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مجموعه حکمت جاويدان #12
Islamic Art and Spirituality
With remarkable breadth of vision, Seyyed Hossein Nasr reveals for both Western and Muslim readers how each art form in the islamic tradition is based upon a science of nature concerned, not with the outer appearance of things, but with their inner reality. Ranging across calligraphy, painting, architecture, literature, music, and the plastic arts, Nasr penetrates to the inner dimension of Islam and shows the role art plays in the life of individual Muslims and the community as a whole--the role of inspiring the remembrance and contemplation of God.
Once the author establishes art as an aid and support to the spiritual life, he traces the creative act to its ultimate inner knowledge and barakah, or grace, which make the crystallization of inner realities in form and space and time possible. Through this knowledge and grace, the author asserts, unity manifests upon the plane of multiplicity, making archetypal realities perceivable by the senses. Through this knowledge and grace, art functions as a ladder for the journey of the soul from the visible to the invisible. How Islamic art leads man to the inner chamber of divine revelation forms the substance of much of this important work.
An especially close look is given to the Sufi tradition within Islam, for its mystical teachers have often clearly demonstrated in their works the spiritual significance of beauty and served as the source of inspiration for art.
By rediscovering the root of art in the Islamic tradition, Seyyed Hossein Nasr opens doors to new dimensions of unity which have seemingly been obscured in recent Western art. In so doing, he extends the significance of this book beyond the Islamic belief system to touch the hearts and creative impulses of readers from all traditions.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. Born in Tehran and educated at MIT and Harvard, he was previously professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. He has taught throughout America, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Japan, and Australia. He is the author of over twenty books in English. Among them are Sufi Essays, Islamic Life and Thought, Knowledge and the Sacred, and Three Muslim Sages.
Once the author establishes art as an aid and support to the spiritual life, he traces the creative act to its ultimate inner knowledge and barakah, or grace, which make the crystallization of inner realities in form and space and time possible. Through this knowledge and grace, the author asserts, unity manifests upon the plane of multiplicity, making archetypal realities perceivable by the senses. Through this knowledge and grace, art functions as a ladder for the journey of the soul from the visible to the invisible. How Islamic art leads man to the inner chamber of divine revelation forms the substance of much of this important work.
An especially close look is given to the Sufi tradition within Islam, for its mystical teachers have often clearly demonstrated in their works the spiritual significance of beauty and served as the source of inspiration for art.
By rediscovering the root of art in the Islamic tradition, Seyyed Hossein Nasr opens doors to new dimensions of unity which have seemingly been obscured in recent Western art. In so doing, he extends the significance of this book beyond the Islamic belief system to touch the hearts and creative impulses of readers from all traditions.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. Born in Tehran and educated at MIT and Harvard, he was previously professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. He has taught throughout America, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Japan, and Australia. He is the author of over twenty books in English. Among them are Sufi Essays, Islamic Life and Thought, Knowledge and the Sacred, and Three Muslim Sages.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 1987
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308 people want to read
About the author
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
248 books725 followersSeyyed Hossein Nasr was born on April 7, 1933 (19 Farvadin 1312 A.H. solar) in Tehran into a family of distinguished scholars and physicians. His father, Seyyed Valiallah, a man of great learning and piety, was a physician to the Iranian royal family, as was his father before him. The name "Nasr" which means "victory" was conferred on Professor Nasr's grandfather by the King of Persia. 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.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. is one of the most important and foremost scholars of Islamic, Religious and Comparative Studies in the world today. Author of over fifty books and five hundred articles which have been translated into several major Islamic, European and Asian languages, Professor Nasr is a well known and highly respected intellectual figure both in the West and the Islamic world. An eloquent speaker with a charismatic presence, Nasr is a much sought after speaker at academic conferences and seminars, university and public lectures and also radio and television programs in his area of expertise. Possessor of an impressive academic and intellectual record, his career as a teacher and scholar spans over four decades.
Professor Nasr began his illustrious teaching career in 1955 when he was still a young and promising, doctoral student at Harvard University. Over the years, he has taught and trained an innumerable number of students who have come from the different parts of the world, and many of whom have become important and prominent scholars in their fields of study.
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. The range of subjects and areas of study which Professor Nasr has involved and engaged himself with in his academic career and intellectual life are immense. As demonstrated by his numerous writings, lectures and speeches, Professor Nasr speaks and writes with great authority on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from philosophy to religion to spirituality, to music and art and architecture, to science and literature, to civilizational dialogues and the natural environment.
