RESÚMENES / ABSTRACTS
Sukru Ozen
Ottoman Ulama Debating Sufism: Settling the Conflict on the Ibn Arabi's Legacy by Fatwas
In his study, Histoire et classification de l'euvre d'ibn arabi, Osman Yahya cites 138 fatwas against and 33 fatwas for one of the most controversial Sufi figures, Ibn Arabi. There he mentions the names of two Ottoman faqihs only. This project aims to demonstrate that the Ibn Arabi controversy and its impact on the Ottoman ulama were more widespread than any other Islamic community in history. The controversy produced an immense amount of legal literature including fatwas and treaties on Ibn Arabi, most of which have been neither published nor studied in the previous scholarship.
From the inception of the Ottoman State, the interpreters of Ibn Arabi were parts and parcels of the Ottoman Sufi and Fiqh tradition. The controversy on Ibn Arabi was introduced to the Ottoman land, when Selim I captured Damascus where he found the deserted tomb of Ibn Arabi in 1517/18. While the Sultan ordered to rebuild the tomb, the Ottoman Grand Muftis (Shaikhulislams), such as Ibn Kamal (d. 940/1534) and Ebussuud (d. 982/1574) reclaimed Ibn Arabi's legacy from the Ibn Taymiyya-oriented tradition. Although the positive reception did not go unnoticed by the other members of Ulama, such as Sadi Efendi (d. 945/1538) and Civizade (d. 954/1547) who were condemning Ibn Arabi's thoughts, the dominant perception was in favor of Ibn Arabi throughout the Ottoman centuries.
In this paper, I am going to limit myself to analyze conflicting fatwas which were issued about Ibn Arabi's legacy by politically supported Ottoman Grand Muftis, in order to show that the Ottoman ulama reinstituted Ibn Arabi's legacy among the learned circle. These fatwas shed lights on the views of Ottoman ulama about Sufism in general, and Ibn Arabi in particular.
It is hoped that my study will contribute to understanding of intriguing adventure of Ibn Arabi's thoughts among the Ottoman intellectuals who kept writing commentaries on his works, outcome of which determined the positive reception of Ibn Arabi in later centuries up until now.
Mehmet Karabela
Shaykh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri Efendi's Criticism of the Concept of the Unity of Existence [Wah}dat al-Wuju>d]
Wah}dat al-wuju>d, the single most famous theoretical issue in Sufi works of the later period, is a concept most often associated with Ibn al-'Arabi (d.1240). This concept pervades Ibn al-'Arabi's thought (and that of the majority of later Sufis) on God, the world, existence and life. Not everyone thought it was an appropriate concept, however, and scholars such as Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328) and al-Taftazani (d. 1390) criticized it in the strongest terms. As a result, Ibn al-'Arabi was accused of propagating polytheism and pantheism by a number of Muslim theologians and scholars.
Ibn al-'Arabi's legacy has generated considerable intellectual controversy, and none more so than the debate that arose in the late 19th century between Mustafa Sabri and Musa Jarullah Bigiyef, the leading thinkers of the Tajdid movement among Kazan Tatars. Bigiyef, like Ibn al-'Arabi, proclaimed the all-inclusiveness of God's mercy, a position that that aroused a storm of protest among his fellow intellectuals.
This paper examines the critique of wah}dat al-wuju>d expressed by Mustafa Sabri Efendi (1869-1954), a prominent Islamic theologian and one of the last Ottoman Şeyhülislâms (chief jurisconsult of the State and head of the Ottoman religious establishment), who died in 1954 in Egypt in exile. Following a brief biography of Mustafa Sabri and an account of his works, it offers an analysis of his thought on "the unity of existence" as expressed his book Mawqif al-'aql wa'l-'ilm wa'l-'a>lam min rabb al-'a>lamı>n wa 'iba>dihi al-mursalı>n (The Position of Intellect, Science and World with Regard to the Lord of the Worlds and His Messengers), with a particular focus on Sabri's evaluation of the concept.
An examination of Sabri's thought will help provide a better understanding of and assist in evaluating how jurists (fuqaha) and theologians (mutakallimun) saw mystical notions as well as Sufi doctrine.
Camilla Adang
Zâhirî Sûfîs - A contradiction in terms?
In the course of my research into the origins and development of the Zâhirî or literalist school of law, I have come across a number of individuals who are described as Sûfîs (e.g. the Iraqi Ruwaym b. Ahmad, the Iranian Ibn Khafif, and the Andalusis Abû Bakr al-Mayurqî, Ibn Burrâl, and Ibn al-`Arabî), in addition to several Zâhirîs who are identified as zuhhâd (e.g. the Andalusis al-Humaydî, Ibn Abî Marwân, Ibn al-Rûmiyya). While the second is not all that surprising-for there is nothing in the Zâhirî madhhab which contradicts or precludes an ascetic lifestyle-the fact that some Zâhirîs were apparently also mystics is, for it should be recalled that Zâhirism is characterised by a refusal to engage in speculation about the divine will, which is believed to find its clearest expression in the external sense of the revealed texts.
Although Goldziher has made some insightful observations on this topic in his book on the Zâhirîs, there is not, as yet, any full-length study dealing with this interesting phenomenon.
In this paper I intend to provide a prosopography of the Zâhirî zuhhâd and Sûfîs, concentrating on the second group, and making use of biographical dictionaries (Sufi and other), Sufi manuals, historical chronicles and legal tracts.
Questions to be addressed are: how did Zâhirî scholars reconcile their literalist outlook in legal matters with a speculative attitude towards the deity; what did it mean for a Zâhirî to be a mystic; and which element of his persona-the literalist or the mystical one, if any--was perceived as dominant by the scholar himself on the one hand, and by the outside world on the other.
The answer to these questions may help define how flexible Zâhirism was, and what allegiance to the Zâhirî madhhab-surely the most elusive of all the Islamic legal schools-meant in actual practice.
Arthur F. Buehler
The Primacy of Islamic Law in Sirhindi's Maktubat and the International Spread of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya
Thesis (all references are to Sirhindi's Maktubat (volume number: letter)
For Mujaddidis the primacy of Islamic Law towers above sufi goals and practices, e.g., "Closeness to God (walayat) is to actualize God's Law" [2.46]. Not surprisingly therefore, the role of the ulama takes on a quasi-cosmic status. The catch here is that Sirhindi carefully outlined a stringent, almost impossible, set of criteria for a "true" religious scholar to interpret Islamic Law that would disqualify just about all those calling themselves ulama. After he died, these conditions for "true" ulama were ignored, and the ulama appropriated the Maktubat (and sufi legitimacy) to bolster their power throughout the Sunni Islamic world. On this basis, the thesis of this paper asserts that the hyper sharia-mindedness of the Mujaddidiyya appealed to ulama. It was these ulama networks that were largely responsible for the subsequent spread of the Mujaddidiyya.
