The Sufi and the Friar , livre ebook

The Sufi and the Friar
The Sufi and the Friar
A Mystical Encounter of Two Men of God in the Abode of Islam
Minlib Dallh
Cover Art: “Munajat” of ‘Abdullāh An ṣ ārī, Library of Congress 1-87-154.91, Image courtesy of the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dallh, Minlib, 1968– author.
Title: The Sufi and the Friar : a mystical encounter of two men of God in the abode of Islam / Minlib Dallh.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016041359 (print) | LCCN 2017027495 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466194 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466170 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Beaurecueil, Serge de, 1917–2005. | Islam—Influence. | An ṣ ārī al-Harawīal, ’Abd Allāh ibn Mu ḥ ammad, 1006–1089. | Dār al-Islām.
Classification: LCC BX4705.B26515 (ebook) | LCC BX4705.B26515 D35 2017 (print) | DDC 261.2/7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016041359
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of three unparalleled Dominican friars:
William C. Cenkner (died on August 8, 2003)
Shigeto Oshida (died on November 6, 2003)
James D. Campbell (died on February 11, 2004)
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration and Style
Introduction
I. The Abode of Islam (dār al Islam)
II. The Religious Other in the Postmodern World
Chapter 1 Serge de Beaurecueil, OP (1917–2005): A Life Curve
I. A Wounded Privilege
II. Le Saulchoir: A Rebirth of Dominican Scholarship
III. The French Dominican Friars in Cairo
IV. At the IDEO
Chapter 2 De Beaurecueil: Heeding An ṣ ārī’s Call
I. A Journey to Afghanistan, a Promised Land
II. Born Under the Ghaznavi Rule (977–1186)
III. An ṣ ārī: A Controversial Sufi Master (or Shaykh)
Chapter 3 De Beaurecueil: A Premier Scholar of An ṣ ārī’s Works
I. The Corpus Attributed to An ṣ ārī
II. The Munājāt or Cris du Coeur
Chapter 4 De Beaurecueil’s Pastoral Mysticism in Kabul
I. In the Footsteps of Jesus: Charles de Foucauld and de Beaurecueil
II. A Priest of Non-Christians
III. My Children of Kabul
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
This book would have never seen the light of the day were it not for the invaluable help of many people. I am grateful to them all.
Allow me to thank Bruce Schultz, OP and Catherine (Taffy) Field for their careful reading and insightful observations which helped me refine my thinking and avoid embarrassing mistakes.
Finally, my heartfelt gratitude to my mentors and advisors whose support and guidance sustained me throughout my graduate studies at Hartford Seminary and the University of Exeter (UK): Yahya Michot, Sajjad Rizvi, Mahmoud Ayoub, David Burrell, C.S.C. and Ian Netton.
Note on Transliteration and Style
In general, Arabic words are rendered with complete diacritical marks. However, Islamic terms commonly used in English, such as Allah or Islam, follow the Oxford Dictionary transliteration, with neither over-bars nor under-dots.
The Arabic letter ‘ayn is represented by an open single quote (‘), while the closing single mark (’) denotes the hamza consonant.
Dates are given in CE (the common era), but in some instances, such as direct quotations, both AH/CE format are given (AH corresponds to the Islamic Hijra calendar).