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.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. is one of the most important and foremost scholars of Islamic, Religious and Comparative Studies in the world today. Author of over fifty books and five hundred articles which have been translated into several major Islamic, European and Asian languages, Professor Nasr is a well known and highly respected intellectual figure both in the West and the Islamic world. An eloquent speaker with a charismatic presence, Nasr is a much sought after speaker at academic conferences and seminars, university and public lectures and also radio and television programs in his area of expertise. Possessor of an impressive academic and intellectual record, his career as a teacher and scholar spans over four decades.
Professor Nasr began his illustrious teaching career in 1955 when he was still a young and promising, doctoral student at Harvard University. Over the years, he has taught and trained an innumerable number of students who have come from the different parts of the world, and many of whom have become important and prominent scholars in their fields of study.
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. The range of subjects and areas of study which Professor Nasr has involved and engaged himself with in his academic career and intellectual life are immense. As demonstrated by his numerous writings, lectures and speeches, Professor Nasr speaks and writes with great authority on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from philosophy to religion to spirituality, to music and art and architecture, to science and literature, to civilizational dialogues and the natural environment.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 8, 2009
The introduction is excellent, but as for the rest of the book, Nasr reads his own current Islamic beliefs into past works of art.
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August 22, 2016No one would equate a Byzantine church in Greece with a Greek temple even if the actual stone blocks used for the church were taken from a temple. The blocks have become units in the edifice which belongs to a religious universe very distinct from that of the ancient Greeks.
It is not accidental that whenever and wherever Islamic art has experienced a peak of its creativity and perfection there has been present the powerful, living intellectual - which also means spiritual - current of the I tradition. And conversely, this casual nexus provides the reason for understanding why whenever there has been a decay or eclipse in the of the spiritual dimension of Islam the quality of Islamic art has diminished.
The undeniable intellectual character of I art is not the fruit of a kind of rationalism but of an intellectual vision of the archetypes of the terrestrial world, a vision made possible by virtue of spirituality and the grace flowing from tradition.
Because of the nature of religion which is not based on the dramatic tension between heaven and earth or the way of heroic sacrifice and redemption through divine intercession and also because of its non-mythological character a sacred and religious theater did not develop in Islam such as one finds in ancient Greece, India or medieval Christian Europe.
Only that which comes from One can lead back to the One.
II
God designated whole virgin nature inexhaustible masterpiece of His creative act as the place of worship for Muslims and distinguished His final messenger by allowing I primordial religion to return to primordial nature as its temple.
Sacred architecture of I becomes extension of nature as created by God within the environment constructed by man
Spaces and forms of traditional Muslim town and city are in a sense extension of the mosque organically related to it and participating in sanctifying and unifying character in the same way that the whole city participates in blessedness that emanates from chanting of the Q
This nature seeks to revive and reaffirm by the awakening man from the dream of forgetfulness arousing within him the consciousness of the reality of One or Absolute which constitutes very substance of primordial man and raison detre of human existence.
He prayed in deserts, mountains in nature which was still pure and unviolated.
He prayed in his house in Mecca later in Medina and finally in M mosque which is the prototype of all later sacred architecture of I. God through the last prophet reestablished nature as the primary temple of worship and made possible through the founder of I consecration of space and ground of his domicile as the sacred place which upon which the most perfect of men stood directly before God performed rites which are central to I.
I cosmos is based on emphasis upon God as the Unique origin of all beings on the hierarchy of existence which relies upon the One and is ordered by His command on the levels of existence which relate matter to the subtle world.
We find many features in the sacred architecture of the mosque which is based on a science that cannot but issue from the inner dimension of the Islamic revelation and other forms of wisdom which esotericism integrated into its world view in accordance with its own nature and integrating power of Islam
I cosmos is replete with signs and portents ayat of God in accordance with Q :
We shall show them our signs - Ayat upon the horizons and within their souls until it becomes manifest to them it is the Truth.
True Muslim sees every aspect of nature not as phenomena divorced from the noumenal world but as signs of God. Mosque also displays the same reality. Its patterns appear to the Muslim eye as vestigia Dei its emptiness simplicity and lack of any designs or patterns
Bc of primordial nature I shares certain striking features with the primal religions of NA Indians
Space of I architecture is not quantified space of Cartesian geometry but qualified space related to sacred geometry and given order through presence of sacred
Q refers often to invisible and visible worlds identifying first with the spiritual and 2nd with the corporeal or material world.
the Floor in a Muslim home is kept ritually clean its interior space evokes the sense of sacred through emptiness.
Which draws attention to invisible as does experience of the ground upon which one can only walk after taking off shoes.
there is within I spirituality a special link with qualitative math in Pythagorean sense, a link which results from the emphasis upon unity and intellect on one hand and primordial nature of I spirituality on the other.
