on the symbol of the Throne and is an esoteric prayer in stone which states that may the soul of my wife be taken to YOUR Throne. This symbol of the 8 pointed star also appears extensively in the Quran manuscripts.

The next lot of alphabets of illumination to use the correct term come under the generic term arabesques. However, in order to understand these alphabets it would be necessary to read and indeed understand the Kashf ul Mahjoub by Syeddina Ali Uthman Hajweri for these are none other than spiritual states given a visual manifestation in the shape of floral designs.

Other alphabets are the : The stylized lamp drawn with reference to the Verse 35 of Surah Nur. The yin yang symbol which represents the male and female principles and found in the Mamluk Quran manuscripts as well as the extensive usage of Lotus the very symbol of the reawakened soul. Yet other symbols are the stylized double swastika which symbolizes the Quran and its archetype in Heaven being the Lahow al Mahfouz ( the Guarded Tablet) and others like the cloud band motif which are from the Mongol world and originally also Chinese.

Finally the lecture dwelt on the colours which are always blue and gold being the colour of heavens and radiance. The usage of green is a modern construct and is inspired from the Prophet's Mosque whose dome was painted in green ONLY in 1813 AD. Prior to this the Dome was always blue such is the evidence which goes back to the 15th century. Hence the notion that Green is the colour of Islam is a modern tradition and hence has nothing to do with historical facts.

c. This material is copyrighted and subject of a forthcoming book by the lecturer Syed Tajammul Hussain.

Source:

http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2009/04/symbolism-of-quranic-illumination.html

SYED TAJAMMUL HUSSAIN:

Syed Tajammul Hussain is a London based contemporary artist who moved from Lahore, Pakistan while in his teens to London nearly four decades ago. He is largely a self taught artist specialising in the Art of the Quran.

Inspired by the late Dr. Martin Lings, the Keeper of the Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum, he utilises the language of illumination of the Quran Manuscripts long lost in the mists of time which he has reclaimed along with the techniques of the old masters. He also teaches at post graduate level at the Prince's school of Traditional Arts, and overseas.

Q& A with Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Others Try To Divorce Rumi from his God Consciousness

Wajahat Ali: Even though Coleman Barks and others try to divorce Rumi from his God consciousness, it nonetheless emanates in his poetry. Rumi is the best selling poet in America today. What is it about his work, which is thoroughly rooted in Islam and Islamic sciences, that appeals to mainstream audiences?

Seyyed Hossein Nasr: 

The question I think should be put the other way around. 


First of all, Jalaluddin Rumi is completely rooted in Islamic teachings of the Quran. He was a great scholar, he belonged to a madrassa, and he knew Islamic theology and jurisprudence very well. He knew Persian, Arabic and Turkish, which was coming into Anatolia at that time, very well. He was a remarkable, remarkable scholar, besides being a great saint. He was completely rooted in Islamic tradition. I’m totally opposed to those who try to pull Rumi out of his Islamic foundations by ignoring that element. I have written about this quite a bit and in fact I have a recent book of poetry which is called “Life is a pilgrimage: In conversation with Rumi” in which I translated the first part of his Mathanvi [Rumi’s most beloved work].

It complements what I said about Rumi being rooted completely in the Sufi Islamic tradition.


Now what is it that appeals universally of Rumi to the West today? Several things. 


First of all, Rumi is one of the great spokesmen for the Quranic instruction teaching that all prophets come from God and God does not create one religion, but many religions. The verse of the Quran that mentions we have created for each of you, for all of you, your own path, your own Sharia [Religious law], so that you will vie for each other in goodness and mindfulness of God. And a very famous Quranic verse: “To every people we have sent a messenger.” And many of the verses of the Quran which represent a universal perspective of Islamic fiqh(jurisprudence). Abraham is called a Muslim, Christ is called Muslim. Now, there were a large number of Muslims throughout history who brought out the meanings of this especially when it was necessary; when Islam met Hinduism in India and in Anatolia for example, and when Islam met Christianity and to an extent Judaism. But Rumi is one of the great masters who brought out this universal teaching.

