Sufism: Spirituality Society

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Sufism is commonly described as Islam’s mystical heritage, but the identification is problematic. Sufism has a mystical side, and we'll consider that in this course, but Sufism also represents Islam’s ethical heritage – and ethics always has a societal-political dimension. After all, people live their ethics in public. This course will first consider the key features of Sufism as part of the tradition in Islam – including sainthood, spiritual community, martyrdom, shrine-visitation, dreams as a source of knowledge, and, most importantly, the ethics of the heart, including the relation of the ethical life as explained by Sufism to both shari‘a (divine commands/prohibitions) and siyasa (governance). While Sufism has long been part and parcel of Islam, recent centuries have seen attacks on Sufism from within the umma (the global Muslim community). What’s the problem with Sufism according to some Muslims? What does the future of Sufism look like?