Si l'étude du regard de l'islam sur les autres religions fait l'objet d'un intérêt croissant, peu d'attention a été accordée au rapport des maîtres soufis tant au christianisme et au judaïsme qu'aux chrétiens et aux juifs. La première partie de cette étude présente une analyse de ce sujet tel qu'il a été perçu par les intellectuels occidentaux qui se sont convertis à l'islam ou qui ont consacré au soufisme des années de recherche. Dans sa deuxième partie, elle analyse les positions des maîtres soufis selon cinq aspects : leur rapport aux Écritures et doctrines des chrétiens et des juifs, leur regard sur leurs rites et coutumes, la conception de leur Salut, leur relation aux chrétiens et aux juifs en tant que personnes, et enfin leur conception du jihâd guerrier contre les pays chrétiens, ainsi que le lien que font ces maîtres entre le jihâd majeur, celui de la lutte contre l'égo, et le jihâd mineur, belliqueux. L'étude dégage la tolérance digne de la plus haute admiration de certains maîtres soufis, mais dévoile aussi des positions rigoristes, irrespectueuses des doctrines et coutumes chrétiennes et juives, et exigeant l'application stricte des règles de la dhimma. Si les maîtres soufis ont mis l'accent sur le jihâd majeur, ils ont souvent témoigné d'un soutien inconditionnel au jihâd guerrier, le percevant comme une forme extrême de sainteté, garantissant le Bonheur dans ce monde ci et dans celui à venir. La modération des dirigeants musulmans contraste fréquemment avec leur extrémisme. / While research is devoted to the attitude of Sunni Islam toward other religions, little attention has been paid to the attitude of Sufi masters to Christianity and Judaism as well as to Christians and Jews. The first part of this study provides an analysis of this topic as perceived by western intellectuals who had converted to Islam or who had dedicated years of research to Sufism. In its second part, the attitude of Sufi masters is analyzed according to five perspectives: their position regarding the Christian and Jewish Scriptures and doctrines, their view of their rituals and customs, the understanding of their Salvation, their attitude toward Christian and Jews as human beings, and finally their position regarding jihâd warfare against Christian countries, and the link these masters made between the greater jihâd, the jihâd against one's desires, and the lesser jihâd, the warlike jihâd.This study shows tolerance worthy of the greatest admiration, but also reveals rigorous and disrespectful attitudes toward Christian and Jewish doctrines and customs, calling for the application of the dhimma harshest rules. While the Sufi masters have stressed the importance of the greater jihâd, they frequently gave unconditional support to the lesser jihâd, seeing it as a paroxysmal form of holiness, guaranteeing Happiness in this world and in the next one. The tolerance of Muslim leaders frequently contrasts with some Sufi masters' extremism.

The text of the Bible projects for its readers a Biblical-textual world. Christians live within the seminal, normative contours of this symbolic Biblical world. In this regard, a Ricoeurian hermeneutics presents a helpful apparatus to the reader of the Biblical text. In his hermeneutical studies, Ricoeur organises his considerations around four poles that operate as guidelines for this study – distanciation, objectification, projecting of a world and appropriation. In this thesis each of these considerations is applied to Proverbs 10:1–15:33 to facilitate an exploration of the symbolic-textual world projected for the reader in this literature. It is the thesis of the study that the proposed reading strategy is, in terms of the threefold movement within postmodern thought – the movements beyond foundations, beyond totalities and towards the Other – a most productive effort. When this reading strategy is utilised for Proverbs 10:1–15:33, with specific reference to the fear of the Lord, the concept of the fear of the Lord is found to have a functional definition within this collection rather than an ontological or theoretical one. With this approach, the fear of Yahweh-proverbs in Proverbs 10:1–15:33 are understood not to be dogmatised, absolute, universal truths but finds, in line with the movement beyond totalities, its authority in the context within which it is applied. Instead of communicating propositional content, which is in line with the movement beyond foundations within postmodern thought, by their power to disclose a symbolic world, it confronts the reader with the Other, in line with the movement toward the Other, and consequently opens up new modes of being, orienting the reader’s practical actions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted