We made use of the long Ascension weekend to spend a few days in Istanbul. The direct exposure to a predominantly Islamic culture was a fascinating and instructive experience which served to reinforce my growing respect for a religion which has, sadly, an atrocious image in the West.
Islam, it seems to me, is monotheism in its purest form. Never mind the flim-flam, man's salvation is the experience of his essential dependence on and participation in the infinite Oneness which is God. This submission to Allah is no humiliation, but a simple recognition of a state of fact, bringing the individual to a proper and natural relationship with the source of his being. Prostration in the act of prayer is the physical and emotional expression of this relationship - worship rather than supplication, which tends to be the psychological (and physical) attitude of Christian prayer. The esoteric heart of Islam is Sufism. The Sufi or Dervish strives for the total annihilation of the self in the complete realisation of his oneness with Universal Reality. The ethereal Sufi music and the turning of the "whirling" Dervishes are techniques for inducing an exceptionally receptive emotional state which can permit of the inpouring of "the Peace of God which passes all understanding".
Sufism is suspect in the eyes of puritans and fundamentalists because, by implication, it fails to differentiate clearly between Islam and other religions - obviously, since, at the core, all true religion aspires to this direct experience of Reality.
My reading of Meister Eckhart ( many of whose views were held to be heretical, incidentally) has confirmed this for me beyond the slightest doubt. On the life of St. Francis he writes:
Die andere Tugend, die den Menschen gross macht, das ist die wahre Demut. Die hatte dieser Heilige in vollkommenem Masse und dazu die Selbstlosigkeit und Selbstvernichtung, die dem Menschen die Möglichkeit gibt, alle Vollkommenheit zu empfangen.
On the concept of Unity:
Es ist Etwas in der Seele, das ist mit Gott so versippt, das es mit ihm eins ist und nicht bloss vereint.
Or:
Ich habe eine Kraft in meiner Seele, die Gottes allzumal empfänglich ist. Ich bin dessen so gewiss, als ich lebe, dass kein Ding so nahe ist wie Gott. Gott ist mir näher, als ich mir selber bin, all mein Wesen hängt daran, dass mir Gott nahe und gegenwärtig ist.
The "Clash of Civilizations" is revealed as a preposterous misunderstanding created in the minds of men who have kidnapped religion to bolster some fantastic idea of being always "right". The complete antithesis of any notion of self-annihilation in the Love of God.
Islam, it seems to me, is monotheism in its purest form. Never mind the flim-flam, man's salvation is the experience of his essential dependence on and participation in the infinite Oneness which is God. This submission to Allah is no humiliation, but a simple recognition of a state of fact, bringing the individual to a proper and natural relationship with the source of his being. Prostration in the act of prayer is the physical and emotional expression of this relationship - worship rather than supplication, which tends to be the psychological (and physical) attitude of Christian prayer. The esoteric heart of Islam is Sufism. The Sufi or Dervish strives for the total annihilation of the self in the complete realisation of his oneness with Universal Reality. The ethereal Sufi music and the turning of the "whirling" Dervishes are techniques for inducing an exceptionally receptive emotional state which can permit of the inpouring of "the Peace of God which passes all understanding".
Sufism is suspect in the eyes of puritans and fundamentalists because, by implication, it fails to differentiate clearly between Islam and other religions - obviously, since, at the core, all true religion aspires to this direct experience of Reality.
My reading of Meister Eckhart ( many of whose views were held to be heretical, incidentally) has confirmed this for me beyond the slightest doubt. On the life of St. Francis he writes:
Die andere Tugend, die den Menschen gross macht, das ist die wahre Demut. Die hatte dieser Heilige in vollkommenem Masse und dazu die Selbstlosigkeit und Selbstvernichtung, die dem Menschen die Möglichkeit gibt, alle Vollkommenheit zu empfangen.
On the concept of Unity:
Es ist Etwas in der Seele, das ist mit Gott so versippt, das es mit ihm eins ist und nicht bloss vereint.
Or:
Ich habe eine Kraft in meiner Seele, die Gottes allzumal empfänglich ist. Ich bin dessen so gewiss, als ich lebe, dass kein Ding so nahe ist wie Gott. Gott ist mir näher, als ich mir selber bin, all mein Wesen hängt daran, dass mir Gott nahe und gegenwärtig ist.
The "Clash of Civilizations" is revealed as a preposterous misunderstanding created in the minds of men who have kidnapped religion to bolster some fantastic idea of being always "right". The complete antithesis of any notion of self-annihilation in the Love of God.
posted by asbo at 1:59 PM
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