“…there is but one sole philosophy, the Sophia Perennis;

it is also - envisaged in its integrality - the only religion.”

Frithjof Schuon

SOPHIA PERENNIS AS A MEANS OF SALVATION FOR THE FUTURE:

THE ROLE OF TRADITIONALIST SCHOOL IN MUSLIM INTELLECTUAL
LIFE

Dr. Nurullah Koltas

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

Beginning with The Industrial Revolution, the confusion in which the Western man
floundered let him leave the tendencies those have already been weaker even before that
era. As a result, profane plane invaded that of the religion.

The Traditionalist School presents keys for transforming worldly human into
spiritual one against contemporary fallacies, especially modernism. Only Sophia
Perennis or Perennial philosophy can enable modern man to get out of the crisis.
Without showing any kind of inferiority complex, this School indicates an honorable
attitude by their intellectual works and traits. It is a school of thought and action that
aimed to help intellectuals to attain the Truth that is One God.

This paper aimed to give additional information about the theological and
philosophical views for understanding their struggle within a profane setting. First of
all, we should try to explain Perennial Philosophy briefly.

Sophia Perennis-or Perennial Philosophy and Traditionalists

The Perennial Philosophy –or Sophia Perennis-, which resides in the very substance
of various traditions illuminating humanity for ages, is the only remedy to save the
Western man from the dig he fell in. These considerations about the Western man may
seem as generalizations. However, given the catastrophe of leaving the center, the

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conditions during World War I were extremely oppressive and humanity was almost in
an indefinable turmoil:

"It is as if an organism with its head cut off were to go on living a life which was
both intense and disordered."1

In these circumstances, the corrupted minds of modern men should have found ways to
Ultimate reality. For, our souls are proportioned to divine nature and have a capacity to
transcend themselves. According to Frithjof Schuon, religio perennis has its roots in
human nature.

Frithjof Schuon prefers the term “Sophia” to “philosophia” in that the latter “evokes”
profane thoughts. The way leading to Sophia is metaphysical discernment until the
awareness of absolute and infinite. 2 In fact, Philosophia Perennis is not a philosophy as
it is understood in the west. For, philosophy is based on reason and perception.
However, perennial philosophy depends on dhawq or intuition.

During those days, views on Islam in the West were determined in the context of
translations from Eastern classics and of little Muslim population those were living in
the west. The prescription given by the spokesman of Traditionalist School such as René
Guénon (Abdulwahid Yahya), Frithjof Schuon (Isa Nur al-din) and A.K. Coomaraswmy
was a perennial and sapiential thinking and living in accordance with these principles in
the crisis of modern men after cutting his ties with the perennial wisdom. Here a point
should be highlighted more than anything else. The term tradition is not related with
customs in ordinary speech. According to Lord Northbourne, a representative of this
school, Tradition binds civilization to Revelation.3 It is mentioned via various names
such as Philosophia Perennis, Lex Aeterna, Hagia Sophia, Din al-Haqq, Akalika
Dhamma and Sanatana Dharma4 or Jawidan Khirad as S. Hussein Nasr calls it 5 and
denotes a wisdom that remains unchanged in all ages and transcends time. A civilization

1
Quoted from Guenon, East and West, 1924 edition in Martin Lings, René Guénon, Sophia Journal,
volume 1, Summer 1995.
2
Harry Oldmeadow, Frithjof Schuon and Perennial Philosophy, World Wisdom 2010, p. 312
3
Lord Northbourne, Religion in the Modern World, J.M. Dent, London 1963, p. 34.
4
Kenneth Oldmeadow, Traditionalism, Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, Colombo, 2000, p. 58-
70.
5
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred, SUNY Press, 1989, pp. 67- 68.

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can be accepted as a tradition only if it depends on a transcendent doctrine and the
practice of the principles it envisages.6

Within this period in which religion is almost forced to remain at the background, an
intellectual group of wise men called “The Traditionalists” appeared in the scene of
history.

The expression Traditionalist is of surely not a new concept. However, it was

systematized and its principles became more concrete to be practiced by the members of
this school. Among the spokesmen of this school are a French philosopher and a Sufi
contemplator Réne Guénon, a great representative of Indian Metaphysics Ananda
Kentish Coomaraswamy, and a Swiss and German artist, poet, contemplator and Sufi
Frithjof Schuon.

We will only give a brief biographical note before moving to the ideas they offer for
the salvation of modern man.

