Sufis and Saints' Bodies

Sufis and Saints' Bodies PDF Author: Scott Kugle
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807872776
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Islam is often described as abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power. Sufis and Saints' Bodies focuses on six important saints from Sufi communities in North Africa and South Asia. Kugle singles out a specific part of the body to which each saint is frequently associated in religious literature. The saints' bodies, Kugle argues, are treated as symbolic resources for generating religious meaning, communal solidarity, and the experience of sacred power. In each chapter, Kugle also features a particular theoretical problem, drawing methodologically from religious studies, anthropology, studies of gender and sexuality, theology, feminism, and philosophy. Bringing a new perspective to Islamic studies, Kugle shows how an important Islamic tradition integrated myriad understandings of the body in its nurturing role in the material, social, and spiritual realms.

Sufis and Saints' Bodies

Sufis and Saints' Bodies PDF Author: Scott Kugle
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807872776
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book

Book Description
Islam is often described as abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power. Sufis and Saints' Bodies focuses on six important saints from Sufi communities in North Africa and South Asia. Kugle singles out a specific part of the body to which each saint is frequently associated in religious literature. The saints' bodies, Kugle argues, are treated as symbolic resources for generating religious meaning, communal solidarity, and the experience of sacred power. In each chapter, Kugle also features a particular theoretical problem, drawing methodologically from religious studies, anthropology, studies of gender and sexuality, theology, feminism, and philosophy. Bringing a new perspective to Islamic studies, Kugle shows how an important Islamic tradition integrated myriad understandings of the body in its nurturing role in the material, social, and spiritual realms.

Sufis & Saints' Bodies

Sufis & Saints' Bodies PDF Author: Scott Kugle
Publisher: Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Limited
ISBN: 9788121512046
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Islam is often described as particularly abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power.

Sufi Bodies

Sufi Bodies PDF Author: Shahzad Bashir
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231144911
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
"Bashir weaves a rich history of Sufi Islam around the depiction of bodily actions in Sufi literature and miniature paintings produced circa 1300-1500 CE. Focusing on the Persianate societies of Iran and Central Asia, he explores medieval Sufis' conception of the human body as the primary shuttle between interior (batin) and exterior (zahir) realities with particular attention to three arenas: religious activity in the form of rituals, rules of etiquette, asceticism, and a universal hierarchy of saints; the deep imprint of Persian poetic paradigms on the articulation of love, desire, and gender; and the reputation of Sufi masters for working miracles, which empowered them in all domains of social activity. Bashir ultimately offers a new methodology for extracting historical information from religious narratives"--Cover p. [4].

Muhammad's Body

Muhammad's Body PDF Author: Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469658925
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Muhammad's Body introduces questions of embodiment and materiality to the study of the Prophet Muhammad. Analyzing classical Muslim literary representations of Muhammad's body as they emerge in Sunni hadith and sira from the eighth through the eleventh centuries CE, Michael Muhammad Knight argues that early Muslims' theories and imaginings about Muhammad's body contributed in significant ways to the construction of prophetic masculinity and authority. Knight approaches hadith and sira as important religiocultural and literary phenomena in their own right. In rich detail, he lays out the variety of ways that early believers imagined Muhammad's relationship to beneficent energy—baraka—and to its boundaries, effects, and limits. Drawing on insights from contemporary theory about the body, Knight shows how changing representations of the Prophet's body helped to legitimatize certain types of people or individuals as religious authorities, while marginalizing or delegitimizing others. For some Sunni Muslims, Knight concludes, claims of religious authority today remain connected to ideas about Muhammad's body.

A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Aḣmad Al-ʻAlawī

A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Aḣmad Al-ʻAlawī PDF Author: Martin Lings
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520021747
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description


Realm of the Saint

Realm of the Saint PDF Author: Vincent J. Cornell
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029278970X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 650

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Book Description
In premodern Moroccan Sufism, sainthood involved not only a closeness to the Divine presence (walaya) but also the exercise of worldly authority (wilaya). The Moroccan Jazuliyya Sufi order used the doctrine that the saint was a "substitute of the prophets" and personification of a universal "Muhammadan Reality" to justify nearly one hundred years of Sufi involvement in Moroccan political life, which led to the creation of the sharifian state. This book presents a systematic history of Moroccan Sufism through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries C.E. and a comprehensive study of Moroccan Sufi doctrine, focusing on the concept of sainthood. Vincent J. Cornell engages in a sociohistorical analysis of Sufi institutions, a critical examination of hagiography as a source for history, a study of the Sufi model of sainthood in relation to social and political life, and a sociological analysis of more than three hundred biographies of saints. He concludes by identifying eight indigenous ideal types of saint that are linked to specific forms of authority. Taken together, they define sainthood as a socioreligious institution in Morocco.

Sufism and Saint Veneration in Contemporary Bangladesh

Sufism and Saint Veneration in Contemporary Bangladesh PDF Author: Hans Harder
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136831894
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Focusing on the Maijbhandari movement in Chittagong, south-eastern Bangladesh, which claims the status of the only Sufi order originated in Bengal and which has gained immense popularity in recent years, this book provides a comprehensive picture of an important aspect of contemporary Bengali Islam in the South Asian context. Expertise in South Asian languages and literatures is combined with ethnographic field work and theoretical formulations from a range of disciplines, including cultural anthropology, Islamic studies and religious studies. Analysing the Maijbhandaris tradition of Bengali spiritual songs, one of the largest popular song traditions in Bengal, the book presents an in-depth study of Bengali Sufi theology, hagiography and Maijbhandari esoteric songs, as well as a discussion of what Bengali Islam is. It is a useful contribution to South Asia Studies, as well as Islamic Studies.

Mystics and Saints of Islam

Mystics and Saints of Islam PDF Author: Claud Field
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Muslim saints
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description


Ibn 'Ata' Allah, Muslim Sufi Saint and Gift of Heaven

Ibn 'Ata' Allah, Muslim Sufi Saint and Gift of Heaven PDF Author: Abu Bakr Sirajuddin Cook
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144387387X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The Shadhiliyya Sufi Order gave the Muslim world, and those that are interested in Sufism, the inside workings of the great masters Abu’l Hassan al-Shadhili and Abu l-’Abbas al-Mursi. Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah, also a master of the Shadhiliyya Order, is the author of many volumes. His works occupy a unique position within the history of Sufism and have been read consistently since their composition. Yet, despite their enduring popularity, to date there has been no systematic and through analysis of his worldview. This book is the first study to highlight the constant interconnections between Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s works. It uses a scaffold approach to develop an understanding of Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s Sufism and his commitment to Islam, building from his metaphysics of Oneness (tawhid) and covering domains such as ontology, epistemology, eschatology, and ethics. While the bulk of this work covers the worldview of Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah, it begins more generally with some comments on the need for reappraising approaches to Sufism and its relation to Islam. Accessible for anyone interested in Sufism, this work will appeal to scholars of religion in general and Islam in particular.

Sufi Saints of East and West

Sufi Saints of East and West PDF Author: Sadhu T.L. Vaswani
Publisher: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd
ISBN: 9788120723603
Category : Sufis
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This rare and remarkable book brings together the life and teachings of eight torch-bearers of Sufism -- among them Rabia, Abu Hasan, Junnuna Misri and Sachal. An inspired and elevating work from the pen of Sadhu Vaswani, the book offers us the distilled wisdom and devotion of Sufism. The Sufi saints can indeed teach us valuable truths that will help us discover the true meaning and purpose of our life upon this earth.