Tag Archive for: metaphysics

“What does the heart want?” Being seen, “heart ethnography,” and knowledge through surrender in a Bashkir Sufi circle in Russia

Drawing on fieldwork in a Bashkir Sufi circle in Russia, this article explores my interlocutors’ mode of experiencing the world and transcendence. By letting myself be seen in the field, I let them shape the terms of our encounter as a way of glimpsing their mode of knowing. I explore my fieldwork experience as a transformation of the self in parallel with my interlocutors’ narrations of encounters with saints. I reflect on field experiences in which the limits of my rational thinking are revealed and mirrored in my interlocutors’ spiritual experiences. Being seen by their sheikh, my interlocutors experience a mode of vision that reveals the heart as an organ of perception. Similarly, as I experience being seen in the field, I am pointed to my own heart and soul. This mode of knowing that I glimpse into sheds new light on encounters with “otherness” and transcendence in anthropology.

A pilgrimage

On a hot day in July, Ildar picks me up in his car, and we drive to a gas station on the outskirts of Ufa, where other Bashkir murids (disciples) join us. 1 As we finish our cof- fee, we see the murshid (spiritual guide), a man in his sixties with a luminous face and trimmed white beard, emerging from a car. As we later arrive at our destina- tion in the Bashkir countryside, on land that once be- longed to the murshid’s Bashkir clan, we see from afar the grave of an ishan (healer) surrounded by trees and a small fence. This gravesite is typical of the sacred places I have visited during my fieldwork among the Bashkir murids of a transnational Naqshbandi tariqa (order) and an example of their work reviving the Bashkir sa- cred landscape. After the ablution in the newly constructed mosque, our small group heads to the grave. At the end of the dhikr (remembrance of God), the murshid says, “We do not see God, but God sees you. Meditate. God is al- ways with you; it is you who are not with Him.” At this moment, I enter a meditation with my eyes closed, the palms of my hands open, and my face directed toward the hot sun. After a long silence, we hear the voices of a family of pilgrims approaching. As we leave the grave, Aisylu, a woman murid with a soft presence, gently asks what I have felt. I respond salam (peace). When I further allude to my difficulty opening up in such moments, she tells me that near holy graves we need to fully let go and surrender in order to let nur (the light) enter us. “Trust in God. Graves of awliya (saints) are pure places; they purify the pilgrim.”

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Aḥmadu Bamba and the Preceding Sufi Heritage: Tracing the Intellectual Sources of Bamba’s Sufi Writings / Ahmedü Bamba ve Selefleri: Bamba’nın Tasavvufî Yazılarının Fikrî İzlerini Sürmek

This study examines the intellectual formation of Aḥmadu Bamba Mbacke (d. 1927), founder of the al-Murīdiyya Sufi order in Senegal, whose teachings have significantly shaped West African Islamic thought and practice. While the socio-political influence of al-Murīdiyya has been widely acknowledged, the intel- lectual foundations of Bamba’s Sufi thought remain insufficiently explored. This research hypothesizes that Bamba’s thought was profoundly shaped by classical Sufi figures such as Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111), ʿAbdu-l-Wahhāb ash-Shaʿrānī (d. 973/1565), Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493), Ibn ʿAtāʾ Allah as-Sakan- darī (d. 709/1309), as well as Mauritanian scholars including Sīdī Mukhtār al-Kuntiyyu (d. 1226/1811) and Muḥammad ibn al-Mukhtār ad-Daymānī (d. 1166/1753). Notably, Bamba distanced himself from speculative and philosophical Sufism, instead emphasizing a practical, ethically grounded Sufism centered on spiritual discipline, moral reform, and communal service. Through textual analysis and historical contextualization, this study investigates how these intellectual and spiritual currents informed Bamba’s synthesis of Sufi pedagogy and reform, contributing to a localized yet universal model of Islamic spirituality

