Twisted Representation of Promethean man's Worldview and Pontifical man's Teaching

8/14/2019 Twisted Representation of Promethean man's Worldview and Pontifical man's Teaching

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Twisted Representation of Promathean Mans Worldview and

Pontifical Mans Teaching: Problem of Cognition in the Adoption ofModern Education in Islamic World

By Wardah Alkatiri

Lincoln University New Zealand

Abstract

This study is an attempt to venture an opinion that the widespread adoption of

modern sciences highly profane and materialistic in character by the education world in the

countries where religions and traditions are being taught at school as well, may potentially

have caused twisted of representation when the individual fails to reconcile both

worldviews of contradictory nature and cognize them meaningfully. In an attempt to

balance out the material and spiritual content of education in Indonesia and many countries

in Islamic world as those countries going through rapid modernization since the second

half of this century, there were imperatives to place religious education in literally side by

side position with modern sciences in the school curriculum. But precisely because of this

reason student approaches religious teaching with exact same modality of knowing he/she

uses to cognize those scientific subjects like mathematic and physics. As a result, religious

teaching evolves into mere academic discourses divorced from the reality in daily life. The

author hypothesized that this was the departure point where religion started to become

alien to its follower. When religious teachings were failed to be comprehended intelligibly,

they were either abandoned or in mutilated forms harden into mere ideologies rather than

once means of spirituality besides ways of life. This failure might have been one of the key

factors stimulating radicalism in Islamic world these days which in some cases outbursts

with violence, although in lesser occurrence the same also found in other Oriental

traditional world. Another chief cause identified by the author is the social psychological

problems stem from long historical events of colonialism in those part of the world and the

exclusive truthfulness interpretation by specific groups of religions with the implications of


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untruthfulness and illegitimacy of other religions and traditions, to which issues the author

had addressed her thesis research in Master program in Islamic Philosophy which is now

being processed for publication inBahasa Indonesian language.

Authors keyword

Cognition, Representation, Bewilderment, Promethean Man, Pontifical Man, Modern,

Tradition, Psychological Dissonance, Spiritual Intelligence

Introduction

Modern man is imposed to accept and follow the very complex and complicated

thoughts of modern world. He/she is a being who thinks too much and often wrongly, and

so to speak, is over-cerebral. To the situation of Muslim in particular, the impact of

modern world upon Islamic world during the past century has brought havoc and confusion

beyond comparison with anything that Islamic history has witnessed since its origin. The

contemporary Muslim must and cannot but wage a continuous holy struggle not only

within him/herself to keep their mind and soul healthy and intact but also outwardly to

protect what they can of the spiritual heritage their forefather expected them to preserve

and transmit to the next generations. The Muslims of earlier generation not only did not

suffer from many of the problem faced today, but they were also more fully aware of many

dimensions of the teachings of Islam which provided for them a complete worldview and

satisfied their need of causality, for the explanation of the nature of things, and for the

meaning of life.

One can find in the Islamic world today a full spectrum of people ranging from

purely traditional, through those who are caught between traditional values and

modernism, to so-called fundamentalism, to the blatant modernist, who nevertheless still

move within the Islamic orbit, and finally to the few who no longer considers themselves

to belong to the Islamic universe at all. The contemporary Muslim who lives in the far

corners of the Islamic world and has remained isolated and secluded from the influence of


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modernism may be said to live still within a homogeneous world in which the tension of

life are those of normal human existence. But the Muslims who live in the centers of the

Islamic world touched in one degree or another by modernism lives within a polarized

field of tension created by two contending world views and system of values. This tension

is often reflected within his/her mind and soul, and he/she usually becomes a house divided

against itself, in profound need of reintegration.

Through modern education adopted in schools and universities all over Islamic world,

contemporary Muslims are taught the basic assumptions of the modern civilization, nearly

all are the very antithesis of the Islamic principles he/she cherishes.

1. He/she studies philosophies completely divorced from experience of a spiritual

nature, philosophy which is nearly synonymous with logic, philosophy as a mental

play or discipline which does not transform ones being, which is meaningless and

in fact dangerous.

2. He/she sees philosophies based either on man considered as creature in rebellion

against Heaven or on the human collectivity seen as an ant-heap in which man

has no dignity worthy of his real nature, upon which basis he/she easily slips intoseeing man as raw material of sociology and economy, as role occupants, or as

nameless numbers in payroll and statistics in a government report.

3. He/she sees the Universe reduced to a single level of reality the spatio-temporal

complex of matter and energy, and all the higher levels of reality relegated to the

category of myths and tales.

4. He/she sees the power of man upon earth emphasized at the expense of his

servanthood so that he is considered to be not the khalifah Allah, the vicegerent of

God, but the khalifah of his own ego or some worldly power or collectivity.

5. He/she sees the theomorphic1) nature of man is either mutilated or openly negated.

1) see Attachment-2


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6. He/she reads the arguments of Western philosophers and scientists against the

symbolic concept of nature, a concept which is usually debased by being called

totemistic or animistic or some other term of this genre.

7. He/she is made to believe that everyone is independent and separated individual,

and that everyones efforts in life should be directed towards the fulfillment but to

satisfy him/herself.

8. He/she learns sciences as human attempts to collect an ever increasing number of

facts without ever reaching the Center and understanding the ultimate aim of that

knowledge.

9. He/she is made to believe that the transformation from seeing the phenomena of

nature as the portents or signs (ayat) of God to viewing this phenomena as brute

facts - full stop! It is the major acts of progress which only prepares nature for that

ferocious rape and plunder for which modern man is now beginning to pay so

dearly.

10.He/she is taught that law is nothing but a convenient agreement within human

collectivity and therefore relative and ever-changing, with implication that there is

no such thing as Divine Law which serves as the immutable norm of human actionand which provides the measures against which man can judge his own ethical

standards objectively.

These and many other intellectual and philosophical questions beset constantly the

mind of that contemporary Muslim who is touched in one degree or another by the

influence of modernism. But not all the questions present themselves with the same force

to everyone, nor is every modernized Muslim modernized to the same degree. For this

reason, the dilemma of every contemporary Muslim is not the same. But, nevertheless, the

tension between two world views of a contradictory nature is to be observed widely, the

kind and degree of tension differing, of course, from one milieu and even one individual to

another. In more modernized circles of the Islamic world, even small children face this


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tension, as on the one hand they still learn the various traditional stories which contain the

profoundest wisdom in simple language from grandparent or nanny, on the other hand they

are trained to discipline their mind according to the highly rationalistic and empirical

conception of modern education they obtain. They also watch television, listen to the radio,

read articles from internet, exchange text from cell-phone, and other forms of mass media

transmitting cultures of modern and postmodern values and the poor imitations of various

celebrity models. In general, many Muslim today who have been exposed to the modern

world in a sense carry both Islam and the Modern West as two poles and tendencies within

themselves. What confusions are created within the mind of a person who is attracted by

the pull of both ideas!

Basic Tenet

Perennial Philosophy, or the traditionalist school of thought2) is the basic tenet to

identify the problem in this study and to frame the answer to the defined problem.

Hypothesis

There are three basic hypotheses I wish to adduce concerning the state of confusion in

question, in which only the second one to be exercised in this thesis. I wish to replace the

word confusion in the rest of this paper with a word referring to more serious than just a

state of mixed up with things without order or clearness. That new word is bewilderment

having the connotation of being led into complete perplexity (The New Grolier Webster

International Dictionary of the English Language).

