Senegal is a country in West Africa that is 95% Muslim and where Islam is deeply linked to hip-hop music. According to existing academic research, the emerging rappers in the artistic and cultural scene in Dakar are men and belong to the Sufi Taalibe Bay brotherhood, whose founder Ibrahim Niasse (1900-1975) is considered the spiritual leader of the rappers. Through the use of hip-hop, they communicate religious messages and attract many young people to Bay’s movement.This thesis presents for the first time a study concerning the musical material of a young Senegalese female artist belonging to this Sufi brotherhood, namely Aida Sock. Currently, no academic studies are acknowledging the presence of the female disciples of Bay and how they use hip-hop music as a means of spreading Sufi mystical Islam. This study aims to fill this academic gap through an interpretative analysis of the symbolism and religious message present in two of Aida Sock’s music videos: “Road to Redemption” and “The Highest”. The research also hopes to encourage othe racademics to look into this untouched topic further.

The preoccupation of Islamic thinkers with the formation of moral subjects (themselves and others) motivated their deployments of different conceptual frameworks to satisfy paradigmatic moral requirements. These intellectual pursuits are portrayed as technologies involved in “caring for the self,” that is, in forming the subject/agent of the broader community. Reconstructing historical debates that draw on the works of a selection of Islamic authors, mainly between the 10th and 13th centuries CE, this dissertation addresses the related paradigmatic features of various forms of Islamic leadership (e.g. ulū al-amr, mujtahid, ahl al-ḥall, imām, and quṭb). The Qurʾānic world of interconnected meanings related to amr (authority, command, matter…) and those vested with it assumes a concern for the morality, if not outright infallibility, and the intellectual merit of a leader. Through an analysis of types of authorship and terms of discourse, ḥadīth literature on verse 4:59 from the Shīʿī tradition sheds light on the rise of various Sunnī strategies addressing the question of infallible juristic leadership (taṣwīb al-mujtahid). Another case of leadership appears in the Ṣūfī mystical strand of Sunnī thought, where the spiritual leader, or quṭb, may be seen as analogous to the Shīʿī Imām in terms of moral excellence and presence-in-absence (ghaybah). My analyses of these distinct features and forms of leadership culminate with a case study on the Mahdī in modernity, an anticipated savior figure at the crossroads of Sunnī, Shīʿī and Ṣūfī thought, in which the adapting of earlier lines of reasoning exhibits strategies for the purpose of subject-formation. Each of these case studies demonstrates not only that the interpretive frameworks of Islamic thinkers were invested in moral subject-formation but also that a holistic reading of such thought can identify their authorial activity itself as one form among the different forms of leadership that revolve around subject-formation.

This thesis is an historical and ethnographic account of the postcommunist reconstitution of Albanian Bektashi Sufi practices and community life in the aftermath of a state-based program of radical atheistic secularism. The study is based on 12 months of intensive anthropological fieldwork (9 months in 2007 and shorter research trips between 2005 and 2011) and archival research. The Bektashi Muslims were once closely associated with and supported by the Ottoman state. Since then they have suffered many reversals in fortune. The most severe attack on the Bektashi occurred in communist Albania. Public manifestations of religion and its institutions were entirely dismantled and many spiritual leaders killed or exiled. Nonetheless, survivors now claim that Bektashi devotees secretly believed in and revered the sacred shrines despite efforts by the authoritarian state to do away with all expressions of religious life. Providing both historical and cultural context, the thesis uses ethnographic fieldwork data based on observation, interviews and life histories collected from within the Bektashi community. These document and explore the group's various efforts at community building and regaining legitimacy. In particular, it describes the rebuilding of devastated Bektashi lodges (tekke), the configuration and management of sacred spaces, the ways of becoming Bektashi as reflected in conversion narratives, and the emergence of new saintly authority figures. The penultimate chapter is about religious observance, investigating in depth how the present community of leaders, followers, and guests interact within sacred spaces during pilgrimages, paying special attention to the ambiguities of spiritual authority in the postcommunist setting. The study of present-day religious observance and community building shows that despite their efforts, the Bektashi today are experiencing difficulty establishing order within their own ranks and in winning real support in Albanian society as a whole. The small gains in reclaiming lost authority and access to their now lost economic estates reflects the legacy of atheist secularism and corruption, which coincides with wide spread suspicion of authority figures, including religious authorities. Albanian postcommunist religiosity coincides with a more "Western European" pattern of secularism that is generally characterized by a much diminished level of religious observance. / 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Scholars of Islamic history have long recognized the fascinating transition of Sufism from a loose set of distinct tendencies in the third/ninth centuries, to a self-conscious movement which, by the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century, had entered into the mainstream and began to pervade all levels of society. Many have sought to explain the developments in the interim between the third/ninth and sixth/twelfth centuries which resulted in the eventual popularization of Sufism by the end of that period. It is known that instrumental to this process was the rising prominence of the so-called awliyā’ Allāh (“Friends of God”) who before long, were primarily identified with masters of the Ṣūfī path. Given the integration of Sufism into mainstream Sunnī Islam, Sunnī theology came to adopt the miracles of the Friends as markers of sainthood (wilāyah). My project seeks a more comprehensive understanding of how this took place, and the challenges that presented against this development. To this end, this project explores the debates on the Friends and their miracles between two opposing camps, the emerging Sunnī-Ṣūfī majority in contradistinction to the Muʿtazilah. I adopt a combination of textual, source-critical, and contextual approaches to Sunnī and Muʿtazilī writings on sainthood from the third/ninth to the fifth/eleventh century and place these sources in conversation with one another to better understand the stakes involved. This project also highlights the discursive nature of the Islamic tradition, with Muslim writers dynamically acting and reacting to one another, and to their social environments, in their attempts to define the boundaries of Islamic thought. / Religion

