Sufism (Global Dialogues: Non Eurocentric Visions of the Global) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786613868
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2020-06-21T18:30:00+00:00

Concluding Remarks

On the grounds of an integrated approach to “textual analysis” and “contextual analysis” of doctrines and practices of some great Sufi mystical thinkers— namely, Ibn Sab‘īn, Ibn al-‘Arabī, and Ibn ‘Aṭā’ Allāh—who could be associated, though with partly different attitudes, to the emergence (if not expression) of the notion of “oneness of reality/unity of being” (waḥdat al-wujūd) during the seventh Islamic century (thirteenth century AC), this chapter comes to the conclusion that the applicability of this notion for the study of Global IR is not free from problems. Indeed, a critical inspection of the heritage of aforementioned Sufi mystical thinkers in Late Ayyubid and Early Mamluk period in Egyptian history discloses that this was the most favorable period for the so-called compromise between Sufism and philosophical Ash‘arite theology. However, this period offered a vibrant space for not only interfaith contacts but also interfaith conflicts. Although a “textual analysis” of the notion of “oneness of reality/waḥdat al-wujūd” is often associated with another notion, that is, the “unity of religions” (waḥdat al-adyān), the “contextual analysis” does not seem to establish any regular connection between the two notions. In other words, the centrality of discussions on “oneness of reality/waḥdat al-wujūd” does not confirm a necessary outreach of the reality of “unity of religions/waḥdat al-adyān.” In fact, the Sufis in the concerned historical period, as in many other historical periods, took varied attitudes on the issue of interfaith contacts, as well as on various more specific mystical themes. But these Sufi trends/doctrines/practices (under the textual label of tasawwuf) were uniformly self-defined as “Muslim,” and even those Sufi masters who supported the perspective of the “unity of religions/waḥdat al-adyān” on a transcendental level (such as Ibn al-‘Arabī) did pay attention to the religious divides and socioreligious hierarchies on the concrete level of the world of manifestations. In this light, one faces some doubts on the universal potential of Sufism, inasmuch as even the theory of “unity of religions” seems to focus less on abolishing the boundaries between different religions and more on expanding the boundaries of one determined religion (i.e., Islam) so as to encompass all other religions. Thus, on a more theoretical level, the contextual analysis undertaken in this chapter warns that Sufism—despite its textual emphasis upon “epistemological monism” (or the idea of “oneness” flowing from a possible subject-object merger)—might reinforce an “Islamo-centric dualism” between subjective-human-inspiration and objective-divine-revelation.

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