He argues that knowledge has been desacralized in the modern period, that is, separated from its divine source—God—and calls for its resacralization through sacred traditions and sacred science. Although Islam and Sufism are major influences on his writings, his perennialist approach inquires into the essence of all orthodox religions, regardless of their formal particularities. He is considered a key thinker on the environment, particularly in terms of Islamic environmentalism and resacralization of nature. He is the author of over fifty books and more than five hundred articles.
After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1958, Nasr was offered the position of associate professor at MIT, as well as a three-year research position as a junior fellow followed by a formal teaching position at Harvard, but he decided to return to homeland. That same year, capital University hired him as associate professor of philosophy and the history of science.He continued his study of Islamic sciences with traditional persian masters and philosophers (Muhammad Husayn Tabataba’i, Allameh Sayyed Abul Hasan Rafiee Qazvini and Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Assar), completing his dual education, academic and traditional.
