Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi writes on a range of topics from metaphysics and doctrine to contemplation and prayer. He is presently a Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, where, amongst other projects, he has been working on a new, annotated translation of Nahj al-Balagha, the discourses of Imam 鈥楢li. Dr. Shah-Kazemi is also the founding editor of the Islamic World Report. His degrees include International Relations and Politics at Sussex and Exeter Universities, and a PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent in 1994. He later acted as a consultant to the Institute for Policy Research in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.
Dr. Shah-Kazemi has authored and translated several works, including Paths of Transcendence: Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart on Transcendent Spiritual Realization (World Wisdom Books, 2006), Doctrines of Shi鈥榠 Islam (I. B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001), Avicenna: Prince of Physicians (Hood Hood, 1997) and Crisis in Chechnya (Islamic World Report, 1995). Reza Shah-Kazemi has edited several books, including Algeria: Revolution Revisited (Islamic World Report, 1997). He has also published numerous articles and reviews in academic journals.
I've been reading this book for a long time and finally got to the third and last part which was the one that I was keenest to read as it deals with the mystical aspects of Islam - in particular the practice of Dhikr, the veils of creation, Sufism, and so on. Reading this, by chance, in conjunction with the first part of Metzinger's "Ego Tunnel" which deals with the ineffable in consciousness theory (drawing on philosophy and neuroscience) made this reading all the more enriching. I'd strongly recommend this book as an insight into Islam as a faith of the intellect and the esoteric.
Shah-Kazemi meditates powerfully on the spiritual and material dimensions of the Imam鈥攁s a political harbinger of divine justice, as a portal through which divine names flow, as a mirror reflecting the divine face. This was a slow, dense read for me, and sometimes difficult to metabolize鈥擨 think I鈥檒l be revisiting this one again.
Yet what remains the aim of this deep, elusive, mystic, and at times joyous book isn鈥檛 expanding on Ali鈥檚 wisdom, but rather to reach to God, the One, the Real, through Ali鈥檚 transcendental wisdom and understanding about Him. Kazemi hasn鈥檛 only achieved in revealing why Ali is so revered for his wisdom, but has also succeeded in writing an excellent book about the concept of union with God Himself 鈥� what鈥檚 asked of you is patience and an empty mind.
"I am the city of knowledge and 士Al墨 is its gate; so whoever desires knowledge, let him enter the gate."
"鈥楾here is one amongst you who will fight for the esoteric interpretation] of the Qur示膩n as I have fought for its literal revelation.鈥�"
~ two saying attributed to the prophet
the youtube link will take you to a piece of music written in 1300s by a north indian sufi as a tribute to ali's greatness, it is amazing and i suggest you give it a listen (its got subtitles in english)
ali is the most beloved person in the post-muhammadan history of the islamic world after the prophet himself and seen as his appointed successor, a man loved for both his ideas and the way he lived, a warrior and a thinker extraordinaire - on the intellectual plane things attributed to him include "sciences such as jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (kal膩m), Qur示膩nic exegesis (tafs墨r), rhetoric (bal膩gha), grammar (na岣) and calligraphy (kha峁弓), the mystical knowledge associated with Sufism, as well as such arcane sciences as numerology (jafr) and alchemy (al-k墨miy膩示)" his life and the way he lived was extremely touching, and after giving a tiny pov on why ali was so important and about his life, the book begins dealing with the ideas taught by ali as as the title says on "justice and rememberance"
well my thoughts may not be relateable to the average reader as ive been someone from a esoteric muslim and already knew most of the ideas that reza shah here present, and reading it felt extremely repetitive to me, like taking some few sentences and going on over and over for 50 pages at a time, and the writing style felt very obtuse for some reason (no im not a typical junk reader, im pretty well read in classics and philosophy including universally accepted obtuse things like tractatus and yet it gave me extreme difficulty), the writing style felt so weird and obtuse that getting through every 15 pages felt like a challenge on this
the book he wrote later titled "Spiritual Quest: Reflections on Quranic Prayer According to the Teachings of Imam Ali" felt 10x better written than this book, and spoke of more content with way lesser words in a better way. the latest book hes written after all that - a biography of imam ali, reza shah the author was explicitly requested by the publishers to keep the book as less obtuse as possible and to keep it short - maybe for the same reasons ive wrote about that made this book be absurd.
well yeah good stuff anyways if you can tolerate it however i would still suggest just reading spiritual quest instead of this and listening to the qawaali ive linked at the top.
鈥淲ithout grace, the soul tends towards evil; but with the assistance of God, the soul is liberated from its own base inclinations and is guided back to its true, primordial nature, its fitra, to which the Qur鈥檃n refers in the following verse:
So set thy purpose for religion with unswerving devotion鈥攖he nature [framed] of God (fitrat Allah), according to which He hath created man. There is no altering God鈥檚 creation. That is the right religion (al-din al-qayyim), but most men know not.
The actual state of the fallen soul, then, is to give way to the ideal state of original human nature, an ideal state which is both origin and end of the human condition, but also the true substance of every human soul, and is thus always accessible in principle, even if, for the majority, it remains clouded by fallen human nature in practice.鈥�
"In God, justice means that everything is in its right place, whereas for man justice entails the *effort* to put everything in its right place: an immutable metaphysical quality on the divine side, and a dynamic, volitive effort on the human side."
The crystal clear affirmation that religion without social and personal justice is not religion, that you cannot opt out when you see injustices happening -- one of the best things about this entire analysis.
brillinat book. talks about sufism a greata deal. the justice he refers to is about putting thing in their right place. our vertical relationship with god if in the right palce will put our horizontal relationships with the rest of mankind in their right palce. remembrance is about remembering god so much that you are forgotten, let the caller adn the called disappear. be lost in the call. some amazing lines from Imam Ali in this ... one of the best philosophers, if not the best that i have ever read.