Contemporary Sufism

Cet article se veut être une analyse de la politique de la confrérie soufie Qādiriyya
Būdshīshiyya dans le contexte français. Les activités culturelles de cette confrérie
installée à Paris, et les activités de certains disciples et personnalités publiques comme
le rappeur Abd Al Malik et la sénatrice Bariza Khiari sont ici analysées. Ces activités
peuvent être décrites comme une forme d’engagement post-islamiste à la manière d’Asef
Bayat. En effet, les valeurs démocratiques, appréhendées à la fois comme l’acceptation
des diversités religieuses, ethniques et culturelles, et la participation communautaire
dans la régulation du vivre ensemble, sont non seulement acceptées, mais sont surtout
considérées comme intrinsèquement islamiques. Cet article remet ainsi en question le
stéréotype d’un soufisme européen considéré comme radicalement privatisé, et n’ayant
aucune incidence dans la sphère publique.

For many, Islamic hip-hop is a contradiction. Yet many prominent rappers in Senegal have joined the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi movement and communicate religious messages through their music. Rappers have contributed significantly to the Fayḍa's rising popularity among Dakar's youth, popularizing the Fayḍa's esoteric teachings through their lyrics. Although many Muslims reject hip-hop as un-Islamic, the mainstream of Fayḍa adherents and its learned leaders have embraced rappers as legitimate spokespeople for the movement. Scholars discussing change and debate in Islam have often emphasized discursive argumentation that refers to foundational texts, or “sharīᶜa reasoning.” This article examines four other modes of religious reasoning and demonstration that Fayḍa rappers use in addition to sharīᶜa reasoning to present themselves as legitimate representatives of Islam: (1) truths that transcend texts and discursive reasoning; (2) the greater good, which may apparently contravene some prescription; (3) divine inspiration and sanction, for example through dreams and mystical experiences that reveal a rapper's mission and message; (4) and “performative apologetics,” or a demonstration of exemplary piety and knowledge such that a potentially controversial practice can be reconciled with one's religious persona. The article focuses particularly on the case of the rapper Tarek Barham. As productive as Talal Asad's widely accepted conceptualization of Islam as a “discursive tradition“ has been, this article proposes understanding Islamic truth, authority, and experience as founded not just in discourse—especially in reference to foundational texts—but in multiple complementary principles of knowing and demonstrating.

For many, any alliance between ‘Islam’ and ‘hip-hop’ is an unholy one, whether for bringing hip hop into Islam or vice versa. Yet many of Senegal’s prominent rappers today are committed adherents of the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi (mystical Islamic) movement who rap about religious knowledge. Even the Fayḍa’s senior, classically trained authorities tend to accept hip hop as an effective tool to promulgate religious principles and recruit new disciples. The line between rapper and Islamic preacher has become blurred, and several rappers are even formally appointed spiritual guides with their own disciples. This article attributes the success of Sufi hip-hop to aesthetic resonances between global hip-hop culture and the Fayḍa’s self-imagination as an increasingly urban and global esoteric movement. I illustrate with the persona and art of Daddy Bibson, the first and most influential Fayḍa rapper to rap about Sufi knowledge.

Sufi identity and rituals became widespread among local Muslims during the colonial era due to the expansion of the Shadhuliyya and the Qadiriyya orders. But the history of Sufism in Mozambique has been little explored. Portuguese colonial officials began paying closer attention to Islam in general and Sufism in particular only toward the end of the colonial period, especially in the late 1960s. This sudden interest was prompted by the independence war that took place mostly in northern Mozambique, where significant numbers of Muslims lived. The colonial Secret Service was mandated to find out how and why Muslims were involved in the independence struggle and in which ways they could be subverted. Otherwise there has been very limited research on Sufism, especially since Mozambique achieved independence. This article examines the historical context into which the orders arrived, and what prompted their significant expansion, as well as the reasons why they subsequently split up into eight autonomous branches. It is based on archival research in Mozambique and Portugal and fieldwork conducted at Mozambique Island, and in Angoche, Nampula, Pemba and Maputo cities.