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Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka vilka uttryckssätt den mystiska folkfromheten inom islam, sufismen, kan ha och om undervisning om den kan bidra till en mer allsidig bild av islam i den svenska kontexten. Med det hermeneutiska förhållningssättet som utgångspunkt har dels en läromedelsanalys och dels en fallstudie genomförts. Läromedelsanalysen behandlar i vilken omfattning och på vilket sätt sufismen presenteras i läroböcker som används i grundskolans senare år samt i gymnasiet. Fallstudien bygger på både deltagande observationer samt kvalitativa intervjuer i en sufiorden.Läromedelsanalysen visar att sufismen knappt behandlas i läroböckerna. Den bild som ges av sufismen är en historisk sufism där det religiösa utövandet inte beskrivs. Fallstudien visar att den sufism som utövas inom sufiorden är en levande sufism som inte beskrivs i undervisningen idag.Den slutsats som kan dras av undersökningen är att den levande sufismen mycket väl kan användas i ett didaktiskt syfte för att visa en mångfald inom islam.

Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Humayun (1508-1556), simply known as Humayun, was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire in India. He is often known with a discredited image in history even though recent investigations show a new, different, and regenerated perspective about him. This reconsideration is in relation to the philosophical, syncretic, and artistic pursuits and the spiritual heritage that he transmitted, which came to impact and define Mughal tradition and culture overall. Accordingly,  this thesis has on one hand the purpose to analyse and expose the not so much known “occult sciences” of Humayun, known as ‘ulum-i ghariba, which are defined in relation to their appliances and historical contexts, especially in relation to Sufism and Arabic Hermeticism. They are moreover explored in how they were experienced in the imperial administration of the early Mughal court. On the other hand, these “occult sciences” of Humayun are analysed and discussed in relation to the definitions of Western esotericism and practices of Renaissance Hermeticism as taught by Antoine Faivre, whose theory is employed for this thesis. The method used for this investigation combines a qualitative text analysis and a specific empirical approach with diachronic and synchronic applications. The result of this research shows that the “occult sciences” of Humayun help to define and confirm a wider study field of “comparative esotericism”, which goes beyond the borders of the Western culture, and which is found with its unique interpretations as an esoteric expression within Islam, and specifically at the dawn of the Mughal tradition.

Tor Andræ’s I myrtenträdgården is the only comprehensive work on sufism written in Swedish language. The concept ”sufism” is interesting when it comes to conceptual shifts and according to Carl W. Ernst, ”sufism” is a westernised construction of an eastern phenomenon. This study examines Andræ's text in the light of Ernst's theory. The aim is to investigate if rhetoric with its theories on topos, fallacies and identification can help us gain insight into this construction and the discussion of sufism in general, and how conceptual shifts takes place in a specific material. The study tells us that Tor Andræ’s I Myrtenträdgården, despite his good intention, shows a hegemonic picture of a sufism with its roots in christianity, a picture that helps to maintain the confusion surrounding the concept. The study also shows that it is mainly through argumentation and identification that this construction takes place. Rhetorical criticism, with its theories, is therefore a fine instrument for highlighting this construction at work.

The intention of this thesis is to demonstrate the necessity to revisit and utilize the principles, purposes and objectives (Maqasid) of the Qur'an and Sunnah as the methodology to expose erroneous beliefs that have pervaded the religion of Islam past and present. According to the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, the religion would become corrupted. Conversely, Allah Most High vows to protect the religion of Islam and the Sunnah of the Prophet through human agency. This thesis will articulate the styles of deviation that have been mentioned within the Qur'an and Sunnah and will propose the system of maqasid as a necessary corrective to maintain faithfulness in lieu of the prevalence towards deviation. The religion of Islam has historically been contaminated through literalism, divergent beliefs and practices, corruption of the Sunnah and incorrect legal judgments (ijtihad). The exoteric aspect of the religion has been obsessively exaggerated while the esoteric (tasawwuf), or the spiritual aspect of the heart has been condemned as an innovation. Renewal (tajdid) of the religion is a perpetual obligation on the Muslims to return to the objectives or the maqasid of revelation. I propose the knowledge and application of the principles, purposes and objectives (Maqasid al-Shari'ah) of the Qur'an coupled with the maqasid of the Prophetic Sunnah is the illuminating methodology for tajdid. I will demonstrate that revisiting disputed fatawa, fiqh and hadiths through the prism of Maqasid al-Shari'ah is the most logical methodology to expose fallacious beliefs from antiquity and clarify contemporary deviations propagated with the advent of mass literacy. / Religion