Sources and Methodology
The primary source for this research is the Maktubat of Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624). The main thrust of the paper will be to demonstrate Sirhindi's very nuanced relationship between the ulama, sufism, and Islamic Law. In addition, the paper will also outline the importance of the Maktubat worldwide. No other collection of sufi letters and few sufi treatises have been so influential in scope in the 1400+ years of Islamic history. When an envoy from Kokand (near Tashkent) arrived in 1833 at the Sultan's Palace in Istanbul, the Sultan gave him two books: a Koran and Sirhindi's Letters, along with other presents. It is clear that there are few other sufi texts on a pan-Islamic level that have had and continue to have such a lasting impact on Muslims in the eastern Islamic world. For comparative purposes, I will also investigate Ghulam `Ali Shah's (d. 1824) letters and writings for nineteenth-century developments (Ghulam `Ali Shah was the shaykh of Maulana Khalid (d. 1827), the founder-figure of the Khalidiyya that spread to many places including Kurdistan, Iraq, Ottoman Turkey, Crimea, and Indonesia.). This represents the standard multidisciplinary history of religions approach used in my other works.
Relevance to Conference
In India, where sixty percent of the ulama are sufis (based on all the available published biographical dictionaries over three centuries), Mujaddidi ulama-sufis outnumber other lineages two to one. It is unlikely that any other lineage exalts Islamic Law and specializes in the conjunction of Islamic Law and Sufism more than the Mujaddidiyya.
Yehoshua Frenkel
Mutasawwifa versus fuqara': New patterns of Sufism in Mamluk Syria.
Thesis
The segmentation of the complex Islamic society stemmed from conflicting interpretations of belief and practice. It is common to notice a distinction between two ways of religious life: the legalistic (shari`a) and the mystical (haqiqa). The religious establishment is described as constructed of puritan jurists (fuqaha') and devotees (sufiyya).
In the Mamluk period Sufi masters and novices became a widespread phenomenon. The number of Sufi institutions and hospices in Syria grew. Sufism as way of life was not limited to dervishes but gained manifestations of popular religion and attracted a great number of followers.
The aims of this chapter are twofold: I) To depict the Sufi community in Mamluk Syria and its writings. II) To argue that during the Mamluk period ahl al-tasawwuf were accepted as orthodox followers of the normative tradition. { } The earlier division between the legalists and the sufiyya was replaced by a new strain: learned Sufis versus eccentric fakirs. { }
The tariqa became an institution composed from center and branches. The zawiya developed into a locus in a network of Sufi dormitories. The Sufi turuq recruited fuqaha' and the study of Islamic holy law became a common phenomenon in their lodges. The Sufi master was the spiritual leader of novices as well as the head of an organization that participated in popular rituals with his followers. A significant manifestation of this development is the numerous awqaf founded by the ruling echelon and the religious establishment.
Sources
Chronicles, biographical dictionaries, secretarial encyclopedias, { } travelers' logs { } and archeological discoveries narrate on the presence of Sufi institutions and activities. The position of the lawyers (fuqaha') vis -à-vis the Sufis is reflected in a range of writings: collections of fatawi { } and bida` tractates. They focused on struggle against fakirs and charlatans. { } Legal formulas of shurut and waqf epitomize the sympathetic attitude towards the Sufis.
The adab al-muridin literature casts light on the world vision and ethos of the authors, as well as on ideological struggles amongst contemporary Muslims. It presents conformity and adherence to the roles of the genre. { } The authors worked hard in order to distinguish between the mainstream orthodoxy and the marginal circles that were rejected as heretics, { } thus trying to prevent the masses from acting in a manner that will question the very legitimacy of the Sufi path. { }
The abstract is based upon primary results from an ongoing historical study on Syria's civilian society during the Mamluk era. It is based on new sources, most of them manuscripts from the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. These folios were not published or studied, yet. By contemplating on the legality of Sufi manners and practices and by carrying out an analysis of legal writings I believe that the thesis displayed above fits well to the program outlined by the organizers. It can be presented in the panel on "Sufis, Rituals and Islamic Law".
B. Abu-Manneh
Salafiyya and Khalidiyya in Baghdad in the Early Nineteenth Century
This paper is composed of three sections. The Wahhabi challenge to Iraq; the rise of the Salafi trend in Baghdad followed by the Naqshbandi-Khalidi reaction. It shows that even though the Wahhabi movement did not expand to the Arab lands, major beliefs of its doctrine were embraced by many Arab ulama.
To start with, since the last years of the 18th century, the Wahhabiyya posed a serious challenge to the Mamluk regime in Baghdad both on the military and doctrinal levels. They used to send emissaries to the tribes and letters to the ulama of Baghdad calling upon them to follow their doctrine. On the other hand, their levies invaded the South Western regions of Iraq, causing much anxiety for the ruling Mamluks in Baghdad.
To face these challenges especially in Baghdad, the Wali Sulaiman Pasha the elder (1779-1802) asked the then Hanafi mufti of Baghdad, Ahmad Tabaqchali (d.1798), to write a commentary on the term "tawhid", the unity of God which was the basic call of the Wahhabis. He, moreover, renewed and established several mosques and medresses in Baghdad, thus contributing to the regeneration of Islamic learning in the city.
These measures of Sulaiman Pasha though praiseworthy, were conceived as insufficient by Shaikh Ali al-Suwaidi, a prominent Hadith transmitter of Baghdad. Apparently to complement Tabaqchali, he wrote a book in 1799 entitled al-'Iqd al-Thamin fi Bayan Masa`il al-Din. (Cairo,1225/[1907]) in which he attacked the excesses of the Sufis and the practice of tomb worship and the cult of saints, and exhorted Muslim believers to comply with tawhid , the unity of God.
However, such views did not remain unchallenged for long. Shaikh Khalid, who settled in the city in 1813, started to disseminate the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi teachings there. His intense activity contributed to a Sufi revival in Baghdad and indeed throughout the Ottoman lands in the 19th century.
In the first Khalidi manual entitled al-Hadiqa al-Nadiyya written in1233/[1817] by Ibn Sulaiman, a disciple of Khalid, we find a refutation of the views of whom he depicted as "al-Mutafaqqiha" i.e. pseudo-Faqihs, who condemn Sufi orders and claim that "nothing leads us to God except:the religious Law understood literally".
Indeed, this controversy between these two trends of Islam continued intermittently throughout the century and led the Porte to wage an anti-Salafi policy and to promote Sufi orders. Such a policy, implemented intensively during the Hamidian period (1876-1908), aroused a new wave of Salafi activity in Baghdad from where it soon spread into Damascus and Cairo in the last decades of the 19th century.
