Document Type : Original Research

Authors

• Alireza Kadkhodaei ¹
• Mahdi Lakzaei ²

¹ Ph. D. Candidate in Mysticism, Department of Islamic Mysticism, Imam Khomeini and Islamic Revolution Research Institute, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Non-Abrahamic Religions, University of Religions & Denominations, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Michael Anthony Sells (1949) is a professor at the University of Chicago's School of Theology and one of the eminent scholars in the field of mysticism. He believes that Muslim mystics have been influenced by intellectual-philosophical, cultural-poetic, ḥadīth-Quranic, and theological traditions in explaining their mystical experiences. In “bewildered tongue” (1989), Sells tries to highlight five examples of the language worlds related to these traditions and shows the similarity of the Sufis’ language with their traditional-religious backgrounds, especially in terms of mystical union and passing away (Fanāʾ). These language worlds are as follows: poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia; theological (Kalam) terminology; ḥadīth and Qur'anic language regarding ascent through the heavenly spheres to the divine throne (Miʿrāj); ḥadīth of superogatory devotions (al-nawāfil) and the Sufi "bewildered dialogues" of union in which distinctions between subject and object, speaker and hearer, begin to melt, and finally, the later philosophical language of Ibn Arabi (mystical dialectic) to explain the mystical unity. This paper, using a descriptive-analytical method, first explains the ideas of Sells in his aforementioned work and then evaluates them. Regarding the research material, his work has failed to cover some important ḥadīths and Quranic verses, and from a formal perspective, besides referring to some weak manuscripts, some of his translations are not precise. Nevertheless, the author’s comparative approach to Abrahamic religions and his profound knowledge of Arabic literature and poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia are among the positive features of the work, which have greatly helped Sells in explaining the language of mystical experience in Islam.

Keywords

• mystical union
• passing away (fanāʾ)
• sufism
• bewildered tongue
• Michael Sells