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Modern Civilization:

"The civilization of the modern West appears in history a veritable anomaly: among all those which are known to us more or less completely, this civilization is the only one which has developed along purely material lines ..."
René Guénon < more >

Tradition rediscovered:

"Tradition can be considered as principles revealed from Heaven and binding man to his Origin..."
SH Nasr < more >

isl art
Islamic Tradition:

"Islamic tradition is a living organism with the Qur'an and the authentic Sunnah as its genes. A living organism - a plant or a human being - grows and changes during its lifetime and yet the blueprint of this growth and change, is already in its genes. In the same way the Islamic tradition grows and changes with time but the pattern of its growth and change is once and for all fixed in the Qur'an and the authentic Sunnah..."
Dr. Ahmad Shafaat < more >

Related pp. at *living islam* :

• Modernism And Modern Thought quotes from S H Nasr

• The Nature Of Sacred Knowledge
Q / A from SH Nasr's 'Knowledge And The Sacred'

• Knowledge of the Sacred
Q / A SH Nasr

• Några av traditionens definitioner och teser
formul. av René Guénon

• Några av traditionens definitioner och teser
formul. av Kurt Almqvist
(efter René Guénon)

Related links at other sites:

• cosmos/Guenon

• RENÉ GUÉNON

• An Extensive Biography

• Guénon book titles

External links in French:

• Lire Guénon entre les lignes Les écrits de René Guénon sont la traduction, pour notre époque, de ce qui est contenu dans l'enseignement des maîtres spirituels des grandes Traditions de l'Humanité derrière le voile des apparences. Cependant, c'est bien le contact avec un maître spirituel vivant qui redonne son souffle à cette traduction écrite de la Tradition, car c'est lui seul qui peut progressivement amener le lecteur, devenu disciple, à l'essentiel.

• Apercus sur l'Esoterisme Rencontrer un jour René Guénon sur son chemin, selon les mots de Roger du Pasquier, a signifié pour beaucoup un bouleversement des habitudes mentales, un retournement des valeurs.

• Peut-être, un jour, trouverez-vous René Guénon sur votre chemin... Quant à la tradition (du latin tradere, livrer, transmettre), elle comprend tout ce que l'homme n'a pas inventé mais reçu à l'origine des temps. Elle trouve donc son point de départ dans l'origine suprahumaine de toutes choses dans le "Paradis terrestre", avant de prendre des formes multiples au cours des âges, selon les mentalités, formes qui correspondent à toutes les religions du monde résultant d'une révélation divine, chacune d'elles se trouvant donc sur un pied d'égalité quant à son but qui est de délivrer la vérité essentielle. La tradition est donc la marque distinctive de toutes les civilisations non modernes. Mais elle n'est pas fixe ni rigide pour autant: elle évolue en fonction des cycles cosmiques qui régissent l'histoire humaine. Les cycles se suivent mais ne se répètent pas à l'identique, si bien que la tradition est en somme ce qui reste à travers ce qui se passe et se perd au cours des cycles. Selon ce point de vue et les traditions révélées, nous serions en ce moment à la fin de l'âge de fer - ou des conflits,.. où l'obscurcissement spirituel atteint sa limite.

• Cahiers de Recherches et d'Etudes Traditionnelles

External links in German:

• Vor 50 Jahren starb Abd al-Wahid Yahia (René Guénon) Martin A. Schwarz

• Biographische Information
R. Guénon: "Der ganze Wert dieser Arbeit ist die authentische orientalische Lehre, die sie enthält; meine Arbeit ist es nur, diese Lehre auf die klarste und genauste Weise zu übermitteln, die mir möglich ist."

Other external links:

• René Guénon - Italian Homepage







 
Who was René Guénon - Shaykh `Abd Al Wahid Yahya?
"When man is imprisoned like this in life and in the conceptions directly connected with it, he can know nothing about what escapes from change, about the transcendant and immutable order, which is that of the universal principles" RG EW90
"His function (was), in a world increasingly rife with heresy and pseudo religion, to remind twentieth century man of the need for orthodoxy which itself presupposes firstly a divine intervention, and secondly a tradition which hands down with fidelity from generation to generation what Heaven has revealed..."
Dr. Martin Lings < sophiajournal.com >

"The writings of the great French thinker René Guénon - Shaykh `Abd Al Wahid Yahya (1886-1951) have by now achieved luminary status. His castigation of the modern world, grounded upon a pioneering reinstatement of the universal, first principles of the one true metaphysic abiding at the heart of the sacred traditions, has stood fast against the shifting sands of recent philosophies and can refurbish our powers of discrimination in face of the new millennium and the postmodern age."
 

  An introduction to Shaykh Abd Al Wahid Yahya - René Guénon

  His works are primarily in French and in English. In Swedish there is an excellent book about Shaykh Abd Al Wahid Yahya: "I tjänst hos det Enda" ( In the service of The One), edited by Kurt Almqvist, a Swedish author writing on metaphysical questions. This is still the only disposition of RG's life and work in a Scandinavian language and it includes excerpts from some of his books, such as "Crisis of the Modern World" and "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times."

