عصرِ حاضر کے مغربی محققین کی تصوف پر آراء اور مسلم مفکرین کے علمی جوابات

CONTEMPORARY WESTERN SCHOLARS’ VIEWS ON SUFISM AND MUSLIM THINKERS’ INTELLECTUAL RESPONSES

Abstract

In contemporary scholarship, Western intellectual traditions have revisited Islamic Sufism through diverse philosophical, historical, and psychological perspectives. Orientalist and modern Western scholars  such as Richard Hartmann, Theodor Nöldeke, Edward Browne, Reynold Nicholson, Henry Corbin, Louis Massignon, Annemarie Schimmel, William Chittick, and Carl Ernst  have presented varying interpretations of Sufism. Some regarded it as the profound essence of Islamic spirituality, while others traced its roots to non-Islamic sources such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Neo-Platonism. While appreciating the aesthetic, literary, and mystical beauty of Sufism, many Western interpretations overlooked its tawḥīdic (monotheistic) foundation and its essential relationship with the Sharī‘ah. The Orientalist paradigm often reduced Sufism to a psychological or emotional experience, detaching it from its Qur’anic and Prophetic framework.In response, several eminent Muslim thinkers and philosophers have offered comprehensive and intellectually grounded counter-interpretations. Seyyed Hossein Nasr emphasized Sufism as the manifestation of al-ḥikmah al-muta‘āliyah (the transcendent theosophy), harmonizing reason and revelation. Ismail Raji al-Faruqi highlighted its tawḥīdic consciousness, presenting Sufism as a structured moral and spiritual science rather than a mere mystical experience. Fazlur Rahman viewed it as the inner dimension of Qur’anic ethics, while Muhammad Iqbal reinterpreted Sufism through the lens of khudi (selfhood) and practical spirituality. Modern scholars such as Abdul Karim Soroush have also approached Sufism as a dynamic force for spiritual renewal in Islamic thought.

The intellectual dialogue between Western and Islamic perspectives on Sufism reveals a profound epistemological divergence. While Western epistemology tends to interpret mystical experience as a psychological or phenomenological event, Islamic knowledge situates it within the framework of divine proximity, ‘ishq-e-ḥaqīqī (true love of God), purification of the self (tazkiyah al-nafs), and moral excellence (iḥsān). Thus, the Islamic conception of Sufism transcends emotional mysticism; it integrates faith, knowledge, action, and love into a holistic spiritual worldview that reconnects human existence to its divine center and bestows universal meaning upon life and thought.