Tag Archive for: Sufi Art

Narrativity in the Poetry of Ḥāfiẓ By Cyrus A Zargar

Using theories of narrative in lyric poetry, this article makes a case for an affective narrative quality that pervades the ghazals of Khwāja Muḥammad Shams al-Dīn “Ḥāfiẓ” of Shiraz (d. 792/1390). Such “hidden” narrative corresponds to the general sensation that a particular poem extends from an unknown and immeasurable story. Under consideration is a phenomenon or manner of mediating reality that exists entirely for the reader or listener, a sense of a powerful and vaguely remembered narrative, intimated through fragmented allusions, images, names, and places. This evoked narrative benefits from an interdependence of ambiguity and urgency, in other words, a lack of clarity as well as an emphasis on an epic or even sublime experience. It is perhaps this effect that is centrally responsible for the complementary disorientation and appeal Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry instills in its audience, particularly in an audience with inclinations to encountering supersensory phenomena in the sensory domain. The article considers Sufi interest in Ḥāfīẓ as it relates to his poems’ narrative qualities. Citation: Cyrus Ali Zargar. “Narrativity in the Poetry of Ḥāfiẓ,” A Luminous Intellect: Essays in Honor of Hamid Algar (Islamic History and Civilization, 225), edited by Amina Inloes and Alan Godlas. Leiden: Brill, 2025, pp. 180-208.

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Devotion and Metaphysics in a Litany Ascribed to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī

This article examines the status of Sufi devotional literature, a corpus still rarely considered in its own right within the study of Islamic thought. Focusing on the Ḥizb al-naṣr (Litany of Support) attributed to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 1166) and still recited today within the Qādiriyya order, it argues that such devotional texts possess a distinctly doctrinal dimension, articulating metaphysical principles akin to those developed in the school of Ibn ʿArabī and his commentators. A close reading of the Ḥizb al-naṣr reveals a sophisticated theological and metaphysical background that contrasts sharply with the anti-intellectual image often associated with al-Jīlānī and his Ḥanbalī milieu. While the litany makes little explicit use of ontological terminology, its underlying vision resonates with Akbarian metaphysical themes and may reflect early intersections between Qādirī heritage and emerging doctrines of the Akbari tradition. By reconsidering the Ḥizb al-naṣr as an instance of “Sufi philosophy” in its own right, this study invites a broader reflection on the intellectual and doctrinal scope of Sufi devotional writing.

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Mysticism and Ethics in Islam (open access) (Sheikh Zayed Series for Arabic and Islamic Texts and Studies; American University of Beirut Press, 2022)

Free publication

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World Literature Decentered: Beyond the ‘West’ Through Turkey, Mexico and Bengal By Ian Almond

Cosmologists say that if space-time is infinite, then somehow, somewhere, all possible things exist. As someone who has taught that nebulous entity “world literature” for over ten years, I’d like to begin by sketching out one such alternate world. Think of this alternative world as a kind of World Literature Fantasy. In this parallel world, there is no dominant Western canon: only lots of good Western writers, struggling like everyone else to make their voices heard above the growing crescendo of the planet’s collective murmur. Moreover, the people who live in Western countries actually realize they only form 10% of the planet. They understand that the non-Western is not some misrepresented ethnic minority, but Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East – the overwhelming majority of the world.

There are centers of influence, certainly, but they are multiple and constantly shifting. A decade of readers in Argentina might become obsessed with Middle Eastern fiction; a new generation in China might start to fixate on West African writers. The swirling network of influences – Swedes reading Turks reading Mexicans, Brazilians translating Urdu ghazals and Chinese tanka – forever shimmers, brightens and collapses, reconfiguring itself not in response to power and economy, but through a much more curious, seem- ingly chaotic algorithm. There are certainly books which are read more than others, but they do not subscribe to a common ideology – in the anthologies of this world, Buddhists, Islamists, Anarchists and the occasional Capitalist argue with one another endlessly on contentious editorial boards. Writers in this alternative world feel no compulsion to communicate some anthro- pological information about their community, although many choose to do so

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Rethinking the Unio Mystica: From McGinn to Ibn Arabī By Arjun A Nair

By Arjun A Nair

Research into the unio mystica has revealed what seems to be an area of “real discussion” between scholars of different traditions of mysticism, particularly those of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although this research serves as a promising start to the dialogue among scholars, it has also raised many questions about a “shared moment” that is nevertheless expressed in “irreducibly diverse” and distinct ways in each tradition. What purpose, for instance, can generic cross-cultural categories serve when they mean little or nothing to scholars in each tradition? By contrast, tradition-specific vocabularies are profuse and often difficult to represent in interlinguistic contexts without significant explanation. The challenge of translating mystical texts, imagery, and ideas across cultures and linguistic traditions raises obvious concerns about the misrepresentation and distortion of traditions in an environment of post-colonial critique. Nevertheless, the continued promise of dialogue calls for specialists of these traditions-particularly non-western and non-Christian traditions-to approach, assess, re-formulate, and even challenge the categories of mysticism from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of the traditions that they research. The present study models such an approach to scholarship in mysticism. It offers a (re)formulation of the unio mystica from within the theoretical frame of the 12th/13thcentury Muslim/Sufi mystic, Ibn Arabī (d. 638/1240) and early members of his school of thought. By unpacking the primary terms involved in such an account-“God”, the “human being/self”, and “union”-from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of that tradition, it problematizes the prevailing understanding of the unio mystica constructed from the writings of specialists in Christian mysticism. More importantly, it illustrates the payoff in terms of dialogue (incorporating the critique of existing theories) when each tradition operates confidently from its own milieu, developing its own theoretical resources for mysticism rather than prematurely embracing existing ideas or categories.

