Laleh Bakhtiar

Only as the concluding paragraph do we exercise our assumed right to express a personal assessment. It is indeed the first book of its kind that posits theoretical frameworks to organize a morphology of architectural concepts as well as to elucidate the formative principles underlying the Persian city as levels of realizaiton. It makes a conscius choice and thus takes a considerable academic risk to tell the story of Persian architecture through what it claims to be timeless vectors rather than retracing the well walked over paths of dynastic, stylistic or typological chronologies. With its characteristic courage, it brings together the unbounded vastness of cosmological imaginations and the bounded specificity of a prayer niche. It presents the architecutral devices dealing with the sun, the wind and the water as metaphors for the functioning beauty of the perfect personality. It looks up at the vaults of the Jami and presents what it sees as the mandalic chess board of the heavens and it peels the Persian carpet with the drafsman’s pen to reveal the exemplary harmony among the apparently discordant geometric and the arabesque. It seeks the musical harmonies in the movements of the pilgrims and it charts devotions contained in the oriented voids. It draws the footprints of the bazaar only to draw the essence of the city. It brings the tile maker, the brick layer, the carpet weaver,, the glass blower, the calligrapher, the geometer, the prince and the peasant, all to rehearse the poetry of the Absent Poet.
There is nothing on the manifest pages of the book that is not a device to veil what must remain hidden: the Beautiful Who Loves Beauty. And it is only through such an aperture of the mind and such an inclination of the spirit that The Sense of Unity will continue to yield its message.

The Quranic story of Moses and his meeting with "someone who is more knowledgeable than he" at the junction between the two seas is the only story of Moses in the Quran that does not have roots in Biblical texts. Most readers are probably familiar with who Prophet Moses was, the Prophet who freed the Children of Jacob from the Egyptian Pharaoh. They may be less familiar with the "someone who is more knowledgeable than he," who has sapiental wisdom which is "to taste," "to realize," "to be transformed," having gained knowledge through purifying consciousness (kashf) and replacing reason with intuition. As the Quran tells us: Certainly, there had been in their narratives a lesson for those imbued with intuition. (Q12:111) The Hadith indicate that Moses meet with "someone who was more knowledgeable than he," whom they designated as Khidr. Khidr is a spiritual guide who comes to people in their dream visions or through clairvoyance. Clairvoyance refers to discernment (furqan). It is the power of discerning objects not present to the senses; the power to perceive matters beyond the range of ordinary perception. In other words, it is an experience "beyond perception." The dream vision world is known as coming from a barzakh or barrier or intermediate world between the material, physical world and the spiritual world. It is also known as the 'alam al-mithal or world of likenesses, home to our creative imagination. As a realm of existence that mediates between different levels of existence , an understanding of this allows dream visions or visionary experiences-which have played a major role in many fields of Muslim life from historiography to medicine-to exist in a special sphere of existence of its own. They are, as in ISBN 9781567446791

Preface Quranic Psychology is a Science Quranic Psychology is a science that differs significantly from modern psychology, but, at the same time, meets the same criteria for a science. There are three criteria for a body of knowledge to be called a "science": First, it has to have a definite subject-matter (that is, the Quranic view of "self" and its components and functions) and the nature and activities of the thinking subject (that is, Muslims); secondly, that it possesses a systematic, organized and effective method (that is, Moral Psychology); thirdly, that it comprehends a systematized body of general truths (that is, the divine word revealed to Prophet Muhammad). 1 Quranic Psychology is the science of the self or nafs-when the word nafs is used reflexively in the Quran. Our "self" consists of body, soul and spirit or, as described in Part I of this textbook: Soul-body, soul evolving from the animal soul to the human soul and soul-spirit/intellect. Our spirit (ruh, masculine noun) is that which God breathed into us creating the potential for three energies that activate our soul (nafs, feminine noun) and give us our ability to reason ('aql, masculine noun). It is through our ruh that God breathed into the first human being (Adam) and the generative organs of all the progeny and our 'aql, its earthly counterpart, that we reason. Our soul is that by which we develop consciousness, feel, think, know and will and by which our body is animated, as our body is the instrument governed by our soul. "Soul" differs from both mind (sadr) and spirit (ruh) as a different term is used for each in the Quran. The Quran refers to four aspects of our soul, namely: nafs al-ammarah (animal or animate soul), nafs al-mulhamah (inspired soul that is also referred to as qalb, consciousness), nafs al-lawwamah (blaming soul that is also referred to as fu'ad, conscience) and nafs al-mutma'innah (soul at peace that is also called 'aql or intellect, reason). The Quran does not refer to nafs al-natiqah (rational soul) or nafs al-insa-niyyah (human soul), but these are terms used in traditional philosophy. 2

