A Lesson We Need

By NYOC Staff, *The New York Open Center and The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society present: Islam, Sufism and the Heart of Compassion* - New York Open Center - New York, NY, USA
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The New York Open Center and The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society present: Islam, Sufism and the Heart of Compassion - Living the Teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

A Conference - Friday-Saturday, November 6-7 - In New York City.

Presenters: William C. Chittick, Stephen Hirtenstein, Salman Bashier, Sachiko Murata, Mohamed Haj Yousef.

Cosponsors: Riverside Church, WBAI-FM & The Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

Special Guest: Michael Sells, PhD, will give a short reading of his translation of the Tarjuman on Friday evening

This groundbreaking event, at the beautiful Gothic cathedral of the historic interdenominational Riverside Church of New York, will explore the wisdom and contemporary relevance of the 13th century mystic and teacher Ibn 'Arabi, who is considered the greatest master of gnostic and philosophical Sufism.

The conference brings together some of the world's leading Ibn ’Arabi scholars and will include talks, workshops, musical performances, poetry readings in Arabic and English, and films presented the award-winning director Nacer Khemir.

The conference will include presentations such as: Ibn ’Arabi and the Quest for Human Perfection; How Ibn al-Arabi’s Mystical Love Can Overcome Fundamentalism; Ibn ’Arabi in Dialogue with the Confucian Tradition, and much more.

As was evident in the global response to our presidential election, people of good will everywhere are in search of new perspectives and of voices that can transcend narrow interpretations of religion and politics and bring us universal truths and common ground.

Ibn ’Arabi was born in Medieval Spain, then home to an extraordinarily enlightened culture of religious tolerance among Muslims, Jews and Christians, a period that can serve us today as an inspiring example of the possiblitiy of fruitful co-existence and cooperation among different cultures — a lesson we desperately need to heed in this period of intense polarization and constant war.

Ibn ’Arabi was one of history's greatest universal mystics and interpreters of the human condition, and his teachings offer us a window into a form of Islam that we in the West are rarely exposed to. Discovering this profound thinker can help us arrive at a much more well rounded and sophisticated understanding of the more exalted aspects of the Islamic cultural heritage.

Please join us for this exceptional presentation of cross cultural dialogue and come deepen your awareness of the very important part of the Islamic tradition that is one of humanity's richest veins of mystical spirit and ecstatic beauty.

Post-conference Events

Tunisian filmmaker Nacer Khemir will be presenting his highly acclaimed series of films, the Desert Trilogy, of which the most well-known is “Bab’Aziz.” The films are filled with exquisite scenery and elements of a mystical fairy tale, showing us a more open, tolerant and friendly view of Islamic culture, full of love and wisdom.

[Click on the title of this article for the Programme, Interviews with the Speakers and much more]