Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian philosopher and scholar of comparative religion born in 1933 in Tehran. He became a professor of Islamic studies at universities in Tehran, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Nasr writes about Islamic esotericism, Sufism, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. He believes that humanity's salvation lies in rediscovering traditional religious values and that the perennial philosophy found in all religious traditions provides sacred knowledge and a way to study religion properly. Nasr argues that religious pluralism can be understood through Sufism for Muslims and the perennial philosophy for others.

1. SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR
(1933)
Prepared by:
SYARIFAH UMMU SALAMAH SY. ANAS
(0710012)

2. ž Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born on April 7, 1933
in Tehran
ž His father, Seyyed Valiallah- was a physician to
the Iranian royal family, and one of the
founders of modern education in Iran
ž Became Prof of Islamic Studies at Tehran
University (1958)Temple University (1979) and
Prof at George Washington University (1984)
ž Nasr is a Muslim Persian philosopher and
renowned scholar of comparative religion
ž A lifelong student and follower of Frithjof
Schuon
ž Writes in the fields of Islamic esoterism, Sufism,
philosophy of science, and metaphysics

3. — An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological
Doctrines
— Ideals and Realities of Islam
— The Encounter of Man and Nature: The
Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man
— Traditional Islam in the modern world
— Islam and the Plight of Modern Man
— Knowledge and the Sacred

4. RELIGION AND
CONTEMPORARY
SOCIETY

5. — Nasr’s approach to the study of religion in
contemporary society is worthwhile
investigating for two reasons:
- it encompasses and accepts all revealed
religions and their sacred quality
- deals with how Islam and Muslim can
accommodate the existing reality of other
religions

6. qNasr’s approach to the study of religion in
contemporary society appears to be a
response to the following two factors:
- the spirit degradation in the modern world
- the interpenetration of religious forms

7. ž Uncontrolled materialism and widespread
atheism has characterize the modern world
ž He stresses that one must turn to the sources of
tradition in order to evaluate these underlying
causes, and then increase an effective response
to the intellectual challenges posed by the
modern world
ž The west’s continuous philosophical, cultural,
artistic, political, economic, and social
domination of the Muslim world has weakened
not only the traditional Islamic institutions, but
also the fundamental of its own tradition

8. ž He set himself the task of defending all of the
sacred traditions, including Islam
ž There is an urgent need to assert the traditional
Islamic view on contemporary issues
ž Nasr rise a consistent challenge to the principal
elements of modernist outlook throughout his
writings, attacking not just atheism and
secularism, but also their underlying motive
forces
ž He consistently oppose change, reform, or
anything that would dilute ‘the transcendent
and immutable principles’

9. ž To overcome this problem is by going back to the
old method which are- to desacralize the reason to
bear on the sacred traditions and then to revive an
awareness of the sacred quality of knowledge
ž Such sacred knowledge, according to him, is not
the exclusive preserve of Islam, but is to be found
wherever there is loyalty to the sacred origin of any
revealed tradition
ž He suggests that the only way out of this
predicament is to understand the modern world in
depth and to respond to its challenges through the
knowledge of the tradition in its fullness

10. ž The revival of wisdom lying at the heart of each
sacred tradition. This termed the perennial
philosophy, which not only underlies all expressions
of sacred knowledge, but offers the best antidote to
modernism’s pretensions
ž The perennial philosophy saying that, the supreme
ideals of life and thought are beyond time and space,
being situated in the eternal wisdom of the Divine, a
wisdom that is made accessible through revelation
and its continuation in tradition
ž Therefore, it is tradition, not modernity, that opens
up the path to progress- inward, moral, and spiritual
progress there is. As a result, the modern world is
revealed as nothing more than a sophisticated form
of degeneration

11. ž People know far more about the people of other
faiths than they did in the past, and different
belief systems are confronted on a much wider
scale than ever before. The question of how to
relate to other faiths thus assumes major
significance
ž Secularists- all religions are relative, and thus
none are either absolute or true.
ž Dogmatists- their particular religion alone is true
and thus absolute
ž Nasr- All religions are relative when compared
with the Absolute, of which they are just
different expressions, and thus lead one back to
the Absolute.

12. ž And so on is compelled to acknowledge not only the
validity of his/ her own religion or belief system, but
also to be tolerant and open to the values revealed by
other religions
ž In this context, Nasr asserts that there is a need for a
science that can do justice to the study of religion.
For him, this science is the perennial wisdom lying at
the heart of all religious traditions
Nasr stresses that the issue of ž religious pluralism can
be solved for Muslims within the context of Sufism.
As for the adherents of other faiths, it can be
facilitated within the context of the perennial
philosophy
ž He attempts to solve the problem by suggesting that
all religions are forms of the everlasting truth which
has been revealed by God to humankind through
various agencies

13. ž Humanity’s salvation becomes possible
only when the values of tradition are
rediscovered
ž He claims that the perennial philosophy
constitutes a proper ground for a study of
religion
ž He asserts that the sacred knowledge
contained within the perennial
philosophy requires a sacred in the
knower and, therefore, seeks to have an
impact upon the existential life of the
seeker after truth