Tag Archive for: Sufi

Review of House of the Prophet: Muhammad in Islamic Mysticism by Claude Addas, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies (2024)

By Atif Khalil

More than thirty-five years ago, with the publication of Ibn ‘Arabī ou La quête du Soufre Rouge, a revised version of which was introduced to an English audience in 1993 as Quest for the Red Sulphur: the Life of Ibn ‘Arabī, Claude Addas single-handedly transformed the landscape of Akbarian Studies. We now had before us a comprehensive, meticulously documented account of the life of one of the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and influential figures to emerge out of Muslim history. Relying on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, Addas produced what was, and continues to remain, the most thorough biography of the Andalusian thinker ever written. No one who engaged in any serious scholarship on him could thereaſter afford to ignore such a valuable resource.

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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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A Critical Review of The Islamic Secular by Sherman A. Jackson (Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies)

How does Sherman A. Jackson’s interpretation of Islamic secularism compare to other contemporary interpretations within Islamic thought?

What are the implications of Jackson’s arguments on the relationship between religion and state in predominantly Muslim countries?

In what ways can Jackson’s critique of Islamic secularism inform current debates on secularism and pluralism in multicultural societies?

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Al-Daghistani, R. (2022): “Invoking God`s Name and the Practice of Dhikr”

The chapter aims to systematically outline some of the most important aspects and features of dhikr – the central meditative technique of Islamic spirituality in general and of Sufi “initiatic practice” in particular. Dhikr, which can be translated as “remembrance”, “recollection”, “mentioning” or “invocation” of God or God’s most beautiful Names, is primarily discussed in every major Sufi manual about the “spiritual stations” (maqamat), which a Muslim mystic must reach on his or her inner spiritual ascent towards the ultimate Reality (al-Haqq). This paper intends to illuminate some of the ritual, experiential, epistemological and metaphysical aspects of dhikr, elaborating thereby on various forms, levels, and manifestations as well as on its relationship to the overall structure of the Sufi “initiatic path”. The article closes with some expositions and remarks on spiritual relevance and implication of dhikr for today’s context.

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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 Suf authors like al-Shaʿrānī attempted to relieve the tension between the antipodal Suf 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 Suf Path. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī was an Egyptian Suf and legal thinker who lived in Cairo during the fnal years of the Mamlūk Sultanate and the frst half-century of Ottoman rule in Egypt. He is best remembered today for his writings in comparative Islamic law (ikhtilāf al-madhāhib), Suf ethics, and Suf hagiography. Several of his texts would generate controversy during his lifetime owing to what he claimed

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Scepticism as method in the study of Quranic origins: A review article of Stephen J. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur’an:A Historical-Critical Study (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2022

This paper presents a review article of Creating the Qur’an by Stephen J. Shoemaker, a monograph that is highly critical of Quranic studies as practised in the Western academy today, arguing, among other things, that Islamic studies scholars need to learn from scholarship in other fields, namely history of religions and biblical studies, and that the Quran as we know it today, in both form and content, is a product of the early eighth century, and was propagated by the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. The article discusses these claims and puts them in the context of methodological issues concerning the study of early Islam and the origins of the Quran in particular

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Arabic Literature in America: Sufi Poems Quoted by Omar ibn Said / Amerika’daki Arapça Literatür: Ömer bin Seyyid’in Atıfta Bulunduğu Tasavvufi Şiirler

One of the most remarkable figures in the history of Islam in America was Omar ibn Said (ʿUmar b. Sayyid, 1770-1863), a Muslim scholar educated in West Africa, who was captured in warfare in his homeland and sold into slavery in America in 1807. For over half a century he lived in North Carolina, enslaved by the prominent Owen family of Fayetteville, and he left behind a small body of writings in Arabic that have for the most part been misread and misunderstood. In this article, I would like to present three short poems quoted by Omar in his writings, which provide a clear indication of the intellectual and theological range of materials that he was familiar with.

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Ibn ʿArabī in Contemporary Iran: Some Currents and Debates / Çağdaş İran’da İbn Arabî: Bazı Akım ve Tartışmalar – By Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies

By Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies

Iran’s historical and complicated social situation has led to diverse attitudes toward Sufism and interpretations of Ibn ʿArabī’s legacy. Many of Ibn ʿArabī’s prominent followers and commentators were originally from Iran; however, many of his notable opponents were also from Iran. These two historical currents of followers and opponents of Ibn ʿArabī are still quite alive. Other currents with unique attitudes toward Ibn ʿArabī also have been established recently in Iran. In this article, different attitudes towards Ibn ʿArabī in contemporary Iran are presented and contextualized. Attitudes represent not only the scholarly tendencies of Iranian academics and Islamic scholars but also their role in forming diverse collective identities.

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Review by Anthony F. Shaker of Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 32, no. 3 (2022): 707-709)

Baghdādī’s 1989 edion (al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya wa’l-wilāyāt al-dīniyya, ed. Aḥmad Mubārak al-Baghdādī [Kuwait: Dār Ibn Qutayba, 1409/1989]), which relied on the earlier printed edion by Maṭbaʿat al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, an eleventh-century manuscript from the Chester Beay Library (some folios evidently wrien by the author himself), another fiſteenth-century manuscript from the same library and, finally, an admittedly error-laden nineteenth-century manuscript

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Sufism in the United Arab Emirates – Ida Zilio-Grandi

This essay aims to provide a brief overview of Sufism in the United Arab Emirates, both in its historical and contemporary contexts. Consideration has been given firstly to the increasing support of local leaderships for the Sufi orientation of Islam as an antidote to the spread of Salafism and political Islam; and secondly to the unfortunately scarce written documentation of the presence and revival of the schools to date. In many cases, the contribution of daily press and social media has proved crucial.

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Review of Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam & Akbarian Sufism (Dunja Rašić)

This book makes a unique contribution as a foundational source on jinn and jinnealogy and as an encyclopedic reference on jinn doppelgangers (quranāʾ) in particular. It succeeds in the author’s aim to discuss quranāʾ in the context of their jinn species, their human relationships, and their place in Akbarian spiritual cosmology. Furthermore, Bedeviled provides a rich, engaging work that illuminates the diversity of thought and practices surrounding jinn within and beyond Akbarian Sufism in the medieval Islamicate world. I would recommend it to graduate students and scholars interested in jinn, Akbarian Sufism, or mysticism and occult studies more broadly, and to those curious about supernatural beings in Islamic imagination. It will also be of interest to those who seek to better understand Ibn ʿArabī’s works and teachings. Bedeviled is

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Dreaming Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Dreams and Knowledge in the Works of Shaykh Dan Tafa – Oludamini Ogunnaike

This article explores five remarkable works by ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Muṣṭafā (known as “Dan Tafa”) (1804–1864), a 19th-century West African Sufi scholar of the Sokoto Caliphate, to examine the ways in which dreams were (and are) theorized in the unique synthesis of Sufi, occult, philosophical/medical, theological, and exegetical disciplines that characterized discourse about dreams and dream interpretation in Muslim West Africa on the eve of colonial conquest. Concluding with a brief discussion of what these texts can tell us about Dan Tafa’s conceptions of cosmology, knowledge, and the human self, and the importance thereof for African and Islamic intellectual history, we will also consider the potential relevance of Dan Tafa’s work for the importance and onto-epistemological status of dreams in contemporary West African Sufi communities and attempt to understand why dreams have been and remain so important in these traditions.

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