The Kitab Al-Mawaqif by Al-Niffary (tenth Century) is an illustrative example of Sufi consciousness immersion in Koran. The result of such immersion in the Sacred Islamic Text is an original mystical language, which abounds in poetic expressions. Diversity of the poetic expressions of al-Niffary points at logical impossibility of verbal expression of communication mystery with the Supreme Entity.
This chapter explores Kenan Gürsoy’s attempted comparison between Islamic mysticism (tasavvuf) and twentieth century French existentialism. Kenan Gürsoy is a contemporary Turkish thinker whose recent book entitled Etik ve Tasavvuf (English: Ethics and Tasavvuf ) explores similarities as well as differences between the two perspectives mentioned above. The present chapter is a sympathetic...
Ibn Gabirol (c.1021–c.1058), Rumi (1207–1273), and Rilke (1875–1926) each produced poetry that reflected what might be called mysticism. Some of the poetry of Ibn Gabirol and Rumi has in fact been incorporated for liturgical and devotional purposes. Rilke’s poetry, reflecting the challenges of the modern world, has been interpreted and alluded to by many artists, writers, and musicians. Ibn...