Rene Guénon (Shayh Abd al-Wahid Yahya)7

Despite the complexity of the subjects they deal, the representatives of Traditionalist
School refrained talking about themselves, and thus our knowledge on their lives is
limited. They were humble and had the aim of searching Truth. 8 Many books were
written on René Guénon after his death. Due to the difficulties we mentioned above, the
authors of these books faced troubles in achieving sufficient information about their
lives although it is possible to obtain many sources and plenty of information
concerning any figure lived in that period.

6
Martin Lings et al., The Essential Rene Guénon, p.94
7
For detailed information on R.Guénon, see Huseyin Yilmaz, Ezelî Hikmet ve Dinler, Insan Yayinlari,
Istanbul 2003; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Réne Guénon”, Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. Mircea Eliade,
C.VI, New York 1987, pp.136-138 ; W.W.Quinn, The Only Tradition, p.11-12 ; Martin Lings, “Réne
Guénon”Sophia, volume 1, summer 1995; M.Valsan, L'lslam et la Fonction de Rene Guenon (Paris,
1984);J.Borella, “Réne Guénon and The Traditionalist School”, Modern Esoteric Spirituality, New York
1992, pp.330-347 ; Whitall N.Perry, “The Revival Of Interest in Tradition” , The Unanimous Tradition
Tradition Essays on Essential Unity of All Religions, 2.b., Ed. Ranjit Fernando, Sri Lanka Institute of
Traditional Studies, Colombo 1999, pp.5-11.

8
Martin Lings, Rene Guénon, Sophia Journal, volume 1, no 1, Summer 1995, p.21 (This paper was
presented in Prince of Wales Institute in 1994)

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 René-Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon was born in 15th October 1886 in Blois. He grew
up in a strict Catholic family and surrounding. Then, he went to College Rollin in Paris.
As a student, he had a significant talent in mathematics and philosophy. He had
difficulties at school due to his weak health conditions. Guenon was interested in
Eastern metaphysics and traditions at that time. According to Eliade, an important
scholar in the field of comparative religions, the reason for the interest was the search
for an uncorrupted tradition other than the corrupted western values:

...involvement with the occult represented for the French literary and artistic
avant-garde one of the most efficient criticisms and rejections of the religious and
cultural values of the West - efficient because it was considered to be based on
historical facts.9

Rene Guénon crowned his genius in analyzing ancient traditions by adopting

Islamic belief and his initiation to Shadhilî order in 1911. He wrote articles published
in magazines such as La Gnose and Les Etudes Traditionnelles. He wrote many
important books on Hinduism, esoterism. He moved to Egypt in 1930 where he
would live until his death in 1951.

Guénon was not an outsider observer or just an orientalist. He explained the Unity
of God ontologically and expressed the necessity of following Revelation strictly.
He had a great competence on many fields ranging from theology to philosophy,
alchemy, jafr, and initiatic affiliation. He wrote many books including East and
West, The Crisis of the Modern World, Initiation and Spiritual Realization,
Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycle, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the
Times etc. most of which were translated into many languages.

Frithjof Schuon (Shayh Isa Nur al-Din)

9
M. Eliade: “The Occult and the Modern World” in Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions,
University of Chicago, 1976; p53.; see also Harry Oldmeadow, The Life and Work of René Guénon,
2007,p. 2 (http://www.latrobe.edu.au/eyeoftheheart/assets/editors/oldmeadow/Rene_Guenon.pdf)

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Another great representative of this school is Frithjof Schuon 10 (Isa Nur al-Din). Schuon
was an artist, philosopher and poet. He was born in Basel in 1907 to an intellectual
family. Beginning with his childhood, he had a deep interest in Bhagavad gita and
Upanishads. He read Guenon’s books at his early age. After his military service, he
came to Paris and began working as a textile designer. There he began learning Arabic
in a local mosque. In 1932, he went to Algeria and met great Shadhili Shaykh Ahmad
al-Alawi there. Then he was initiated into Shaykh Alawi’s order. In 1938, he met with
René Guénon in Egypt with whom he corresponded for many years. He wrote many
works during that time. Frithjof Schuon also had an interest in the Native Indians in
America. He and his wife came to America in 1959 and during their second visit in
1963, they were accepted by Sioux Tribe. In 1968, they visited Ephesus in Turkey. In
1981, Schuon and his wife moved America. He died on 5th May, 1998.

