Love in the history of Sufism: experience and language

الملخص EN

Arabic excelled other Semitic languages by bestowing new meanings on the term (love), meanings that transcended the sensual aspects of the term.

more importantly, the term (love) occupied a central position in the Arabic language, and it also underwent deep religious, spiritual, and philosophical developments.

Quranic verses and prophetic traditions left their impact at an early stage (in the first and second centuries after hijra) on the formulation of the mystical language of love (the language of spiritual experience).

it is worth noting that the rich and unique Arabic vocabulary enabled mystics to express the slightest shades of human emotions, related to love in general and divine love in specific.

the etymology of the word love and its different derivations enjoy a central status in Arabic as well as in Sufism.

as such was born a new language never known to pre-Islam Arabs, a language distant from the dominant forms of classical Arabic literature.

it was the language of love (the language of spiritual experience to mystics), a language that emerged from the start without external cultural sources or influences in order to express the originality of the spiritual experience of Islam.

having undergone a certain development, such language of love as well as the spiritual experience it carries became the main component, and even the goal, of any work in Muslim Sufism starting from the 3rd Hijri century.

this makes our scope of analysis extremely wide, and thus i will attempt in this study to shed light only on some of the main features.

it is an attempt as well to sketch the historical context of the Sufi contributions by aid of the following elements: -introduction -love in the first ascetic movement -the beginning of the path of pure love: Rābi‛a al-‛Adawiyya.

-towards a mysticism of union: al-Hallāǧ -love in Sunni Sufism: al-Gazālī.

-love in philosophical Sufism: Ibn al-Arabī.

-conclusion.