Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Sufism has always had the function of purifying Islamic ethics and that fasting and tazkiya is like lighting a lamp.

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“We cannot gain an essential knowledge of man through any method that is based on externalization of man's inner being and the…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Quran mentions the story of Moses and Khidr [a prophet mentioned in the Quran who guided Moses on a revelatory journey],…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The significance of the vast Islamic scientific tradition for Muslims and especially for young Muslims today is not only that it gives…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Modernism, philosophically speaking, is in a sense the ‘‘worship’’ of time and the transient, a kind of deification of time and becoming…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Protestantism and Catholicism must not be compared to Sunnism and Shi'ism in the Islamic context as has been done by certain scholars.…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

People who were also traders were also men of Sufism, as we see around Java, people who were outwardly trading but were…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Spiritual guidance needs guidance. It's like comparing walking on the ground and mountain climbing. Once you learn how to walk, you can…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“We live among ruins in a World in which ‘god is dead’ as Nietzsche stated. The ideals of today are comfort, expediency,…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The life of Islamic philosophy did not terminate with Ibn Rushd nearly eight hundred years ago, as thought by Western scholarship for…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“The tradition of Islamic science of course gradually weakened but it did not decay as rapidly as some people have claimed in…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

In the same way that we have a body and a soul and a spirit, our soul can't walk in the street…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

What is tragic today is that there is a number of Muslims who think that all the solutions are to be found…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Shariah has many other functions but also protects the tarqiah; it protects the spiritual path.

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Modernism does not mean simply change and newness; it is a particular way of looking at the world, a particular philosophy based…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

From it genesis twelve hundred years ago to today, Islamic philosophy (al-hikmah; al-falsafah) has been one of the major intellectual traditions within…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Islamic science is related profoundly to the Islamic world view. It is rooted deeply in knowledge based upon the unity of Allah…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“The Islamic intellectual tradition has usually not seen a dichotomy between intellect and intuition but has created a hierarchy of knowledge and…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“To consider Western science simply as a continuation of Islamic science is, therefore, to misunderstand completely both the epistemological foundations of the…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Jalaluddin Rumi is completely rooted in Islamic teachings of Quran. He was a great scholar, he belonged to a madrassa, and he…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Tariqah [The Spiritual Path] without the Sharia [Islamic Law] is like having a pistachio tree without the shell. Or a walnut, a…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Bin Ladens must not be confused with authentic jihad - it's quite something else. If you want an example of external…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The love of God is not only the highest form of love, but also in reality the only love of which all…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The word Habib in Arabic means both lover and beloved. At the heart of it is that the Prophet loves God, God…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

I wish someone could get rid of individuality so easily; one never gets rid of one's individuality completely. One gets rid of…

— Seyyed Hossein Nasr