Book by Amira El-Zein offers new insights into philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Doha, Qatar: As a young scholar and poet at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Dr. Amira El Zein (pictured) found herself drawn to the work of D...

Doha, Qatar: As a young scholar and poet at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Dr. Amira El-Zein (pictured) found herself drawn to the work of Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a philosopher now recognised as one of the most influential Islamic scholars of the century. But it wasn’t until she finished Religion and the Order of Nature that she felt compelled to meet the man.

“It was a book that spoke to my soul and my understanding of the universe,” she said. “I walked the 20 minutes to his office at George Washington University, and I found his door open.”

What began as an impromptu visit soon grew into an intellectual companionship that would span decades and continents, culminating in one of the most critical explications of Nasr’s work to date: Return to the Eternal Abode: Sufi Dialogues with Seyyed Hossein Nasr (SUNY Press 2025).

Through a series of conversations inspired by questions Dr. El-Zein had been pursuing as a poet, translator, and scholar of Arabic literature, she captured Nasr’s views on the mystical dimensions of Islam (Tassawuf or Sufism) and its intersections with art, cosmology, the environment, and modernity. The volume not only elucidates Nasr’s vast body of work but also contains new insights—his reflections on creativity and his views of twentieth-century philosophers of metaphysics and mysticism; and Dr. Nasr lecturing on “Islam and Preserving the Natural Environment” at GU-Q during the early days of his conversations with Dr. El-Zein.

 What emerges from the book is more than a summative look at the influential philosopher’s works; it is a testament to what can happen when two seekers of knowledge meet and dare to challenge each other. “We didn’t always agree,” Dr. El-Zein admitted, “but often he would say something, and I would take it further.”