Q own mathematical structure is bewildering and reveals an amazing rapport between I intellectual and spiritual concerns and math.
A point most often neglected by students of I architecture: surface of many buildings which can be characterized as sacred architecture (mosques and mausoleums of saints) are often covered by very elaborate mathematical patterns
The role of math in sacralization of architecture is inseparable from the nature of the Q revelation, and its emphasis on the one hand on the supernatural character of the intellect within man, and on the other sacredness of virgin nature whose laws and structures are related to the math world.
Octagonal base of the dome symbolizes the throne and Pedestal and also the angelic world, square or rectangular base the corporeal world on the earth
Not only does light define space of I architecture, it also plays a central role in making possible
the use of intensely white structures which reflect the purity of the desert and the leveling of all the multiplicity before the One , the use of intensely colored edifices which appear as an earthly reflection of the paradisal states
I itself is based on the nature of reality. it is profoundly realist in the traditional and not the modern sense of the word. It emphasizes God is God, man is man, material world is material, angelic world is angelic world.
There are no created tensions, no upward pull to a heavenly ideal in I architecture as one finds in Gothic cathedrals which are based on another spiritual perspective than that of I.
The traditional Muslim architect and builder like all traditional craftsmen had a profound sense of the nature of materials with which he dealt
Muslim architects were able to create masterpieces of I architecture because they had a mastery both of science involved in building and of the materials they used thereby integrating them into a whole reflecting those of I art
I architecture makes full use of light and shade, their heat and coolness, of wind and its aerodynamics, of water and its cooling effect, of the earth and its insulating features as well as its protective properties in face of the elements. Architecture remains always in harmony with the nature
The very physical experience of the cooling effect of wind tower on a hot summer afternoon in a traditional house in Kashan/Yazd possesses an unmistakable spiritual component.
I town rises gently from the earth, makes maximum use of nature`s own resources and when abandoned usually returns again gently to the bosom of earth.
It always uses the lightest touch possible in creating a human ambience
Nature remains truly Muslim/submitted to Divine Will by obeying its own nature and laws which each domain of the natural order was created to obey
Refusing to distinguish between sacred and profane, integrating religion into all facets of life, and life itself into rhythms of rites and patterns of values determined by religion, Islam creates wholeness reflected in architecture
sacred architecture is a crystallization of spirituality and a key for understanding it. Spaces it has created provide a heaven in which man can savour, by grace of this very spirituality, the peace and harmony of not only virgin nature but also paradise of which virgin nature herself is a reflection.
III
bc of its richness, variety and depth of expression Persian I art presents and ideal field for the study of sacred art in relation to spirituality on the one hand and to the ethos and genius of particular people and culture on other.
Essentially, only that which comes from the spiritual world can act as the vehicle to return to that world.
In Persia, Q calligraphy is sacred art, but the miniature is traditional art reflecting the principles of I in a more indirect manner.
The words in which art is known in Persia are fann, hunar and sometimes sanat.
Sacred art derives from the spirit of a particular religion and shares its genius.
The word paradise in European languages, firdaws in Arabic, derive from the Avestan pairi-daeza meaning garden (terrestrial image of the celestial garden of paradise).
Alchemy is a symbolic science of material objects, minerals and metals in their connection with
the physic and spiritual worlds. It is not as many thought a proto-chemistry. It is a science of transformation of soul based upon the symbolism of mineral kingdom.
One of the remarkable features of I architecture almost unique in the history of art, is that it reached a peak early in its career and has preserved it to our own times.
Traditional Persian home is a kind of extension of a mosque in the sense it perpetuates its purity and simplicity. Carpets over which one does not walk with shoes, their ritual cleanliness which enables man to pray upon them like the carpets of the mosque, the emptiness of the traditional rooms devoid of furniture and many other elements all connect the house in spirit to the mosque. City planning is related to the mosque ...principle of unity and integration of the city from the private home to the city as the totality. Isfahan, Yazd and Kashan still afford excellent examples of this principle.
If Arabic is the language of the Word, then Persian is the language of the angels, of paradise, the beauty of Persian poetry is a reminiscence of paradisal joy.
To appreciate Hafiz fully is to be already in the proximity of the Divine.
Nor is it accidental that throughout the centuries most of the performers of Persian music and also of the music of Turkey and northern India have been associated with Sufism.
By banning the social aspect of music, especially in cities where inciting of passion caused by music
can always lead to greater moral degradation than in the countryside, I turned classical music
in an inward direction, as a contemplative art. The spiritual states evoked by classical Persian music are closely related to the spiritual states (ahwal) of the Sufis.
