"Islam confronts what is immutable in God with what is permanent in man."

- Frithjof Schuon, Understanding Islam

In an age when the Muslim faith is crying out for intellectual renewal, there have been two truly outstanding Islamic intellectuals, both of them European converts to Islam. These are René Guenon and Frithjof Schuon. Together they are known in the West as the major exponents of the so-called "Traditionalist" or "Perennialist" school of religious philosophy. Despite what "perennialists" might themselves say, this "Traditionalism" or "Perennialism" should largely be understood as a modern Muslim intellectual movement. Both Guenon and Schuon were pious and profound Muslims and wrote extraordinarily perspicuous accounts of the traditional doctrines of Islam. Both were also men of great spiritual attainment; both were counted as Sheihks of Sufi brotherhoods. Both deserve an enduring place in the history of Islamic thought. They are men of the statute of the great sages of the Middle Ages. Indeed, in any other age both of these Muslims would be counted not as "philosophers" but as sages and luminaries, men who bring sanctity to the human intellect. Allah has been gracious in bringing to our times men of such depth and vision, intellectual integrity combined with spiritual sincerity.

Their task was to restate the inner truth of Islam in absolute terms against modern relativisms and in terms of traditional metaphysical symbolism as against fundamentalist literalism and externalism. Their great virtue was to develop a universalist perspective in Islamic ideas. Their "perennialism" is not the ossified conventionalism of Muslim fundamentalism but is a metaphysical perspective that places the Islamic religion in the context of the "philosophia perennis", the "Din al-Haqq", the "Religion of Truth", the "Lex Aeterna", the Primordial Truth, the religion of Adam. At the same time their critique of modernity is potent, sharp, precise and comprehensive.

The guiding illumination of perennialism is that all religions express the same core truths. This is a philosophical development of the Muslim perspective. There is only one religion - the Religion of Truth (Din al-Haqq) - and the various religions of man are so many deviations from this one faith. All the prophets and sages speak with one voice. Islam is the final reiteration of this primordial faith. This perspective is the ground for an intrinsically Islamic ecumenicism. In its fullness, Islam has the potential to be a universal meta-religion. It is the only faith with a truly universal perspective. It is the only faith that embraces all other faiths within its orbit. It is only the narrow and hateful particularism of religious externalists that prevents Islam from ascending to this dignified role in the spiritual life of man.

Many other European intellectuals have followed them into Islam and added great wealth to the perennialist school of thought. The only major Perennialist thinkers who were not Muslims were Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, a Hindu, and Marco Pallis, a Buddhist, although today there is a growing number of Christians who are carrying "perennialist" insights into Christianity. One does not need to subscribe to every tenet of "perennialism" to appreciate the enormous value of this school of thought to modern Islam. Against rising Muslim externalism and an idolatry of science, the perennialists have tirelessly reiterated the treasures of the Muslim metaphysical heritage as well as being by far the most astute and insightful students of the Islamic humanities.

Rene Guenon - Shaykh Abd al-Wahid Yahya 1886-1951

Rene Guenon - Shaykh Abd al-Wahid Yahya

Rene Guenon was born in Blois, France in 1886. An accomplished mathematician and the preeminent student of Oriental metaphysics in his time he converted to Islam in about 1912. He moved to Cairo in 1930 and remained there the rest of his life living with his wife as a perfectly ordinary Muslim family. During his life Guenon published some 26 major books and dozens of articles. His work established him as the greatest metaphysical thinker of the modern era and one of the geatest exponents of traditional religious symbolism. His mathematical mind drew him to the Shadhili Order of Sufis.

