This article describes the involvement of Majelis Zikir Tathma'innulqulub (MZT) in the local leaders election. Although this particular case occurred in the Medan city, it's also explain in general the majlis dhikr phenomenon in Indonesia's political practice. This phenomenon is interesting since the involvement of majlis dhikr is uncommon in the political world—as commonly known, sufism possess different (spiritual) orientation. The involvement can be best described as a political brand of sufism: in ritual and practice in supporting one of the local candidate. Thus, it describes the ritual of "yasinan and dhikr" from the beginning of election until the end as a "political ritual". In addition, MZT also serves as a political marketing—spiritual adviser as well as political consultant; while in the practical aspect, MZT involved in hidden and public campaign. However, the candidate supported by MZT was lost. This fact explains that political brand of sufism has no significant influence in politics practice.
When looking at the teachings of sufism, the journey to seek spirituality is often colored by reproducing dzikr and doing seclusion. This gives the view that the spirituality in sufism rely heavily on individualism and the release of any social bonds. Hence, followers of sufism should put a distance between them and their surrounding community and even their family to avoid negative influences during their self-purification. From here, a later view emerges that the teachings of sufism tend to be distant and indifferent to any social, cultural, economic, and political issues and do not have a positive contribution to the welfare of society. This vie w is not in accordance with the views of some followers of sufism. This view can be refuted by proposing one of the main concepts in the Naqshbaniyyah order, namely the principle of khalwat dar anjuman (seclusion in the crowd). By examining some of the writings that became the reference of this order to understand its meaning, it can be found that the concept is interpreted in various ways and has a wide spectrum of applications. From the watchfulness of dzikr which signifies the pressence of the heart with God even when in crowded places until the obligation of a sufi to interact actively with his society. Spirituality and social activism are not contradictory, but they fill and support each other. It can be seen later that this teaching can offer a concept to be a model of social spiritual life that is compatible to be applied in modern times to achieve and maintain one's spirituality and at the same time to contribute to the benefit of those around him.
This paper examines the role of the Arabic language in the relations between Morocco and Sub-Saharan Africa by highlighting issues such as Sufism, which was decisive in the radiance of this language in these areas whose inhabitants were basically Christian or pagan. The Sunnī Sufism imposed on Africans the need to learn and master the Arabic language, which will later be used to write the African history which has long been oral. Moroccans have played a decisive role in this regard by transmitting the literary experience since the conquest of Western Sudan by Aḥmad al-Manṣūr al-Dhahabī in 1591. Therefore, the Arabic language has increased the consolidation of bilateral relations through the cultural exchange during certain historical periods as well as through student envoys and religious disciples. These relations are evident today and developed to reach the economic and political levels by virtue of the Arabic language, the Mālikī doctrine, and the Tijānī Sufism.
This book explores the historical, religious, cultural and economic contexts of Islam in Senegal through the narrative first-hand accounts of people's everyday lives. Drawing on rich ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author over a period of seven years, the result is a critical look at Senegal's religious diversity within Islamic beliefs and practices. Containing interviews from men and women, in both rural and urban locations, this book is an important contribution to the literature on Islamic practices, providing a much-needed perspective from ordinary practitioners of the faith. It is essential reading for scholars of the anthropology of religion, Islamic studies, mysticism, African studies and development studies
Annika Lindow widmet sich in ihrer islamwissenschaftlichen Studie dem in Deutschland aktuellen Thema des ""Salafismus"". Die Salafiya ist eine Prägung des islamischen Reformismus, die sich im späten 19. Jahrhundert in Ägypten zentrierte. Ihr Ziel war es, den Islam durch eine Rückkehr zur Tradition, zum Islam der ""frommen Vorfahren"", zu erneuern. Im Zentrum ihrer Arbeit steht dabei der deutsche Prediger Pierre Vogel, der durch seine Internetauftritte berühmt geworden ist und vor allem Anhänger unter der Jugend hat; ein Phänomen, mit dem sich auch der Verfassungsschutz beschäftigt. Lindow unter.