1. The shock received by all Muslims and the Orientals in general from thedomination of the European powers since early seventeen century posed a crisis of

cosmic dimensions. The colonial experience has developed sense of inferiority vis-

-vis the West among the educated groups of Easterner whereas among the other

2) see Attachment-1


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group, the less educated one, in most cases it manifests as hatred and enmity to

anything Western. This is a social psychological phenomena namely social

categorization, in which the Easterner society gives Western an attribute of, either

brilliant or evil, and reciprocally, the social categorization and attribution also

happens in the Westerner part where the society teaches individual to view

Easterner with an attribute of stupid-uncivilized or the poor and the miserable.

2. The colonial experience left most Eastern countries with two educational systems,

one traditional and the other Western, either brought by foreigners, most of whom

were missionaries, or established by modernized Western oriented Easterner elites

on the model of Western institution of learning. These two types of institutions

possess completely different philosophies of education. The impoverished

cosmology of modern sciences that limits itself to spatio-temporal complex of

matter and energy has created serious problem to a student studying as well the

traditional and religious teachings which requires an intuitive comprehension of

complete cosmology in which, matter and energy is just one aspect of it.

3. Additionally, the proclaims of exclusive truthfulness by certain group of religions

with clear implication of untruthfulness and illegitimacy of other religion andtradition have significantly exacerbated bewilderment, particularly among

youngster regardless from what religious community, as they are faced with

troubling questions of theodicy or questions of divine justice, because they now

live in even more borderless and blended world where different nations, cultures,

and religions are present in every particular place and time. Ironically, serious

communication between different religions is becoming more difficult to achieve as

they are more and more set apart by insuperable chasm because they are cut off

from the umbilical cord that connect them to the common Divine ground.


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In what follows, I am going to present a range of problems shown in three case studies, to

demonstrate concrete problems manifested from this kind of bewilderment. Case-3 is by no

means unique to Muslim youngster. It is the general challenge to agnostic modern

education when it is given to highly talented individual, that can be inferred from what

reported by James T Webbs, one of the most influential psychologists on gifted education

in the US. He consults with schools, programs, and individuals, and found particular social

and emotional needs of gifted and talented children and youngster due to their unique

mental predisposition. I would suggest in this thesis that besides social and emotional,

talented or gifted individual has particular spiritual needs as well. The problem in case-3 is

becoming serious challenges that need attentions from mature scholars because it is

suggested by some studies that there is a surge of talented children born in the last two

decades termed as indigo children phenomena. My thesis will show that only esoteric

dimension of religions (mysticism) and the traditional philosophy can resourcefully face

the challenge.

Case Study-1:

Some Indonesian parents today are reluctant to introduce their children intoreligious community as they fear disorientation their child might develop in

viewing the world when they get in touch with religious thoughts while remains

going to regular schools.

Case Study-2:

Darwins theory of evolution underlying biology and other life sciences in school

subjects can not but create confusion in Muslim child who in one hand is taught

Islamic religion which views man as khalifah (the vicegerent of God) and abd(the

servant of God), while at the same time in those sciences he sees man as mammal

walking upright.


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Case Study-3:

Mental predisposition of talented youngster, taken in verbatim from James T

Webb paper.

It has been my experience that gifted and talented persons are more likely to

experience a type of depression referred to as existential depression. Although an

episode of existential depression may be precipitated in anyone by a major loss orthe threat of a loss which highlights the transient nature of life, persons of higher

intellectual ability are more prone to experience existential depression

spontaneously. Sometimes this existential depression is tied into the positive

disintegration experience referred to by Dabrowski (1996).

Existential depression is a depression that arises when an individual confronts

certain basic issues of existence. Yalom (1980) describes four such issues (or"ultimate concerns")--death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Death is an

inevitable occurrence. Freedom, in an existential sense, refers to the absence of

external structure. That is, humans do not enter a world which is inherentlystructured. We must give the world a structure which we ourselves create. Isolation

recognizes that no matter how close we become to another person, a gap always

remains, and we are nonetheless alone. Meaninglessness stems from the first three.

If we must die, if we construct our own world, and if each of us is ultimately alone,then what meaning does life have? As remedies, they need something addressing

philosophical sources of the issues including rational thought, morale, discipline,

and coming to terms with the catastrophies.

Why should such existential concerns occur disproportionately among gifted

persons? Partially, it is because substantial thought and reflection must occur toeven consider such notions, rather than simply focusing on superficial day-to-day

aspects of life. Other more specific characteristics of gifted children are important

pre disposers as well.

Because gifted children are able to consider the possibilities of how things might

be, they tend to be idealists. However, they are simultaneously able to see that the

world is falling short of how it might be. Because they are intense, gifted childrenfeel keenly the disappointment and frustration which occurs when ideals are not

reached. Similarly, these youngsters quickly spot the inconsistencies, arbitrarinessand absurdities in society and in the behaviors of those around them. Traditions arequestioned or challenged. For example, why do we put such tight sex-role or age-

role restrictions on people? Why do people engage in hypocritical behaviors in

which they say one thing and then do another? Why do people say things theyreally do not mean at all? Why are so many people so unthinking and uncaring in


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their dealings with others? How much difference in the world can one person's life

make?

When gifted children try to share these concerns with others, they are usually met

with reactions ranging from puzzlement to hostility. They discover that others,

particularly of their age, clearly do not share these concerns, but instead are focusedon more concrete issues and on fitting in with others' expectations. Often by even

first grade, these youngsters, particularly the more highly gifted ones, feel isolated

from their peers and perhaps from their families as they find that others are notprepared to discuss such weighty concerns.

When their intensity is combined with multi-potentiality, these youngsters become

particularly frustrated with the existential limitations of space and time. There

simply aren't enough hours in the day to develop all of the talents that many ofthese children have. Making choices among the possibilities is indeed arbitrary;

there is no "ultimately right" choice. Even choosing a vocation can be difficult ifone is trying to make a career decision between essentially equal passion, talents

and potential in violin, neurology, theoretical mathematics and international

relations.

The reaction of gifted youngsters (again with intensity) to these frustrations is often

one of anger. But they quickly discover that their anger is futile, for it is really

directed at "fate" or at other matters which they are not able to control. Anger thatis powerless evolves quickly into depression.

In such depression, gifted children typically try to find some sense of meaning,some anchor point which they can grasp to pull themselves out of the mire of

"unfairness." Often, though, the more they try to pull themselves out, the more they

become acutely aware that their life is finite and brief (needs sense of continuity*),

that they are alone and are only one very small organism in a quite large world

(needs sense of connection**

), and that there is a frightening freedom regarding

how one chooses to live one's life (needs sense of direction***

). It is at this pointthat they question life's meaning and ask, "Is this all there is to life? Is there not

ultimate meaning? Does life only have meaning if I give it meaning? I am a small,

insignificant organism who is alone in an absurd, arbitrary and capricious world

where my life can have little impact, and then I die. Is this all there is?"

*, ** and ***) are termed and added by me to the original text of James T Webb to classify the

problems into three major issues alluded in this thesis. The thesis suggests that Sense of Continuity

is truly impossible in the matrix of modern scientific worldview, whereas Sense of Connection and

Sense of Direction can perhaps be worked out in the agnostic level. For more account please see

section E and F.


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Such concerns are not too surprising in thoughtful adults who are going through

mid-life crises. However, it is a matter of great concern when these existential

questions are foremost in the mind of a twelve or fifteen year old. Such existentialdepressions deserve careful attention, since they can be precursors to suicide.

How can we help our bright youngsters cope with these questions? We cannot domuch about the finiteness of our existence. However, we can help youngsters learn

to feel that they are understood and not so alone and that there are ways to manage

their freedom and their sense of isolation.