Schuon was also a polyglotte and used his eloquence in language skillfully in the fields
of comparative religion and Sufism. Frithjof Schuon’s works were published in many
languages and people not only from West but also from East learnt the very essence of
Truth via his books, poems and pictures. Schuon tried to explain Guénon’s and
Coomaraswamy’s opinions. His works and ideas were not mere repetition of his two
predecessors’ ideas but contained dimensions woven by Schuon’s great intellectual
experience and artistic features.11 Concerning his style and tone in his works, Seyyed
Hossein Nasr states,

“His authoritative tone, clarity or expression and an ‘alchemy’ which transmutes human
language to enable it to present the profoundest truths make of his works a unique
expression of philosophia perennis…”12

10
For detailed information on Frithjof Schuon, see Martin Lings, “Frithjof Schuon: An Autobiographical
Approach, Sophia, volume 5 no 1, Summer 1999, pp.15-28; Religion of the Heart, ed, Seyyed Hossein
Nasr and William Stoddart, Traditional Studies, Washington DC, 1991; Kenneth Oldmeadow,
Traditionalism, The Sri Lanka Institute of traditional studies, Colombo, 2000, pp. 36-43; Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, Frithjof Schuon and the Islamic Tradition, Sophia Summer 1999, pp. 27-48; Sophia The Journal of
Traditional Studies, In Memory: Frithjof Schuon, Winter 1998, volume 4, no 2; Martin Lings, Frithjof
Schuon and René Guénon, Sophia, pp.9-23, S.H. Nasr, The Essential Frithjof Schuon, introduction.

11
M. Lings, Eleventh Hour, p.91.
12
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Introduction to Frithjof Schuon, Islam and the Perennial Philosophy, p.viii

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 The followers of this school are of course not limited with the aforementioned
figures. An English contemplative and Sufi Martin Lings, Huston Smith and a
contemporary Iranian sage Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who produced intellectual works
more than any other member of this school, are the most effective representatives of
Traditionalist School. S.H. Nasr is the greatest living spokesman of this school. His
numerous works were translated into many languages- and I have the honour of
translating some of them into Turkish. His ideas not only influence people in the west
but also in the east and serve as a guidance in search of truth.

The Solution for Crises in Modern Society

Members of Traditionalist School believe that only Perennial Wisdom, which resides
within the substance of each religion without changing, would transform man into his
primordial state and purify him from all contingencies and evil deeds despite the
changes in forms. From the starting point of this purification, they try to search the
primordial truth living in the very core of religions.

Despite the fact that there are members from all traditions, the dominant views
are within Islamic framework. Their theological, metaphysical and Sufi views indicate
that the followers of this School apply a quintessential and deep intellectual deduction
rather than superficial approaches.

Traditionalist contemplators exerted their utmost efforts and made use of their
theological, philosophical and intellectual abilities to make these very thoughts more
comprehensible and clear for the minds of people in West and East. The books and
articles belonging to them enabled this School to become a serious discipline rather than
a group belongs only to a limited period.

Their traits can be likened to the traits of mutakallimun and philosophers who
confronted many attacks from inside and outside Islamic Community. The science of
theology (ilm-i Kalam) is defined as the science of “proofs” and “principles” which
determine the principles of belief by proving and inference, and systematize these very
principles to be practiced without least unclarity in minds. Thus, it does not deal with
details which are called “furuat”. During the Golden age of Islam, the difficulties as
such were eliminated by Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) himself. His Tradition
(Sunna) and Revelation (Wahy) served as guides for believers. However, as the religious

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and social life in the conquered lands was quiet unfamiliar with the mainstream
religious principles among Muslim society, some issues should have been, so to speak,
revised in order to answer the questions arose thereof. The foundations of theological
traits as a defense and confirmation act were established to ease the integrity of the
peoples inhabiting newly conquered lands with the system of Muslim community, to
remove their preconceptions and strengthen weak points in the minds of Muslims via
using the universally accepted laws from the point of both confirming the inner
dynamics and universal truths. The sources which Muslim community met in these new
lands influenced the form and content of the defense. Moreover, the schools of Islamic
Thought exerted great effort to analyze their opponents’ sources and Islamize the new
aspects. Thus, intellect was used under the guidance of Revelation as a means to attain
the solutions for the needs of minds rather than dwelling in their own climate of
thinking. For, Revelation takes precedence before intellect as it is stated by our great
contemplator Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi stated in his Mathanawi-i Ma’nawi:

Aql do aql ast aql-i maksabi

Ki dar amozi cho dar maktab sabi

Aql-i digar bahshish-i Yazdan buwad

Chashma-i an dar miyan-i jan buwad

“There are two kinds of intellect; the first one is the gained intellect. You learn it as a
student learns it at school. The second one is bestowed by God. Its source is in the
soul”13.

