Introduction With the Tongue of the Heart: The Role and Development of Metaphors in Sufi Literature and Practice

Abstract

ʿ Abd al-Kar ī m al-Qu š ayr ī ’ s (d. 456/1072) statement “ praiseworthy speech is talking to God with the tongue of the heart ” 1 evokes a fundamental assumption shared across the Su fi tradition: that the encounter between God and the seeker unfolds in a mode of expression not reducible to ordinary speech. This “ tongue of the heart ” signals a register in which metaphor becomes indispensable. 2 From early Su fi treatises to later poetic masterpieces, metaphorical language functions as a principal tool for artic-ulating inner states, mystical experiences, and theological insights that resist literal formulation. Across the wide range of genres produced within Su fi sm – mystical prose, didactic verses, poetry, Qur ʾ ā nic exegesis – metaphors shape the transmission of spiritual meaning and structure the conceptual vocabulary through which mystical ideas are made intelligible