The Existential Thoughts of the Sufis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65828/0cxvqs29Abstract
The purpose of the present paper is to examine the existential foundations of the mystical tradition of Islam known as Sufism. This will be approached by means of a comparative analysis with the existential thought of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. In the first section of this paper, we provide a brief historical overview of the origins of Sufism. The second and longest section is dedicated to a comparative analysis of these two philosophies, centred on the following themes: the importance of personal experience, the nature of the self, the path to self-development and the obstacles to self-realization. It is suggested that, despite the many parallels to be drawn between these two philosophies, Sufism represents a radical philosophy of freedom that transcends even the religious mode of existence, as described by Kierkegaard.
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