Muslim sages and Greek philosophers except for Aristotle pointed at this distinction.
They were against the sole dominion of human intellect but expressed the precedence of
Divine intellect14 . Frithjof Schuon confirms this fact in the following lines:

“In the opinion of all profane thinkers, philosophy means to think ‘freely’ as far
as possible without presuppositions which precisely is impossible; on the other
hand, gnosis, or philosophy in the proper sense and primitive sense of the word
13
Dowra-i kamili Mathnawi ma’nawi, trans. R. Nicholson, Tehran, 1350, p.722.
14
Avani, Gulam Riza, Hikmet ve Sanat (makaleler), trans. Prof. Mehmet Kanar, Insan Yayinlari, Istanbul
1997, p. 19.

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 is to think in accordance with the Immanent Intellect and not by means of reason
alone”15

Islam in the West: Issues to be Clarified

An outstanding tendency towards Islam is apparent in the West. As a matter of fact,

there should be great efforts to eliminate the problematic issues in the minds of
believers and non-believers. In this context, Muslim intellectuals in the West have some
important responsibilities in solving the aforementioned issues. To execute such a task,
Traditionalist School produced many magnificent works ranging from philosophy to
metaphysics, cosmology and theology. They tried to point of different openings for the
eyes of western and eastern people concerning Islam.

The contemplators of Traditionalist School stated that the reason for the dilemmas of
modern age is leaving religion and placing it beyond real life. Cutting the ties of
primordial state led human being to move on the opposite direction of his very essence
that makes him the most honored one among creatures (ashraf-i mahluqat) because of
not having a center. The first thing to be done is following the religion in that it has a
savior function. The main aim of the religion is to open the way of returning to the
center he lost.

All modern theories have a common solution from the point of reducing religion into a
human phenomenon which means the denial of religion consciously or unconsciously.

Religion calls people to think via intellect, symbols and other faculties seriously. When
a person leaves Divine Essence, his ego becomes a stone that drags him downwards; the
gap occurred thereof would be filled with formal pressure and the dark essence of fall.16

Placing God and thus spiritual realities to the background stems from the ideas those
rely on merely outward senses and regard the things that cannot be conceived via these
senses as unrealistic. Beginning with Medieval Ages, the divine was reduced to category
of abstract and finally to unreal. It is quite natural that human being, who grew up in
such a kind of atmosphere is separated from Revelation, becomes far from his inner
spiritual experience and has a confined understanding of reality. 17 Metaphysical domain
becomes beneficial by means of operating intellect and reason. As a matter of fact, such
15
Schuon, Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom Books, 1981, p. 116.
16
S.H. Nasr, the Essential Frithjof Schuon, p. 388.
17
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need for a Sacred Science, p. 7

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intense traits are not possible for human being who went far from his primordial state.
The fact that profane thought is confined and incomplete and that has a content, so to
speak, far from aesthetics and intensity serves as a refuge for modern man. From now
on, his responsibility to operate his mind and heart will disappear. However, human
being was created with faculties that can conceive The Absolute. 18 To attain the
knowledge of The Absolute is possible only with two sources of certainty (yaqîn):
Revelation and intellection. Human being can reach his center only by means of using
these two means. Human can attain his own center via removing the veil these two
sources. This veil is called as hijab in Islam and maya in Hinduism. Human has a
natural potential to know God. He has a divine spark and light by which he may know
his Creator. 19 But knowing God is realized by His informing Himself in Holy Quran.

The phenomenon religion has a primary function to keep individuals and communities
together and make them integrated with their primordial nature. The word religion
(religiere-way that binds) is used as a link that unites human beings with a supreme
principal.20 In Ancient Greece, this term denoted the unity of human being with each
other. However, Frithjof Schuon states that religion unites human with Allah and makes
human contemplate Him.21

According to Traditionalists, the only element that preserves its traditional features is
religion in that it is not modern. Thus, modern thought shows its enmity toward religion.
According to Guenon, it is possible to say that religion include the combination of three
elements: belief (aqida), morality (ahlaq) and prayer (ibada). If one of these main
elements misses, a religion cannot exist. The first element denotes the intellectual side,
the second one denotes the social aspect and the third one denotes the rituals. 22
According to Frithjof Schuon, Prayer is the key for our salvation. Thus, it is possible to
accept “I am, therefore I pray; sum ergo oro” which can be viewed as an alternative of
Rene Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum”.23

Perennial wisdom can be discerned in Islamic metaphysics explicitly. “It was We Who
created man, and We know what suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to
18
Frithjof Schuon, Logic and Transcendence, p. 226.
19
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred, p. 326
20
René Guénon, Introduction to Hindu Doctrines, p. 58.
21
Frithjof Schuon, Light on The Ancient Worlds, p. 144.
22
René Guénon, Introduction to Hindu Doctrines, p. 65.
23
Schuon, Understanding Islam, p. 155.

