OPINION OF FRITHJOF SCHUON AND THE ’TRANSCENDENTAL UNITY OF RELIGIONS’ (WAHDET-İ EDYÂN)
 

*Prof. Dr. Mehmet VURAL
“If you want the kernel, you have to break the shell!”(1)
Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

Introduction

In the last century, the positioning of religions in the face of ideologies or the fact that religions have taken on an ideological appearance has brought about a number of different perspectives in approaching religion. We can summarize these approaches in general with the category made by Alan Race as follows:

1. Religious Exclusivism or Religious Monopoly Approach,
2. The Religious Inclusivist Approach,
3. Religious Pluralism Approach.(2)

Among these approaches, the view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions, which we can evaluate within the Religious Pluralism approach, has been accepted as one of the basic views of thinkers, especially those who are considered within the Traditionalist school. The view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions, which argues that all religions aim at the spiritual development of human beings and point to the same divine reality, emphasizes common moral values such as love, justice, compassion and tolerance in religions and living together in harmony, and has put forward the idea of interreligious dialogue based on the universality of religions. In this study, the view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions will be examined from a critical perspective in the context of the approach of the Traditionalist school in the context of Fritjof Schuon (İsa Nureddin), who defended the view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions for the first time by writing a work of the same name.
 

 (1) Firthjof Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, trans. Yavuz Keskin, RM Ruh ve Madde Publications, Istanbul, 1992
 (2) See. Race, Alan, Christians and Religious Pluralism: Patterns in the Christian Theology of Religions, SCM Press, London, 1983

Before discussing the Transcendental Unity of Religions advocated by the Traditionalist school, it is necessary to briefly give information about the Traditionalist school; René Guénon (1886-1951) is one of the leading figures of this school, followed by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998), Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984), Martin Lings (1909-2005), Leo Schaya (1916-1985), Huston Smith (1919-2016), Whitall Perry (1920-2005), Gai Eaton (1921-2010), Lord Northbourne (1926-2019) and Seyyed Hussein Nasr (b. 1933). These thinkers have tried to interpret and establish the primordial tradition, which existed before the formation of the modern world, but of which there is no trace today, on the basis of comparative religions and the history of thought. They also criticized the values of the Age of Enlightenment and modernism, arguing that the Truth could not be known through modern science and philosophy, but through Tradition and the authority of Tradition.

According to thinkers belonging to the traditionalist school, since almost all communities in the pre-modern period lived in a religious atmosphere, they had a traditional framework, a consciousness of truth and sacredness, a respect for authority and hierarchy, and in this sense, there was no space left empty by Tradition. According to these thinkers, authority, orthodoxy and spiritual (sacred) hierarchy were inextricably embedded in Tradition. With modernism, religion lost its essential characteristic and a profane lifestyle began to dominate societies.

Schuon, who tried to systematize these views in his work Transcendent Unity of Religions (De l'unité transcendante des religions, 1948), states that an event he experienced was effective in reaching this idea. While visiting the zoo in Basil, Schuon had a short conversation with an elderly Senegalese man who drew a circle in the sand, pointed to the center and said, "God is the center, all roads lead to him." This gave birth to the idea of the Transcendent Unity of Religions. In fact, this metaphor, which we frequently encounter in Sufi works, later became an argument used by many Traditionalist thinkers, especially Nasr(3).

1.The Plurality of Religions

The traditionalist thinkers' advocacy of the "Transcendental Unity of Religions" was influenced by their definition of religion and the many and varied religions in the world. These thinkers, who often use Tradition and religion in the same sense, rather explain their thoughts in terms of God's intention and purpose in sending religions through prophets. Accordingly, there is no doubt that God intended for different religions to coexist on the same planet. In the world of one of these religions, it does not want the other to be taken into account. If God has willed different religions, He does not want one religion to be the same as another religion. That is why every religion must have precise boundaries(4).

In this context, definitions of religion are also discussed in the context of the majority and transcendence of religions. For example, according to Schuon, "Religion is an image that symbolically manifests God or the Ultimate Reality according to certain human-cultural conditions, containing divine strategies and saving mirages to lead people to God.(5).” Religion (religio), a manifestation of the sacred, is a bond that connects man to God, the ultimate principle. Therefore, it is a necessity that different geographical and cultural conditions reflect the Absolute Truth differently, that is, religious plurality and diversity. Religion is therefore akin to a living organism that develops according to necessary and certain laws(6).

