What’s so refreshing about it? The ‘let’s group hug all religions’ attitude?

Believing in the ‘universal validity of all religious traditions’, and being a muslim are simply irreconciliable.

And so this is a crucial matter and the Qur’anic verses are extremely clear on this question. Anyone who identifies paradise with some place in Africa where Adam gradually evolved is guilty of the worst kind of heresy theologically speaking. Such people are not serious Muslims anymore. It is so explicit in the Qur’an that in speaking of the Garden where Adam was first placed it is describing a state of being which possesses a perfection that the fallen Adam no longer possessed. The word hubict is a Qur’anic term and one cannot change it to anything else. If one does that, there is nothing left of one’s relationship with the Islamic tradition.

Hubut, they say, simply means to go from one place to another, without necessarily having any connotation of coming down, that is the Fall. They explain it etymologically and claim that the word itself does not contain the idea of the Fall, as the Qur’anic verse, “ihbitu misran …” (2:61).

That is not correct and we cannot accept that for fourteen hundred years Muslims were wrong! And now, someone in the streets of Cairo, who has become totally Westernized, says that hubut does not mean fall! This is a form of scientism that has polluted our intellectual atmosphere wherein one can no longer breathe the air safely. Such people have contributed to a mental and intellectual pollution that prevents many people from being able to think clearly anymore in the same way that we cannot breathe easily in our big cities because of physical pollution. I think it is our duty, those who can, to state categorically what the traditional positions are. And that has been my vocation in life. I am not afraid of anybody, not afraid of demotion, or anything like that when I speak of matters that are against the fashions of the day. We have to state clearly what our position is. There is a great intellectual struggle that is going on within the Islamic world especially in the relation between religion and science and we have to do what we can to steer it in the right direction; and that is not a small matter. May God help us in this momentous task.

Luminous and Numinous
Knowing and knowing that it knows.

Interesting story about ibn sina and the hanging man.
Who is suspended in mid air and doubts everything that exists..the floor..the sky.but cant doubt himself.
hENCE this thought in islam predates descartes

by seyyed hossein nasr
listen at about 15 mins

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/events_online/dudleian_2003.html

fahad: I for one love Nasr’s perennialist stance. its refreshing.

Salman: good points. I think for me, I’ve always made a distinction between information and knowledge. I would categorize memorization without action, information.

n.a.n.f: I probably would have said the same thing if I didnt find Nasr’s idealism important in its own way. I dont think it’s a matter of absolute correctness, I think Nasr [no matter how ideal or naive] has a place within discourse. All things aside, I just wanna hear nice things sometimes.

Ali: that’s an interesting point because there ARE non-practicing people out there who, like non-practicing people who have memorize and cherish rumi, do NOT memorize and cherish rumi. I know where you are going and I agree to a certain extent. I would much rather prefer someone who atleast aspires towards, rather than someone who divorces himself from even mentioning the divine.

tazkiyya: Here’s my beef [and it's not with Nasr, I like him a lot]: today we find people presenting the path to Allah rather than presenting Allah himself. and to further emphasize the beautiful example of mevlana you gave, our amir sahib said one time ‘tell people to talk about islam and they will rant for hours. tell them to talk about Allah and they will last for 1 minute. this is the purpose of tableegh. Allah, Allah, Allah’