This study aimed to analyse the contribution of the Sufi order in stemming religion-based violence as a form of the Sufis’ response to rampant violence, extremism and religious radicalism. This study used a qualitative method in which the data were obtained through interviews, observation and documentation. Then they were analysed by using an interactive model. This study was carried out in three Sufi communities of the Sufi order Qadariyah wan Naqshabandiyah (TQN) in Indonesia, namely in (...) Suryalaya Islamic Boarding School, Futuhiyyah Islamic Boarding School Mranggen and Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding School Jombang. The results of the study show that the three TQN orders have the concepts of dhikr and love, which are internalised in the act of Sufism. The Sufi order has the doctrines of love of God, mutual love, discourse of moderation and tolerance towards religion and other groups as the main instruments in the fight against religious radicalism. The resistance of the Sufis to religious radicalism shows that the Sufi order is cornered from attacks by formalist groups in religion. This fact reopens the historical archive of contradictions between the two major currents of Islamic thought and movement, Salafi versus Sufi. The counter-radicalism narrated by the Sufis of the three TQN communities represents their defensive attitude towards the aggressiveness of the textual and radical Salafis. Contribution: This article contributes to prevent and reduce the rise of religious radicalism in Indonesia. The doctrines of tanbih, mahabbah, tolerance and moderatism developed by the Sufis in the three TQN communities became a source of reference and inspiration for resistance to violence and religious radicalism. (shrink)

Followers of Ibn ʿArabī are considered to constitute an “Akbari” school of thought. The use of the term ‘school’ assumes some sort of cohesion, but the nature of this has been little studied. I argue that adherents found a substitute for the in-person study sessions (sing. majlis) that were common among Sufis, by identifying Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam with Ibn ʿArabī. Thus they were able to establish a direct connection with their preferred master by reading and commenting on this book. By placing (...) their own commentary among other commentar­ies on the Fuṣūṣ, they created a bookish majlis; a dialogue with their master and other students similar to an in-person majlis. Whether conscious or subconscious, this idea became prevalent: no real organization such as a Sufi order came to be, but instead we have dozens and dozens of direct commen­taries. Making Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam an icon for Ibn ʿArabī became, at times, so strong as to turn the book into an idol or effigy. (shrink)

This article describes the rules and scripts that operate in a sub-Saharan African system, the Tijaniyya Islamic Sufi order in Kano, Nigeria. It analyzes the patriarchal bargains between women and men in the order and reveals how the actions of Muslim women with positions of spiritual authority were both independent and shaped by the order's patriarchy. The author argues that larger shifts across several decades in the Islamic world, the international Tijaniyya leadership, and the Nigerian state (...) allowed Kano Tijaniyya women to act differently and increase their spiritual authority and personal autonomy without breaking the rules of their bargain. The author concludes by suggesting that analyses of other Muslim societies may lead to a better understanding of which strategies lead to women's marginalization and which strategies result in successful bargaining. (shrink)

This study is aiming at analyzing extemporaneous methods of instructional speech in the context of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and its potential for modern educational purposes. Focusing on a processual analysis covering the flow of events in the communication and its environment, the work is using approaches applied in performance studies as well as improvised music, as well as cognitive science and psychological perspectives concerned with the mechanisms of the subconsciousness. Field research data collected at the Naqshbandi lodge (...) in Lefke/Cyprus as well as a considerable amount of recorded speech acts serve as material for the conducted qualitative content analysis. (shrink)

This article outlines, through a reading of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī’s Tadbīrāt al-ilāhiyya fī iṣlāḥ al-mamlaka al-insāniyya (Divine governance in the improvement of the kingdom of the self), a Sufi conception of order that encompasses a discourse on political governance and cuts across the realms of the cosmos, the self, and the polity. It explores the isomorphic relation and mutual ‘folding’ linking the governance of the worldly realm with that of the soul. In contrast to Montesquieu’s scheme of (...) the ‘countervailing passions’, governance at both levels is built on the Sufi notion of ‘struggle against the self (jihād al-nafs)’ and on a theory of the human being as a microcosm. Within Ibn ʿArabī’s system, the political order is not an autonomous domain with its own rationality as developed by early modern European theorists of reason of state. A single rationality guides the governance of the microcosm and the macrocosm. (shrink)

The paper outlines the interpretation of Sufism formulated by Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri, a contemporary Moroccan philosopher and critic of the Arabic tradition. According to him, Sufism, unknown to Arabic culture until the advent of Islam, originated through a historical conspiracy whereby the Persians attempted to weaken their new Arabic colonisers. Sufism is viewed by him as an evasion and a detachment from life and its problems. It leads its adepts, through the mystical journey, to renounce material life. It plunges its (...) adepts into a way of life where the annihilation of the self in God represents the central value. This annihilation of the self in deity is possible only through the blind obedience of the Seeker to his Master. Therefore, Sufism can only thrive by using tyrannical means. It demands that its adepts, through following a predestined path chosen by God, lose their own volition and freedom in favour of their Master. Breaking the law at the end of the Seeker’s mystical journey reflects, paradoxically, a spiritual accomplishment. Additionally, Sufi orders maintain a congenial relationship with political tyranny. Consequently, I argue, Sufism leads to a loss of human responsibility for oneself and other beings. I also claim that in a post-tyrannical Arabic society, where responsibility for oneself and one’s community should be the centralvalue, Sufi ethics are unable to play a role in the promotion of modern values. For this reason, it should be prevented from shaping the political and social choices of a modern society and constrained to the mystical realm. (shrink)

How should we theorize Sufi ethics when the practice of zikr (remembrance) that leads to spiritual enlightenment (tazkiyya) might also bring one to the brink of majzubiyat (madness)? What forms of regulation or restraint are imagined or enacted by practitioners to prevent spiritual boundlessness from perverting into its underside of paralysis (faalij)? Drawing on three ethnographic scenes among practitioners of the Naqshbandia Awaisia Sufi order in Pakistan, I examine zikr as a practice that cultivates states of divine (...) awareness and consciousness while simultaneously exposing practitioners to the risk of ethical and experiential breakdown. I show how the disciplinary techniques meant to refine the nafs (base soul) are also feared to interrupt the embodied, relational, and ethical capacities through which practitioners sustain presence in social and moral life. This tension unsettles an ethical horizon of “perfectibility”, understood as cumulative refinement through discipline, and instead foregrounds a creative and at times transgressive labor of modulating devotional intensity so that movement toward God does not pervert into estrangement from both God and the world. I argue that through this labor ethical life comes to be organized by the improvisational and oscillatory temporality of protective interruptions that attend to the vicissitudes of the nafs, rather than by the temporality of habituation and incremental refinement. (shrink)