 (3) Nasr, Sayyid Hussein, Science and Civilization in Islam, trans. Nabi Avcı, Kasım Turhan, Ahmet Ünal, İnsan Yayınları, Istanbul, 1991, p. 25.
(4) Schuon, Frithjof, Survey of Metaphysics andEsoterism. Gustavo Polit, World Wisdom Books, Indiana, 1986.
(5) Active Counter Serial Number Acar, Rahim, “The Legitimacy of Religions as a Reflection of Absolute Truth: A Critical View of Frithjof Schuon's Traditionalist Position”, Ankara University Faculty of Theology Journal, 54:1, 2013, p. 1-34.
(6) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 111.

In this approach, which explains the multiplicity and diversity of religions based on historical, geographical and cultural differences, there can be no superiority, primacy, or subordination between religions, nor can one religion override the other. Schuon gives the example of the solar system: Some insist that only they have their own solar system. Some also denied the solarity of their own sun when they realized that there was not only one sun. The attitude is to recognize that our sun is the sun, but that it is unique only in terms of the system in which it is at the center. So for our religion, the only truth is the image of the Absolute Truth. However, there are other forms of the Absolute Truth around, but our religion is one of many forms of the Absolute Truth(7).

So, if we bracket the formal, form-based differences between religions, what about the differences in the context of faith and belief? In this regard, Traditionalist thinkers state that the problem is a problem of comprehension, which outwardly appears to us as a contradiction, and many issues that seem difficult to reconcile are tried to be solved through the skillful use of language. It is like trying to solve the problem of understanding the Islamic belief in tawheed and the Christian belief in trinity. In fact, according to this royalist approach, which is common in history, God is one in essence, and the manifestations of His names and attributes that overflow, radiate or anthropomorphically materialize from Him are manifestations of Him. Hh. The Incarnation of Jesus, The characterization of Mary as the Word made flesh is only one of several of these modes of explanation. Therefore, according to the Traditionalist school of thought, the contradictions and inconsistencies seen between religions are actually a problem of understanding. Therefore;

1. Different religions will be mutually exclusive in the sense that they are different forms of the Absolute Truth. Each religion considers itself to be the truth and the others to be false and idolatrous.
2. There is a contradiction in religions on the outward level and from the outward point of view.
3. Subconsciously, there is no contradiction between religions, there is a transcendent unity(8).

Therefore, in this approach, conflicting teachings - including Islam - are all true from a transcendental and metaphysical point of view, but this will not be seen from an outward perspective. Because all religions come from the personal, individual divine will of God.

2.The External (Form) and Internal (Essence)  of Religions

Traditionalist thinkers distinguish between zâhir (exoteric/external) and bâtın (esoteric/internal), i.e. "essence" and "form" in religion, and while they see differences and contrasts in form as necessary and even obligatory depending on the culture, geography, community, etc., they argue that the truth should be sought not in form, in the external plan, but in essence, in the internal plan, i.e. bâtın(9). In this understanding, in principle, the internal is manifested through the external, but in the manifested plan, the external gives form to the internal.

(7) Acar, “The Legitimacy of Religions as a Reflection of the Absolute Truth: A Critical Look at the Traditionalist Position of Frithjof Schuon”, p. 24..
(8) Agm., s. 25.
(9) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 111

Every religion has a form and essence. Islam has spread very quickly thanks to its essence. The essence comes from the absolute. Since form is relative, its rights are limited for this very reason(10). Every religion is by definition a unity; what distinguishes them is not their invisible limitlessness but their formal characteristics(11). By the term "transcendent unity" they mean that religious forms must be realized in a purely subtle and spiritual sense, and without disloyalty to any particular form(12).

Every form is limited and every religion is a form in its outward aspect; its absoluteness belongs only to its internal aspect, which is supra-formal. According to tradition, Ibrahim b. Edhem, one of the Sufis, chose a Christian ascetic as his master, and neither of them converted to the other's religion. Similarly, according to tradition, Sayyid Ali Hemedani, who played an important role in Kashmir's conversion to Islam, and Lallâ Yogishwârî, the naked yogi of the valley, exchanged influences and respected each other despite their different religions. All this shows that the absolute nature of Islam, like any other religion, is in its subtle aspect and the relativity of its manifest aspect is revealed in comparison with other great religions or their saints(13).

