Self-Knowledge in the Sufi Tradition
We are living amid crises. The deterioration of the metaphysical universe under modernity and the current denigration of biological life at a planetary scale forces us to rethink who we are as human beings. The…
The UAE-sponsored “Islams”: Mapping the Terrain
Though we conceptualize the political and the religious as distinct, in practice, they remain very intertwined, especially in many Muslim-majority countries. Understanding one is crucial in understanding the other. In the case of Muslim-majority countries,…
Enchantment, Orientalism, and Modern Mysticism
In Charles Taylor’s magnum opus, A Secular Age, he makes a series of wonderful distinctions about the pre-modern and modern worlds. Among these is the idea that modernity entails a loss of enchantment, a move…
Rūmī’s Book Seven of the Mathnawī: Intra-Sufi Debates in the Seventeenth Century Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Sufis were often criticized for engaging in bidʿa or innovative interpretations of Islamic texts by their orthodox opponents, such as the Qāḍīzādeh ʿulamā’. In their writings, members of the Qāḍīzādeh ʿulamā’ subjected Sufi treatises…
Four Khans Everyone Must Read
The name Khan is trending. One Khan – Imran Khan – is now the PM of Pakistan, another, Sadiq Khan, is the Mayor of London, and in the US, Khizer Khan, a five star dad,…
Islam in Northwest China: An Overview of a Sino-Islamic Group, the Xidaotang
Introduction This paper aims to provide an overview of the historical and contemporary developments of the Xidaotang 西道堂 (lit. “Western Path Hall” or “Western Daotang [1]”), a Chinese Muslim community. First, I will examine the…
A Translation, Transliteration, and Commentary on Muhammad Iqbal’s “Jibreel-o Iblees”
Preface Two of the highest modes of expression developed by humankind are poetry and philosophy. The poet speaks to us through verse, and the philosopher through prose, each one inviting us into their realm of…
The Problem of “Political Sufism”
In my 2013 MA thesis entitled “Making Lite of Islam: Representations of Sufism in American Religion and the Public Sphere”, I devoted a chapter to the proceedings of the “Understanding Sufism and its Potential Role in US…
[Book Review] Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition by Omid Safi | Reviewed by Cyrus Ali Zargar.
Omid Safi. Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018). 284 pages. $25.00 hardcover | Reviewed by Cyrus Zargar. Omid Safi’s Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic…
The Love of Coffee: Letters from Istanbul and Sarajevo
Editor’s note: Published originally on erminsinanovic.com, these two posts about coffee, Islam on the edges, and Muslim culture are being re-posted here with the permission of the author, Ermin Sinanovic. (Jump to The Love of…