Sufism in the West

This chapter addresses the issue of religious authority in Berlin Sufi communities in the context of native European converts to Islam and second-generation Muslims who are born to Sufi followers (murids).
It will discuss the following research questions. How is religious authority in Western Sufi groups constructed, and how does it affect interreligious and intrareligious conversions? How does the presence of many native European converts affect local Sufi communities? How do these European converts view Islamic normative tradition and express their religious identity? And how do they influence the defining discourses of local Sufi communities?
I will particularly address intrareligious conversion, regarded here as a
process of religious learning and gradual adoption of religious norms and
practices in Sufi communities. This chapter will also address the institutionalization and collective expressions of religious authority in some Sufi communities in Berlin, namely in the Sufi Center Rabbaniyya and the Tariqah Burhaniyya.

poetry and Sufi dancing or whirling, to expressions of Africanicity and the forging of transnational bonds to remote locations in Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, Varieties of American Sufism immerses the reader in diverse expressions of contemporary Sufi religiosity in the United States. It spans more than a century of political, cultural, and embodied relationships with Islam and Muslims. American encounters with mystical Islam were initiated by a romantic quest for Oriental wisdom, flourished in the embrace of Eastern teachings during the countercultural era of New Age religion, were concret-ized due to late twentieth-century possibilities of travel and immigration to and from Muslim societies, and are now diffused through an explosion of cyber religion in an age of globalization. This collection of in-depth, participant-observation-based studies challenges expectations of uniformity and continuity while provoking stimulating reflection on a range of issues relevant to contemporary Islamic Studies, American religions, multireligious belonging, and new religious movements. "The blend of approaches (historical, ethnographic, documentary, etc.) provides a spectrum of methodologies

Present paper discusses contemporary scholarly approaches to the problems of typology and periodization of the Sufi movements in the West that could be regarded as an essential part of Western Esotericism. It argues that, despite some shortcomings and limitations, existing typologies and the periodization of the development of Sufi communities in the West constitute important analytical tools for the study of these religious movements and institutions.

Muhy al-Dīn Ibn Arabī's theoretical mysticism has been the subject of lively discussion among Iranian Sufis since they first encountered it in the seventh century. 'Abdul Razzāq Kāshānī was the pioneer and forerunner of the debate, followed by reading and interpreting al-Shaykh al-Akbar's key texts, particularly Fusūs al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom) by future generations of Shī'ī scholars. Along with commentaries and glosses on his works, every element of ibn 'Arabī's mysticism, from his theory of the oneness of existence (wahdat al-wujūd) to his doctrines of nubuwwa, wilāya, and khatm al-wilāya, was accepted by his Shī'ī peers, incorporated into their context and adjusted to Shī'a doctrinal platform. This process of internalization and amalgamation was so complete that after seven centuries, it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between Ibn 'Arabī's theory of wahdat al-wujūd, or his doctrines of wilāya and khatm al-wilāya and those of his Shī'ī readers. To have a clearer picture of the philosophical and mystical activities and interests of Shī'ī scholars in Iran under Ilkhanids (1256-1353), I examined the intellectual and historical contexts of seventh century Iran. The findings of my research are indicative of the contribution of mystics such as "Abdul Razzāq Kāshānī to both the school of Ibn 'Arabī in general and of Sadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī in particular on the one hand, and to the correlation between Sufism and Shī'īsm on the other. What I call the Shī'ītization of Akbarīan Mysticism' started with Kāshānī and can be regarded as a new chapter in the history of Iranian Sufism.

This piece for the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature, Vol. II, examines the life and works of Jalal al-din Rumi. It discusses key issues in the study of Mowlana/Rumi, and includes a description of the style and examples from each of his key pieces of writing. Target audience is undergraduates in world literature classes, graduate students in religious studies, and/or use by professors who wish to include Rumi in their syllabi. Resources for further study of Rumi are included in the references.