From the fourth/tenth century onwards, numerous Sufi authors found it necessary to identify groups they regarded as inauthentic, as false claimants to the Sufism they claimed to espouse. Particularly energetic in this regard was Ghazālī; in a treatise denouncing them together with other antinomians, he called for their eradication. Less well known is Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142); he wrote a brief treatise detailing twelve groups of claimants to Sufism, only one of which was on the right path. With (...) his denunciation of a Khārijī splinter group and the Carmatians among the eleven clusters of reprobates, al-Nasafī demonstrates how this cataloguing genre may intersect with heresiography. Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn al-Rāzī, a Shiʿi author of the sixth/twelfth century, also lists the repugnant practices of some Sufis, but decisive for him is that Sufism as such is intrinsically reprehensible as a Sunni phenomenon; here, the genre overlaps with Sunni–Shiʿi polemics. Harsher in his denunciation of Sufism was a later Shiʿi scholar, al-Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī (d.1104/1692); the vehemence of his prolix diatribe is doubtless attributable to the need to uproot Sufism and firmly establish Shiʿism as the creed of the Safavid realm. He incorporates al-Nasafī’s listing of deviant groups in his own work, only to dismiss it as inadequate. More nuanced in his tone than al-ʿĀmilı was the celebrated gnostic, Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640): while denouncing certain tendencies—much like his Sunni predecessors—he certified others as compatible with Shiʿism, even indeed as originating within it. A century after Ṣadrā, İbrahim Hakkı (d.1186/1772), an Ottoman scholar and Sufi, incorporated al-Nasafī’s treatise, without acknowledgement, in his Maʿrifetnâme for reasons that are not entirely clear. As Sufism became firmly established in Muslim society and the Sufi orders engaged in a measure of self-discipline, the cataloguing genre faded, and once Wahhabism appeared on the scene, it was a question of condemning Sufism as such, not certain tendencies or groups. (shrink)

Among the extant works of the well-known Sufi biographer Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) is Masalat darajāt al-ṣādiqīn fi l-taṣawwuf (the Stations of the Righteous). This treatise begins with a question about the three paths of Islamic mysticism: the Malāmatiyya, the Sufis and the Path of Love. Al-Sulamī's response presents the three as facets of an integral whole, each reflecting stages on a quest for knowledge. The treatise is set out as an itinerary through increasingly subtle stations of (...) experiential knowledge of divine reality; as such it represents a prototype of this genre of Islamic literature. Central to the itinerary are the origins and epistemological foundations of Islamic sainthood (walāya).In this paper I rely upon a new critical edition of the text updated from an hitherto unused manuscript that supplies a serious lacuna in the earlier edition. I focus on al-Sulamī's exposition of the stations of maʿrifa, his multiple references to walāya, the concealed and revealed saints, and the Pole (Quṭb), in order to establish a framework for a Sufi epistemology founded upon a hierarchy of subtle degrees of maʿrifa. I present translations from the text that emphasize the central role in al-Sulamī's teachings of the principles of the Malāmatiyya of Nishapur. Masalat darajāt al-ṣadiqīn affords us the opportunity to encounter al-Sulamī in a rarely perceived theoretical context—as the mystic, mentor, teacher and transmitter of the spiritual tradition of his home city of Nishapur, the Malāmatiyya. Moreover, al-Sulamī's detailed exposition of the stations of maʿrifa elevates that tradition from one seen as a spiritual tendency based upon a pessimistic view of human nature to a school of mystical theology. (shrink)

The Shadhiliyya Sufi Order gave the Muslim world, and those that are interested in Sufism, the inside workings of the great masters Abu’l Hassan al-Shadhili and Abu l-’Abbas al-Mursi. Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah, also a master of the Shadhiliyya Order, is the author of many volumes. His works occupy a unique position within the history of Sufism and have been read consistently since their composition. Yet, despite their enduring popularity, to date there has been no systematic and through (...) analysis of his worldview. This book is the first study to highlight the constant interconnections between Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s works. It uses a scaffold approach to develop an understanding of Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s Sufism and his commitment to Islam, building from his metaphysics of Oneness (tawhid) and covering domains such as ontology, epistemology, eschatology, and ethics. While the bulk of this work covers the worldview of Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah, it begins more generally with some comments on the need for reappraising approaches to Sufism and its relation to Islam. Accessible for anyone interested in Sufism, this work will appeal to scholars of religion in general and Islam in particular. (shrink)

The Naqshbandiyya is one of the most widespread and influential Sufi orders in the Muslim world. Having its origins in the Great Masters tradition of Central Asia almost a millennium ago, it played a significant role in the pre-modern history of the Indian subcontinent and the Ottoman Empire, and is still spreading today. This volume seeks to present a broad picture of the evolution of the ideas and organizational forms of the Naqshbandi order throughout its history. It combines (...) a synthesis of the vast literature on the order with original research, and shall be an important contribution for those interested in Sufism, Islamic history and Muslim-Christian relations. (shrink)

The article examines the nature of tawba, usually translated as ‘repentance’, in the thought of Abū Țālib al-Makkī (d. 996 CE). Makkī’s most comprehensive discussion of this topic appears in the thirty-second chapter of his Qūtal-qulūb (Nourishment of Hearts), one of the most widely reads works of the early Sufi tradition. It is the longest single sustained treatment of tawba, written from the perspective of Sufi spiritual psychology, currently available to us from the first four centuries of Islam. (...) By drawing on Revelation as well as the earlier Sufi tradition he is heir to, Makkī delineates certain conditions which have to be met in order for tawba to be sound. The article explores Makkī’s treatment of these conditions as well as their relation to notions of tawba in the broader Islamic tradition. (shrink)

The Rise of the Niʿmatullāhī Order: Shiʿite Sufi Masters against Islamic Fundamentalism in 19th-Century Persia. By Reza Tabandeh. Iranian Series. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2021. Pp. xiii + 303. $72, €66 (paper).

This article analyzes the chapter on ethics from Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede’s (d.1702) commentary Sharḥ al-Akhlāq al-‘Aḍuḍ, a practical philosophy of ethics, household management, and politics. Müneccimbaşı lived from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 18 th century in the Ottoman period. Firstly, considering the period in which Müneccimbaşı’s commentary was written, it can be seen as a renewal and adjustment of the old tradition in terms of moral/practical philosophy. However, in the context of philosophical ethics, the commentary aimed to (...) renew and update the ancient philosophy not as a separation of methods but within the framework of expanding the area of integrated methods. The second aim expressed the problematic of combining peripatetic philosophy’s virtue theory with the method of purification and abstraction from physical, bodily pleasure and other things through mujāhada [spiritual struggle] and riyāḍa [asceticism] in Sufi thought in order to see and know the essence of the absolute lights, which is the purpose of Ishrāqī wisdom. Accordingly, virtue theory involves having the temperaments and behaviors arising from the powers of desire and anger from the human soul become mediocre and moderate in terms of quantity and quality through wisdom. (shrink)