I and before it Byzantine Chr adopted Sassanid techniques of dome construction and produced domed structures which reflect different types of art
Honesty of which everyone speaks today demands that one does not destroy for others through either one`s ignorance of the full reality of Islamic tradition or one`s artistic creations something which one has lost onself.
Metaphysics: Logic and Poetry in the Orient
There has always been in the Orient a logical aspect to poetry and a poetic aspect to the great expressions of logical thought.
from Hindu tradition: The universe itself, properly viewed by the intellect, the "eye of the heart" as it is often called is the result of the marriage of harmony (saman) and the word (rc)
This process is made possible because the logical power of the mind is an extension of the Intellectual principle itself none other than the reflection of the Divine Intellect or Logos upon the mind.
According to Oriental doctrines poetry is the result of the imposition of the Spiritual and Intellectual principle upon the matter or substance of language. This principle is inextricably related to Universal harmony and its concomitant rhythm which is to be found throughout cosmic manifestation. Rhythmic patterns bring about within the soul of man a transformation which makes possible, with the help of tradition methods of spiritual realization, recovery of man`s primordial relation with the Spiritual and Intellectual Principle of things.
Poetry is similar to logic in that it is a means and vehicle for the expression of Truth, and it complements logic in that it deals with forms of knowledge which are not accessible to the unaided logical faculties of "fallen man".
The Flight of Birds to Union
All those who are not completely at home in this world of fleeting shadows and who yearn for their origin in the paradisal abode belong to the family of birds, for their soul possesses wings no matter how inexperienced they might be in actually flying towards the space of Divine Presence.
All that is positive in cosmic order comes from God.
the journey towards the One, the only journey worthy of undertaking in this fleeting life.
He who knows himself, knows the Lord - Blessed Prophet.
Birds traverse 7 valleys of the cosmic mountain Qaf on whose peak resides the Celestial Monarch. Seven valleys leading to the peak are of quest-talab, love-ishq, gnosis-marifat, contenment-istighna, unity-tawhid, wonder-hayrat, poverty-faqr, annihilation-fana.
In reality, each bird is at once an aspect or tendency of the human soul and a particular type of soul
in which the characteristics in question are predominant.
Passionate soul makes a 1000 excuses to avoid being consumed by the fire of purification.
The wise should seek the beauty which does not perish.
The seeker must be qualified and the qualified are always few in number.
Since the goal is Truth itself, even if one were to loose one`s life on this path, it would be worthwhile. As for all the apparent difficulties, they are most of all due to the fact that the roots of the soul are sunk in the creaturely world of multiplicity and that man is too dispersed and diverted by creatures to be able to concentrate his mind and soul upon the Creator.
...having sold their Celestial self into slavery by betraying it as the brothers of Joseph had....
Only the beauty of the "Invisible" is worthy of being loved....
One of the birds complaints about the snares of the passionate soul and is told that the lower soul must be conquered. Another fears the temptations of the Devil and the hoopoe answers that the Devil has power only as long as man is attached to worldliness. Once the world is overcome so is the power of the adversary.
"Become nothing so that your being will become established."
Attar is reasserting the perennial truth currently forgotten in many circles: that only the human embodiment of Logos which is the prophet, however that function is understood in various religions can guide men to God.
Rumi
spiritual friendship between Rumi/Shams is rare in the history of Sufism, and has become proverbial in the East.
Rumi`s most famous work Mathnawi - Quran of the Persian language. In nearly 26000 verses of poetry, Rumi unravels in the Mathnawi the vast ocean of the world of the spirit and man`s journey to and through the world.
It is hardly possible to fit the ideas of Rumi into a closed system and give a systematic exposition of a metaphysical / initiatic teaching which like ocean, contains nearly everything and knows no limits/bounds.
Emulating the form of the Holy Book on the level of human inspiration, Rumi interlaces stories/parables with direct formulations of Sufi doctrine/practice in such a way as to encompass the whole of human existence and all the different problems/obstacles that man faces in his quest after the Thruth - which also means journey into the labyrinth of his own soul to its luminous Centre.
The soul of man becomes the arena in which prophets and saints as well as Satan/his armies each related to a force and an agent within man`s own being, act out the drama of deliverance and sanctification.
It was the illuminated soul/intellect of Rumi combined with his poetic genius which were able to create masterpieces of Sufi literature.
As one who was at once a saint/artist of unusual grandeur/universality, Rumi was particularly sensitive to the spiritual efficacy of beauty, that "Splendor of the Thruth" which for him was always the gateway to the inner courtyard of the Divine Mysteries. Rumi saw beauty as the direct imprint of the Divine in this world of generation/corruption and the most immediate means of awakening in man the consciousness/awareness of the spiritual world.