Joannes Leo Africanus, (c. 1494 – c. 1554?) (or al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi, Arabic:حسن ابن محمد الوزان الفاسي) was an Andalusian Amazigh Moorish diplomat and author who is best known for his book Descrittione dell’Africa (Description of Africa) describing the geography of North Africa.

Despite predictions of widespread secularism, Sufism is establishing itself as an alternative religion in Western societies. This study explores how Islamic Sufism is implemented in contemporary America by focusing on the philosophy and practices of

There is a problem of persistence of anti-Sufi image of Syed Abū al-A‗lā al-Mawdūdī owing its genesis partly to tangential engagement with key doctrinal issues of Sufism and certain ambivalence regarding it in him and, more significantly, due to Mawdūdī' scholarship's atomistic reading of his key statements. For addressing this key problem, this paper critiques atomistic reading and explores certain background methodological issues and reflections on definitions of Sufism besides key points in his life and work. Our analysis of his work shows he entered into a dialogue with Sufism, acknowledged his debt to it, and we better approach him a contributor to the debate on Sufism and not its simplistic denier/outsider. Evidences include, among others, his moral mysticism, his respect for major Sufi Masters and celebration of his Sufi ancestry, his attempt to visit Sufi Masters, his early poetry in Sufi vein, his involvement with (and influence from) the al-Asfār al-Arba'a of Mulla Sadra, and his reworking/appropriation of certain key Sufi themes and Sufi organizational structure in the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Sufis are known by the generic terms dervish and faqir (mendicants). Generally, scientists derive the abstractum "Sufi" from the Arabic words suf, meaning wool, or from safaa, i.e. virtue or purity, or else from safwa (chosen). Other, alternative, more allegorical meanings, are of speculative historical value...

This article examines historical connectedness inside West Asia, that is, Levant, and beyond the region, specifically to North Caucasus and Central-Eastern Europe (Germany and Ukraine) maintained through the translocal Sufi communities, that is, Naqshbandiyya-Haqqaniyya and al-Ahbash. The article demonstrates how these two Sufi networks that originated in the 1970s–1980s in Levant and later spread across the globe through migration routes, missionary activities, and conversions are contextualized in the Western sociocultural milieu in terms of discourses, practices, and institutionalization. While dealing with “redemptive sociality” in the Sufi communities as a form of collective solidarity based on allegiance to a charismatic Sufi Shaykh, this article conceptualizes a distinction between the general or founding charisma of silsila represented by its founders and spiritual leaders, and locally constructed charisma negotiated by local Sufi community and its spiritual leader.

The great obsession of the nineteenth century was, as we know, history [...]. The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of Simultaneity: We are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed. We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein.

Ibn Baṭūṭah (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة‎, ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah), or simply Ibn Battuta (ابن بطوطة) (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369), was a Moroccan explorer of Berber descent. He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (lit. "Journey"). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Ibn Battuta is considered to be among the great travellers of all time.

Present paper focuses on a little-known period of the Inayati Movement development, namely on Inayat Khan’s stay in Russia in October 1913 – May 1914. This short but very intense period was filled with musical performances by Inayat Khan and his brothers and multiple encounters with the emblematic representatives of Russian creative intelligentsia and esoteric circles of that time, as well as with the local Muslim elite. I would argue that reception of Inayat Khan’s mystical and aesthetic concepts in Russian cultic milieu was informed by its interest in the Theosophical doctrines, through prism of which they appropriated exotic ideas of «Sufi Wisdom».

