RE:
It has always been our understanding that, to be able to become a
Sufi, conversion to Islam is a prerequisite, and René Guénon, or
rather Abdel Wahêd Yahia, is no different in this respect, no matter
when his conversion took place, whether it was before he was initiated
to Sufism (1912) or in 1934, when he married F. Hanem, one of the
daughters of sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim.
My statement was precisely this: [Guénon] never “converted” to Islam as
that act is commonly understood.
As commonly understood, conversion is the passage from one exoteric form to another and
involves a change of belief as well as behaviour.
Esoterically, conversion indicates an “intellectual metamorphosis”
by which the “being passes from human thought to divine comprehension.”
If one has already undergone such an intellectual metamorphosis, then the
particular exterior form is merely a matter of expedience, and usually means
following local customs. “Generally speaking, anyone who has an understanding
of the unity of traditions … is necessarily ‘unconvertible’
to anything whatsoever.”
What follows are Guénon’s own words from “Initiation
and Spiritual Realization”, which is consistent with my paraphrase.
“Conversion has nothing in common with any exterior and
contingent change, whether arising simply from the moral domain … Contrary
to what takes place in conversion, nothing here implies the attribution of the
superiority of one traditional form over another. It is merely a question of
what one might call reasons of spiritual expediency, which is altogether different
from simple individual preference…”
Hardly a very “devout” conversion. Now, he either
deceived his Sufi masters for “reasons of spiritual expediency” in
order to gain an initiation--which is doubtful, or they were in accord with his
views.
Mutti doesn’t appear to understand much of this.