Crimea is a fructiferous Ottoman land that nurtured many important individuals. There are some Sufis among these people. Sufis have written books and treatises in many fields. Crimean Sufis mostly belong to Halvetîyye, Nakşbendiyye and Kadiriyye orders. Halvetî, which was widespread in the Ottoman Empire, is also the most common sect in Crimea. Halvetism has brought important personalities up in Crimea. Muhammed Kırîmî is an important person in terms of Crimean Khalifa. In his work titled, Mirâ'tü’s-sâlikîn, he has written a (...) treatise under the title "Annotation to the Hymn of Hakkı Efendi". There are many people known by the name of Hakkı. Hakkı Efendi's identity is the most important problem of our work. In addition, the author, lyrics and composer of the hymn that is the subject of our article had been unknown and anonymous until today. It is one of the lost poems of Bursevi, known to have more than ten thousand couplets. According to the data by Bursevi experts, up to three thousand couplets of Bursevi's poems are identified. We hope to make a huge contribution to the field by determining the hymn's belonging to him and the composer. In our study, we will endeavor to put forward his Sufi views within the framework of the principles of the Halvetî order in the context of this commentary on the hymn "Benem", which is known an anonymous work but belongs to Bursevî and which we have determined as the composer of Muallim İsmail Hakkı Bey. (shrink)

For this study, I especially have centred myself on the work of the doctor in psychiatry and professor of the University of Tehran, Javad Nurbakhsh. He was a Master of the Order of Sufi Shah Nematollah Wali and died a year ago. This work, which appeared in 1999, is titled ‘Sufi Women’ and in it, the author compiled the brief biographies, which were sometimes only slight glimpses of existence, of 136 women. I will focus on three principle (...) questions: the women themselves, their relationships with their surroundings, and their relationships with God. I conclude that female Sufi Mystics’ bodies were soaked in tears and their souls in flames. They shed tears because of their distance from God and for being stuck in bodies and because of their desire for transcendence, to drown in Oneness. Since their bodies impeded this desire, they mortified them impiously with fasts and vigils and became unsightly to all who saw them. They did not take care of others, and they did not take care of themselves, they renounced all care. (shrink)

A modern classic of Universal Sufism that explores the mystical dimensions of music-and the musical dimensions of mysticism. Music, according to Sufi teaching, is really a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe-and that is the secret of its amazing power to move us. The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first teacher to bring the Sufi mystical tradition to the West, was an accomplished musician himself. His lucid exposition of (...) music's divine nature has become a modern classic, beloved not only by those interested in Sufism but by musicians of all kinds. This newly reissued edition includes a foreword by Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Hazrat Inayat Khan's grandson and the current leader of the Inayati Order, the widespread Western Sufi organization that Hazrat Inayat Khan founded. (shrink)

Since the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013, Sufism has maintained an explicit presence in politics, the arts, and popular culture. While some scholars argue that Sufis have traditionally remained aloof from politics, significant Sufi figures have taken on important political, parliamentary, and party roles. Sufi scholars and heads of Sufi orders were invited to major political conferences, and Sufi shaykhs even preached to soldiers at military events. Likewise, artists and intellectuals were encouraged (...) to produce works that celebrated the aesthetics and morals of Sufism. The Egyptian drama series Khawaja Abd-al Qādir (2012) and Jazīrat Ghamām: Wāqiʿ Ṣanaʿah al-Khayāl (Cloud Island: A Reality Made by Imagination) (2022) coincided with the rise of the musical adaptations of the poems of al-Ḥallāj and Ibn al-ʿArabī, and echoed the colors representing the conflict between light and darkness, and the symbolism in the works of artists such as Emad Rizq (b. 1968), Amr Fekry (b. 1978), and several other artists. Accordingly, this chapter examines how, in post-Arab Spring Egypt, the state, out of concern for the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islam groups, has supported a paradigm for the promotion of Sufi aesthetics in art and popular culture, and how this support has cast its shadow over the visual and artistic qualities of these works. (shrink)

The Sufi tradition remains one of the most mysterious and least understood systems of self-realization. This book demystifies the practice of the sohbet—an ad hoc discourse—as the central instructional tool in the globally influential Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order. -/- It approaches the practice using categories of improvised music to establish a framework for analyzation. Its ritualized formal structure, illustrated via selected talks of Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, discloses the underlying—and assumingly primary—function to provoke prolonged states of raised awareness in listeners (...) and condition their sympathetic nervous system. -/- In an extensive discussion based on several years of field research in Cyprus, the book relates this intention to similar practices in other traditional knowledge systems by proposing psychophysical interpretations based on psychology, biochemistry, neuroscience, or quantum physics. It will appeal to scholars and students of Sufism, Islamic studies, and comparative religion, as well as those interested in performance studies and improvised music, interpersonal communication, and education. (shrink)

A pioneering study that illuminates the connection of music, poetry, mystical praxis and social history underlying the ceremony of the Mevlevi Dervishes. Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, whose life and mystical poetry provided the inspiration for the Mevlevi Sufi order, is one of the world's best-known poets, yet the centuries-long musical tradition cultivated by the Mevleviye remains much less known. In this deeply researched book, renowned scholar Walter Feldman traces the historical development of Mevlevi music and brings to light the (...) remarkable musical and mystical aesthetics of the Mevlevi ayin - the instrumental and vocal accompaniment to the sublime ceremony of the 'Whirling' Dervishes. (shrink)

Nasir Raza Khan examined the function of Sufis in spreading Islam throughout medieval South Asia in his book Sufism in India, and Central Asia. He believed that the spread of Islam in South Asia would happen gradually. In South Asia since the Middle Ages, several Sufi organizations have propagated Islam. Many Islamic academics were particularly interested in the Chishtī order among these Sufi organizations. Another highly regarded book is Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South (...) Asia and Beyond, written by Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence. Ernst and Lawrence expounded on the inception, progression, customs, and tenets of the Chishtī order, while Khan described the diverse practices of the order and the part played by Chishtī saints in the diverse socio-political aspects of the Delhi Sultanate. Ernst and Lawrence, in contrast to Milad Milani (2021), carried on chronicling the history of the Chishtī order until the year 21. With the use of primary and secondary sources, this review essay aims to compare and evaluate these two books. (shrink)

This study is aiming at analyzing extemporaneous methods of instructional speech in the context of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and its parallels with improvised music as well as potential for modern educational purposes. Focusing on a processual analysis covering the flow of events in the communication and its environment, the work is using approaches applied in performance studies as well as improvised music, as well as cognitive science and psychological perspectives concerned with the mechanisms of the subconsciousness. Field (...) research data collected at the Naqshbandi lodge in Lefke/Cyprus as well as a considerable amount of recorded speech acts serve as material for the conducted qualitative content analysis. (shrink)