Again, Schuon argues in The Transcendent Unity of Religions that in some cases a person may be better suited to a religion other than the one in which he or she was born or raised. It is possible to move from one religious form to another without converting, for reasons that are esoteric and therefore of spiritual interest. As is well known, many of the Traditionalist thinkers converted to Islam, while others chose either to remain in their faith or to convert to another faith.

Why then have religions and prophets criticized previous beliefs? According to the traditionalist school, these criticisms are not against the essence, but against the fact that they have deviated from the essence and moved away from the truth. If the prophets, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus who knew the principle of the universality of the Truth, rejected and repudiated polytheism (idolatry), it was because these Traditions had deviated from their original essence and were living in a dead state, had fallen into the state of forms devoid of any real spiritual life, and in some cases had lost their raison d'être because of their reliance on dark forces(14). Again, according to thinkers belonging to the Traditionalist school, the tendency of some nations to idolatry has led them to move away from the essence and follow symbols(15).

(10) Frithjof Schuon, Islam and the Eternal Wisdom, trans. Şahabeddin Yalçın, İz Publishing, Istanbul, 2013, p.24.
(11) Ibid., p. 27.
(12) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 14.
(13) Schuon, Islam and Eternal Wisdom, p. 26.
(14) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 35.
(15) Schuon explains this by the fact that the Samaritans were prone to idolatry. "In Semitic peoples, painting and especially sculpting living beings is considered dangerous. A Hindu or a Far Eastern person may very well worship a divine reality through a symbol - and people there know that a symbol means what it symbolizes in its real sense and in its relation to the fundamental reality - but a person of Semitic origin, in the same situation, is immediately tempted to deify the symbol. Another purpose of the banning of plastic and visual arts by the Sami circles was to prevent naturalistic heresy. Which is a very real danger for people whose mentality is close to individualism and sentimentality." See. Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 169,

Another issue of the traditionalist school that is difficult to reconcile with classical Islamic thought is the issue of revelation descending not only on the hearts of the prophets but also on their bodies. This issue is particularly prominent in the works of René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. Guénon, speaking of the Qur'anic "leyle-i qadr", the "night of descent", states that this night, according to Ibn al-'Arabī's interpretation, is identified with the Prophet's own body. What is particularly noteworthy here is that revelation was revealed to the body, not the mind, of the being who undertook the task of expressing the principle. In this regard, the Bible make the following statement: The Word, the second person of the Holy Trinity, has become flesh (et verbum caro factum est). This situation is the equivalent of the night of descent in the Islamic tradition, expressed under the form specific to the Christian tradition. This truth is intimately linked to the relationship between its forms and the intellection(16). This debate, which started with the physical perfection of the bodies of the prophets, has been continued by the fact that most of the Traditionalist thinkers come from the Christian faith. While it evokes the divine aspect of the bodies of Mary and Jesus,  this view seems difficult to reconcile with Islam.

3. The Transcendental Unity of Religions

Although traditionalist thinkers have basic points of agreement on issues such as the criticism of modernism, the importance of Tradition, and the Transcendental Unity of Religions, they differ from each other on a number of points. However, this guiding effort in criticizing post-Enlightenment Western thought, in finding salvation in the practice of a spiritual life, in presenting, introducing and adopting traditional teachings in a sense that encompasses all schools of Sufism, the internal side of all religious and non-religious teachings, has been impressive, has attracted wide attention and has achieved a unity in their own fields on these issues.

According to the traditionalist school, the solution to this crisis experienced by humanity in general and the Western world in particular is possible through the rediscovery of Tradition. Tradition, on the other hand, is the beliefs that have survived in all times and places, and that are embedded in religious images. In this context, Guénon especially tried to bring together Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Iranian, Celtic, Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions in the understanding of the occult schools(17). 

He argues that the preservation of Tradition can only be possible through proper interpretation of the Holy Writ and other things, in accordance with biblical principles.

Lord Northbourne also goes to the scriptures for his definition of Tradition. The Old Testament says: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of your Lord comes.And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, so that I may not come and curse the world." (Old Testament, Malaki Bap, 4/4) indicates that this phrase determines the relationship between fathers and sons, the religious teaching that is passed down from person to person, i.e. "Tradition". According to Northbourne, Guénon and Coomaraswamy's work is literally about "turning the hearts of fathers to their children" in order to enable "children to turn their hearts to their fathers"(18).

