PHYSICS AND SUFI COSMOLOGY

PHYSICS AND SUFI COSMOLOGY

Author: Sardar Irshad Shaheen

Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.

Published: 2023-11-27

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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The perennial enigma the human mind has been encountering is the meaning of life and its place in the universe. On this subject, science and spirituality remained in discord with each other particularly for the last couple of centuries. The Theory of Relativity followed by quantum mechanics changed the worldview of traditional mindset altogether. The postulates of quantum physics paved the way for growing interest in philosophical spirituality. Theoretical physicist Fritjof Capra's book The Tao of Physics explored parallels between Eastern mysticism and modern science. Toshihiko Izutsu, in his book Sufism and Taoism, found similarities between Taoism and Muslim mysticism or Sufism. The book under review attempts to discover compatibility between Sufism and modern cosmology. It is basically a research book with more than seven hundred (700) citations of authorities of various disciplines, drawing from a vast array of diverse fields, such as physics, philosophy, biology, psychology and spirituality. The book probes into the nature and value of existence which ultimately leads to the direction of interconnection of the universe and human psyche; unity and integration of all things, and ultimately the unity of the whole universe and the whole person. These views are not placed on the shaky foundations of faith but they are based on philosophical logic and scientific facts--regarding importance of man as an observer in the universe, despite appearing insignificant on a point-like planet in the stunning vastness of empty space, and magnificent integration and harmony of the human psyche with the cosmos. These aspects of the book are unique in the sense that they amazingly reveal commonalities between physical and spiritual concepts and explain the phenomenon of existence as a compact whole in a coherent and logical sequence, with a glimpse of futuristic existence. This book may be of particular interest to the academia, research scholars, and students who may find the contents of the book unique and even startling. The author of the book is a research scholar from Pakistan who has been dedicated to exploring the reality of the physical world and human life. He has accentuated quite subtle and intricate issues in his book. His contribution to the relevant subject appears to have originality and, at times, remarkable distinction. The author believes that the contents of this book may not be found in any other single book published so far.


Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul

Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul

Author: William C. Chittick

Publisher: ONEWorld Publications

Published: 2007-06-14

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

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In this profound book, William Chittick examines the demise of the Sufi academic tradition, questioning how Islamic thought can be reclaimed from ideology and commercialism.


Sufi Essays

Sufi Essays

Author: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1972-01-01

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780873952330

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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.


Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam

Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam

Author: Samer Akkach

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0791483444

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This fascinating interdisciplinary study reveals connections between architecture, cosmology, and mysticism. Samer Akkach demonstrates how space ordering in premodern Islamic architecture reflects the transcendental and the sublime. The book features many new translations, a number from unpublished sources, and several illustrations. Referencing a wide range of mystical texts, and with a special focus on the works of the great Sufi master Ibn Arabi, Akkach introduces a notion of spatial sensibility that is shaped by religious conceptions of time and space. Religious beliefs about the cosmos, geography, the human body, and constructed forms are all underpinned by a consistent spatial sensibility anchored in medieval geocentrism. Within this geometrically defined and ordered universe, nothing stands in isolation or ambiguity; everything is interrelated and carefully positioned in an intricate hierarchy. Through detailed mapping of this intricate order, the book shows the significance of this mode of seeing the world for those who lived in the premodern Islamic era and how cosmological ideas became manifest in the buildings and spaces of their everyday lives. This is a highly original work that provides important insights on Islamic aesthetics and culture, on the history of architecture, and on the relationship of art and religion, creativity and spirituality.


Living Presence

Living Presence

Author: Kabir Edmund Helminski

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1992-06-01

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0874776996

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"This is an excellent book that explains spiritual principles and how to carry them into everyday life . . . Highly recommended."—Library Journal Sufism is a centuries-old spiritual psychology leading to presence in life. Presence is our capacity to be whole in the moment, in alignment with our deepest wisdom. With unusual clarity, this book describes how presence is different from ordinary habits of mind, and how it can be developed. Drawing on the words of the great Sufi, Rumi, as well as traditional material and personal experience, this book integrates the wisdom of Sufism with the needs of contemporary life. Living Presence offers a wisdom that is both universal and practical. It shows how we can bring spirituality and psychology into a balanced system that honors and awakens the soul. “I am pleased to give Living Presence a high recommendation: It is sober, thoughtful, and well worth deep reflection. Helminski is concerned with out interactions with each other, with cultivating love and a desire to serve the Highest through serving each other . . . a valuable emphasis in a culture like ours that tends to think of spiritual development as special and solitary experiences.”—Noetic Sciences Review by Charles Tart, Ph.D.


