Distinguished lecture: ‘Love makes the world go round’
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali speaks about links between Christian and Muslim mysticism.
Love is seeking the higher good in the person one loves and is not simply desire. It has been degraded to merely physical love, says Bishop of Rochester. ILLUSTRATION: FAIZAAN DAWOOD
LAHORE:
“Love is seeking the higher good of the person one loves and is not simply desire. It has been degraded to merely physical love.”
The Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England Michael Nazir Ali was speaking on Muslim and Christian mysticism in the Middle East on Wednesday. The cleric was tracing the history of mysticism and its influence on Islam and Christianity.
The talk, part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, was organised by Forman Christian College’s Department of History and the Department of Religious Studies and was held at the S9 auditorium of the college.
Dr Ali said his contribution to theology apart, Al Ghazali was truly a mystic. Through his interpretation of Quranic verses he had created a critical link between theology and mysticism, the bishop said.
The cleric said there was a connection between Muslim mystics and the Christian monks of Egypt and Syria from the very start. He said suf was the white woollen robe which monks of that time wore and this was the root word for sufi.
Dr Ali said political tensions in Muslim empires along with dry orthodoxy which discouraged free thought and the presence of Christian monasticism were factors that encouraged the rise of mysticism. Dr Ali quoted Jalaluddin Rumi, “all movement in the universe is a movement towards the light,” with light being used to describe God.
Dr Ali connected Christian and Muslim views on mysticism and argued that it was simply “love which makes the world go round.” For Allama Iqbal, he added, love leads to a unity of relatedness with God, not absorption. He also noted that in every religion the immediate experience of the divine needs to be grounded in love.
He said it was unfortunate that a perception of mysticism as a cult had developed over the years. “There is always a danger that a [spiritual] movement is turned into a mere ritual.”
He said that mysticism could play a critical role in inter-religious dialogue which could build bridges between religions.
The bishop said several precepts of Christian and Muslim mysticism were closely linked and mysticism could initiate a dialogue which could help in our comprehension of religion. He added that this would only happen once the focus was on the mystical experience.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.
“Love is seeking the higher good of the person one loves and is not simply desire. It has been degraded to merely physical love.”
The Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England Michael Nazir Ali was speaking on Muslim and Christian mysticism in the Middle East on Wednesday. The cleric was tracing the history of mysticism and its influence on Islam and Christianity.
The talk, part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, was organised by Forman Christian College’s Department of History and the Department of Religious Studies and was held at the S9 auditorium of the college.
Dr Ali said his contribution to theology apart, Al Ghazali was truly a mystic. Through his interpretation of Quranic verses he had created a critical link between theology and mysticism, the bishop said.
The cleric said there was a connection between Muslim mystics and the Christian monks of Egypt and Syria from the very start. He said suf was the white woollen robe which monks of that time wore and this was the root word for sufi.
Dr Ali said political tensions in Muslim empires along with dry orthodoxy which discouraged free thought and the presence of Christian monasticism were factors that encouraged the rise of mysticism. Dr Ali quoted Jalaluddin Rumi, “all movement in the universe is a movement towards the light,” with light being used to describe God.
Dr Ali connected Christian and Muslim views on mysticism and argued that it was simply “love which makes the world go round.” For Allama Iqbal, he added, love leads to a unity of relatedness with God, not absorption. He also noted that in every religion the immediate experience of the divine needs to be grounded in love.
He said it was unfortunate that a perception of mysticism as a cult had developed over the years. “There is always a danger that a [spiritual] movement is turned into a mere ritual.”
He said that mysticism could play a critical role in inter-religious dialogue which could build bridges between religions.
The bishop said several precepts of Christian and Muslim mysticism were closely linked and mysticism could initiate a dialogue which could help in our comprehension of religion. He added that this would only happen once the focus was on the mystical experience.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.