|
|
- Visiting a Sufi Shaykh: A Contemporary Experience of Religious Pilgrimage
Authors: Makhabbad Maltabarova
Abstract: Modern experience of spiritual search has mixed up all the colors of the religious domain. It is no longer a strict definition of what the term pilgrimage implies. There is a growing number of seemingly secular places visited by both members of traditional religious institutions and New Age movements. However, the Western culture of pilgrimage is still recognized as individual and not accepting religious elements as such. Using reliable sociological approaches and the ethnographical material, the present article challenges this assumption and seeks to create a more productive discussion on the topic. For this, it examines the Naqshbandī Ḥaqqānī Sufi community of Lefke (Cyprus), a place of pilgrimage for Muslims, non-Muslims, Europeans, and Americans—all motivated by the goal of visiting a Sufi shaykh. The article analyzes the pilgrimage to Lefke by means of John Urry’s three bases of co-presence and illustrates how the Islamic vocabulary of pilgrimage has also changed in adaptation to the new realities of the post-secular world. As a result, it is argued that Sufism, with its historically proven ability to combine the individual and collective spheres of religious life, can provide a useful framework for understanding the contemporary pilgrimage phenomenon.
PubDate: 2022-07-08
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
- Back Matter
PubDate: 2022-06-06
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
- From Political Islam to Civil Religion: The Possibilities of a Pluralistic
Constitution and its Impact on Human Rights in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Authors: Leila Chamankhah
Pages: 125 - 144
Abstract: The two categories of political religion and civil (also civic) religion, and the ways a nation can nurture the latter, have been the concern of a number of philosophers since long time ago. Relevant to this is the ideals of democracy, the separation of religion and politics and the necessity of having a secular legal covenant, which represents the political philosophy of a modern republic. Theorists of civil religion, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were concerned with the role of established religions, in modern political systems and that is why they put forward different, and at times even contrasting, theories about the compatibility of Christianity as well as the objectives of modern politics, at the center of which is the ideal of citizenship. The present paper will focus on the post-revolutionary constitution as well as the legal status of republicanism to investigate the possibilities, if any, of finding a solution to the long-lasting problematic of Islam and democracy in Iran. My hypothesis is that the current constitution is incapable of allowing for democracy, and due to its monistic nature, hinders reconciliation between Islam and democracy. Iran needs a better legal covenant, one in which the legacy of republicanism, as well as religious pluralism, is respected and endorsed.
PubDate: 2022-06-27
DOI: 10.15642/teosofi.2022.12.1.125-144
Issue No: Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
- Agency of the Self and the Uncertain Nature of the Beloved in Persian Love
Mysticism: Earthly, Ethereal, Masculine, or Feminine'
Authors: Mahdieh Vali-Zadeh
First page: 22
Abstract: It seems that the controversies over the nature of the beloved in classical Persian mystic poetry (also known as Sufi poetry) as an earthly or ethereal phenomenon would never end. Those in favor of the celestial reading of it consider their counterparts to be narrow-minded. The adherents of terrestrial love, though, see mystical readings dogmatic and outdated, prevailed by traditionalists. The topic gets even more complicated when one takes into account the attitudes in the medieval Muslim world toward pederasty, shāhid-bāzī, on the one hand, and the Divine Feminine/Masculine Beloved, on the other hand, and, thus, the gender of this beloved. The present article explores the beloved in Persian classical mystical poetry via five different but related approaches: historical, philosophical, translational and comparative, linguistic and poetic, and, ultimately, developmental. The study concludes that an essentialist reading of the beloved in Persian love mystic poetry would create numerous problems, and that the spirit of Persian classical poetry in this regard is the spirit of uncertainty with a certain purpose: it is the manifestation of the self-poet’s agency, choosing one’s object of desire without explicitly revealing it and, thus, living one’s own life of choice without fearing the threads of religious fundamentalism.
