Comments on Technology of the Heart: knowledge of the part vs. the whole

Amen, and Amen again to all your dua and blessings...

2010-08-02T00:47:04.634+06:00

Amen, and Amen again to all your dua and blessings. May Allah reward you generously as Allah is al-Karim the Generous in Giving.

Dear Azad Komol,
Thank you for your presence here. Truly appreciate it.

With Peace!

Here's another nice example, this time much mo...

2010-08-01T01:17:53.432+06:00

Here's another nice example, this time much more recent, of the Sufi attitude towards beliefs. It is from Mrs Tweedie's Diary Daughter of Fire, and is a dialogue with her Naqshbandi teacher Bhai Sahib(who was also Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee's master).

"THe human being MUST believe in something!" I burst out, crying to my great annoyance, for I firmly resolved not to do so. Could not control it... so deeply was it burning inside me.

"You take all my beliefs away from me!"

"I try!" He laughed gaily. "I am trying, but until now I was not successful. So strong is this belief that you stuck to it until now, in spite of everything. It will take time. By and by this too will go."

"But you take a belief away, and you don't give another one?" I exclaimed exasperated. "You don't even take the trouble to explain anything!" He got up from the tachat and stood leaning leisurely against the column.

"If you let the belief go, then after a while you will discover something very different'" he said quietly, looking afar with half-closed eyes; he stood very still, and again this feeling of MEANING came over me, so strong, so powerful, like a touch of the finger of destiny..."

(Author's emboldening)

As Abu Said ibn abi Khayr wisely observed: "To be a Sufi is to detach from preconceptions and fixed beliefs and accept what happens to you."

"The more we know, the more we come to know.....

2010-07-31T23:11:55.803+06:00

"The more we know, the more we come to know...how little we know..."

Indeed, Abnizar. Wasn't it Socrates who first said that?

But is there a corresponding recognition here of the limits of beliefs? Is it really possible for a genuine "seeker after Truth" - whether of mystical or scientific Truth - to approach the unknown with a set of already fixed beliefs about what that unknown is?

Here are the first few paragraphs of Ismail Hakki Bursevi's (hardly a "goofy sufi", but widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Ottoman masters) translation of Ibn al-'Arabi's Lubb al-Lubb (rendered in English as the "Kernel of the Kernel").

"One of the special matters that Ibn al-'Arabi wants to explain in his Futuhat al-Makkiyah is this: 'If a gnostic ('arif) is really a gnostic he cannot stay tied to any one form of belief.'

"That is to say, if a possessor of knowledge is cognisant of the being in his own ipseity, in all its meanings, he will not remain trapped in one belief. He will not decrease his circle of belief. He is like materia prima (hayula) and will accept whatever form he is presented with. These forms being external, there is no change to the kernel in his interior universe.

"The knower of God ('arif bi'llah), whatever his origin is, remains like that. He accepts all kinds of beliefs, but does not remain tied to any figurative belief. Whatever his place is in the Divine Knowledge, which is essential knowledge, he remains in that place; knowing the kernel of all belief he sees the interior and not the exterior. He recognises the thing, whose kernel he knows, whatever apparel it puts on, and in this matter his circle is large. Without looking at whatever clothing they appear under in the exterior he reaches into the origin of those belief and witnesses them from every possible place."

It's also worth taking note of what the great Bahauddin Naqshband says about belief in his famous counsels:

"Never trust a belief that a man or a community is the supreme one, because this feeling is a conviction, not a fact. You must progress beyond conviction, to fact."

"Be prepared to realize that all beliefs which were due to your surroundings were minor ones, even though they were once of much use to you. They may become useless and, indeed, pitfalls."

"Be prepared to find that certain beliefs are correct, but that their meaning and interpretation may vary in accordance with your stage of journey, making them seem contradictory to those who are not on the Path."

"Banish doubt you cannot. Doubt goes when doubt and belief as you have been taught them go. If you forsake a path, it is because you were hoping for conviction from it. You seek conviction, not self-knowledge."

C.G.Jung’s recently published fabled Red Book reve...

2010-07-31T17:33:58.049+06:00

C.G.Jung’s recently published fabled Red Book reveals the ‘genesis of his psychology’. A former patient called [it] a "record of the passage of the universe through the soul of a man." It records the search, experiences, and initial findings of a man who had, by his own account "achieved honor, power, wealth, knowledge and every human happiness," yet had somehow lost his soul.