Scholarship on modern Sufism has centred on the analysis of turuq (sing. tariqa – often translated as ‘Sufi orders’), by scrutinising the institutional dimension of a group of devotees who gather around a sheikh, and/or the set of religious practices and doctrines believed to be characteristic ofeach tariqa. Even though Sufi orders have expanded internationally, creating new local communities, the underlying rationale of the shared religious character of each tariqa prevails in most studies. This paper explores the dynamics of reterritorialisation of a Moroccan Sufi order, the Qadiriyya, in the United Kingdom by comparing it to other enclaves of the same order in continental Europe. It suggests that ritual variations are indicative of the religious diversity existing within each order. In order to do so, the article focuses on the analysis of ritual practices and it addresses how ritual performance evolves when a Sufi order becomes transnational. More precisely, it looks at the effects of ritual on the dynamics and unity within the Qadiriyya and the extent to which the reconfiguration of ritual practice contributes to the expansion of the order beyond its original enclave. The article scrutinises ritual variances as developed by the British Qadiriyya and considers the implications that these changes have for the religious identity of local groups of devotees as well as for its relationship with the rest of the enclaves that conform to the order.

In this essay I discuss artworks by a sample of young people with a Muslim background who
participated in the Numur—Islam and I exhibition, which was organised as part of the Young Muslims and
Resilience (2016-2018) research project. Art exhibitions were staged in November 2017 and March 2018 with
eighteen young adult participants/co-researchers. Their artworks included video and textile installations,
photo collages, paintings, calligraphy and poetry, dealing with issues such as faith, dialogues between
religious communities, gender, belonging and sexual diversity. Here I concentrate on some works by the
participants who stated that they leaned on Sufism or spirituality in their working processes, or whose
works expressed qualities that may be reflected through the spectrum in which rhizomes of Sufi ways of
understanding human existence in the world are present. In their artworks, the participants created fresh
ideas about possible encounters, which I interpret as being linked to modern and postmodern ideas of
relationships between spaces and “becoming communities.” Likewise, these ideas can be traced to our
common philosophical heritage, which is partly based on spiritual mystic thought and practices of different
religions. By using art, the participants could embody this legacy, create spaces for themselves and open
landscapes for discussions between Muslim believers and people with different religions and worldviews.
Keywords: art-based and performative approaches, ethnopoesis, gender and sexuality, spirituality, Sufism, transformative actions.

This paper explore the politics of (in)visibility in Islam by discussing the affective presence and agency of relics - in this case a single hair of the Prophet Muham- mad. The relic is obviously not the Prophet, but it is also not-not the Prophet, as the hair is filled with the baraka (blessings) of the Prophet and thereby seems to confirm Sir James Frazer’s thesis of ‘sympathetic magic’ where part and wholes are forever connected. Based on a study of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Saifi tariqa, this paper set out to ‘follow the hair’ in different settings in Denmark, Norway and Pakistan in order to discuss how it connects the visible and the invisible aspects of reality. I argue that the relic not only constitutes an affective presence of the beloved, but also that it becomes a significant agent in the establishment of an enchanted subaltern counter-public within Danish secular society.