Frithjof Schuon - Shaykh `Isa Nur al-Din Ahmad al-Shadhili alDarquwi al- `Alawi al-Maryami (1907-1998)

Frithjof Schuon - Shaykh `Isa Nur al-Din

Frithjof Schuon was born in Switzerland in 1907 and died in Bloomington Indiana in 1998. Like Guenon, he wrote in French. He was a pupil of the great North Africa saint Shaykh Ahmad Al'Alawi. Inspired by Guenon, Schuon further developed the modern exposition of 'Traditionalism' but with a wider and more eclectic perspective. He wrote with authority on numerous religious traditions, including those of the North American Plains Indians. His work 'Understanding Islam' is an unquestioned masterpiece - one of the most profound accounts of Islam in any language. Later in his life he founded a Mariyama tariqah, a Sufi Order devoted especially to the Virgin Mary. He is a controversial figure who claims to have had visions of the Blessed Virgin in which he was appointed to a special mission with special authority. These claims aside, his works are extraordinarily rich and wide-ranging.

Both of these thinkers should be regarded as separate but related sages and be placed in the orbit of Islamic intellectualism. In general, Guenon approaches Islam through an understanding of Vedanta while Schuon is more deeply rooted in Plotinus and Neo-Platonism. They differ on many points but especially on questions regarding the spiritual health of contemporary Christianity. There is no point in taking sides in such disputes. There is unquestioned inspiration in both writers.

Martin Lings - Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din

Also in the "Perennialist" school of thinkers was Martin Lings -Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din. His celebrated biography of the Holy Prophet - "Muhammad: His Life based on the earliest Sources" is arguably the best modern biography of the Prophet - upon whom be peace - and certainly the best in the English language. It is a masterpiece. In other respects, too, Lings offered invaluable service to the Western appreciation of the Muslim arts.

Titus Burkhardt - Ibrahim Burkhardt

There was also Titus (Ibrahim) Burkhardt. Burkhardt's books on Islamic art, craft and architecture are unsurpassed.

Sayyed Hossein Nasr

The only born Muslim among the leading perennialists. Born in Iran in 1933, Professor Nasr has been one of the great shining lights in modern Muslim philosophy. He is the author of many celebrated works on Islamic mysticism, philosophy, science and art: Islam and the plight of Modern Man, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, Knowledge and the Sacred, Islamic Art and Spirituality, Islamic Life and Thought, Living Sufism, Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man, The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition, Science and Civilization in Islam, The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity, Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study. His book Ideals and Realities of Islam is arguably the best introduction to the Islamic religion in the English language.

Charles Le Gai Eaton - Hasan le Gai Eaton or Hassan Abdul Hakeem

Gai Eaton converted to Islam in 1951. He is the author of many excellent books on Islam including, Islam and the Destiny of Man, Remembering God and King of the Castle. Many British converts to Islam have been inspired by Eaton's works and his fans include Charles, Prince of Wales.

Guenon and Schuon together in the early 20th C.

These inspiring Western Muslims are beacons of hope in the Wahabist gloom of post-Caliphate Islam. It is a matter of shame and scandal that so many so-called Muslim intellectuals in the 20th C and in our times have been and are entirely ignorant of these significant, profound Muslim thinkers - all the more so because, often, they are dismissed from Muslim discourse because they are mere "converts" and not "true" Muslims. (Nasr is dismissed because he is a Shia.) In fact, they put the Arab, Turkish, Indian and other "true Muslim" intellectuals of the modern era to shame. Compare Schuon to Qutb, for instance. Qutb is an intellectual pygmie by comparison.

Anyone who has even the slightest pretensions to an intellectual appreciation of Islam and wants to understand the profundities of Islamic thought should acquaint themselves with the following four works, at least:

*Ideals & Realities of Islam - S. H. Nasr

*Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton

*Muhammad: His Life based on the earliest Sources - Martin Lings

*Understanding Islam - Frithjof Schuon

Without exaggeration, these four works should, indeed, be compulsory reading for all students of Islam. If someone claims to know anything about Islam, check their bookshelves. If these works are missing, they have been asleep!

* * *

It is reported - and Allah knows best - that Shahbistari, a friend of God - may Allah be pleased with him - said, "When "I" and "You" are absent, I have no idea if this is a mosque, synagogue, church or temple."

Site Map