The majority of the Sufi orders, which have their own special ezkar, evrâd, etiquette, and erkan and have survived until today, particularly VI/XII. They were formed over centuries and spread to many parts of the world by dividing into different branches in the historical process. Sufi personalities who belonged to these sufi orders established structures such as dervish lodges and dervish lodges in the regions they reached with great efforts, and they were instrumental in the conversion of (...) many people to Islam. Attributed to its founder, Abdulqadir Geylani, Qadiriyya is one of the most famous of these sufi orders. From the Middle East, especially from Iraq, to Afkaya; It spread over a wide area from Anatolia to the Balkans and China in the east and carried out convent activities with more than fifty branches. The Reshidiyya Sufi Order, which is attributed to Ahmed Reshidi and whose center is in Mosul, is a sect that operates in a wide region from Turkey to India and still has followers in these regions. It can be said that the Reshidiyya Sufi Order, which has its principles and manners, is one of the largest branches of the Qadiriyya. This Sufi order also has relations with the Rifaiyya, Bedewiyya, Desûqiyya, and Suhrawardiyya Sufi Order. Because Ahmed ar-Reshidi, the founder of the sect, is a Sufi figure who received the caliphate from all these sects. Although it is a Sufi order that has spread to this extent in Islamic lands and continues its dervish activities until today, the name of the Reshidiyya sect is not encountered even in the encyclopedic studies conducted in our country on the branches of the Qadiriyya Sufi Order. However, a scholar such as Mollâ Khalil Siirdî, who was mentioned as the "ser ring" in the ijazah ceremonies held in classical madrasahs that continued to be active in Anatolia until today, is one of the caliphs of this order. This humble study has been prepared by making use of the sources obtained through Ahmed ar-Reshidi's last-generation grandchildren after reaching them. With this study, we have been trained in recent times like Ahmed ar-Reshidi, Hz. We will try to introduce a great Sufi figure, who came from the progeny of the Prophet, who devoted his whole life to the task of guidance and who was referred to as the "pole", as well as the principles and manners of the Sufi order he was the founder of. (shrink)

Traditionalism is a shadowy philosophy that has influenced much of the twentieth century and beyond: from the far-right to the environmental movement, from Sufi shaykhs and their followers to Trump advisor and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon. It is a worldview that rejects modernity and instead turns to mystical truth and tradition as its guide. Mark Sedgwick, one of the world's leading scholars of Traditionalism, presents a major new analysis, pulling back the curtain on the foundations of Traditionalist philosophy, its (...) major proponents-René Guénon, Julius Evola, and Frithjof Schuon-and their thought. One of Traditionalism's fundamental pillars is perennialism, the idea that beneath all the different forms of religion there lies one single timeless and esoteric tradition. A second is the view that everything is getting worse, rather than better, over time, leading to the Traditionalist critique of modernity. Sedgwick details Traditionalism's unique ideas about self-realization, religion, politics, and many other spheres. Traditionalism provides an expansive guide to this important school of thought-one that is little-known and even less understood-and shows how pervasive these ideas have become. (shrink)

In the history of Islamic mysticism, few thinkers provided as systematic a description of the phenomena of inner light as Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (1145–1221), the founder of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order. This paper argues that Kubrā's work, particularly his treatise Fawā’iḥ al-jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-jalāl, constitutes a sophisticated, pre-modern phenomenology of consciousness, one that is highly relevant to contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience. By meticulously mapping a taxonomy of luminous experiences, from fleeting sparks to the (...) paradox of black light, Kubrā offered not merely a set of mystical visions but a diagnostic framework for spiritual development. This analysis will trace Kubrā’s luminous progression, contextualize his thought within the socio-political upheaval of 12th-century Khwarezm, and draw parallels between his medieval taxonomy of phosphenes and modern scientific and psychological classifications. Building upon recent scholarship, this paper argues that Kubrā’s treatise is best understood as a practical ‘guidebook for the voyagers,’ bridging the gap between ancient mystical practice and modern empirical inquiry. (shrink)

This article seeks to examine the rise of _tarekat_ (Sufi order) in the context of the digital public sphere with a special attention to the Eshaykh website. As this article argues, the Eshaykh website represents an adaptation of conventional groups of _tarekat_ combined with information technology. However, this digital adoption raises a new problem, especially related to the differences in terms of access between digital _tarekat_ and conventional _tarekat_. This article—using a virtual ethnographic approach—focuses on the Eshaykh website (...) by the _Tarekat_ Naqsyabandiyah Haqqaniyah (TNH) as the primary source. The website provides all information about the _tarekat_, both the doctrine and the _wirid_, which are presented online. There is also an element of the simplification of orthodoxy which has so far been strictly guarded by conventional _tarekat_, but the rise of the Eshaykh website in the digital public sphere is offering _tarekat_ practices that are easily accessible and reach all levels of society. (shrink)

This article is discussing the possibilities of new media technologies in the context of transmitting ancient spiritual traditions in various cultural and religious backgrounds. The use of internet as a means to preserve the orally transmitted knowledge of the Aboriginals and Maoris, and in doing so transferring their cultural heritage to their younger generations and interest groups. Following is an extended case study of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and its specific compatibility of a traditional orientation towards spiritual work (...) among people rather than monastic seclusion and its recent application of digital media resources. Therefore, new technology is being discussed as a logical extension, not without attention being drawn to possible limitations, however. (shrink)

Eşrefoğlu Rumi and Ümmî Kemal are prominent practitioners of Ottoman Sufi poetry—literature that emerged from the environment of Anatolian Sufi orders. The parallel histories of the transmission of their two divans help clarify details of the poets’ lives. Conversely, biographical facts may help explain details and oddities of those transmission histories, which themselves may also illuminate features of the late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Ottoman religious and political landscape of increasing theological rigidity in the face of Safavid pressure and (...) probable persecution of those deemed beyond the pale, features that are still poorly understood. In light of a recent essay by Walter Andrews on prevailing editing practices in Ottoman literature, I offer a critique of the recent handling of both divans. After noting previously unrecognized copies of each, I also make suggestions for further study of their poems. (shrink)

This article examines the reformation of the Sufi tradition in the writings of the Urdu journalist and Qurʾān translator and exegete ʿAbd al-Mājid Daryābādī (1892–1977), especially as articulated in relation to his spiritual connection with the colonial-era Sufi master and Ḥanafī jurist Mawlānā Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī (1863–1943). Daryābādī’s balanced, pragmatic approach to the meaning and practice of the master–disciple relationship reflected, on the one hand, the South Asian reception of Enlightenment rationalism and epistemic democratization, and, on the other, (...) certain discursive and practical developments internal to Thānavī’s sub-branch of the Chishtī Sufi order. This article contributes to scholarship on religious authority in modern South Asian Islam by underscoring the interplay between affect and reason, arguing that it is not mere feeling that structures Sufi communities but something like rationalized affect, a strategic use of feelings and emotions to construct, transmit, and contest religious authority. Thānavī and Daryābādī re-articulate the master–disciple relationship to affirm both personal freedom and communitarian belonging; in so doing they posit traditionalist Islam as an effective alternative to colonial (and now postcolonial) governmentality. (shrink)

