Between the Inner and Outer Koran

Dr. Lex Hixon is a rare combination of scholar and mystic, someone with both a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Philosophy and Religion, and a specific commitment to an orthodox religious mystical path. From what he has written I gather that he studied - and attained enlightenment - in the Advaita Yoga tradition of the Hindu Swanii Nikhilananda. And yet today he is a Sheikh in the Islamic Sufi Order of Halveti-Jerrahi dervishes, one of the North American successors of the late Sheikh Muzaffer Effendi. (See review of Muzaffer's book in GNOSIS # 7, Spring 1988.) In short, he is a man with personal knowledge of both the particular and the universal in the field of mystical religion. He is also a representative of the generation of American spiritual leaders who have served their apprenticeships with Masters from the East, and whose turn is flow coming to carry the torch.

In The Heart of the Koran he speaks of his pilgrimage to Mecca, and of his conversations with Sheikh Muzaffer Effendi, and he certainly shares the fruits of the spiritual path he has embraced. However, I have some difficulty with the title of the book - Heart of the Koran - a title which leads me to expect the book to directly convey the essence of this Scripture. Hixon confesses that his own teacher, Sheikh Muzaffer, suggested the title Inspirations from the Holy Koran, which this work most certainly conveys. In it Hixon provides a rather effusive rendering of selected passages of the Koran. Hixon takes a surprisingly old-fashioned approach, embellishing the text with a lot of grandiose and capitalized adjectives rather than searching for that one English word which best conveys the meaning and sound and feeling of the Arabic original.

One of the things which Hixon is trying to do in this version of the Koran is to get out from under the notion of God as a super parent, super-ego kind of figure who is out to bust us for having a good time. Instead, he is offering us a doorway into a sense of love and appreciation and awareness of God as the essence of life and the depth of our own being. Putting it this way, I would heartily agree that this is the "heart" of the Koran, and of Islam, and of all the major religions.

Muslim Sufis have learned to be sensitive to the charge of elitism within the world of Islam. Hixon endeavors to present the Koran as a book on many levels of meaning, meant not only for mystics, but for everyone. His interpretation concentrates neither on the esoteric nor the exoteric, but a mesoteric level in between the "inner" and "outer" meanings. Once I have adjusted myself to the richness of his language, I find that, on the whole, Hixon has done a good job. The book gives us a page or two on each of the 114 suras or chapters of the Koran, in order. Some of the original suras are only a paragraph long, and others are many pages, but by reading the excerpts provided in this book one gets a taste of the breadth of the entire Koran.

Hixon provides a listing not only of the various suras in order, but a thematic listing of Koranic passages related to such theme as "Paradise and Hell,” “The Prophet Muhammad,“ “ Mystical Teachings," "Islamic Practices," and the "Harmony of Religions." In his introductory chapters concerned with "Insight into Islam" Hixon does an admirable job of orienting the modern reader the psychology of the Koran and the traditional Islamic world. Indeed, this should be a very helpful book for people – Muslims as well as non-Muslims - interested in aligning an understanding of the Koran with the “perennial philosophy” which is the mystical core of all religions.

–Ya'qub ibn Yasuf
Gnossis, Summer 1990


Readers of Lex Hixon's contemplative overview of several spiritual paths, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions, will no doubt be interested in this account of his travels to Istanbul and Mecca in the company of his spiritual friend, Sheikh Muzaffer. As well, Hixon gives us a contemporary English version of the key Islamic tradition of composing meditations on verses from the holy Koran. Many passages here point toward the essence of Islam which literally means "surrender."

As Hixon notes, "Neither as Christians or Jews, nor simply as intellectually responsible individuals, have members of Western civilization been sensitively educated or even accurately informed about Islam." There is a timely irony in this message about mercy and the power of peace while war rages in the Middle East.

Yoga Journal
May/June 1991


At a time when the western world sees Moslems as unreasonable, fuelled by hatred and revenge (I'm referring to the Salman Rushdie incidents) this book is most opportune and appropriate.

Nearer to the kind of inner love of the Sufis for God, than to Orthodox Islam, the Heart of the Koran consists of a collection of meditations on the Koranic verses. These, as the writer says, are not sacred history or theology, but truly of divine origin.

Touching to devout Moslems who cherish the Koran as a unique source of revelations from God, the book will no doubt appear as a series of hyperboles to skeptics.

The writer says: 'By offering humanity Love, the truly awakened servants of God are worshipping the Source of Love and gazing intimately into the Face of God' (p.45).

Despite similar over-zealous commentaries, the writer is aware that there are layers of interpretation in the Holy Koran and that the deepest esoteric messages are lost but to the few who have inner vision and a perfected Spirit.

He writes: 'Hardly ever do I enter the highest levels of esoteric teaching concealed in the Holy Koran, because they are largely unknown to me.'

At a time when society renders and encourages people to be cerebral to insist that the reading of the Koran (let alone the practice) purifies the soul may be lost on some people.


NEGEEN SA’I
The Theosophical Journal
September?October ‘89



Islam is distinguished among the great religious traditions by its explicit teaching of tolerance, that Allah in His wisdom has sent numerous prophets to reveal distinct traditions all of which will finally be reconciled by the Source of Love. Dr. Lex Hixon, who teaches mystical Islam at Masjid al Farah in New York has translated into English one or more passage from each of the 114 chapters of the Koran: this volume includes these meditations and three introductory essays.

Some Christians, self-styled Fundamentalists, strive to find a perfectly authentic Scripture. They would envy Muslims-- the Koran was dictated literally to the Prophet Muhammed.. However, Hixon warns that the Arabic is so “condensed” as to be almost shorthand, so that his translations are not literal but free.

This impeccable text has many levels of meaning. There are four rivers in Paradise flowing with water, milk, wine and honey. The basic meaning is that a soul after death, experiences four successive blessings. But the intermediate meaning is, that there are four nerve channels in the human body which can be activated in various ways. And the higher meaning is only disclosed to the believer by his sheikh at the appropriate time. . . .

Authenticity apart, the messages are fascinating: "My dear humanity, at the dawning of the eternal Day, souls will be asked whether they have experienced only self-centered pleasure or whether they know the nature of true spiritual joy. Consider deeply what your response will be.” (102:1-8)

Hixon's poetic style of English is appropriate to the mystical content of the revelation. However, even those who only read it literally will learn much about the great and growing Muslim religion.

BF
West Coast Review of Books


In Heart of the Koran, Lex Hixon tells of the four rivers in Paradise - water, milk, wine, and honey. Reading the Koranic passages that he has so lovingly selected and prepared for the Western reader, is like sipping from those rivers. We in the West have been denied, through ignorance and prejudice, the nourishment and transcendence available in Islamic wisdom. Hixon's book leaps beyond the usual barriers into the heart of the Koran.

Elizabeth Lesser
co-founder Omega Institute