As of today, one of the greatest problems of humanity is how to live in a multi religious society without losing one’s religion - without relativising everything. Which is why perhaps with the greatest spiritual problem of today, Rumi is a great master who is able to provide a way. Secondly, Rumi is also perhaps the greatest mystical poet who ever lived, one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. He was able to express practically all aspects of the spiritual life and our existential situation in the world today as human beings in beautiful Persian poetry.

Now, Coleman Barks and these other translators who are very famous now, they do not know Persian. They work with a Persian speaker. The translations are not exact. They are not like the translations of Reynald A. Nicholson, who translated the whole of the Mathnavi, a remarkable feat; a few mistakes in it, but really a remarkable feat. These people have adapted the teachings of Rumi often based on the Nicholson translation often with the help of a Persian speaker to a kind of contemporary, American medium of poetry. This is quite an art, although it’s not exact from the point of scholarship, it brings out something of the taste for this combination of truth and beauty that Rumi represents: an expression of the deepest truths of spiritual life in God and beauty.


Here’s a criticism that many critics of spirituality ask: If the spiritual seeker must be like a subservient “corpse” in the hand of his “washer”, his spiritual guide, then doesn’t Islam and the spiritual path rob one of their individuality? Isn’t this proof Islam is a machine that requires assimilation and creates mindless automons? How is this a path towards individuality?

I wish someone could get rid of individuality so easily; one never gets rid of one’s individuality completely. One gets rid of one’s egotism, which is a very different matter. In your room, you can have two paintings on your wall; one that is a Persian miniature and the other which is a Dutch painting by Rembrandt. They are very distinct characters, yet they have their own individual traits, but they are inanimate, they don’t have a will of their own. When one talks about being like a dead corpse in the hands of a spiritual teacher it means being able to surrender one’s will, specially one’s nafs al ammarah, that is a part of our soul which is again a Quranic term, which commands us to evil – we must surrender that. That’s what it means. It doesn’t make you become part of a cog of a machine.

In fact, the machine doesn’t have the consciousness we have, the free will that we have, and to surrender one’s free will, not in every matter but in spiritual matters, to a spiritual teacher is in a sense a lower level of surrendering one’s will to God. Many people have criticized Islam for being just automatic, having no individuality, just surrendering your will to God, but we Muslims know very well that every moment of the day we have to practice the fact that to surrender one’s self to God is an act of free will.


Read full interview:
http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/n/2750

Wajahat Ali is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. He is a writer and attorney, whose work, The Domestic Crusaders is the first major play about Muslims living in a post 9/11 America. He is the Associate Editor of Altmuslim.com.

Hagia Sophia

    Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Oh The White Moon Rose Over Us!

طلع البدر علينا
Tala‘ al-badru ‘alaynā

Oh The White Moon Rose Over Us

من ثنيات الوداع

Min thanīyātil-wadā‘

From The Valley of al-Wadā‘.

وجب الشكر علينا

Wajab al-shukru ‘alaynā

And We Owe it to Show Gratefulness

ما دعى لله داع

Mā da‘á lillāhi dā‘

Where the Call is to Allah.

