Question:
B.R.Rahim. As salam alaikum. Rene Guenon is famous among many knowledgeable and senior Western murids and even local wakils of some turuq including Naqshbandi who consider him an authentic Sufi Shaykh, S. Abdul Wahid Yahya. I read in many of his works written even years after his shahadah, statements that outwardly clearly indicate the belief that not only Islam but also other traditional forms as he calls it such as Taoism, Jewish religion, Hinduism, and Islam, are externally different but internally and esoterically the same, and therefore all of them even now, in their current state as understood by their wise and saintly men, would be both doctrinally and legally valid and binding for their adherents and self-sufficient. What are we to understand about his doctrines? Do they agree with our High Naqshbandi Shaykhs’s teachings? Did Sultan al Awliya Maulana Shaykh Nazim (qs) said something on it? Thanks.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Their actions are more probative than their words since, rather than remaining in Christianity or embracing some other creed they all (Guenon, Schuon, Lings, Burckhardt et. al) took shahada and insha-Allah died Muslims which we pray we will also. As to the doctrine of what is valid belief alhamdulillah 1400 years of `ulema and awliya have said one and the same thing which is what Allah and His Prophet said, and that is the way of Mawlana.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