Michael Winter
Fuqaha' and Sufis in the Ottoman Arab World: Confrontation and Accommodation
The paper aims to describe and analyze the religious attitudes and arguments that were at play between the fuqaha' and the Sufis in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, primarily in Egypt and Syria from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century. By the 16th century, the classical arguments about the relations between the jurists and the mystics had been well known, sometimes ad nauseam, among the educated members of either camp. Nevertheless, a new reality emerged, that suggested almost a full merger of two sides, more so in the Arab world than in the Turkish domain. Almost every 'alim, whose biography appears in the various biographical dictionaries of the time, had some Sufi connections or even affiliations. For example, in the 18th century, all Shuyukh al-Azhar were active members in the reformed Khalwati order.
On the other side, the orthodox Sufis went out of their way to announce their loyalty to the Qur'an and the Sunna. Several Sufi writers put forward new theoretical approaches and social practices in efforts to minimize confrontations and work out formulae for accommodation with the fuqaha'.
This study is based on the writings of the leading Sufi thinkers like 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani and the founder of the Sanusiyya movement, who tried to reduce the social and intellectual rigidity of the fiqh, for example, by uniting the madhahib through Sufism. In Syria, 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, the great Sufi master offered his own version of humanistic and lenient orthodox Sufism. On the social level, both al-Sha'rani's type of Sufis in Egypt and the Sanusiyya in Cyrenaica actively propagated the Sunni orthodoxy through Sufi channels.
In order to see the social realities of 'ulama'-Sufi relationships in the Ottoman Arab world, I intend to study the Egyptian and Syrian chronicles and biographical collections. This immense and lively historiography was created by historians who predominantly were both 'ulama' and Sufis of one kind or another, and were keenly
interested in the dynamics of Sufi-fuqaha' relationships, which vacillated between confrontation and accommodation, without a final formula to solve this tension. For such was the nature of a living religious tradition.
Robert Gleave
Shi'ite Jurists and Safavid Sufis: The relationship between Sufism and legal schools in Safavid Iran
The Safavid period witnessed the emergence of two main intellectual disputes. First, the Safavid Shahs constructed their political authority (in part at least) on the basis of the shaykh-murid relationship present in the Safavi tariqa. The relationship between the Shah and his people was seen, by some at least, in these terms. This emphasis, in turn, gave rise to a general debate about the legal validity of Sufi ideas and practices. Second, amongst the jurists, the debate between the Akhbari and Usuli schools of fiqh began in the early years of the Safavid period and raged until well after the fall of Isfahan to the Afghans in 1722. This paper analyses the relationship between these two disputes. It is clear from biographical data that there were Akhbaris (such as Muhsin Fayd al-Kashani) and Usulis (such as al-Shaykh al-Baha'i) who were receptive to Sufi themes. However, there were also Akhbaris (such as al-Hurr al-Amili) and Usulis (such as Muhammad Baqir al-Sabzawari) who were highly critical of Sufism. Akhbaris and Usulis could utilise their respective juristic methodologies to justify or condemn Sufism. Using works of fiqh, and polemics both against and for Sufism, this paper analyses how a legal dispute (primarily over ijtihad) intersects and intertwines with a theological dispute (over ilham) in late classical Shi'ism. The effect of this complex of ideas on conceptions of state legitimacy, the independence and authority of the jurist and the implementation of Shi'ite law in Safavid Iran is also examined.
Nehemia Levtzion
The Role of Shari'a-Oriented Sufi Turuq in the Renewal and Reform Movements of the 18th & 19th Centuries
In the eighteenth century individuals and groups sought to bring a revived sense of adherence to Islam, and by the end of the century there were activist movements of renewal and reform in all parts of the Muslim world; in China, Indonesia, Bengal, India, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and West Africa. These movements could not have been ramifications of the anti-Sufi Wahhabiyya, because they developed within reformed Sufi turuq that experienced a process of restructuring in the eighteenth century.
Sufism oscillated between individualist renunciation of this world and community-oriented legalist world-affirmation. The shari'a-oriented brotherhoods were on the side of this world. A positive attitude to this world provided the framework within which political engagement became licit and spiritually acceptable. This change in attitude towards this world prepared reformed Sufi turuq to be more actively involved in social and political life.
The haramayn, Mecca and more so Medina, were the hub of a worldwide network of scholastic and Sufi salasil. Students of different madhahib studied with one master, because the emphasis in those circles was not on fiqh, which is studied by each madhhab, but on hadith. Many of the 'ulama' in the network were committed to both hadith and tassawuf. The combination of the exoteric and esoteric teachings, of formalistic authority and charismatic leadership, of strict scriptualism and mystical intuition, pointed the way to the liberation from taqlid. Sufi leaders of revivalist movement, like Shah Wali Allah and Ibn Idris, opposed taqlid, encouraged ijtihad, and thus challenged the very basis of the madhahib.
In eighteenth-century Egypt 'ulama' became deeply involved in turuq, and many of them were practicing mystics, members or heads of tariqa, in particular the Khalwatiyya. Before the eighteenth century the Khalwatiyya in Egypt had been marginal and of little significance. But a few years after 1737, under the leadership of Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifni, inspired by the Syrian Mustafa al-Bakri, the Khalwatiya offered a larger scope for the participation of common people in the mystical rituals, and at the same time emphasized adherence to the shari`a. This would explain why the Khalwatiyya, which was described by al-Jabarti (1390 AH, I, 295) as "the best of the orders [khayr al-turuq]" accommodated leading scholars, but also reached out the common people.
In 1769 Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Azhari returned to the Kabiliya in Algeria from Cairo, where he had been initiated into the Khalwatiyya. He was a disciple of al-Hifni, and like his master he merged tasawwuf and fiqh, haqiqa and shari'a. He propagated the Khalwatiyya so successfully that by the time of his death in 1793 the Rahmaniyya (as it became known after him) expanded from rural and tribal Kabuliya to the urban and more orthodox Costantine, attracting humble people, scholars and dignitaries. The Rahmaniyya, which had antagonized established turuq and developed tense relations with the ottoman authorities, became even more militant after the French conquest of Algeria.
In India, Sirhindi earned the honorific of mujaddid because he stressed the combination of haqiqa and shari'a and emphasized obedience to the sunna as being the prime method of spiritual realization and advancement. All visionary and ecstatic experiences are subordinated to the single goal of adherence to the sunna and the realization of the shari`a. The tariqa became servant of the shari`a.
In the tradition of the Naqshabandiyya-Mujaddidiyya, the formalistic dynamics of Islam with the inner vitality of Sufism inspired Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi, a disciple of Shah 'Abd al-'Aziz son of Shah Wali Allah, to launch the militant movement of the Mujahidun in the first half of the 19 century.
Mawlana Khalid, of Kurdish origin, was also a student of Shah 'Abd al-'Aziz, when he spent a year in 1810 in India. His political interests were ambitious and his clear sense of sociopolitical mission derived from the Naqshabdiyya's emphasis on the shari`a. The goals of the path are to be attained implicitly through a comprehensive immersion in the shari`a. It was his fiqhi orientation that attracted high-ranking `ulama' to the Naqshabandiyya on an unprecedented scale.
