By Imran Visram
I was awarded the Vera Stantan Scholarship to pursue a one-week interfaith writing residency at the Gladstone’s Library. During my visit, I was provided with the time and the resources I needed to write a section of my doctoral research project, which focuses on a religious movement, known as the True Path (Satpanth), that flourished in late medieval India.
Central to the True Path’s teachings is that, over the course of history, God has assumed many forms and has been called by many Names. For the saint-mystics who taught this Path, salvation did not require any specificity of outward identification or dress. One need not be a mendicant, nor of the princely upper-caste: every person is eligible for salvation, if he or she meditates on God’s many Names, has pure devotion in their heart, and a genuine desire to attain the knowledge that will bring them closer to the Truth.
Gladstone’s Library could not have been a more befitting place for me to write up this research. The grounds of the Library are tranquil, filled with an openness that encourages its guests to pursue knowledge, and to reflect. The Library’s holds are a dream-come-true for any theologian or religious studies scholar.
Of great use to my own research was, in particular, the Library’s specialized collection—which is, indeed, a room full of books—on Islam. In this collection, all the foundational reference texts of modern Islamic studies are found.
This Reading Room, the House of Wisdom, is suitably named after the Bayt al-?ikmah, one of the world’s largest public libraries that operated during the Islamic Golden Age, which was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258.
The service that Gladstone’s Library offers to seekers of knowledge puts it in the legacy of the Bayt al-?ikmah and other similar illustrious spaces of learning that existed throughout history.
But I must, in concluding this testimonial, write that what makes this space unique is not only its intellectual breadth, but the community of people who keep it alive. The staff of Gladstone’s Library are ambassadors of the virtuous teachings that are shared by the world's religious traditions. I could feel from the depths of my heart how those who work at the Library are driven by an ethic of love and hospitality, which is reflected in every corner, and on every face.
I am grateful for having had the opportunity to visit Gladstone’s Library, and I look forward to revisiting it again, very soon.