Tag Archive for: Sufi
THE 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“
Introduction 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..”
APPROACHES TO PROXIMITY AND DISTANCE IN EARLY SUFISM – Mohammed Rustom
Abstract:
“There is a famous tradition in Islam in which an unknown man, fully clad in white and evincing no signs of travel, approaches the Prophet Muhammad and begins to ask him several questions. Prior to his last question, which has to do with eschatology, the man asks the Prophet to define three terms: Islam, Iman, ihsan, meaning “submission,” “faith,” and “doing what is beautiful” respectively. The Prophet tells his interlocutor that”
Everything Muhammad: The Image of the Prophet in the Writings of ‘Ayn al-Qudat
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 authors,
I would here like to discuss the views of another major
devotee of the Prophet. His name was Abu’l Ma‘ali ‘Abd Allah al‑Miyanji,
and is most commonly known as ‘Ayn al‑Qudat Hamadani. He was born……
Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s Metaphysics of Love (edited by JOSEPH E.B. LUMBARD)
To understand the content of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s writings and sermons, one must also examine their form. In his attempts to transport his
audience to the truth of which he is certain and to actualize the realization of it within them, Aḥmad al-Ghazālī is ever aware of the limitations inherent to words……………..