Ayn al-Quḍāt between Divine Jealousy and Political Intrigue – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

Modern scholars have been interested in the great Persian Sufi martyr ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131) for over six decades. Despite this fact, many aspects of his life and thought still remain terra incognita. Our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his death is a case-in-point. Although we have a fairly good understanding ofthe factors which led to ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s demise, there are other “causes” which simultaneously complement and problematize this understanding. Chief amongst these are the underlying reasons for ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s critique of the Seljuk government, as well as something which ʿAyn al-Quḍāt saw as a more subtle cause for his death several years before his anticipated state execution.….

Shushtarī’s Treatise on the Limits of Theology and Sufism: Discursive Knowledge (ʿilm), Direct Recognition (maʿrifa), and Mystical Realization (taḥqīq) in al-Risāla al-Quṣāriyya الرسالة القصارية لأبي الحسن الششتري – Yousef Casewit

Abstract:

Abū l-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī’s (d. 668/1269) heretofore unedited and unstudied treatise, “On the Limits [of Theology and Sufism]” (R. al-Quṣāriyya) is a succinct account of the celebrated Andalusī Sufi poet’s understanding of the relationship between discursive knowledge (ʿilm) of the rational Ashʿarite theologians, direct and unitive recognition (maʿrifa) of the Sufis, and verified knowledge (taḥqīq) of the monist Realizers. Following a broad discussion of the major trends in Sufism that form the background out of which Shushtarī emerges, this article analyzes the Quṣāriyya and presents a full English……………

Sufism, Scripture and Scholarship: From Graham to Guénon and Beyond By Atif Khalil and Shiraz Sheikh

Abstract:

The origins of the academic study of Sufism in Western scholarship
may be retraced to the second half of the 18th century, with the first
independent work on the subject appearing in 1819 by Lt. James W.
Graham (d. 1845), an officer working on the staff of Sir John Malcolm (d.
1833), a scholar-general in the British colonial army. Originally delivered….

Review of Yousef Casewit’s “The Mystics of al-Andalus” – Noah Gardiner

Abstract
“The Sevillan thinker Ibn Barrajān (Abū al-Ḥakam ʿAbd al-Salām b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī al-Rijāl Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Lakhmī al-Ifrīqī al- Ishbīlī, d. 536/1141), much like his Cordoban predecessor Ibn Masarra al-Jabalī (d. 319/931), has appeared in modern scholarship mostly as a silhouette in the penumbra of the great Sufi thinker Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). Among the many merits of this monographic study by Yousef Casewit, currently”
(link below)

THE MATHNAWÍ OF JALÁLU’DDÍN RÚMÍ

Abstract:

There are complete translations of the Mathnawí in Turkish[1], Arabic[2], and Hindustani[3], but only the first two of the six
Books of the poem have hitherto been made accessible in their entirety to European readers, though a number of extracts from
Books III–VI are translated in E. H. Whinfield’s useful abridgment. While it may seem surprising that a work so celebrated,
and one which reflects (however darkly at times) so much of the highest as well as the lowest in the life and thought of the……

The Door Of Mercy Kenan Rifai And Sufism Today

Actionless Action
Mohammed Rustom

It has indeed been a blessing to sit with the great Kenan Rifai’s com­
mentary upon book one of Mevlana’s Mesnevi Spending time with this
book naturally led me to Kenan Rifai’s explanation of a famous tale in
the centered around ‘Ali b. Abi Talib. The tale is retold from………
(link below)

Actionless Action (Door Of Mercy, 2017)

The Tao of Sufism by William Chittick

APPROACHES TO PROXIMITY AND DISTANCE IN EARLY SUFISM – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract:

“There is a famous tradition in Islam in which an unknown man, fully clad in white and evincing no signs of travel, approaches the Prophet Muhammad and begins to ask him several questions. Prior to his last question,  which has to do with eschatology, the man asks the Prophet to define three  terms: Islam, Iman, ihsan, meaning “submission,” “faith,” and “doing what is beautiful” respectively. The Prophet tells his interlocutor that”

Purification of the Heart:Translation and Commentary of Imām Mawlūd’s Maṭharat al-Qulūb by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Purification of the Heart, Translation and Commentary of Imām Mawlūd’s Maṭharat al-Qulūb by Hamza Yusuf