Bu makalenin konusunu bir Nakşî-Hâlidî şeyhi olan Kaşıkçı Ali Rıza Efendi (1883-1969) oluşturmaktadır. Osmanlı’nın son dönemi Hâdim ve Konya medreselerinde eğitim görmüştür. 1920 sonrasında ise Tasavvuf yoluna intisap etmiştir. Sayıca fazla olmasa da eserler vermiş olan Ali Rıza Efendi bunları, “terk-i diyâr” diye ifade ettiği Medîne’ye göç etmesinden sonraki ikāmeti esnâsında yazmıştır. Müellefâtı ağırlıklı olarak manzûmdur. Mensûr eserlerinin içerisinde de çok sayıda şiir yer alır.
Ali Rıza Efendi’nin hayatındaki dönüm noktalarından birisi Menemen hadisesidir. Kaşıkçı’nın şeyhi Erbilli Esad Efendi’nin merkezinde yer aldığı iddia edilen hadise, tüm memleket sathındaki Nakşîleri etkilediği gibi Kaşıkçı’yı da etkilemiştir. Bu olay sonucunda hapse atılmış ve memleketi terk etmek zorunda kalmıştır.
Kaşıkçı, Batılılaşma yönündeki Türk Modernleşmesi’ne tepkilidir. Frenkleşme, Frengistan’ı taklit şeklinde adlandırdığı batılılaşmayı; dînî terminoloji ile “âdât-ı küffâr” ve “bid‘at” diye ifade ederek muhalefetini dile getirmiştir. Bunun temelinde ise dönüşümlerin şeriata aykırı olduğu düşüncesi vardır. Nakşîliğin şeriat konusundaki hassasiyeti burada temâyüz etmiştir. 
Ali Rıza Efendi, tanığı olduğu değişimler hakkında olumsuz kanâatinin sonucu olarak yaşadığı zaman dilimine dâir yaklaşımı da son derece olumsuzdur. Onun kötümser yaklaşımı sadece Anadolu hakkında değil özelde İslam Dünyası genelde ise dünyanın tamamına dâirdir. Kıyâmeti beklediğini gösteren ifadeler eserlerinde yer alır. Zira ona göre nizâm-ı âlem bozulmuştur.
Kaşıkçı’nın Batılılaşma muhâlefetinin arka planında, bunların şeriata aykırı olduğu düşüncesi ile insanın yaratılış gâyesine dâir farklı bakışı yatmaktadır. İnsanın yaratılış gâyesini “mârifet-i ilâhiye” olarak tespit edip önündeki en büyük engeli de “dünya sevgisi” olarak tayin edince doğal olarak sekülerizm ve lâiklik şeklindeki dünyevîleşme çabaları kendisi için bir muhâlefet sahası olarak ortaya çıkmıştır.

The subject of this article is a religious scholar (ālim) and Naqshī-Khālidī sheikh Kasikci Ali Riza Effendi who lived in recent period. In this study, after giving a short information about the Naqshibandī history generally and its history in the Ottoman era we presented the life of Khashoggi  Ali Riza Effendi, his works and his views about the westernization policies, timeserving complains and the aim of humankind creation.
Ali Riza Effendi was born in Khādim (a southern province in Konia/Konya) in 1883 and died in Madīna in 1969. Khashoggi  lived during the period of collapse of Ottoman Empire and establishment of a new Turkish State. He witnessed that everything was chancing quickly in social and political life. And so he was affected from these changes negatively and frequently criticised them.
Ali Riza Effendi started his education in his province Khādim and continued nearly two years there. After that he gived up Khâdim and continued his education in Konia up to the World War I. Perhaps he got madrasa ijāzah/diploma in Konya from the Yalvācī Omar Effendi. After that nearly 1920s he contacted with the prominent Naqshī sheikh Erbilī Asad Effendi and became his caliph/khalifa in Konia. This liaison is one of the milestones in the life of Ali Riza Effendi because of the Manaman Incident. Allegedly Erbilī Asad Effendi who is the Khashoggi’s sheikh was located in the center of the incident. New Turkish State didn’t see that as a local event. The Office of the Public Prosecutor in Ankara, sent telegrams demanding to be investigated religious orders. Because for the young Turkish State, Naqshibandiyya’s continuing presence was a big threat to its authority. Thus, this incident as it affected all of the Naqshbandīs countrywide as well as impressed Khashoggi. As a result of this event he jailed and had to abandon hometown (tark al-diyār).
He numerically wrote books even if not much. His books were written after his hijrah (according to his speech terk-i diyār and hijrah) from Konia to the Madīna. These works are predominantly in poetical content. His works that are prose contents too has a lot of poetic couplets. Among them are seen a work on Islamic creed (probably it is the first work of the writer). In addition to this, three of his works them are collected poems (dewans). When he writed up his works didn’t aim art themed elements on the contrary aimed didactical items. The most conspicuous character in all of his works is to be written in didactical mode.
Ali Riza Effendi reacted to the Turkish modernization policies. He entitled to the westernization of Turkey, as a apery of western-style. Because he entitled westernization of Turkey as a habits of heretics and innovation (bid‘ah) he opposes to this process. The idea at the base of his opposition is the revolutions are contradict with the Islamic Law (Sharīa). In this point the Naqshibandī sensibility on Sharīa is appeared. It is known two basic principle of Naqshbandīs are Sharīa and to affiliate with social activities. So, his opposition arised from Sharīa nicety.
On the other hand, Khashoggi complains from the time slice that he lived and he didn't find favourable. This idea was derived from his opposition on the revolutions. His pesimist ideas not only about Anatolia but also especially Islamic World and generally all the World. Besides that he had some sentences that imply in his works, doomsday (Qiyāmah) was approached. So the world order (nizām al-ālam) was addled. From this deterioration pundits (ulama) and the mystics (sūfīs) and the folk was influenced. Thus he complains from these groups.
In Ali Riza Effendi’s background of contrariety is the idea of these were at odds with the Shariah and the aim of creation. According to him, creation goal is “knowlegde the God” (marifah al-ilāhiyya). The supreme curve to reach this is the love of the world (hubb al-dunyā). So efforts toward worldliness in the form of secularization and laisizm showed up for him as a opposition era.
As a result, Khashoggi  is a local Naqshī-Khālī sheikh who was studied in classical educational institutions (madrasa and khānigah). It is seen that as a traditional scholar and sheikh he relied on his traditional inheritance in face of the western civilisation. And he stated that the solution must be searced ion our road of ancestors.

