From disciple to master. A study on tarbiya in three poems by Ibrāhīm Niasse

Este trabajo explora de forma diacrónica el concepto sufí de tarbiya (iniciación espiritual) a través del análisis de tres poemas del maestro sufí senegalés Ibrāhīm Niasse. En el primero de los textos, Ruḥ al-ādab (El hálito de la corte- sía), Niasse resume la doctrina de la Tijāniyya y el sufismo antes de su consolidación como maestro en 1929. El segundo texto, Nabadhat min asha‘ārnā fī tarbi- ya wa al-irshād (Advertencia sobre la tarbiya y la guía), explora el proceso de la iniciación espiritual y su metodología desde su posición de maestro sufí. En el último texto, Ṣāriman, Niasse explica las dificultades que se producen tras acceder a la gnosis. Por último, y a modo de epílogo, se incluye una observación sobre la tarbiya y la gnosis en la vida cotidiana en África Contemporánea.This paper studies diachronically the Sufi concept of tarbiya (spiritual initiation) through the analysis of three poems by the Senegalese Sufi Master Ibrāhīm Niasse. In the first text, Ruḥ al-ādab (The essence of Good Manners), Niasse resume the Tijāniyya doctrine and Sufism before his public consolidation in 1929. The second text Nabadhat min asha‘ārnā fī tarbiya wa al-irshād (Advertence about tarbiya and spiritual guide), explores the process of spiritual initiation and its methodology from his experience as Sufi Master. In the last text, Ṣāriman, Niasse explains the difficulties after access to the gnosis. Finally, we include an overview about the relationship between tarbiya and gnosis in Contemporary African quotidian life.Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (España) Programa F.P.U. ((Formación del Profesorado Universitario

Pensamiento, gnosis y resistencia en el Islam contemporáneo de África Occidental

Este artículo ofrece una introducción a la historia del sufismo en África Occidental. A la vez, se intentará desmitificar el paradigma historiográfico del Islam Noire y la supuesta heterodoxia africana frente a una pretendida ortodoxia. Nuestra tesis, es que el sufismo en África es fundamental para entender su historia y su filosofía. Para llevar a cabo esta labor se analizan distintos personajes, doctrinas y conceptos, especialmente de los últimos dos siglos.This paper offers an introduction to the history of West African Sufism. Also, we try to demystify both the historiographical paradigm of Islam Noire and the apparent African heterodoxy opposed to a sought orthodoxy. The paper argues that Sufism in Africa is fundamental to understanding its History and Philosophy. For this reason, the paper analyzes significant characters, doctrines, and concepts in the last two centuries

Five difficulties to construct the history of African philosophy

Desde la teoría postcolonial se han cuestionado los modelos de historia de las ideas impuestos por el africanismo y el orientalismo. Diferentes teóricos africanos –Bachir Diagne, Mundimbe, Wiredu o Kete Asante– han formulado diversas soluciones para superar las dificultades. Este trabajo explora las principales dificultades y las propuestas para elaborar una historia de la filosofía africana.The postcolonial theory was questioning the patterns of History of Ideas imposed by Orientalism and Africanism. Different African theorists –Bachir Diagne, Mundimbe, Kete Asante or Wiredu– developed various solutions to overcome the difficulties. This paper explores the principal challenges and proposals so as to build a History of African philosophy.Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Postgrado (AUIP)Instituto de Investigaciones Estratégicas para África y su Diáspora de la República Bolivariana de VenezuelaPrograma FPU (Formación del Profesorado Universitario) del Ministerio de Educación del Gobierno de Españ

Is Africa for Africans? An approach to the polemic between Marcel Lefebvre and Ibrahim Niasse

Este trabajo propone un acercamiento a la polémica entre Marcel Lefebvre e Ibrahim Niasse ocurrida a principios de los años 60. El Arzobispo de Dakar escribió una carta contra el Islam en África, pero Niasse defendió el carácter multicultural e integrador de éste en Senegal. La polémica no solo es interesante para la historia de las relaciones islamo-cristianas en África, sino para poder ver las constantes tensiones de la identidad senegalesa entre el papel “fantasmal” de las antiguas autoridades coloniales y las nuevas estrategias de los musulmanes africanos.This paper proposes an approach to the polemic between Marcel Lefebvre and Ibrahim Niasse in the early 60’s. The Archbishop of Dakar wrote a letter with accusations against Islam in Africa, and Niasse defended its multicultural and integrative character in Senegal. The polemics is interesting in the history of Islamic-Christian relationship, but also in the Senegalese identity between the former colonial authorities and the new strategies of the African Muslims.Programa F.P.U. (Formación del Profesorado Universitario) del Ministerio de Educación del Gobierno de EspañaFamilia de Ibrahim Niasse - Gran Mezquita de KaolackCiudad Educativa Ma'ata Maulan

Awakened vision as an initiatory experience in the ṭarīqa Tijāniyya.