Özet

Bu çalışma, Senegal’de Mürîdiyye tarikatini kuran ve öğretileriyle Batı Afrika İslam düşünce ve pratiğini derinden etkileyen Ahmedü Bamba Mbacke’nin (ö. 1927) fikir dünyasının teşekkülünü incelemektedir. Mürîdiyye’nin sosyo-politik etkisi yaygın olarak kabul edilmekle birlikte, Bamba’nın tasavvuf anlayışı- nın entelektüel arka planı yeterince araştırılmamıştır. Bu araştırma, Bamba’nın düşüncesinin Ebû Hâmid el-Gazzâlî (ö. 505/1111), Abdu’l-Vahhâb eş-Şa‘rânî (ö. 973/1565), Ahmed Zerrûk (ö. 899/1493), İbn Atâullah el-İskenderî (ö. 709/1309) gibi büyük sufilerin yanı sıra, Muhtâr b. Ahmed Küntî (ö. 1226/1811) ve Muhtâr ed-Deymânî (ö. 1166/1753) gibi Moritanya kökenli âlimlerin etkisiyle şekillendiği hipotezine dayanmaktadır. Bamba, hususen spekülatif ve felsefi tasavvuftan uzak durarak, mânevî disiplin, ahlâkî ıslah ve toplumsal hizmet merkezli pratik ve etik temelli bir tasavvufu ön plana çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, metin analizi ve tarihsel bağlamlandırma yoluyla, söz konusu entelektüel ve mânevî akımların Bamba’nın tasavvufî eğitim ve ıslah anlayışına nasıl yön verdiğini incelemekte ve kökleri yerel ancak nitelikleri evrensel olan bir İslâmî mâneviyat modeline katkılarını ortaya koymaktadır

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In the Name of Letters: Basmala as the Cosmic Design

This paper is a study of Ḥaydar Āmulī’s (d. ca. 787/1385) analysis of the basmala in his commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. While Āmulī addresses this phrase, which he regards as the foremost verse in the entire Quran, in various sections of his work, his most comprehensive discussion focuses on the basmala with which Ibn al-ʿArabī initiates his Fuṣūṣ. Āmulī thoroughly analyzes the basmala and investigates its diacritical marks, numerical symbolism, lexical components, syntactic structures, and morphological dimensions within a lettrist framework. As will be argued, he transforms the basmala into a formula that cap- tures the cosmic design and serves as a lettrist means of reflection to express physical, spiritual, and cosmological realities. Broadly, the paper contributes to the evolving scholarly understanding of lettrism, the unique place of the basmala in Islamic thought, and the growing body of scholarship on Āmulī’s works.

“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate (bi-smi llāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm),” which is known as the basmala (henceforth, basmala) or tasmiya in Islamic literature, is at the beginning of all suras of the Quran except surat al-Tawba (9). 1 It also has a significant presence in Islamic spirituality, practices, and rituals. In a hadith attributed to the Prophet, it is stated, “Every matter that does not begin with ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Com- passionate’ is doomed to fail.” 2 It is in this spirit that Muslims often invoke the basmala at the beginning of every important act, sanctifying and consecrating it with this formula. 3 Say- yid Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. ca. 787/1385), one of the leading Shiʿi thinkers and a significant figure in the history of the Islamic intellectual tradition, approached the basmala as a verse that encompasses a wide range of esoteric, philosophical, and lettrist dimensions. He regarded it as the foremost verse in the entire Quran, a recipe that harmoniously unifies the celestial and earthly realms and encompasses both the beginning and the culmination of all creation. This article, firstly, argues that Āmulī’s detailed study of the basmala provides a valuable lens for understanding his intellectual framework. While he interpreted various teachings of the celebrated mystic Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) from a Shiʿi perspective, reducing him solely to a sectarian reader would be inaccurate as he formulated an inclusive,

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Philosophy of Religion in Islam: A Reader of Classical Sources