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him than (his) jugular vein”24. He is beyond all dualities. To believe the unity of God is
in the center of Islam as well as all heavenly beliefs. This confirmation in Islam is
reflected in Catholic belief by the reality of “credo in unum Deum”. (I believe in One
God) 25. The religion enables man to return his original state. This return cannot happen
itself. The aim of religion is to enable his return. If he could make his return himself,
there would not be any need for religion.

According to Traditionalists, human being whose intellectual faculties operate in a

normal condition makes correlations after analyzing himself and his surrounding. It is
natural that he makes observations during daily activities such as shopping, eating
sleeping etc. These observations become a perspective in a certain phase of life that lead
human being to attain his Creator.

CONCLUSION

There is one truth at the core of all religions. It remains unchanged and leads us
understand the Essence. Once human beings attain Truth, they will return to their
primordial state and thus will be able to comprehend His Presence. Human beings have
to find ways for salvation before attempting to reach the essence of their own nature.
According to Traditionalist School, the only way to remove the veil of appearances and
reach the core is the guidance of Revelation. To reach this guidance can be possible only
by the principles of Sophia Perennis as Schuon states in the following lines:

Strictly speaking, there is but one sole philosophy, the Sophia Perennis; it is also
- envisaged in its integrality - the only religion. Sophia has two possible origins,
one timeless and the other temporal; the first is "vertical" and discontinuous, and
the second, "horizontal" and continuous; in other words, the first is like the rain
that at any moment can descend from the sky; the second is like a stream that
flows from a spring. Both modes meet and combine: metaphysical Revelation
actualizes the intellective faculty, and once awakened, this gives rise to
spontaneous and independent intellection.26
24
Quran, Qaf, 50/16
25
Chittick, The Essential Nasr, p. 43
26
Frithjof Schuon ,The Transfiguration of Man, p. 9-10

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The members of Traditionalist School exerted great efforts to help modern societies to
rediscover their Heavenly determined original state. These efforts can be likened to
those of theologians and philosophers of Islamic society in Medieval Age who tried to
support believers in their beliefs against the attacks of other disciplines within the
conquered lands and also those they faced in their neighborhood.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dowra-i kamili Mathnawi ma’nawi, trans. R. Nicholson, Tehran, 1350

Frithjof Schuon, The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom (October 25, 1995).

___Understanding Islam,World Wisdom, 1998.

___Light on The Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom Books; 2 edition (June 1984)
___Logic and Transcendence, Sophia Perennis et Universalis (December 1984)
___Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom Books,
1981

Gulam Riza Avani, Hikmet ve Sanat (makaleler), trans. Prof. Mehmet Kanar, Insan
Yayinlari, Istanbul 1997

Harry Oldmeadow, Traditionalism, The Sri Lanka Institute of traditional studies,

Colombo, 2000

___The Life and Work of René Guénon, 2007.

Huseyin Yilmaz, Ezelî Hikmet ve Dinler, Insan Yayinlari, Istanbul 2003.

Lord Northbourne, Religion in the Modern World, J.M. Dent, London 1963

Martin Lings, “Frithjof Schuon: An Autobiographical Approach, Sophia, volume 5 no 1,

Summer 1999.

___The Essential Rene Guénon, World Wisdom (October 25, 2009)

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 ___Eleventh Hour: The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of
Tradition and Prophecy, Archetype; 2nd edition (August 2002)
___Rene Guénon, Sophia Journal, volume 1, no 1, Summer 1995.

Mircae Eliade, “The Occult and the Modern World” in Occultism, Witchcraft and
Cultural Fashions, University of Chicago, 1976.

Réne Guénon, East and West, Sophia Perennis (July 2, 2004)

___Introduction to Hindu Doctrines, Sophia Perennis; 2 Revised edition (July 2,

2004)

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred, SUNY Press, 1989,

___ “Réne Guénon”, Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. Mircea Eliade, C.VI, New
York 1987,

___ Religion of the Heart, ed, S. Hossein Nasr and William Stoddart, Traditional
Studies, Washington DC, 1991,

___ Frithjof Schuon and the Islamic Tradition, Sophia Summer 1999,

___The Essential Frithjof Schuon, World Wisdom (September 25, 2005)

___ The Need for a Sacred Science, Curzon (March 14, 2007)

___Frithjof Schuon and the Islamic Tradition, Sophia Summer 1999.

Whitall N.Perry, “The Revival Of Interest in Tradition” , The Unanimous Tradition

Tradition Essays on Essential Unity of All Religions, 2.b., Ed. Ranjit Fernando, Sri
Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, Colombo 1999.

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