Islam

Mosque at Adyar, India

The esoteric form of Islam is Sufism.

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.

TS Muslim League

The TS Muslim League was "a theosophical organization started in 1923 to disseminate knowledge of Islam and Sūfīsm to both Hindus and Muslims in many parts of India. It was headed by H. C. Kumar, a Hindu."

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.

Theosophists who were Muslim

Judging from the headgear in old photographs of Theosophical Society conventions, there were some Muslim members in the early Society, but they were never predominant in the Society. No list of them is available. Mary K. Neff taught Muslim girls in schools of the Theosophical Educational Trust, and learned to speak Urdu, the language used by much of the Muslim population in northwest India. The modern Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India has local groups in several predominantly Islamic countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Qatar, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

One prominent Muslim linked to the early TS in India was Judge Syed Mahmood, who witnessed phenomena of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Another was Godolphin Mitford, an eccentric Englishman who converted to Islam and took the name Mirza Moorad Ali Beg. In 1882, he became a member of the Theosophical Society and a probationary chela, but eventually failed, having dabbled in black magic during his wild youth. He wrote some thoughtful Theosophical articles, notably, "Elixir of Life".

Additional resources

Articles

• "World of Islam" web site. Islamic Web.
• Islam in Theosophy World.
• Muslim League 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.