Paraphrased from: Jung’s Red Book: Life After Depth, by Claire Dunne, via a review in Integral Options Café Blog, via Parabola.

This alone suffices to demonstrate that the spirit...

2010-07-31T07:57:28.251+06:00

This alone suffices to demonstrate that the spiritual prevails over the world of matter, that is, science being the subservient :-

Quoting a Hindu sage/spiritualist :

" For those who believe in spirituality no proof is necessary, for those who do not no amount of proof is enough " - simply that no one can prove spirituality "scientifically " . It will never be enough...

More and more Scientists are now conceeding to this :

" The more we know, the more we come to know...how little we know...
ABNIZAR

Stand farmely at the shore of unknown ocean Try t...

2010-07-31T01:23:27.743+06:00

Stand farmely at the shore of unknown ocean
Try to count uncountable waves.

Must be sail across unlimited
Must be pass away willingly or unwillingly
''Every soul shall have a taste of death,''*1

Who is a real wise man?
'Knowledge is something you achieve,
not something you receie.'*2

May we can pass away the Milkyway
May we can reach at the Andromeda
May we can talk about whole cosmos
May we can talk about unseen universe-
Pure knowlege never achieve
without His mercy;
''He knows what happen to them in this,
And what will happen to them in hereafter.
And they will never compass anything
of His knowledge except that which He wills.''*3
Hazrat Jibril has brought down the Qur'an
Upon prophet heart but not upon his head.

The poet wrote at his rubai-yat KADEEM:
Knowing have two ways: externally by organs
Second one internally happen, meeting.
How will fit unlimited in small vassel!
knowing ALLAH will come-
Only when ownself become witness ownself
he is also KADEEM.

You may say blind believe;
His Umat believe in the Ghaib-unseen
TRUTH about ALLAH will know only those
Who can open heart absolutely with HIM.
''Know that ALLAH comes in between
a person and his heart.''*4

Brainy knowledge is not enought at all.

*1 (Qur'an-23:35),*2 The Book Of Knowledge, page-65, by-Imam Al Ghazzali's *3 (Qur'an-2:255),*4(Qur'an-8:24)

Sadiq, Mashallah! Pay close attention. Your blog ...

2010-07-30T23:32:32.036+06:00

Sadiq,

Mashallah! Pay close attention. Your blog visitors, specially those who comments regularly represent very interesting psyches, each of them.

"James" here represent perfectly the delusional western mind who thinks they can package everything, including the Sufi Path in western style of McDonaldization. Those who are unfamiliar with the term McDonaldization - it is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He describes it as the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast- food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management.

Even in this post, the subject matter is exactly that, yet some here are moving round and round, failing to understand the limits of material and rational science.

What James frequently fails to understanding that no matter what goofy sufis teaches out there, For the the secret guarding, authentic Sufis - the common meeting ground is and will remain the Quran and the pattern of the Messengers; where Muhammad (s) being the last, but Sufis also follow the sunnat of Jesus(a), Moses(a) and Abraham(a) and every one of them in the unbroken chain of messengership.

Nobody needs to claim anything about what true sufi teachings / path is. Tawajjuh of a saintly sufi master, and in absence of it, even reading the Quran with imaan (sound belief, not false belief), yaqin (certainty) and taqwa (God Consciousness) will clearly reach one at the true teachings and Quran is the Furqan, the differntiator of what is real and what is false.

If anyone need to validate anything pertaining to Islam and Sufi Path in its original authenticity, undeviated form, one has to turn back to Quran and the pattern of the Messengers.

And Jesus said, "Dont think I came to abolish the Holy Pattern, but to fulfill it."

"But you will never find any change in the Pattern of Allah, nor will you find in the Patter of Allah (Sunnati-Llah) any alternation."
- The Quran 35:43

For Sufis, the Wayfarer in the Way of Truth - that pattern is preserved by God in the Noble Recital (Quran) and in the Tariqa (Way) of the Rasulullah (s).

And Allah be with you. And may Allah guide us and correct us who deviates from the Sirat al-Mustaqim. The Straight Path to God.

Allahu Akbar!

Re: the comments Shakespeare said, "Methinks...

2010-07-30T23:01:33.315+06:00

Re: the comments

Shakespeare said, "Methinks he protests too much." (referring to someone's comment here)

Bob Dylan said, "Don't let him pull you into the hole that he's in."

the smallness of mental thoughts become a grinding repetition no matter how lofty they sound ...

