RT Article
T1 Performing Sufi Masculinity by Transcending Embodiment in Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh’s Kitāb al-Ḥikam
JF Journal of Islamic ethics
VO 4
IS 1/2
SP 98
OP 127
A1 Deighton, Rose
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1753024471
AB Abstract Through a gendered analysis of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh’s (d. 709/1309) Kitāb al-Ḥikam (“Book of Wisdom”) this paper demonstrates how the Sufi program offered in the Ḥikam prescribes the performance of masculinity through the transcendence of embodiment. Reading the text’s only reference to women as an occurrence of what Jacques Derrida calls textual self-reference, this essay explores how this statement functions as a key to the text’s gender discourse. The explicit reference, supported by evidence from Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh’s other writings, mirrors the theory of embodiment and gender reflected through the text. This essay illuminates how conceptual descriptions of Sufi spirituality meant to reinforce the importance of transcending embodiment take on gendered meaning when read against explicit comparisons between women, the nafs and the dunyā . This paper highlights ways in which Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh’s spiritual instructions encourage the performance of masculinity through the transcendence of embodiment, thus prompting conversations about spiritual cultivation’s groundedness in and reinforcement of normative gender discourses.
K1 Judith Butler
K1 Jacques Derrida
K1 Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh
K1 Renunciation
K1 body-denial
K1 Immanence
K1 Transcendence
K1 textual self-reference
K1 Embodiment
K1 Performance
K1 Masculinity
K1 Gender
K1 Sufism
DO 10.1163/24685542-12340046