أيها المبعوث فينا

Ayyuhal mab‘ūthu fīnā

Oh You Who were Raised Amongst Us

جئت بالأمر المطاع

Ji’ta bil-amri al-muṭā‘

Coming with a Word to be Obeyed

جئت شرفت المدينة

Ji’ta sharaft al-madīnah

You have Brought to This City Nobleness

مرحبا يا خير داع

Marḥaban yā khayra dā‘

Welcome! Best Caller to God's Way

ISLAM, IMAN & IHSAN: The Pillar of Jihad & the Imprint of Divine Beauty

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

…the holy war or jihad is not simply the defense or extension of the Islamic borders which has taken place only during certain episodes of Islamic history, but the constant inner war against all that veils man from the Truth and destroys his inner equilibrium. The greater holy war (al-jihad al-akbar) as this inner battle has been called, by the Holy Prophet, is, like the "unseen warfare" of Orthodox spirituality, the very means of opening the royal path to the center of the heart. It is the battle which must of necessity be carried out to open the door to the way of inwardness. Without this greater jihad man's externalizing and centrifugal tendencies cannot be reversed and the precious jewels contained in the treasury of the heart cannot be attained. The jihad, like the prayers, fasting, pilgrimage and religious tax, while a pillar of Islam and a foundation of Islamic society, is also a means toward the attainment of the inner chamber and an indispensable means for the pursuit of the inner life in its Islamic form. 


An understanding of the interior life in Islam would be incomplete without reference to the imprint of the Divine Beauty upon both art and nature. Islamic art, although dealing with world of forms, is, like all genuine sacred art, a gate towards the inner life.


Islam is based primarily on intelligence and considers beauty as the necessary complement of any authentic manifestation of the Truth. In fact beauty is the inward dimension of goodness and leads to that Reality which is the origin of both beauty and goodness.


It is not accidental that in Arabic moral goodness or virtue and beauty are both called husn.
Islamic art, far from being an accidental aspect of Islam and its spiritual life, is essential to all authentic expressions of Islamic spirituality and the gate towards the inner world. From the chanting of the Holy Quran, which is the most central expression of the Islamic revelation and sacred art par excellence, to calligraphy and architecture which are the "embodiments" in the worlds of form and space of the Divine Word, the sacred art of Islam has always played and continues to play a fundamental role in the interiorization of man's life. The same could of course be said of traditional music (sama`) and poetry which have issued from Sufism and which are like nets cast into the world of multiplicity to bring men back to the inner courtyard of the Beloved. 


Likewise, nature and its grand phenomena such as the shining of the Sun and the Moon, the seasonal cycles, the mountains and the streams, are, in the Islamic perspective, means for the contemplation of the spiritual realities. They are signs (ayat) of God and although themselves forms in the external world, mirrors of a reality which is at once inward and transcendent. Nature is not separated from grace but is a participant in the Quranic revelation.


In fact in Islamic sources, it is called the "macrocosmic revelation". Virgin nature is the testament of God and gives the lie to all forms of pretentious naturalism, rationalism, skepticism and agnosticism, these maladies from which the modern world suffers so grievously. It is only in the artificial ugliness of the modern urban setting, created by modern man to forget God, that such ailments of the mind and the soul appear as real and the Divine Truth as unreal.


Modern skeptical philosophies are the products of those living in urban centers and not of men who have been born and who have lived in the bosom of nature and in awareness of His macrocosmic revelation.


In Islamic spirituality, nature acts as an important and in some cases indispensable means for recollection and as an aid towards the attainment of inwardness. Many Muslim saints have echoed over the ages the words of the Egyptian Sufi Dhu'l-nun who said: 


"O God, I never hearken to the voices of the beasts or the rustle of the trees, the splashing of waters or the song of birds, the whistling of the wind or the rumble of thunder, but I sense in them a testimony to Thy Unity and a proof of Thy Incomparableness that Thou art the All-prevailing, the All-knowing , the All-wise, the All-just, the All-true, and that in Thee is neither overthrow nor ignorance nor folly nor injustice nor lying. O God, I acknowledge Thee in the proof of Thy handiwork and the evidence of Thy acts: grant me, O God, to seek Thy Satisfaction with my satisfaction and the Delight of a Father in His child, remembering Thee in my love for Thee, with serene tranquility and firm resolve."


St. Francis of Assisi would surely have joined this chorus in the praise of the Lord through the reflection of His Beauty and Wisdom in His Creation. 


