IIS Update 2018

“
O my brother, may God help you and
us through a spirit coming from Him,
did you watch your soul, did you work
for its righteousness, did you search
for its rescue, did you open its prison,
did you free it from the immersion in
the sea of matter, the prison of nature,
and the obscurations of bodies, did
you relieve its burdens — the causes
that hinder it from rising to the reign of
heaven, entering the group of angels,
journeying in the expanse of the world
of the spheres, ascending in the grades
of paradise, and breathing those sweetsmelling
plants mentioned in the Qur’an?
(Epistle 15)
THE INSTITUTE OF ISMAILI STUDIES UPDATE
“
In an article entitled, ‘Rasa’il Ikhwan as-Safa in the
literature of the Ismaili Taiyibi Da’wat’, the eminent
Ismaili scholar Husayn Hamdani, wrote “the Rasa’il
play an important part in the literature of Ismaili
Taiyibi Da’wat in Yemen. They are spoken of as
the Qur’an of the Imams while the Qur’an is the
Qur’an of the Muslims in general.” So, to use
the characteristic refrain of the Ikhwan,
‘O brother, wake from the torpor
of ignorance and the slumber of
negligence’ – reach for the text
and follow the straight path
to happiness!
40
YEARS
YEARS
While the ideas outlined above could initially sound remote
and not easily applicable to our lives, familiarity will bring
them ‘closer to the grasp of beginners’. The many key
themes are therefore reintroduced in different ways
throughout the work, which is also interspersed
with engaging allegorical stories and examples.
It is a rich work and rewarding read.
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