A number of Daghistani murids of shaykh Isma`il of Amasya, a khalifa of Mawlana Khalid, commenced activity among the Caucasain mountaineers. Their purpose was to consolidate the shari`a in place of non-Islamic customary law and to resist the expansion of Russian rule. From 1834 to 1849 Imam Shamil controlled large parts of Daghistan, where he established the ruling institutions on the basis of the shari'a.
We have provided brief references to cases, where offshoots of shari'a-oriented turuq developed from renewal movements that sought internal reform within Islam, and turned into militant movements to defend Dar al-Islam against European Christian invaders; France in Algeria, Britain in India and Russia in the Caucasus.
Brannon Wheeler
Purity and Utopia: Islamic Legal Views of Asceticism.
It is commonplace to argue that Islam eschews asceticism, but historians have noted that many Sufis, especially in the earliest periods, promulgated ascetic attitudes and rituals. Some of these ascetic attitudes can also be found in early hadith collections, biographical dictionaries, and Sufi manuals. Many well-known jurists are also reported to have adopted ascetic lifestyles, and scholars maintain the close connection between the authority of knowledge and the comportment of the person transmitting that knowledge. What has not been recognized, however, is the close relationship of ascetic concepts and practices with the definition of purity in Islamic legal texts.
My paper examines how Muslim jurists define purity and its role in other ritual practices in terms consonant with widespread notions of asceticism. Manuals of Islamic law outline, often in great detail, the requirements of taharah, salat, zakat, sawm, the hajj, and other rituals such as the i'tikaf. The example of these rituals is in part derived from the practice of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers, but also from the precedents of earlier prophets going back to Abraham and Adam. Muslim jurists define these rituals both in terms of their actual performance, and in terms of what these rituals symbolize for the Muslim community and its place in relation to the communities of earlier prophets.
A close reading and comparative analysis of legal manuals, biographical dictionaries, commentaries on hadith collections, and Quran exegesis shows that Muslim jurists recognized purity and other ritual requirements as based upon a rejection of the natural and social human condition. For example, the wudu is required to purify one from necessary bodily functions, as does the ghusl from sexual relations. The sawm is the temporary abstinence from eating and sex, and the zakat entails the renunciation of certain materials goods. Using approaches from the history of religions, literary criticism, comparative legal studies, and historical philology, my paper argues that these ascetic practices are primarily understood by Muslim jurists as being symbolic.
That Muslim rituals are considered to be symbolic gestures rather than actual ascetic practices is explicitly recognized by a number of legal theorists (including Ahmad b. Hanbal) and hadith critics (such as Ibn Hajar). Manuals of Islamic law also emphasize the feasibility of Islamic purity and ritual requirements in marked contrast to an ascetic attitude (associated with some Sufis) which saw the renunciation of natural and social human nature as an end in itself and as a means to eliminating human nature and society. In the context of taharah and the sawm, Muslims are not required to abstain from food and sex altogether, nor are they required to divest themselves of all belongings in the context of the zakat. As such, Muslim legal definitions of purity and ritual requirements adapts the ascetic attitude allowing for the continuation and development of human society and civilization. It is a utopian attitude toward asceticism that recognizes the necessity of "this world" and the "wholly other" of the next world.
Fatima Tahtah
El Sufismo en al-Andalus: Entre la aceptación y el rechazo (a través de AL-AWASIM MIN AL-QAWASIM)
Los fuqaha de al-Andalus han hecho una oposición firme en contra de algunas sectas sufies, sobre todo aquellas cuyas ideas y principios son de origen filosófico, mezcladas con ideas de los extremistas chi'itas y mu'tazilitas... El principal grupo o corriente sufí que fue criticado por los juristas y ulama de al-Andalus y al-Maghreb fue el que seguía a al-Ghazali. Esta oposicion o rechazo se manifiesta en dos aspectos:
1- aspecto práctico: quema de los libros de algunos sufies, como la obra Ihya' 'ulum ad-din en la época de los Almorávides en al-Andalus.
2- aspecto ideológico, que se manifiesta en las obras que se escribieron en contra del pensamiento sufí.
De estas obras podemos citar la del gran jurista sevillano Abu Bakr ibn al-'Arabi, titulada al-Awasim min al-qawasim, en la cual criticó el pensamiento sufí, particularmente en los puntos siguientes :
1- la cuestión de la encarnacion (hululiyya)
2- la cuestión de la unidad de la existencia (wahdat al-udjud)
3- el ser divino y sus cualidades (al-dhat al-ilahiyya wa-sifatu-ha)
4- la unidad y la pluralidad (al-wahda wa-l-kathra)
5- los límites de la imaginación y la razón ('aql)
6- los límites de la sabiduría interior y la sabiduria intelectual (hudud al-ma'rifa al-batiniyya wa-l-'aql)
7- la realidad y la metáfora (al-haqiqa wa-l-madjaz)
8- la materia y la imagen (al-madda wa-l-sura)
9- el apartarmiento sufí del mundo y su alejamiento de todas las pasiones, vicios, etc. (al-inqita' 'ani shawaghili l-hawas)
La ponencia intenta aclarar algunos aspectos del pensamiento sufí en la época de Abu Bakr ibn al-'Arabi, a través de la critica que hace de algunas corrientes sufíes y en especial de al-Ghazali. El acepta el sufismo "sunni" y rechaza el sufismo ghazali y batini.
La investigación intenta tambien presentar otra lectura (qira'a batiniyya) de la obra Al-Awasim min al-Quawasim: un mensaje que advertía del peligro ideológico que amenazaba entonces la estabilidad, y que se proyecta hasta hoy.
David S. Powers
Law and Sufism in the Maghrib in the Eighth/Fourteenth Century
Some time during the second quarter of the eighth/fourteenth century, the jurist Abu al-Fadl al-'Uqbani (d. 854/1450, Tlemcen) was asked a question about the practices and customs of those who gathered for the performance of dhikr. Both the question and the mufti's response are preserved in Wansharisi, Mi'yar, vol. 11, 48-73. The questioner provides a detailed description of contemporary sufi practices in the Maghrib, drawing attention inter alia to the following issues: the manner in which the participants in the ceremony place themselves to the right of the shaykh; the practice of shaking the hand of the shaykh; the use of prayer beads; prayer for the Prophet Muhammad; the recitation of the Qur'an; the recitation of poetry either in praise of the Prophet or urging the performance of good deeds; the recitation of Kitab al-Shifa by Qadi 'Iyad; the clapping of hands as an accompaniment to the recitation of poetry; the distribution of food to the fuqara', after which the recipients of the shaykh's largesse praise God; the use of perfume; the wiping of their faces with their hands, etc. In his response, al-'Uqbani emphasizes the special qualities (khasa'is) of dhikr and attempts to persuade his interlocuter that there is a basis for all of the aforementioned practices in the shari'a. He addresses the issues raised in the question point-by-point, validating all of the aforementioned practices as hasana or mustahabb. In support of his position, he cites Qur'an, hadith, and earlier authorities, such as Malik b. Anas, Shafi'i, Ashhab, Qadi 'Iyad, Nawawi, and Mazari. The historical importance of this fatwa, in my view, is its value as a sign of the mutual accommodation of Maliksim and moderate Sufism in the Maghrib in the eighth/fourteenth century.