The goal of the inward life in Islam is to reach the Divine as both the Transcendent and the Imminent. It is to gain a vision of God as the Reality beyond all determination and at the same time of the world as "plunged in God". It is to see God everywhere.  The inward dimension is the key for the understanding of metaphysics and traditional cosmology as well as for the penetration into the essential meaning of religion and of all religions, for at the heart of every authentic religion lies the one Truth which resides also at the heart of all things and most of all of man. 


There are of course differences of perspective and of form. In Christianity, it is the person of Christ who saves and who washes away the dross of separation and externalization. In Islam, such a function is performed by the supreme expression of the Truth Itself, by the Shahadah, La ilaha ill'llah. To take refuge in it is to be saved from the debilitating effect of externalization and "objectivization" and to be brought back to the Center, through the inward dimension. 


It is not for all men to follow the interior life. As already mentioned, it is sufficient for a Muslim to live according to the Shari'ah to enter paradise after death and to follow the interior path after the end of his terrestrial journey. But for those who seek the Divine Center while still walking on earth and who have already died and become resurrected; in this life the interior path opens before them at a point which is here and a time which is now. 


 "It is related that one night Shaykh Bayazid went outside the city and found everything wrapped in deep silence, free from the clamour of men. The moon was shedding her radiance upon the world and by her light made night as brilliant as the day. Stars innumerable shone like jewels in the heavens above, each pursuing its appointed task. For a long time the Shaykh made his way across the open country and found no movement therein, nor saw a single soul. Deeply moved by this he cried: "O Lord, my heart is stirred within me by this Thy Court displayed in all its splendour and sublimity , yet none are found here to give Thee the adoring worship which is thy due. Why should this be, O Lord? Then the hidden voice of God spoke to him: "O thou who art bewildered in the Way, know that the King does not grant admission to every passer-by. So exalted is the Majesty of His Court that not every beggar can be admitted thereto. When the Splendour of My Glory sheds abroad its radiance from this My sanctuary, the heedless and those who are wrapped in the sleep of indolence are repelled thereby. Those who are worthy of admittance to this Court wait for long years, until one in a thousand of them wins entrance thereto." 


No religion would be complete without providing the path for the "one in a thousand". Islam as an integral tradition and the last plenary message of Heaven to the present humanity has preserved to this day the possibility of following the interior life, a life which, although actualized fully only by the few, has cast its light and spread its perfume over all authentic manifestations of the Islamic tradition. 

Read full paper:
http://www.al-islam.org/al-serat/interior-nasr.htm

Brief biography of Seyyed Hossein Nasr:

http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/02/islam-iman-ihsan-surrender-faith-virtue.html

ISLAM, IMAN & IHSAN: "Surrender" "Faith" & "Virtue"

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

"O thou soul which are at peace, return unto thy Lord, with gladness that is thine in Him and His in thee. Enter thou among My slaves. Enter thou My Paradise." (Quran - LXXXIX; 27-30 (trans. by M. Lings.) 


The function of religion is to bestow order upon human life and to establish an "outward" harmony upon whose basis man can return inwardly to his Origin by means of the journey toward the "interior" direction. This universal function is especially true of Islam, this last religion of humanity, which is at once a Divine injunction to establish order in human society and within the human soul and at the same time to make possible the interior life, to prepare the soul to return unto its Lord and enter the Paradise which is none other than the Divine Beatitude.


God is at once the First (al-awwal) and the Last (al-akhir), the Outward (al-zahir) and the Inward (al-batin). [1] By function of His outwardness He creates a world of separation and otherness and through His inwardness He brings men back to their Origin.


Religion is the means whereby this journey is made possible, and it recapitulates in its structure the creation itself which issues from God and returns unto Him. Religion consists of a dimension which is outward and another which, upon the basis of this outwardness, leads to the inward. These dimensions of the Islamic revelation are called the Shariah (the Sacred Law), the Tariqah (the Path) and the Haqiqah (the Truth), [2] or from another point of view they correspond to islam, iman, and ihsan, or "surrender", "faith" and "virtue".[3] 

No man has the right to approach the Imminent without surrendering himself to the Transcendent, and it is only in possessing faith in the Transcendent that man is able to experience the Imminent. Or from another point of view, it is only in accepting the Shari'ah that man is able to travel upon the Path (tariqah) and finally to reach the Truth (haqiqah) which lies at the heart of all things and yet is beyond all determination and limitation. 

