Entries by simar
Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata Edited by Mohammed Rustom
Abstract: I have known William Chittick and Sachiko Murata for over half a century as their teacher, friend, colleague, and scholarly collaborator. It was in 1964, when I was the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, that I first met a young American student named Chittick in one of […]
Atonement, Returning, and Repentance in Islam – Atif Khalil
Abstract: “The aim of this article is to demonstrate how in Islam the principle mechanism for atonement lies in tawba(returning, repentance). Divided into four sections, and drawing primarily on the literature of classical Sufism, the analysis begins by defining some key terms related to the idea of atonement, with special attention to the language of […]
The Sufi Path of Light Translated by Khalid Williams & Yousef Casewit
Abstract: “Our Lord is Light; our holy Prophet is Light; our unswerving Islamic faith is Light; our Holy Qurʾān is Light; and our prayer is Light. Why then do you wish to live in darkness? Why do you aloofly imagine, with your delimited and narrow mind, that the Light is merely an abstract concept that […]
Ayn al-Qudat’s Tamhidat: An Ocean of Sufi Metaphysics in Persian
Edited by Mohammed Rustom Abstract: “Readers of William Chittick and Sachiko Murata’s writings often note their unique ability to discern and effectively communicate the visions of reality animating the various texts in Islamic thought that they study. This is surely because they do not see these works as mere repositories of ideas that make no […]
Made in God’s Image: A Contemporary Sufi Commentary on Surat al-Insan by the Moroccan Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari
Abstract: “The Karkariyya is a contemporary branch of the Shādhilī Sufi order (ṭarīqa) founded by Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari (b. 1974) in 2007 in the small northeastern Moroccan town of el-Aruit,near the coastal city of Nador.Despite its humble beginnings,the Karkariyyahas established itself as one of Morocco ’s most dynamic centers for the dissemination of Sufi teachings. It is based […]
The Spirituality of the Sufi Path – William C. Chittick
ABSTRACT: I understand Sufism as a dimension of the Islamic tradition that stresses the need to undergo spiritual transformation. Those who wanted to achieve transformation typically undertook specific practices and disciplines known as the Ṭarīqa (al-ṭarīqa), “the Path,” one of the words by which Sufism was commonly designated. Many guides on the Ṭarīqa never put […]