Cite as:
Salvatore, Armando. 2018. “Sufi Articulations of Civility, Globality, and Sovereignty.” Journal of Religious and Political Practice, 4 (2): 156-174.

This article provides an analysis of Sufi life and organization, combining historical depth and theoretical awareness. It investigates how Sufism emerged as an urban phenomenon. Sufi brotherhoods were at the forefront of a proto-globalization based on a hemisphere-wide networking between metropolitan regions, rural provinces, and nomadic formations. Furthermore, cities became nodes within wider circulations, rather than, as in European and Weberian models, centers of corporate powers. The emerging patterns of civility were open-ended, balancing inner cultivation, communicative skills, and outward etiquette. The article shows how this global civility translated into original conceptions of sovereignty that were more malleable than those of the European Leviathan. A millenarian universalism imbued with Sufi saintliness bolstered the centralized sovereignty of early modern Muslim empires. Sufi contributions to these empires nurtured a cosmopolitan culture, facilitating commercial exchange and intellectual connectedness between Europe and China. When Europe rose to global hegemony, neo-Sufi movements engaged in state-building processes which challenged European colonial presence. The article concludes by exploring how post-Sufi developments within Muslim-majority postcolonial societies re-oriented state power and led to the emergence of a trans-territorial notion of sovereignty.

Sufism, the mystical/esoteric Islamic path of soul purification, is spreading extensively
throughout Western societies. The internet is one of the most important vehicles of
this diffusion. This article first describes the use of the internet in four European Sufi
orders, underlining how the internet: (1) is an instrument of promotion, information
and knowledge about Islam and Sufism; (2) reduces the distance between disciples and
Masters; (3) is a digital space where religious experiences are reaffirmed, not lived.
The second section of the article concerns the Naqshbandi Haqqani case, which is
completely different from the other orders studied. For some Naqshbandi disciples,
the internet is also a place in which to practise religion through rituals, prayer requests,
initiation and religious experiences. Through an analysis of this particular use of the
internet, the author explores the transformation of European Sufism both in the frame
of post-modern religiosity and in the frame of transnationalism.

An important body of scholarship has explored the salience of Sufism (‘mystical Islam’) in Senegal. Approaches have emphasized its social and political dimensions, while little attention has been devoted to the symbolic yet important role of Sufi-affiliated pop musicians, especially mbàllax singers, in the grassroots negotiation of faith and religious tolerance in the country. Using the documentary, Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (US, 2008), and observation, the study examines what it calls ‘cultural friction’, here a metaphor for the transient conflicts emerging as classically oriented Sufi Muslims condemn and protest against the encroachment of “obscene” practices on religious spaces and symbols. The study approaches the film as a music documentary following N’dour during and after the making of his Grammy-winning yet controversial album released in Senegal as Sant Yalla (‘God Be Praised’, 2003) and internationally as Egypt (2004). It analyzes cultural friction as part of a Senegalese artistic modernization, but also as a contemporary phenomenon speaking to the historical role of the Wolof ‘griot’ (bard) in the peaceful appropriation of Islam. Finally, the study portrays N’dour as a pop singer whose liberal Sufi perspective on music promotes his legitimacy to perform in the Islamic religious space as well.