  A European intellectual from the first half of the 20th century, he had witnessed the tragic and seemingly unavoidable events of his times, not the least both World Wars. He confronted the ruling myths of this civilization, such as 'human progress', 'technical development towards a brighter future' and he penetrated some of the most important philosophical and religious traditions - when towards the middle of his life - he embraced Islam and travelled to Egypt where he lived until the end of his life as a well-respected Muslim author.

  One of his main concerns was to produce an unsentimental analysis of Western ideological and religious development since the Renaissance, focusing on the degradation - as he saw it - of metaphysics, religion and philosophy and consequently of the mentality of the general populace.
  He explained why the civilization of the West was built on false foundations, like a house built on sand: its positivism, its denial of true tradition and in consequece its loss of metaphysiscal knowledge. He also showed the way to reform this situation by gaining access - through initiation - to the sacred and eternal treasure of timeless wisdom hidden beyond the positivistic sciences. His writings have inspired many engaged intellectuals to search for truth and meaning in an otherwise meaningless world.

  Another of his main concerns was to clear from the pure concept of Ultimate Reality everything that IT is not and to teach its pure doctrine, because IT can only be described in negative terms ( of what IT is NOT ). His work is to remind us of the impossibility of having some rational concept of Ultimate Reality, except for the insight gained from intellectual intuition (the ma`rifa - intuitive knowledge of God) by following the teachings of Revelation and prophetic tradition (Sunnah).

  This introduction is not an adequate overview over this outstanding writer's work, who wrote no less than 26 books and conducted a numereous correspondance with many thinkers of his time. Some of his main areas of focus are:

• A definition of tradition versus anti-tradition and sentimentalized religion
• a distinction between metaphysics versus philosophy and religion
• an exposition of metaphysics and the hierarchy of stages of being
• a clear doctrine of the Ultimate Reality, Allah, Almighty God
• a thorough examination of Western thought and mentality:
   - individualism, modernism, rationalism, quantification; slackening of doctrine
• a rigorous distinction between Intellect and reason
• an explanation of esoterism and its function in religion, of initiation
• an explanation of the science of symbolism

 

 (1.) text-excerpts by René Guénon [•  = ext. links]

_e   english 

•   Crisis & The Modern World
•   Quotations from 'East & West'
•   True And False Spiritual Teachers
•   The Role Of The Spiritual Master
•   Signposts: Quotes On Metaphysics, On Non-Dualism etc
•   Excerpt from 'Crisis of the Modern World', at: rosenoire.org
•   Excerpt from 'The Multiple States of Being', at: simplyislam.com
•   Notes on the End of the World; from: The Reign of Quantity

"In any case, what Westeners call civilization, the others would call barbarity, because it is precisely lacking in the essential, that is to say a principle of a higher order."

RG, East And West, 1924

_f   français 

•   Que faut il entendre par tradition ?
•   la métaphysique orientale
•   Citations RG sur la métaphysique (en construction)
•   Citations RG en génerale (du dictionnaire) (en projèt)
•   extraits de: La crise du monde moderne, (archipress.org)

_d   deutsch 

•   Das Heilige und das Profane
•   Symbole der heiligen Wissenschaft
•   Das Unendliche Und Die Möglichkeit
•   Orientalische Metaphysik
•   Das Zeitalter der Quantität
•   Über Geistigkeit oder Spiritualität

_s   español 

•   Via Shâdhilita de René Guénon

_sv   svenska 

•   Den Mörka Tidsåldern
•   Några av traditionens definitioner och teser
•   René Guénon om Traditionen och traditionell undervisning
•   ur 'Crisis Of The Modern World': Individualismens roll för filisofin

 

 (2.) other authors on René Guénon

•   A Presentation of René Guénon By Mircea A. Tamas
•   Några av traditionens definitioner och teser av Kurt Almqvist
•   Martin Lings: René Guénon
•   René Guénon Biography at seriousseekers.com
•   Lire Guénon entre les lignes entretien avec Marie-Hélène Dassa

 

 (3.) other documents

•   Institut des Hautes Etudes Islamiques

 (4.) other links

•   Rene Guenon (Abd al-Wahid Yahya) (1886-1951)  An introduction

•   REGNABIT  Images and texts

•   Sheij Abdel Wahid Yahia, el hombre de la Tradición  por Omar Abu Bilal Ribas

•   First French Vedantist's Influence Still Strong In European Countries

•   La crise du monde moderne  Avec extraits significatifs

•   René Guénon
      with a bookreview of "Reign of Quantity and Signs of the Times"

•   René Guénon - biography
list of some of his books:
- The Crisis of the Modern World
- East and West
- The Multiple States of Being
- The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times
- The Symbolism of the Cross
- Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power
- The Spiritist Fallacy
- Theosophy
order at: www.seriousseekers.com/Books

•   On The Common Eternal Principles, And That Islam Reigns
      incl. René Guénon's role for sacred Tradition in general and Islam

 

 

 

 

 






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2001-09-08

* living Islam – Islamic Tradition *
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