Sham Spirituality: Seven-Hundred Years of Muslim History

This book brings forth from concealment the sad truth that the past 700 years of Muslim history have been a spiritual wasteland. This truth and its ruinous effects have been swept under the rug for much too long. For spiritual life to come into being in a society certain requirements are paramount. Five such requirements are: the quest for knowledge and wisdom must be promoted, justice must be courageously pursued, true love must be allowed to flourish, the search for beauty must be favored, and genuine friendship must be encouraged. The book discloses that during the past seven centuries Muslim societies fulfilled not one of these requirements. Instead, the history of Muslim societies during seven centuries includes banes such as widespread illiteracy and ignorance, corrupt impotent regimes, degrading poverty, hatred of love, and the relentless cruel oppression of women. Some of the requirements that support a spiritual existence were formulated and discussed by the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, and were translated into Arabic and other languages that Muslims read during the eight and ninth centuries. However, the Muslim leaders and the Muslim elite decided to ignore these ideas and chose to live in accordance with a narrow and shallow religious dogma. Thus the book reveals that sham spirituality triumphed in all Muslim spirituality. Haim Gordon is a full professor emeritus in the department of education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. He has published 26 books, some of them co-authored, on a wide range of philosophical and political topics and more than 150 papers in professional journals and books. Rivca Gordon is an independent scholar who has authored the book, Existential Thinking: Blessings and Pitfalls and co-authored six books with Haim Gordon. She has also published articles on existentialist thinking in professional journals.