Introduction
“Are there locks upon our hearts?” Are we adequately susceptible, in our thinking and our relationships, to the content and inward force of the non-Christian other? In particular, do we erect the abiding and unmistakable uniqueness of Christ—into an un-Christlike and therefore un-Christian inattention and depreciation? Because Christianity is by definition “good news,” it would seem fair to say that there must be a capacity for hospitality in its custodians. We are the servants of the faith with a universal invitation. Surely its openness to discovery by men (and women) requires an openness to all men (and women) on the part of us, its servants. The whole Christian relation in this generation to the renascent faiths and ardently self-responsible nations must be one of the fullest and wisest hospitality of mind to their heritage and their hopes. For are not we ourselves the guests of God in Christ? 1
This book investigates the spiritual or mystical encounter of a French Dominican friar, Serge de L. de Beaurecueil (d. 2005), 2 and an eleventh-century Shaykh, Khwāja ‘Abdullāh An ṣ ārī of Herāt (d. 1089). 3 In a world gone religiously awry, this study attempts to show how a Dominican mystic and an erudite scholar of Islam received the gift of the Muslim other. De Beaurecueil was one of the most significant Catholic scholars of the mystical traditions of Islam (Sufism). Undoubtedly he was the foremost expert of the life and work attributed to ‘Abdullāh An ṣ ārī, an eleventh-century Sufi. As a founding member of the IDEO 4 (the Dominican Institute of Orientale studies in Cairo), his scholarship was the fruit of a lifelong conversation with An ṣ ārī’s works. His spiritual journey was an attempt to take seriously Kenneth Cragg’s challenge to Christians, “Are there locks upon our hearts? Are we adequately susceptible, in our thinking and our relationships, to the content and inward force of the non-Christian other?” 5
Khwāja ‘Abdullāh An ṣ ārī was a confrontational and influential Ḥ anbalī Ṣ ūfī who wrote seminal spiritual treatises in both Persian and Arabic. It suffices to note that although the relationship between Ḥ anbalīsm (the most conservative school of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam) and Sufism (the mystical dimension of Islam) are often tense and difficult, many a great Sufi master, such as ‘Abd Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 1166), were Ḥ anbalī. In his case, An ṣ ārī remained faithful to a literalist reading of the Qurān and the Sunna (the Islamic tradition based/on the life and words of the prophet and his companions). He adamantly rejected any kind of speculative theology ( kalām ) and the use of reason or personal opinion in religious matters. 6
An ṣ ārī lived in the Persian-speaking milieu of Herāt and Khurāsān under the Ghaznavid and the Saljūq Dynasties. This period was intellectually fertile and politically tumultuous. In addition, An ṣ ārī’s radical dogmatism and his adamant defense of Ḥ anbalīsm did not go unnoticed. Like many Ḥ anbalī, he was accused of anthropomorphism and ridiculed and persecuted by his adversaries.
De Beaurecueil lived most of his Christian discipleship as a guest in the abode of Islam ( dār al-Islam ). From 1946 to his death in 2005, he spent seventeen years in Cairo and twenty in Afghanistan in direct contact with Muslims. Surprisingly, it was in Afghanistan, the homeland of An ṣ ārī, that this French Dominican experienced a mystical conversion. His unique path reads like the diary of a Frenchman running away from the Catholic aristocratic milieu in Paris. Such an obsession of a twentieth-century Dominican friar for an eleventh-century Afghani Sufi is above all a transformative encounter of a Christian and a Muslim. 7
This Dominican life given to the study of mystical Islam is the heart of this book. 8 First and foremost, this book is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and systematic analysis of de Beaurecueil’s contribution to Christian-Muslim relations and a study of his life as a testimony to the varied heritage of Dominican spirituality. 9 This scholarly investigation is at once genuinely sympathetic and candidly critical and thus contributes to the larger narrative of the Order of Preachers’ engagement with Islam and the Muslim world. For the most part, de Beaurecueil’s works have not received due attention. 10 All in all, this book fills a lacuna in the literature devoted to mystical approaches to Christian-Muslim dialogue, but it also seeks to reach beyond students and scholars of the mystical approach to Christian-Muslim relations. Readers from various Christian communities and people of no faith at all will find de Beaurecueil’s experience in the abode of Islam a compelling argument for dialogue between religions, cultures, and civilizations.
Hence, the focus of this book is, first, de Beaurecueil’s scholarship on the life and works attributed to his master-teacher, Khwāja ‘Abdullāh An ṣ ārī, also known as the Pīr-of Herāt or Pīr-e ṭ arīqat; second, his experience of hospitality given to and received from the religious other; and, third, his practical spirituality or praxis mystica . This third aspect is the thrust and culmination of his mystical conversation with and study of An ṣ ārī’s works. Ultimately, this study seeks to investigate the transformative role of Islam and Muslims on de Beaurecueil’s orthopraxis (correct action) and religious worldview. The present writer is not particularly concerned with orthodoxy (correct belief) because the life of a Christian in the abode of Islam is less defined by theology than by how the person lives his Christian discipleship daily. Orthodoxy, nevertheless, is not neglected because this study addresses questions such as “How did the friar’s encounter with An ṣ ārī enrich his theological perspectives and nurture his Christian-Catholic imagination?”
I. The Abode of Islam (dār al Islam)
In the limited circle of French Catholic scholarship of Islam, but equally relevant to a larger co