BIBLIOGRAPHY
of Sheikh Bentounes
Sufism, the common heritage
Sheikh Khaled Bentounes proposes to us, through this book of art and history, testimonials and biographies, a journey into Sufism, the Heart of Islam.
A work (368 pages) that takes us from Genesis to the future, from the life of the Masters to that of the disciples, men to women, from the intimate to the General, through testimony and unpublished documents and including extremely rich iconography, sometimes even exceptional. A work of patience and truth, initiated with discernment, in the pure intention: to discover or rediscover our common Heritage.
Sufism, Heart of Islam
This book, which was an event during its first publication, remains today one of the best and most complete introductions to Sufism, the spiritual side of Islam. Its author, the head of one of the largest fraternities of the Maghreb who was able to fully enter into modernity by creating a universal fraternity and dialogue between religions. The main thrust of his message presented here shows Sufism in its theoretical aspects but also ritual, notably through the relationship between Master and disciple.
The new preface by Christian Delorme points out the decisive contribution of this now classic book in the discovery of “another Islam”, one of love and tolerance.
This book is the recovery of a large format published in 1996 in The Round Table editions.
The Fraternity and Heritage
Regarded today as one of the most prominent figures of Sufism, Sheikh Khaled Bentounes is primarily the heir of a spiritual movement whose roots go back to the great mystic of medieval Islam.
Here he relates, with the writer and scholar of religion Bruno Solt, the fabulous human adventure of his fathers. To revive and fertilize the immemorial depths of Sufism, it is his great-grandfather, Sheikh Ahmed al-Alāwī (1969-1934), who in 1909 created a new fraternity in Mostaganem, characterized by its openness to other religions and to modernity.
When his father died of exhaustion before reaching fifty, Khaled Bentounes leads a new life in France. But against all odds, the Council of Elders of the Alāwiyya fraternity name him the spiritual leader.
He will give to this charge an international dimension, fostering interreligious dialogue, including ecology and education – notably with the Muslim Scouts of France.
Therapy of the Soul
In the light of spiritual teachings drawn from the universal wisdom of Sufism, Sheikh Khaled Bentounes invites us to rediscover the essential dimension of our original nature, the fitra, which our cultural conditioning eventually overshadows.
The Sufi vision of the therapy of the soul is to journey towards the centre of the being by an education of awakening of the senses and of the alive. This liberates the human soul from its base instincts, its fears and its illusory desires.
Man can then become aware of the precious treasures concealed in his being since the day God decided, according to Quranic tradition, to make him his representative (Khalifa) on earth. Assuming this responsibility, he cooperates with full confidence to the divine plan and to his own destiny.
Therapy of the Soul upsets many misconceptions and questions on the essence of human nature.
The interior man
in the light of the Quran
In light of his experience of the rich Sufi mystical tradition, Sheikh Khaled Bentounes, spiritual leader of the Alāwiyya fraternity, here proposes for us a rereading of some verses of the Quran. Deciphering the deep meaning of the founding Book of Islam, but also the universality of its message, this new interpretation presents a Quran at the very opposite of fanaticism and sectarianism.
If we want to save humanity that defines our nature, explains Sheikh Bentounes, we must, without respite, work to raise our consciousness and spirit of dialogue, sine qua non condition for the human being not to become just a thinking machine. Now, 12 all fundamentalisms impose an order they want immutable, forgetting that religion interpreted literally only teaches superficial truths, sources of many tragedies. True spirituality is a constant search for the reality of the message to savour, in the sharing, the richness of life and the divine flow it carries with it.
Living Islam
Unlike too prevalent prejudices, there exists in Islam a dimension of peace, fraternity and humanism which is rooted in the heart of the Quranic message. Sheikh Khaled Bentounes, spiritual leader of the Alāwiyya Sufi order, draws from the depths of prophetic tradition to evoke relations between Islam and the West, the place of women in Islam, the causes of fundamentalism, the religious heritage of Algeria, but also the spiritual role of the human being, the meaning of prayer and fasting...
In a sincere and free speech, he shows how Sufism, the mystical aspect of Islam unites the esoteric and the exoteric to the basis of human experience. This book is for all those who feel the urgency of understanding Islam and spirituality not only to clear up misunderstandings, but to find the original link between the human being and the Divine.