In Sufism, the visionary experience (ru‘ya) is one of the main methods of acquiring profound knowledge of the Reality (ḥaqīqa). For many Sufis, this experience was an initiation in which they received a hierophanic legitimation to continue and improve their spiritual path. Among the many visionary experiences in the Islamic world, those of the ṭarīqa Tijāniyya provide excellent material for analysis because they legitimised their esoteric teaching in the contemporary world. Dreams and visions have always been a key part of this ṭarīqa and have been a source of esoteric and exoteric teachings, initiations, or status legitimation within the path. The symbolic allows us to locate on the esoteric level categories such as authority or doctrine that are often located on the exoteric level. This paper presents the role of dreams and visions in the Tijāniyya and proposes a hermeneutic analysis of the awakened vision (ru‘ya fi-l yaqẓa) as an initiatory experience in two key figures: Aḥmad Tijāni (1735-1815) and Ibrāhīm Niasse (1900-1975). The first was the founder of the ṭarīqa and, according to traditional sources, received the status of the Seal of the Saints (khātm al-awliyā’) and esoteric knowledge from the Prophet Muhammad himself in an awakened vision in Algeria. The second was the initiator of the fayḍa movement and one of the most important Sufis of the twentieth century. He gained legitimacy as a Sufi master after leading a collective vision in which he transformed himself into Aḥmad Tijāni in front of his community, thus beginning a path that transformed contemporary Sufism in West Africa.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Sufism in Latin Europe (France, Spain, Italy).

The current chapter describes global trends that affect Sufism prior to framing them in local contexts. Although the abovementioned sources of Latin European Sufism are similar across all Western countries, their outcomes often differ in diverse local settings. In order to comprehend both the complexity and common trends among different countries, we discuss Sufism in Latin Europe using eight categories: 1) De-Islamised Sufism; 2) Western esoteric Sufism; 3) Erudite Sufism; 4) Transplanted Sufism; 5) Anti-modern Sufism; 6) Fragmented Sufism; 7) Engaged Sufism; and 8) Public Sufism. These categories are ideal-types (Weber 1968) that could serve as useful instruments in comprehending multifaceted phenomena. The order in which these categories will be presented is both chronological and thematic. All of these categories are intertwined: individual Sufis and Sufi orders could shift from category to category according to the historical and geographical context, hence these categories are not fixed or exclusive. For example, the ʿAlāwiyya, founded at the beginning of the 20 th century in Algeria, developed branches in France composed of Algerian migrants—hence a transplanted Sufism, but at the same time it developed independent branches formed only by European converts that could be described as “Western esoteric Sufism”; furthermore, this Sufi order hosted and hosts several intellectuals who compose “erudite Sufism”; and finally, with the present Shaykh Bentounes it is now transnational, engaged in social and cultural activities connected to interfaith dialogue as forms of “public” Sufism.Política de acceso abierto tomada de: https://brill.com/page/41932

Knowing to transcend, dying to live. A comparison between the philosophical anthropology of Muhammad Iqbal and Ibn ʻArabī

El periodo comprendido entre la publicación en 1915 de Asrar-i Khudi (Secretos del sí-mismo) y en 1930 de The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (La reconstrucción del pensamiento religioso en el islam) supone la consolidación de la filosofía del ḫūdī (sí-mismo) en el pensamiento del filósofo indio Muhammad Iqbal. Un proyecto filosófico para el mundo islámico contemporáneo que pretendía superar, desde la aceptación de la ciencia y algunos elementos de la filosofía occidental, las limitaciones de la tradición islámica y, sobre todo, del sufismo que el autor denomina panteísta. Entre los diálogos profundos que mantiene con la tradición, Iqbal realizó uno muy especial con Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ‘Arabī (1165-1240), uno de lo más notorios místicos y filósofos del islam. Un diálogo metahistórico, en forma de crítica, que nos invita a ver las convergencias y las divergencias en aspectos metafísicos y antropológicos de ambos autores. Y, posteriormente, un re-encuentro con el sufí andalusí en el uso del símbolo y en las experiencias teofánicas, especialmente, a raíz de su obra Javid Nama (El libro de la eternidad).The period between the publication of Asrar-i Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in 1915 and The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam in 1930 marked the consolidation of the philosophy of ḫūdī (self) in the thought of the Indian philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. A philosophical project for the contemporary Islamic world, which, through the acceptance of science and certain elements of Western philosophy, sought to overcome the limitations of the Islamic tradition and above all of Sufism, which the author describes as pantheistic. Among the profound dialogues he had with tradition, Iqbal had a very special one with Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ‘Arabī (1165-1240), one of the most famous mystics and philosophers of Islam. A meta-historical dialogue in the form of a critique that invites us to see the convergences and divergences in the metaphysical and anthropological aspects of both authors. And later, a re-encounter with the Andalusian Sufi master in the use of symbols and theophanic experiences, especially from his work Javid Nama (The Book of Eternity)

