Sufism in the West

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.

This study provides an ethnographic insight into Trebbuser Mevlevihane (Mevlevi lodge) in Doberlug-Kirchhain, a small town in the former East Germany. Once upon a time, after converting to Islam, Halis Efendi took a spiritual journey from Berlin to Aleppo. Following his master’s order in Aleppo, he later returned to Germany, where he was born and raised, and established the Trebbuser Mevlevihane there. The main question of this study is how Halis Efendi's experiences and the objects linked to these experiences are related to the reconstruction of tekke (sufi lodge) as a sacred space. The interior setting of the tekke, which is the space of Sufi experience in the twenty-first-century Germany, displays the relationship between belongings and the sacred space. Halis Efendi is the representative and reconstructor of the narrative together with his dervishes, most of whom are converts to Islam like himself. The way the narrative manifests itself through constituent objects and rituals is quite striking. Mevlevihane is a ‘heterotopia of indefinitely accumulating time’ opening up to other times and spaces. This article gives an idea about the background of the spatial belonging of the Sufi converts, one of the invisible faces of Islamic studies in Germany, and the role of objects on the nostalgic reconstruction of sacred space.

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.

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 addresses the making of portrait images of Mughal emperors, in which distinctness and particularity in individual features distinguished portraits of emperor Akbar from his ancestors and successors. Scholars have argued that the technique of 'accurate' portraits or mimesis was introduced to Mughal artists with the arrival of renaissance paintings and prints from Europe, brought by Jesuit priests to the Mughal court. However, the question of why Mughal emperors saw a need to arrive at portraiture in the likeness of individuals remains to be addressed. This paper argues that the desire to portray a ruler, in all his individual particularity, can arise only within a literary and intellectual matrix in which the individual is valued and where ideas about selfhood and subjectivity have already permeated the philosophical, political, and literary thought. Tracing the transhistorical and transcultural migration of ideas and motifs from Timurid Central Asia to Mughal India, this paper examines the transference of Sufi thought on image-making practices, particularly portraiture, in the imperial court of the Mughals in early seventeenth century.

ALMANYA'DA KADIN İHTİDASINA BİR BAKIŞ 12 ÖZET Sufi gruplar Almanya'da mühtedilerin İslam inancı ile tanıştıkları, temel dini kaideleri öğrenerek uyguladıkları ve tasavvuf içinde deneyim kazandıkları dini kurumlardır. Aynı zamanda sufi mühtedilerin manevi yuvası olarak, ihtida süreçlerindeki dayanışma ağlarının merkezi konumundadır. Çalışmada Almanya'da yürüttüğüm etnografik araştırma temelinde kadın ihtidasına bir bakış yöneltilmesi hedeflenmektedir. Mühtedi kadınlar ihtida deneyimleri, tasavvuf anlatısında kendilerine yer buluşları ve din değiştirme sonrası gündelik hayat etkileşimleri ile kendilerine özgü bir alanda mücadele vermektedirler.

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.

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 .

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.

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 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.

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.

Il testo raccoglie gli Atti della quarta edizione del Seminario Popolare sul Pensiero dell'Estremo Oriente. I ricercatori coinvolti a partire dalle proprie competenze e dai propri interessi, cercano di chiarire, in modo semplice e "popolare" perché è necessario conoscere e approfondire un tema legato ad un aspetto del pensiero orientale (filosofia, religione, musica, arte, cinema). In questo modo, si cerca di trovare ragioni vitali, e non esclusivamente accademiche o commerciali, per accostarsi all'Oriente. Il tentativo è quello di avvicinare quante più persone possibili a una cultura che rimane, nonostante l'accelerazione dei ritmi globalizzanti, relegata in secondo piano e ristretta o al cerchio magico degli specialisti o esposta alla banalizzazione del pensiero unico. Attraverso questo libro si tenta, dunque, di offrire risposte che possano essere un vero punto d'inizio per chi, spesso carico di pregiudizi, si accosta per la prima volta a un mondo così complesso e affascinante. La sfida è, non di esporre una teoria preconfezionata, ma aprirsi al dialogo interrogante e stabilire insieme ragioni superiori e condivise.

INTRODUZIONE di Pietro Piro.

Pietro Piro - Perché guardare Oriente nell’epoca della Tecnica?

EAST AND WEST

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya - Prehistory of Geometry in the East and the West.

María Teresa Román Lopez - ¿Oriente y Occidente?

VICINO ORIENTE

Alberto Samonà - Esicasmo ed Energie increate nella Cristianità d’Oriente: una porta verso se stessi.

Marco Miano - Musica e letteratura nell’esperienza spirituale della cultura religiosa dell’Islām.

INDIA

Luca Canapini - Meditazioni sulla Bhagavad Gita: l’anima e le tre influenze.

Igor Spanò – Cosmogonia cromatica: dalle Upaniṣad al Sāṃkhya.

Valentino Bellucci - La pratica del Bhakti-Yoga  secondo la tradizione Vaishnava.

Krishna del Toso - Tutto in questa vita: considerazioni sull’etica e la morale dei Cārvāka/Lokāyata.

CINA

Giusi Tamburello– Via con te di Liu Ruoying, lettura in prospettiva di un romanzo cinese contemporaneo.

GIAPPONE

Aldo Tollini - Il pensiero di Dogen Zenji (1200-1235) nella prospettiva dell’uomo moderno.

Daniela Sadun - Da Van Gogh a John Galliano. Influenze giapponesi nell’arte occidentale.

Giuseppe Vitello – Shohei Imamura. Il profondo desiderio degli uomini.

PSICOTERAPIA , FILOSOFIA,  LETTERATURA IN DIALOGO CON IL  PENSIERO ORIENTALE

Antonio Sperandeo- La declinazione del tempo in psicoterapia quale legame tra cura e meditazione.

Giovanni Nancini - Riflessioni sull’Oriente a partire da H. Bergson.

Mariana Urquijo Reguera -Tagore e Bergson: Cammini antagonisti e convergenti tra Oriente e Occidente.

Gianfrancesco Iacono - Gabriele D’Annunzio e Kawabata Yasunari, due esteti a confronto: impressioni di un lettore occidentale.