Reading the self through a hermeneutic of divine immanence

a case study of Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi

Authors

  • Rose Deighton-Mohammed Emory University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22475

Keywords:

body, sufism, gender, nafs, islam, immanence, mysticism, embodiment

Abstract

Research in the field of Sufism and gender attests to the patriarchal and elite male foundations of the tradition. Scholars highlight how patriarchal renderings of Sufism emphasize divine transcendence and frame Sufi training of the self (nafs) through punitive mechanisms. Through a case study of Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi, the grand Shaykha (Sufi guide) of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi community, this article explores approaches to Sufism that resist its patriarchal formulations. Shaykha Fariha’s teachings about the self, Sufi training methods, and pedagogical relationships show critical reflection on the effects of patriarchy on individuals with varying social and embodied experiences. She resists patriarchy by engaging in a hermeneutic of divine immanence, a multi-faceted
way of interpreting the body and material elements of creation as the divine immanent. This article demonstrates scenarios in which a hermeneutic of divine immanence informs Shaykha Fariha’s pedagogy and her approach to training the self through embodied self-exploration.

Author Biography

  • Rose Deighton-Mohammed, Emory University

    Rose Deighton-Mohammed is a scholar of Sufism and Gender who researches contemporary Sufi teachers who practice embodied feminist pedagogy. Deighton-Mohammed is dedicated to survivor-centered research on religious abuse in Sufism and community-based efforts to prevent and address this abuse. She is currently a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Emory University and the Director of the LINC Initiative (Learning through Inclusive Collaboration) funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

References

Abdel-Latif, S. A. (2020) Gendering asceticism in medieval Sufism. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.

Abdel-Latif, S. A. (2021) Narrativizing early mystic and Sufi women: mechanisms of gendering in Sufi hagiographies. In L. Ridgeon (ed.) Routledge Companion to Sufism 132–45. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315175348-11

Ayubi, Z. (2019) Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/ayub19132

Ayubi, Z. (2020) De-universalizing male normativity: feminist methodologies for studying masculinity in premodern Islamic ethics texts. Journal of Islamic Ethics 4: 66–97. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685542-12340044

Bashir, S. (2011) Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/bash14490

Butler, J. (1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.

Cornell, R. (2007) The soul of a woman was created below: woman as the lower soul (nafs) in Islam. In J. de Gort (ed.) Probing the Depths of Good and Evil: Multireligious Views and Case Studies. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Cornell, R. (2012) The Muslim Diotima? Traces of Plato’s Symposium in Sufi narratives of Rab'ia al‘Adawiyya. In K. Corrigan (ed.) Religion and Philosophy in the Platonic and Neoplatonic Traditions 234–56. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.

Cornell, R. (2019) Rabia from Narrative to Myth: The Many Faces of Islam’s Most Famous Woman Saint, Rab'ia al-‘Adawiyya. Oxford: Oneworld Academic.

Deighton, R. (2020) Performing Sufi masculinity by transcending embodiment in Ibn 'Ata' Allah’s kitab al-hikam. Journal of Islamic Ethics 4: 98–127. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685542-12340046

Deighton, R. (2021) Rearticulating drunkenness and sobriety: Epistemology and literary embodiment in the Shathiyat of Abu Bakr al-Shibli and Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s Hikam. Religion Compass 15(6): 1–13.

Dickson, W. R. (2015) Living Sufism in North America: Between Tradition and Transformation. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hernández-González, C. (2019) The Nur Ashki Jerrahi Tariqah in Mexico City: a branch from Istanbul’s Halveti Jerrahi Tariqah. International Journal of Latin American Religion 3: 68–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-019-00070-6

Hixon, L. (1983) Turning Inward. Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 1 October 2020 from https://vimeo.com/58979168

Hixon, L. (1988) The Heart of the Qur’an: An Introduction to Islamic Spirituality. Wheaton: Quest Books.