María Arcas Campoy
Sufismo y Djihâd. El criterio de los juristas malikíes sobre ciertas prácticas en el ribât
En el marco jurídico del Islam no hay cabida para otras prácticas, ritos y manifestaciones religiosas que no sean las establecidas por la ley, preceptivas unas y recomendables otras. Por esta causa los alfaquíes, paladines de la ortodoxia, se mostraron casi siempre contrarios al ideario y a los ritos de los sufíes.
En este trabajo pretendo mostrar el rechazo y condena de los juristas respecto a determinadas prácticas rituales llevadas a cabo por los combatientes del djihâd. Tales prácticas se refieren principalmente al modo de proclamar el takbîr y el tahlîl, pero también a otros ritos sufíes. No obstante las prohibiciones legales, parece probada la tendencia de los que hacían ribât hacia este tipo de prácticas. Lo demuestran de modo general la prohibición recogida en los tratados jurídicos (se prohibe lo que existe o se hace) y, en concreto, las fetuas condenatorias.
Los datos que aporto se refieren a distintos lugares del occidente islámico (norte de África y al-Andalus) entre los siglos XII y XV y ponen de manifiesto la popularidad de las cofradías místicas (t,.uruq) cuyos ritos fueron considerados por los alfaquíes una innovación (bidca) detestable e inadmisible.
Las principales fuentes documentales son de carácter jurídico y se dividen en tres grupos:
a) Tratados jurídicos: Mudawwana; Mujtasâr de Halîl b. Ishâq; Qawânîn al-ahkâm de Ibn Djuzayy, etc.
b) Tratados específicos sobre djihâd: Qidwat al-gâ zî de Ibn Abî Zamanîn; Tuhfat al-anfus de Ibn Hudayl.
c) Fetuas: varias fetuas (fatâwâ) de al-Mâzarî (m. 536/1142), al-Turtûšî (m. 520/1126), al-Šâtibî (m. 790/1388) e Ibn Lubb (m. 782/1381) recogidas en el Micyâr de al-Wanšarîšî.
El tema a desarrollar se enmarca fundamentalmente en el derecho islámico, pero también incluye varias referencias de tipo histórico, social, teológico, etc.
En definitiva, con la intención de contribuir al conocimiento de las actitudes de los alfaquíes ante el sufismo, este trabajo aborda el tema de ciertas prácticas sufíes llevadas a cabo en el ribât que eran rechazadas por la ortodoxia islámica.
Muhammad Khalid Masud
Understanding IslamicRituals: Sufi Views of Hajj
Qur'an calls Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), one of the five pillars of faith, a mansik (rite) and explains that every human community has rites, which they perform. Does this term convey the sense of "rite" or "ritual"? Rites or rituals are part of human social life, but all of them are not religious. Hajj is also termed 'Ibada. In popular understanding, 'ibada was understood as a reciprocal relationship with God. It was performed to gain reward from God. The legal discourse on the obligation of Hajj does not encourage exploring the meaning of the ritual as 'Ibada; one must perform 'Ibada without asking for the reason. One performs rituals mainly because it is God's command, which entails his reward and punishment. Some anthropologists find reciprocity as one of the essential meanings of a ritual. To anthropologists Hajj has been more attractive than other rituals because it is more dramatic and consists of ritual elements, which are more familiar to them. Hajj offers a very rich example of religious symbols and includes the activities of journey, sacrifice and remembrance.
The Sufis disagreed with the legal discourse of ritual that reduces an obligation to a performance without exploring its meaning or an action done for the sake of reward or due to fear of punishment. This essay explores the Sufi understanding of ritual with particular reference to Hajj. For Sufis, in Hajj one experiences God's blessings by experiencing the manifestation of God's signs, offering sacrifice and performing certain rituals in the manner of one's ancestors. Explaining the spiritual dimension of pilgrimage to Mecca, Shah Waliullah regards it as a means of communion with God. The peculiar inner religious experience of Hajj had a deep influence on Muslim mysticism.
Contrary to juristic formalism that Sufis developed their own understanding of Hajj. For the Sufis the pilgrimage was a means to experience spiritual states; it was a journey towards God. Sufis developed a contrastive parallelism between the literalist and esoteric view of the rite of Hajj. They seek inner meanings of the rite as symbols of journey. Shaykh Hujwiri sought parallelism between two types of Hajj: Pilgrimage to the physical abode of Abraham, and pilgrimage to the spiritual abode of Abraham. Rashid al-Din al-Maybudi (d. 1209), in Kashf al-Asrar wa Uddat al-Abrar, compares the journey for pilgrimage with a parallelism based on the simile of death, the journey to the hereafter.
Najmuddin Kubra (d.1256), constructs a parallel between two archetypes of Hajj: Abraham's Hajj and Prophet Muhammad's Hajj.
The Sufis seek analogies with parallel semantic fields of the words and symbols used for the ritual of Hajj. They create a world of imagination to relate their religious experience of these rituals to this imaginal space . They define the ritual as away to seek closeness to God, to remove the distance and duality.
Making human body, and one's own home analogous to the physical world of Hajj; they interiorize Hajj within the self. Seeking for Hajj an analogy with death, the Sufis individualize the ritual of Hajj, in contrast to jurists who stress social and communal aspect of Hajj.
Paulo Pinto
Ritual, Mysticism and Islamic Law in Contemporary Syrian Sufism
The main thesis argued in this paper states that the relationship between Sufism and Islamic Law cannot be understood as a stable opposition based on conflicting doctrinal principles, for it consists of various forms of articulation produced by the practical uses and understandings of both religious disciplines in the construction of religious experiences and identities within particular social and cultural contexts.
In order to demonstrate this argument I compare the ritual structure of the hadras (mystical gatherings) that take place in two Sufi zawiyas (lodges) affiliated to the Qadiriyya order (tariqa) in Aleppo: one zawiya is located in a traditional middle class neighborhood, and has its mystical path based on the study and the hermeneutic of Islamic texts; and the other is located in a popular neighborhood and has its mystical path based on the miraculous powers of the shaykh's baraka. My analysis shows that, despite the fact that both zawiyas are linked to the doctrinal and ritual tradition of the Qadiriyya, their ritual practices produce different articulations between the principles of Islamic Law and Sufism, which are embodied as distinct forms of Sufi identities. In the literate zawiya Islamic Law occupies an important normative role in the construction of Sufi identities, but in the popular zawiya principles of Islamic Law have a secondary role in relation to mystical notions in the process of production of Sufi identities.