He saw in beauty direct proof of God/His Infinite Mercy and Power. "There is beauty, therefore God is"
Rumi saw beauty everywhere, in virgin nature, being of man, and in art.
For Rumi, man himself is an instrument in the hands of God, and his existence is the music issuing forth from this instrument.
According to Rumi, everything in the world of manifestation has a form and a meaning which is another way of describing 2 aspects of exterior (zahir), interior (batin) so characteristic of esoteric teachings of I.
No reality is exhausted by its appearance. Appearance is a manifestation of something, of an essence which is its mana. Nothing can ever be fully understood if one remains on the level of surat and is oblivious of mana. To understand the nature, of man or revelation, man must penetrate into the mana of things in the manner of Rumi himself, who was able to expound the Truth by having recourse to almost everything from simple actions of man or even animals to the most sublime passages from the Q
Rumi was able to create works that have become life and soul of Persian literature.
If you are really companion of the cave then enter the cave.
Firdawsi Shah-namah is complement of Mathnawi -supreme epic poem of the Persian language emphasizing the glory of the Persian people in the pre-I period. whose field of battle has become transformed to the world within the soul of man. It is in a sense an account of a lesser holy war (al- while the Mathnawi is the tale of the greater holy war- terminology of hadith.
#Die before you die#
#If there were no rose the nightingale would not be singing in the grove#
What made possible for Rumi to look upon the encounter with death as the moment of supreme ecstasy was of course the kind of life he had led in this life, life which had already led him into the state of sanctity before passing through gate of death. This life was to be witness to remarkable encounter with Shams and the sympathia between them which brought about Diwan - causing Rumi to leave the world of silence and have recourse to poetry to explain that which cannot but issue from holy silence.
For him, existence of beauty was the most direct proof of existence of God.
Prophet of I was given the possibility of experiencing everything that a human being can experience, from loosing his son to uniting all of Arabia. He was given the mission in order to be able to sanctify all of human life.
Rumi was able to accomplish this same task, nonetheless vast scale.
Behind every possible kind of experience lies a door towards Invisible.
Spiritual concert is permissible for lovers of God, forbidden for ignorant.
Sobriety of I prevented music from becoming externalized profanation.
I banned music which leads to forgetfulness of God,forbidden M from hearing it who would become distracted from spiritual world/immersed in worldliness through listening.
Man is situated between 2 worlds of silence> ambiguous/unknown for him before birth and after death.
Hindus consider 1st art sent from heaven for men to be music.M gnostics consider music to be the best means to express subtlest of divine mysteries.
Transcendent world is world of loveliness/beauty, source of it is harmony/tanasub.
5 Divine Presences-physical,intermediate,arch-angelic world, Divine Names/Qualities, Divine Essence.
In architecture space is defined by absence of corporeality.
It is not accidental that whenever and wherever Islamic art has experienced a peak of its creativity and perfection there has been present the powerful, living intellectual - which also means spiritual - current of the I tradition. And conversely, this casual nexus provides the reason for understanding why whenever there has been a decay or eclipse in the of the spiritual dimension of Islam the quality of Islamic art has diminished.
The undeniable intellectual character of I art is not the fruit of a kind of rationalism but of an intellectual vision of the archetypes of the terrestrial world, a vision made possible by virtue of spirituality and the grace flowing from tradition.
Because of the nature of religion which is not based on the dramatic tension between heaven and earth or the way of heroic sacrifice and redemption through divine intercession and also because of its non-mythological character a sacred and religious theater did not develop in Islam such as one finds in ancient Greece, India or medieval Christian Europe.
Only that which comes from One can lead back to the One.
II
God designated whole virgin nature inexhaustible masterpiece of His creative act as the place of worship for Muslims and distinguished His final messenger by allowing I primordial religion to return to primordial nature as its temple.
Sacred architecture of I becomes extension of nature as created by God within the environment constructed by man
Spaces and forms of traditional Muslim town and city are in a sense extension of the mosque organically related to it and participating in sanctifying and unifying character in the same way that the whole city participates in blessedness that emanates from chanting of the Q
This nature seeks to revive and reaffirm by the awakening man from the dream of forgetfulness arousing within him the consciousness of the reality of One or Absolute which constitutes very substance of primordial man and raison detre of human existence.
He prayed in deserts, mountains in nature which was still pure and unviolated.
He prayed in his house in Mecca later in Medina and finally in M mosque which is the prototype of all later sacred architecture of I. God through the last prophet reestablished nature as the primary temple of worship and made possible through the founder of I consecration of space and ground of his domicile as the sacred place which upon which the most perfect of men stood directly before God performed rites which are central to I.