The Spiritual Transmission
True spiritual transmission cannot capitalize on or be subject to the law of personal gratification. If I give someone some knowledge, some affect, an object, some pleasure, some sorrow, that will disappear. The spiritual gift, this, is not subject to death. And the real exchange, essential, which must take place between people, would also share something that would lie beyond death.
Arnaud Desjardins is responsible for the Hauteville spiritual centre in Ardèche.
Philippe Haddad is a Rabbi of the consistory in France.
Sheikh Bentounes is spiritual leader of the Alāwī Sufi order.
Peter Fenner, PhD in philosophy of Buddhism teaches history of religions at the University of Deaking Australia.
La quête du sens
La modernité remplit notre quotidien d'informations et elle a élevé l'individu à sa plus grande dignité, mais elle a multiplié les solitudes. La condition humaine reste déterminée par ces deux pôles : une venue au monde qu'on n'a pas demandée, une mort dont on ne connaît pas l'heure. Comment transformer aujourd'hui cet entre-deux en une existence pleine et entière, qui fasse sens par-delà nous-mêmes?
Des penseurs de tous horizons soufi, moines zen ou tibétain, médecin, prêtre, écrivains... explorent ici les voies et les étapes de cette quête intérieure qui nous dépasse. Un dialogue qui résonne comme une invitation à ne pas passer à côté de la vie.
Avec la participation de Stan Rougier, Roland Rech, Lama Puntso, Swâmi Saraswati, Jean-Paul Guetny, Cheikh Khaled Bentounes, Richard Moss, Marie de Hennezel, Christiane Singer.
Nature
Mirror of the Divine
Listen to the music of the trees. Nature saves us.
The initiatory spirit of the first peoples. Immemorial wisdom is at work.
Get into the head of an elephant.
The agricultural lifestyle.
The art of the infinitely small...
Sheikh Khaled Bentounes represents the embodiment of a tolerant and enlightened Islam. Conscious of spiritual ecology, he offers his vision of the visible and the invisible world.
Collective with Leili Anvar, Sheikh Bentounes, Christian Bobin, André Comte- Sponville, Francois Cheng, Aurelie Godefroy, Jacqueline Kelen, Jean Yves Leloup, Michel Onfrey, Jean-Marie Pelt, Pierre Rabhi, Hubert Reeves, Marc de Smedt, etc.
A la recherche de la vie intérieure
Qu'est-ce que la vie intérieure ? En avez-vous une ? Si oui, peut-on la cultiver ? N'est-elle pas à la fois la source de nos pensées, de nos sentiments et de nos intuitions, mais aussi de toute création et de toute spiritualité ?
Patrice van Eersel nous guide à travers enquête passionnante, qui progresse au fil de ses dialogues avec huit personnalités remarquables : le psychiatre Christophe André, le neurologue Stanislas Dehaene, la pédiatre Catherine Dolto, le mathématicien Cédric Villani, le chanteur Arthur H., le maître soufi Cheikh Bentounes, la bibliste Annick de Souzenelle et le poète Christian Bobin. De l'« intériorité sans bruit » que décrit Christophe André jusqu'à cet « enfant intérieur jouant à cache-cache » que nous invite à retrouver Christian Bobin, un voyage inédit vers ce que chacun porte d'essentiel et d'unique.
Faire la paix avec la terre
Avec
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- Cheikh Khaled Bentounes : guide spirituel de la confrérie soufie Alâwiyya
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- Dominique Bourg : philosophe et prof. à l’université de Lausanne
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- Marie Cénec : pasteure protestante
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- Jacques de Coulon : enseignant, philosophe
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- Michel-Maxime Egger : sociologue et philosophe
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- Marc Raphaël Guedj : ancien grand rabbin de Genève, fondateur de Racines et Sources
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- Patrick Guérin : psychologue
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- Philippe Mottet : secrétaire général de la Fondation Adlania ( le soufisme)
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- Rosette Poletti : infirmière, psychothérapeute
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- Marie Romanens : psychothérapeute, psychanalyste, spécialiste de l’écopsychologie
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- Olivier Raurich : mathématicien agrégé et enseignant en méditation
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- Pierre Rabhi : agriculteur en agroécologie, romancier, poète et fondateur du mouvement Colibris
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- Philippe Roch : homme politique suisse
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- Chef Almir Narayamoga Surui : chef d’une tribu indigène au Brésil, il se bat pour défendre la forêt Amazonienne contre l'abattage illégal.