(16) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 166.
(17) Guénon, René, The Crisis of the Modern World, trans. Mahmut Kanık, Risâle Publications, Istanbul, 1986, p. 18..
(18) Martin Lings, Eleventh Hour, trans. Ufuk Uyan, İnsan Publications, Istanbul, 1987, p. 19.

One of the biggest criticisms of traditionalists is that they advocate the "Transcendental Unity of Religions". Especially in the person of Frithjof Schuon, this idea comes into focus.(19). According to Schuon, religions are one in source and essence (religio perennis), but this unity does not require them to be identical in form. Because religions are just different reflections of the same light. Truth is one and unchanging. The multiplicity of religions is in accordance with the celestial will, and there is an internal and transcendent unity among them. The reason for the Transcendent Unity of religions is that they come from the same source, God. The difference between religions does not affect their essential unity, as it belongs to their form, their external shape. The reason for these differences should be sought in different cultures and mentalities. Consequently, by making the distinction between form and essence in religion, Truth should be sought in essence, not in form(20).

According to Schuon, one of the leading figures of the traditionalist school, every religion is based on revelation from one and the same celestial attraction and balancing will(21). But this revelation may differ from one society to another in form, not in substance. This difference between religions is nothing more than relative(22).

The pioneering traces of the idea of the Transcendent Unity of Religions are quite old in Islamic thought. It is one of the most interesting aspects of Ibnal-Arabi's doctrine. Celâleddîn-i Rûmî (1207-1273) also frequently used expressions evoking the Transcendent Unity of Religions and told various stories in Fīhī ma Fīh and Masnavi to show that all revelations have the same inner content beyond their formal plane. Mevlana sees all religions and sects as a means to reach human maturity. For him, every thought that seeks the creator is a hidden staircase that leads to the same place, to the same Truth:

There are hidden stairs in the world, step by step,
all the way to the heavens, each company has another staircase; each march has another sky...
Each unaware of the other. A property so vast that it has no beginning and no end!(23)
Every prophet has a path, every prophet has a tradition.
Is it not that they all lead people to the Truth, then they are all one?
The difference between religions is in the way they go and in their appearance;
There is no separation in the truth of the way(24)

(19) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 9 In his work, Schuon pays special attention to Mary, whom he characterizes as "the Word made flesh". In Morocco, after the death of Ahmad al-Alawiyya (1869-1934), the sheikh of a branch of the Shazeliya sect, he became the sheikh of this order and changed the name of the sect to Meryemiyya. Among the followers of the Maryamiyya, a Sunni sect in Morocco, was Sayyid Hussein Nasr, who was born into a Shiite family. It is also known that there were many Christian and Jewish followers in addition to Muslims in this sect.
(20) Frithjof Schuon, Being, Knowledge and Religion, trans. Şahabeddin Yalçın, İnsan Publications, Istanbul, 1997, p.12.
(21) Schuon, Islam and Eternal Wisdom, p. 38.
(22) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 36.
(23) Mevlânâ Celâleddin-i Rûmî, Mesnevî, Ministry of Culture Publications, Ankara, 1993, p. 244.
(24) Mevlânâ Celâleddin-i Rûmî, Mesnevî, Ministry of Culture Publications, Ankara, 1993, p. 14.

According to Mevlânâ, in order to understand the Transcendent Unity of Religions (Wahdat-i Edyân), it is necessary to have reached a certain level of maturation of thought and heart and a way of looking with love:

Look at the believer and the disbeliever with the eye of the heart with the eye of the secret;
None of them, O Lord! has, Yâ Hay! nothing but the sound of your voice(25)
In another poem, Mevlana expresses his thoughts on this subject as follows:
Sometimes we are hidden, sometimes we are open,
Sometimes we are Muslim, sometimes we are Jews, sometimes we are Christians.
This heart of ours to be the example of every heart,
Visible every day in another form...(26)

Ibn al-'Arabī tried to parse the specific details of other religions and the universal meaning hidden in their external structures(27). In this context, Ibn al-'Arabī argued that the paths revealed by God lead to the same culmination and that to live one religion in its entirety is to live all religions. He searched for the formless and universal within the revealed forms. In one of his famous poems on this subject he says: In one of his famous poems on this subject he says:

