Beyond the Sharia-Mysticism Divide: Wali Agency and the Vernacularization of Islam in Javanese Manuscripts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Teosofi: Jurnal Tasawuf dan Pemikiran Islam June 1, 2026 Abdul Djamil, Akhmad Arif Junaidi
Existing scholarship on Javanese Islamic mysticism tends to portray the Javanese saints (wali) as firm proponents of Sharia who systematically opposed mystical practice. The article challenges that characterization by examining the present and development of mystical tendencies in Javanese Islamic texts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing on hermeneutic and historical...