Gisela Goodrich Webb is an American scholar of comparative religion and professor emerita of religious studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. [1] [2] Her works mainly focus on the intellectual and mystical traditions of Islam, Muslim women's rights and Islam in America. [3] [4]
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in a bicultural family, Gisela Webb completed her academic studies at the Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania obtaining her B. A. and M. A. in 1980 and 1986 respectively. She earned her PhD in religious studies from the same university in 1989 under the supervision of Islamic philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr. [5] Webb has been at Seton Hall University since 1989. She has also taught at Gadja Mada University in Indonesia and was awarded Fulbright Award for Teaching and Research and Fulbright Senior Specialist Award in 2009. Webb has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies and was a member of the American Academy of Religion. [6]
Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".
The phrase Islamization of knowledge has been used by some. The phrase "Islamisation of knowledge" was first used and proposed by the Malaysian scholar Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas in his book "Islam and Secularism" ISBN 983-99628-6-8. Calling it a 'burgeoning enterprize', Vali Nasr equates Islamization of knowledge project with the 'Third worldist world-view of sorts', which, in his opinion, 'is rooted in the reassertion of Muslim religious loyalties in the face of cataclysmic changes which have torn many Muslim societies asunder'. He argues that the project has mostly been shaped 'in the spirit of a political discourse than a level-headed academic undertaking'. It was pioneered by the self-styled thinkers with no expertise in the field they were trying to revolutionize. Rather than advancing Islamic knowledge, it has caused disjuncture between knowledge and faith in Islam.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.
Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, also known as Bawa, was a Tamil-speaking teacher and Sufi mystic from Sri Lanka who came to the United States in 1971, established a following, and founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia. He developed branches in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK — adding to existing groups in Jaffna and Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is known for his teachings, discourses, songs, and artwork.
William Stoddart is a Scottish physician, author and "spiritual traveller", who has written several books on the Perennial Philosophy and on comparative religion.
Henry Corbin was a French philosopher, theologian, and Iranologist, professor of Islamic studies at the École pratique des hautes études. He was influential in extending the modern study of traditional Islamic philosophy from early falsafa to later and "mystical" figures such as Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, and Mulla Sadra Shirazi.
Expectation of the Millennium: Shi'ism in History is a book on Shia Islam co-written by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Hamid Dabashi and Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr.
Sachiko Murata is Japanese scholar of comparative philosophy and mysticism and a professor of religion and Asian studies at Stony Brook University. She is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.
Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldviews and the degradation or restoration and preservation of nature. It explores the interaction between ecological values, such as sustainability, and the human domination of nature. The movement has produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
Joseph E.B. Lumbard is an American Muslim scholar of Islamic studies and associate professor of Quranic studies at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is the author, editor, and translator of several scholarly books and many articles on Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and Quranic studies.
The Mosque of Shaikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the grounds of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship. The building of the mosque took 6 months and was done by the members of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship under the direction of M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. It was completed by May 1984, two years before his death in 1986. The official opening and dedication took place on May 27, 1984.
Zailan Moris is a Malaysian scholar of Islamic philosophy and former professor of the School of Humanities at the University Sains Malaysia. Her main interests are Islamic philosophy, comparative religion and Sufism.
Mohammad Hassan Faghfoory is an Iranian-American Islamic scholar and professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
In traditionalist philosophy, desacralization of knowledge or secularization of knowledge is the process of separation of knowledge from its supposed divine source—God or the Ultimate Reality. The process reflects a paradigm shift in modern conception of knowledge in that it has rejected divine revelations as well as the idea of spiritual and metaphysical foundations of knowledge, confining knowledge to empirical domain and reason alone. Although it is a recurrent theme among the writers of the Traditionalist school that began with René Guénon, a French mystic and intellectual who earlier spoke of "the limitation of knowledge to its lowest order", the process of desacralization of knowledge was most notably surveyed, chronicled and conceptualized by the Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his 1981 Gifford Lectures that were later published as Knowledge and the Sacred.
Caner Dagli is a Circassian-American Islamic scholar and associate professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Adnan Aslan is a Turkish Islamic scholar.
Islamic environmentalism is a strand of environmental philosophy as well as an Islamic movement that employs environmental principles derived from Islamic scriptures and traditions to the environment and the modern-day environmental crisis. Muslim environmentalists believe in God's absolute sovereignty over nature and emphasize humanity's role as God's vicegerent, making it their duty to protect and preserve the environment. Islamic environmentalism encompasses Islamic ecological philosophy, Sharia-based environmental law, and Islamic environmental activism.
In perennial philosophy, scientia sacra or sacred science is a form of spiritual knowledge that lies at the heart of both divine revelations and traditional sciences. It is seen as being in the center of that circle which defines and delineates a sacred tradition. It recognizes sources of knowledge other than those recognized by modern epistemology, such as divine revelations and intellectual intuition, the latter of which is considered a supra-rational form of knowledge based on the human intellect. Scientia sacra embodies principles and doctrines derived from reason, revelation and intellectual intuition, with the conviction that these sources of knowledge can be reconciled without conflict in a hierarchical order and employed in the human quest to understand different orders of reality.
In traditionalist philosophy, resacralization of knowledge is the reverse of the process of secularization of knowledge. The central premise is that knowledge is intimately connected to its supposed divine source—God or the Ultimate Reality—which has been severed in modern times. The process of resacralization of knowledge seeks to reinstate the role of intellect—the divine faculty believed to exist in every human being—above and beyond that of reason, as well as to revive the role of traditional metaphysics in acquiring knowledge—especially knowledge of God—by drawing on sacred traditions and sacred science that uphold divine revelations and the spiritual or gnostic teachings of all revealed religions. Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr elaborated on the process of resacralization of knowledge in his book Knowledge and the Sacred, which was presented as Gifford Lectures in 1981.
The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity is a 2002 book by the Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
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