We come to reveal the beauty ... not try to bring it with us ... and dole it out to others

we unveil all that obscures it
letting the coverings fall away in the moonlight

the words you share... the quotes... are all designed to carry us beyond the words to the unspeakable experience of pure love

The music ..."Blessed Always" is indeed remembrance and prayer beautiful ... gentle reverence ... giving wings to the tenderness of love i have it playing ... the essence rises beyond the words

so lovely.

thank you

James, It seems you not only "misread" o...

2010-07-30T22:57:58.062+06:00

James,
It seems you not only "misread" others (as Sadiq pointed at it correctly), you actually do not read others at all - it appears the only thing you are capable of reading is your own mind inhibitions!!!
Therefore, when you seemingly accuse my words, it is in fact your own misinterpretation that you accuse. It is a well known technique used by mediocre people, who, when they fail to bring good arguments against somebody's words, first distort his/her saying and then try to bring arguments against their own distortion.
For example, I have never brought in here any "tirade against the mind". What I have emphasized on is your IDENTIFICATION with the mind and its by products. It is the identification with the mind which is your curse and biggest bondage, not the mind itself. Mind is not you, not your master, it is your serving instrument. Howsoever many times I keep repeating it for you, you refuse to hear it.
Instead you prefer to keep projecting your mind inhibitions on others, even on mystics!!! You say: "In their purest form, the mystic and the scientist are both united in their pursuit of 'what is'." It is a total failure to understand what kind of people mystics are.
James, mystics are people of the No-mind, of the state beyond the mind; mystics of all religious traditions (Sufi's including) are people, who have unidentified themselves from the mind inhibitions. Therefore they are people who pursue nothing, have no ambitions and no desires to fulfill. "Pursuit" is the prerequisite of the scientists, but not of any mystic. Mystics pursue nothing, try to demystify nothing. Mystics know that existence demystified is the dead existence. Life is a mystery, a beauty to be lived, savoured, not a dead object to be dissected.
The whole is more than the sum total of the parts. It expresses itself through the parts but it is more. To understand that it is more is to understand the divine. The divine is that more, that plus. It is not a question of theology; it cannot be decided by logical argumentation. You have to feel beauty, you have to feel music, you have to feel dance.

So \belief\ as you understand, i am sorry to sa...

2010-07-30T19:20:58.579+06:00
So \belief\ as you understand, i am sorry to say, is no where near what it is according to the teachngs of the Sufis.

Let's take one example that comes to hand readily:

"The god of one believer has no validity in respect of the god of someone who believes something else. The supporter of a particular belief defends what he believes and champions it, while that which he believes in does not support hm. It is because of this that he has no effect on his opponent's belief. Thus, also, his opponent derives no assistance from the god formulated by his own belief... they have no helpers. This is because the Reality has denied to the gods of credal formulations any possibility of rendering assistance, since each one is restricted to itself."

That is Ibn al-'Arabi writing in the fusus, in the chapter on the Wisdom of the Heart in the Word of Shua'aib.

You see, Sadiq, I know what the Shaykh al-'Akbar and the other great classical Sufis have said, well enough, because I've been reading their works these last thirty or so years. But I suspect you may not have not this depth of familiarity with them.

So if you are going to argue against an assertion because you don't agree with it, that's one thing. But it is another to argue that something is 'nowhere near the teachings of the Sufis', when in fact it may be. And when by making such an argument, you are making out that: "I know what the teachings of the Sufis are, and you do not".

That would be an unwise thing for anyone to claim who, by their own admission, is still attempting to follow a 'Path of Truth'.

By the way, Ian Dallas is Ian Dallas, may Allah be pleased with him and he teaches what he is convinced as true. His title, 'as Sufi' as far as my knowledge is concerned, is a title given to him by his own Shaykh, its not the case of 'he calling himself'.

You will find, however, some doubt as to whether he was, in fact, ever authorized in this way.

Sadiq, sometimes you are not discriminating enough in the sources you choose. You have published some unimpeachable materials here, but at other times you have published things here without doing enough research into the credibility of their author.

