Religious Experience in Relation to Sufism

Abstract

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the study of religion was largely centered around the idea that a specific type of personal experience lies at the core of all religious traditions. However, recent scholarship has questioned this notion highlighting the limitations it poses to the study of religion and its separation from social and cultural contexts. This article questions the exclusiveness of the Western concept of religious experience using Sufism as a case study. The article argues that the Sufi understanding of religious experience, deeply rooted in Islamic doctrinal and practical foundations, includes some elements consistent with the Western romantic interpretation of experience. For this I will explore Sufi practices examining both their historical development and mystical content and outlining the possible characteristics of the Islamic Sufi perspective on communication with and experience of the divine.