Week 6: Sufism

Question 1

Translate ‘kun faya kun’

Answer 1

Being. God speaks and things come to be

Question 2

What are some definitions of spirituality?

Answer 2

Relationship to God, something beyond the self, transcendence, existential, summative

Question 3

What are some linguistic roots of the word ‘sufi’?

Answer 3

Wool, wisdom, and purity

Question 4

Who was Al-Ghazali?

Answer 4

A scholar and ambassdor to the king in Baghdad who was born in Persia in the 10th century

Question 5

What was Al-Ghazali’s nickname?

Answer 5

Hujjat al-Islam (the Proof of Islam)

Question 6

What was Al-Ghazali’s crisis?

Answer 6

Children of one religion typically grew up and died with that religion. If so many religions exist, which one is right?

Question 7

What are the 3 models of faith?

Answer 7

1. Talqueed and Talqeen
2. Wager
3. Abrahamic

Question 8

What is the Talqueed/Talqueen model of faith?

Answer 8

Unconditional faith. Acceptance of education and authority

Question 9

What is the Wager model of faith?

Answer 9

Nothing to lose but everything to gain. Faith grants a safety net in the afterlife

Question 10

What is the Abrahamic model of faith?

Answer 10

The Sun, Moon, and stars change. God does not change

Question 11

What is the Kalam cosmological argument?

Answer 11

Everything that exists has a purpose. The Universe began to exist, so it must have a purpose/creator

Question 12

What are Al-Ghazali’s 2 critiques against reason?

Answer 12

1. Argument From Dreams
2. Argument From Experience

Question 13

What is Al-Ghazali’s ‘Argument From Dreams’?

Answer 13

When dreaming, people believe it to be real. If life is a dream, then people awake after death

Question 14

What is Al-Ghazali’s ‘Argument From Experience’?

Answer 14

Sensory information is not entirely reliable

Question 15

What was Al-Ghazali’s cure to his doubt in reason?

Answer 15

Al-Ghazali accepted reason not through methodical argument, but through God’s light.

He does not explicitly tell readers how he came to this conclusion

Question 16

What is ‘The Parable of Light’?

Answer 16

A passage in the Quran that compares God’s light to a niche, a glass, a tree, oil, and the lamp itself

Question 17

Who was Rabi’a?

Answer 17

Rabi’a was a notable female Sufi figure who lived during the 8th century. Her piety liberated her from slavery, and she wrote very assertive and passionate poetry about her love for God

Question 18

What is Rabi’a’s nickname?

Answer 18

The Second Mary

Question 19

Who was Rumi?

Answer 19

Rumi was a poet, scholar, and mystic in the 13th century who is well known among Eastern and Western academics

Question 20

What ritual did Rumi invent and why are the hands important in this ritual?

Answer 20

The Sama Ritual (the so-called ‘whirling dervishes’).

One hand points to the sky, the other to earth, connecting God to the hearts of Muslims