The ethnographic data used in this analysis was collected during 16 months of fieldwork research in Syria from 1999 to 2001. The fieldwork activities included open interviews and participant observation in Arab and Kurdish Sufi zawiyas in Aleppo and the Kurd Dagh, in northern Syria. While the religious literature used in these zawiyas is also taken into account, my analytical focus is on the ethnographic data on ritual practices and religious experiences. Anthropology and Sociology of Religion constitute my main methodological and analytical references.
This paper brings a relevant contribution to the Conference, for it shows how Islamic Law is used and understood by contemporary Sufi communities, pointing to the plurality of articulations existing between Islamic legal principles and the various mystical traditions of Sufism. It also highlights the importance of taking into account practical uses and understandings of religious disciplines, such as Islamic Law or Sufism, in order to have a more refined analysis of their social dynamics.
Kentaro Sato
The Sufi Celebration of Muhammad's Birthday (al-Mawlid al-Nabawi) and Some Related Ulama Views During the 13th and 14th Centuries in al-Andalus and the Maghrib
Muhammad's birthday (al-mawlid al-nabawi) has been a common celebration in many Muslim societies for centuries; and various Sufi orders have taken it as an occasion to conduct their own rituals. However, its legal status is quite controversial among the ulama. Due to a lack of a salaf's sunna legitimizing it, some ulama have criticized and renounced the practice as bid`a, while others have merely conceded to it.
In the Muslim West, at al-Andalus and the Maghrib, the mawlid celebration began in the 13th century and developed as a result of involvement by both sufis and the state. However, despite its popularity among the common people, it continued to be criticized, like in the other regions of the Islamic World. We find several fatwas of the 14th and 15th century concerning this theme in the such collections as al-Mi`yar of al-Wansharisi (d.914/1508). Among these fatwas, one famous sufi/jurist, Ibn `Abbad al-Rundi, argues that al-mawlid al-nabawi is the greatest of all Muslim celebrations, while a Granadan jurist, al-Shatibi, says that it is a bid`a and that any bid`a is a deviation from the right way. However, between these two extremes there lie a position accepting the mawlid celebration with the condition that it should not be accompanied with reproachful conduct, like as lighting a candle and performing sama`, etc. In general, it seems that the Andalusi ulama held more critical views of the mawlid celebration than the Maghribi ulama. The aim of this paper is to analyze the various ulama attitudes towards the mawlid and sufism, which vary according to social and political conditions in al-Andalus and the Maghrib.
Martin Riexinger
"Puritans" and "bid'atîs"discussing Sufism in British India
The separation between Islamic Law and Sufism is artificial and leads to misconceptions about the social roles and worldviews of 'ulamâ' in 19th and early 20th century British India. Contrary to widespread popular notions the conflicts inside South Asian Islam during that period cannot be described as clash between Sufi "folk" Islam and legalism. Instead most scholars tended to integrate both aspects of Islam to a certain degree.
The period under discussion saw the emergence of the Barelwîs, nowadays the dominant school of thought in the region. Its adherents were not only defenders of grave worship, saint cult and religious orders, but also staunch Hanafites, who instead of teaching laxism emphasized the importance of minutiae in the fields of ritual and purity. This can be seen in the prolific fatwa production of their leader Ahmad Riza Khân Barelwî (1856-1921).
The Barelwîs met with stiff resistance from the anti-madhhab puritans of the Ahl-i Hadîs, who criticized the practices of the Barelwîs as bid'a. Instead of justifying the privileges of the descendents of Muhammad and hence the Sufi leadership with the Hanafî concept of kafâ'a the Ahl-i Hadîs stressed the equality of the believers. However they did not reject Sufism outright. They rather strove to embarrass the Barelwîs by exposing Ibn 'Arabî and 'Abd al-Qâdir al-Jîlânî as non-Hanafîs. Furthermore they invoked Abû Hanîfa against the thoughtless use of takfîr by the Barelwîs. The recourse to Sufi authorities was not merely a tactical device. Before coming under Wahhâbî influence in the 1920s most Ahl-i Hadith scholars saw themselves as exponents of a sober, ethically oriented Sufism. Even karâmât were ascribed to some rural exponents.
The paper is based on contemporary magazine articles, fatwas, other legal literature and historiography as well as more recent biographies and British intelligence sources.
Ersilia Francesca
Kasb versus Tawwakkul: The Criticism of Sufi Ascetism in the Kitâb al-Kasb by Shaybani
Utilizing historical as well juridical sources, this paper will provide a theoretical analysis of the notion of labour and commerce that emerges in Kitāb al-kasb attributed to the famous Hanafi scholar, Muhammad al-Shaybānî, and transmitted by Muhammad b. Samā'a (d. 847), for conceptualising the view of Sunni jurists on Sufism.
The refusal of all economic activity relating to gain and, in particular, the abandonment of labour, was a major theme of the Sufi movement, which spread during the 9th and 10th centuries. The doctrine of tawakkul, the renunciation of worldly possession, was centred around the negation of all activities related to economic gain. The Sufi habit of neglecting work elicited doctrinal responses from the Sunni jurists. The Kitāb al-kasb is a virulent attack against Sufi practice of abandoning work, which reflects on the semantic level the sharp opposition between the Sunni economic ethics and the practical implication of Sufi fatalism and pre-determination in medieval Islam.
The paper will be structured as follows. Firstly, I will examine the notion of lawful gain in the Kitāb al-kasb as opposing to the doctrine of tawakkul. Secondly I will explore further legal, philosophical and theological sources which condemn the phenomenon of rejecting work, such as the Ishāra ilā mahāsin al-tijāra by Abû al-Fadl al-Dimashqî and Muqaddima (chap. V) by Ibn Khaldûn. Al-Dimashqî's work is a didactic handbook of commerce in which he stretches the ideal merchant and his social role in contributing to the common good of the community He encourages the attitude towards economic activities since the accumulation of goods and capital is a positive enterprise. I will also stress the importance of the social and economic teachings of al-Ghazālî. This great master underlines the role of the earning of livelihood as a means to be rewarded in the next world, in such emphasizing the basic relationship between the material and spiritual needs of all human beings.
The topic of this paper will be approached from within the framework of social and economic history as well as of Islamic law.
Megan Reid
The Strange Case of the Perpetual Fast: Social and Legal Aspects of the Sawm al-dahr in Medieval Islam
The chronicles and biographical dictionaries of the Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods provide numerous examples of pious men and women who fasted every day beginning at dawn. When practiced year-round, this personal ritual was known as the Sawm al-dahr or perpetual fast. The practice was common among Sufis, though one finds references to housewives, slaves and wazirs who undertook it as well. It was ubiquitous among the jurists. Fasting by day was usually accompanied by nighttime vigil and often by a severely restricted diet.
