Islamic Mysticism: A Secular Perspective

Rating:
Summary: A Note to the Reader
Review: Ibn Al-Rawandi ...died more than a thousand years ago. Ibn Al-Rawandi the author of this book lives today, As a matter of fact he dedicated the book to his mother 1903-, and inside the book he discussed the views of modern - twentieth century - thinkers as P. Crone and M. Cook who published a book together 1980's, and probably the author assumed the alias Ibn Al-rawandi for himself. To clear the Matter to the reader I add the following two notes:

Ibn Al-Rawandi( 9th century):

The moslem notion that the Koran, no one can produce like it and also - this came later by moslem theoligians - the Koran is as eternal as Allah itself and therefore was not created. was rejected by Nazzam a famous reasonable moslem theologian who was by no means secular. Nazzam saw that notion is damaging to islam especially among the intellectuals, so he said that the Arabs contemporary of Mohammad were able to write like Koran. But he then maintained that Allah stopped the Arabs from doing so as a proof to his prophet. This last statement by Nazzam is not strictly true, for some Arab contemporary to the prophet Mohammad did compose like Koran and their works was destroyed when Islam became dominant. These Statement by Nazzam that the Arab were able to produce like Koran - as the head of Arabic literatures Taha Hussein said in his Phd thesis - caused a great impact on Moslem free thinkers as Ibn Al-Rawandi and Abul-Ala Al Muary who wrote books challenging the Koran. Muary wrote a 4 volumes books in the same pattern as Koran, 3 were lost or destroyed and only the first volume survived. Although Muary and Rawandi shared the same views about religion, Rawandi was hedonist a wine drinker, Muary wasn't, he was strictly vegetarian never married wished if the human race perished from the earth even in one poem he gave the wolf a nobel position than man. Muary came after Rawandi and attacked him for his hedonismm but there is an important point about Muary which even today great sholars have not noticed, Muary was believing in many of the things h's criticizing Rawandi of

Ibn Al-Rawandi (Today), the Book

The book is very great, terse and compact. The author tried to be exact and offered the views of many modern researchers. It will appeal to the neutral objective reader who seekd the Truth about Isalm

Rating:
Summary: Rational Anti-mysticism: Healthy debunking
Review: Islamic Mysticism: A Secular Perspective by Ibn Al-Rawandi (Prometheus Books) Any believer needs to fairly read some debunking views of one's beliefs. First it is always important to know other points of view, even if they do not persuade or even tend to subvert the truth of the positions one holds as true and life-saving. This book offers a critique of the Sufi path of transformation by a former seeker who feels there is serious deception and self-deception on the spiritual path and it is better to be rational and consistent in one's views than to seek fantastical delusions. Now such a position is unlikely to appeal to the mystic but if one wants to mature in one's mysticism one should give such nay-sayers a careful hearing, concede their good points and carefully critique the limitations of their point of view. Otherwise perhaps such rationalists are correct and such pursuits are bunk.

Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: Written by a failed spiritual seeker turned anti-spiritual polemical secularist, this book lacks the substance and insight possessed by a vaguely similar but nevertheless far superior work of disenchantment, Jeffrey Masson's *My Father's Guru*. Having spent three years attempting without success to follow the Sufi path, Ibn al-Rawandi in this book returns to Sufism but weakly flails about in his efforts to exact from it his revenge. Ultimately his message is that if you are a rationalist and do not believe in spiritual transformation, do not get involved in Sufism. Sound advice--but isn't this obvious?! The bottom line, though, is that a good piece of yellow journalism should at least be a juicy and engaging read. Sadly, this work is by and large flat. So if you want a book on spiritual disenchantment, read Masson. If you want something on Sufism, read anything but Ibn al-Rawandi.