The isolation is helped to a degree by simply communicating to the youngster that

someone else understands the issues that he/she is grappling with. Even though

your experience is not exactly the same as mine, I feel far less alone if I know that

you have had experiences that are reasonably similar. This is why relationships areso extremely important in the long-term adjustment of gifted children (Webb,

Meckstroth and Tolan, 1982).

A particular way of breaking through the sense of isolation is through touch. In the

same way that infants need to be held and touched, so do persons who areexperiencing existential aloneness. Touch seems to be a fundamental and

instinctual aspect of existence, as evidenced by mother-infant bonding or "failure to

thrive" syndrome. Often, I have "prescribed" daily hugs for a youngster suffering

existential depression and have advised parents of reluctant teenagers to say, "Iknow that you may not want a hug, but I need a hug." A hug, a touch on the arm,

playful jostling, or even a "high five" can be very important to such a youngster,because it establishes at least some physical connection.

The issues and choices involved in managing one's freedom are more intellectual,

as opposed to the reassuring aspects of touch as a sensory solution to an emotionalcrisis. Gifted children who feel overwhelmed by the myriad choices of an

unstructured world can find a great deal of comfort in studying and exploring

alternate ways in which other people have structured their lives. Through readingabout people who have chosen specific paths to greatness and fulfillment, these

youngsters can begin to use bibliotherapy as a method of understanding that

choices are merely forks in the road of life, each of which can lead them to their

own sense of fulfillment and accomplishment (Halsted, 1994). We all need to buildour own personal philosophy of beliefs and values which will form meaningful

frameworks for our lives.

It is such existential issues that lead many of our gifted individuals to bury

themselves so intensively in "causes" (whether these causes are academics, political

or social causes, or cults). Unfortunately, these existential issues can also prompt


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periods of depression, often mixed with desperate, thrashing attempts to "belong."

Helping these individuals to recognize the basic existential issues may help, but

only if done in a kind and accepting way. In addition, these youngsters will need tounderstand that existential issues are not ones that can be dealt with only once, but

rather ones that will need frequent revisiting and reconsideration.

In essence, then, we can help many persons with existential depressions if we can

get them to realize that they are not so alone and if we can encourage them to adopt

the message of hope written by the African Americal poet, Langston Hughes:

Hold fast to dream, for if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird

Hold fast to dream, for if dreams go, Life is a barren field covered with snow

Reference:- Dabrowski,K.(1966), The Theory of Positive Disintegration, International Journal of Psychiatry,

2(2), 229-244

- Yalom,I.D.(1980), Existential Psychoteraphy, New York: Basic, Books.

Analysis

First of all, I believe this contemporary complex and multi-faceted problems of

bewilderment can only be approached satisfactorily by proper psychological theories in

conjunction with traditional3)

philosophy and metaphysics, because some of the problemssimply lies beyond the realm of modern psychological world. In this analysis I used six

conceptual propositions in which three of them are taken from psychological theories,

namely Representation and Cognition; Cognitive Dissonance and Spiritual Intelligence,

followed by another three approaches from traditional school of thoughts.

A. Representation and Cognition:

The term representation in cognitive psychology is used to refer to hypothetical

internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality. In a research thesis by Alberto

Greco, University of Genoa Italy, The Concept of Representation in Psychology, it is

given more elaborated definitions:

3) please see Attachment-1


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- Sometimes internal representations have been called "tokens" or somethingsimilar, and this seems to reflect a topographic conception of cognition, which

postulates ready-made pieces of meaningful material, of meaningful buildingblocks. This is the conception of representation as a language of thought.

- In some areas of psychology (especially in personality theories or in socialpsychology) the concept of "representation" is often used (to tell the truth, not so

differently from everyday psychology) to express the assumption that individuals

do not act on the basis of "objective" patterns of the world, but on the basis of theirso-called "internal representations" of it, which do not necessarily correspond to

what actually happens in the world, but can be abstractions, simplifications,

perhaps misrepresentations or even illusions. Even if this does not necessarily

involve the earlier-mentioned risk of a dualism between reality as it is and as it

appears, representation as a "subjective" reality here is strongly opposed to the"objective" reality, (which - by the way - usually happens to be the one of

psychologists).

The main ideas from those two paragraphs are:

1. Representation is a language of thought,

2. Individuals do not act on the basis of objective patterns of the world but on the

basis of their internal representations, which do not necessarily correspond to what

actually happens in the world.

The next proposition, "cognition", refers to all processes by which the sensory input is

transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used, which apparently means

cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do. Therefore, every

psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon.

But an important question concerning these two elements is how does representation

relate to cognition?

In his thesis Alberto Greco defined representations as symbols to be interpreted: The

causal power of representations doesn't come from their mere existence, but rather from

their interpretation. As such, interpretation seems to be the central theme in internalprocess of representation which in itself can be regarded as the whole phenomenon of

cognition.


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From this standpoint, the presence of confused symbols to be interpreted by the student

portrayed by case-1 and 2, seem to be inescapably causes what I term twisted

representation when in one hand a student tried to interpret the pontifical man4)s teaching

when he/she learns religion, and in the other hand he/she has to as well interpret the

promethean man5)s worldview when he/she learns modern sciences in school, moreover

as they are exposed to the fragmented reality of modern life. As an evidence, in

modernized Islamic countries a deep chasm appears to exist in societies between two

educated classes (traditional and modern) with the same ethnic background, religion,

language, etc. but unable to understand each other because they interpret the world throughtwo different prisms. My thesis holds that twisted representation is the departure point of

other psychological phenomena, leading to cognitive dissonance in particular and the

general state of bewilderment.

B. Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger in his theory of cognitive dissonance holds that individual strives

toward consistency within himself, the kind of consistency between what a person knows

or believes and what he/she does. For one reason or another, attempts to achieve

consistency may fail and the inconsistency then continues to exist. Under such

circumstances-that is, in the presence of inconsistency- there is psychological discomfort.

In his work he replaced the word inconsistency with a term which has less of a logical

connotation, namely, dissonance, and the word consistency with a more neutral term,

consonance. His two basic hypotheses are:

1. The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate

the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance.

2. When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will

actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the

dissonance.

4) and 5) see Attachment-3


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Festinger was proposing that dissonance, that is, in the existence of nonfitting relations

among cognitions, is a motivating factor in its own right. By the term cognition, he meant

any knowledge, opinion or belief about the environment, about oneself, or about ones

behavior. Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent condition which leads to

activity oriented towards dissonance reduction just as hunger leads to activity oriented

toward hunger reduction.

Festingers theory of cognitive dissonance perfectly corroborates my hypothesis

concerning the state of bewilderment resulted from modern education adopted in Islamic

world and oriental traditional world, which eventually manifest in the abandonment of

religion and tradition or on the contrary, in extreme radicalism spiced up with violence,

because in one hand a student studies modern sciences built around, and pervaded by,

Newtonians view of God as clockmaker who does not need to exist or participate once

the clock was made and runs, and in the other hand he/she must study religion and live

accordingly to the religious norms that he/she cherishes. Two elements are dissonant if, for

one reason or another, they do not fit together. In this case, the two elements: desacralized6)

modern sciences and religions, are clearly inconsistent and contradictory.

Let us consider two elements which exist in a persons cognition and which arerelevant to one another. The two elements are in dissonance relation if, considering these

two alone, the obverse of one element would follow from the other.(Festinger, 1957.p13),

in other word, two elements may be dissonant only if both resides in the same level. Given

the defined problem of bewilderment in question, the presence of religion subjects among

modern sciences in school must have placed religion in a position of relevant to the other

subjects, which thus creating dissonant relation, because the obverse of religion is in the

position of head to head to sciences. In operation mode, the situation prompts a student to

approach either subject using the same modality of knowing, thus using the same limited

and impoverished cosmology to cognize religions and its tradition.

