En central tanke i Traditionalismen, kanske särskilt hos Schuon men även hos Guenon och Evola, är att det finns sanning i alla traditionella religioner, att man kan nå upplysning genom dem alla. En konsekvens av detta är naturligtvis att en traditionalist känner en viss respekt för alla religioner, och detta inlägg kommer därför att behandla Evolas beskrivning av de positiva och traditionella dragen hos Islam.
En kommentar kan vara nödvändig för att förklara hur detta kan förenas med den ”islamofobi” denna blogg ofta uttryckt. En annan central tanke i Traditionalismen är nämligen att det finns ingen religion som är rätt för alla världens folk, utan att varje religion är anpassad för en viss liten ”värld” där den är rätt, men fel för andra ”världar”. Och medan Islam är den rätta religionen för Mellanöstern, är detta inte fallet med Europa. Vidare finns det ett etnopolitiskt skäl till min ”islamofobi”, nämligen att det i en situation som präglas av ökande rivalitet mellan etniska svenskar och etniska muslimer, vore det mycket märkligt att konvertera till ”den andra sidans” religion (hur mycket man än kan respektera sidor av den så finns dessa sidor även i våra inhemska traditioner). Hur som helst, här är Evolas text:
ON THE ISLAMIC TRADITION
Julius Evola, Revolt Against The Modern World
Islam, which originated among the Semitic races also consisted of the Law and Tradition, regarded as a formative force, to which the Arab stocks of the origins provided a purer and nobler human material that was shaped by a warrior spirit. The Islamic law (shariah) is a divine law; its foundation, the Koran, is thought of as God’s very own word (kalam Allah) as well as a nonhuman work and an ”uncreated book” that exists in heaven ab eterno. Although Islam considers itself the ”religion of Abraham” it is nevertheless true that (a) it claimed independence from both Judaism and Christianity; (b) the Kaaba, with its symbolism of the center, is a pre-Islamic location and has even older origins that cannot be dated accurately; (c) in the esoteric Islam tradition, the main reference point is al-Khadir, a popular figure conceived as superior to an pre-dating the biblical prophets (Koran 18:59-81). In early Islam the only form of asceticism was action, that is, jihad, or ”holy war”; this type of war, at least theoretically, should never be interrupted until the full consolidation of the divine Law has been achieved. Finally, Islam presents a traditional completeness, since the shariah and the sunna, that is, the exoteric law and tradition, have their complement not in vague mysticism, but in full-fledged initiatory organizations (turuq) that are categorized by an esoteric teaching (tawil) and by the metaphysical doctrine of the Supreme Identity (tawhid). In these organizations, and in general in the shia, the recurrent notions of the masum, of the double perogative of the isma (doctrinal infallibility), and of the impossibility of being stained by any sin (which is the perogative of the leaders, the visible and invisible Imams and the mujtahid), lead back to the line of an unbroken race shaped by a tradition at a higher level than both Judaism and the religious beliefs that conquered the West.
Julius Evola
On Islam and Tradition, (Revolt Agains The Modern World, pages 243 – 244)
Even though it began relatively recently, I will briefly refer to another tradition, Islam, which originated among the Semitic races and succeeded in overcoming those negative motifs. As in the case of priestly Judaism, the center in Islam also consisted on the Law and Tradition, regarded as a formative force, to which the Arab stocks of the origins provided a purer and nobler human material that was shaped by a warrior spirit. The Islamic law (shariah) is a divine law; its foundation, the Koran, is thought of as God’s very own word (kalam Allah) as well as a nonhuman work and an ”uncreated book” that exists in heaven ab eterno. Although Islam considers itself the ”religion of Abraham”, even to the point of attributing to him the foundation of the Kaaba (in which we find again the theme of the ”stone”, or the symbol of the ”center”), it is nevertheless true that (a) it claimed independence from both Judaism and Christianity; (b) the Kaaba, with its symbolism of the center, is a pre-Islamic location and has even older origins that cannot be dated accurately; (c) in the esoteric Islam tradition, the main reference point is al-Khadir, a popular figure conceived as superior to an pre-dating the biblical prophets (Koran 18:59-81). Islam rejects a theme found in Judaism and that in Christianity became the dogma and the basis fof the mystery of the incantation of the Logos; it retains, sensibly attenuated, the myth of Adam’s fall without building upon it the theme of ”original sin”. In this doctrine Islam saw a ”diabolical illusion” (talbis Iblis) or the inverted theme of the fall of Satan (Iblis or Shaitan), which the Koran (18:48) attributed to his refusal, together with all his angels, to bow down before Adam. Islam also not only rejected the idea of a Redeemer or Savior, which is so central in Christianity, but also the mediation of a priestly caste. By conceiving the Divine in terms of an absolute and pure monotheism, without a ”Son”, a ”Father”, or a ”Mother of God”, every person as a Muslim appears to respond directly to God and to be sanctified through the Law, which permeates and organizes life in a radical unitary way in all of its juridicial, religious, and social ramifications. In early Islam the only form of asceticism was action, that is, jihad, or ”holy war”; this type of war, at least theoretically, should never be interrupted until the full consolidation of the divine Law has been achieved. it is precisely through the holy war, and not through preaching or missionary endeavor, that Islam came to enjoy a sudden, prodigious expansion, originating the empire of the Caliphs as well as forging a unity typical of a race of the spirit, namely, the umma or ”Islamic nation”. Finally, Islam presents a traditional completeness, since the shariah and the sunna, that is, the exoteric law and tradition, have their complement not in vague mysticism, but in full-fledged initiatory organizations (turuq) that are categorized by an esoteric teaching (tawil) and by the metaphysical doctrine of the Supreme Identity (tawhid). In these organizations, and in general in the shia, the recurrent notions of the masum, of the double perogative of the isma (doctrinal infallibility), and of the impossibility of being stained by any sin (which is the perogative of the leaders, the visible and invisible Imams and the mujtahid), lead back to the line of an unbroken race shaped by a tradition at a higher level than both Judaism and the religious beliefs that conquered the West.
Om skribenten: Joakim Andersen