Using Norman Fairclough's theory and method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this article seeks to reveal the hidden layers of discursive communication in Sufi language and to study textual structure of Auhaduddin Kermani's Managheb, a Persian mystic and poet of the sixth and seventh centuries. In order to achieve this purpose, the linguistic elements (nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, plural nouns, adverbs, synonyms, numbers, syntax), the structural and contextual dimensions (context and position, inversion and suspension of reality, reject criticism and questioning) and their links with the dominant discourses (the prophets, the system of caliphate and the government, the mystic elders and other texts) have been examined in three steps of description, explanation and interpretation. Finally, by comparing a common anecdote in Auhaduddin Kermani's Managheb, and Attar's Tazkirat al-Awliya, critical and comparative structural analysis of the text is discussed.
This article explores the concept of West Asia in relationship to recent work in the global history of Islam that points toward the existence of transregional arenas of historic significance that incorporate many of Asia's Muslim societies. Recent anthropological work has also brought attention to the dynamic nature of the relations and cultural connections between peoples living in regions that once formed part of expansive arenas of interaction yet were divided by imperial and national boundaries, as well as the ideological conflicts of the Cold War. Against this political and historical context, we deploy West Asia as a geographical scale that brings to light interconnected forms of life that have been silenced by traditional area studies scholarship. We compare our field work experiences with two different networks made-up of Muslims that span different axis of Muslim Asia. We argue that "West Asia" brings attention to influential connections, communities, and circulations that both bear the imprint of deeper pasts as well as the influence of emergent and shifting transregional dynamics in the present. Furthermore, by emphasizing connective dynamics that move beyond the rather conventional focus on east–west relationships, the category West Asia also encourages scholarship to highlight multiple yet hitherto little explored inter-Asian north–south connections.
During the last years of his rule Akbar both advocated and practised vegetarianism, albeit only in selected periods or dates. Existing literature, that relies mainly on Persian coeval sources, usually connects this tendency to the developments which followed the institution (1575) of the celebrated ibādat-khānā, thus confining it to the sphere of the private religious attitudes of the emperor. In my paper, that is based also on the analysis of local and regional literary sources, and on the poetical production of Avadhi Sufis, I suggest that Akbar's plea for vegetarianism should rather be interpreted as an element of a complex political strategy, aimed primarily at establishing the undisputed supremacy of the imperial authority. In a broader perspective, studies on Akbar's religious outlook are often interspersed with shades of bias. A large number of analyses focus, for instance, on the emperor's private spiritual attitudes, which brings the authors either to emphasize their bizarre or even freakish aspects;or, on the contrary, to highlight Akbar's tolerance as both a token of his innate open-mindedness and a primary source of inspiration for administrative activities. Scholars' cultural background may also be a source of prejudice: Muslim communalist historians tend to accuse Akbar of apostasy, while Indian scholars often perceive in his measures elements of protosecularism and even national identity – to the point that, as it has been observed, 'Akbar was reassessed in ways as diverse as the historians who reassessed him' (Hodgson 1974, 61). Problems in interpretation are also linked to the fact that Akbar's religious politics has generated sharply conflicting viewpoints since his very times, as it is demonstrated by the dramatic conceptual distance between the works of two of his most illustrious courtiers: in fact, while Abū al-Fażl's panegyric narrative celebrates the emperor's enlightened rule, Al-Badāoni harshly criticizes Akbar's 'heretical attacks on orthodoxy'. Another intrinsic contradiction lies in the fact that, although it is difficult to find in the history of the whole Indian subcontinent a monarch so interested in religious knowledge and personally involved in spiritual enquiries, these elements do not implicitly authorize interpretations that attribute to Akbar's religious sensibility any choice where religious issues were at stake.
This paper tries to analyse the millenarian response of the Bantenese to the Western colonization from an anthropological perspective. The history of Banten at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century was marked by various indigenous unrest, rebellion, and resistance against the colonial power. In 1888, several religious leaders of Sufi brotherhoods and community leaders in Cilegon, Banten led a revolt against the Dutch colonial government. This uprising was provoked by the Dutch's trade regulation, a new economic system, and was fuelled by enduring religious sentiments against the Dutch. While most scholars frame the event as a religious or social political movement, this study focuses on to what some of the Bantenese Muslims perceived as "unjust" social situations of the colonized world: poverty, inequality, religious restriction, social and political marginalization.