6) see Attachment-2


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Besides, there are motivation and desired consequences that may also be factors in

determining whether or not two elements are dissonant (Festinger, 1957. p13). On the

condition of highly material and profane character of modern sciences, the atmosphere of

education evolves into extremely material, profane, and quantitative. The results are easy

to be seen in any modern education institution today, where material motivation becomes

the only valid objective of a students scholastic endeavor. In such a situation motivations

and desires become additional factors in determining whether or not two elements are

dissonant. Muslim and oriental student being faced by the reality of materially much more

prosperous Western nations easily feels dissonant relation between religious or traditional

ideas that he/she cherishes with modern sciences or civilization that was taught in or

imported from the West. This problem mostly afflicts highly educated classes, especially

produced by overseas modern universities, upon completion of which they can no longer

touch the reality of their own people and country and therefore the objective of such

scholarship becomes unachievable not to say futile for their country at the most and

community at the least, given that the learned is obliged to discharge his/her knowledge

and the ignorant is rightful to be taught, as traditionally understood.

Let us now consider the magnitude of dissonance in question. It is probably safe toassume that it is rare for no dissonance at all to exist within any cluster of cognitive

elements (Festinger, 1957. p16). For almost any action a person might take, for almost any

feeling he might have, there will most likely be at least one cognitive element dissonant

with this behavioral element. Therefore, all dissonant relations are not of equal

magnitude. It is necessary to distinguish degrees of dissonance and to specify what

determines how strong a given dissonant relation is. If two elements are dissonant with one

another, the magnitude of dissonance will be a function of the importance of the elements.

The more these elements are important to, or valued by, the person, the greater will be the

magnitude of a dissonant relation between them. The pressure of dissonance gives rise to

pressures to reduce or eliminate the dissonance. The strength of pressure to reduce the

dissonance is a function of the magnitude of the dissonance. In other words, dissonance


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acts in the same way as a state of drive or need or tension. Given the defined problem of

bewilderment among Muslim, because not every modernized Muslim modernized to the

same degree, the dilemma of every contemporary Muslim is not the same, the kind and

degree of tension differing, from one milieu and even one individual to another. The higher

modern education he/she might have gone the more dissonance he/she might be afflicted

and therefore - in reflection to what Gandhi says that man will not be happy until what he

thinks, what he says, and what he does are all in harmony - it can be concluded, without an

intention at this point to examine the validity of modern sciences itself, that simply placing

religion subject in parallel with other sciences at school might have provoked dissonance,

and in the long run potentially afflicts unhappiness to the student.

Festinger sees various possible ways in which dissonance can be reduced. Firstly is

by changing behavioral cognitive elements which means the change of the persons

behavior toward more consonance, secondly, by changing environmental cognitive

element meaning the changes of the environment-engendered dissonance, and lastly by

adding new cognitive element that can be seen as manipulative way to introduce new

parameters against which he/she might find his/her dissonance reduced. To sum up, it can

be concluded that when religious teaching fails to be comprehended intelligibly and to beproved as empirical reality, a person will try to reduce dissonance by either completely

abandoning religion or by being radically reinstate it, mostly with emotional outbursts and

sometimes with violence.

Some intellectuals have argued that Islamic knowledge is supposed to be

responsible for the development of modern sciences because Western sciences owe a great

deal historically from Islamic sciences. In fact, this kind of argument is no different than

the claim of the Muslim fundamentalist who simply sees all modern sciences originally

Islamic. They both have failed to pinpoint that the Western sciences have never accepted

Islamic philosophical framework at all, and this obscurity is caused by his/her failure to

distinguish between the philosophy of pontifical man (traditional man) and the philosophy

of promethean man (modern man). To understand the process of gradual desacralization of


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knowledge in the West the role of the teachings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd

(Averoes) in the Latin world are of some importance. Avicennian philosophy which was to

serve in the Islamic world as the basis for the restatement of the sacramental foundation of

knowledge and intellection by Suhrawardi and many later sages reached the west in only

truncated version and under a much more rationalistic garb. But even what did reach the

west and led to what has been called Latin Avicennism never enjoyed the same popularity

or influence as the more rationalistic Latin Averroism. Furthermore, even in the case of Ibn

Rushd (Averous), who was much more rationalistic than Ibn Sina and did not emphasize

illumination of the mind by the angel as did the latter, there is no doubt that again the Latin

Averroes is more of a secularized and rationalistic philosopher than the original Ibn Rushd

when read in Arabic. When the West was moving toward more rationalistic interpretation

of these two masters the Islamic world was moving in the other direction to reaffirm the

primacy of intellection over ratiocination. The appearance of Suhrawardi and the school of

illumination (al-ishraq) testifies to a new assertion of the scared quality of knowledge and

the ultimately illuminative character of all knowledge in the Islamic intellectual universe.

(Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1989).

At this point we can see the importance of inoculating traditional philosophy to thestudent and youngster in Islamic world in question, without which no one can be

completely successful and honest, intellectually speaking, by simply rejecting science and

philosophy and refusing to understand it. Without traditional philosophical framework,

modern philosophical ideas will simply creep in through the back door in a thousand

different ways and student will then be much less prepare to confront them since they will

not have been properly inoculated against them through a vigorous study and refutation of

their false theses. What must be done, therefore, is to define philosophy itself from

traditional point of view and then to re-appraise the current meaning or meanings of

philosophy in the light of the Islamic perspective. Once student acquire intuitive notion

about his/her traditional philosophy and be aware of the historical course in which the

desacralization of knowledge took place that depleting knowledge of its sacred character


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and creating complete profane sciences, there will be far less chance of bewilderment, even

when posed by the most challenging theory to religions, the Darwins theory of evolution,

since they have got in the back of their mind complete worldview encompassing physical

and metaphysical world, intuitive understanding of hierarchies of existence, and being

aware of the availability of direct access to Reality besides the intellectual theories and

reasoning. In section F, I wish to brief how traditional philosophical ideas are taught and

cognized epistemologically and ontologically.

C. Spiritual Intelligence:

Cognitive science is a science of intelligence, but only since not long ago (1980s) it

gives attention to a humans intelligence, namely spiritual intelligence. One of the most

well known psychologists in the theory of spiritual intelligence is Danah Zohar and his

husband Ian Marshall, psychiatrists from Harvard University. They defined spiritual

intelligence as intelligence of the deep self, with which one asks fundamental questions

and understands complex spiritual subjects. It is the intelligence that gives one his

integrity. With spiritual intelligence one develops an awareness about the Centre, that all

existents in are interconnected to each other and linked to the Centre, and the awarenessthat everything is united in single Oneness. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall in their work

have identified the twelve qualities that define persons complex adaptive systems. Those

principles are:

Self-Awareness: Knowing what I believe in and value, and what deeply motivates me

Spontaneity: Living in and being responsive to the moment

Being Vision- and Value-Led: Acting from principles and deep beliefs, and living

accordingly

Holism: Seeing larger patterns, relationships, and connections; having a sense of

belonging

Compassion: Having the quality of "feeling-with" and deep empathy


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Celebration of Diversity: Valuing other people for their differences, not despite them

Field Independence: Standing against the crowd and having one's own convictions

Humility: Having the sense of being a player in a larger drama, of one's true place in the

world

Tendency to Ask Fundamental "Why?" Questions: Needing to understand things and

get to the bottom of them

Ability to Reframe: Standing back from a situation or problem and seeing the bigger

picture; seeing problems in a wider context

Positive Use of Adversity: Learning and growing from mistakes, setbacks, and suffering

Sense of Vocation: Feeling called upon to serve, to give something back

Before we step into a series of discussion on traditional thoughts in the following sections,

we can already acquire at this point an intuitive notion that spiritual intelligence might be

the core idea in psychology attributed to the characteristic of individual with regard to

his/her tendency to raise ultimate questions and his/her capacity to understand complex

spiritual subjects. Ironically, the property of this intelligence might as well significantly

contribute to the talented youngster existential depression reported by James T Webb, ifhe/she studies sciences limited to spatio-temporal complex devoid of integral cosmology

which characterizes the mainstream of modern sciences in modern education world.