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God as Absolute Existence in Ibn ʿArabī: al-Taftāzānī’s Refutations of Akbarian Metaphysics [in Persian]

Throughout Islamic intellectual history, a wide range of conceptions of God have been articulated, among which the problematic view of Ibn ʿArabī-identifying God with Absolute Existence (al-wujūd al-muṭlaq)-stands out. Numerous critiques have been leveled against this identification, but the objections of Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī are particularly notable for their originality, clarity, and lasting influence on post-classical Islamic thought. In his Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid, al-Taftāzānī formulates several arguments against Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of God, focusing on the philosophical notion of Existence. Al-Taftāzānī regards Absolute Existence as a maʿqūl thānī (secondary intelligible), a universal concept in the mind with no extra-mental reality, which is instantiated only through its particular instances in the external world. He contends that this notion of Absolute Existence cannot be identical with God (or Necessary Existence), since God is an actual entity (ḥaqīqat fī al-khārij) and not merely a mental concept. This article critically examines al-Taftāzānī’s objections, arguing that his reading is misleading and that his refutation is grounded in a conception of Absolute Existence that differs significantly from that held by Ibn ʿArabī and his followers. Having contextualized al-Taftāzānī’s objections, I have sought to reconsider and rearticulate Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of God.

Introduction

Conceptions of God remain an understudied topic in the Persian-language academic literature on Islamic philosophy. Prevailing discussions typically focus on the existence of God, rather than on the more fundamental question of what, or who, the God is whose existence is being proven. In addition to the well-known conception of God as wholly distinct from the world, Islamic intellectual history presents alternative conceptions. Among these, the view advanced by Ibn ʿArabī has proven particularly problematic and controversial. This paper explores Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of God and critically engages with Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī’s well-known refutations. The analysis is based on a close study of the primary works of both Ibn ʿArabī and al-Taftāzānī, without recourse to later interpretations or receptions of their positions. Al- Taftāzānī’s critiques of Ibn ʿArabī have become classical, forming the metaphysical foundation for much of the subsequent criticism of Akbarian thought. Prominent followers of Ibn ʿArabī— including ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī, Ḥamzah Fanārī, ʿAlī b. Aḥmad Mahāʾimī, Muḥammad b. Rasūl Barzanjī, Ibrāhīm Kūrānī, and others—considered these refutations serious enough to warrant extensive responses. This article offers a detailed study of al-Taftāzānī’s objections to Akbarian metaphysics in Persian scholarship.

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 al-Nūr al-muḥammadi – the Light of the Prophet », Mohammed in History, Thought, and Culture

Al-nūr al-muḥammadī, the “Muḥammadan light”, is an Arabic expression which designates the inner and transcendent reality of the prophetic being, alluding thereby symbolically to the meta-historical significance of the Prophet Muḥammad, especially within Islamic soteriology, cosmology, spirituality and metaphysics. One of the foremost doctrinal implications of the Muḥammadan light is the Prophet’s primordial existence and his spiritual paternity over mankind. The Muḥammadan light is also understood as the universal principle of prophecy of which the pre-Islamic prophets were partial manifestations while the historic Muḥammad corresponded to its full manifestation. Above all, the concept of al-nūr al-muḥammadī plays a central role in Islamic spirituality. Being the light with which God illuminates the heart of his saints, it highlights the intrinsic relation between spiritual illumination, the Prophet and sainthood.

Content Overview:

Discusses the identity and selection of the Imam after Muhammad.

Explores the significance of praise poetry (madih) in Arabic culture, particularly in relation to Muhammad.

Highlights the , a famous praise poem by al-Busiri, detailing its themes and spiritual significance.

Examines early Byzantine literature’s references to Muhammad and Islam.

Describes the maghazi, military expeditions led by Muhammad during the Medinan period.

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

Can the “secular” ever be “Islamic?” Sherman Jackson’s e Islamic Secular is a profound exploration of a deeply misunderstood concept: the relationship between Islam and the secular. In an intellectual landscape oſten dominated by binaries, such as secularism versus religion, and tradition versus modernity, Jackson masterfully demonstrates that these categories fail to account for Islam’s unique historical and intellectual heritage. Equally impressive is Jackson’s ability to contextualize his argument within broader debates on secularism and its relationship to religion and the state. He criticizes both Western triumphalist narratives that see secularism as the inevitable endpoint of human progress and Islamic apologetic responses that reject the secular as inherently anti-religious.

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