Sacred Web 15
Editorial: The Quest for Moral Certainty
by M. Ali Lakhani
Rejecting the absolutist morality of religious dogmatism and the constructed morality of secular dogmatism, the Editorial explores the Traditional alternative of a metaphysically objective morality whose certainty is premised on the transcendent Intellect of an engaged conscience which discerns and conforms to the nature of things.
Love as the Way to Truth
by William C. Chittick
This text of a talk given at The Edoardo Agnelli Centre for Comparative Religious Studies in Turin in November 2002 explores the theme of Love as the Way to Truth within Islam. Professor Chittick approaches the topic through a text of Ahmad Sam'ani, a Persian precursor of Rumi, and argues how the love of God for man is the foundation of man's love for God, the ladder of spiritual ascent into the Presence of the Divine, whose passage is reenacted in the mi 'raj through acts of prayerful worship by the pure at heart.
The Metaphoric Descent: The Meaning of Revelation in Islam
by John Herlihy
This two-part essay is a personalized attempt by a Muslim convert of Irish-American descent, to communicate the special significance that the Holy Qur'an has for devout Muslims, its significance as the Seed Word that reverberates in the heart of Man, and as the vehicle of Remembrance that transports the believer into the Presence of the Divine.
Private Caves and Public Islands: Islam, Plato and the Ikhwan Al-Safa'
by Ian Richard Netton
In one of the most famous passages in the Republic (Book 7), Plato gives us his famous Simile of the Cave illustrating the difference between shadow and reality, between the hidden private vision of confused sensory perception and the open, public vision of an enlightened intellect. In the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' the Brethren present us with the fable of a blessed island, some of whose inhabitants are shipwrecked on another wilder and harsher island. They gradually forget their original homeland until a dream precipitates in one of the islanders a yearning for return. This paper contrasts the two passages and seeks to associate privacy with privation and openness with illumination.
The Soul and Salvation
by Robert Bolton
Christian and Oriental ideas of immortality and salvation are compared and contrasted. The author argues that the salvation of the soul cannot mean a reduction simply to its intellectual principle or Nous, but rather that the soul must undergo an "assimilative conversion" to intellect to be spiritualized on its own level.
Amida's Dharma in the Modern World
by John Paraskevopoulos
The teachings of Shinran urge against a worldly moralism, placing the emphasis on spiritual realization rather than social reform. The author points to the relevance of these teachings in view of the modernist tendency to appropriate religion to the service of worldly ends.
Forgiveness Through Attention: Simone Weil's Critique of the Imagination
by Rebecca Rozelle-Stone
Simone Well is best known as a philosopher, activist and spiritual seeker whose writings and life sparkle with an intensity that has provoked great interest and controversy. This essay by a scholar of her works, focuses on Weil's philosophy of forgiveness, its insistence that genuine forgiveness cannot in any way be concerned with the interest of the forgiver, or impose any debt upon the forgiven, but can occur only through a "decreation" of the self, through the discipline of spiritual vigilance or creative attention which transports the "self" into the suffering of the "Other".
Special Section: Tributes to Dr. Martin Lings (1909-2005)
by Mateus Soares de Azevedo, Michael Fitzgerald, Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Reza Shah-Kazemi, William Stoddart, and Charles Upton
On May 12, 2005, Dr. Martin Lings (also known as Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din), one of the great traditionalist scholars of the last century passed away. This journal, in memoriam, has devoted a special section to record tributes of appreciation to the life and work of this saintly man. Read more ...
Tributes to Alvin Moore, Jr. (1923-2005)
by Rama P. Coomaraswamy and Jennifer Doane Upton
This is a section of tributes to a leading traditionalist Christian writer, who passed away just before the journal went to press, and whose talents as a translator and expositor of metaphysical principles, and whose contributions to this and other traditionalist journals, will be greatly missed.
Book Reviews
Letters to the Editor
Notes on Contributors
