Critical Muslims in the context of critiques of 'Religion' as an analytical category

Here is a cross-link to my guest contribution to the blog maintained by the Critical Religion Association at the University of Stirling:

Critical  Muslims by Carool Kersten

seeks to understand what we are thinking about when we think about religion: for example, why has much of western culture identified one particular kind of ritual as ‘religious’ whilst other kinds of ritual are seen as ‘secular’ (such as military parades). Not all cultures make these divisions, but the dominance of western cultural norms around the world from the colonial era onwards has impacted in profound ways on how people globally think about these issues. Critical Religion examines religion from a positive critical standpoint, with a view to showing how open to re-interpretation or re-conceptualisation the term ‘religion’ is today in our intellectual, social, and cultural spheres. We try to do this in ways that seek out and identify the limits of the language we employ so that we can move beyond these limiting terms and concepts.

Seek 

Critical Muslims - showcasing new and creative ideas and thinkers from the Muslim world

Dariush Shayegan & Abdolkarim Soroush

After a long period of neglect, the Critical Muslims blog is given a new lease of life with posts on two Iranian thinkers: The late Dariush Shayegan, who passed away this Spring, and Abdolkarim Soroush, currently one of the most renowned philosophers from Iran.
    

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Abdolkarim Soroush on Rumi, Sufism and Pluralism in the Muslim World

In a recent interview, Abdolkarim  Soroush (*1946), Iran's best known living philosopher, explained the continuing relevance of the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273). Aside from the power of the poetry itself , Rumi's writings also offers a window on religious knowledge that is different from discursive Islamic theology:

Sufism or mysticism or irfan, as I like to call it, is a way of life that combines this world and the other world. Irfan actually comes from the word marifa, which means, "to know, knowledge". 

Is irfan part of theology? It all depends on the meaning of theology. If you translate theology into ilm al-kalam, it is not part of theology because, in that case, theology means demonstrative science – looking for the footsteps. You work with proof (burhan) and with evidence (dalil). But an arif doesn't look at dalil, he is looking for the thing itself and not the signs of it. Therefore Sufism cannot be part of ʿilm al-kalam in the traditional sense of Islamic theology. In traditional Islamic thought, theology and Sufism are two utterly different approaches.

 In contrast to the prophets associated with the foundation of new religious traditions, Sufis play a different role in the dissemination of religious experience and knowledge, offering interpretations that are more in tune with the demands and challenges of today's increasingly interconnected world.

For earlier posts on the thought of Abdolkarim Soroush on this blog, click here and here

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Dariush Shayegan (1935-2018): The real initiator of the Dialogue of Civilizations

In 2000, the then president of the  Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, surprised friend and foe by launching the Dialogue of Civilizations initiative, when addressing the UN's General Assembly. Clearly intended as a counter narrative to the 'Clash of Civilizations' Thesis which had by then begun to dominate the discourse on post-Cold War world order, its roots can actually be traced to another Iranian, who passed away on 22 March 2018.

Dariush Shayegan

The philosopher Dariush Shayegan, of mixed Persian and Georgian parentage and educated at a British boarding school, before switching to a Francophone university education in philosophy, Sanskrit and Asian religions, brought with him the cosmopolitan disposition and intellectual outlook to explore the avenue of intercivilizational dialogue in late 1970s-Iran. When this trajectory was cut short by the revolution of 1979 and subsequent establishment of the Islamic republic, Shayegan returned to Paris to continue researching and teaching philosophy and Asian religions in self-imposed exile, until again moving back to Iran in 1991. As observed by Stefan Weidner in his obituary of Shayegan:

His thinking was worlds apart from the fashionable, post-colonial theory that rejects the cultural and religious depths of colonised societies. [...] Paradoxically, it was in the West itself – where the question as to the role of tradition and spirituality in the face of materialism and secularism had been posed at a much earlier stage – that Shayegan found the best answers. 

Click here to read the full obituary.

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