Tag Archive for: Sufi
“White Death: Ibn ‘Arabi on the Trials and Virtues of Hunger and Fasting,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 141, no. 3 (2021): 577-586. – Atif Khalil
Abstract
“The article presents an analysis of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 1240) treatment of fasting and hunger as it appears in chapters 106 and 107 ofal-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya (Meccan revelations). In the process of examining this very short section of the encyclopedic text, the essay both draws out the deeper theological significance of hunger and fasting and highlights the virtues and trappings of the spiritual exercise in the mystic’s thought. An attempt is also made to situate some of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s ideas within the broader context of the earlier Sufi tradition to which he was heir”
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Review of Yousef Casewit’s “The Mystics of al Andalus” – Michele Petrone, Medieval Encounters 26 (2020)
Abstract :
“Before being a work on the life and thought of Barrajān, the book of Y. Casewit is a modern introduction to the mystical movements that sprung up in al-Andalus, starting from the tenth century. In this review I will avoid giving a summary of the work, which is already provided in a thoughtful preface to the book. What seems to be more important to note is the methodology the authoruses to describe the thought of Ibn Barrajān. Contemporary scholarly works on medieval Islamic thought seem to befocused on the reconstruction of networks. The circulation of diverse ideas in al-Andalus has been the object the attention of a number of studies, all reviewed by the author in the introduction of his book. This preliminary over- view is carried out not only as a state of the art. Casewit here dealt with the scholarship devoted to the reconstruction of a framework of historical and philosophical inquiry in tenth- to thirteenth-century al-Andalus. The issues of bāṭinism, Ismaili influences, and the role of the Rasāil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ are synthetically discussed and establish a large framework for the following inquiry. The most important part of the preliminary phase of the research is the definition of the role (if any) played by al-Ghazālī in the formation of Ibn Barrajān’s thought”
Review_of_Yousef_Casewit_s_The_Mystics_oTHE TRANSCENDENT ETHICS OF TARBIYA: Ibrahim Niasse’s Maqāmāt al-dīn al-thalāth – Oludamini Ogunnaike
In the Footsteps of Moses: A Contemporary Sufi Commentary on the Story of God’s Confidant (kalīm Allāh) in the Qurʾān – Yousef Casewit
Abstract:
“Moses is one of the most revered Prophets in Islam. The fact that he is mentioned in the Qurʾān more than any other figure bespeaks his eminence and the significance of his prophetic narrative to spiritual wayfaring. His election by God and the unfolding events of his prophetic mission have served as a model for Sufi wayfaring. To this effect, God proclaims: I cast upon you a love from Me, that you might be trained under My eye (Q Ṭāhā 20:39). In the Footsteps of Moses is a compilation of spiritual discourses (sing. mudhākara) by the contemporary Moroccan Sufi Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari. This book offers insights into the key events of the life of God’s Confidant through the first reading of the divine Name. Describing his life, the Shaykh states: “When the Hidden Alif or the staff of Moses appears, union discloses itself in separation, and dry land appears in the ocean. The Pharaoh of the lower self drowns in the ocean of esoteric reality, and the Moses of the heart is delivered.” Key events covered include the spiritual significance of Moses’ birth; his mother’s casting him into the river; being adopted by the Pharaoh’s wife; his years of training under the direction of Shuʿayb in the desert of Midian; communing with God at Mount Ṭūr; the encounter with Pharaoh and his sorcerers; the splitting of the Red Sea; the golden calf; and his encounter with al-Khiḍr“
In_the_Footsteps_of_Moses_A_ContemporaryIntroduction to Islamic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Sufi Treatise on the Secrets of the Divine Name – Yousef Casewit
Abstract:
“In this masterful treatise of Sufi spirituality and metaphysics, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari maps out the mystical journey to God as an initiatic progression through seven degrees of realization, or readings, of the divine Name Allāh. These seven degrees encapsulate what it means to read in the Name of the Lord, letter by letter, syllable by syllable, until the Hu, Lahu, Lillāh, ilāh, Allāh, Alif, and the Treasure-Dot are inwardly realized in the heart of the wayfarer. The Shaykh guides the reader from secret to secret, or reading to reading, devoting ten subchapters to each degree of the divine Name. Written with both metaphysical rigor and poetic elegance, the book comprises seventy short chapters that correspond to the seventy veils of Light and darkness between God and creation. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the centrality of directly witnessing the Divine Light, the indispensability of a living spiritual master, the dynamic between transcendence and immanence, the purification of the heart, and wholehearted commitment to practicing the Sunna and continuous invocation as a means of attaining direct knowledge of God. Describing the fruit of wayfaring, the Shaykh proclaims: “[It is] a matter of sheer fruitional experience, tasted only by those who plunge the depths of the kernel of the heart..”
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