Understanding Islam

DESCRIPTION:

Partly for historical and political reasons Islam has perhaps been more misunderstood in the West than any other non-Christian religious tradition. In this book four essential aspects are considered in turn; the nature of the Islamic perspective, the doctrine about the function of the Qur’ān, the role of the Prophet and, in a long final section, Sufism and the path of spiritual ascent.

The writings of Frithjof Schuon are well known for the evident authority and clear insight with which they treat spiritual matters over a wide range and present the permanent and universal truths of which every sacred doctrine is an expression, casting a new light on many metaphysical and doctrinal matters. This book is primarily addressed to Western, non-Muslim readers in showing Islam timelessly and as it were from within.

Schuon was considered as one of the very few Europeans qualified to give an authentic interpretation of Oriental doctrines and T. S. Eliot wrote of the first of Frithjof Schuon’s books to appear in English that he had met no more impressive work in the field of the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental Religion.

DETAILS:

ITEM CODE: TAP01045
AUTHOR: Frithjof Schuon (Shaykh ‘Īsa Nūr al-Dīn)
TRANSLATOR: D.M. Matheson
BINDING: Hardback
PAGES: 119
DIMENSIONS: 15 x 22 CM
PUBLISHER: Suhail Academy
CATEGORIES: Original Works, Religion – Doctrines, Practices, History, Contemporary Relevance

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Frithjof Schuon (Shaykh ‘Īsa Nūr al-Dīn, 1907 - 1998) was born in Basel, Switzerland. At sixteen, he interrupted his classical education to earn a living as a designer in Paris, where he studied Arabic and Arabic calligraphy. Subsequent visits to North Africa and the East, prompted by his profound interest in the great religions of the world, resulted in many contacts with Sufi, Hindu and Buddhist authorities, in addition to important links he established with representatives of the spiritual legacy of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches; and two visits to the North American Plains Indians (he was officially adopted by the Lakota tribe) won him a number of close friends, particularly among the Sioux and the Crow.

Of his first book, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, which has been published in six different languages, T. S. Eliot wrote: “I have met with no more impressive work in the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental religion.” In addition to his books, he was a regular contributor to Studies in Comparative Religion, and also contributed to Studies in Traditionalism for over twenty years.