MESA Banner
The Place of Subjectivity in the Study of Islamic Mysticism: An Epistemological Reflection Based on the Analysis of Louis Massignon’s Work
Abstract
If the study of personal, elusive aspects of human life requires the involvement of the researcher’s subjectivity, how can the reality of these aspects by approached in an unbiased way? How can we give an accurate account of it? What place should be given to subjectivity, which can at once serve and hinder research”? This paper is particularly interested in the study of Islamic mysticism and will attempt to answer these questions based on an analysis of the work of Louis Massignon (1883-1962), who went deep in the study of the life and works of Muslim mystics. Through contextual, biographical, and methodological lenses, I will define the particularity of his hermeneutic posture and the intention of his work. I will present how Massignon’s existential questions affect his vision of Islamic mysticism and analyze his ḥallājian vision of holiness, as well as the clear opposition he establishes between the path of al-Ḥallāj (d. 309/922), conceived as one of asceticism and suffering, and that of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), whom he reproaches for suppressing the radicality of transcendence. I will analyze what the researcher’s view of his field of study carries, and I will bring to light the existential questionings and experiential experiences that affected his posture and his vision of this field in order to show how particular and situated it is. Since 1978, Saidian criticism has shown that "Western" Islamists are susceptible to misrepresentations of Islam, encouraging researchers to constantly re-evaluate their approach. Building upon this encouragement, this presentation will recall that the idea that the "science des religions" is "scientific" and therefore "neutral" is not self-evident: all knowledge is situated, subjective. Drawing on the writings of Michel de Certeau, Raymond Aron, Jacques Waardenburg, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Omid Safi or Ramón Grosfoguel, I will question the claim to the universality of the scientific method. The presentation will propose a reflection on the conditions that make it possible, in the study of religion, to arrive at a more accurate understanding of reality, such as the awareness of the particularity of a researcher’s hermeneutic situation, the orientation of their research, the enunciation of their intention, the questioning of their own conceptual categories, and the distancing from their subject, so that subjectivity no longer deforms reality, but enlightens and reveals it.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
Arab States
Sub Area
Mysticism/Sufi Studies