Most Popular Books by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Table of Contents The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr by Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Smith, Huston (Foreword by) Terms of Use Foreword Huston Smith p. vii Introduction William C. Chittick p. ix Religion 1 Living in a Multi-Religious World p. 3 2 The Traditionalist Approach to Religion p. 21 3 Religion and the Environmental Crisis p. 29 Islam 4 One God p. 43 5 Many Prophets p. 53 6 The Nature of Man p. 65 7 The Integration of the Soul p. 73 8 The Throne of the All-Merciful p. 85 9 The Role of Philosophy p. 97 10 Suhrawardi p. 111 11 Mulla Sadra p. 115 12 Existence and Quiddity p. 119 Tradition 13 Scientia Sacra p. 131 14 Renaissance Humanism p. 139 15 God as Reality p. 153 16 Time and Eternity p. 159 17 Pontifical and Promethean Man p. 171 18 The Cosmos as Theophany p. 189 19 Traditional Art p. 203 20 The Wisdom of the Body p. 215 21 In the Beginning was Consciousness p. 223 Sources p. 231 Selected Bibliography p. 233 Biographical Notes p. 237 Index p. 239 Descriptive content provided by Syndetics"! a Bowker service. Summary The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr by Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Smith, Huston (Foreword by) Terms of use "The highest honor a philosopher can receive is to be nominated by his peers for inclusion in the series of The Library of Living Philosophers [for which the] latest entry is The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. And the highest honor a theologian can receive is to be invited to deliver the Gifford Lectures in Glasgow, Scotland. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is the only person ever to have received both of these honors ... This valuable book distills the essence of the thought of one of the most important thinkers or our times." Book jacket. Descriptive content provided by Syndetics"! a Bowker service.

In this book, a series of interviews offers an accessible, revealing, human and intellectual biography of leading Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is one of the preeminent philosophers writing today. Sure to be a key resource for decades to come, In Search of the Sacred: A Conversation with Seyyed Hossein Nasr on His Life and Thought illuminates Nasr''s experiences and shares his insights on topics from religion and philosophy to science and the arts. Based on a series of interviews, the book combines traditional autobiography with an exploration of the intellectual and spiritual trajectories of the author''s thought during key periods of his life. In doing so, it presents a fascinating panorama, not only of the life and ideas of one man, but also of major events ranging from intellectual life in Iran during the Pahlavi period and the Iranian Revolution to some of the major religious and intellectual debates between Islam and modernism. Nasr writes that his "whole life has been a quest for the sacred." This work connects that quest with some of the most important issues of the day in encounters between Islam and the West.

This book combines scholarly research into certain aspect of Sufi doctrines and history with a penetrating account of the spiritual and metaphysical message and significance of Sufism as a living spiritual tradition. In an original discussion, unlike anything that has appeared before in studies of Sufism, the author places special accent on the pertinence of Sufi teachings to the most acute contemporary problems. The book addresses itself to both the ever-increasing Western public interested in Sufism and to the Western-educated Muslim interested in his own spiritual heritage. Dr. Nasr draws on his intimate knowledge of the Sufi literature in Arabic and Persian as well as his first-hand knowledge of Sufi tradition itself to produce this further volume in his numerous studies on the different facets of Islam.

A comprehensive overview of the Islamic philosophical tradition.

As the specter of religious extremism has become a fact of life, it can be very easy to believe that the evil actions of a minority stand for the values of an entire tradition. Recently, there has been much confusion in the Western world concerning distorted portrayals of Islam’s core values. Drawing on Islamic scripture, teaching and tradition, Seyyed Hossein Nasr presents the true spiritual and social values of Islam, such as peace, compassion, social justice, and tolerance. Nasr calls fellow members of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to a new future of mutual respect and common global purpose, as he portrays the beauty and appeal of a faith that is embraced by more than a billion people. Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Tehran, Iran in 1933. He received his advanced education at M.I.T. and Harvard University, returning to teach at Tehran University from 1958-1979, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Vice Chancellor. He founded the Iranian Academy of Philosophy and served as its first president, and was also for several years president of Aryamehr University. Since 1984, he has been University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and President of the Foundation for Traditional Studies. “At a time when Islam is frequently misunderstood and often maligned, this sensitive, insightful, and beautifully written book comes as a ray of sunshine.” -Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God