Yet of the many supererogatory fasts sanctioned by Islamic law, the Sawm al-dahr was the only one with a troubled past. Legal scholars in earlier centuries had often disparaged it. Al-Ghazâlî's opinion of the fast, based largely on passages from Abû Tâlib al-Makkî, was ambivalent. The Prophet himself had discouraged the Sawm al-dahr and had recommended instead David's Fast--fasting and eating on alternate days. Strangely, David's Fast is scarcely mentioned in historical texts of the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, even though it was widely preferred to the perpetual fast by scholars such as Ibn al-Arabî. Over the course of the thirteenth century C.E., however, jurists increasingly classified the perpetual fast as masnûn.
In this paper I will show that the medieval uncertainty over the perpetual fast reflects the fact that Islamic law was reluctant to regulate pious impulses expressed through acts that are properly nawâfil. This may be particularly evident in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a period when many important legal commentaries were being written. From a legal point of view, how much fasting is too much fasting? Scholars differed on this issue, from al-Râfi'î to al-Nawawî among the Shâfi'îs, and from Ibn al-Jawzî to Ibn Qudâma al-Maqdisî among the Hanbalîs. This paper will address the nature of the medieval objections to the fast, which focus primarily on damage to the body, the reasons people found it attractive, and the degree to which Sufi ideas may be responsible for an increase in severe fasting. Comparing accounts of perpetual fasters in the historical sources with material found in contemporaneous furû' texts, the paper will trace the evolution of the legal discourse on the Sawm al-dahr over the course of these two centuries when tensions over the fast are most discernable.
Itzchak Weismann
Between Attraction and Denunciation: Ibn 'Abidin's View of Sufism
Ibn 'Abidin (1784-1836) was the foremost authority of Hanafi law in early nineteenth century Syria; his legal opinions continue to be considered among Hanafi jurists to this day. Along with his scholarly pursuits, he was also mystically inclined and belonged to the most important order of his time, the Naqshbandiyya.
My principal thesis is that, living on the eve of the modern era, Ibn 'Abidin represents the summation of the traditional ambivalent view or the fuqaha' toward Sufism. This ambivalence concerns both Sufi thought, particularly that of Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi, and various Sufi practices such as the dhikr, music and dance (sama'), and the veneration of saints.
The proposed paper is based on a close scrutiny of the writings of Ibn 'Abidin himself. These include:
1) His famous Hashiya, the extensive legal compendium later completed by his son.
2) His two-volume collection of epistles, some of them specifically dedicated to Sufi matters, as well as his epistle in defense of Shaykh Khalid, his Naqshbandi preceptor.
3) His collection of fatawa, as well as his revision of the rulings muftis. Additional sources to be examined are the biographical dictionaries of Damascus, Naqshbandi expositions of the time, and the existing secondary literature.
My proposed topic is relevant to the third panel of the conference: Views of fuqaha' on Sufism. Ibn 'Abidin indisputably represents the best of legal scholarship in the premodern era or Islam an it is my intention to present a comprehensive analysis of his attitude toward Sufism, both as a theory and as a practice.
The major discipline I use is the history of relitions, putting Ibn 'Abidin's views in their historical context and analyzing them with reference to Islamic legal and Sufi studies.
Hakan T. Karateke
Controversies on Sufi Garments in the Ottoman Empire
In this paper, I will present disputes that took place in Anatolia from 15th century onwards about some Sufi garments and personal accessories and classify the parties and their objections. Subsequently, I will consider the responses that some Sufi writers made. The paper I am going to read in Murcia will be accompanied by examples.
It seems appropriate to classify the groups that objected to certain Sufi garments and accessories into three categories, according to the nature of their arguments. Some of these rejected these accessories completely, whereas the others objected only to what they perceived as cases of misuse; thus the arguments are different from each other. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, the premises of these groups, as to why and how they were opposing to certain garments were not articulated in separate writings. I could only partially reconstruct them from the responses the Sufis themselves made, and from reading between the lines. If the general world-view of the groups is more or less known, I tried to reconstruct their arguments by putting the scattered information into the framework of their world-view.
1) Melamis. The first group is the so-called Malamatiya (Ott. Melami) who totally rejected putting on the dervish tac, or headgear, and khırqa, or any other accessory that could be identified with being a dervish. They told an etiological legend about one of the first 'radical' Melamis in Anatolia, 'Ömer Sikkini or the Cutler (d. 1475-76) to justify their refusal of these accessories. According to the Melamis, any outward indication of one's faith or state of dervish-hood was sanctimonious and hypocritical. So, this principle required the avoidance of all the noticeable signs one could possibly have on one's body which might indicate that one is a dervish. Being dervish should be truly inward state of a person.
As is well-known, the resolve not to live or dress differently from the common people was one of the main principles of the Malamatiya, who appeared in Khorasan in the 9th century. Scholarship considers the first devoted followers of this faction in Anatolia to have been 'Ömer the Cutler and his disciples. Some of his followers were labeled as heretics, persecuted, and even executed by the state. In fact, the legends about 'Ömer are by no means the first evidence in Anatolia for the refusal to wear dervish headgear and the khırqa. Critics of dervish accessories go back to before the 15th century.
In short, Anatolian Melamis --in theory-- rejected any symbol or sign that could disclose information about their spiritual status. As this group moved closer and closer to radicalism, whether or not to wear dervish garments or to put on dervish accessories became an indication of the divergence between that fraction of Sufis that was closer to 'orthodoxy', and the other party, that was closer to 'heterodoxy'. But, these critics came from a rather marginal group of mystics who had already been persecuted by the state. So the Sufis did not find it difficult to counter them.
2) Orthodox Muslims. The criticism that certainly pursued the Sufis more, and over a longer period of time, was that of the Orthodox Muslims. The latter claimed that many accessories dervishes put on, and especially the headgear, was not a tradition of the Prophet, but a later invention, that is, bid'a, an un-Islamic and disagreeable innovation. Although reproaching anyone with the accusation of bid'a was an easy means to legitimize any criticism, it almost always found an audience that considered it a weighty argument.
A brief look into the situation of some religious orders in the 16th century will provide a better insight into the Sufis' position. Many Sufi groups, especially the ∫alvetis, had to face accusations in this century, mostly with regard to the dawran, that is their dhikr or recitals, which they performed while turning with their arms on each other's shoulders; and also with respect to many aspects of their physical appearance. The ∫alvetis, who were to be accepted as an order within the circle of shar'ia after the 17th century, had to compose responses to these allegations about garments, discuss these issues, and legitimize themselves against the accusing parties, who in many cases had high official positions in the state hierarchy.
