planetary prophetology

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In this webcast, Pir Zia Inayat Khan, the leader of the International Order of Sufis, enunciates a vision of a "planetary prophetology", a spiritual framework that actively embraces the splendid variety of religious texts and practices throughout the world and throughout time. This vision is far richer, deeper, and clearer than the cold porrige of tolerance and political correctness that is often served up today on NPR and in UU churches. But it is not new or modern at all from a historical standpoint. For, as Pir Zia shows, it was fully enunciated by Sufis such as Ibn Al Arabi as far back as the 12th century. It is astonishing to hear tell of spiritual teachers steeped in the Islamic tradition translating the Upanishads, and saying that these writings provide a commentary on the Koran. It is still more astonishing to hear tell of one of these Sufis making an apology for gurus who adore the images of gods, finding harmonic resonances in this practice with certain Sufi meditation techniques. It really begins to seem as if what we are fumbling in our age to half-heartedly piece together has already been woven into a beautiful tapestry by these past masters.

One of the most compelling quotes that Pir Zia draws upon in his lecture is this one by Ibn Al Arabi:

He who restricts the [divine] Reality to his own belief, denies Him when manifested in other beliefs ... He who does not resrict Him, thus does not deny Him, but affirms His Reality in every formal transformation, worshipping Him in His infinite forms, since there is no limit to the forms in which He manifests Himself.

It is compelling because it raises the question of where and when we will allow ourselves to perceive and recognize the divine. This question does not merely concern us in our religious beliefs and practices. In every creature and in every situation, we are constantly faced with the divine, and yet because of our limitations we rarely recognize its presence. Ibn Al Arabi is pointing the way towards a profound spiritual practice in which we can gradually open our minds and hearts to the perception of the divine throughout all of our experience.

Pir Zia is a scholar like myself, and you may find his bookish approach a bit inaccessible. It is ironic that in the course of this lecture which draws upon so many old and rare books, he also speaks about the importance of drawing fresh and new revelation from a direct experience of the divine. At some point Pir Zia and I will have to stop putting such old clothes on our insights and speak them as we receive them, fresh from the source. That time has not yet come. But it is getting closer.