Esoteric Traditions in Islamic Thought: An Anthology of Texts on Esoteric Knowledge and Gnosis in Islam

By Leonard Lewisohn

Publisher: Oneworld Academic

Publication Date: September 12, 2024

Hardcover: 448 pages

ISBN: 9780861548644

The notion of esoteric knowledge is one of the pillars of Islamic intellectual tradition. Though most visible in Sufism, it also dominated the first three and a half centuries of Shi‘ite thought.

In this rich anthology, Leonard Lewisohn explores Islamic esotericism through the works of eleven authors who flourished in Persia, Central Asia and Asia Minor from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. He presents excerpts from each text in translation, accompanying these with introductions to the author’s life, works and thought. In the course of his erudite and enlightening commentary, he explores the common ground of esoteric thought and terminology, revealing a unity of perspective among Muslim thinkers.

About the Author

Leonard Lewisohn was Research Associate in Esoteric Traditions in Islam in the Department of Academic Research of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He was the author, editor, and translator of many leading books and articles in the area of Sufism and lectured widely on the subject.

Reviews

• “A joy to read, a nourishment for the heart and mind, and for the specialist and non-specialist alike. The study of esotericism and what is called erfan in Iran desperately needed just this sourcebook … There was no better person than Lenny Lewisohn to put it together.” – Sajjad H. Rizvi, Professor of Islamic Intellectual History, University of Exeter
• “A remarkable collection of beautifully and clearly translated texts from the Islamic esoteric tradition, rendered with sensitivity and fluidity of expression from the original Arabic and Persian. In this work, published posthumously, Lewisohn demonstrates his nearly unparalleled mastery of Islamic esotericism and its literary expressions in both languages.” – Maria M. Dakake, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, George Mason University
• “Lewisohn gives us so much with this splendid collection of beautiful, perspicacious translations. There is no one of his generation who has contributed more to the study of Sufism and mysticism in Islam.” – Todd Lawson, Emeritus Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Source: Oneworld Publications

The Crisis of Muslim Religious Discourse:
The Necessary Shift from Plato to Kant

By Lahouari Addi

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: September 25, 2023

Showing that Muslim societies are facing a crisis that is more cultural than religious, this book focuses on cultural representations through which social life is experienced in the Muslim world. It brings a new theoretical framework to address the secularization process that is underway and the contradictions it entails.

This volume will arouse a new debate on secularization and the relations between religion, culture and philosophy. The crisis Muslim societies are undergoing pertains to the culture and not to the Qur’an to the extent that people do not have access to the sacred in itself but only for oneself, meaning a cultural interpretation of the sacred. The Qur’an in itself is not an obstacle to secularization and modernization since any sacred text is experienced through culture. If we consider the European experience where secularization has first emerged, we see that culture has been transformed from medieval metaphysics to modern philosophy upholding a civic culture.

Discussing secularization through cultural representation, this book launches new ideas that fill an important gap in the literature on secularization. It is a key resource for any readers interested in religious studies, philosophy and the anthropology of religion.

Table of Contents

1. Plato and Plotinus in Medieval Abrahamic Theology
2. Islam and the Platonic Dualism
3. From Sufism to Islamism
4. Muhammad Abduh or the Failure of the Epistemic Transition
5. A Positivism Without Human Agency
6. Transcendence, History and Ethics: Contemporary Stakes
7. Shari’a, Fiqh and Muslim Law
8. Europe, Islam and Secularization

About the Author

Lahouari Addi is Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po, University of Lyon, and a member of the research center Triangle CNRS. Former member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2002-2003). Professor Addi’s current research focuses on Muslim Law in the light of Moral Philosophy. Author of Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam (2017).

More information on: Routledge

Author: Resul Ay

Published in: The Muslim World, Vol. 113, Issue 3, pp. 211-227

Publication Date: August 7, 2023

Publisher: Macdonald Center and Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

The Islamic diversity that developed parallel to the Islamization of Anatolia from roughly the 12th century onwards and was called dervish religiosity, is often defined by its inattentive and indifferent attitude toward Shari‘a, although some of its other features are mentioned more or less. However, in this dervish-based religiosity, it draws attention that both the perception of Shari‘a and some other religiosity practices are more related to the tawhid beliefs in pantheistic sense. This paper aims to analyze how both dervish religiosity and folk religiosity, which developed largely under its influence, are shaped through some mystical thoughts and spiritual experiences such as ‘identification with God’, ‘immanence of God in man’ and ‘the human divinity’. The folk piety, which appears to be shaped within the framework of faith in saints, including high respect and various types of veneration that neglect the norms of Islamic worship, will be seen in relation to the pantheistic thoughts, as reflected in the understanding of seeing man as the qibla.

Source: Wiley

Words of Experience: Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst

Edited by Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Publication Date: March 24, 2021

Carl W. Ernst devoted his academic life to translating Islam, linguistically and culturally, typically within the intellectual context of Religious Studies. His work has focused on how Islamic concepts have travelled across time and space, and his influence on Islamic Studies and Religious Studies is far-reaching. This volume features contributions from long-standing colleagues, scholars whose own work has built on Ernst’s contributions, and former students. It looks at themes in Islamic Studies that Ernst has addressed and expands on his major contributions.

Essays in this volume touch nearly every major element in Islamic Studies – from the Qur’an to Sufism, Islamophobia to South Asian Islam, historical and contemporary praxis, music and more. This collection demonstrates one core tenet of Ernst’s work, specifically the argument that Islam is not rooted in one place, time or language, but is a vast network, routed through myriad places, times and languages.

Source: Equinox Publishing

The Mariam mosque opened informally in February, and it took six months of further preparation before the first Friday prayers could be held. Khankan, one of the five female imams-in-training, and the mosque founder, Saliha Marie Fetteh, the mosque’s two imams, shared the Friday prayer in Mariam mosque in Copenhagen which was attended by more than 60 women. Khankan sang the adhan and made an opening speech, and Fetteh delivered the khutbah, or sermon, on the theme of “women and Islam in a modern world”.

“Talking about women’s rights is not a Western phenomenon, it’s an Islamic ideal,” Sherin said. Offering Muslim women a special place to address their religious needs, Khankan said that the mosque helped them to start inter-faith dialogue. Earlier this year publicly, she met with French female rabbi Delphine Horvilleur in Copenhagen. The mosque, however, was not welcomed by some religious leaders as unnecessary.

After the opening of the Mariam Mosque, Waseem Hussein, an imam from one of the city’s biggest mosques, suggested there was no need for it. “Should we also make a mosque only for men? Then there would certainly be an outcry among the Danish population,” he told the Politiken daily. The notion was challenged by Khankan. “According to the Qur’an, men and women are equal spiritual partners,” said Khankan, wearing a long, white skirt and a long-sleeved top but no veil, which she said she only wears while praying.

“We are re-reading the Qur’an according to our times and our society,” she added. Female imams have existed in China since the 19th century, and in South Africa since 1995. Last year, the first ladies-only Women’s Mosque of America in Los Angeles, Calif., opened to divide the opinions of American Muslim women. The new mosque raised controversy on the validity of conducting a women-only Jumu`ah prayer, being a female imam and the feasibility of the fruits for which the idea was initiated.

Source: AboutIslam.net