The question of the process of developing national or local forms of Islam is often approached through the lens of the domestication of Islam and by emphasising the role of the state or Muslim officials close to the state in this process. In my analysis of the process, undertaken by certain Tatar Muslim representatives in Russia, of developing what I call a localised Islamic orthodoxy, I aim to study shifts in the debate on ‘traditional Islam’ towards a more theological understanding of the term. I examine attempts to develop a local interpretation of Islam that, while based on universal religious fundaments, is not in opposition to Tatar national traditions and a secular modern lifestyle. The representation of an ‘orthodox traditional Islam’ is necessarily paradoxical to the extent that a localised orthodoxy claims to be timeless, ‘natural’ and established but still needs to be defined, learned and taught following decades of Soviet atheist policies. Furthermore, this representation relies on the projection of orthodoxy onto the past in a process in which certain elements of a complex Tatar Muslim identity are made visible and emphasised (in particular, the Hanafi tradition), while others are obscured. By referring to the literature on orthodoxy in the anthropology and sociology of Islam and in Islamic studies, I aim to examine the theological dimension of the process of defining a local Islam that is currently being pursued by certain Tatar Muslim representatives in Russia.

Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, the greater visibility of religion and the emergence of a conservative middle class have reconfigured the boundaries of what is thinkable and sayable in Turkey, particularly in the media. Despite its importance to media consumers, academic analysts have marginalized radio compared with television and the press. Yet increasing commercialization and local concentration have affected mainstream music radio and reshaped religious broadcasting. This article focuses on local radio in the periphery. How does the radio landscape in Central Anatolia, a region reflecting the conservative bourgeoisie’s new dominance, mirror and link to the dominance of the AKP? Fieldwork conducted in Konya, one of the Anatolian ‘Tigers’ and a centre of AKP support, provides the empirical data for this case study.

Based on archival and fieldwork research, this paper outlines in its first part the history of the formation of various types of Muslim religious leaderships during pre-colonial and colonial periods. Islam in Mozambique, especially in the northern part of the country, existed among Africans long before the arrival of the Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was linked to the World of Swahili, i.e. the East African coast and the Comoros, from the time of its formation. However, European colonial expansion drove the immigration of Indian Muslims from the Portuguese territories of Gujarat, India and later from British East Africa. How the resulting social, ideological, and racial differences among this leadership have been reflected and played out in relation to the state, the competing Muslim religious groups, and the international Islamic organisations in the post-colonial Mozambique, is the focus of the second part of this article

The system of beliefs and practices related to Bektashism seems to have corresponded to a kind of liberation theology, whereas the structure of Bektashi groups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organization conventionally known as charismatic groups. It becomes understandable therefore that their spiritual tendency could at times connect with and meet social, cultural and national perspectives. In turn, when members of the previously persecuted religious minority will acquire a degree of religious and political respectability within society at large, the doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theology fade into the background. In the end, the heirs of the heterodox promoters of spiritual reform and social movement turn into followers and faithful defenders of a legitimate authority. They become the spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose support is sought by the political regime.

En réponse aux attentes d’un marché musical mondialisé, des artistes musulmans proposent une représentation particulière du soufisme sur la scène publique. La mise en scène transforme les pratiques confrériques, expose les corps et transpose l’audition mystique. Les auteurs présentent le va-et-vient entre les pratiques confrériques et la mise en spectacle, va-et-vient caractéristique de mouvements musicaux très réactifs à la demande du grand public et aux logiques de marché. Quand le soufisme entre en scène, il se plie au consumérisme mais s’impose comme un interlocuteur privilégié de l’islam contemporain.