Moreover, the challenge is heightened if he/she is exposed to the fragmented society (and

family) characterizing the texture of modern society, and additionally, the disappearance of

traditional institutions in modern world who is supposed to be the guardian of immutable

knowledge or tradition, whereby in the past one could refer to when there is troubling

question arises. I wish to present, in section F, the traditional methods of developing ones

spiritual intelligence.


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D. Eastern and Western Mentalities: Contemplation and Action.

After preceding steps were concluded, there is an intriguing question left, why in

the world is the Eastern cultures incline more to the contemplation than action, unlike the

other way around of their Western counterpart implying to more attraction toward tradition

in the Eastern part? In this section I would like to briefly present the compilation of

theories from the traditionalist school, concerning the question.

In traditional societies in every nations including the West up until about 12 th century

everyone is born into a certain profession or caste. He makes the most of what he has. If a

troubling question arises, take it to the guru or master or mursyid or the holy person.

Average person does not strive for such intense individuality. This was equally true

including in the West when the priest was the carrier of the splendor of God. At that time,

it never occurred in the average person that he or she could have our modern sense of

individuality. Perennial philosophy or the traditionalist schools recognizes different mental

constitutions in every person. The traditional science of man sees the concept of caste as a

key for the understanding of human type. This is the principle of the division of humanity

into castes in Hindu which must be understood in their essential reality and without

pejorative connotations which have become associated with them in the modern world.

a) There are those who are contemplative by nature and drawn to the quest of

knowledge, who have sacerdotal nature, and in normal times usually fulfill the

priestly and intellectual function in their society.

b) There are those who are warriors and leaders of their people who posses the

courage to fight for the truth and to protect the world in which they live, who are

ready to sacrifice themselves in battle as the person with sacerdotal nature

sacrifices himself in prayer to the Divinity. Members of this second caste have a

knightly function and in normal times would be the political leaders and warriors.

c) There are those given to trade, to making an honest living and working hard to

sustain and support themselves and those around them. They have a mercantile


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nature and in traditional societies comprise those carry out the business and

economic function.

d) Finally, there are those whose virtue is to follow and to be lead, to work according

to the dictates of those who lead them.

These castes which Hinduism identifies as the Brahman, Ksatriya, Waisha and

Sudra are not necessarily identified with birth in all societies. In traditional Galenic

medicine which has their counterparts in other schools of traditional medicine the four

temperaments: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and bilious concerns not only the physical

body but also the psychic substance and in fact all faculties which comprise what we call

the soul. They affect: sentiments, will and also the mode of operation of intelligence. The

same could be said of the three gunas of Hindu cosmology, the three fundamental

tendencies: Sattva: the ascending, Raja: the expansive, and Tama: the descending. Vedic

philosophy classifies human temperaments into predomination of those basic qualities

sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. The three gunas (qualities) are always together, but the

degrees are different in every object/existent. To human, these individual differences in

psychological and moral dispositions and their reactions to socio-cultural and physicalenvironments are described in all the classic texts ofAyurvedic.

1) Sattvic qualities imply essence, reality, consciousness, purity and clarity of

perception which are responsible for goodness and happiness. The people in whom

satvic qualities predominate are religious, loving, compassionate and pure minded.

Following truth and righteousness, they have good manners, behavior and conduct.

They do not get easily upset or angry. Although they work hard mentally, they do

not get mental fatigue, so they need only several hours of sleep each night. They

look fresh, alert, aware, full of luster, wisdom, joy and happiness. They are

creative, humble and respectful of their teachers. Worshipping God and humanity,


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they love all. They care for people, animals, trees, and are respectful of all life and

existence. They have balanced intuition and intelligence.

2) All movements and activities are due to Rajas. It leads to the life of sensual

enjoyment, pleasure and pain, effort and restlessness. The people in with rajasic

mental constitutions are egoistic, ambitious, aggressive, proud, competitive, and

have a tendency to control others. They like power, prestige, position, and are

perfectionists. They are hard working people, but are lacking in proper planning

and direction. They are ungrounded, active and restless. Emotionally, they are

angry, jealous, ambitious, and have few moments of joy due to success. They have

a fear of failure, are subject to stress, and soon lose their mental energy. They

require about eight hours of sleep. They are loving, calm and patient only as long as

their self interests are served. They are good, loving, friendly and faithful only to

those who are helpful to them. They are not honest to their inner consciousness.

Their activities are self- centered and egotistical.

3) Tamas is darkness, inertia, heaviness and materialistic attitudes, tendency of selfdestruction. There is certainly a constant interplay of these three gunas (qualities)

in the individual consciousness, but the relative predominance of either sattvas,

rajas, or tamas is responsible for individual psychological constitution. The people

in whom tamasic qualities predominate are less intelligent. They tend towards

depression, laziness, and excess sleep, even during the day. A little mental work

tires them easily. They like jobs of less responsibility, and they love to eat, drink,

sleep, and sex. They are greedy, possessive, attached, irritable, and do not care for

others. They may harm others through their own self interest. It is difficult for them

to focus their minds during meditation.


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In the yoga discipline, it is believed that proper and regular yoga training consisting of

physical exercise, asanas, and the meditation, will transform the disciple into higher self

and reaching the balance between three tendencies and ultimate perfection.

Once it is understood that there are different modes of operation of intelligence, and

so as of sentiments and wills in every individual, we are tempted to investigate if there are

different predominance within different races of humanity. Rene Guenon (sometimes

known as Sheikh Abd Al Wahid Yahya) (1886-1951), one of the great luminaries of the

twentieth century, held an opinion that the main aspects of the opposition that at present

exists between Eastern and Western mentalities which coincides with the opposition

between traditional and the anti traditional, are essentially the opposition between

contemplation and action, or in a difference of opinion as to their relative importance.

Further, he brought a premise that these differences have root in the mental constitution in

racial realms.

Doubtless, recognition of superiority in one of the two tendencies will lead to amaximum development in preference to the other; but in practice it is nonetheless

true that the particular capacity of each person has to be taken into account, and the

places held by contemplation and action in the life of a man or a people will

therefore always be to a great extent determined by his or their nature. It is obviousthat the aptitude for contemplation is more widespread and more generally

developed in the East, and probably nowhere more than India, which can thereforebe taken as representing most typically what we have called the Eastern mentality.

On the other hand, it is beyond dispute that the aptitude for action, or rather the

tendency resulting from this aptitude, is predominant among the people of theWest, at least as far as the great majority of individuals is concerned. Even if this

tendency were not exaggerated and perverted as it is at present, it would

nevertheless continue to exist, so that in the West contemplation would always be

bound to the province of a much more restricted elite, it is for this reason that it iscommonly said in India that, if the West returned to a normal state and had a

regular social organization, there would be many Ksatriya, but relatively fewBrahmans. [1]


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Contemplation and action are in fact the respective functions of the two first castes, the

Brahmans and the Ksatriyas, the relationship between them is the same as that between the

spiritual authority and the temporal power.