To interiorize life itself and to become aware of the inward dimension, man must have recourse to rites whose very nature it is to cast a sacred form upon the waves of the ocean of multiplicity in order to save man and bring him back to the shores of Unity. The major rites or pillars (arkan) of Islam, namely the daily prayers (salat), fasting (sawm), the pilgrimage (hajj), the religious tax (zakat) and holy war (jihad), are all means of sanctifying man's terrestrial life and enabling him to live and to die as a central being destined for beatitude. But these rites themselves are not limited to their outer forms. Rather they possess inward dimensions and levels of meaning which man can reach in function of the degree of his faith (iman) and the intensity and quality of his virtue or inner beauty (ihsan). 


Although the whole of the Quranic revelation is called "islam", from the perspective in question here it can be said that not all those who follow the tradition on the level of islam are mu'mins, namely those who possess iman, nor do all those who are mu'mins possess ihsan, which is at once virtue and beauty and by function of which man is able to penetrate into the inner meaning of religion. The Islamic revelation is meant for all human beings destined to follow this tradition. 


But not all men are meant to follow the interior path. It is enough for a man to have lived according to the Shariah and in surrender (islam) to the Divine Will to die in grace and to enter into Paradise. But there are those who yearn for the Divine here and now and whose love for God and propensity for the contemplation of the Divine Realities (al-haqaiq) compel them to seek the path of inwardness. The revelation also provides a path for such men, for men who through their iman and ihsan "return unto their Lord with gladness" while still walking upon the earth.


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Allah Almighty and Exalted has said, “And there are servants of God the Compassionate who walk on the earth with humility, and when they are addressed by the illiterate (in a manner unbecoming to them) they say, “Peace (be on you)”. In these times, however, God Almighty and Exalted has kept most of the people veiled from these people (sufis) and their affairs, and the mysteries of this persuasion have been hidden from their hearts. Hence a group thinks that this (Sufism) is no more than a formal custom with no reality and substance. " Kashful Mahjub, Hazrat Usman Ali Hajveri Data Ganj Bakhsh

SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR

Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and the author of numerous books including Man and Nature: the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man (Kazi Publications, 1998), Religion and the Order of Nature (Oxford, 1996) and Knowledge and the Sacred (SUNY, 1989). He has trained different generations of students over the years since 1958 when he was a professor at Tehran University and then, in America since the Iranian revolution in 1979, specifically at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1979 to 1984 and at the George Washington University since 1984 to the present day.

Born in Tehran into a family of distinguished scholars and physicians, Nasr also comes from a family of Sufis. One of his ancestors was Mulla Seyyed Muhammad Taqi Poshtmashhad, who was a famous saint of Kashan, and his mausoleum which is located next to the tomb of the Safavid King Shah Abbas, is still visited by pilgrims to this day.

He traveled to Morocco in North Africa, which had great spiritual significance for Nasr who embraced Sufism in the form taught and practiced by the great Sufi saint of the Maghrib, Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi.

For Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the quest for knowledge, specifically knowledge which enables man to understand the true nature of things and which furthermore, "liberates and delivers him from the fetters and limitations of earthly existence," has been and continues to be the central concern and determinant of his intellectual life. According to Nasr, it was the discovery of traditional metaphysics and the philosophia perennis which settled the intellectual crisis he had experienced. 

From then on, he was certain that there was such a thing as the Truth and that it could be attained through knowledge by means of the intellect which is guided and illuminated by divine revelation. Nasr was soon recognized in American academic circles as a traditionalist and a major expositor and advocate of the perennialist perspective. Much of his intellectual activities and writing since being in exile in America, are related to this function and also in the fields of comparative religion, philosophy and religious dialogue.

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