Islam and the Plight of Modern Man

by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Hardcover in very good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in good condition. Jacket is sunned, and edges are creased and nicked. Jacket interior is foxed at the upper edge. Board spine ends are slightly bumped, and page block head is foxed. Pastedowns and endpapers are lightly tanned. Boards are clean, binding is sound and pages are clear. LW

Genres: Islam, Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality

161 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Seyyed 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.

Reviews

[Farhad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am too shy to express any thoughts on the works of this remarkable intellectual of our times.
(Small anecdote: At a conference in Toronto last December, my friends and I went up to him for a book signing. When it was our turn and we got up to him I froze and was silent. After my friends briefly talked to him, he looked at me with his old yet lively gaze and I still stayed silent, slightly smiling. What could I say? How does one give proper thanks to a blessed 83 year old scholar? It also probably had to do with my shy nature. I still regret it.)
With every new book I read, and talk I listen to, of his, the more indebted I become to Dr. Nasr. What I would have given to be a student of his. I am just so humbled by his genius and I praise God immensely for being able to read Dr. Nasr's works which so profoundly satisfy my intellectual and spiritual cravings.

"Modern civilization as it has developed in the West since the Renaissance is an experiment that has failed-failed in such an abysmal fashion as to cast doubt upon the very possibility of any future for man to seek other ways. It would be most unscientific today to consider this civilization, with all the presumptions about the nature of man and the Universe which lie at its basis, as anything other than a failed experiment."

"For millennia religions have taught men to avoid evil and to cultivate virtue. Modern man sought to destroy first the power of religion over his soul and then to question even the meaning of evil and sin. Now many propose as a solution to the environmental crisis a return to traditional virtues, although usually they do not describe the virtues in such terms because for the most part such people remain secular and propose that the life of men should continue to be divorced from the sacred."

"The attitude of the East towards the West should be to view it as a case study to learn from rather than as a model to emulate blindly."

"Sufism is actually like the flower of the tree of Islam, and in another sense the sap of that tree. Or it can be called the jewel in the crown of the Islamic tradition."

"Many modern men are tired of the finite psychological and physical experiences of everyday life no matter how materially comfortable that life may be. Having no access to the authentic spiritual experience which in traditional societies provides the natural means of breaking the limits of finite existence, they turn to new psychic experiences of all kinds which open for them new worlds and horizons, even if they be infernal. The great concern with psychic phenomena, "trips", extraordinary "experiences", and the like, is deeply related to this inner urge to break the suffocating and limited world of everyday life in a civilization which has no purpose beyond moving with accelerated speed toward an illusory ideal state of material well-being that is always just round the corner."

"As al-Ghazzali has said, he who fears the Creator runs towards Him and loves Him, and he who loves Him knows Him."

"One of the basic problems of modern man is the divorce between contemplation and action, and in fact the almost complete destruction of the former by the latter."

"Modern civilization, whether in the West or in its over flow in the East, takes pride in having developed the critical mind and the power of objective criticism, whereas in reality it is, in a fundamental sense the least critical of all known civilizations and the one farthest removed from a true sense of discernment, for it does not possess the objective criteria to judge and criticize its own activities."

"It is easy to point out that the life of students in traditional madrasahs is not hygienic, but it is much more difficult to take a firm stand and assert that much what is taught in modern educational institutions is far more deadly-for the soul of the students-than the physically unhealthy surroundings of the old madrasah buildings"

[Shaimaa Ali]

أتفق مع بعض آراء الكاتب واختلف مع البعض الآخر …

[Pedro Barata · Rating 5 out of 5]

It might be one of his best works that I've read so far.

