The concept of the Sufi Saintly Miracle: A Literary Approach

Abstract

study analyses the concept of al-Karāmah al-Sūfīyah (the Sufi Saintly Miracle) in both its religious and literary dimensions. The researcher will shed more light on this genre of narrative literary phenomena by developing its definition and placing it in the social and historical context of the Sufi thought as a whole. Many communities in the Islamic world embrace and practice the Sufi doctrine and also believe in the Ṣūfī Sheikhs’ saintly miracles and its paranormal aspects, which they also consider to be parallel in its sacredness to the miracles of the Prophets. Furthermore, in this study the researcher will not only focus on the religious significance of the saintly miracle but also on their literary approach and aesthetic dimensions. In fact many of the contemporary Arab scholars and Litterateurs categorize this narrative discourse to fall under the cloak of al-Adab al-‘ajāibī (miraculous literature) due to the nature of its narrative style and structure from which it achieves its goals, such as: Myth – Legend – Superstition – Storytelling, etc. The study will be mainly qualitative. It is a content analysis study in the sense that the researcher will analyse the stylistic, formal and rhetorical techniques of the saintly miracles’ discourse with specific reference to extracts taken from al- Sheikh al-Hassan al- Shadili and al-Sheikh Abdelssalam Bin Machich. The study will use an eclectic theoretical and conceptual framework which combines the historical approach with the reception theory.