Short Biographies of the Authors of the Selected Texts

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes or Rhasis) (d. 313/925) was an Islamic thinker who, emulating the example of the Hellenistic physician and philosopher Galen (d. c. 216 CE), became competent first in medicine and then in philosophy to the extent that he earned the title “the Galen of the Arabs.” Like Galen, he reflected his experience in the experimental field to his views on metaphysics and natural philosophy and was therefore accused of deism (heresy). In his work al-Ṭibb al-rūḥānī (Spiritual Medicine), in which he interpreted ethics as “the treatment of the soul,” he presented an ethical thought that focused on the treatment of vices. His thoughts on the fear of death and grief in this work contain the manifestations of his Epicurean understanding of pleasure, and in this respect, it represents a different approach to the issue of death among the schools of Islamic thought.

Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/933–4) is one of the leading figures who systematized the theological views of the Ismāʿīlī branch of Shīʿism. He made great efforts to spread the Ismāʿīlī cause, especially through his activities in the region of Ray. In his work Aʿlām al-nubuwwa (Te Sings of Prophethood), he aimed to show the necessity of prophethood and the inadequacy of reason in obtaining the truth against the philosopher Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (d. 313/925).

Al-Ālūsī (d. 1270/1854) is an exegete known for his exegesis Rūḥ al-maʿānī (Te Spirit of Meanings). Although Rūḥ al-maʿānī is often perceived as one of the important texts of allusive (ishārī) exegesis, al-Ālūsī’s main contribution to the science of interpretation of the Qurʾān with this exegesis is his powerful summarization of the commentary-super commentary (sharḥ-ḥāshiya) literature. The issues that we encounter in approximately 80 super commentaries on al-Kashshāf (The Revealer) and 400 super commentaries on Anwār al-tanzīl (The Lights of Revelation), the majority of which were written during the Ottoman period, were largely revised by al-Ālūsī on the axis of rhetoric and subjected to a critical evaluation in accordance with his critical approach (taḥqīq).

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ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s Laṭāʾif al-Minan and the Virtue of Sincere Immodesty

The essay below analyzes the substance and rhetoric of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) book Laṭāʾif al-minan wa-l-akhlāq (Subtle Blessings and Morals). While giving particular attention to the text’s introduction and concluding sections, in my analysis here I use the Laṭāʾif as a case study to illustrate how Sufi authors like al-Shaʿrānī attempted to relieve the tension between the antipodal Sufi virtues of, on the one hand, concealing one’s spiritual state to preserve the purity of one’s intention and, on the other, speaking openly about God’s blessings upon one as a demonstration of gratitude to God and a means to guide others along the Sufi Path. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī was an Egyptian Sufi and legal thinker who lived in Cairo during the fnal years of the Mamlūk Sultanate and the first half-century of Ottoman rule in Egypt. He is best remembered today for his writings in comparative Islamic law (ikhtilāf al-madhāhib), Sufi ethics, and Sufi hagiography. Several of his texts would generate controversy during his lifetime owing to what he claimed

were libelous passages that jealous peers had falsely attributed to him. 1 During his early years, al-Shaʿrānī studied Islamic law and other scholarly disciplines under Egypt’s Chief Shāfʿī Justice Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī (d. 926/1523); a charismatic and illiterate fgure named ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ (d. 939/1532–3) served as his primary guide in the study and practice of Sufsm. 2 By the second half of his life, al-Shaʿrānī’s acumen and reputation had earned him the attention of Egypt’s Ottoman rulers, who gifted him with a Suf hospice (zāwiya) that made him independently wealthy through the revenues that it generated.

