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Dr. Muhammad H. Faghfoory is professorial lecturer of religion in Islamic Studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has taught at the University of Tehran. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles, Islamic Manuscripts Specialist at Princeton University, and at the Library of Congress, and an adjunct professor of Middle East History at Mary-Washington University in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Dr. Faghfoory has written, translated, and edited nine books, numerous book chapters, articles, and book reviews. His works have been published by the State University of New York Press, University Press of America, Oxford Encyclopedia of the Muslim World, International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Journal, and the International Journal of Shi‘ite Studies. He has lectured extensively and participated in interfaith dialogue organized by American media. Currently, he is writing a monograph on “War and Peace in Shi‘ite Islam,” sponsored by Peace Research Institute of Norway to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011.
Dr. Faghfoory will present a talk on the summit of spiritual realization in Islam. In the domain of form in Islam, the Shari‘ah (Islamic law) regulates human behavior, defines human relations with God, provides a framework for duties of a Muslim and teaches him rituals and prayers. As in other religions, majority of people are content with this type of relationship with God.
There are however, some whose soul seeks more. They are overtaken by divine love and seek a special kind of relation with the divine. In Islam such quest finds expression in Sufism. It seeks direct perception of the Truth and knowledge of God leading to a realization that we are nothing before Him. He is all there is.
The purpose of this lecture is to examine some aspects this journey towards God that removes all veils that separate us from Him and bring us into union with Him, for “We come from God and to Him we shall return.”