Maintaining the Sacred Center: The Bosnian City of Stolac

Rusmir Mahmutcehajic

Anyone who has ever read any book by Bosnian academic Mahmutcehajic knows that the beauty of his prose always brings one back to the Real. His writing – be it about Bosnian War, architecture, urban planning, tolerance, nationalism, democracy, mosques, coffee – has the quality of remembrance.

‘God is always present; it is we who are in constant danger of being absent. Similarly, God is always infinitely close to us, but we are always infinitely remote from Him. Our actions, whether in silence, speech or gesture, are beautiful and good to the extent that we are conscious of the presence of God in them as Beautiful and Good. Without such consciousness, all our acts, whether in silence, speech or gesture, are in vain no matter how they may seem to us. Once we cease approaching everything “In the Name of God the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful”, concluding with “Praise belongs to God”, they cease to connect us to God, and if they do not connect us with Him, then they connect us with something else. But there is no god but Him.’

“This book investigates the relationship between knowledge of the cosmos and knowledge of the self. Conclusions are drawn regarding ignorance as a source of corruption, expulsion, and murder on the basis of the case of the Stolac čaršija, how it came into existence, how it developed as a reflection of the inner life of its people, and the destruction it suffered during the 20th century. Our original dignity cannot be restored until the relationship between knowledge of the cosmos and knowledge of the self is recognized within a discourse of the eternal principle of all existence. This is so because there is nothing in the world whose being is not in some way for us. Unless we discover that purpose, we cannot find ourselves.”

Wardah’s Pick for the Best Book of 2011

Contents:
The Garden
The Town
The Mihrab
From Left to Right
The Call
The Hour
The Guest
The Market-Square
The Book
“Recite!”
The Scales
The House
Doors and Windows
The Labyrinth
The Valley and the Mount
Earth and Heaven
The Tree
Oblivion and Recollection