Islam

Mosque at Adyar, India

Theosophical Society and Islam

Bas-relief in Adyar headquarters

Education

When Henry Steel Olcott and Annie Besant were establishing schools in South Asia, they worked with Muslim communities as well as Buddhist and Hindu. Mary K. Neff served as principal for a school in Lucknow combining Muslim and Hindu girls. Mohammedan and Hindu girls in Lucknow. She wrote: "The Mohammedan 'purdah' or seclusion of women customs and the Hindu system of caste had been major obstacles to setting up community projects within the school" but she succeeded in breaking some of the rules to bring the diverse populations together.

Adyar Headquarters of TS

The Adyar, India headquarters campus of the Theosophical Society has a mosque that was dedicated at the 1937 convention.

Islam is celebrated by a bas-relief in the Great Hall of the Headquarters Building, among the representations of all the great religions.

Prayers at conventions

Annual conventions and other events of the Theosophical Society and some of its national sections typically begin with prayers of all the religions, and Islam is included. Often a prayer is read in Arabic and repeated in an English translation like this one:

In the Name of the Lord, the Kind, the Compassionate,

All honour be to god, the Lord of all the worlds,

The Kind, the Compassionate,

The King, on the Day of Faith;

It is He who is wise, He who is powerful,

Guide Thou us on the Path of Righteousness,

The Path of those who rejoice in Thee,

Not on tha tof those who ignore Thee and work injustice. Amen.

Additional resources

Articles

• "World of Islam" web site. Islamic Web.
• Islam in Theosophy World.
• A Turkish Effendi - on Christendom and Islam Anonymous
• The Life and Teachings of Muhammad by Annie Besant
• Theosophy and Islam by Zehra Bharucha
• Regarding Islamism by William Q. Judge
• A Pilgrimage into Light: Discovering Islamic Theosophy by Edward Mathew Taylor

Audio

• The World of Religious Beliefs and Practices: Islam by Robert Ellwood

Video

• Heart of the Koran by Lex Hixon. 1989 presentation at the Theosophical Society in America.