Esotericism and the Quran / L'ésotérisme et le Coran (original) (raw)

Islamic and Western Esotericism

Correspondences, 2019

The field of the study of Western esotericism, as developed by scholars such as Antoine Faivre and Wouter Hanegraaff, is growing in size and importance. Most scholars of Islam, however, have shown no interest in this field. As a result, there is little understanding of the relationship between Islamic esotericism and Western esotericism, and even doubt as to whether there is such a thing as Islamic esotericism in the first place. This article seeks to make an initial contribution to remedying this. It argues that there is indeed an Islamic esotericism that matches Western esotericism very closely. The article compares Islamic and Western esotericism in terms of discourse (both discourse on the exoteric and esoteric levels), as historical phenomena in terms of origins and later contacts, and in terms of structure, that is to say in relation to established religious and political power. It concludes that Islamic esotericism matches Western esotericism in terms of discourse and historical sources, but not in terms of structure, of relations with established religious and political power structures.

The Past and Future of the Study of Islamic Esotericism

Religion Compass, 2024

The study of Islamic esotericism, particularly the concept of al-bāṭiniyya, remains fragmented. While often studied under various labels like "mysticism" and "occultism," it is widely equated to Sufism. Scholars still hesitate to use the term al-bāṭiniyya due to its historical pejorative connotations, linking it to extremist adherence to esotericism and sectarian views. Furthermore, al-bāṭiniyya has faced marginalization because of its association with narratives of Islamic civilization's decline. Even when the decline narrative is challenged, esotericism is often depicted as an "intellectual defect." This article examines the ways the "esoteric" and "esotericism" have been studied, particularly in relation to the study of Shīʿī esotericism and Sufism. It also highlights developments in the scholarship on Islam and esotericism, aiming to draw a picture of an emerging coherence in the study of "Islamic esotericism." This is explored against the backdrop of twentieth-century Islamic discourses that grappled with the place of esotericism within Islamic knowledge and pedagogy. Here, the focus is on the "Islamization of Knowledge" project and its key figures: Ismāʿīl al-Fārūqī, Syed Naquib al-Attas, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Islamic Esotericism, special issue, ed. Liana Saif Correspondences, vol. 7, no. 1 (2019)

OPEN ACCESS http://correspondencesjournal.com/volume-7/issue-1/ 1) Liana Saif. What is Islamic Esotericism? 2) W. Sasson Chahanovich. Ottoman Eschatological Esotericism: Introducing Jafr in Ps. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s The Tree of Nuʿmān (al-Shajarah al-nuʿmāniyyah) 61–108 3) Keith Cantú. Islamic Esotericism in the Bengali Bāul Songs of Lālan Fakir, 109–165 4) Michael Muhammad Knight. “I am Sorry, Mr. White Man, These are Secrets that You are Not Permitted to Learn”: The Supreme Wisdom Lessons and Problem Book 167–200 5) Biko Gray. The Traumatic Mysticism of Othered Others: Blackness, Islam, and Esotericism in the Five Percenters 201–237 6) Francesco Piraino. Esotericisation and De-esotericisation of Sufism: The Aḥmadiyya-Idrīsiyya Shādhiliyya in Italy, 239–276 7) Mark Sedgwick. Islamic and Western Esotericism 277–299 109–165

"That I Did Love the Moor to Live with Him": Islam in/and the Study of "Western Esotericism"

New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism eds Egil Asprem and Julian Strube, 2020

In recent years, the field of "Western esotericism" has been confronted by problems related to the cultural and regional demarcations it has adopted. This field is based on a longue durée narrative that underplays non-"Western" currents, including ones which, through appropriation or reactions to them, constituted major sources for it. One of the most immediate arguments against the use of the qualifier "Western" and an essentialized "West" is European en-tanglements with Islamdom. This article tackles the ambiguous place given to Islam in the narrative of "Western esotericism" and the wider intellectual and historical complex that feeds the exclusionary tendencies expressed by the "Western" in "Western esotericism." It begins by providing a historical background of the West versus East divide in order to grasp the genealogy of the discourse and locate the problems resulting from an esotericism labelled as "Western." Two major components of this narrative within which Islam is usually evoked are then highlighted: first, the sanitization of orientalist perspectives , and, second, the reliance on perennialist sources, especially the writings of Henry Corbin. Finally, the article recommends, on one level, a reflective global approach that takes into account the agency of non-Western actors in the globalization of values and concepts in modern and pre-modern eras, thus allowing us to engage in more suitable comparative practices in the study of esotericism. On another level, I have argued elsewhere that an Islamic esoteri-cism (bāṭiniyya) has a long history dating back to the ninth century at least, based on principles, epistemological paradigms, and social orientations, conceptualized and negotiated (Saif, 2019). I demonstrated there, as I do here, that this esotericism had-and still has-connections with the currents discussed in the study of "Western esotericism," especially through the Traditionalists and Sufism.

Review of Egil Asprem and Julian Strube (eds), New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism

Correspondences, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2022, pp. 457-461.

This edited volume is part of the Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion series issued by Brill in the Netherlands. It consists of an introductory chapter and an “Afterword” by the editors, Egil Asprem and Julian Strube, which frame the eleven chapters. In the introductory chapter titled “Esotericism’s Expanding Horizon: Why This Book Came to Be,” Asprem and Strube argue that they are applying “tough love” (2) to deconstruct or delegitimate the biases previously manifest in the field.