The current ecological crisis is a matter of urgent global concern, with solutions being sought on many fronts. In this book, Seyyed Hossein Nasr argues that the devastation of our world has been exacerbated, if not actually caused, by the reductionist view of nature that has been advanced by modern secular science. What is needed, he believes, is the recovery of the truth to which the great, enduring religions all attest; namely that nature is sacred. Nasr traces the historical process through which Western civilization moved away from the idea of nature as sacred and embraced a world view which sees humans as alienated from nature and nature itself as a machine to be dominated and manipulated by humans. His goal is to negate the totalitarian claims of modern science and to re-open the way to the religious view of the order of nature, developed over centuries in the cosmologies and sacred sciences of the great traditions. Each tradition, Nasr shows, has a wealth of knowledge and experience concerning the order of nature. The resuscitation of this knowledge, he argues, would allow religions all over the globe to enrich each other and cooperate to heal the wounds inflicted upon the Earth.

This is the first book in the English language to deal with the spiritual significance of Islamic art including not only the plastic arts, but also literature and music. Rather than only dealing with the history of the various arts of Islam or their description, the author relates the form, content, symbolic language, meaning, and presence of these arts to the very sources of the Islamic revelation. Relying upon his extensive knowledge of the Islamic religion in both its exoteric and esoteric dimensions as well as the various Islamic sciences, the author relates Islamic art to the inner dimensions of the Islamic revelation and the spirituality which has issued from it. He brings out the spiritual significance of the Islamic arts ranging from architecture to music as seen, heard, and experienced by one living within the universe of the Islamic tradition. In this work the reader is made to understand the meaning of Islamic art for those living within the civilization which created it.

The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world''s fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment, insisting rather on the love of God as the only valid form of adoration. Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music and philosophy, dance and literature. The Sufi poet Rumi is the bestselling poet in America. But in recent centuries Sufism has been a target for some extremist Islamic movements as well as many modernists. The Garden of Truth presents the beliefs and vision of the mystical heart of Islam, along with a history of Sufi saints and schools of thought. In a world threatened by religious wars, depleting natural resources, a crumbling ecosystem, and alienation and isolation, what has happened to our humanity? Who are we and what are we doing here? The Sufi path offers a journey toward truth, to a knowledge that transcends our mundane concerns, selfish desires, and fears. In Sufism we find a wisdom that brings peace and a relationship with God that nurtures the best in us and in others. Noted scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr helps you learn the secret wisdom tradition of Islam and enter what the ancient mystics call the "garden of truth." Here, liberate your mind, experience peace, discover your purpose, fall in love with the Divine, and find your true, best self.

This volume gathers together the numerous essays by the Iranian metaphysician and ontologist, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, on Islamic philosophers and the intricate relationship between Persian culture and its philosophical schools. Brought together into a single volume for the first time, these essays span four decades of Nasr''s prolific and learned scholarship on the development of Islamic philosophy, as well as the general history of Islam, and expound his belief that philosophy is not merely a rational but a sacred activity.

This is a spiritual tour de force which explores the relationship between Man and Nature as found in Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, particularly its Sufi dimension.

This collection of essays by one of the best known contemporary Muslim scholars writing in English covers many facets of Islamic life and thought. The author has brought together studies dealing with the practical as well as intellectual aspects of Islam in both their historical and contemporary reality. The contemporary significance of themes such as religion and secularism, the meaning of freedom, and the tradition of Islamic science and philosophy is given particular attention.

This is the only book to deal with classical Islamic cosmology as it was formulated by the Ikhwan al-S''afa al Biruni and Ibn Sina during the tenth and eleventh centuries. These figures influenced all the later centuries of Islamic history and in fact created the cosmological framework within which all later scientific activity in the Islamic world was carried out--the enduring image of the cosmos within which Muslims have lived during the past millennium. Nasr writes from within the Islamic tradition and demonstrates how, based on the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet, the figures treated in this work integrated elements drawn from various ancient schools of philosophy and the sciences. This book is unique in its treatment of classical Islamic cosmology as seen from within the Islamic world-view and provides a key for understanding of traditional Islamic thought.

The meaning of a science rooted in the sacred, its contrast to modern science and its pertinence to us today.