I cosmos is based on emphasis upon God as the Unique origin of all beings on the hierarchy of existence which relies upon the One and is ordered by His command on the levels of existence which relate matter to the subtle world.
We find many features in the sacred architecture of the mosque which is based on a science that cannot but issue from the inner dimension of the Islamic revelation and other forms of wisdom which esotericism integrated into its world view in accordance with its own nature and integrating power of Islam
I cosmos is replete with signs and portents ayat of God in accordance with Q :
We shall show them our signs - Ayat upon the horizons and within their souls until it becomes manifest to them it is the Truth.
True Muslim sees every aspect of nature not as phenomena divorced from the noumenal world but as signs of God. Mosque also displays the same reality. Its patterns appear to the Muslim eye as vestigia Dei its emptiness simplicity and lack of any designs or patterns
Bc of primordial nature I shares certain striking features with the primal religions of NA Indians
Space of I architecture is not quantified space of Cartesian geometry but qualified space related to sacred geometry and given order through presence of sacred
Q refers often to invisible and visible worlds identifying first with the spiritual and 2nd with the corporeal or material world.
the Floor in a Muslim home is kept ritually clean its interior space evokes the sense of sacred through emptiness.
Which draws attention to invisible as does experience of the ground upon which one can only walk after taking off shoes.
there is within I spirituality a special link with qualitative math in Pythagorean sense, a link which results from the emphasis upon unity and intellect on one hand and primordial nature of I spirituality on the other.
Q own mathematical structure is bewildering and reveals an amazing rapport between I intellectual and spiritual concerns and math.
A point most often neglected by students of I architecture: surface of many buildings which can be characterized as sacred architecture (mosques and mausoleums of saints) are often covered by very elaborate mathematical patterns
The role of math in sacralization of architecture is inseparable from the nature of the Q revelation, and its emphasis on the one hand on the supernatural character of the intellect within man, and on the other sacredness of virgin nature whose laws and structures are related to the math world.
Octagonal base of the dome symbolizes the throne and Pedestal and also the angelic world, square or rectangular base the corporeal world on the earth
Not only does light define space of I architecture, it also plays a central role in making possible
the use of intensely white structures which reflect the purity of the desert and the leveling of all the multiplicity before the One , the use of intensely colored edifices which appear as an earthly reflection of the paradisal states
I itself is based on the nature of reality. it is profoundly realist in the traditional and not the modern sense of the word. It emphasizes God is God, man is man, material world is material, angelic world is angelic world.
There are no created tensions, no upward pull to a heavenly ideal in I architecture as one finds in Gothic cathedrals which are based on another spiritual perspective than that of I.
The traditional Muslim architect and builder like all traditional craftsmen had a profound sense of the nature of materials with which he dealt
Muslim architects were able to create masterpieces of I architecture because they had a mastery both of science involved in building and of the materials they used thereby integrating them into a whole reflecting those of I art
I architecture makes full use of light and shade, their heat and coolness, of wind and its aerodynamics, of water and its cooling effect, of the earth and its insulating features as well as its protective properties in face of the elements. Architecture remains always in harmony with the nature
The very physical experience of the cooling effect of wind tower on a hot summer afternoon in a traditional house in Kashan/Yazd possesses an unmistakable spiritual component.
I town rises gently from the earth, makes maximum use of nature`s own resources and when abandoned usually returns again gently to the bosom of earth.
It always uses the lightest touch possible in creating a human ambience
Nature remains truly Muslim/submitted to Divine Will by obeying its own nature and laws which each domain of the natural order was created to obey
Refusing to distinguish between sacred and profane, integrating religion into all facets of life, and life itself into rhythms of rites and patterns of values determined by religion, Islam creates wholeness reflected in architecture
sacred architecture is a crystallization of spirituality and a key for understanding it. Spaces it has created provide a heaven in which man can savour, by grace of this very spirituality, the peace and harmony of not only virgin nature but also paradise of which virgin nature herself is a reflection.
III
bc of its richness, variety and depth of expression Persian I art presents and ideal field for the study of sacred art in relation to spirituality on the one hand and to the ethos and genius of particular people and culture on other.
Essentially, only that which comes from the spiritual world can act as the vehicle to return to that world.
In Persia, Q calligraphy is sacred art, but the miniature is traditional art reflecting the principles of I in a more indirect manner.
The words in which art is known in Persia are fann, hunar and sometimes sanat.
Sacred art derives from the spirit of a particular religion and shares its genius.
