God is Beautiful

God is Beautiful: The Aesthetic Experience of the Quran

Navid Kermani, Tony Crawford (Translator)

ISBN: 978-0-7456-5167-5

400 pages

February 2015, Polity

Reviewed by Todd Lawson:

J Am Acad Relig (2016)

doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfw015

First published online: April 7, 2016

"... Though he does not mention it, the pioneering and prolific French scholar of Islamic thought,

Henry Corbin (d. 1978), was the first “Westerner” to have noticed, in several publications,
the literary-cum-existential power of this mode of reading/being and its instrumentality in ... "

Todd Lawson on Ibn 'Arabi - May 7 in Berkeley

Ibn 'Arabi Society Lecture Series: An afternoon with Todd Lawson

Northbrae Community Church, Berkeley, CA
Saturday, May 7, 2016
3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Water, Light, Knowledge: Towards an Ecology of Imagination

Todd Lawson is emeritus professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto where he taught for 25 years. He has published widely on Qur’an commentary (tafsir) the Qur'an as literature, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book on Jesus in Islamic thought, The Crucifixion and the Qur'an was published in 2009 (Oneworld), his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam in 2011 (Routledge). The article, "Qur'an and Epic" appeared recently in The Journal of Qur’anic Studies (2014: 16.1). This and other of his publications are available at www.toddlawson.ca. He is now writing a book on the Qur'an as sacred epic. He lives in Montreal.

"Water and Light pervade the writings of Ibn 'Arabi as they do the Quran itself. In the poetic literalism of Ibn 'Arabi's discourse, these everyday realities are frequently involved in specific events of knowing. Knowledge appears to be built upon water and light. Water and Light are also essential "hormones of the imagination" – they are elements of the natural realm that lead us beyond nature..."

Read the full description of Professor Lawson's talk and register today!

The talk will be followed by discussion, and will take place in the Parlor Room at Northbrae Community Church, Berkeley.