In this chapter, I introduce my understanding of Ihsan. I revisit the sacred sources of Ihsan, unpack them and define Ihsan beyond the classical understanding as a spiritual state. I envision Ihsan as a complex philosophy that includes an epistemology, the spiritual act of witnessing God, as political forgiveness, as anti-identity politics (Fanaa), as pursuit of excellence, as self-criticism and as steadfastness. Ihsan is presented as a process of perfection and as mystical composure in times of adversity. My rendition of (...) Ihsan in this chapter allows me to reassemble the unpacked components as a political philosophy of good governance. Every aspect of Ihsan unveiled is based on the Quran and tradition. I am not a member of any Sufi order nor have I pledged any allegiance to any Sufi saint or scholar and so I am under no obligation to restrain my critical and rational faculties and I am not beholden to anyone else’s vision. There are no unsubstantiated claims to knowledge, or gnosis in this book. Even when I write about mystical knowledge, I remain within the realm of reason and do not claim to advance any insight that is beyond the scope of rational arguments or empirical, historical or discursive analysis. (shrink)

This paper explores the reasons why Islamism in Turkey has not resorted to violence, focusing on the interplay of societal, political, and geopolitical factors. The historical context traces Islamism back to the Ottoman Empire, highlighting the impact of the Tanzimat Reforms and the evolution of the millet system. The unique Turkish context, shaped by non-Arabic speaking Turks and the influential role of Sufi orders, particularly the Naqshbandis, is examined. These orders maintained significant political and economic influence, offering a buffer (...) against the centralizing efforts of the state and preserving traditional social structures. The National Vision Movement, led by Necmettin Erbakan, illustrates the integration of Islamist politics within the multi-party system without resorting to illegal means. The Turkish state’s sanctified position in social memory and the psychological perception of the state as a protector have deterred violent activism. Geopolitically, the Cold War era provided a conducive environment for Islamism to thrive as an anti-Communist force, aligning with state interests. The Iranian Islamic Revolution’s influence is also considered, contrasting the Turkish preference for systemic transformation over violent revolution. Overall, the historical depth, social resources, and strategic choices of Islamism in Turkey have fostered its integration within the political system, steering clear of violence. (shrink)

This article studies Qāsim Beg Ḥayātī Tabrīzī’s unpublished account of Ṣafavid history, which has long been considered lost. Ḥayātī’s account—dedicated, in 961/1554, to Shah Ṭahmāsp’s sister, Princess Mihīn Begum —spans the period between the formative years of the Ṣafaviyya Sufi order under Ṣafī al-Dīn Isḥāq Ardabīlī and the early years of the reign of Shah Ismāʿīl. Emphasis is given to the way in which it fills in the gaps of our knowledge insofar as the pre-dynastic and early dynastic (...) phases of Ṣafavid history as well as the administrative history of the Ṣafavid shrine in Ardabīl are concerned. (shrink)

This book is a translation of a work by an early Sufi Shaikh and founder of one of the largest Sufi orders in the Muslim world. On reading it it is no surprise the popularity of the order. One of the most remarkable things about the Muslim religion. There are quite simple rules to follow (Pray, fast, belief in God etc) simple beliefs of Islam. The book, simply put is written for the person who feels an emptiness (...) in life and is seeking the answers to fill that void in life. Shaikh Gilani points the way not only with the simple forms of Islam but also just what the benefits are with following them. How holding to these principles and putting them into practice in a persons daily life (The prayers, remembrance of God etc) A person can be raised spiritually to a point of closeness to God and distance from those who would harm him/her spiritually. (shrink)

Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 1240) was one of the towering figures of Islamic intellectual history, and among Sufis still bears the title of al-shaykh al-akbar, or "the greatest master." Ibn al-'Arabī and Islamic Intellectual Culturetraces the history of the concept of "oneness of being" (wahdat al-wujūd) in the school of Ibn al- 'Arabī, in order to explore the relationship between mysticism and philosophy in Islamic intellectual life. It examines how the conceptual language used by early mystical writers became increasingly engaged (...) over time with the broader Islamic intellectual culture, eventually becoming integrated with the latter's common philosophical and theological vocabulary. It focuses on four successive generations of thinkers (Sadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, Mu'ayyad al-Dīn al-Jandī, 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī, and Dāwūd al-Qaysarī), and examines how these "philosopher-mystics" refined and developed the ideas of Ibn al-'Arabī. Through a close analysis of texts, the book clearly traces the crystallization of an influential school of thought in Islamic history and its place in the broader intellectual culture. Offering an exploration of the development of Sufi expression and thought, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic thought, philosophy, and mysticism. (shrink)

This article discusses the politics of local Sufi group in Indonesia, the Shiddiqiyyah. It addresses the locality of Shiddiqiyah tarekat and its politics during New Order Indonesia and following the fall of the regime. It is argued that the Shiddiqiyah, a local tarekat with its roots in East Java and later successfully welcomes national reputation, is an example of a tarekat that utilizes nationalistic slogan to expand its influence as well as to protect the tarekat from heretic accusation. (...) Through a series of intensive fieldwork, the article argues that the Shiddiqiyyah has successfully maintained ideological patronage to the New Order Indonesia through nationalistic slogan which has been a core value of the group. The doctrine of nationalism has been translated in Sufi and Javanese idioms and become fundamental doctrine of the Shiddiqiyyah. (shrink)

The spread of Islam into West Africa started with the Ibāḍīs, a branch of the Khārijīs, who had rejected both the proto-Sunnī caliphate and the proto-Shīʿī imamate (I. Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (London: James Currey Ltd., 1992), pp. 32–39 and 120–127). Those that belonged to a group that came to be called “Khārijī” (the one that goes out from the religion) had assassinated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in 40 AH/661 CE. They had their own (...) theory of leadership, often interpreted by scholars as “egalitarian,” but at the same time, they had a more stringent definition of apostasy, leading them to execute a number of well-known early Muslims. Then, under the ʿAbbāsids, who came to power in 750 CE after overthrowing the Umayyads, the Mālikī school, named after its eponymous founder, Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH/795 CE), spread. Mālikism was not immediately associated with the Sufi tradition (See footnote 25). North and East Africa were originally areas where the ʿAlawīs (descendants of Imam ʿAlī and their supporters), who had escaped reprisals by the ʿAbbāsids for attempted uprisings, had settled. The Amazigh tribes that tried to resist Umayyad rule often allied themselves with the ʿAlawīs (Hrbeck (ed.) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, p. 36.).Sufism as a recognized practice did not start to take shape until approximately the ninth century CE, or 250 AH. It developed in Basrah, Baghdad, and Khorasan and spread both East and West from those regions. As the Sufi orders became established around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, their adherents took their teachings across Africa, along with either the Mālikī or Shafiʿī legal schools, eventually adding a layer of belief on top of what had been the Shīʿī tendencies of the ʿAlawīs that had settled previously. These Shīʿī tendencies remained only in fragmented form and were integrated into the expanding Sufi movements.This chapter discusses certain Sufi doctrines in Africa that bear similarities to those of Shīʿī doctrines. Such doctrines include that the saint was created as such prior to coming into existence, that the saint was initiated by the Prophet, and that the doctrines of the order must be kept secret. (shrink)