The word paradise in European languages, firdaws in Arabic, derive from the Avestan pairi-daeza meaning garden (terrestrial image of the celestial garden of paradise).
Alchemy is a symbolic science of material objects, minerals and metals in their connection with
the physic and spiritual worlds. It is not as many thought a proto-chemistry. It is a science of transformation of soul based upon the symbolism of mineral kingdom.
One of the remarkable features of I architecture almost unique in the history of art, is that it reached a peak early in its career and has preserved it to our own times.
Traditional Persian home is a kind of extension of a mosque in the sense it perpetuates its purity and simplicity. Carpets over which one does not walk with shoes, their ritual cleanliness which enables man to pray upon them like the carpets of the mosque, the emptiness of the traditional rooms devoid of furniture and many other elements all connect the house in spirit to the mosque. City planning is related to the mosque ...principle of unity and integration of the city from the private home to the city as the totality. Isfahan, Yazd and Kashan still afford excellent examples of this principle.
If Arabic is the language of the Word, then Persian is the language of the angels, of paradise, the beauty of Persian poetry is a reminiscence of paradisal joy.
To appreciate Hafiz fully is to be already in the proximity of the Divine.
Nor is it accidental that throughout the centuries most of the performers of Persian music and also of the music of Turkey and northern India have been associated with Sufism.
By banning the social aspect of music, especially in cities where inciting of passion caused by music
can always lead to greater moral degradation than in the countryside, I turned classical music
in an inward direction, as a contemplative art. The spiritual states evoked by classical Persian music are closely related to the spiritual states (ahwal) of the Sufis.
I and before it Byzantine Chr adopted Sassanid techniques of dome construction and produced domed structures which reflect different types of art
Honesty of which everyone speaks today demands that one does not destroy for others through either one`s ignorance of the full reality of Islamic tradition or one`s artistic creations something which one has lost onself.
Metaphysics: Logic and Poetry in the Orient
There has always been in the Orient a logical aspect to poetry and a poetic aspect to the great expressions of logical thought.
from Hindu tradition: The universe itself, properly viewed by the intellect, the "eye of the heart" as it is often called is the result of the marriage of harmony (saman) and the word (rc)
This process is made possible because the logical power of the mind is an extension of the Intellectual principle itself none other than the reflection of the Divine Intellect or Logos upon the mind.
According to Oriental doctrines poetry is the result of the imposition of the Spiritual and Intellectual principle upon the matter or substance of language. This principle is inextricably related to Universal harmony and its concomitant rhythm which is to be found throughout cosmic manifestation. Rhythmic patterns bring about within the soul of man a transformation which makes possible, with the help of tradition methods of spiritual realization, recovery of man`s primordial relation with the Spiritual and Intellectual Principle of things.
Poetry is similar to logic in that it is a means and vehicle for the expression of Truth, and it complements logic in that it deals with forms of knowledge which are not accessible to the unaided logical faculties of "fallen man".
The Flight of Birds to Union
All those who are not completely at home in this world of fleeting shadows and who yearn for their origin in the paradisal abode belong to the family of birds, for their soul possesses wings no matter how inexperienced they might be in actually flying towards the space of Divine Presence.
All that is positive in cosmic order comes from God.
the journey towards the One, the only journey worthy of undertaking in this fleeting life.
He who knows himself, knows the Lord - Blessed Prophet.
Birds traverse 7 valleys of the cosmic mountain Qaf on whose peak resides the Celestial Monarch. Seven valleys leading to the peak are of quest-talab, love-ishq, gnosis-marifat, contenment-istighna, unity-tawhid, wonder-hayrat, poverty-faqr, annihilation-fana.
In reality, each bird is at once an aspect or tendency of the human soul and a particular type of soul
in which the characteristics in question are predominant.
Passionate soul makes a 1000 excuses to avoid being consumed by the fire of purification.
The wise should seek the beauty which does not perish.
The seeker must be qualified and the qualified are always few in number.
Since the goal is Truth itself, even if one were to loose one`s life on this path, it would be worthwhile. As for all the apparent difficulties, they are most of all due to the fact that the roots of the soul are sunk in the creaturely world of multiplicity and that man is too dispersed and diverted by creatures to be able to concentrate his mind and soul upon the Creator.
...having sold their Celestial self into slavery by betraying it as the brothers of Joseph had....
Only the beauty of the "Invisible" is worthy of being loved....
One of the birds complaints about the snares of the passionate soul and is told that the lower soul must be conquered. Another fears the temptations of the Devil and the hoopoe answers that the Devil has power only as long as man is attached to worldliness. Once the world is overcome so is the power of the adversary.