- and this is a point of great importance in ancient times, and especially in the

Middle Ages, the natural bent of Westerners for action did not prevent them from

recognizing the superiority of contemplation, or in other words, of pureintelligence. Why is it otherwise in modern times? Is it because Westerners have

come to loose their intellectuality by over-developing their capacity for action that

they console themselves by inventing theories that set action above everything else,

and even, as in the case of pragmatism, go so far to deny that there exists anything

of value beyond action; or is it the contrary true, namely, that it is the acceptance ofthis point of view that has led to the intellectual atrophy we see today? [2]

In both instances and if, as is probable, the truth lies between the two, the results

are exactly the same, things have reached a point at which it is time to react; andthis, be it said once more, is where the East can come to help the West (assuming

the West is willing), not by thrusting upon it conceptions that are foreign to its

mentality, as some persons seem to fear, but by helping it to recover the lost

meaning of its own tradition. [3]

If Rene Guenon was right, we are really in trouble, because that premise implies that

modern sciences whose foundation are built around Newtonians view on God as

clockmaker, are more deadly to the Easterners soul than to their Westerner

counterparts. Such highly reductionistic and materialistic sciences framed in the

limited cosmology, are simply incompatible with Easterner mental predisposition.

E. Religion and Rationality:

The next valid question arises as the discussion forges ahead, are religious beliefs

rational? The short answer the traditionalist gives is No. The following discussion seems

to be rather swerved from the psychological discourse but it is indispensable in order to

frame the defined problem of bewilderment in a proper perspective. I would like to begin

with Wittgensteins philosophical proposition about religion which, in one way or another,


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gives somewhat support to the traditionalist point of view. For Wittgenstein, religious

belief is not rational nor irrational, but something separate and distinct from the concept of

rationality. Rationality plays a role in the language-game of science, not religion. One

cannot justify one's religious views from the standpoint of science, just as it would be

absurd to assert the theories of quantum mechanics from a religious point of view. He

rejects the notion that science is able to answer all the questions of the world. He concedes

that science is very helpful in explaining how the world operates, but maintains that it

cannot give answers to why there is a world at all. For Wittgenstein, science and religion

are independent and necessary to life, and because the goal of each activity is different they

cannot judge the merit of one another. The role of religion is important because it gives

humankind an avenue from which essential existential and religious questions can be

addressed. The goal of the religious language-game is not to determine how the world

operates, but rather to help solve the "riddles of life" (Wittgenstein, in his lectures on

religious belief). In other word, Wittgenstein held an opinion that reason is not the only

modality of knowing when it comes to religion.

In perennial philosophy, the philosophy which includes spiritual experience as a way of

knowing, religion is regarded as lingua franca, common language, with which communityof faith can share with each other their numinous encounter with the Divine presence.

Religion is not only the key to the understanding of this universe but also the central means

whereby man is able to journey from the lower stages of existence to the Divine Presence

(this journey is nothing other than human life itself as it is understood traditionally). The

doctrine, symbols and rites of a religion possess meaning which is not confined to the

spatio-temporal realm.

The original meaning of the word religion (from the Latin religare) is to relate or to

reconnect to put back together again, heal the wound of separation, and to make whole. It

is what binding man to God and at the same time man to each other. But the limited

meaning of the word religion in European language has caused certain authors limits this

term only to exoteric expression of religion thus distinguishing Abrahamic religions7) from


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Hindusim, Taoism, Buddhism, and the like which they call tradition. The Arabic word of

religion al-din carries a lexical meaning of obedience, reward and subjugation is

inextricably related to the meaning of the term tradition. The all-embracing nature of

tradition needs to be noted. In a civilization characterized as traditional, nothing lies

outside the realm of tradition. There is no domain of reality which has a right to exist

outside the traditional principles and their applications. To live in the traditional world is

to breathe in a universe in which man is related to a reality beyond himself from which he

receives those principles, truths, forms, attitudes, and other elements which determine the

very texture of human existence. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2001). He who has no sense of

the sacred cannot perceive the traditional perspective, and traditional man is never

separated from the sense of the sacred, thereby saved from the terror of the nihilism and

skepticism which accompanies the loss of the sacred dimension of existence and the

destruction of the sacred character of knowledge.

To sum up, again, from the given standpoint, to place religious discourse in the

position of relevant to modern sciences at school has inevitably created a condition where

student is made to approach religious knowledge the same way he/she does approach the

other subjects.

F. The Epistemology of Metaphysic

Our discussion so far must have raised the questions of epistemology and ontology

concerning the esoteric knowledge of religion, around which basis one can investigate the

conception of reality (being or existence) and the origin, nature, and methods of

knowledge. The mystic8), (known as the Sufis in Islam) are those who refer to themselves

as the guardians of the Divine Mysteries (asrar). These secrets they obtain not through the

exercise of theoretical intellect and reasoning, but rather by a process of successive grades

7) Abrahamic religion often used to designate Judaism, Christianity and Islam emphasizing their common

origin and values rooted from Abraham

8) see Attachment-4


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of self-purification granting them inner intuitive insight (basirah) or sometime called eye

of the heart (ayn-al-qalb) corresponds to the third eye of the Hindus, an insight which

provides them with Godly knowledge (marifah) and an overflowing of divine love. As

Allamah Tabatabai, a great sage of Islam declares:

Gnosis is a perfect way of worship, based on love, not on fear or hope. It is a way

of understanding the inner facts of religion instead of being contended with itsoutward and perceptible form.

Successive grades of self purification are in fact the process of developing what is known

as spiritual intelligence in section C. It includes and engages every aspect of our lives

concretely, individually, constantly and totally. The process of developing spiritual

intelligence brings about reflective heart as the only means to comprehend and ultimately

to cope with all kind of difficult realities in life. The heart here has rather different and

broader meanings from what that word ordinarily suggests in English. In this part of

discussion, which is mainly taken from Islamic philosophy point of view, the heart refers

to the writings of Ibn Arabi (1165-1245, Andalusia-Arab Sufi mystic and philosopher) and

Rumi (1207-1273, Persian poet, jurist, theologian and mystic), in which it means the heart

of the theomorphic, the fully-realized human being.

Knowledge, for the mystics, is only that by which one becomes aware of the true

nature of things, to know in divinis, and an awareness which is characterised by absolute

certainty:

since it derives from a verified unveiling which is not seized by obfuscation.

This contrasts with the knowledge which is actualised through reflective

consideration (ilm al-hudhuri or al-nazar al-fikri), which is never safe from

obfuscation and bewilderment, nor from rejection of that which leads to it. [4]

Moreover, Syaikh al-Akbar Ibn Arabi (syaikh-al-akbar the equivalent of the Latin

doctor maximus) explains that knowledge which does not lead back to God by a road of

felicity does not deserve to be called knowledge. Instead he refers to it as surmise (zann).