For instance, if you had spent just a little time googling Mr Dallas, you might have found his comments showing his admiration for Hitler (http://http://mac.abc.se/~onesr/ez/dc/sdph_e.html). Elsewhere, you might have turned up the story of how he abandoned his followers when he decided to turn his back on Sufism and reinvent himself as an 'alim.

Personally I have little interest in arguing the rights or wrongs of Mr Dallas' case: for me his comments about the Nazis (and others) put him into a 'loony minority' with whom I have no desire to engage, especially when there are so many others in this area whose words, and actions, are more deserving of attention.

James, In the post "the whole" is not wh...

2010-07-30T18:31:02.812+06:00
James,
In the post "the whole" is not what you think its meant. The unbroken reality is what here was intended to mean as "the whole".

You said, If you believe that these functions are the basis of a distinction between 'spiritual' and 'secular' science, then secular science has already demonstrated that what you call 'knowledge derived from the spiritual realm' is just a normal function of the human brain.

No I am not talking about 'the unbroken reality' as a function of brain. Sorry, you misread it.

And people of tasawwuf dont ascribe "spiritual knowledge", kashf or revelation as function of the brain. Its is from the Ghayb. The true mystery of how this transmits, very little knowledge is given to mankind. Here again, in you answer, you demonstrate, interestingly enough, the very tendency about which I tried (and failed it seems) to point about our over-emphasis and attempt to reduce everything through the interpretation of secular science, including that of higher order.

No Christ didn't cure with manufactured medicine, yes Christ didn't walk on water with some geniusly manufactured hovercraft, yes Christ didn't bring back the death by the permission of his Creator using some pharmaceutical breakthrough. Those knowledge are not function of what is seen and touched and scanned in brain. Those knowledge through which this is done as it is done is part of the unbroken reality which is pointed as 'the whole' here.

Quoting you James, I sense that you consider belief an essential pre-requisite for travelling on a spiritual Way - and belief is an entirely mental function, is simply the attachment of a significant amount of emotion to a set of concepts.

Iman (believing in the unseen, thats the exact word used in the Quran as pre-requisite for the God Conscious to achieve God Consciousness) and a higher function of it, Yaqin (certainty, again a word from the Quran) for sure is a pre-requisite for traveling on the Spiritual Way and the mistranslation of it as you say, 'belief' is NOT an entiredly mental function. It is, if you are anything familiar with Sufi Teaching or Teaching of ANY divine messenger, (even inadequately translated New Testament its translated as 'faith', what word Christ was using I dont know) is a function of the Heart. It is exactly through these faith of higher order, in its purer form the 'mysterious' healing occured as peformed by Christ and even in this age such healing are performed by servant of the servants, the Sufi Healers.

So \belief\ as you understand, i am sorry to say, is no where near what it is according to the teachngs of the Sufis.

By the way, Ian Dallas is Ian Dallas, may Allah be pleased with him and he teaches what he is convinced as true. His title, 'as Sufi' as far as my knowledge is concerned, is a title given to him by his own Shaykh, its not the case of 'he calling himself'.

And know that many have wrongly called the saints and messengers "mad" or "a nutter" in their age and may Allah save us from walking the same path of the Jahils (arrogant ignorant ones) without knowing the true station of any of Allah's servant.

What is significant however, is the fact that S...

2010-07-30T18:05:42.581+06:00
What is significant however, is the fact that Science is converging back into the realm of spirituality- that should be the focal point of ALL Religeonists & not argue about " my religeon is right, whilst yours is wrong " purely from self-centered egoism

Abnizar, what is most significant about 'Science' in this context is that it is based upon the unlimited inquiry into what really is. No beliefs, no sacred books, no hallowed traditions are allowed to stand in the way of this inquiry: what is, sheer fact, reality... however one wants to call it... is the ultimate validation and arbiter of the scientific project.

Of course in practice it is not always like this. And historians and philosophers of science rightly point out that science must still, inevitably, be culturally and historically situated. Nonetheless, it is this fundamental application to 'reality' - which, I would like to suggest to you, comes from the impulse to 'read the Book of Nature' - that stands science apart from religion.

In their purest form, the mystic and the scientist are both united in their pursuit of 'what is'. And, for this reason, both have been seen as a fundamental threat by religious believers of all kinds. There is indeed no bigger threat to belief than that it will be shown not to accord with reality.

The difference between the scientist and the mystic is that the scientist applies himself or herself to a world 'out there', which is held to stand apart, to be 'objective'. Quantum physics, of course, began to challenge that the investigator could ever stand apart from his investigations, but this insight has not yet fully propagated across all of the sciences.

