EVA DE VITRAY-MEYROVICH

"What is ISLAM? We could answer with a single word: prayer, on the condition of understanding it as a commitment of the whole man, beyond acts of worship. Such is the meaning of the term islâm which comes from the verb aslama: "to rely on, to abandon oneself" to God.

So said the one who was one of the greatest French Islamologists of the 20th century, Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch. Here she presents a concise and scholarly summary of Muslim prayer. Having placed prayer among the five “pillars” of Islam, she describes the modalities of ritual prayer and deciphers its symbolism to bring out its theological and mystical meaning.

Preceded by an anthology of the circumstances that can lead the believer to pray, the marvelous prayers of the Sufi mystics, and in particular of the great Jalâl-ud-Dîn Rûmî, come as a high point in this book intended both for the reader interested in the Islam only to the seeker of truth in search of texts of meditations.