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“Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: A Philosophical Critique,” Philosophical Forum 55 (2024): 353–375

The crises of the Islamic world revolve around “epistemic colonialism.” So, in order to decolonize the Muslim mind, we must be able to deconstruct the Western episteme, and this involves dissociating ourselves from the Eurocentric knowledge system that gradually became ascendent since the Renaissance through such ideas as progress and modernity. However, this does not mean we need to discontinue dialog with Western thought. Rather it means retrieving and reviving our own intel- lectual heritage and being able to think with the categories and concepts derived from that heritage. But in light of the postcolonial situation where the intellectual and linguistic connection with one’s own tradition is severed, this is a tremendous challenge. What is more, many Muslim intellectuals simply think that Islamic heritage has little relevance to address contemporary challenges. Yet unless Muslims are able to ground their self-identity in their own intellectual tradition, they will be held captive to the web of epistemic colonialism. They might be comfortable offering their prayers as Muslims, but their mental ambience will be permeated by devastating, Eurocentric ideas. They will hardly be able to overcome their fragmented self-image.

Imagine living in an old Riad in Fez, a Haveli in Lahore, or another traditional house, and then being forced into ugly high-rise apartments. These modern buildings might offer amenities like swimming pools, fitness centers, and private outdoor spaces, but their all-glass structures lack the traditional windows that connect people to the natural world of heat, light, and sound. Moreover, the sealed and glazed facades increase heating and cooling loads and create issues with glare and thermal comfort. Although people may still possess beautiful artifacts from their old homes, such as window panes, oil lamps, and plant pots, they no longer understand their language and meaning in a new context. In a word, the new setting radically alters the rhythms of life, work, and thought. And this is analogous to what has happened to the Muslim mind; its very architecture has been fundamentally transformed. Sadly, the current generation, with its fragmented self-image, often does not care to explore their historical identity and the importance of this knowledge in constructing a present self-identity

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Was That Layla’s Fire?: Metonymy, Metaphor, and Mannerism in the Poetry of Ibn al-Fāriḍ

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ‘Umar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” (Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn), ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, many of which are considered masterpieces of Islamic metaphysics. Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry continues to be sung, taught, and commented upon down to the present day and is considered one of the greatest expositions of spiritual realization, Sufi metaphysics, and psychology. This article will consider the role of the figure of Layla in some of Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry, exploring the relationship between the exquisite form of his poetic language and the meanings to which they allude in an attempt to understand an aspect of how the “licit magic” of his poetry works to express and inspire realization. That is, of all the various genres and modes of expression, why did so many Sufi figures find the genre of the romantic or even erotic Arabic ghazal, especially the exquisite verses of Ibn al-Fāriḍ, to be so felicitous for expressing the deepest truths they had realized.

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ʿUmar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. His poetry was famous and commented upon even in his own lifetime, and several commentators even claimed that while non-poetic language was perfected in the inimitable Qur’an, six centuries later, Arabic poetry was perfected in the inimitable verse of Ibn al-Fāriḍ. 1 Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” (Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn), Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, many of which are consid- ered masterpieces of Islamic metaphysics. Saḍr al-dīn al-Qūnāwī (d. 673/1274), Ibn al-ʿArabī’s stepson and successor taught Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s magnum opus, the 760-verse qaṣīda, Naẓm al-Sulūk (“The Poem of the Sufi Way”) to his circle of students, two of whom, Sa‘īd al-dīn al-Farghānī (d. 699/1300) and ‘Afīf al-dīn al-Tilimsānī (d. 690/1291) published commentaries upon the work

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Food insecurity among Toronto Muslim households during COVID and the role of key Muslim charitable institutions

Food insecurity, which is a growing issue in Canada, affecting one in eight households, has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting one in seven households (Tarasuk and Mitchell 2020). Ethnic and racialized communities, particularly Muslim households, are disproportionately affected. This chapter explores the potential of Muslim philanthropy, guided by Islamic food-related principles (Iftar, Fidya, Kaffara, Udhiya, and Aqeeqa), to address food insecurity in Toronto by reimagining them as the 5 Pillars of Sustainable Food Security (5PSFS). As an action research piece, the chapter, using a grounded theory approach with data from interviews of 15 charitable institutions, reveals that while more Muslims are turning to food banks, local charities underutilize the 5PSFS. This chapter underscores the need for a better understanding of the 5PSFS as a sustainable means of addressing local food insecurity and needs, aligning with Islamic ethics, Maqasid, and fostering stewardship.