The mystic, on the other hand, is the 'apparatus' by which a spiritual inquiry is carried out - and therefore the mystic cannot separate himself or herself from the experiment. Or, to put it another way, the experiment is the transformation of the mystic - so that there can be no impartial observer and thus no 'objectivity'.

Nonetheless the similarities are greater than the differences - something that is recognised by many contemporary mystics (and some contemporary scientists).

Belief cannot be a component of the mystical enterprise, just as it cannot be a component of the scientific enterprise. The scientist may have a hypothesis, but any emotional attachment to this may compromise the validity of the experiment. Unfortunately, this isn't always well understood by would-be mystics, who may have been influenced by the teaching of religions to think that belief is in some way involved in human transformation. It is not. Beliefs are just an arrangement of our mental furniture - we don't become a better, worse or even different person because we believe something.

Faith, on the other hand, which is a gesture toward the unknown, toward 'what is', is critical to the success of the mystical project - as are the related gestures of trust, patience, hope, courage and love. It is in these ways that we open ourselves to what may be, and allow ourselves to become a vehicle for its self-manifestation.

Dear Sadiq, Thank you for this article, an articl...

2010-07-30T17:25:20.135+06:00
Dear Sadiq,

Thank you for this article, an article which touches on a subject I find most interesting...the intoxication science holds for most people, and the lofty status it's almost given, even by spiritually oriented people.

A quote from the article says this succinctly:

"Through our over obsession of material science we tend to think that Science prevails over everything else, including Spiritual Traditions and sacred wisdom of elders in the Path."

When science is granted this status, it's also given free reign to run amuck. Science is important, and can help people. And yet, it can, out of place and out of balance, be equally suitable for distraction and hurt.

Thank you for this article which frames this subject in a new way.

lvoe all; Heta neno.

:-)

Kindest wishes,

mo'in

Science is of the mind and it is oriented towar...

2010-07-30T17:03:02.797+06:00
Science is of the mind and it is oriented towards the object.

Hearing is of the ear, tasting of the tongue, grasping of the hand... would you attempt to pick up a cup with your tongue, or hear through your ankle? Is the elbow worthless because it can't see?

So why, Aliya, your continuing tirade against the mind? The mind is what it is, does what it does. Without it, you couldn't have written what you did.

Does the fact that we eat, or sleep, or move about, stand in the way of our 'spiritual life'? Of course not. No more than the need to defecate stands in the way of walking (generally, though, we just don't try to do both at the same time).

Remember what Jesus said when challenged by the Pharisees who wanted to catch him out over the Roman taxes. He held up a coin and asked them whose face it had on it. When they answered that it was Caesar's, he replied "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and render unto God that which is God's".

The mind has a function and a value, which includes being able to order our thoughts on a subject such as this, and to communicate those thoughts effectively. You cannot do this with the 'organs' of spiritual perception: the two need to work together. And why shouldn't they? We are each one single person, not a multitude of unrelated faculties. Jesus needed to use words, and his hands, to convey this message - and he didn't think twice about doing so. The source of the message might go beyond the mind, the tongue and the fingers, but its expression and sharing requires these things.

" the elegantly encrypted universe "- is...

2010-07-30T16:26:25.508+06:00
" the elegantly encrypted universe "- is so elegantly put ,Sadiq..
Whether to believe or fall into unbelief. and whether to be gratefull or ungratefull...it will be each individual's choice for Salvation. Man is given the faculties for his justifications, both ways. His choice really.
Salvation is not in " the general " that because all of humanity belongs to a particular mode of religeous belief - that is " chosen ", as it were - therefore, ALL in that belief-system are saved ! " Salvation" is for the individual who merits salvation, completely at the mercy of God. The Knower of all that is hidden and the manifest....ABNIZAR

Dear Sadiq, A very insightful post. JazzakAllah fo...

2010-07-30T15:33:20.765+06:00
Dear Sadiq,
A very insightful post.
JazzakAllah for sharing. Lots of Duas.
Aisha

Dear Anonymous, Thank you for giving us a perfect...

