RT Article
T1 Sufism in al-Sanūsī’s (d. 895/1490) al-Manhaj al-sadīd fī sharḥ kifāyat al-murīd
JF Journal of Sufi studies
VO 14
IS 1
SP 50
OP 68
A1 Andersson, Tobias
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1926574397
AB The North African theologian Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (d. 895/1490) participated in a scholarly tradition that combined Ashʿarī kalām with Junaydī taṣawwuf, but his approach to Sufism has received little scholarly attention. This article examines how al-Sanūsī integrates Ashʿarism and Sufism in al-Manhaj al-sadīd fī sharḥ kifāyat al-murīd, also known as Sharḥ al-jazāʾiriyya, which is a commentary on a theological poem by Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Zawāwī al-Jazāʾirī (d. 884/1479) that concludes with a substantial section on Sufism. The article shows that al-Sanūsī systematically presents taṣawwuf as the ethical application and spiritual assimilation of the fundamental tenets of faith as defined and demonstrated in kalām. Sufism, for al-Sanūsī, is a path towards realising and embodying the Islamic creed in one’s actions, states and character traits. The article also compares al-Sanūsī’s integration of Ashʿarism and Sufism to that of his student Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493) and highlights similarities between them, such as their common reliance on the works of al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072), al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (d. 709/1309), and their theologically motivated emphasis on giving up one’s self-direction and planning (isqāṭ al-tadbīr) in deference to God as the foundation of the Sufi path.
K1 Sharḥ al-jazāʾiriyya
K1 al-Manhaj al-sadīd
K1 Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh
K1 Aḥmad Zarrūq
K1 North Africa
K1 Shādhiliyya
K1 Ashʿarism
K1 Sufism
K1 Kalām
K1 Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī
DO 10.1163/22105956-bja10038