[espabamar]

Despite claims that Hamza Yusuf does not survey and read the more problematic works printed by Fons Vitae, we have evidence that substantiates the fact that Hamza Yusuf has read the perennialist publications of Fons Vitae, and happily endorses them. Most recently, Fons Vitae have published a single volume work entitled ‘ Spiritual Teachings of the Prophet (Peace be upon him); Hadith with Commentaries by Saints & Sages of Islam’. A work in which Fons Vitae have commentated on the sayings of the best of creation (Peace be upon him) with the musings of non-Muslim thinkers. Wal Iyadhu billah!

To give but one example; on pg. 152 a Hadith on the merit of alms is presented with a commentary taken from the works of Frithjof Schoun. Mark Sedgwick in his exposition of the perennialists/traditionalists ‘Against the Modern World; Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century’ writes on Schoun, highlighting how he would be offended to hear that non-Muslims would enter hell, how he abolished the Sunna prayers in place of supererogatory Dhikr, how he claimed to have a divine experience whilst reciting the Bhagavad Ghita, how he claimed to see visions of the prophets and Buddha whilst in seclusion, how he maintained impermissible relationships with women (at times even spying on them and watching them dance), and how Schoun infiltrated and promoted himself to the status of ‘Shaykh’ in the blessed Alawi Tariqa. Sedgwick concludes on Schoun’s infiltration of the Alawi Tariqa:

Shortly before this event Schuon went shopping to furnish his new apartment. In a shop window he saw an antique statuette of the Virgin Mary and was struck by its beauty and the incongruity of its surroundings. Despite its high price and his relative poverty, Schuon bought the statuette, took it home, and installed it in a place of honour. Statues are forbidden to Muslims by the Sharia, and the statues of the Virgin are commonly associated with Catholic churches; mindful of this restriction, Schuon later explained: “I was always painstaking in questions of holy rules, but on the other hand I stood above all on the ground of the Religio Perennis and did not allow myself to be imprisoned by forms that for myself could have no validity – for myself, since I would not allow another to break the same rules.”

This statement nearly summarizes the status of the Alawiyya at the end of the 1930s: a Traditionalist Sufi order whose members followed Islam and the Sharia, but whose shaykh privately stood on more universalist ground and included among his most prized possessions a copy of the Bhagvad Ghita and a statuette of the Virgin Mary.

Despite claims that Hamza Yusuf does not survey and read the more problematic works printed by Fons Vitae, we have evidence that substantiates the fact that Hamza Yusuf has read the perennialist publications of Fons Vitae, and happily endorses them. Most recently, Fons Vitae have published a single volume work entitled ‘ Spiritual Teachings of the Prophet (Peace be upon him); Hadith with Commentaries by Saints & Sages of Islam’. A work in which Fons Vitae have commentated on the sayings of the best of creation (Peace be upon him) with the musings of non-Muslim thinkers. Wal Iyadhu billah!

To give but one example; on pg. 152 a Hadith on the merit of alms is presented with a commentary taken from the works of Frithjof Schoun. Mark Sedgwick in his exposition of the perennialists/traditionalists ‘Against the Modern World; Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century’ writes on Schoun, highlighting how he would be offended to hear that non-Muslims would enter hell, how he abolished the Sunna prayers in place of supererogatory Dhikr, how he claimed to have a divine experience whilst reciting the Bhagavad Ghita, how he claimed to see visions of the prophets and Buddha whilst in seclusion, how he maintained impermissible relationships with women (at times even spying on them and watching them dance), and how Schoun infiltrated and promoted himself to the status of ‘Shaykh’ in the blessed Alawi Tariqa. Sedgwick concludes on Schoun’s infiltration of the Alawi Tariqa:

Shortly before this event Schuon went shopping to furnish his new apartment. In a shop window he saw an antique statuette of the Virgin Mary and was struck by its beauty and the incongruity of its surroundings. Despite its high price and his relative poverty, Schuon bought the statuette, took it home, and installed it in a place of honour. Statues are forbidden to Muslims by the Sharia, and the statues of the Virgin are commonly associated with Catholic churches; mindful of this restriction, Schuon later explained: “I was always painstaking in questions of holy rules, but on the other hand I stood above all on the ground of the Religio Perennis and did not allow myself to be imprisoned by forms that for myself could have no validity – for myself, since I would not allow another to break the same rules.”

This statement nearly summarizes the status of the Alawiyya at the end of the 1930s: a Traditionalist Sufi order whose members followed Islam and the Sharia, but whose shaykh privately stood on more universalist ground and included among his most prized possessions a copy of the Bhagvad Ghita and a statuette of the Virgin Mary.

Firthjof Schoun: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy:

To add to the disgust, the Hadith is further commented on, in a footnote, with references to Christian Tradition:

It is a question of relative equilibrium consonant with particular cyclic conditions. St. John of the Cross said that “a spark of pure love is more precious to God, more useful for the soul and more rich in blessings for the Church than all other works taken together, even if to all appearances one does nothing.”



I was sent a copy of this book by computer in Madinah. I happened to be sick an unable to leave my room. I could not stop reading it. By the time I was finished, I was well again. It is a wonderful book, with beautiful insights into the spiritual secrets of our Beloved’s words. Imam al-Haddad said that the reason Imam al-Ghazali, toward the end of his life, read only the Quran and Hadith is that his station was so high and his state so elevated that by then only direct revelation could nourish his soul. This book is a feast with wonderful explanations of the ingredients of the soul nourishing hadiths and their benefits to one’s spiritual health.
- Shaykh Hamza Yusf Hanson, Zaytuna College, Bekley, California

http://adoptingorthodoxy.wordpress.c...nd-fons-vitae/