Remembering God
Reflections on Islam
-
-
5.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $2.99
-
- $2.99
Publisher Description
Written by the best-selling author of Islam and the Destiny of Man, Remembering God: Reflections on Islam is a profound analysis of the most urgent concerns and questions facing us at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Contrasting modern, secular society with religion and tradition in general and with Islam in particular, Gai Eaton clarifies the essential need for spirituality, religion and values based on eternal principles. The main ideas behind Remembering God are that religion is not an isolated part of human life which can be disregarded at will and without consequences; that a total rejection of the past cannot be the basis for the future and that a true link with Heaven modifies all the decisions and actions of society. The continuity and harmony of the religious perspective contrasted with the dislocation and alienation of modern society is the theme that runs throughout the book, touching on religion in principle: metaphysics, knowledge of the div! ine and of oneself, supplication, the necessity for purifying the ego; and on the application of religion to society: politics, architecture, the environment and gender relations, Charles Le Gai Eaton illustrates the subtle harmony of a religious perspective and its abiity to transform both the individual and society.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eaton, a British convert to Islam, has published several books under the auspices of British and Iranian Islamic societies and has lectured widely on the topic of Islam and the modern world. Like many converts from Europe and America, he finds Sufism, or "mystical" Islam, to be the most meaningful form of religion. Eaton's book is a sort of religious editorial, an effort to prescribe a cure for a spiritually dead society. This cure is "remembering God." In Sufi practice, remembering (dhikr) often refers to the meditative repetition of the names of God. As an outline of one man's faith in God and his vision of the well-lived life, Eaton's writing contains much beauty and truth. His observations on the effect of pluralism on modern religious life are insightful and honest. Yet the book falters on the frequent occasions that it sinks into condemnation. Eaton is often accusatory, not of other religions--refreshingly, he believes that all religions can be valid--but of diverse ways of living meaningfully. He begins and ends with the opposition between "Islam" (in many of his anecdotes, he seems to equate this with "Arab") and "the West." The West is degenerate and spiritually dead, while Islam is traditional and spiritually beleaguered by the West. Unfortunately, the book dwells on the perceived evils of the West as much as it does on Eaton's particular version of Islamic life.