This chapter examines the aesthetics of Islamic mysticism through the work of Ziya Azazi (b. 1969), a contemporary Viennese dancer of Turkish origin. Born into the Syrian Arab Alawite minority of Antakya, Azazi later adopted the whirling tradition of the Mevlevi Sufi Order in Konya, inspired by their ceremony (samāʿ)—a mystical dance aimed at achieving spiritual enlightenment and union with God. In his work as a contemporary dancer, Azazi’s performances emulate the whirling dervish rituals of central Anatolia, incorporating (...) instrumental compositions of contemporary Sufi music to evoke the aesthetic and sensory dimensions of Islamic mysticism. His trance-like whirling stimulates synesthetic experiences, drawing on the spiritual path of the Mevlevi dervishes while departing from its religious framework. Although Azazi employs terminology associated with Sufi mysticism, his productions exclude the recitation of remembrance of God (dhikr) and do not align with the devotional purpose of achieving a mystical union with God. Identifying as an atheist and unaffiliated with any religious organization, Azazi nonetheless closely replicates the aesthetics of Islamic mysticism, referencing the traditions of both Mevlevi Sufis and Arab Alawites. Hence, this case invites a nuanced examination of how techniques and terminologies evoke the essence of spirituality, even outside of religion. (shrink)

The integration of modern Western philosophy with the study of Sufism tradition wasn’t quite familiar. So far, philosophical Sufism is often studied from the perspective of neo-platonic philosophy which is famous for its emanation doctrine. Through this research, the author proposes a new integration by using the philosophical concept of Heidegger’s hermeneutics and Roland Barthes’s semiotics as perspectives in studying the phenomena of the philosophical Sufism tradition. The hermeneutic theory of Martin Heidegger used in this research is existential primordial verstehen (...) and the theory of facticity. Whereas Semiotic theory used in this research is Roland Barthes’s theory of order of signification which is used to analyze Sufi’s connotative interpretation of the Qur’an verse. The method used in this research is analysis descriptive by a combined table of hermeneutic and semiotic theories through library research on several primary sources concerning Sufi’s interpretation such as Miftahus Sufi, al-Luma‘, Shaṭaḥāt al-Sūfiyyah, etc. As a result, in the perspective of Sufism Primordial Verstehen, the doctrines of Sufism such as ittiḥād, ḥulūl, and waḥdah al-wujūd could be understood as existential primordial understanding in contemplating Sufi’s existence in the world and his arrival at the understanding of Allah as the only existing Being. (shrink)

Sheikh Halid Sufi, as a Sufi poet, addresses human being as the main subject of his sufist dicourse. He is an important figure of our recent history as he primarily adopted the goal of human perfection and revealed a doctrine of humanity in the school of knowledge. In advance of our current century, when human is seen just in physical respect, he lived as a man of heart who handled human being with an integrated approach within the aspects (...) of matter and spirituality, the world and the hereafter, individual and community, body and soul. In this communiqué, I will discuss Sheikh Halid Effendi’s ontology and his point of view on the place of human being in the realm of existence. He seeks human perfection and wishes people to free themselves of shabby desires and regain their disposition. He recommends people to achieve purity in order to reach the rank of being a mirror to God’s reflections. As a Sufi poet, he attaches importance to carrying out the education of divine journey, wrapping up in mystical ethics, having the identity of wisdom and gaining the aesthetics of love so as to reach the perfection. SUMMARY Sheikh Mehmed Halid was born in 1273/1856 in Sivas. He graduated from Ottoman Junior High School. He attended the 1893 War. In 1880, he started his professional career at a state office. Until 1899, he served in several positions, as assistant judge in Erbaa Lower Court, as Prosecuting Deputy Attorney in Sivas, as Prosecuting Judge assistant in Lower Court and head clerk in Darende, as head clerk in Lower Court in Tonus/Altınyayla, and as prosecuting judge in Kuruçay. He died in 1931 and was buried in Sivas Yukarı Tekke Graveyard. Sufism (tasawwuf) is an education for integrity towards maturity, in a way to prufiy the self from evils of nafs (self) and to reach the love of Allah. This spiritual educational journey is called ‘Seyr-u Suluk’. Sheikh Mehmed Halid completed his Seyr u Suluk as a dervish (student) of murshid (mentor) Kastamonulu Ganizade Mehmed Sadık Baba. Sheikh Mehmed Halid wrote three books called Hilafetnāme, Mektubāt, and Divan. He deals with issues of Sufism (mysticism) in these works. Primarily, his works dwells into the matters of morals, worship, good manners (adab), customary practices, ingenuity, existence, and love. Sheikh Mehmed Halid’s sole attempt is to explain the relationship among Allah, man and universe in an understandable way. According to Sheikh Mehmed Halid’s conception of Sufism, existence is unique and that existence is only Allah. The existence of Allah is absolute while the existence of assets is relative. Things do not exist on their own. Universe is like a mirror. What is reflected in the mirror of universe are the shadows of Allah the Omnipotent. The graces of The Divine are reflected in this mirror. All the things that exist in the universe proves the Self of Allah and his properties. Each of the things in the universe are the words of Allah. The existence of the universe is a result of Allah’s mercy. Man is the fruit of the tree of the Universe.Man is both the embodiment and the reflection of Allah. We want to discuss the position of man in between Allah and the universe with Sheikh Halid’s verses. Perceiving plurality in unity and unity in plurality, Sheikh Mehmed Halid attributes the variety of things and existence in the universe to the Divine beauties of Allah. For those who can comprehend, the plurality/ abundance in existing objects in the universe indicates singularity and uniqueness of Allah. According to Sheikh Halid, Allah is independent from and beyond all the entities that exist in the universe. However, Allah, manifests Himself in the things that he creates and the actions he takes through His divine names and properties. According to Sheikh Halid, each object is a reflection of Allah’s divine properties. Every entity in the universe glorifies Allah with all their existence. For Sheikh Halid, Seyr u Suluk is the journey from weakness to perfection, from substance to meaning, and from things to reality. Considering Seyr u Suluk education as distancing one’s self from other beings, reaching purity of heart, disposing of all signs explains these concepts with pilgrimage metaphor. As a response to those who asks him what he meant by seyr u suluk, he says seyr u suluk is servitude and submission to Allah. In order for Seyr u Suluk to be meaningful, a person should enter the way of a murshid-i kāmil (perfect religious mentor), and should have sincerity, purity (being deprived of all sins) and dhikr. According to Sheikh Halid, someone who is not in trouble is not given a remedy. So as to bother is necessary for remedy to be arisen. Nuisances of the universe are also ephemeral as the universe itself. Therefore, it is unnecessary to bother things that are ephemeral. Because remedy is not available without being mature. According to Sheikh Halid, the procedure of gaining advantage from being mature; getting rid of the ego, feeling the love, being pioneer of the mission, being modest, to attain soul pleasure, escaping from fame, leaving the claim, the glory of salvation, proceeding dhikr, reaching the conquests and escaping from friendship of worldly things. According to Sheikh Halid, being mature is not setting about affiliation ceremony. Asceticism cannot be a show and claim authority. Sincerity is needed on the basis of seyr u suluk education. Asceticism which is an effort of making the religion a specific of Allah is to make intimacy with Allah. Sheikh Halid wants his murids who take part in ṭarīqa (sufī path) to decide on the sincerity. Sincerity is said to be the unique factor that makes sense the membership. Seyr u suluk which begins with being membership of mature murshid, which makes sense with proceeding worship and respecting the sincerity arises by teaching manners to soul. Seyr u suluk is trying to reform the soul. Teaching manners to soul is a challenging and significant task. The most important factor that ensure teaching manners to the soul to be achieved is dhikr. Dhikr practice which makes successful the teaching manner to the soul of seyr u suluk training increases the prudence and foresight of dervish. The unique task that murshid expects from his murid during the membership process is to adjust his soul and parlance to the dhikr of Allah. Dhikr of Allah is a product of fondness. According to Sheikh Halid, one who wants to be remembered in heaven should himself learn to remember Allah. Sheikh Halid gives too much importance to disciplining the tariqa where sufi training takes place. A murid should qualify his murshid whom he intimated to. Followers should gain sufficient advantage from the spiritual atmosphere in the dergāh of their murshid. The murid must be at the service of the murshid who trains him and should obey tariqa manners. Salik who achieves seyr u suluk, who maturates the sufi ethics and who gains sincerity through dihkr of Allah tries to achieve the Gnosis. The intent of being a human is to know Allah. The biggest disaster for human is to come upon unawareness. Sheikh Halid who assumes the the Arifs as sultans of walayah makes a comparison between the Arifs and the Zahids and prefers the Arifs. He thinks that the Zahids pay attention to the appearance, cannot reach the basis and cannot go beyond Allahliness show. Sheikh Halid, who encourages the Zahids to avoid comparing themselves with the Arifs, warns the ones who combat with the Arifs and reminds that Allah proclaims warfare to those who has hostility towards those surrendering themselves to Allah. Sheikh Halid lines up the ways of being mature and having wisdom as godly grace, asceticism, love, the mind of leaving, battle with the self, humility, dikhr and being woeful. Salvation process which Marifetullah will guide is to achieve the love of Allah. Love is the way of achieving the reunion. The reality can just be gained through love. However, gaining the divine love requires to be loved. Because, the way of gaining the divine love is to remove everything except Allah from one’s heart. (shrink)