Sufism could be traced to asceticism with the sole aim of becoming a saint or a closer servant of Allaah. It is believed that the purification of the soul is the medium of achieving the status of a saint. Everyone (Muslim) wishes to purify his/her soul which is understandable using acceptable means in the sharee’ah. The fact is that believers intend to purify themselves but they use the wrong means.
Today, Tareeqahs (Sufi orders) are characterized with actions that are innovated and constitute shirk, and corrupted beliefs that are contrary to the sharee’ah; Sufis have innovated awraad (sing. wird) (meaning daily adhkar and du‘aa’s (supplications) that are not prescribed in Islam impose them on Mureedis (Seekers or Disciples) with innovated conditions. These include innovated adhkaar whilst bowing, rising, dancing, singing and clapping, and other actions for which there is no basis in sharee’ah, and seeking the help of the dead and the Abdaal, Aotaad, Agwaas, Asyaad, Aqtaab, and Anjaab (holy man or saint), etc.
It saddened heart for a believer to believe that one cannot attain the status of sainthood except through a Sufi order. Please was Abubakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (may Allaah be pleased with them) Qaadriyah or Tijjaniyyah?!  What of Imaam Shafi’y, Maliki, Hanbali, Abu Haneefah (may Allaah have mercy on them)?! What was their Sufi Order? They belong to NO Sufi order before getting close to Allaah!

La notion de conversion est omniprésente dans les études socio-historiques consacrées au soufisme, courant mystique de l’islam, dans le monde occidental. A tel point que le terme figure en permanence dans nos propres notes de recherche sur la genèse des mouvements soufis en Europe occidentale au début du XXe siècle. Pourtant, sa mention dans les archives des groupes étudiés est rare et parfois volontairement décriée ou dissimulée. Comment expliquer le caractère systématique de son usage ? Loin de n’être qu’une erreur d’approche, l’analyse de phénomènes de conversions peut au contraire affiner la manière de concevoir la notion d’entre-deux qui met en rapport deux univers : l’islam et l’Occident.

Sheikh Fariduddin Attar’s rich and diverse legacy which made exceptional contributions to the progress of Sufi literature has inspired both his contemporaries and the poets of the following centuries. As well, many naziras  were written to his masnavis and poems of his divan. Different poets made use of Attar's characters and stories and made references to his works. Attar's legacy played a big role in the development of Azerbaijani literature. Mainly, Sufi literature benefited much from Attar's works, symbols, and metaphors. One of the greatest representatives of Azerbaijan's Sufi literature, Nasimi, had a deep knowledge of the works of poets who had lived before him and made use of such works.
In Nasimi’s and Attar’s divans, there are ghazals with same radifs such as “Bebin”, “Vessalam”, “Darem”, “Dared" "Eshg", “Mast”. Nasimi sometimes completes the ideas indirectly expressed in Attar's poem as if he understands and explains Attar's secret wishes. Nasimi sometimes discloses the hidden meaning of Attar's ghazal, sometimes interprets it from a different point of view, and sometimes makes additions. And sometimes he creates logical relations between his ghazal and the mystic things described in Attar's ghazals. The moral ties and sentimentalism between the two poets are noteworthy.
Nasimi wrote naziras to 4 ghazals of Attar such as “Degar”, “Oftad”, “Rixte”, “Ber amed”. Nasimi traveled the inner world of Attar, and sometimes disclosed and clarified the hidden meanings of Attar’s poems and enriched them with his own emotions and mystic experiences, as well as keeping the idea, content, and poetics given in the original poems.

This paper discusses the wisdom approach to justice and injustice of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī, one of the greatest Sufi sages of all times. This famous Sufi master, in his background, was an eminent social thinker, intellectual, and especially a law scholar. Thus, it is not surprising that he dealt with these terms, which were critical concepts in past political thought in the West and the East, extensively in his works. Firstly, as a method, the study traces these two concepts in al-Rūmī's works and mainly Masnavi. Then it connects them with their contemporary use. It is understood from al-Rūmī's definitions of them, metaphors and stories accompanied by messages to judges and politicians, that he uses the concept of justice, especially in the sense of today's rule of law and protection of human rights, and injustice in the sense of human rights violations and totalitarian policies. When we reread and rethink Rumi's mentioned concepts in this way, his political wisdom can inspire and guide both today's Islamic world and humanity to overcome their challenges in these crucial areas.