Another criticism had to do with gold, silver and other jewellery with which the Sufis decorated some of their garments, especially their special belts. Yahya Agah, a late 19th-century Sufi sheikh, writes in his book on Sufi garments that "the 'ulema of the four schools of jurisprudence have debated this issue and have come to the conclusion that to wear a belt with gold, silver or other jewellery on it was not forbidden. Unfortunately Yahya Agah does not provide his reference or quote any text. Rather he says that Gabriel girded the Prophet with a belt at Kaaba before he rose up to mir'ag. Because God offered him a belt before meeting him face-to-face, wearing a belt should be considered a fard, or binding duty.
3) The 'real' Sufis. This group obviously did not reject the dervish headgear or the khırqa; their main point of criticism was rather that these accessories, which can be considered as the 'diploma' given to the one who had become a 'real' dervish, were distributed without paying attention to the quality and the progress of the disciples. Ideally the sheikh tracked the improvement of his disciple personally and decided when he reached the maturity and level of responsibility of a dervish, and thus deserved to put on the special dervish headgear of the order. This was the theory. In fact, we can understand from widespread complaints as early as the emergence of the first Turkish writings in Anatolia, that is, in the 13th-14th centuries, that it was not the practice. For those who felt that the position of a dervish was not an easy rank to attain and that they were the real devotees of the Sufi path, this was a misuse of the most important insignia of dervish-hood by incompetent sheikhs. This process, the Sufis said, degraded the 'holy' headgear to a simple accessory of decoration. Even before, Shihabaddin Suhrawardi (d. 1234) in the 13th century, who was to have perhaps the greatest influence on the formation of Anatolian Sufi thought, had classified the headgear into two types according to method of acquisition. He refers to the headgear, deserved by its bearers as 'the headgear of discipleship [müridlik tacı]' and the other sort, which was obtained without really reaching the necessary rank as 'the headgear of blessing [teberrük tacı]'.
The generally moderate reaction shown by the 'real' Sufis was rather an inner, spiritual one. They continued to put on their headgear, but they made a spiritual differentiation between the two types of headgear. In addition, they also presented arguments similar to the Melamis, that these accessories could lead the dervish to sanctimoniousness. It was a great mistake to confine dervish-hood to such outward indications. The real dervish should not be busy with his appearance, but with his spiritual development. Consequently the real spiritual meaning of putting on the headgear and wearing the khırqa disappeared.
4) Responses of the Sufis. As was noted above, the parties that objected to headgear and other Sufi accessories did not put down their arguments about their accusations in a detailed way. In particular, it is impossible to find anything in writing about the Melami views, except for the scattered information in their poems. On the contrary, almost all the literature that was produced by the Ottoman Sufis about dervish dress deal in one chapter or on the whole with the problem of the aforementioned accusations, and try to respond them. That means this was always a vivid issue for them.
To wear special headgear as an obvious sign of association with a religious order was an important means to give its followers the sense of being a part of a functioning community. This feeling certainly made them more devoted to their path. This, for sure, is by no means a unique phenomenon. One might compare the dress regulations and accessories of the Christian orders, or the Bruderschaften which even had a looser religious association.
In the framework of these controversies, the responses of sheikhs to accusations as to why they allowed their followers to put on headgear without considering their quality are rather pragmatic. They do not legitimize their practice by some traditions, etc., but accept openly that they do it for practical purposes. Ni'metullah, a 16th century Sufi, writes that it would not be correct to frighten men who want to join the order with very strict rules. They should rather be encouraged. There is a small tract authored by Haci Mahmud, a 16th century ∫alveti Sheikh, which responds to the accusations about the dervish headgear being an innovation (bid'a). He compiles the ahadith (sing. hadith) that --from his point of view-- would prove that the Prophet did indeed put on headgear much like that of the Sufis of the 16th century. In my paper in Murcia I will deal with these in particular. Yahya Agah, the author of one of the latest Ottoman books on Sufi garments, written around the turn of the 20th century, still deals with the subject, and quotes some of the traditions of the Prophet that had by then become classic arguments in this kind of debate.
Gino Schallenbergh
Ibn Qayyim al-Djawziya on Sufi Terminology
The views of the famous Hanbalite faqih Ahmad Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328 AD) on Sufism are puzzling. Modern scholarship gives us contradictory impressions of his stances on Sufism. Whereas some scholars portray him as a staunch adversary of Islamic mysticism and an ideological precursor of the puritan salafi movement; others claim he did not reject Sufism altogether and that he was, in fact, a Sufi himself.
Neither do Ibn Taymiya's writings on the subject bring us any nearer to a satisfactory answer. His remarks on Sufi thought and practices are dispersed over a multitude of fatwa's and epistles.
His student, Ibn Qayyim al-Ğawziya (d. 1352 AD), wrote more systematically on Sufism. The "Madāriğ as-sālikīn fi manāzil iyyāka na΄budu wa iyyāka nasta΄īn" is a comment on al-Hawarī al-Ansārī's "manāzil as-sā'irīn", a more traditional Sufi manual on the terminology of the novice's mystic trajectory.
In my paper I attempt to analyze how Ibn Qayyim interpreted the Sufi concepts brought forward in this work. It is my thesis that Ibn Qayyim al-Ğawziya and Ahmad Ibn Taymiya did not reject Sufism in itself. But a closer look at their use of the terminology added to their critical approach of some Sufi concepts, from a legalist point of view, show that they sought to strip Sufism bare of notions that were essential to the practicing Sufi as: social organization, obedience to a shaykh, cosmological hierarchy and spiritual states (ahwāl). The sources used are: Ibn Taymiya's fatwa's and letters, sufi manuals (by al-Qušayri, Abū Nasr as-Sarrāğ, Abū Tāhir al-Makkī) and above all Ibn Qayyim's works on the subject ("Madāriğ as-sālikīn fi manāzil iyyāka na΄budu wa iyyāka nasta΄īn", "al-Wāfil as-Sayyib wa'l kalim at-Tayyib").
Carl W. Ernst
Sufi Practice and Legal Ethics in 14th-century Multan: The Sufi Edicts (al-Fatawa al-Sufiyya) of al-Majawi.
A rarely consulted Arabic text composed by a disciple of the famous Sufi master of Multan, Shaykh Rukn al-Din ibn Sadr al-Din, furnishes an unexpected perspective on the way Sufi practice was integrated with Hanafi law in premodern South Asia. Entitled The Sufi Edicts on the Path of Splendor (al-Fatawa al-Sufiyya fi tariq al-Baha'iyya), this text is in effect named after the grandfather of the author's master, i.e., Shaykh Baha' al-Din Zakariyya of Multan. Although the text is now forgotten in South Asia, a number of good manuscripts in European libraries, plus an abridgemen
Тема: Материалы по суфизму (на англ. яз.) (Прочитано 3640 раз)
