Themes of Love in Islamic Mystical Theology

Abstract

The Qurʾ an has remained a living fount of inspiration from the outset of the tradition. Its exegesis has always been an important genre, but more than that, every approach to learning with any claim to Islamicity looks back to it. Each approach, however, is colored by its own goals and methodologies. Jurisprudence (fiqh), for example, studies the Qur ʾ an as the primary source for Islamic law and, given the importance of right practice, has played a major role in the community. Nonetheless, it has nothing to say about the Qur ʾ anic worldview, for the simple reason that jurists qua jurists have no interest in the world. Scholars who did investigate the world wrote about issues like God and his attributes, his relationship with the cosmos, his purpose in creating the universe, the unique status of human beings among creatures, the role of the prophets, the nature of salvation, and the stages of posthumous becoming. In their investigations they typically employed one of three broad methodologies—dialectical theology (kalām), philosophy, or Sufism (ta ṣawwuf) —each of which has had many different schools.