I am very grateful that the Sufi Enneagram Secrets of the Symbol Unveiled has been translated into Persian. My thanks go to Samuel Bendeck Sotillos who wrote the introduction. A conference was held in Tehran to discuss the Persian edition. In Persian it is called Noh Ganeh Irani.

translations of the Quran and realizing the sincere efforts of the translators in this great, divinely blessed task, it became clear to me that English translations lack internal consistency and reliability. Clearly no translation of the Quran can compare in beauty and style with the original Arabic, which has been described as: " by turns, striking, soaring, vivid, terrible, tender and breathtaking. " 1 Recognizing this, a translation of a sacred text which will never equal the original still has certain criteria it should meet. I found, when the context is the same, if the same English word is not used for the same Arabic word throughout the translation, it becomes difficult for someone who wants to learn to correlate the English and the Arabic to be able to do so. In other words, the twenty or so English translations put emphasis on interpreting a Quranic verse without precisely representing the original Arabic word. For example, in one translation , the English verb " to turn " is used for over forty-three different Arabic words and the noun " sin, " twenty-three. The Arabic language is much more precise than present translations would indicate and God used a different word in each case. Therefore, a translation should do the same to the extent possible in order to give the English reader more of a sense of the depth to the Quran. This Arabic-English version of The Sublime Quran is the best way for a student of classical Quranic Arab to learn to read the Quran because of the internal consistence and reliability of the translation. For the Muslim, the Quran is the Word (Logos) of God. It is this Word of God that has inspired artists, artisans, poets, philosophers and writers, those who had been the exponents of Islamic culture and civilization for almost 1500 years. Yesterday and today's Muslim wants to know more about each Word that God chose for His revelation through the Quran. This realization, in turn, prompted

... Encyclopedia of Islamic law: A compendium of the views of the major schools. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Bakhtiar, Laleh. ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xl, 624 p. SUBJECT(S): Islamic law; Encyclopedias. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...

... The sense of unity: The Sufi tradition in Persian architecture. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xviii, 151 p. SUBJECT(S): Architecture; Architecture, Islamic; Symbolism in architecture; Sufism; Iran. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned ...

Commentary in the Washington Post February 2016:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/a-mobile-minaret-is-mightier-than-the-sword-commentary/2016/02/26/3a4fe1d8-dc98-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_story.html

Mobile Minaret website:
http://www.mobileminaret.org/about.html

Mobile Minaret Indiegogo
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mobile-minaret-vs-radicalization--2#/

Why is this the earliest commentary on the Quran? Most historians have said that the first commentary on the Quran was made by Ali’s paternal first cousin, Abdullah Ibn Abbas (619-687CE). Yet Abdullah Ibn Abbas claims to have learned the science of interpretation from his older first cousin, Ali.
Once the Sermons, Letters and Sayings were compiled in the Nahj al-Balagha (Path of Eloquence), it should have been recognized as the earliest commentary on the Quran as the Commentary here shows. Ali tells us:
Not a single verse of the Quran was revealed to the Messenger of God which he did not proceed to dictate tome and make me recite. I would write it with my own hand, and he would instruct me as to its tafsir (the literal explanation) and the ta'wil (the spiritual exegesis), the nasikh (the verse which abrogates) and the mansukh(the abrogatedverse), the muhkamand the mutashabih (the fixed and the ambiguous), the particular and the general. He would pray to God to increase my understanding and my memory. Then he would lay his hand on my breast and ask God to fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, with judgement and illumination.

Why is this the earliest commentary on the Quran? Most historians have said that the first commentary on the Quran was made by Ali’s paternal first cousin, Abdullah Ibn Abbas (619-687CE). Yet Abdullah Ibn Abbas claims to have learned the science of interpretation from his older first cousin, Ali.
Once the Sermons, Letters and Sayings were compiled in the Nahj al-Balagha (Path of Eloquence), it should have been recognized as the earliest commentary on the Quran as the Commentary here shows. Ali tells us:

Not a single verse of the Quran was revealed to the Messenger of God which he did not proceed to dictate to me and make me recite. I would write it with my own hand, and he would instruct me as to its tafsir (the literal explanation) and the ta'wil (the spiritual exegesis), the nasikh (the verse which abrogates) and the mansukh (the abrogated verse), the muhkam and the mutashabih (the fixed and the ambiguous), the particular and the general. He would pray to God to increase my understanding and my memory. Then he would lay his hand on my breast and ask God to fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, with judgement and illumination.