Eternal Wisdom And Traditional Islam According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the chief representative of the traditionalist school in the Islamic world, is a thinker whose influence has transcended the boundaries of that world due to his views and works. This study is intended to ascertain the profound and comprehensive meaning that he attributes to tradition and to find out the place of religions in this conception of tradition. Along with this objective, it also aims to examine the outlines of his approach to science through the perspective of sophia perennis and also his understanding of “sacred knowledge” that he regards as ideal. Terms such as tradition, sacred, spiritual, perennial wisdom, absolute, relative, shariah, tariqah, haqiqah, exoteric, esoteric, center, and divine, are the key concepts in Nasr’s thought. When he speaks of tradition, he does not mean customs and habits, but rather a series of heavenly principles and the revelation of these onto a certain community in different times and circumstances and the implementation thereof. This study concludes that through the concepts of tradition and perennial wisdom, Nasr underlines the common heritage that humanity has built up throughout history despite certain local differences and collects attention to the fact that the only possible way for humanity to achieve peace and happiness in social settings and in man’s relation to nature is the sacred science that is grounded in metaphysical values.