[Khaled · Rating 5 out of 5]

عندما نقول الإسلام منهج حياة، وأنه متجدد مع متغيرات شؤونها، ثم نتوقف عن توضيح كيف يكون ذلك التجدد؛ فهل حينها نوضح رسالة الإسلام الحقيقية؟ فهل نخدم الإسلام بهذه المقولات؟ طبعاً لا، لأنه علينا توضيح وتفسير ما نقصد وكيف أن الإسلام هو دين حياة، وحياة دين؛ فهو متكامل ومتجدد وهو الرسالة الحق في هذا الزمان. وفي هذا الكتاب يشرح الكاتب ما حدث للإسلام في العصر الحديث وكيف أن المسلمين أصبحوا يوازنون بين القيم الغربية لتوضيح الإسلام، وهذا خطأ حسب ما يقول الكاتب لأنه علينا توضيح الإسلام منه وفيه ومن نصوصه والإبداع الذي ألهمته تلك النصوص فحينها سنخدم الإسلام، وحينها نحن سنفهم الإسلام ونعيشه ونقتنع به.
الكتاب يتحدث عن قضايا مهمة جداً ومفيد جداً إن كان للمسلمين والملحدين وكذلك كل من يريد معرفة عمق وحقيقة وجمال الإسلام.

[Fahd Iqtidar Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read of seyyed Hossein Nasr. It is a very interesting book that cuts through the different types of challenges being faced by the modern man, especially muslim. It also talks about the flaws in which the west and islam talk or see each other, how islam is pretty much still alive and functioning and how returning to the tradition of islam is the way forward. It also gives practical advise on how to engage different challenges being faced by the world of Islam today. This is a book that should be read by anyone who wants to understand the dynamics between the modern, post modern and secular world with islam and how to go about it.

[Mohamadreza imani · Rating 2 out of 5]

دکتر نصر تو این کتاب ادعای باز کردن باب گفتگوی تمدن ها رو داره ولی به نظر حقیر بیشتر نتیجه سد باب بوده تا گشودنش. به خصوص تو فصل‌ هایی که طرفش علم مدرنه، بالکل تو یه پارادایم دیگه داره حرف میزنه و یه انسان غربی وقتی با کتاب مواجه بشه، اصلا ارتباطی نمیتونه برقرار کنه. انگار کتاب فقط برای ما نصف مدرن نصف سنتی ها نوشته شده که بخونیم و به ایمانمون افزوده بشه (!)
یکسری فصل ها هم مثل نیازهای معنوی انسان غربی و ... که بسیار سطحی و در حد منبری های مسجد سر کوچه ماست!
عبارت جالبی نیست ولی با توجه به این کتاب شاید انتصاب عبارت «آخوند کراواتی» به ایشون پر بیراه هم نباشه.

[Khaled · Rating 5 out of 5]

"لقد عَلّمت الأديان الإنسان طوال ألفيات من السنين لكي يتجنب الشر ويسعى إلى الخير، لكن الإنسان الحديث قد انخرط في تدمير قوة الدين على الإنسان أولاً ثم تساءل بعد ذلك عن معنى الشر والخطيئة"
كتاب عظيم للعودة للإيمان، لله، لوجودنا المرتبط بخالقنا ومصيرنا بعد أن انشغلنا عن بالافراط في الحداثة والماديات مما أنتج ما حولنا من تلوث ذاتي وبيئي، فالبيئة وتلوثها ما هو إلا انعكاس لما وصلت له ذوات البشر من تلوث. كتاب سيكون كالنور لك في عالم جديد يكون أكثر خيراً وتعايشاً وسلاما.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

manusia yang menderita adalah manusia yang hidup di pinggiran lingkaran eksistensi. Pusat eksistensi adalah Yang Bathin, Pinggiran eksistensi adalah yang Zhahir. Hanya dengan menggunakan rasionalitas (humanisme) kental yang diagung- agungkan kaum Barat, manusia tidak akan dapat menuju transformasi spiritual menuju pusat eksistensi- menjadi manusia yang utuh (al insanil kamil).

Philosophically brilliant. Versi indonesianya= Islam dan nestapa manusia moderen.

[Wafa]

this is very important and interesting book.in this book writer greatly discussed intellectual and spiritual facts and crises of modern man