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Dante Alighieri, a conservative, devout Christian poet, is remembered for his poem "The Divine Comedy", which depicts the Prophet of Islam, our liege-lord Muhammad and his cousin 'Ali in 8th circle of hell. Since they allegedly caused schism in life, Dante has eternally punished them in a gruesome manner by having their wounds sealed and then reopened by a devil. Needless to say, such blasphemy is passible by death according to the four Sunni schools of law. How troubling then that people considered by many as great scholars and intellectuals of Islam are on record praising Dante's filthy poetry.

Hamza Yusuf, for instance, feels the need to "defend" Dante and even makes light of Dante’s blasphemy commenting that he would like to make a theme park based on the ‘Inferno’: http://adoptingorthodoxy.wordpress.c...nte-alighieri/

Similarly, Hossein Nasr, a perennialist Shiite praised by Hamza Yusuf, quotes Dante often in his works and states:

"The Western poet who really attracted me most of all, and whom I read extensively in college, was Dante...To this day, this poem remains to me the most supreme poetical work of Western civilization" (In Search of the Sacred: A Conversation With Seyyed Hossein Nasr on His Life and thought) Now recently Mahmoud Shelton of eShaykh.com, a Haqqani website which is supervised by Hisham Kabbani, cited Dante approvingly, even suggesting that "The Divine Commedy" is an esoteric and spiritual masterpiece:

http://eshaykh.com/sufism/maulana-rumi-and-whirling/

A great work of literature belonging to Christendom is The Divine Comedy, yet it would not be improper to recognize Dante’s poem as a “translation” to the Christian West of mysteries belonging to the Night Journey and Ascension of Islam, as Palacios has shown with reference primarily to the Kitab al-Mi`raj. This is not, however, only a matter of literary transmission. For example, following the “mi`raj” of the prayer, the Muslim is enjoined to recite the formulas, “Glory to Allah,” “All praise to Allah,” and “Allah is Greatest,” each 33 times; for his part, Dante groups his poem into 3 books, each with 33 chapters. What is more, these same formulas have another special context: they are to accompany descending and ascending movement, and so pertain remarkably to Dante’s journey. Be that as it may, Dante’s final attainment in his work is expressed in English in these words:

But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars. Guard your iman brethren and be wary of those who address you with sweet, eloquent speech but whose hearts lack ghayra for the liege-lord of creation, sayyidina Muhammad ...