1-My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam
Schimmel, Annemarie
1997/08 - Continuum International Publishing Group
Publisher
Shattering stereotypes, Schimmel reconstructs an important but little-known chapter of Islamic spirituality. With copious examples, she shows the clear equality of women and men in the conception of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an, the feminine language of the mystical tradition, and in the role of holy mothers and unmarried women as manifestations of God.
ents
Preface
Introduction
Women and the Prophet
Women in Sufism
Women in the Qur'an and in the Tradition
Woman or "Man of God": The Education of the Soul (nafs)
The Old Woman
The Mothers
Woman as Manifestation of God
The Brides of God
Woman-Souls in Indo-Pakistani Poetry
Sassi's Wanderings
Sohni Mehanwal
Omar Marui
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
2-Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power René Guenon
Publisher: Sophia Perennis
Binding: Paper, 108pp.
Deals with the normal relationship between the spiritual and the temporal powers implied in a healthy traditional civilization; that is, the supremacy of knowledge over action, of the sacerdotal over the royal caste. Touching first onIndia and the medieval West, Guénon then illustrates his point by citing quarrels over investiture and disputes of certain French kingswith the papacy as evidence of a deviation in Christianity.
This century has been witness to both widespread global destruction of traditional institutions of temporal power and the questioning of the very anti-traditional ideas and ideologies which have brought about that destruction. At such a moment when so many seek to understand what the foundations of political power and the principles for the structuring of society should be, the classical work of René Guénon remains an invaluable source of guidance. Based on traditional principles expounded with the lucidity and clarity that characterizes Guénon’s other writings, this work makes clear the significance of temporal authority, the source of its legitimacy, and its role in a society structured on the basis of principls which the contemporary world neglects at its own peril. Dealing with doctrines which transcend time, Guénon’s work is as timely today as when it was written. Its first translation into English presented here cannot but be welcomed by all interested in traditional doctrines, and more particularly in the application of these doctrines to the social order.—Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
In a sense the present work complements Guénon’sEast and West,The Crisis of the Modern World, andThe Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, for whereas the latter detail the West’s gradual movement away from its tradition,Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power focuses by contrast on what Guénon believed to be the normal relationship between the spiritual and the temporal implied in a healthy traditional civilization, that is, the supremacy of knowledge over action, of the sacerdotal over the royal caste. Touching first onIndia and the medieval West, Guénon then illustrates his point by citing quarrels over investiture and disputes of certain French kings with the papacy as evidence of a deviation in Christianity. In his preface Guénon refers to recent ‘incidents’ that had drawn attention to this general question, and although he says that his deliberations are not meant to deal directly with them, it may be of interest to note that the events concerned centered on a confrontation in 1926 between the political organization Action Française and Pope Pius XI.
3-The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
Book XL of the Revival of the Religious Sciences
Al-Ghazali
Translated by T.J. WinterThe Islamic Texts Society (1995)
paperback Indexes
First Published in 1989 347 pp. This is the first English translation of a key section of al-Ghazali’sRevival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ Ulum al-Din), widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality. Its theme is of universal interest — death and the life to come. After expounding his Sufi philosophy of death and showing the importance of the contemplation of human mortality to the mystical way of self-purification, al-Ghazali takes his readers through the stages of the future life: the vision of the Angels of the Grave, the Resurrection, the Intercession of the Prophets, and finally, the torments of Hell, the delights of Paradise and — for the elect — the beatific vision of God’s Countenance.
