Related Research Articles
Sufism is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification,spirituality,ritualism,and asceticism.
Liberalism and progressivism within Islam involve professed Muslims who have created a considerable body of progressive thought about Islamic understanding and practice. Their work is sometimes characterized as "progressive Islam". Some scholars,such as Omid Safi,differentiate between "progressive Muslims" versus "liberal advocates of Islam". Liberal Islam originally emerged out of the Islamic revivalist movement of the 18th–19th centuries. Liberal and progressive ideas within Islam are considered controversial by some traditional Muslims,who criticize liberal Muslims on the grounds of being too Western and/or rationalistic.
Annemarie Schimmel was an influential German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam,especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.
Fakhr al-Din Iraqi was a Persian Sufi poet of the 13th-century. He is principally known for his mixed prose and poetry work,the Lama'at,as well as his divan,most of which were written in the form of a ghazal.
The Progressive Muslim Union of North America (PMU) was a liberal Islamic organization. The group officially launched on November 15,2004,in Manhattan but was disbanded in December 2006.
The Progressive Muslim Union (PMU) is the result of almost two years of conversation and collaboration between a group of North American Muslims who are committed to representing and renewing our community in all its social,ideological and political diversity. PMU members range from deeply religious to totally secular,sharing in common a commitment to learning,political and social empowerment,a commitment to justice and freedom and a concern and love for the Muslim community.
AbūYazīd Ṭayfūr bin ʿĪsābin Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī),commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Basṭāmī,was a Persian Sufi from north-central Iran. Known to future Sufis as Sultān-ul-Ārifīn,Bisṭāmīis considered to be one of the expositors of the state of fanā,the notion of dying in mystical union with Allah. Bastami was famous for "the boldness of his expression of the mystic’s complete absorption into the mysticism." Many "ecstatic utterances" have been attributed to Bisṭāmī,which lead to him being known as the "drunken" or "ecstatic" school of Islamic mysticism. Such utterance may be argued as,Bisṭāmīdied with mystical union and the deity is speaking through his tongue. Bisṭāmīalso claimed to have ascended through the seven heavens in his dream. His journey,known as the Mi'raj of Bisṭāmī,is clearly patterned on the Mi'raj of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Bisṭāmīis characterized in three different ways:a free thinking radical,a pious Sufi who is deeply concerned with following the shari'a and engaging in "devotions beyond the obligatory," and a pious individual who is presented as having a dream similar to the Mi'raj of Muhammed. The Mi'raj of Bisṭāmīseems as if Bisṭāmīis going through a self journey;as he ascends through each heaven,Bisṭāmīis gaining knowledge in how he communicates with the angels and the number of angels he encounters increases.
William Clark Chittick is an American philosopher,writer,translator,and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts. He is best known for his work on Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi,and has written extensively on the school of Ibn 'Arabi,Islamic philosophy,and Islamic cosmology. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam in which Muslims seek divine love and truth through direct personal experience of God. This mystic tradition within Islam developed in several stages of growth,emerging first in the form of early asceticism,based on the teachings of Hasan al-Basri,before entering the second stage of more classical mysticism of divine love,as promoted by al-Ghazali and Attar of Nishapur,and finally emerging in the institutionalized form of today's network of fraternal Sufi orders,based on Sufis such as Rumi and Yunus Emre. At its core,however,Sufism remains an individual mystic experience,and a Sufi can be characterized as one who seeks the annihilation of the ego in God.
Abu Muhammad Sheikh Ruzbehan Baqli (1128–1209) was a Persian poet,mystic,teacher and sufi master. He wrote about his own life as well as published commentaries on Sufi poets and ideas.
A Sheikh or shaykh,of Sufism is a Sufi who is authorized to teach,initiate and guide aspiring dervishes in the Islamic faith. He has laid all his worldly desires to rest thru the one intense desire for knowing the love of God his beloved. The sheik is vital to the path of the novice Sufi,for the sheik has himself travelled the path of mysticism. Viewed as the spiritual master,the sheik forms a formal allegiance (bay'a) to the disciple of Sufism and authorizes the disciple's travels and helps the disciple along the mystical path. Islamic tradition focuses on the importance of chains and legitimization. In Sufism,sheiks are connected by a continuous spiritual chain. This chain links every previous Sufi sheik,and eventually can be traced back to the Successors,and in later times to the Prophet himself. As Sufism grew,influential shayks began to acquire spiritual centers and waypoints known as khanqah,ribat,and zaouia. Sheikhs duplicate the Prophetic realities,and are also expected to perform and act as an intermediary between the Creator and the created,since the sheikh has arrived close to God through his meditations and spiritual travels. There are several types of such sheikh.
Carl W. Ernst is the William R. Kenan,Jr.,Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Islamic studies at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was also the founding director (2003-2022) of the UNC Center for Islamic and Middle East Studies.