Extant models of moral judgment assume that an action’s intentionality precedes assignments of blame. Knobe (2003b) challenged this fundamental order and proposed instead that the badness or blameworthiness of an action directs (and thus unduly biases) people’s intentionality judgments. His and other researchers’ studies suggested that blameworthy actions are considered intentional even when the agent lacks skill (e.g., killing somebody with a lucky shot) whereas equivalent neutral actions are not (e.g., luckily hitting a bull’s-eye). The present five studies offer (...) an alternative account of these provocative findings. We suggest that people see the morally significant action examined in previous studies (killing) as accomplished by a basic action (pressing the trigger) for which an unskilled agent still has sufficient skill. Studies 1 through 3 show that when this basic action is performed unskillfully or is absent, people are far less likely to view the killing as intentional, demonstrating that intentionality judgments, even about immoral actions, are guided by skill information. Studies 4 and 5 further show that a neutral action such as hitting the bull’s-eye is more difficult than killing and that difficult actions are less often judged intentional. When difficulty is held constant, people’s intentionality judgments are fully responsive to skill information regardless of moral valence. The present studies thus speak against the hypothesis of a moral evaluation bias in intentionality judgments and instead document people’s sensitivity to subtle features of human action. (shrink)

A unique introductory guide to the rich, complex and diverse tradition of Islamic philosophy, this book comprises over a hundred concise entries, alphabetically ordered and cross-referenced for easy access. All the essential aspects of the Islamic philosophical tradition are covered here: key figures, schools, concepts, topics and issues. Articles on the Peripatetics, Isma'ilis, Illuminationists, Sufis, kalam theologians and later modern thinkers are supplemented by entries on classical Greek influences as well as Jewish philosophers who lived and worked in the Islamic (...) world. Topical entries cover various issues and key positions in all the major areas of philosophy, making clear why the central problems of Islamic philosophy have been, and remain, matters of rational disputation. (shrink)

Light is a discursive tool that Sufis have drawn upon over the centuries in order to elucidate systems of thought and practice. In medieval Islamic thought, light was closely associated with the soul as well as conceptions of sight and the eye. It also occupied an important place in cosmology. By the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries, Sufis began to consider notions of light more systematically, creating close correspondences between vision, cosmology, and anthropology within Sufi thought. This coincided with the (...) increased production of complex diagrams in Sufi texts. This article shows that these developments were interrelated. By analyzing Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī’s (d. 587/1191) diagrams alongside his theories of light with respect to the nature of the soul and body, it demonstrates that the theory of the soul as light played an important part in shaping Sufi thought, practice, and visual culture. (shrink)

This thesis explores the epistemology and theology of a Sufi theorist Ibn al-ʿ Arabī (d. 1240) and one of the most controversial Muslim scholars Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) comparatively. Although scholars have long emphasized the differences between these two influential and significant figures, the purpose of this thesis is to focus on their potential similarities. The present work at the outset shows that both Ibn al-ʿ Arabī and Ibn Taymiyya regard revelation, the human intellect, and inspiration – unveiling (ilhām (...) – kashf) to be the main epistemological means for acquiring religious knowledge. However, they differ over the relative value of these means or tools. Both Ibn al-ʿ Arabī and Ibn Taymiyya place revelation at the top of the hierarchy, but after that Ibn al-ʿ Arabī places inspiration – unveiling ahead of reason while Ibn Taymiyya reverses the order. The other main subject elaborated in this thesis is the theological issue of the divine names and attributes. This subject is connected to many other theological problems, and both Ibn al-ʿ Arabī and Ibn Taymiyya pay considerable attention to it. Just as many similar approaches, ideas, and interpretations may be seen concerning their epistemological stances, it is possible to see similarities in their theological positions although there are crucial distinctions as well. The unique way of finding out this similarity is to keep in mind the existence of the duality found in the thought and expression of Ibn al-ʿ Arabī. Briefly, the main finding of the thesis is that Ibn al-ʿ Arabī and Ibn Taymiyya are more similar in their epistemologies and theologies than many scholars have thought. They are benefitting from the same epistemological means while putting them in different order. Also, they share similar theological points concerning the divine names and attributes, creation, the divine will, and the incomparability of God while expressing them through different conceptions and styles. (shrink)

