We are pleased to announce the launch of our Hear! project, which aims to make available for the first time audio recordings of some foundational texts in comparative studies, including works by Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings and others. Our first recording, read by Emma Clark especially for our website, is “The Symbolist Mind”, an important chapter from The Feathered Sun by Schuon.

“It is not a question of projecting a supersaturated and disillusioned individualism into a desecrated Nature but, on the contrary, of rediscovering in Nature, on the basis of the traditional outlook, the divine substance which is inherent in it; in other words, to “see God everywhere,” and to see nothing apart from His mysterious presence.”

We also bring this week a new Shakespeare lecture by Martin Lings: Cymbeline, of which Dr Lings has the following to say:

“That happiness of the recovery of something thought irretrievably lost, is probably more intense in Cymbeline… it is in Cymbeline that Shakespeare expresses more than in any other play something of the truth that, as was said by Christ to St. Julian of Norwich: ‘All shall be well; all manner of thing shall be well’, referring to the Reality that will prevail ultimately.”

In addition to these, we have a new article by Reza Shah-Kazemi on our Islam section: “The Prophetic Paradigm,” from the book The Spirit of Tolerance in Islam (London: IB Tauris/IIS, 2012):

“The quality of hilm entails avoiding conflict, and seeking instead peace, reconciliation and justice. It calls for wisdom, an objective view of what is required in each situation, an ability to be detached from self-interest, as well from one’s own anger, sentiment or desire. It… enables one to resist the pressures of tribalism, nationalism, or any other prejudice which might distort one’s perception of justice and propriety… A correct understanding of hilm takes us to the very heart of Islamic virtue, and one cannot fully appreciate the roots of tolerance in Islam without understanding the meaning, the influence, and the radiance of this key prophetic virtue.”