Sacred Identity: A Reflection on Seyed Hossein Nasr’s Identification Approach

Quest for identity is an attempt to find what our conscience aspires and the nature of this aspiration depends on the coordination between four elements: soul, self, mind and body. Hence we may distinguish two kinds of aspirations for identity: one, this-worldly aspirations, like utilitarianism, national independence, and territorial integrity; and second, the otherworldly aspirations, like transition from the nature to the super-nature and acquiring a sacred and celestial form and percept. It seems that the pressures of modernity have pushed the sacred aspirations to the second seat and those of this-worldly to the front seat. Hence, human beings more than being concerned about divinization and their responsibilities are worried about progress. Man’s shift from sublimation to progress is to some extent an effect of the performance of the systems that normally claim to be connected to the celestial world. This background caused the elimination of divine symbols from the world and sacrilege became an index of progress. Many writers including Seyed Hossein Nasr who are labeled as traditionalists have tried to rescue man from intricate chains modernity has created for him. The present article is an attempt to analyze and critically study this approach.