Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of MuslimsSeven Doors to Islam reveals the religious worldview and spiritual tradition of the world's one billion Muslims. Spanning the breadth of Islamic civilization from Morocco to Indonesia, this book demonstrates how Muslims have used the literary and visual arts in all their richness and diversity to communicate religious values. Each of the seven chapters opens a "door" that leads progressively closer to the very heart of Islam, from the foundational revelation in the Qur'an to the transcendent experience of the Sufi mystics. However, unlike most studies of Islam, which see spirituality as the concern of a minority of mystical seekers, Seven Doors demonstrates its central role in every aspect of the Islamic tradition. |
Contents
xv | |
2 | |
7 | |
11 | |
12 | |
14 | |
Experiencing Quran and Hadith | 15 |
Memory and Recitation | 22 |
Visual Symbolism | 126 |
Architectural Symbolism | 130 |
Painting and the Decorative Arts | 133 |
COMMUNITY SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS AND PATRONAGE | 141 |
Money and Power | 143 |
Institutional Texts | 150 |
Private Discipline | 157 |
Patronage and Arts | 162 |
Seeing the Word | 25 |
DEVOTION RITUAL AND PERSONAL PRAYER | 33 |
On the Liturgical Calender | 34 |
From the Pulpit | 38 |
Art and Architecture | 42 |
Devotion beyond Duty | 50 |
Rites of Passage | 54 |
Sermons for Every Occasion | 61 |
Art and Architecture | 63 |
Exemplary Models | 74 |
Individual Life Stories | 76 |
Collected Lives | 81 |
Wisdom Literature | 86 |
Pointers for the Powerful | 87 |
Morals for the Masses | 90 |
Encountering the Exemplars | 93 |
Visual Arts as Education | 95 |
Literature and Spirituality | 106 |
Metaphor | 111 |
Allegory | 112 |
Principal Poetic Forms | 114 |
Lyric Poetry | 116 |
Arabesque and Aesthetics | 123 |
Building Community | 166 |
Spirituality of Artist and Patron | 173 |
From the Great Teachers | 183 |
Between Sermon and Seminar | 184 |
Borrowed Notes | 186 |
Keeping in Touch | 192 |
Required Reading for Mystics | 196 |
Mystical Geography | 203 |
Languages of the Spirit | 210 |
Heart Speaks to Heart | 221 |
Soul on Pilgrimage | 222 |
Narrative and Imagination | 229 |
Muhammad as Mystical Model | 233 |
Beyond Storytelling | 236 |
Saying the Unsayable | 237 |
Explaining the Unexplainable | 244 |
Evaluating Experience | 249 |
Traveling Companions | 251 |
JOSEPH OF THE SEVEN DOORS | 257 |
Notes | 271 |
Select Glossary | 297 |
Index of Quranic Citations | 309 |
Other editions - View all
Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims John Renard Limited preview - 1996 |
Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims John Renard Limited preview - 2023 |
Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims John Renard No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani ad-Din adab Ahmad Allah allusion Annemarie Schimmel Arabic architecture artists authority beauty beloved called calligraphy century chapter classic context dervish describes devotion dhikr discourse distinction divine dome example experience faith figures function genre Ghazali God's Hadith heart holy human Husayn Ibid Ibn Arabi imagery imams important individual interpretation Iran Islamic spirituality Joseph journey Ka'ba khanqah Kitab knowledge literary literature madrasa Mamluk material meaning Mecca metaphor Mevlevi mihrab mosque Mughal Muhammad Muslims mystical narrative Ottoman painting path patronage pedagogical Persian person pilgrimage poem poet poetry popular practice Press Prophet qasida Qur'an R. A. Nicholson Razi recitation refers religious revelation ritual prayer Rumi sacred says scripture seeker shaykh Shi'i soul sources spiritual guide story structure Sufi Sufism Sultan symbolic tekke term theme tion tomb trans University various verses visual waqf wisdom words zawiya Zulaykha