The imales’ shadow. Esoteric knowledge and resistance as Islamic contribution to Latin America afro-epistemology

Este artículo contribuye a los estudios sobre la epistemología del islam en la región —y los repiensa— al explorar de qué modo este último transfundió elementos de conocimiento esotérico y de resistencia, simbólica y práctica, a una parte de la comunidad afrodescendiente. Para ello, partiremos de la historia intelectual de las contribuciones de los musulmanes esclavizados provenientes de la actual Nigeria, de etnia hausa y yoruba, durante la etapa final de la era colonial europea. Los imales, yorubiza-ción de la palabra árabe ‘alim (sabio), constituyeron una pieza muy compleja y, hoy en día, casi olvidada en la silente resistencia de los afrodescendientes americanos. Para ilustrar este asunto analizaremos dos ejemplos: la pervivencia de la memoria islámica en el oráculo de Ifá y la revolta dos malês acaecida en 1835, en la que un grupo de afro-musulmanes inició un jihad, exotérico y esotérico, contra sus amos.This article contributes to-and rethinks-studies on the epistemology of Islam in the region by exploring how Islam transfused elements of esoteric knowledge and resis-tance, symbolic and practical, into diverse groups of the Afro-descendant commu-nity. To show it, we will start from Intellectual History through the contributions of enslaved Muslims from present-day Nigeria, of Hausa and Yoruba ethnicity, during the final stage of the European colonial era. The imales, a yorubization of the Arabic word ‘alim (wise), were a very complex and, today, almost forgotten part of the silent resistance of Afro-descendants in the Americas. To illustrate this issue, we will take two examples: the survival of the Islamic memory in the oracle of Ifá, and the revolta dos males, that took place in 1835, where a group of Afro-Muslims started a jihad, exoteric and esoteric, against their masters

La sura de la Caverna como diálogo intercultural y metahistórico en el Corán

The Sura of The Cave (al-Kahf) is one of the most vibrant and fascinating symbolic spaces in the whole Qur'anic text. This sura brings together four major symbolic and cross-cultural narratives with clear references to the Jewish tradition (Mishna, Talmud), the classical world (the Sleepers of Ephesus, Alexander the Great) and late antiquity (the visions of the Syrian world) in a purely cross-cultural context. Narratives that transcend from the historical to the metahistorical, elaborated in a kairological time and that lead the reader to reflect on the triumph of the symbolic, the problem of evil and the unfathomability of divine decisions. The aim of this paper is to reflect philosophically on how all these elements become a profound intercultural and metahistorical dialogue within the Qur'anic prophetic experience that the believer relives in his reading.La sura de La Caverna (al-Kahf) es uno de los espacios simbólicos más vibrantes y fascinantes de todo el texto coránico. Esta sura recoge cuatro grandes narraciones simbólicas e interculturales con claras referencias a la tradición judía (Mishná, Talmud), al mundo clásico (los durmientes de Éfeso, Alejandro Magno) y a la antigüedad tardía (las visiones del mundo siriaco) en un contexto puramente intercultural. Unas narraciones que trascienden desde lo histórico hacia lo metahistórico, elaboradas en un tiempo kairológico y que conducen al lector a reflexionar sobre el triunfo de lo simbólico, el problema del mal y la insondabilidad de las decisiones divinas. Sobre este contexto, el objetivo de esta ponencia es reflexionar filosóficamente sobre cómo todos estos elementos se convierten en un profundo diálogo intercultural y metahistórico dentro la experiencia profética coránica que revive el creyente en su lectura