2010-07-30T12:31:03.643+06:00
Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for giving us a perfect example of how the mind acts - mind is dualistic and for the mind is always or... or..., either the science or the religion, either the mind or the heart.
And the true religiousness of the heart is not or this or that, but and ... and....
When I write the mind is deluding you that it is the only door to reality, you understand that I deny the mind and its product the science. No, I deny nothing, I reflect mind the way it is - an instrument of yours, a servant to you. The same way I insist on science being instrumental, a device you developed to help your every day life. However, I warn you to be aware of this device and to not make the mind and the science your God, your Master, to stop identifying yourself with the mind and its products. You are not the mind, the science is not your only way of knowing existence. Within you is hidden the real master, the real knowing of what is, of God's reality. Look within and connect to your inner most center of being, whereas all the answers are already known.

No, no, the human mind is too entangled with preju...

2010-07-30T07:52:43.439+06:00
No, no, the human mind is too entangled with prejudices..
There is no conflict between science & religeon - only their phases of "evolution" differed.
The propulsion to scientific knowledge began soon after the advent of "the enlightened" Prophet of Arabia,like Ibnu Sena, Ibnu Khaldun & many more, whilst the European nations were still steeped in dogmatic religeous cults.
It was only when Albert Camus, less than 500 years ago, who reversed the trend, that Western Christian nations began to change from philosophical humanism to scientific rationalism. No one can deny the immensity of human progress brought about by the sciences. The muslim nations literally remained stagnant from then on. What is significant however, is the fact that Science is converging back into the realm of spirituality- that should be the focal point of ALL Religeonists & not argue about " my religeon is right, whilst yours is wrong " purely from self-centered egoism.....ABNIZAR

Then live like Amish people, why writting this pos...

2010-07-30T04:02:28.307+06:00
Then live like Amish people, why writting this post when you can't live a day without the benefit of science! I don't think you believe in anything that you write here Sadiq. Mean no offence ofcourse.

Science is of the mind and it is oriented towards ...

2010-07-30T01:45:26.668+06:00
Science is of the mind and it is oriented towards the object. It is objective and analytical. Science dissects, divides the object into parts to be researched, analyzed. However, can you know what the beauty of a rose is by dissecting and analyzing it part by part? At the most, you can have a dead rose as a result, not the living flower. Man cannot live by science alone. A few windows, for poetic experiences, are to be left open; so some sun, some wind, some rain can come from real existence. You cannot be thrilled with life if you are too much full of knowledge.
While science is objective and analytical, religiousness of the heart is subjective and synthesizing existence. Religiousness is not oriented towards the objective world, but towards the subject, the witness within you. Religiousness is your journey towards the subjectivity and the oneness of existence, towards God who is the Ultimate Subjectivity and Synthesis.

Look deep into your heart.
Life becomes blissful only through the heart, never through the mind.
"Mind creates science, the heart creates religion.
Mind can give you better technology, better gadgets.
The heart gives you the real, ultimate values:
love, bliss, truth, freedom, awareness, God.
And a life without these values is valueless" - Osho

Your Searching is what is the hidden Your views is...

2010-07-30T00:01:36.135+06:00
Your Searching is what is the hidden
Your views is what is the truth
your comment is what is the reality
your quote is what is the best!

your last words from Qur'an:
How sweet and truthful quote
How useful and valueable words
How straight and clear way!

It is the only purpos of life
Whole human being of the universe.
Oh life! let taste the truthness
In the light of HIS last KITAB.

2010-07-29T23:20:22.123+06:00
This comment has been removed by the author.

Brilliant post, Sadiq. More power to your pen!

2010-07-29T20:49:31.166+06:00
Brilliant post, Sadiq. More power to your pen!

If you look, too, at the seminal figures of the Sc...

2010-07-29T18:51:16.352+06:00
If you look, too, at the seminal figures of the Scientific Revolution - especially the "Invisible College" that consisted of such men as Samuel Hartlib, Robert Boyle, Jan Amos Komensky, John Harvard, and later became Charles II's "Royal Society" with Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, Sir Christopher Wren and others (all of whom were influenced by the Rosicrucian manifestos) - it is clear that the project of Science was seen as a spiritual undertaking from the beginning.

Today, the most promising outlines of a non-materialist science come not from Islam (or other organised religions) but from the work of another European who was also influenced by Protestant esotericism (as well as Sufism): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Goethean science, with its 'delicate empiricism', and its understanding of the interplay of the archetypal and the physical, could be described as the exact equivalent, in the phenomenology of Nature, to the approach of the Sufis in the phenomenology of Spirit.

