In this article I propose that questions about the nature of contemporary Sufism, especially in Western contexts, can be addressed with further precision and nuance by shifting focus from Sufism’s relationship to Islam, its shari‘a, or Islamic law (fiqh). As very few questioned prior modern period, analytical shift offers advantage contextualizing debates Sufism within much richer history intra...

Many theories have been proposed to discuss Sufism in terms of its linguistic origins and role spiritual knowledge, concepts ideas, cultural influences. Both Muslim orientalist scholars offered opposing views on the beginnings Sufism. Unfortunately, Western orientalists were first research this topic, their ideas greatly influenced later scholars. This study examines how early British orientali...

This paper aims to present Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity as a Western example that reconfirms the necessity for man’s inner development up to the stage of the Completest Self (nafs-i safiyya). With the advent of Christianity and the resultant triumph of its “morality of slave” (1886, sec. 260), the “death of God” (1882) becomes the “fundamental event of Western history” and its...