By Davar Ardalan

Laleh Bakhtiar, an Islamic and Sufi scholar and the first American Muslim women to produce a translation of the Quran, passed away peacefully on Sunday October 18, 2020 in Chicago, from Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a rare blood disorder. She was 82.

    Our Mom lived a rich and fulfilling life as a scholar, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a mentor, an activist and a global citizen. She has been our greatest champion and guardian angel. May she rest in power.  — Her children Mani Helene Farhadi Ardalan, Iran Davar Ardalan, and Karim Ardalan

Born in Tehran on July 29, 1938 and raised in America, Dr. Bakhtiar dedicated more than 50 years of her life to the study of the mystical or Sufi dimensions of Islam and to revisiting Islamic texts from a Muslim woman’s perspective. Dr. Bakhtiar was the Founder and President of the Institute of Traditional Psychology and Scholar-in Residence at Kazi Publications.

Dr. Bakhtiar authored, translated, edited, and adapted over 150 books including The Sense of Unity : The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture with Nader Ardalan, and Sufi Expressions of the Mystic Quest. One of her proudest accomplishments came in 2007 with her translation of the Quran called The Sublime Quran. Since the advent of Islam, the translators and interpreters of the Quran have mostly been men.

Contributions to Islamic Psychology

Dr. Bakhtiar has also been lauded as a pioneering scholar and practitioner in the emerging discipline of Islamic Psychology. Her new book, Quranic Psychology of the Self: A Textbook on Islamic Moral Psychology, has helped Quranic Psychology claim its place as its own science, incorporating Ethics, Medicine, Natural Philosophy, and Philosophy.

    [Quranic Psychology of the Self] will be a valuable resource for students, professors, educational institutions, and mental health professionals as it offers a powerful return of psychology to its transcendent origins… — Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, editor of Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy

Dr. Bakhtiar attended Holton Arms High School in Maryland. She received her BA in History from Chatham College in Pennsylvania, and Masters degrees in Philosophy and Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Educational Foundations from the University of New Mexico. She is also a Nationally Certified Counselor. For over 30 years, Dr. Bakhtiar studied Islam under her teacher, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In addition to The Sublime Quran and Quranic Psychology, she has authored many books on Islamic unity, architecture, psychology, psychoethics, and moral healing through the Sufi Enneagram.

Growing up in Washington, DC, Dr. Bakhtiar’s favorite books included Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Jo’s Boys, and, oh yes, she loved Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. As the family historian, she saved thousands of letters and mementos from 1880 to the present between her mother, father and siblings as they travelled in between America and Iran.

Dr. Bakhtiar’s mother, Helen Jeffreys, was a constant source of inspiration throughout her life. Helen was born in Weiser, Idaho, at the beginning of the 20th century. Working as a nurse, she met Iranian physician Dr. Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar at Harlem Hospital. Previously, Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar had emigrated to Ellis Island, NY in 1919. They fell in love and were married at New York City Hall in 1927.

In the 1950s, Helen travelled to Iran as a public health nurse as part of President Truman’s Point Four Program. The rural improvement project sent American experts in agriculture, health, and education to work in villages in less-developed countries. Traveling in the remote mountains of Chahar Mahal in her own jeep, Helen worked with the legendary Bakhtiari tribe of Iran, helping women learn about the importance of health care. The people of Chahar Mahal loved Helen and years later would name a mountain and protected environmental region in her honor. That same spirit of service to community is what inspired Dr. Bakhtiar in her path as an Islamic scholar.

“Our story, like the story of so many emigrants, would never have been if it had not been for Ellis Island and the hope that it inspired so many such as my father to make the great journey to the shores of America in order to gain an education.” — — Laleh Bakhtiar May, 2014

In her final days, Dr. Bakhtiar was surrounded by her family who comforted her, even through social distancing, by reading messages of prayers coming in from all over the world, including one from her mentor Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who praised her for standing up for “Islam, Sufism and the truth.” Her children took turns reading her passages from The Sublime Quran, writings of the poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, the philosopher Al-Ghazali, and played music from singer and songwriters Joan Baez, James Taylor, Yusuf Islam’s Tea for the Tillerman 2 and a rendition of Amazing Grace by her grandchildren.

Dr. Bakhtiar will be laid to rest in Chicago, where she has been a scholar-in-residence at Kazi Publications, led by publisher Liaquat Ali. She is survived by her children Mani Helene Ardalan Farhadi, Iran Davar Ardalan, and Karim Ardalan; her grandchildren Saied, Samira, Rodd, Ryon, Aman, Amir, Ryan, and Layla; as well as her daughter-in-law Susan Khalili and sons-in-law Shervin Farhadi and John Oliver Smith. Her surviving siblings are Parveen, Jamshid, Lily, Maryam, Parvaneh, Shahrbanou, Afsaneh, Norooz, Pirooz, and Abol.

On Sunday November 1, 2020, WISE, Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, based in New York City, will host a virtual memorial for Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar at 1pm EST and present her with a lifetime achievement award for scholarship in religion and spirituality.
“She dared to see beyond the horizon, maintained her trust in God, led by example, influencing countless women and men through her servant leadership, scholarship and spiritual integrity.” — Daisy Khan Founder of WISE

To offer your sympathy during this difficult time, you can choose to have a memorial tree planted at a U.S. National Forest in the memory of Laleh Bakhtiar.

Contact: Davar Ardalan, Davar@ivow.ai