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Islam’s acceptance of other religions remains an enigma for many Westerners. Yet it is Islam’s doctrine of Unity, which affirms one supreme God, as well as its acceptance of multiple prophets, which explains its acceptance of other faiths. The sixteen articles in this volume discuss the fundamental universality of Islam and make the case for it as a religion and civilization intrinsically equipped to address all aspects of the human experience, including the priority of Divine Mercy over Justice, the inclusive nature of prophecy, the emphasis on virtue and beauty, the Islamic ability to assimilate various cultural and ethnic languages, and the capacity of Islamic mysticism or Sufism to serve as a spiritual bridge for interfaith dialogue between diverse religions. Contributors include Frithjof Schuon, René Guénon, Titus Burckhardt, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr and other experts in Islam and Sufism. This is another book in World Wisdom’s series of Studies in Comparative Religion.
About the Author(s)
Patrick Laude
Patrick Laude is a writer, editor, professor, and researcher in the fields of language, literature, symbolism, and mysticism. He is a professor at Georgetown University, currently at their School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Laude's writings have been published in the US and Europe in numerous journals.
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Reviews
- Understanding is the key to a more peaceful planet. Universal Dimensions of Islam: Studies in Comparative Religion serves as a fascinating look into Islam as many writers delve into their own studies of faith, and how Islam and its culture can serve as a bridge connecting it to other faiths for a more understanding world. Insightful and enlightening, Universal Dimensions of Islam is a solid addition for any Islamic studies collection focusing on scholarly discussions of the Muslim faith.”
— The Midwest Book ReviewJean-Claude Petitpierre
- One of the most urgent needs today is for objective knowledge about Islam. In this domain, as in others, ‘knowledge is strength’ for the one who possesses it. Ignorance — or, worse still, passion and prejudice — help no one. As far as ignorance concerning Islam is concerned, this book is the perfect remedy, containing as it does, lucid and informative articles by major figures in the field of religion such as Frithjof Schuon and Titus Burckhardt, as well as by a number of specifically Islamic specialists. In present-day circumstances, it is essential reading.
William Stoddart, author of Remembering in a World of Forgetting and What Do the Religions Say about Each Other? Christian Attitudes towards Islam, Islamic Attitudes towards Christianity
- Patrick Laude provides an invaluable collection of some of the greatest expressions of universal spirituality written in the past century and a half. . . . The essays are both intellectually and spiritually inspirational.
John Voll, Georgetown University, author of Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World
- Introducing the “Universal Dimension” of Islam goes a long way to dispelling the myth of radical Islam. In his new work, Patrick Laude has gathered major essays by the leading figures in the Perennialist tradition
Mehdi Aminrazavi, University of Mary Washington, author of Philosophy, Religion and the Question of Intolerance
- In these articles we encounter Islam as a profound, rich spiritual heritage of universal scope. It is not the monochrome Islam of so-called ‘fundamentalism’ but instead a variegated, woven tapestry that gives expression to the beauty of a tradition that forms the spiritual, intellectual, and social framework of over a quarter of humanity today.
Rodney Blackhirst, La Trobe University, author of Primordial Alchemy and Modern Religion
- Patrick Laude has assembled a sample of writings nourishing anyone’s journey through the desert into the spirit. Selections from recognized ‘traditionalist’ leaders are spiced with fresh voices from Mali to China, so offering fruitful paths for comparing Muslim with other ways, to reveal startling convergences.
David Burrell, University of Notre Dame, author of Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas
- This collection brings together some of the best writings on the universal dimensions of Islam. Anchoring Islam’s universality in its core teaching of Tawhid, Divine unity, the essays provide penetrating insights into Islam’s ability to produce a world civilization which combines the elements of particularity and universality.
Ibrahim Kalin, Georgetown University, author of Islam and the West
- A fascinating collection of thoughts on Islam.…Very well done…
Comments from Benjamin Franklin Awards Judging Panel
- Professor Patrick Laude has assembled a remarkable anthology of literature about Sufi Islam that is both esoteric in subject matter and eclectic in scope and diversity. A collection of articles by various authors detailing religious, spiritual, esoteric, poetic and/or metaphysical issues always runs the risk of descending into the obscure, the obtuse and the oblique. However Laude successfully manages to keep the book focused and coherent. The aim of this book, as stated by the editor, is to ‘make the case for a vision of Islam as a religion and civilization intrinsically equipped to address universal human predicaments, and converging thereby with the highest spiritual expressions of all authentic religious heritages’ (p. vii).
from a review by Abdullah Drury in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations
