Mattias Gori Olesen recently covered the debate between René Guénon and the Egyptian intelelctual Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī (1875-1954) over modern spirituality in Al-Maʿrifa (see post here). A new article, “Taming the Animal within in Cairo: Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī and ‘Temperate Vegetarianism’” by Mariam Elashmawy (Alif 45, 2025), here, open access) revisits this debate and adds more to our understanding of Wajdī. “It is important to understand that he [Wajdī] sees spiritualism through an Islamic lens,” argues Elashmawy. Spiritualism was not an import from the modern West, as Guénon thought, but a long-standing part of Islam. “As for us Muslims,” wrote Wajdī, “the matter of the appearance of spirits is one of the most common occurrences for those close to Allah” [ie. saints/awliyāʾ]. Spiritualism, as a scientific endorsement of one aspect of Islam, could serve as a defense against the growing threat of materialism and atheism. Wajdī agreed with Guénon regarding the threat, then, but not regarding the remedy.
A Blog for the study of Traditionalism and the Traditionalists
moderated by Mark Sedgwick
May I add a note regarding another aspect of this. As'sayed Rafea Muhammad Rafea, an Egyptian spiritual teacher and social activist sought to combine Sufism and Spiritualism in defence of Islam https://www.esscr.org/assayed-mohamed-rafea.
ReplyDelete"It happened in the late 1940s that As'sayed Rafea was invited by some members of Ahmad Abul Kheir’s spiritual Circle to attend a séance where the Spirit guide Silver Birch talked through the medium Muhammad Eid Ghareeb. As'sayed Rafea read in that guidance a way of presenting to humanity the basic principles of all Revelations at a time the mainstream religion turned into dogmatism, stagnant tradition and an excuse for conflicts among people. Rafea found no harm in welcoming those teachings".
https://www.esscr.org/about
Thank you very much for this most interesting comment.
DeleteI have a question, or request for clarification, since English is not my first language. Is “spiritualism” in the context of this blog post the same as the term “spiritisme” in French?
ReplyDeleteIt is the same.
DeleteThis Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī guy must have not understood what "spiritisme" was/is. Many times Guenon explained that "spiritualism" is based on phenomena provoked from the lower psychic states of those gathered around it. In a more dangerous way, these provocations were used by what Guenon called the counter-initiation to increase societal instability. This has nothing to do with authentically Islamic spiritual practices that are meant to help someone achieve real spiritual knowledge. This is all explained in Guenon's book « L'erreur spirite » or "The Spiritist Fallacy", I believe.
ReplyDelete