The Epistemology of Islamic Mysticism: A Critical and Constructive Engagement with Sufi Knowledge Traditions

Abstract

This paper discusses the epistemology of Islamic Sufism (tasawwuf), that is, what the Sufis say they know, how they say they know it, and whether or not they are correct. The paper does not assume that Sufi epistemology is a doctrine that has been fully established, but rather a contested area of study, one that has been influenced not only by opposition from jurists and philosophers, but by internal differences. It shows the difference between ma'rifah, discursive knowledge, and ma'rifah, experiential knowledge, and the disciplines Sufis used to attain ma'rifah, and traces the evolution of Sufi thought from al-Junayd and al-Hallaj to al-Ghazali and Ibn al-’Arabi and the later controversy between the wahdat al-wujud and the wahdat al-shuhud. After which, it engages in a dialogue with Ash'ari and Mu'tazili kalam, with the falsafa tradition, and with Greek and later European traditions of mystical knowledge, and then in a critical discussion of the recurrent objections: how to validate one's private experience, the accusation of social withdrawal, and the question of whose voice is preserved as authoritative. Finally, the paper reflects on the potential of this tradition beyond itself and what it still has to offer, and on the spaces it must fill in a more comprehensive investigation.

The concept of ma’rifah (knowledge) and its relation to epistemology, Islamic intellectual history, Islamic mysticism, Sufism, and wahdat al-wujud (unity of being) are introduced and discussed in relation to the work of the Islamic mystic Ibn al-’Arabi.