The paper discusses the results of field research in India and Pakistan with regard to the influence of Sûfî-related practices and concepts in the workings of the Tablîghî Jamâ‘at. These observations are of a preliminary nature, as the project and field research were not specifically focused on Sûfî connections but on the social and organisational worldview of the Tablîghîs. To structure the observations from the field research, the presentation concentrates on three issues: how personal religious leadership and guidance are constructed on the Sûfî model; how interaction and self-organisation at various decision-making levels in the Tablîghî Jamâ‘at are modelled after a Sûfî order; how Sûfî spirituality is used in Tablîghî rituals and philosophy to mobilise adherents. It will then raise countervailing sing influences such as local variables between its branches in India, where the Sûfî legacy is arguably stronger, and Pakistan, where the Sûfî heritage is going “underground”. In conclusion it will discuss as to what extent the success of the Tablîghî Jamâ‘at is rooted in its successful fusion of its Sûfî and reformist antecedents.

How do ‘new’ and ’old’ Islamic actors in contemporary Albania define religious legitimacy, the nation and religious otherness? This chapter uses Olivier Roy’s analytical distinction between accommodationism and neo-fundamentalism as a compass to navigate through Albania’s complex religious landscape by exploring different sets of beliefs promulgated by a selection of Islamic groups (2010).  These are the Muslim Community of Albania, which represents ‘official Islam’ , and ‘mainstream’ Sunni Muslims, who are typically accommodationist. I also analyse a Sufi subgroup thereof, which is equally accommodationist, but in a slightly different manner. As a neo-fundamentalist counterpoint, I explore the ideas of a competing organisation composed of Salafi imams.

Accommodationism means that the bond between religion and a specific territory and culture of origin is tight. In this context, ‘culture’ refers to Albanian historical tradition and the language-based, secular nation-building project engineered by modernising state elites since the early 20th century. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, is a globalised form of religion that emphasises the gap between faith and culture. As such, it represents a reformatted, exportable form of religiosity, which stands in contrast to cultural ethno-national ways of being Muslim. Neo-fundamentalist religious identity is faith-based, and seeks to ground itself solely upon explicit religious norms, at least in principle. Accordingly, these believers make their religiosity visible through a global uniform of religious markers detached from the surrounding culture.

In the Albanian Islamic context, the theoretically informed labels, neo-fundamentalist and accommodationist, roughly correspond to the ‘Albanianist’ versus the ‘Salafi’ forms of Islam. To some extent, this resonates with mainstream distinctions adopted in Albania and in the Balkans. A popular Albanian term for Muslims associated with neo-fundamentalist forms of Islam is ‘fanatic’ (fanatik). Accommodationism is commonly related to ‘old’ forms of Islam, which many be deemed as local, rooted, and European as well as tolerant and moderate. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, refers to certain ‘new’ forms of Islam, i.e. those perceived to be imported, transnational, alien, ‘fanatic’ and a threat to local religious customs. This cultural distinction between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable forms of Islam is often politicised and securitised. As I will show, the association between neo-fundamentalism and violence is not necessarily correct, and the Salafi community under scrutiny here can be defined as pacifist and purist (Wiktorowicz 2006). These two formats, moreover, clash and merge together as different local actors seek to recast and legitimize their respective positions.

This article shares the findings of a socio-political discourse
analysis of modern Sufism. The study is conducted from the
multi-disciplinary perspective of studies in religion, and is
based on the assessment of one-on-one qualitative interviews
about the approach of three prominent world Sufi orders—
the Chishti, Naqshbandi, and Nimatullahi—to society and
politics. The case studies present a new interpretation of
modern Sufi religious and political practice, which is then
formulated into a working typology as a contribution towards
the categorisation of Sufi socio-political disposition.