My heart encompasses every form;
A pasture for gazelles
And for Christians
It is a monastery,
And a temple to idols,
The Kaaba of the pilgrims, the plates of the Torah
And the Qur'an is also its Book.
I follow the religion of love;
Whichever way he takes love's camels,
This is my religion and my faith.(28)

(25) Can, Şefik, Mevlânâ, Hayatı, Personality and Ideas, Ötüken Publications, Istanbul, 1995, p.147.
(26) Mevlânâ Celâleddin-i Rûmî, . Rübais fromMevlana, trans. Şefik Can, Ministry of Culture Publications, Ankara, 2001, Rubai No: 1527.
(27) Nasr, Sayyid Hussein, Three Muslim Sages, trans. Ali Ünal, İnsan Publications, Istanbul, 1985, p. 130.
(28) İbnü'l-Arabî, Tercümânü'l-esvâk,Eng. trans. Reynold A. Nicholson, Dâru Sadır, Beirut, 1966, p. 67.

In another poem, Ibnal-Arabi says:
 

At times I believe in the Shari'ah of Moses, but I accept the way of the Jews,
Sometimes I find myself believing in Jesus' law and worshipping in the church,
If I find myself a believer in Muhammad, I will hold fast to this Prophet.
Sometimes I see myself in such a Sharia that I resemble the companions of Muhammed.
I sometimes adopt the Shia view, 
There are times when I accept the Ash'ariyya sect...(29)

With these thoughts, which can be summarized as the manifestation of the truth in multiplicity, in fact in the unity of each thing, Ibn al-'Arabī is one of the names most frequently cited by Traditionalist thinkers. Sufis such as Ibn al-'Arabī and Mevlana, who expressed their thoughts through poetry, put forward views that would evoke the idea of the transcendent unity of religions (Wahdat al-'Edyān) due to the polysemy of poetry. Moreover, the understanding of identity in the theory of unity of existence, which Ibn al-ʿArabī tried to systematize, opens the door to such an idea.

In Islamic thought, especially in the poetry of Sufis, expressions that evoke the transcendent unity of religions are frequently encountered. The following verses of Niyâzî-i Mısrî (1618-1694) can be given as an example:

I have a way to the people of this world,
I will gather all these fabrics and become a bedesten.
I will gather all these fabrics and become a bedesten,
Sometimes Shia, sometimes Sunni Muslim…(30)

(29) İbnü'l-Arabî, et-Tâiyye ,Dârü'l-Kütübi 'l-Mısriyye, Cairo, 1385/1965, No: 4291, p. 156.
(30) Niyâzî-i Mısrî, Dîvân, İstanbul Maarif Kitaphanesi, İstanbul, 1963, p. 109.

There are also criticisms against this idea of the transcendent unity of religions. While traditionalist thinkers remained silent on these criticisms, Nasr, who comes from a Muslim family, tried to respond with a theological and conciliatory style. For example, Nasr interprets Schuon's view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions as follows: According to Schuon, if God is both just and merciful, then He does not deprive any segment of the human species of the divine message. This approach finds expression in the Qur'anic statement that "a prophet was sent to every nation" (Nahl, 16/36; Qasas, 28/59). Every religion is different in form and practice, and divine religions of celestial origin are the highest expression of monotheism, since they come from God. When we look at history, we see that religions have come and gone, weakened, died or degenerated, but the Truth lives on. This Truth is at the core of the great religions that have survived to the present day, guiding millions of people for thousands of years. In fact, the idea of the Transcendental Unity of Religions is a statement made in an age devoid of knowledge of the symbolism of various religions. The main arguments for this idea are based on esoteric schools such as the Ikhwān al-Safāʾ and Sufis such as Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi and Ibn al-ʿArabī. For example, in a famous poem, Mevlana states that the differences among God's creations are related to external forms, and that peace can be achieved when we move away from the external form and penetrate the inner meanings.

According to Nasr, who emphasizes the universality of revelation in the Transcendent Unity of Religions, there is a difference between a Muslim, a Jew and a Zoroastrian, but the heavenly principles of these religions are one. It's all a matter of perspective difference. What Schuon wants to say about the Transcendent Unity of Religions is this: All religions that God has sent, some of which have existed for thousands of years, in which people live and die and hope to go to heaven to attain divine salvation, are from God. Since it is from God, every religion must have God at its core. That is, the Transcendent Unity of God Himself... "(32)

To summarize, Nasr likens the multiplicity of religions in the Transcendent Unity of Religions to water flowing down from the top of a mountain. Water flowing down from its source will take on the color of whatever soil it mixes with. Therefore, religions are interconnected in a subtle way; each religion is limited and relative in its literal aspect, but absolute and universal in its subtle aspect. Therefore, to use an analogy often given by Traditionalist thinkers, each planet is illuminated by its own sun.

