More important is the contribution of the sixth imam of the Sh ī ʿah, Ja ʿfar al- Ṣ ādiq (d. 767) often combined literalist and allegorical methods depending on the nature of the verse in question. It is among Ṣ ūf īs (and Sh ī ʿ ī Muslims) that ta ʾw īl has found special favor.Įarly commentators such as Muq ātil ibn Sulaym ān (d. Of the two traditional methods of Qur ʾanic exegesis predominating in Islam, tafs īr emphasizes the exoteric elements of the text: grammar, philology, history, dogma, and the like, while ta ʾw īl stresses the search for hidden meanings, the esoteric dimensions of the Qur ʾanic text. On the contrary, interior spiritual development becomes a concern at a relatively early date in the writings of important Qur ʾ ān commentators. The experience of mystical union need not, therefore, be seen as foreign to Islam. The goal of every Muslim mystic is to recapture this experience of loving intimacy with the Lord of the Worlds. This unique event, which confirms the union between God and the souls of all men and women, has become known in Ṣ ūf ī literature as the "Day of Alast, " the day when God asked "Alastu bi-rabbikum" ("Am I not your Lord?"). The most crucial Qur ʾ ānic verse for Ṣ ūf īs, however, describes the establishment of the primordial covenant between God and the souls of men and women in a time before the creation of the cosmos:Īnd when your Lord took from the loins of the children of Adam their seed and made them testify about themselves (by saying), "Am I not your Lord?" They replied, "Yes, truly, we testify!" (7:172) The Qur ʾ ān enjoins on every Muslim the practice of recollecting God (33:41), for the peaceful heart is one in which the remembrance of God has become second nature (13:28 –29). … and wherever you turn, there is God's face. For did he not actually breathe his own spirit into Adam at creation (Qur ʾ ān 15:29, 38:72)? And is he not closer to man than his own jugular vein (50:16)? God's presence is all-pervasive, for to him belong the East and the West, the whole of creation, On the other hand the inaccessibility of the transcendent Lord must be understood in the context of those Qur ʾ ānic verses that speak of his abiding presence both in the world and in the hearts of the faithful. To breach the lord-servant (rabb- ʿabd) relationship leads easily to the cardinal sin of shirk, substituting some other power for that of God. Servants of God are enjoined to embrace his will, not question its import, for men and women will be rewarded or punished according to their deeds. God is both lawgiver and judge (surahs 81 and 82) whatever he wills comes to be (2:142 3:47 3:129 5:40 13:27). On the one hand God is the almighty creator and lord of the cosmos who sustains the universe at every moment (Qur ʾ ān 10:3 ff.) men and women are but servants -finite, vulnerable, and prone to evil (2:30 ff. The vision of the God-man relationship in the Qur ʾ ān offers a study in contrasts. This theory is no longer considered viable for two reasons: First, the Qur ʾanic perception of the relationship of the individual to God is quite complex, highlighting both immanence and transcendence, and second, while no one denies that Islam evolved in a religiously pluralistic environment, one need not conclude that phenomena common to both Islam and other traditions are therefore derivative. In their opinion Ṣ ūf ī mysticism was born of Islam's contact with other major world religions, especially Christianity and Buddhism. Some earlier Western scholars of Sufism concluded that mysticism is incompatible with the Muslim perception of an almighty, transcendent God with whom one shares little intimacy. The resolution of the etymological debate is less critical than the recognition that the terms Ṣ ūf ī and Sufism evoke complex layers of meaning in Islam, including the denial of the world, close association with the Prophet and his message, and a spiritual attainment that raises one to a rank of unique intimacy with God. 1071/2?), nonetheless, have proposed a number of etymologies for Ṣ ūf ī: ṣaff, "rank," implying that Ṣ ūf īs are an elite group among Muslims ṣuffah, "bench," alluding to the People of the Bench, the intimates of the prophet Mu ḥammad who gathered at the first mosque in Medina ṣ āfa ʾ, "purity," focusing on the moral uprightness essential to the Ṣ ūf ī way of life. Muslim mystical writers such as Ab ū Bakr al-Kal āb ādh ī (d. The term derives most probably from the Arab īc word for wool ( ṣ ūf), since the early ascetics of Islam ( Ṣ ūf īs) are said to have worn coarse woolen garments to symbolize their rejection of the world. One of the truly creative manifestations of religious life in Islam is the mystical tradition, known as Sufism.
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