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He also states that knowledge of other than God is a waste of time ( tadyi al-waqt), since

God created the cosmos only for knowledge of Him.[5]

Hence what the mystics consider as deserving to be called knowledge is best described in

the words of Ibn Arabi once again:

By knowledge I mean only knowledge of God, of the next world, and of that

which is appropriate for this world, in relationship to that for which this world wascreated and established. [6]

Indeed, the mystics categorize only as hakim (possessor of wisdom, or sage) the one who

has detached himself from the limitation of body, form and individuality by a process of

spiritual journey. As Ibn Sina (980-1037, known in the West as Avicenna, Persian

physician, philosopher, scientist, and teacher) observes:

When an initiate (salik) practices enough ascetic discipline as spiritual effort, his

or her soul and secret (sirr) becomes a mirror which reflects the Real (al-

Haqq).[7]

And Rene Guenon explains that:

It is the attainment of effective consciousness of supra-individual states that is the

real object of metaphysics, or better still, of metaphysical knowledge

itselfTheoretical knowledge, which is only indirect and in some sense symbolic,is merely a preparation, though indispensable, for true knowledge.[8]

So although true knowledge is only that which is by unveiling, philosophy also has its

place in the scheme, as every seeker of the Truth, be he/she philosopher or mystic, is

classified only in accordance with their correspondence to the Centre. And since

ontological status reflects epistemological standing, it follows that the knowledge of one

should be more exoteric and of the other more esoteric. Al-Ghazali (1058-1111, Persian

theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist, and mystic) explains this as

follows:


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You should know that intellectual sciences are holistic in their content, and from

which theoretical knowledge issues. It is both theoretical knowledge and

intellectual knowledge that form Sufi knowledge. There are many aspects of Sufiknowledge, such as hal, waqt, shawq, wajd, sukr, sahw, ithbat, mahw, faqr,walayah and iradah. Hikmah can be attained only through the given knowledge.

Those who do not reach that cannot be named sage (al-hakim) since wisdom is agift o God.[9]

Having said this, we should note that ibn al-Arabi makes absolutely clear the difference in

status between the various types of knowledge. Here we quote him in this regard:

The sciences are three levels.

The first, is the science of reason

The second, is the science of states (ahwal) which cannot be reached except

through tasting

The third knowledge is the science of the mysteries (asrar). It is the knowledge

which is beyond the stage of reason.

The knower of this last kind the science of mysteries knows and exhausts all

sciencesSo there is no knowledge more noble than this all-encompassing knowledge,

which comprises all objects of knowledge Sound knowledge is only that which God

throws into the heart of the knower. It is a divine light for which God singles out any ofHis servants whom He will, whether angel, messenger, prophet, friend, or person of

faith.[10]

Finally, we end this section with a chilling phrase, form al-Shaykh al-Akbar, that echoes in

the mind long after one has read it, and which exquisitely sums up the epistemological

system of the mystics:

He who has no unveiling has no knowledge (man la kashf lah la ilm lah).[11]

It would be understandable if the discussion presented so far led one to believe that

mystical knowledge is limitless, and indeed this is true from a certain aspect. As al-Kindi


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says, the soul is a light from God, which when detached from the limitations of the body is

able to know everything and therefore nothing is hidden from it.

Moreover, as God Himself is infinite, the objects of Gods knowledge are infinite. So for

man, the seeker of knowledge, the acquisition of knowledge is endless. Hence human

knowledge is potentially infinite, though only a finite number of objects of knowledge

exist at any given time and only a finite number can be known by a finite thing. Here are

the characteristic of mystical knowledge.

One of the characteristics of metareason is that its perception of the Supreme

Truth is accompanied by an intense ecstasy inexpressible in words.[12]

One of the characteristics of the realm of metareason is love.[13]

If he crosses from spiritual exercise to attainment of the TruthThe loftypleasures are then poured on him.[14]

By God, I feel so much love that it seems as though the skies would be rent

asunder, the stars fall and the mountains move away if I burdened them with it:

such is my experience of love[15]

It is the direct tasting (dhawq) of Reality that is the source of this, and is morepleasurable than anything in the world. [15]

The following passage by Rene Guenon brings out certain aspects of mystical knowledge

and its ultimate goal:

To comprehend universal principles directly, the transcendent intellect must itself

be of the universal order; it is no longer an individual facultyit is this that makesmetaphysical knowledge possible, and that knowledge is not a human

knowledgebecause this being that is human in one of its aspects is at the same

time something other and more than a human beingit is from this human state,

itself contingent, that we are at present compelled to start in order to attain higherstates and finally the supreme and unconditioned stateThe highest objective is

the absolutely unconditioned state, free from limitation; for this reason it iscompletely inexpressibleIn this Unconditioned State all other states of being find

their place.[16]


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Conclusion

1.

The study shows that teaching religious knowledge at regular school where othermodern sciences are taught prompts student to experience twisted cognition

between pontifical mans teaching and promethean mans worldview of

contradictory nature which then stimulates cognitive dissonance accompanied with

psychological discomfort and ultimately lead to complete bewilderment.

2. This situation is very much of disadvantageous and even injurious to the student

and the religion itself. Religious subject at school should be limited to the level of

ethical teaching and peace education, and the basic teaching of religious knowledge

should be put back to the hand of traditional guardian rather being transmitted by

mere any school teacher who might be far from qualified intellectually and

spiritually to assume such responsibility.

3. However, with respect to the children and youngsters spiritual intelligence, it is

highly important in the society level that the esoteric knowledge and training be

given to them as it was in the past, to nurture reflective heart as the seat of their

intelligence. For the bright and talented children and youngster in particular,

Muslim needs to resuscitate their intellectual tradition around their traditional

philosophy.

4. In the light of highly fragmented society in modern times Muslim needs to revive

their own family value and to reintegrate their life. They must cease to live on the

state of a psychological and cultural sense of inferiority. In fact, inferiority and

hatred lies back to back in the same coin, so to speak, just as superiority and

humiliating does. It can be said that this is the great task of social psychologist

today, because only when there is no more inferiority there is no more hatred on the

Muslim and Eastern part toward the Western, and reciprocally, only when there is

no more superiority the Western are able to sincerely and honestly understand their

Eastern counterpart. It is only this way that humanity can work together to face the

present day challenges.


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5. There are three senses, namely: sense of continuity, sense of connection, and sense

of direction that are needed by youngster in general and the bright and talented ones

in particular, to develop their sense of being and doing. This is the avenue where

only esoteric knowledge or mystical dimension of religions can play the role

because no sciences can answer such existential questions.

6. After everything that happened in the past and the globalization taking place today,

the boundaries of traditional universes have been broken, and there is a need for

Muslim and non-Muslim to know and understand each other and to reach a

harmony which is in fact possible only in the Divine Stratosphere- to use the

term in perennial philosophy - not in human atmosphere or agnostic humanism

which kills the divine in man and woman.

*************


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Notes:

[1] Rene Guenon, The Crisis of the Modern World, Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale, NY. 2001,

p.34-35.


p.35-36).


p.36).

[4] Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 2 297.33, rewritten by William Chittick, The

Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.149)



[6] Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 2 370.4, rewritten by William Chittick, The SufiPath of Knowledge, p.148)

[7] Ibn Sina, al-Najat, ed. Al-Kurdi (Tehran, n.d.): 268, (History of Islamic Philosophy,

p.948)

[8] Rene Guenon, Oriental Metaphysics, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman

(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950)

[9] Al-Ghazzali,Risalat al-laduniyyah, ed. M. al-Kurdi (Cairo, 1910): 22-31, (History of

Islamic Philosophy, p.952)


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[10] Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, 1 31.11 & 1 218.19, rewritten by William

Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.170)



[12] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif Asirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, Chapter

20, (Yahaya Yasrebi, The Epistemology of the Mystics part 1)

[13] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif Asirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, Chapter

26, (Yahaya Yasrebi, The Epistemology of the Mystics part 1)

[14] Ibn Sina, al-Isharat, Section 9, Chapter 16

[15] Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya

[16] Rene Guenon, Oriental Metaphysics, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman

(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950 - 951)


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thannual workshop of the European Society for the

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Bloomsbury, 2004

3. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press,

California, 1957.

