Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Manipulation of Sufi Terms 101

1. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s

Approach to Sufi Terminology

In his treatment of the Sufi terms we discern the following elements in
Ibn al-Qayyim’s argumentation:

1.1. Relativity of the Path to God

First of all, he challenged the traditional classification of the terms that
in Sufism are placed in a detailed mapped out trajectory that serves as
a guidebook for spiritual development along the so-called stations and
spiritual states on the path to God.^18 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya resisted
to the absoluteness with which the stations and states were treated in the
Sufi manuals. The moral and religious virtues that find expression in the
stations could in his opinion not be dealt with in a rigid system whereby
progression on the path brings the itinerant in consecutive stations, ever
closer to his goal. In Ibn al-Qayyim’s commentary on the Sufi terms
there is certainly the possibility of progress in the servant’s spirituality.
This progression does however not imply that the stations that have
been passed would be invalidated by a higher station.^19 The virtues that
have been acquired in some stations stay with the servant throughout
his journey, Ibn al-Qayyim notes. Love for the Divine, for example,
stands on a higher plan than fear and hope, but that does not mean that
they are replaced, as is suggested in the monist commentaries.^20

1.2. Manipulation of Sufi Terms

One of the recurring features in Ibn al-Qayyim’s own definitions of
the terms is that he explicitly bans all elements that bear a strong mys-

18 On the metaphoric figure of the path and its trajectory, see de Beaurecueil,
Khwāja ʿAbdullah Anṣārī, pp. 32–44.
19 Ibn al-Qayyim, Ṭarīq al-hijratayn, p. 231.
20 For more information on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s rejection of the Sufis’ lin-
earity of the spiritual path, see Schallenbergh, Gino: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
on Sufi Terminology. The Concept of the Spiritual Path (ṭarīq), in: Kristof
D’Hulster and Jo Van Steenbergen (eds.): Continuity and Change in the Realms
of Islam. Studies in Honour of Professor Urban Vermeulen, Leuven 2008,
pp. 555–565.

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