Abstract: The vast majority of modern Western scholars agree that, despite differences across cultures and religious traditions, "mystical experience" can be described in light of two important categories, namely "extrovertive" and "introvertive" mystical experiences. The former emphasizes the sense of ineffability and transcendence, and the latter accentuates the role of immanent sensory...
Reviewed by: Mysticism and Ethics in Islam ed. by Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom Armando Montoya Jordán (bio) Mysticism and Ethics in Islam Eds. Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2022. 476 Pages. Is the science of ethics entirely separate from mysticism, or might mysticism be the foundation of ethics? Or, conversely,...
Abstract:This article offers a comparative analysis of the transformation of the human self in Sufism and Mahāyāna Buddhism focusing particularly on the nature and role of religious practice in human transformation. It first outlines the Qur’ānic concept of innate human nature (fiṭra) and the Sufi practice of invocation of God (dhikr, lit. “remembrance”), and explores how the practice of dhikr...
Abstract:As a generally accepted "textbook" definition in Sufism, spiritual realization (taḥqīq) from an epistemological perspective is conceived as the process of obtaining knowledge from the Real (al-ḥaqīqa) through God's guidance in order to apprehend the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) through the self without an intermediary. The "realizer" (muḥaqqiq) is the person who has come to realize the Truth...