4. James T. Webb, BPP-CL, Mental Predisposition of Talented Youngster. 1999.

5. James Winston Morris, Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn Arabis

Meccan Revelation, Fons Vitae, Canada.

6. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , Stanford University Press,

Stanford, California, 1957.

7. Rene Guenon, The Crisis of the Modern World, Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale, NY.

2001.

8. Rene Guenon, Oriental Metaphysics, in The Sword of Gnosis, ed. J. Needleman

(London, 1986): 47, 49, 51, (History of Islamic Philosophy, p.950)

9. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1989, Knowledge and the Sacred, State University of

New York Press, Albany, US.

10.Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1993, The Need for a Sacred Science, Curzon Press,

Ltd. United Kingdom.

11.Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam and The Plight of Modern Man, ABC International

Group, 2001

12.William Stoddart, Outline of Hinduism, Foundation for Traditional Studies, 1996

13.William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Ibn Arabi Metaphysics of

Imagination, State University of New York Press, Albany.

14.History of Islamic Philosophy, ed Al-Kurdi (Tehran, n.d): Ibn Sina, al-Najat, Al-

Ghazzali,Risalat al-laduniyyah.


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15.Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. Afif Asirian, Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1990.


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Glossary

Words Source Definition

Entelechy

[Gr. Entelecheia]

The Grolier Webster

International Dictionary

of English language:

Grolier Incorporated

New York, 1976

Be in fulfillment and completion.

Philos. a realization or actuality as

opposed to a potentiality

Principial

[L. principium]

The Grolier Webster




New York, 1976

First or fundamental principle,

element.

Vicegerent

[Fr. Vicegerent

vice, and L. gerens,

gerentis, ppr. of

gero, to act]

The Grolier Webster




New York, 1976

An officer who is deputized to

exercise the powers of another; a

substitute; one having a delegated

power.

Gnosis

[Gr. Gnosis]

The Grolier Webster




New York, 1976

Special knowledge of spiritual

things, such knowledge as is

divinely revealed.


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Attachment-1

Perenial Philosophy The Traditionalist School of Thought

Tradition in this writing is not meant to be habit or custom or the automatic

transmission of ideas and motifs from one generation to another, but rather a set of

principle which have descended from Heaven and which are identified at their origin witha particular manifestation of the Divine, along with the application and development of

these principles at different moments of time and in different conditions for a particular

humanity.

Tradition as used in the traditionalist here implies both the sacred as revealed to

man through revelation and the unfolding and development of the sacred message

in the history of the particular humanity for which it was destined in a manner that

implies both horizontal continuity with the Origin and a vertical nexus whichrelates each movement of the life of the tradition in question to the meta-historical

Transcendent Reality. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World:Kegal Paul International Ltd, London, 1987).

Moreover, tradition is both immutable and a living continuity containing within itself the

science of Ultimate Reality and the means for the actualization and realization of thisknowledge at different moment of time and space. From that way of viewing, tradition has

its root in religion, and as wel religion is a tradition, as expounded by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

concerning the Islamic tradition in particular.

Tradition is at once al-din in the vastest sense of the word which embraces allaspect of religion and its ramifications, al-sunnah, or that which, based upon sacred

models, has become tradition as this word is usually understood, and al-silsilah, orthe chain which relates each period, episode, or stage of life and thought in the

traditional world to the Origin, as one sees so clearly in Sufism. Tradition therefore

is like a tree, the root of which are sunk through revelation in the Divine Nature andfrom which the trunk and branches have grown over ages. At the heart of the tree of

tradition resides religion, and its sap consist of that grace or barakah which,

originating with the revelation makes possible the continuity of the life of the tree.Tradition implies the sacred, the eternal, the immutable Truth; the perennial

wisdom, as well as the continuous application of its immutable principles to various

conditions of space and time. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the ModernWorld : Kegal Paul International Ltd, London, 1987).

Understood that way, given that tradition contains within itself the science of Ultimate

Reality and the means of the actualization and realization of this knowledge, therefore it

gives an answer to the question why a society in modern time that is deprived of its


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tradition can hardly feel the existence of God as Reality. This is one of the issues discussed

in the traditionalist school of thought.

Perennial philosophy is a philosophy which suggests the existence of universal setof truths and values common to all peoples and cultures. In this philosophical viewpointTasawuf or Sufism and Irfan, which is employed much in this paper, are seen as the

Islamic pinnacle of wisdom to which all other philosophical currents such as the Vedantaand Yoga of the Hindu, the Mahayana of the Buddhism, the Christian Gnosticism of the

Christianity, the Kaballa of the Judaism, and other currents from earlier religions such as

Jainism in India, Taoism and Confucianism in China, Hellenic and Hermetic in Greek,Zoroaster in Persia, and many more, in one way or another point.

In opposite to the tradition there is modern in the other end of the pole. Modern

here means the changes of society and the whole system of thought due to the industrial

age, and modernism is an array of cultural and philosophical movement rooted in the

changes of Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted fromthe rebellion against tradition considered as that which was holding back progress, being

the aftermath of renaissance. In discussion about modern vs. tradition in present time, itdoes not necessarily mean to confronting the West and the East, because both has got each

elements, although in reality the one has got more than another due to the disappearance in

the West of most traditional elements since the renaissance. Much less to comparing areligion with other religion because what is meant by tradition in perennial philosophy as

mention above, is the principles descended from Heaven which thus includes all religions

of the world. It represents at once the sacred tradition of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism,

Christianity, Islam and earlier religions. Perennial philosophy sees a unity which underliesthe diversity of forms and practices, a unity which resides within that quintessential truth at

the heart of religion, and that none other that the perennial philosophy itself.

Perenial philosophy or Philosophia Perennis means perennial wisdom, a

knowledge which has always been and will always be and which is universal in

character both in the sense of existing among people of different climes and epochand of dealing with universal principles. This knowledge is available to the

intellect. It is contained at the heart of all religions or traditions which illuminate

the meaning of religious rites, doctrine and symbols. Its realization and attainmentis possible only through those traditions and by means of methods, rites, symbols,

images and other means sanctified by the message from Heaven or the Divine

which gives birth to each tradition. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need for Sacred Science:Curzon Press, London, 1993).

However, it is important to mention the distinction between perennial philosophy and

sentimental ecumenism.

The traditionalist school is opposed to the sentimental ecumenism which sees all

religion as being the same at the expense of reducing them to a common


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denominator or of putting aside some of their basic teachings. On the contrary, the

traditionalist respects the minutiae of each sacred tradition as coming ultimately

from Heaven and to be treated with reference as every manifestation of the sacredshould be. They are fully aware of the particular spiritual genius of each religion

and its uniqueness and insist that these features are precise proof of the

transcendent origin of each religion and the reality of its archetype in the DivineIntellect. These characteristic also demonstrate the falsehood of the view which

would reduce a religion to simply historical borrowing from an earlier religion. The

unity to which the traditionalist refer is, properly speaking, a transcendental unityabove and beyond forms and external manifestations. (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Needfor Sacred Science: Curzon Press, London, 1993).

Those who have spoken from the perspective of the philosophia perennis have

concerned themselves with every aspect of religion: God and man, revelation and sacredart, symbols and images, rites and religious law, mysticism and social ethics, metaphysics,

cosmology and theology. This school is concerned with religion in its transhistorical

reality, refusing to accept the historicism of the academic approach.It is important for those who try to understand this thought to firstly distinguish

between r

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