PubDate: 2022-05-11
DOI: 10.15642/teosofi.2022.12.1.22-42
Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 2 (2022)
- Ibn Taymiyya's Conception of Jihad: Corpus, General Aspects, and
Research Perspectives
Authors: Mehdi Berriah
First page: 43
Abstract: The question of jihad is fundamental to Ibn Taymiyya since he is one of the theologians of the Mamluk period—and probably of the entire medieval period—who wrote the most on this subject. Jihad was an essential part of the life of the famous theologian of Damascus, who took part in the Mamluk war effort as a volunteer in various expeditions. Over the last decades, scholars have been interested in the issue of jihad in Ibn Taymiyya and have highlighted several elements. These works have helped us learn more about the ideology of jihad in Ibn Taymiyya. However, it should be noted that those works focus on the jihad against a particular enemy (Mongols, heretics of the Kisrawān, Shi’ites) in a particular context and do not deal much with Ibn Taymiyya’s general conception of jihad, for which several grey areas remain. This article will discuss Ibn Taymiyya and his general conception of jihad. My method is broken down into two steps to provide new elements and research perspectives. In the first instance, I will identify the maximum of Ibn Taymiyya’s writings and passages related to jihad, making the beginning of a type of inventory. Then I will analyze their content and cross-check them to bring to light general aspects of Ibn Taymiyya’s conception of jihad.
PubDate: 2022-05-11
DOI: 10.15642/teosofi.2022.12.1.43-70
Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 2 (2022)
- The Contribution of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya to Salafi Sufism
Authors: Lalu Agus Satriawan
Pages: 71 - 96
Abstract: This article aims to explore the Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s original views on Sufism. Ibn Qayyim is regarded as an authority in Salafi circles who reject Sufism as a legitimate representation of Islam, especially its philosophical orientation. This article uses a literature research model to reach the finding that Ibn Qayyim understood Sufism as a moral system and part of the science of Islamic morality. Sufism aims to purify the soul to prepare it for its return to God along the path of love. The basis of Sufism as revised by Ibn Qayyim was the Qur’ān, the Sunnah, the traditions of the companions, the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya, and the teachings words of the early Sufi masters. Ibn Qayyim strongly adhered to the orthodox principles of Islamic scholarship later dubbed as Salafism, especially in terms of prioritizing the shari‘a over reason and rejecting esoteric interpretation (ta’wīl). For Ibn Qayyim, the Sufi philosophers were misled in overly relying on ta’wīl and disregarding the role of reason. His approach to Sufism was to perform an objective evaluation of the Sufi teachings circulating at his time. Instead of joining either side, the side of those who condemned it as unlawful innovation (bid‘a) or the side of those who accepted it uncritically, Ibn Qayyim chose to conduct an extensive review of its ideas and practices, rejecting those elements that he found objectionable and accepting others that he found commendable.
PubDate: 2022-06-22
DOI: 10.15642/teosofi.2022.12.1.71-96
Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 2 (2022)
- The Revival of an Old Narrative to Counter Terrorism: The “Balkh School
Approach” to Neutralizing the Neo-Kharijite Narrative in the Islamic
World
Authors: Mirwais Balkhi
First page: 97
Abstract: With the end of the bipolar world after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic world faced a great power vacuum. This situation led to the formation of various Islamic political groups, each of which, in its own way, sought to gain power and fill the void left by the Cold War among the Muslim Ummah. In the meantime, several Islamic groups, following the ostentatious views and thoughts of the followers of the Ahl al-Hadith, adopted a violent method of struggle for power. Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS, ISK, the Taliban, and dozens of other extremist organizations revived the Kharijite method so many centuries later. These extremist groups based their policies on stubbornness against their own governments in the Islamic world as well as against global powers, the US and EU. The second half of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century marked the bloodiest scenes in world history. The highest number of victims of the deadly attacks by these extremists were Muslims. Today, both Islamic and non-Islamic countries are trying to eradicate Islamic extremism by conventional means. However, they have not been successful after three decades of struggle. The main challenge of the method of combating extremism among Muslims is the lack of attention to successful models in their history. The Kharijite movements in past centuries were also a great threat to Islam and Muslims which were destroyed by the great theologians of Khorasan, especially Balkh, through a theological counter narrative. Currently, the revival of the Balkh school of theology could be an effective approach to counter and suppress the neo-Kharijites of today. This essay examines the potential capabilities of the Balkh Theological School against indicators of contemporary religious extremism.
PubDate: 2022-05-11
DOI: 10.15642/teosofi.2022.12.1.97-124
Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 2 (2022)
|
Open Access journal