Ü n a warm evening at the end of April 1995, I found myself in a beautiful house in the old quarter of Damascus. I was in the home of one of the younger members of the Naqshbandi order, sitting on the floor of one of the rooms in the house. The light was dim. Around me sat soıne twenty young men, all of them members of the order. They were performing a religious ri tual within the mystical tradition of Islam called mawl!d. They were listening to a recitation, singing in honor of God and were meditating silently. After the ritual, we sat together around a table, discussing the relationship between Christianity and Islam, as well as between the Muslim world and the so-called West. During the discussion, it turned out that one of the young men spoke Swedish. He worked as a civil engineer and had studied at Chalmers Polytechnic in Gothenburg. The others were also professionals: dentists, doctors and pharmacists. During our conversation, they told me that most of them had_ grown up in modest circumstances, and their parents had all been affiliated with the Naqshbandiyya order. The order had promised to take care of the children 's education and would in exchange give them religious instruction in the tradition of the order, making pious members out of them. As a consequence of this conversation, I undertook to study the social reproduction of this religious order -the strategies the order has adopted in order to respond to the development of modern society and thereby establish its position in Syria. Since that meeting in 1995, I have been collecting information about the Naqshbandiyya, primarily on the present state and status of the order in Damascus. I have also maintained contact with the order and recently, in M ay 1997, I was the guest of the Ab u al-Nur Islami c Foundation (majma' Abi al-Nıir al-IslP,miya) in the Rukn al-Din-area, a northern part of the city.ı The Abu al-Nur Islamic Foundationisa trust that has its headquarters in the Abu an-Nur mosq1;1e, and at this mosque the elderly sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, head of one branch of the Naqshbandiyya in Daınascus and the Grand mufti of Syria, performs once a week. He presents his dars (an informal serınon explaining the significance of a Qur'anic text) every Friday moming in front of about 7000 people.

TRADITIONAL Persian music, like all art of a spiritual nature, arises from Silence. Its peace and calm manifest the eternal Truth in the framework of sounds belonging to the world of forms and appearances, although that Truth itself transcends every kind of form, determination and particularization. The quiet and serenity of this music is the seal of the world of the Spirit impressed upon the countenance of the world of form. The root of every melodious sound takes shape within the depths of this vast world of Silence, a world which transcends every kind of sound although all sounds draw their existence from its life-giving power. Man himself is situated between two worlds of silence, which in a certain respect are ambiguous and unknown for him. The first is the period before birth and the second that after death. Between them human life is an instant which like a sudden cry shatters the infinite silence for a brief moment, only to become united with it. But a deeper study shows that what appears to man as nothingness, that is, the stage beyond the life of this world, is pure Being, and what is apparently being, that is, the fleeting instants of life in this material universe, is only the reflection and shadow of that transcendent Being: Man's life also is no more than noise and clamour in the face of that eternal Silence which in fact is the most profound of all music;

[peer-reviewed]
EJTS, Thematic issue: “Contemporary Sufism and the Quest of Spirituality: Transgressing Borders, Transgressing Categories”. Ed. Beatrice Hendrich [Papers held at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, WOCMES 2010, Barcelona, July 23rd 2010]

Le vendredi 27 mars 2015, le souverain du Maroc inaugurait l'Institut Mohammed-VI pour la formation des imams, morchidines et morchi-dates. Ce complexe est destiné à former non seulement les imams du royaume chérifien, mais aussi ceux de nombreux pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne et sahélienne, à la recherche d'un encadrement religieux pondéré ; celui d'un islam du « juste milieu » (al wasatiyya) dont le Maroc a voulu faire sa ligne directrice. Cet article se propose d'étudier les (re)présentations officielles de cet « islam du juste milieu » et les objectifs auxquels il répond dans le contexte politique et religieux africain actuel, avant de donner la parole à des personnes qui gravitent autour ou à l'intérieur de cet institut.

Sufi shrines hold great importance in Pakistani society. Followers of the shrines consider it sacred place and they perform different rituals there. The role of Sufis has been considered as intermediary who lead towards the path of God and success. Present study deployed qualitative research technique whereby data was drawn from 19 in-depth interviews at the Hazrat Mian Mir’s Shrine in Lahore. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the people have strong belief upon the blessings of Sufis and they visit shrine to fulfill their social, economic, physical, and spiritual needs. They believed that the late Sufis of shrine could listen, correspond and help them in multiple ways. However, some people thought otherwise. They believed the Sufi of shrine as pious ones but they did not believe upon the intermediary role of Sufis between human beings and Allah. Perceptions about myths and superstitions varied with regard to gender and level of education but majority of visitors did not believe in myths and superstitions.

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism's place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study. 1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised.

Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities.

