Scholars interested in how Sufi
ideas might speak to larger social or political issues are developing a liberatory theology of Sufi activism or “engaged Sufism”
which may be associated with the idea of an emerging progressive Islam
movements among scholars who are Muslim or Muslim sympathizers. Examples are
certain articles in Gisela Webb’s Windows of Faith and the South African Journal
of Islamic Studies dedicated to “engaged Sufism.” “The State of Islamic Studies
in American Universities”
The International Institute of
Islamic Thought, 2009
http://iiit.org/iiitftp/PDF%27s/Islamic-Studies.pdf
Retrieved on May 27, 2009
Study of Islam Section
Theme: Islam in Society
Engaged Sufism: Engaging
Embodiment, Negotiating
Gender (abstract)
Sa'diyya Shaikh,
University of Cape Town
Based on a qualitative research
study, this paper examines the varying ways that gender is articulated,
interpreted, and performed in an American Sufi community. I investigate the
manner in which interviewees invoke Sufi cosmology, and spiritual psychology in
their understandings of gender relations. I analyze prevalent understandings of
masculinity and femininity and how these are embodied and expressed within a
communal space. Without assuming linear and causal relationship between Sufism
and gender relations, I explore the interweaving relationships between Sufi
notions of spiritual cultivation and particular forms of gender praxis and
ethics. More especially this study suggests that negotiations of gender reveal
contingency and fluidity, even ambivalence and contradiction, and assume a
systemic relationship with religious, cultural and social factors. The data
also suggests ways that particular contemporary Sufi women contest gender
biases, claim social agency, and present possibilities for developing
egalitarian Islamic narratives.
American Academy of Religion, 2006
http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Past_and_Future_Meetings/2006/abstracts.asp
Retrieved on May 27, 2009
The Sufi Way is a western
"universalist" Sufi tradition, which, while not exclusively Islamic,
has deep roots in that lineage, which makes it well suited for developing
spiritually-based actions dedicated to deepening understanding between Islam
and the West. These Training Seminars will focus on developing a wide range of
approaches to spiritually-based activism. Our interest is to support the
development of an “engaged Sufism” similar to the emergence of engaged
Buddhism.
http://www.flowfunding.org/action/view_project.php
Retrieved on May 27, 2009
The project of spiritual activism in ordinary human affairs is familiar in the Sufi tradition; it is reflected in the role of many Sufi spiritual orders in public welfare networks across the Islamic world, from Morocco to Malaysia.
http://www.islamicpluralism.org/109/an-islamic-opus-dei
Retrieved on June 26, 2011
• See my collection of links on spiritual activism.
• See also my spiritual activism website for Autists.