
Return to the Eternal Abode
Sufi Dialogues with Seyyed Hossein Nasr
State University of New York Press
Published on 1. January 2025
Book
Hardback
235 pages
979-8-8558-0078-4 (ISBN)
Description
Thought-provoking, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary conversations on Sufism with one of the world's foremost scholars of Islamic, religion, and comparative studies.
Return to the Eternal Abode is a series of in-depth discussions between Amira El-Zein and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's foremost scholars of Islamic, religious, and comparative studies. Each of the six chapters addresses a central theme at the heart of Sufism: creativity, cosmology, the environment, poetry, art, and modernity. Nasr's answers to El-Zein's probing questions offer thought-provoking, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary approaches to these aspects of the Sufi tradition, reflecting a lifetime of scholarship and comfortably synthesizing various sources, philosophies, and traditions, both Islamic and otherwise. The book also sheds light on Nasr's relations to eminent thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Titus Burckhardt, Mircea Eliade, Louis Massignon, and Henry Corbin and provides, in many ways, an accessible synopsis or overview of his entire oeuvre.
Return to the Eternal Abode is a series of in-depth discussions between Amira El-Zein and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's foremost scholars of Islamic, religious, and comparative studies. Each of the six chapters addresses a central theme at the heart of Sufism: creativity, cosmology, the environment, poetry, art, and modernity. Nasr's answers to El-Zein's probing questions offer thought-provoking, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary approaches to these aspects of the Sufi tradition, reflecting a lifetime of scholarship and comfortably synthesizing various sources, philosophies, and traditions, both Islamic and otherwise. The book also sheds light on Nasr's relations to eminent thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Titus Burckhardt, Mircea Eliade, Louis Massignon, and Henry Corbin and provides, in many ways, an accessible synopsis or overview of his entire oeuvre.
Reviews / Votes
"Return to the Eternal Abode is an engaging and even joyful exploration of Sufism, delving into the topics of cosmology and poetry-and unraveling the intricate connections between them. The book welcomes readers with or without expertise, requiring little more than a genuine sense of curiosity and a belief in philosophy's original promise to reveal the most fundamental truths of human existence." - Cyrus Ali Zargar, University of Central Florida, author of Religion of Love Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of Aar"These dialogues offer accessible, clear explanations of some rather subtle issues within Sufism, ranging from the relationship between different cultures and forms or styles of Islamic art, to Greek philosophy and Islam, and the relationship between imagination and cosmology. The conversational style is exceptionally readable, and functions to make subjects that are otherwise dense or difficult relatively easy to understand." - William Rory Dickson, University of Winnipeg, author of Living Sufism in North America Between Tradition and Transformation
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
US School Grade: From College Freshman to College Graduate Student
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
469 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-0078-4 (9798855800784)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Seyyed Hossein Nasr | Amira El-Zein
Return to the Eternal Abode
Sufi Dialogues with Seyyed Hossein Nasr
E-Book
01/2025
State University of New York Press
€36.99
Available for download
Persons
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. He is the author and editor of many books, including Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy, also published by SUNY Press, and The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition. Amira El-Zein is a poet, translator, and Associate Professor of Arabic Literature and Culture at Georgetown University in Qatar. Her previous books in English include Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn and The Jinn and Other Poems. She has published extensively in Arabic, French, and English on topics ranging from Sufism to comparative religion and medieval Islam.
Author
University Professor of Islamic StudiesGeorge Washington University
Content
Introduction: Thirst for the Source
1. Sufism and Creativity
2. Sufism and Cosmology
3. Sufism and the Environment
4. Sufism and Poetry
5. Art and Sufism
6. Sufism and Modernity
Notes
Index
1. Sufism and Creativity
2. Sufism and Cosmology
3. Sufism and the Environment
4. Sufism and Poetry
5. Art and Sufism
6. Sufism and Modernity
Notes
Index