"Become nothing so that your being will become established."
Attar is reasserting the perennial truth currently forgotten in many circles: that only the human embodiment of Logos which is the prophet, however that function is understood in various religions can guide men to God.
Rumi
spiritual friendship between Rumi/Shams is rare in the history of Sufism, and has become proverbial in the East.
Rumi`s most famous work Mathnawi - Quran of the Persian language. In nearly 26000 verses of poetry, Rumi unravels in the Mathnawi the vast ocean of the world of the spirit and man`s journey to and through the world.
It is hardly possible to fit the ideas of Rumi into a closed system and give a systematic exposition of a metaphysical / initiatic teaching which like ocean, contains nearly everything and knows no limits/bounds.
Emulating the form of the Holy Book on the level of human inspiration, Rumi interlaces stories/parables with direct formulations of Sufi doctrine/practice in such a way as to encompass the whole of human existence and all the different problems/obstacles that man faces in his quest after the Thruth - which also means journey into the labyrinth of his own soul to its luminous Centre.
The soul of man becomes the arena in which prophets and saints as well as Satan/his armies each related to a force and an agent within man`s own being, act out the drama of deliverance and sanctification.
It was the illuminated soul/intellect of Rumi combined with his poetic genius which were able to create masterpieces of Sufi literature.
As one who was at once a saint/artist of unusual grandeur/universality, Rumi was particularly sensitive to the spiritual efficacy of beauty, that "Splendor of the Thruth" which for him was always the gateway to the inner courtyard of the Divine Mysteries. Rumi saw beauty as the direct imprint of the Divine in this world of generation/corruption and the most immediate means of awakening in man the consciousness/awareness of the spiritual world.
He saw in beauty direct proof of God/His Infinite Mercy and Power. "There is beauty, therefore God is"
Rumi saw beauty everywhere, in virgin nature, being of man, and in art.
For Rumi, man himself is an instrument in the hands of God, and his existence is the music issuing forth from this instrument.
According to Rumi, everything in the world of manifestation has a form and a meaning which is another way of describing 2 aspects of exterior (zahir), interior (batin) so characteristic of esoteric teachings of I.
No reality is exhausted by its appearance. Appearance is a manifestation of something, of an essence which is its mana. Nothing can ever be fully understood if one remains on the level of surat and is oblivious of mana. To understand the nature, of man or revelation, man must penetrate into the mana of things in the manner of Rumi himself, who was able to expound the Truth by having recourse to almost everything from simple actions of man or even animals to the most sublime passages from the Q
Rumi was able to create works that have become life and soul of Persian literature.
If you are really companion of the cave then enter the cave.
Firdawsi Shah-namah is complement of Mathnawi -supreme epic poem of the Persian language emphasizing the glory of the Persian people in the pre-I period. whose field of battle has become transformed to the world within the soul of man. It is in a sense an account of a lesser holy war (al- while the Mathnawi is the tale of the greater holy war- terminology of hadith.
#Die before you die#
#If there were no rose the nightingale would not be singing in the grove#
What made possible for Rumi to look upon the encounter with death as the moment of supreme ecstasy was of course the kind of life he had led in this life, life which had already led him into the state of sanctity before passing through gate of death. This life was to be witness to remarkable encounter with Shams and the sympathia between them which brought about Diwan - causing Rumi to leave the world of silence and have recourse to poetry to explain that which cannot but issue from holy silence.
For him, existence of beauty was the most direct proof of existence of God.
Prophet of I was given the possibility of experiencing everything that a human being can experience, from loosing his son to uniting all of Arabia. He was given the mission in order to be able to sanctify all of human life.
Rumi was able to accomplish this same task, nonetheless vast scale.
Behind every possible kind of experience lies a door towards Invisible.
Spiritual concert is permissible for lovers of God, forbidden for ignorant.
Sobriety of I prevented music from becoming externalized profanation.
I banned music which leads to forgetfulness of God,forbidden M from hearing it who would become distracted from spiritual world/immersed in worldliness through listening.
Man is situated between 2 worlds of silence> ambiguous/unknown for him before birth and after death.
Hindus consider 1st art sent from heaven for men to be music.M gnostics consider music to be the best means to express subtlest of divine mysteries.
Transcendent world is world of loveliness/beauty, source of it is harmony/tanasub.
5 Divine Presences-physical,intermediate,arch-angelic world, Divine Names/Qualities, Divine Essence.
In architecture space is defined by absence of corporeality.
May 7, 2007
eh... i have issues with this book - ill write more later
December 30, 2012
Excellent! Read it in University. Formed a core of my 5th year thesis.
November 11, 2012
Excellent book!
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