M. Ali Lakhani

This book shows that one does not have to be a liberal to have an interfaith awareness of our life as humans. Lakhani is a good representative of what is known as the sophia perennis, or the perennial philosophy. He is the editor of a periodical, "The Sacred Web," which follows in the traditionalist school founded by René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. About half of the book are essays from the Sacred Web and lay out the ideas of how the world and the world beyond is seen. Traditonalists see common threads in the major world religions and that there is a real verticality from the divine to the human. The title of Schuon's major work, "The Transcendent Unity of of Religions" points a central idea of perennialism, which Lakhani explicates throughout this book. The ideas of soul, intellect, spirit are all centered in one way or another in the human. Seeking beauty, truth, virtue and love as one lives through life all are all important.

I sometimes feel that Lakhani's dislike of modernism is stretched too much. He feels that equalization of sexes does not comport with tradition and neither does same-sex relationships. Sexual complementarity is a principle that people should follow. I feel that he misses today's need for male and female to have equal respect, and these partners still demonstrate complementarity, as do those in a same sex relationship also experience this.

Traditonalists frequently find quite a bit that is attractive in Islam. Lakhani has a major review of a trilogy of books about the thought of Henry Corbin, written by Tom Cheetham. Corbin is heavily influnced by Sufi thoguht and sometimes verges a little closer to gnosticism tan I am willing to go. But Lakhani is useful to read as he can help one think about the sacred and our relation with it.… (meer)