Hixon, L. (1993) Atom from the Sun of Knowledge. Westport: Pir Press.

al-Jerrahi, Fariha (2017) Can You Expand on the Idea of the Body as a Model that Honors Inclusion and Respects Diversity Within it? Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 14 June 2021 from https://vimeo.com/thesufilodge

al-Jerrahi, Fariha (2019) Closer to You than Your Jugular Vein. Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 21 October 2020 from https://vimeo.com/thesufilodge

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Don’t get Discouraged. Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved July 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/dont-get-discouraged

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Magnanimity (Muruwwat). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved June 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-two-magnanimity-muruwwat

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Contrition (Inabat). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-three-contrition-inabat

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Desire (Iradat). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 5 December 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-five-desire-iradat

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Intention (Qasd). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved July 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-six-intention-qasd

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Striving (Jihad). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved May 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-eight-striving-jihad

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Self-Examination (Muhasaba). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved September 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-eleven-self-examination-muhasaba

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Awakening (Yaqzat). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved July 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-twelve-awakening-yaqzat

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Renunciation and Asceticism (Zuhd). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved July 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-thirteen-renunciation-and-asceticism-zuhd

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Abstinence (Wara'). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 5 December 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-fifteen-abstinence-wara

al-Jerrahi, Fariha. Cautiousness (Mubalat). Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order. Retrieved 5 December 2019 from http://nurashkijerrahi.org/field-eighteen-cautiousness-mubalat

al-Jerrahi, Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak (1988) Irshad: Wisdom of a Sufi Master. Westport: Pir Press.

Landorf, B. (2020) Embodying asceticism: masculinity, manliness, and the male body in Muhammad al-'Arabi al-Darqawi’s Majmu' Rasa'il. Journal of Islamic Ethics 4(1–2): 128–54. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685542-12340049

Malamud, M. (1996) Gender and spiritual self-fashioning: the master-disciple relationship in classical Sufism. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64(1): 89–117. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LXIV.1.89

Rausch, M. (2009) Encountering Sufism on the web: two Halveti Jerrahi paths and their missions in the USA. In C. Raudvere and L. Stenberg (eds) Sufism Today 159–176. London: Tauris. https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755625109.0015

Rozehnal, R. (2019) Cyber Sufis: Virtual Expressions of the American Muslim Experience. London: Oneworld.

Salamah-Qudsi, A. S. (2011) A lightning trigger or a stumbling block: mother images and roles in classical Sufism. Oriens 39(3): 203–4. https://doi.org/10.1163/187783711X588114

Schimmel, A. (1997) My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam. New York: Continuum.

Shaikh, Sa’diyya (2012) Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender, and Sexuality. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. https://doi.org/10.5149/9780807869864_shaikh

Shaikh, Sa’diyya (2013a) Feminism, epistemology and experience: criticially (en)gendering the study of Islam. Journal of Islamic Studies 33: 14–47.

Shaikh, Sa’diyya (2013b) Sexing Islamic theology: theorising women’s experience and gender through ‘abd-Allah and khalifah. Journal of Islamic Studies 33: 127–50.

Shaikh, Sa’diyya (2015) Ibn 'Arabi and how to be human. Critical Muslim 13: 91–108.

Sharify-Funk, M., Dickson, W. R., and Xavier, M. S. (2018) Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.

Silvers, L. (2003) The teaching relationship in early Sufism: a reassessment of Fritz Meier’s definition for the Shaykh al-Tarbiya and the Shaykh al-Ta'lim. Muslim World 93(1): 69–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-1913.00015

Silvers, L. (2013) Muslim ritual prayer, social submission, and embodied dissonance. Feminism & Religion, 14 October. Retrieved 5 December 2019 from https://feminismandreligion.com/2013/10/14/prayer-embodied-dissonance

Silvers, L. (2014) Early, pious, mystic Sufi women. In L. Ridgeon (ed.) Cambridge Companion to Sufism 24–52. London: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139087599.004

Tourage, M. (2020) Studying Sufism beyond orientalism, fundamentalism, and perennialism. In M. Daneshgar (ed.) Deconstructing Islamic Studies 313–37. Boston: Ilex Foundation.

Xavier, M. S., and Dickson, W. R. (2020) Between Islam and the New Age: the Jerrahi Order and categorical ambiguity in the study of Sufism in North America. Religion Compass 15(1): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12383

Zargar, C. A. (2020) Virtue and manliness in Islamic ethics. Journal of Islamic Ethics 4(1–2): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685542-12340047

Published

2023-05-16

How to Cite

Deighton-Mohammed, R. (2023). Reading the self through a hermeneutic of divine immanence: a case study of Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi. Body and Religion, 6(1), 94-115. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22475