Insights into Islamic Esoterism & Taoism

Author: Rene Guenon
Publisher: Sophia Perennis
Year: 2004
Pages: 89
Printed: USA
ISBN: 0-900588-43-8
Binding: Soft Cover
Book Condition: New
Weight: 180 gr.
Description: This volume brings together a number of Guénon’s early articles relating to Sufism (tasawwuf), or Islamic esoterism. A later article, ‘Islamic Esoterism’, has also been included, since it articulates so well the particularities of initiation in Islam by defining the fundamental elements of tasawwuf: shari‘ah, tariqah, haqiqah. The first constitutes the necessary fundamental exoteric basis; the second, the Way and its means; the third, the goal or final result. In the other chapters, Guénon expresses with his usual synthetic clarity what tawhid and faqr are, and gives examples of traditional sciences, relating angelology to the Arabic alphabet, and chirology to the science of letters (‘ilm al-huruf). A number of book and article reviews give further insights into Islamic cosmology.