July 2, 2026
Michael Nazir-Ali
This opening chapter considers the nature of mysticism and asks whether it is, at base, the same, whatever its religious and cultural varieties, or whether there are different kinds of mystical experience which are distinct and different from one another. In this respect views on both sides are discussed, but there is a preference for Western, Muslim and Eastern Christian scholars who...
Edumania-An International Multidisciplinary Journal
July 1, 2026
Ms. Simmin Bawa, Nayana Nair, Haspreet Kaur et al.
Mysticism is the experience of direct communion with the Ultimate Reality, which can be attained through subjective experiences. However, the social discrimination and specific challenges experienced by women mystics, as compared to their male counterparts, have played pivotal roles in shaping their spiritual journeys and mystical experiences in the medieval era. The mystical experiences of...
Umm Al-Qura University Journal for Sharia Sciences and Islamic Studies
June 30, 2026
Maher Alshebl
Since its inception, Christianity has continuously engaged with mystical ideas—to varying degrees depending on the prevailing influences. Claims are falsely attributed to Christ as the founder of the foundations of mysticism, drawing upon his sayings and actions; this trajectory extends from the founding figures of altered Christianity—such as Paul—through the establishment of key mystical...
Al-Shajarah Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
June 30, 2026
Azenita Abdullah
Abstract This article reviews Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s The Mysticism of Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī as a tribute to his scholarly legacy following his recent passing. It situates the work within al-Attas’s broader intellectual project of recovering the depth and coherence of the Malay-Islamic intellectual tradition. The review examines the book’s central argument that Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī should be...
Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Technology
June 30, 2026
This paper examines Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love through a Bakhtinian framework to highlight the novel's polyphonic construction of mysticism. While the existing literature largely focuses on the Sufi sentiment and intertextual layering of the text, it often overlooks the dialogic structure which shapes the spiritual meaning. By employing Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia, chronotope...
Kanz Philosophia : A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism
June 25, 2026
Taufik Hidayatulloh, Khairil Ikhsan Siregar, Hery Purwosusanto
The crisis of religious authority, identity polarization, and informational disruption in the contemporary public sphere indicate a tension between religious truth claims and the demands of deliberate rationality within plural societies. Abdolkarim Soroush’s thought offers a conceptual distinction between religion as a transcendent reality and religious knowledge as a historical construction,...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 23, 2026
M. Mohamed Khaled, I. Mohammed Nazar, I. Vazeer Mohamed & S. Sheik Dawood
preprint
Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the most influential spiritual narratives of contemporary literature, celebrated for its philosophical insights into destiny, self-discovery, and human fulfillment. The novel chronicles the transformative journey of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd whose search for worldly treasure evolves into a profound quest for spiritual enlightenment and...
Kunduz University International Journal of Islamic Studies and Social Sciences
June 22, 2026
Khalilullah Tawhidyar, Sayyed Bashir Aalemy, Malang Jan Momand
This study examines the influence of the Persian Sufi poet Hafez on Ralph Waldo Emerson and explores Hafez’s role in shaping American Transcendentalism. When Emerson encountered Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan in 1838, he developed a sustained interest in Hafez and subsequently studied Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall’s German translation, Der Diwan von Mohammed Schemsed-din Hafis....
Theology and Science
June 11, 2026
Megan Loumagne Ulishney
ABSTRACT This essay examines the implications of methodological plurality in the sciences for interactions between the sciences and religious or theological modes of thought. It will do so by examining the rise of “Science-Engaged Theology” (SET) as a response to the existence of diversity and theoretical plurality in both the sciences and religions. The second part of the essay suggests ways...
God's Chosen People
June 4, 2026
Samuel Lebens
Abstract The Zohar, and the mystical tradition that it helped to establish, are integral parts of the Oral Torah, and yet they seem to be rife with supremacism and racism. This chapter documents this troubling phenomenon and then responds with three considerations: (1) just because we recognize that the mystical tradition is an integral part of the Oral Torah doesn’t mean that we have to accept...