Mysticism and ethics in Islam

Abstract

The relationship between Sufism or Islamic mysticism and ethics is largely untilled land. Mysticism and Ethics in Islam attempts to survey this fertile area of investigation by attempting to come to a clearer idea of what is meant by the terms “ethics” and “mysticism,” both in relation to each other and to Islam. The articles in this volume do not have an eye so much on defining what mysticism and ethics in Islamic civilization are per se, as much as on coming to terms with the parameters and boundaries within which they have historically been conceptualized. As such, the book falls into four clearly demarcated time periods and foci: early, classical, late pre-modern, and modern and contemporary. Taken as a whole, this collection of contributions by leading specialists in their fields offer rich insights into some of the most important articulations of Sufi ethics to have animated the tradition, from past to present, in such geographically diverse regions and countries as Egypt, India, West Africa, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Central Asia, and China.