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Sufism Amongst the Cameleers – By Abu Bakr Sirajuddin Cook

This talk aims to introduce the Cameleer manuscripts in Australia and highlight their adherence to Sufism. After an introduction to the importance of the Cameleers in Australia and the difficulties of the existing assertions of Sufism amongst the Cameleers. We will provide an overview of the existent Cameleer manuscripts which, despite their rarity, provide an important yet unexamined insight into the spirituality of the Cameleers. The discussion will then explore the elements of Sufism within the manuscripts and how this indicates the strongest evidence of Sufism amongst the Cameleers to date.

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An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Volume 5: From the School of Shiraz to the Twentieth Century edited by S. H. Nasr and M. Aminrazavi

The volume under consideration is presented as the final element of the monumental series An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, which started in 1999 with From Zoroaster to ʿUmar Khayyām (Vol. I, Oxford University Press; republished in 2007 by I. B. Tauris), and continued with Ismaili Thought in the Classical Age (Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 2001; Suheyl Academy, 2005; I. B. Tauris and The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2008), Philosophical Theology in the Middle Ages and Beyond (Vol. 3, I. B. Tauris and The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2010), and From the School of Illumination to Philosophical Mysticism (Vol. 4, I. B. Tauris and The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2013). With the almost 600 pages of the present volume, a quarter of century of groundbreaking research and painstaking organizational efforts by the general editor, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and his co-editor, Mehdi Aminrazavi, has come happily to an end. In bringing to completion this volume – and, with it, the colossal enterprise which it concludes – the two main editors have been assisted by a vast and qualified group of scholars, mainly but not exclusively Iranian, whose name are recorded in the List of Contributors (pp. xvii-xx) and who have mostly penned the English translations of the chosen texts.

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The Sufi Phenomenology of Love Based on the Thoughts of Rabia Al-Adawiyya and Edith Stein

This article contributes to research on the consideration of the phenomenon of Love through a comparison of the thoughts of Sufi thinker Rabia al-Adawiyya (713-801) and phenomenological philosopher Edith Stein (1891-1942). The author studies the poems of Rabia and the final work of Edith Stein, where she discussed her views on divine love, “Science of Cross”. The main aim of the article is a search for the crossing point between Sufism and Phenomenology. The author considers three stages of phenomenological reduction: faith, hope and love. First, the heart is considered as a noematic core and the result of epoché. The second part of the article is an investigation into the second stage of phenomenological reduction, hope, which is studied as a transition between rational and irrational thoughts. In the third part of the article, divine love is investigated as a process of perfection in Sufism and of phenomenological reduction in phenomenology. In conclusion, the essence of love is presented on the basis of Sufi phenomenology, where the principles of Sufism and phenomenology are in contact. In other words, the consideration of love is a method of representing Sufi phenomenology as a new philosophical doctrine.

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Islam and the Contemporary World: Interview with Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr

In 2009, I had the honour to interview Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who is a Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, Washington, DC, as part of the ‘Muslim Heritage Interview Series’. During the interview, Nasr touched on various topics related to Islam and modernity, Sufism, spirituality, consumerism and the environment. Thirteen years had elapsed since that interview and, with so many changes having taken place across the world in this intervening period, I was keen to speak to him again on some of the core themes we discussed then and to see how things have evolved in those areas over the years. The interview with Nasr covers some rare gems and insights from his illustrious career along with the following themes -Islamic Environmentalism, Trust, Resaclarization of the Sacred Tradition, Inspirational Scholars, The Concept of al-insān al-kāmil, Impact of Covid-19, Extremist Narratives, Globalization, Saudi 2030 Vision, Iran, Social and Geo-Political Trends, Traditionalism and Modernity. I conducted the interview with Nasr at George Washington University in December 2022. I do hope that the readers find the interview both enlightening and beneficial.

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