An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines

An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines

Author: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 1993-07-01

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1438414196

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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.


Duality of Time

Duality of Time

Author: Mohamed Haj Yousef

Publisher: Mohamed Haj Yousef

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1539579204

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The Duality of Time Theory is the result of more than two decades of ceaseless investigation and searching through ancient manuscripts of concealed philosophies and mystical traditions, comparing all that with the fundamental results of modern physics and cosmology, until all the contradicting jigsaw pieces were put together into this brilliant portrait. Without the overwhelming proofs and strong confirmations that accumulated over time, it would have been impossible to pursue this long research path, as it was extremely challenging to appreciate the unfathomable secret of time and the consequences of the ongoing perpetual creation of space, that result from the Single Monad Model of the Cosmos. The complex-time geometry of the Duality of Time Theory explains how the physical dimensions of space are sequentially being re-created in the inner levels of time, which makes the outward time genuinely imaginary with respect to the inner real levels. This is easily expressed in terms of the hyperbolic split-complex numbers, that characterize the Relativistic Lorentzian Symmetry. This will have deep implications because space-time has become naturally quantized in a way that explains and unites all the three principles of Relativity, leading to full Quantum Field Theory of Gravity, as well as explaining all the other fundamental interactions in terms of the new granular space-time geometry. This ultimate unification will solve many persisting problems in physics and cosmology. The homogeneity problem, for example, will instantly cease, since the Universe, no matter how large it could be, is re-created sequentially in the inner time, so all the states are updated and synchronized before they appear in the outer level that we encounter. Furthermore, the Duality of Time does not only unify all the fundamental interactions in terms of its genuinely-complex time-time geometry, but it unifies this whole physical world with the two other even more fundamental domains of the psychical and spiritual worlds. All these three conclusive and complementary realms are constructed on the same concept of space-time geometry that together form one single absolute and perfectly symmetrical space. This particular subject is treated at length in the Third Volume of this book series - the Ultimate Symmetry, which explores how the apparent physical and metaphysical multiplicity is emerging from the absolute Oneness of Divine Presence, descending through four fundamental levels of symmetry: ultimate, hyper, super and normal. Among many other astonishing consequences, this astounding conclusion means that the psychical world is composed of atoms and molecules that are identical with the physical world except that they are evolving in orthogonal time direction. It may appear initially impossible to believe how the incorporeal worlds may have the same atomic structure as the physical world, but it is more appropriate to say that physical structures are eventually incorporeal, because they become various wave phenomena and energy interactions as soon as we dive into their microscopic level, as it is now confirmed by Quantum Field Theories. In the Duality of Time Theory, since rigid space is created sequentially in the inner time, energy may become negative, imaginary and even multidimensional, which simply means that all things in creation are various kinds of energy moments that are spreading on different intersecting dimensions of time; so not only mass and energy are equivalent, but also charge and all other physical and metaphysical entities are interconvertible types of energy, including consciousness and information.


Mystical Astrology According to Ibn 'Arabi

Mystical Astrology According to Ibn 'Arabi

Author: Titus Burckhardt

Publisher: Fons Vitae Titus Burckhardt

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781887752435

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A unique work, providing the underlying spiritual principles lacking in most modern books of astrology. It is accompanied by 12 color plates of a 16th-century Persian manuscript.


The Sufi Path of Knowledge

The Sufi Path of Knowledge

Author: William C. Chittick

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2010-03-31

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 0791498980

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Ibn al-'Arabi is still known as "the Great Sheik" among the surviving Sufi orders. Born in Muslim Spain, he has become famous in the West as the greatest mystical thinker of Islamic civilization. He was a great philosopher, theologian, and poet. William Chittick takes a major step toward exposing the breadth and depth of Ibn al-'Arabi's vision. The book offers his view of spiritual perfection and explains his theology, ontology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and soteriology. The clear language, unencumbered by methodological jargon, makes it accessible to those familiar with other spiritual traditions, while its scholarly precision will appeal to specialists. Beginning with a survey of Ibn al-'Arabi's major teachings, the book gradually introduces the most important facets of his thought, devoting attention to definitions of his basic terminology. His teachings are illustrated with many translated passages introducing readers to fascinating byways of spiritual life that would not ordinarily be encountered in an account of a thinker's ideas. Ibn al-'Arabi is allowed to describe in detail the visionary world from which his knowledge derives and to express his teachings in his own words. More than 600 passages from his major work, al-Futuhat al-Makkivva, are translated here, practically for the first time. These alone provide twice the text of the Fusus al-hikam. The exhaustive indexes make the work an invaluable reference tool for research in Sufism and Islamic thought in general.