Contemplation

The book under review is a translated version of Badri's Arabic edition, AlTafakkur min al-Mushahadah ila al Shuhud, first published in Cairo in1991. This English text is intended for general readers as well as specialists,in the hopes of discussing and developing the author's ideas on Islamiccontemplation. The book is divided into nine chapters with a section ofnotes at the end of the book, bibliography, index of Qur'anic citations, anda general index.Chapter I deals with contemplation from a modern psychological perspective.It differentiates between Islamic contemplation and the meditationprocedures offered by secular psychology. While meditation is primarilyderived from eastern religions and aims at altering states of consciousness,Islamic contemplation is derived from Qur'anic injunctions and aimsto seek insightful knowledge of God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.Different schools of psychology are discussed in their inability tosuccessfully deal with inner cognitive thought and feelings. This, the authorcontends, is a logical outcome of psychology's constant attempt to claimitself as "science" and its neglect of people's consciousness, mentalprocesses, soul, and their spiritual essence. Although cognitive processesare now studied in psychology, modern psychology falls short of the spiritualvision of humankind and is obsessed with the "scientific" model, whileignoring the spiritual component, despite mounting evidence of its role inhuman lives.Chapter 2 summarizes the works of certain early Muslim scholars andattempts to give a rationale for contemplation based b oth on recent ...