Moving on to your point about science... There...

2010-07-29T18:30:24.353+06:00
Moving on to your point about science...

There has been an irreversible damage done by the Christian Church in the middle age with its harsh conflict with science and scientific inquiries, from which the western mind has not recovered yet. Had it recovered from that bitter taste, then it will come to appreciate the complementary aspect of Religion / Spiritual Knowledge and Science - which both are uncompromisable heritage of humanity and neither of them can be divorced fully if humanity is to progress.

Something to consider here, though, is why the 'Scientific Revolution' happened in Northern Europe, and why Islamic Science had effectively come to a full stop more than two centuries before that (Ibn Khaldun points out in the Muqaddimah that it was already in decline at the end of the C14 C.E. - and there were few significant Muslim scientists after that time).

I'd like to suggest to you that it was the obsessional fear of bida'ah (innovation), witnessed most strongly in the work of Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 C.E.), that was responsible for this 'closing' of the Islamic mind.

On the other hand, science was able to flourish in Protestant societies (Northern Europe and the United States) because of their commitment to 'freedom of conscience' (as had been expressed in the work of Martin Luther) and because of the influence of the Sufis through such media as the Rosicrucian manifestos which presented the "Great Book of Nature" as the principal revelation and 'text' of God.

Consider in this respect the first paragraph of the Fama Fraternitatis, the first Rosicrucian manifesto, published in 1614.

Seeing the only wise and merciful God in these latter days hath poured out so richly His mercy and goodness to mankind, whereby we do attain more and more to the perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and of Nature, that justly we may boast of the happy time, wherein there is not only discovered unto us the half part of the world, which was heretofore unknown and hidden, but He hath also made manifest unto us many wonderful, and never-heretofore seen works and creatures of Nature, and, moreover, hath raised men, imbued with great wisdom, who might partly renew and reduce all arts (in this our spotted and imperfect age) to perfection, so that finally man might thereby understand his own nobleness and worth, and why he is called Microcosmus, and how far his knowledge extendeth in Nature.

The Fama goes on to talk about how this knowledge was brought to Europe by one "brother C.R.C." who " became acquainted with the Wise Men of Damcar in Arabia, and beheld what great wonders they wrought, and how Nature was discovered unto them", "learned... the Arabian tongue", "translated the book M into good Latin", "shipped himself over Sinus Arabicus into Egypt" and "sailed over the whole Mediterranean Sea for to come unto Fez, where the Arabians had directed him".

One can see from this the outlines of a project to transfer scientific knowledge from an Islamic milieu where it was floundering to Northern Europe ("brother C.R.C" is described as "a German") where the nascent conditions of intellectual freedom were seen to be appropriate for it to flower. [Which judgment has proved to be absolutely correct.]

I'd like to further suggest that exactly the same thing has been happening over the last hundred or so years - and, most especially, since WWII - with Sufi knowledge. The conditions in the Islamic world are no longer conducive for it to flourish, except in the most debased traditional or dogmatic forms, whilst the new receptivity towards it in the developed world heralds a ‘Spiritual Revolution' at least as significant as the 'Scientific Revolution'.

Comments on Technology of the Heart: knowledge of the part vs. the whole

Amen, and Amen again to all your dua and blessings...

Here's another nice example, this time much mo...

"The more we know, the more we come to know.....

C.G.Jung’s recently published fabled Red Book reve...

This alone suffices to demonstrate that the spirit...

Stand farmely at the shore of unknown ocean Try t...

Sadiq, Mashallah! Pay close attention. Your blog ...

Re: the comments Shakespeare said, "Methinks...

James, It seems you not only "misread" o...

So \belief\ as you understand, i am sorry to sa...

James, In the post "the whole" is not wh...

What is significant however, is the fact that S...

Dear Sadiq, Thank you for this article, an articl...

Science is of the mind and it is oriented towar...

" the elegantly encrypted universe "- is...

Dear Sadiq, A very insightful post. JazzakAllah fo...

Dear Anonymous, Thank you for giving us a perfect...

No, no, the human mind is too entangled with preju...

Then live like Amish people, why writting this pos...

Science is of the mind and it is oriented towards ...

Your Searching is what is the hidden Your views is...

Brilliant post, Sadiq. More power to your pen!

If you look, too, at the seminal figures of the Sc...

Moving on to your point about science... There...