The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought [Paperback]

Sachiko Murata (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (February 29, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791409147
• ISBN-13: 978-0791409145
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #799,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gender and spiritual cosmology: the BIG picture, April 17, 2004

By 

Christopher P. Atwood (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought (Paperback)

In "The Tao of Islam" Sachiko Murata uses the lens of gender ideas in Islam to explore in a comparative religious framework the idea of a spirtual cosmology based on feminine and masculine principles. Although she is aware of the contemporary issues of women's legal status in Islam, she feels that such issues are not as fundamental as understanding the true role of gender within the cosmos. Those seeking arguments about whether the legal provisions of the Sharia (Islamic law) are or are not culpably sexist and what should be done about them if they are will not find much meat for their arguments in this book. Murata writes relatively clearly, and the writers she cites are often fascinating and insightful. They are, however, frequently prolix and I must say I found the book somewhat repetitive at times. (For this reason I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5.)

Professor Murata presents in this book a philosophy well-known to Platonism and which was also once familiar in the Christian West, but which is in danger of vanishing. In this philosophy, God, the cosmos (or the macrocosm), and the human self (microcosm) are the three great realities with the latter two stemming from and returning to God. The cosmos around us, and especially the human being in a superlative way, manifest as a kind of shadow the attributes of God. The highest purpose of studying the cosmos and the human self is thus to learn to recognize these manifestations of God's nature. Islamic writers in the Sufi Islamic tradition correlated these attributes into two fundamental families, that of majesty, awe, punishment, masculine, etc., and that of beauty, intimacy, mercy, feminine, etc. God is beautiful as well as majestic, intimate as well as awe-inspiring, merciful as well as punishing. Jalal (majesty) and jamal (beauty) are analogous to yang and yin of Chinese writings, while God matches the eternal Tao ("Way").

To manifest both His yang/jamal and His yin/jalal attributes visibly, God creates within the cosmos and human nature paired relations of yang-yin, jalal-jamal: heaven and earth, intellect and soul (both universal and in each person), spirit and nature, men and women. The productivity and fertility of these pairs is the sign of God's own abundance overflowing from His majesty and beauty. Things in the cosmos manifest these relations naturally, but human beings, having freedom, frequently damage these relation, with the yin elements rebelling against the yang and the yang elements forgetting their yin relation to God and tyrannizing over the yin.

As the creator and governor of all, God is primarily experienced by His creation naturally as powerful, active, and bright, i.e. jalal or yang. As a result God cannot normally be experienced by His creation but as a He, that is to say as manifesting yang/jalal attributes. Yet Sufi writers also recognize that God's Essence, apart from its relation with the cosmos, is like the true Tao mysterious, dark, and hidden from the sight and is thus in an absolute sense feminine. Yet such an understanding of God's yin/jamal nature must always be an esoteric understanding, compared to the exoteric understanding of God as yang/jalal.

Murata points out that the real enemy of this view of gender is not so much feminism (although feminism is certainly hostile to it), but the purely materialist vision of natural science. Materialism inquire only into mechanism, sees the cosmos and humanity as purposeless, and rejects the correlative thinking that sees the world around and inside us as keys to knowing God. Science has given us so much new knowledge about creation, yet we have not yet made sense of it as God's creation, demonstrating His attributes.

As Murata acknowledges, Islam's gendered cosmology is only one, albeit strikingly clear and articulate, contribution in the long tradition of spiritual cosmology. Murata compares Islamic cosmology to the Tao but her treatment of "Taoism" is the weakest part of the book. Her main source for "Taoism" is a superficial reading of the Yijing (I ching), but the Yijing is quite as much Confucian as it is Taoist, if not more (see the twelfth-century Neo-Confucian anthology "Reflections on Things at Hand" translated by Hok-lam Chan). Murata adheres closely to the ABC rule for modern spiritual writers ("anything but Christianity"), but the Christian readers will find in this book thought-provoking parallels to the several pairs of creation (light-dark, dry-wet, man-woman etc.) in Genesis 1, the feminine Wisdom as God's instrument in creation in Proverbs 8, the divine-human marriage language in Psalm 45 and Ephesians 5, and the structuring duality of works (jalal/yang) and grace (jamal/yin), Law and Gospel, Moses and Christ in St. Paul's epistles and St. John's gospel. Those involved in the debates over gender and sexuality now wracking parts of the Christian church will find Murata's book a powerful reminder that gender is not something under human control that we can remake as we wish--instead human gender is only one reflection of the fundamentally gendered fabric of the cosmos, itself made by God.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent comparison of Taoist and Islamic philosophy, April 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought (Paperback)

The Tao of Islam is not an easy read, but is a must for any Taoist who's interested in Islamic philosophy, any Muslim who's interested in Taoism, or any student of comparitive religion and philosophy. Although Islam and Taoism seem poles apart, the author makes a detailed analysis of Islamic philosophers, particularly Ibn al-Arabi, to show that despite the cultural differences, many of the basic principles are the same in both philosophies.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must to read book for all women, September 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought (Paperback)

A very fine book on Islam. This book is a must, not only for those who aren't Moslem and want something more than a tabloid introduction to Islam and its view on women, but more importantly for Moslems who seem to be so disconnect and ignorant of their own religion. I am a Moslem and have never heard or seen anything as deep and as enlightening as this book. Every Moslem woman should read this book.