Featured Articles & Media

The Ocean of Nonexistence – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract: In this article, I would like to offer some remarks on what Rumi has to say about love. What, in other words, is it? From his perspective,inquiring into the nature of love can only give one partial answers,since the very inquiry into what love is entails a partial question. The easiest way for Rumi […]

Everything Muhammad: The Image of the Prophet in the Writings of ‘Ayn al-Qudat – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract: It is well-known that Rumi (d. 1273) was a great lover of the Prophet Muhammad. This is best typified in such verses as the ones with which the present article begins. Given our knowledge of the devotion to the Prophet that we find in Rumi’s writings and in the works of many other Sufi […]

The End of Islamic Philosophy – Mohammed Rustom

Abstract: Islamic traditional teachings are couched in a language which is not easily understood by many contemporary men, especially those with a modern education. The old treatises were usually written in a syllogistic language which is no longer prevalent today. What must be done is to disengage the content of Islamic philosophy from the language […]

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 […]

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) […]

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 scholarshipmay be retraced to the second half of the 18th century, with the firstindependent 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 […]

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 […]

Chess and the Divine Decree ( Translation by Hamza Yusuf)

Abstract: “It would be honor enough for the people of India had they bequeathed us nothing but chess, a game that, like the sun itself, has traversed the entire globe. Indeed, people everywhere hold high in esteem and deem intelligent anyone who masters it or even plays it well. Such being the case, in how […]