According to traditionalist thinkers, every religion or esoteric movement originated in a Tradition. Lamaism, for example, is a part of this ancient Tradition that is confined to a particular region, and we can only understand what this Tradition is really like by comparing it with other religious traditions. According to the Greek-born Traditionalist thinker Marco Pallis (1895-1989), who traveled to the Himalayas to study Buddhist philosophy and wrote Peaks and Lamas (1942), wherever there is a complete Tradition, there is the presence of revelation and the (initiatic) transmission of Tradition through generations(33). Therefore, according to Traditionalist thinkers, it should be normal to find similar views among various traditions and traditional authorities. Because Truth, like the sun, belongs to all cultures(34).

(31) Seyyid Hüseyin Nasr, Söyleşiler, İnsan Yayınları, Istanbul, 1996, p. 51-52.
(32) Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, p. 9
(33) Marco Pallis, The The Way and The Mountain, trans. Cengiz Erengil, İnsan Yayınları, Istanbul, 2007, p. 8.
(34) Nasr, Sayyid Hussein, Thought and Life in Islam, trans. Fatih Tatlılıoğlu, İnsan Publications, Istanbul, 1988, p. 119.

Conclusion

Traditionalist thinkers were highly influenced by Sufism and mysticism in grounding their view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions, emphasizing the close connection between religion and Tradition and consequently reaching the view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions. It is seen that thinkers belonging to the traditionalist school express their views in an impressive language that appeals to people from many different walks of life. Nevertheless, the view of the Transcendent Unity of Religions is an approach that is contrary to the experience of human history and contains inconsistencies within itself. Traditionalist thinkers, especially Schuon, resort to highly symbolic, metaphorical explanations and try to justify their ideas with selected passages from the poetry and texts of mystical thinkers such as Meister Eckhart, Ibn al-'Arabī and Mevlânâ.

While traditionalist thinkers put forward their ideas with their own conceptualizations such as philosophia perennis (eternal wisdom), religio perennis (eternal religion), religio cordis (religion of the heart), they try to show that all religions are in fact different manifestations of the common essence in a profound and spiritual way by making the distinction between the external and the external, essence and form, esoteric and exoteric. They consider the contradictions, incompatibilities and contradictions between religions as a problem of meaning and interpret them as a relative situation. Again, the Transcendent Unity of Religions view, by accepting the universality of religions, has introduced the idea of dialogue between different religions on the basis of respect and tolerance, and as a result of this dialogue, some compromises have been made in order to meet on a common basis, and things other than the essence are seen as incidental. This would have a negative impact on the integrity and systems of religions themselves.

While traditionalist thinkers explain the Truth in religions as "authentic Tradition" with features such as spiritual hierarchy, adherence to orthodoxy, and being the carrier of Tradition, they consider the opposite situation as "pseudo batiniyya". According to them, for a religion to be essentially orthodox, it must be based on a fully adequate and adequate doctrine of the Absolute, and it must also have a spirituality, theoretically and practically, that is equivalent to this doctrine and that embodies sacredness in itself, both in concept and in reality. That is, it must have a holy peace that comes not from a philosophical source, but from a divine source and manifests itself in miracles and sacred art(35). This distinction is also relative. For example, Guénon considers the Catholic faith to be within the authentic tradition because it has these characteristics, whereas he characterizes Protestantism as a pseudo-batiniyya. In fact, as in the Traditionalist school's view of the Transcendental Unity of Religions, no religion can be considered corrupt and false; on the contrary, it can be said that all religions are false and invalid!

(35) Schuon, Islam and Eternal Wisdom, p. 23. According to Nasr, Schuon broadened the horizons of traditional findings in order to take aspects of the Christian tradition, especially the orthodoxy put forward by René Guénon, as well as the Native American tradition and Shintoism, and combine them in one place. See. Frithjof Schuon, The Metaphysical Dimension of Islam, trans. Mahmut Kanık, İz Publishing, Istanbul, 2010, p. 16.

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