Islam:The Straight Path is an Islamic studies book that aims to give an introduction to Islam. The book,authored by John Esposito,was first published in 1988 by the Oxford University Press.
Hajj Muhammad Legenhausen is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at the Imam Khomeini's Educational and Research Institute.
Sufism has a history in India evolving for over 1,000 years. The presence of Sufism has been a leading entity increasing the reaches of Islam throughout South Asia. Following the entrance of Islam in the early 8th century,Sufi mystic traditions became more visible during the 10th and 11th centuries of the Delhi Sultanate and after it to the rest of India. A conglomeration of four chronologically separate dynasties,the early Delhi Sultanate consisted of rulers from Turkic and Afghan lands. This Persian influence flooded South Asia with Islam,Sufi thought,syncretic values,literature,education,and entertainment that has created an enduring impact on the presence of Islam in India today. Sufi preachers,merchants and missionaries also settled in coastal Gujarat through maritime voyages and trade.
Richard Foltz is a Canadian historian who specializes in the history of Iranian civilization —sometimes referred to as "Greater Iran". He has also been active in the areas of environmental ethics and animal rights.
The khirqa is the initiatory cloak of the Sufi chain of spirituality,with which esoteric knowledge and barakah is passed from the Murshid or the Shaikh to the aspirant murid. The khirqa initiates an aspirant into the silsilah,the chain or lineage of sheikhs that goes back to the Islamic prophet,Muhammad S.A.W.. This chain serves as the channel through which barakah flows from the source of spiritual revelation to the being of the initiate.
Ebrahim Moosa is the Mirza Family Professor of Islamic Thought &Muslim Societies at the University of Notre Dame with appointments in the Department of History and in the Kroc Institute for International Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs. He is co-director of the Contending Modernities program at Notre Dame. He was previously Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies at Duke University. He is considered a leading scholar of contemporary Muslim thought. Moosa has been named as one of the top 500 Influential Muslims in the World.
Nāṣir ad-Dīn ʿUbaydullāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Shihāb ad-Dīn more popularly known as Khwaja Ahrar was a member of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi spiritual order of Central Asia. He was born in Samarkand,a city in Central Asia,to a Muslim family. He was born to Khwaja Mehmood Shashi bin Khwaja Shihabuddin. His forefathers had migrated from Baghdad,and his lineage was connected to Abu Bakr Siddique from his paternal side and Umar Farooq from the maternal side. Khwaja Ahrar was deeply involved in the social,political and economics activities of Transoxania. He was born into a relatively poor yet highly spiritual family and,at the age of maturity,he was probably the richest person in the kingdom. He was a close associate of all the leading dervishes of the time. Maulana Abdur Rahman Jami was a disciple of his. He learned and practiced the secrets of spirituality under his father and later under Khwaja Yaqub Charkhi.
Sa'diyya Shaikh is a South African scholar of Islam and feminist theory. She is a professor of religion at the University of Cape Town. Shaikh studies Sufism in relation to feminism and feminist theory. Shaikh is known for work on gender in Islam and 'Ibn Arabi.
Sufism has a history in the Philippines evolving for over 1,000 years. Sufism,also known as the science of Tasawwuf,encompasses numerous interpretations by its practitioners and critics. The term is derived from the Arabic words "Safa" (purity) and "Suwf" (wool),symbolizing the woolen garments traditionally worn by Sufis. Essentially,Tasawwuf is the science of Ihsan,focusing on the purification of the self for the love of Allah. This involves following specific Tariqas,practices,and litanies. Tariqas in Sufism can be compared to spiritual orders in Catholicism,such as the Jesuits,Franciscans,and Dominicans. Numerous Tariqas exist in the Philippines today,with followers spread across the country,although they have faced opposition from Wahhabis despite the Sufis' peace-loving nature. The presence of Sufism has been a leading entity increasing the reaches of Islam throughout South Asia.
References
- ↑ Columnist Profile; On Being.org; 2015
- ↑ "Omid safi | Duke University - Academia.edu".
- 1 2 3 Kevin Eckstrom (November 27, 2009). "Islam's warrior prophet shrouded by myth, devotion". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
- 1 2 Edward E. Curtis IV (2 September 2009). Muslims in America : A Short History: A Short History. Oxford University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-19-971014-0 . Retrieved 21 April 2013.
- ↑ Jones, Robert P. (July 25, 2008). Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 224. ISBN 978-0-7425-6230-1.
Omid Safi is the most widely recognized leader of the progressive Muslim movement
- ↑ Omid Safi (2003). "What is Progressive Islam?" (PDF). ISIM Newsletter. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
- ↑ Martin Van Bruinessen; Julia Day Howell (15 October 2007). Sufism and the 'Modern' in Islam. I.B.Tauris. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-85043-854-0 . Retrieved 21 April 2013.