Hallaq argues that Taha’s project departs from―but leaves behind―the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. Taha systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century―nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha’s oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha’s ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq’s conversation with Taha’s work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.

Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad (1937-2010) was a sufi leader best remembered for the controversies surrounding his eschatological teachings which led to the Malaysian government’s banning of his organization, Darul Arqam, in 1994. Loved by admirers but reviled by the state, Ashaari’s influence cut across ethnicity, nationality and religion. While the transnational dimensions of Ashaari’s activities were well-known, aspects of ethno-religious pluralism in his thought, as conveyed in a multitude of written works published independently, have mostly escaped the attention of analysts and casual observers alike. With contemporary Malaysian Islam being invariably understood via ethnically slanted lenses, it would not have occurred to most people that a Malay-Muslim religious personality would actually subscribe to pluralistic conceptions of society which are liable to be interpreted as undermining conceptions of Malay-Muslim hegemony dearly held by the ruling establishment of the day. This article seeks to bring to the fore features of Ashaari’s thought which exemplifies integration between Sufism and political realities as conditioned by nation state-defined categories.

RAPH 35 - 2013 sous la direction de giuseppe cecere, mireille loubet, samuela pagani Les mystiques juives, chrétiennes et musulmanes dans l'Égypte médiévale (vii e -xvi e siècles) interculturalités et contextes historiques Actes du colloque organisé à l'Ifao,

The common dichotomized classification of Islam in the Caucasus ("traditional" versus "fundamentalist") does not take into account all major processes taking place in the region. The Sufi-Wahhabi discourse simplifies the social interactions between Muslims and suggests homogeneity of each of these categories. In this paper I would show how the term "Wahhabi" has been employed by the local community of Muslims who live in the Georgian Pankisi gorge to express their resistance towards new and radical ideas and practices. In this social conflict, Sufi brotherhoods assume the role of the defenders of traditional order, while the reformists attempt at changing not only religious but also social structures.

Between 1910 and 1926, Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Pir-o-Murshid of the Chishtiyya order in India, introduced Sufism to the United States of America and Europe. He established a Western Sufi order, the International Sufi Movement, with groups in America, England, and across Europe. In the early 1930s this Western Sufism was introduced into Australia. The aim of this study is to explore and analyse the origins, nature and development of the Sufi Movement in Australia with particular attention to the relationship between the spiritual teacher and the disciple. The study, in its various aspects, and as a whole, makes a contribution to  understanding religious change, religion and New Religious Movements in Australia, Sufism in the West and the murshid-mureed relationship.

Using what has been termed a “dynamic of religions” framework and Baumann’s model of religious adaptation in cross-cultural circumstances, the study employs a combination of in-depth fieldwork, participant observation, interviews and historiography to identify and analyse both continuity and change in Sufi Movement groups in contemporary Australia. The study found that the early phases of transplantation from India to Europe and America, as well as the struggles within the group after the death of Inayat Khan, substantially shaped the Western Sufism that arrived in Australia. The most significant early adaptations included redefining the relationship between Sufism and exoteric Islam, gender equality, formation of a formal organisation, and the use of music to spread the Sufi Message.

Addressing issues identified in the literature on the master-disciple relationship in Eastern traditions in the West, the study describes and analyses the murshid-mureed (master-disciple, spiritual teacher-student) relationship in Inayat Khan’s time, and in contemporary Australia. It shows that Sufism’s development in the West has been interconnected with understandings and practice of this central relationship.

The study shows that the continued strength of the murshid-mureed relationship alongside emerging alternatives, the factors affecting change generally in the Sufi Movement, as well as the growing popularity of Sufism in Australia, demonstrate the need to consider not only East-West aspects of transplantation, but also the influences of modernity on spiritual traditions.

As well as documenting the Australian history, the study describes the details of the variety of practices and rituals, forms of community and organisation, and forms of the murshid-mureed relationship, found in contemporary Australian groups. This provides insight into the intricacies of Sufi practice in Australia and provides a basis for comparison with other groups. Sufi practice within these groups in Australia includes highly innovative developments alongside preservation of the tradition as taught by Inayat Khan. It also reflects a tension between the spiritual and organisational hierarchy, and concerns for democracy and local autonomy.