In Turkish-Islamic literature, many copyright or translation nasihatnama with religious-mystical content have been written. In these works written in verse or prose form within the scope of Islamic culture and classical Turkish literature, information about the principles of Islamic belief and worship was given, and people were advised to be moral, faithful, observant of the orders and prohibitions of religion, prioritizing the hadiths of the Prophet, benevolent and tolerant. One of these nasihatnamas is Gencü’l-Esrâr, in which verses consisting of different (...) verse types and shapes are connected to each other with instrumental couplets. The author, Sayyid Muhammed Ali Riza from Gaziantep, who is a link of the Sufi tradition, tried to guide the disciples by addressing the concept of heaven from various aspects. Sometimes by quoting verses and hadiths, he used argument and proof to make his word trustworthy, and he tried to boost people's desire to attain Paradise by combining aspects of literature with the fantasy of individual paradise on occasion. In our study, in which goals and forms the notion of heaven is targeted in Gencü'l-Esrâr. For this purpose, first of all, data about the paradise in Gencü'l-Esrâr were determined by using the scanning model, which is one of the research methods. All kinds of information, comments, and narratives that can help us to make an inference about Sayyid Muhammed Ali Rıza’s vision and description of paradise has been studied under four headings: “Physical Description and Content of Paradise”, “Description of Names, Types, and Gates of Paradise”, “Description of the Inhabitants of Paradise” and “Mysterious Expression of His Desire to Reach Paradise”. In the article, it has also been tried to reveal the narrative techniques used by the author and the narrative style he exhibited in the sections where heaven is depicted and narrated. This study, which reveals that heaven is handled in detail and artistically in Gencü'l-Esrâr, which was written in 1923 by adhering to the tradition of divan literature, is important in terms of shedding light on the existence of Islamic literature in the 20th century. (shrink)

In the sacred texts, human beings are described as being created in the most beautiful way. In order to understand and define its integrity of existence in the most accurate way, it is necessary to know both its biological and spiritual aspects. In addition to the well-known and generally accepted characteristics of humans such as will and responsibility, there are also basic realities that constitute humans such as nafs, soul and mind. One of the most powerful factors that make (...) a person virtuous or worthless both in the presence of the Creator and in the eyes of people is the nafs. The nafs has many different meanings such as ”the essence of man, soul, person, self-being, mind, life, lust, desire, the source of bad habits".Philosophers, Sufis and theological scholars with different philosophical ideas in different periods in the history of thought have discussed and evaluated the subject of the nafs. Pythagoras considered the nafs as a substance separate from the body, Democritus as fire or heat, Plato as a substance that gives movement to the body. Aristotle, on the other hand, pointed out the difficulty of defining the soul and talked about three types of the nafs: vegetative, animal and human. The concept of nafs, on whose definition philosophers cannot agree, has a strategic importance as it is accepted as the point of separation of good and evil in religious literature. Because the human nafs, by its nature, has a structure that is prone to worldly pleasures, human desires, wishs and passions. Likewise, human beings are creatures of will, and thanks to this feature, they have the ability and freedom to establish positive and negative relationships and evaluate the beings and events around them. What should be the attitude of a person who has these characteristics towards pleasures, desires and passions? The main theme of our study is Mawardi's answer to this question and the solutions he identified. It was stated that having will makes humans different and superior to other living creatures. In this context, what is expected from a person is to use his will to control his nafs by displaying a sensitive, conscious and astute attitude towards the desires of his soul. It is observed in real life that failure to control one's nafs creates undesirable consequences both individually and socially. If the nafs cannot be controlled consciously, a person may become a victim of excessive passion for the world and the things in it. It is possible for humans to become arrogant and proud and to corrupt the environment, society and the world and make it uninhabitable as a result of pursuing their desires. Therefore, there is a need for a constantly dynamic and active consciousness regarding this feature of the nafs. There is no positive situation that an uncontrollable, undisciplined nafs that is a slave to its desires and passions will bring to its owner. The undisciplined and uncontrolled nafs causes individual, religious, moral and social traumas such as taqiyya, insincere words and actions, formal religious attitudes and behaviors, and alienating others for simple, primitive reasons. This is the point that the thinker focuses on and draws attention to. If a person can manage to control and discipline the passions and desires of his nafs by using his will, space will be opened for virtues that will bring happiness to individual and social life, such as brotherhood, solidarity, altruism. Mawardi evaluated this issue in the fifth chapter of his work Edebü'd-Dünyâ ved-Dîn. Mawardi, who thinks that education is an important factor in the reformation of the nafs, says that the mind and revealed knowledge given to man by God are indispensable elements of this struggle. Because he thinks that the alliance of reason, revelation and knowledge is necessary in distinguishing between right and wrong and in being patient with the harmful and evil tendencies of the nafs. A person who takes revelation, reason, knowledge and wisdom as a guide and whose emotions, thoughts and behaviors are shaped by this guide will not be defeated by his nafs. For this reason, Maverdi emphasizes especially when evaluating the subject of “Literary of the soul” that a person needs decency in adulthood as well as in childhood. In this context, he identified issues such as arrogance, pride, false envy and wrath, which he thought could hinder the evolution of virtue and virtue in individual and social life, and also showed the reasons for these and how to combat them. (shrink)

Models in decision theory and game theory assume that preferences are determinate: for any pair of possible outcomes, a and b, an agent either prefers a to b, prefers b to a, or is indifferent as between a and b. Preferences are also assumed to be stable: provided the agent is fully informed, trivial situational influences will not shift the order of her preferences. Research by behavioral economists suggests, however, that economic and hedonic preferences are to some degree indeterminate (...) and unstable, which in turn suggests that other sorts of preferences may suffer the same problem. Even fully informed agents do not always determinately prefer a to b, prefer b to a, or feel indifferent as between a and b. Seemingly trivial situational influences rearrange the order of their preferences. One could respond that decision theory and game theory are not meant to describe actual behavior, and that they instead adumbrate an ideal of rationality from which human action diverges in various ways. When the divergences are small and systematic, they help us identify the heuristics that conspire to help people approximate rationality. One such heuristic, dubbed the Wilde heuristic, is explored. However, the divergences documented by behavioral economists threaten to be too large to handle through idealization. The Rum Tum Tugger Model, in which indifference is intransitive, is spelled out as one promising way for decision and game theory to retrench. Preferences may be locally unstable and indeterminate, but when the differences between options are sufficiently large, they approximate stability and determinacy. (shrink)