This paper examines the institutional development of transnational Sufi communities in the West. Western Sufism has been developing in a social--cultural milieu that is marked by the "specialization of institutional domains, the pluralism of mass-culture, and the development of a market of world views" 1 . Privatization of religion as a new social form is driven by the development of the private sphere, individual autonomy and liberal values, as a result "the individual is given the freedom to choose from a variety of sacred universes" 2 . Thomas Luckmann describes this privatized social form of religion as "relying primarily on an open market of diffuse, syncretistic packages of meaning, typically connected to low levels of transcendence and produced in a partly or fully commercialized cultic milieu" 3 . This idea is echoed by Danièle Hervieu-Léger who claims that "religious modernity" is characterized by plurality of individual religious combinations, and weakening of the institutionalized belief systems; in other words, it is driven by individualized dispersion and the decay of religious codes that maintained collective religious identities 4 .

by Vladimir Alexander Smith-Mesa "Sufism has gained an Oriental flavour from having been so long protected by Islam, but the natural Sufi may be as common in the West as in the East, and may come dressed as a general, a peasant, a merchant, a lawyer, a schoolmaster, a housewife, anything. To be "in the world, but not of it," free from ambition, greed, intellectual pride, blind obedience to custom, or awe of persons higher in rank-that is the Sufi's ideal."

In Jerusalem] the Pharisees were dominant. The study of the [Jewish] Law, pushed to the most insignificant minutia, and reduced to the questions of casuistry, was the only study. This exclusively theological and canonical culture contributed in no respect to refine the intellect. It was something analogous to the barren doctrine of the Mussulman fakir, to that empty science discussed round about the mosques, and which is a great expenditure of time and useless argumentation, by no means calculated to advance the right discipline of the mind. Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus If one's personal consciousness is unconditionally subjugated to a single religious principle, which is [moreover] extremely meagre and exclusive, if they consider themselves but a passive tool in the hands of a blind and arbitrary deity, it is obvious that it makes no sense to expect them to become a great statesman, great scholar, philosopher, or an ingenious artist. Nothing will come out of them but a deranged fanatic. Such are the best representatives of Mohammedanism. Here I mean Muslim dervishes or saints.

Translation of Ivan Aguéli article “Femminismo”
Ivan Aguéli, (Abdul Hadi). “Femminismo” in Il Convito 1 no. 2 (May 1904), 4.
This is related to my chapter “Feminism and the Divine Feminine: an Exploration of Female Elements in Ivan Aguéli and Subsequent Traditionalist Thought.” In _Anarchist, Artist, Sufi: The Politics, Painting, and Esotericism of Ivan Aguéli_ ed. Mark Sedgwick, Bloomsbury, 2021, 151-164.

Es difícil pensar que la Historia, como disciplina, llegue a ser nunca asimilada a una Ciencia, aunque se intente englobar dentro de las llamadas humanas. ¿Qué profesionales de la Historia pueden surgir cuando la objetividad se sacrifica en pro de la finalidad política, de la política departamental o de una corriente historiográfica excluyente? ¿Qué historiadores podemos tener si se buscan acólitos en lugar de librepensadores?

باطنیت سے مکالمہ ایک ایسی تحریر ہے جس کو تحقیق کی نسبت ذاتی مشاہدہ پر مبنی رائے کہنا مناسب معلوم ہو گا۔ یہ مصنف کے ایک عرصہ تک تصوّف کے تہواروں اور اطوار کے مشاہدہ کا نچوڑ ہے جسے تحریر میں لا کر قارئین تک پہنچانا ایک شخصی فریضہ کی سی صورت محسوس ہوتا ہے۔
اُمید ہے کہ یہ مختصر تحریر آپ کو پسند آئے گی اور آپ کسی حد تک اِس سے متفق ضرور ہوں گے۔ یا رہے کہ یہ تحریر ہندوستانی تصوّف کے پسِ منظر میں لکھی گئی ہے۔

Europe and Asia enriched their practices with a set of body-oriented techniques leading to mystical experience. It should be noted that esoterics had been constantly experimenting with the body earlier, but it was at that period that there came individuals who systematized the accumulated body-oriented knowledge.