Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019): 267-272

Conference Report

Held at the American University of Beirut over two intense days and sponsored by the Sheikh Zayed 
Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan Chair for Islamic 
and Arabic Studies (marking one hundred 
years since the birth of Sheikh Zayed), this 
conference was organized by Bilal Orfali 
(Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies 
and Chair of the Department of Arabic 
and Near Eastern Languages at AUB), 
Mohammed Rustom (Associate Professor 
of Islamic Studies at Carleton University 
and Library of Arabic Literature Senior 
Fellow at NYU Abu Dhabi), and Radwan 
Sayyid (Visiting Professor and current 
Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan Chair 
for Islamic and Arabic Studies).

T h e  c o n f e r e n c e  w a s  d e d i c a t e d  t o 
exploring the relationship between Islamic 
ethics and Islamic mysticism, usually 
known as Sufism—though the debate 
as to whether “mysticism” is equivalent 
to “Sufism” or to the Arabic taṣawwuf 
remains open. It brought together well- 
 

known scholars in the field from around 
the world. The Dean of the Faculty of Arts 
and Sciences, Nadia El Cheikh, opened 
the conference along with the organizers, 
reminding the audience of the history 
of scholarship in Islamic studies at the 
American University of Beirut that has 
been enabled by the creation of the Sheikh 
Zayed Chair in 1972. Bilal Orfali stressed 
the importance of encouraging research 
on and around Islamic mysticism, or 
taṣawwuf, and especially on its relevance 
to Islamic ethics, a subfield that remains 
understudied to this day. One of the goals 
of this conference was to challenge the 
widely held idea that ethics in Islam and 
Islamic civilization are mainly inherited 
from previous or neighboring civilizations, 
w i t h o u t  a n y  n o t a b l e  i n d i g e n o u s 
contribution. Radwan Sayyid considered 
the conference a first answer to last year’s 
conference “Towards a Reconstruction of 
Islamic Studies,” also held at the American 
University of Beirut, while Mohammed 
 

Mysticism and Ethics in Islam 
(American University of Beirut, 2–3 May 2019)

Conference Organizers: 
Bilal Orfali, Mohammed Rustom, and Radwan Sayyid

Report by: 
 Louise Gallorini 

American University of Beirut 

(lcg01@mail.aub.edu)

A
l-ʿ

U
ṣū

r 
al

-W
us

ṭā
 

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
C

re
at

iv
e 

C
om

m
on

s

mailto:lcg01%40mail.aub.edu?subject=


268  •  Louise GaLLorini 

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019)

Rustom provided the audience with an 
overview of the conference’s themes and 
panels.

The conference program consisted 
of seven panels and a keynote address 
delivered by Jamal Elias of the University 
of Pennsylvania, who presented a scholarly 
discussion on an Ottoman author’s reading 
of Rūmī’s Mathnawī. 

May 2, 2019

Panels 1 and 2: Defining Boundaries

The first two panels, chaired, respec-
t i v e l y,  b y  R a m z i  B a a l b a k i  ( A m e r i c a n 
University of Beirut) and Atif Khalil 
(University of Lethbridge), opened the 
conference bilingually, as the first panel’s 
speakers presented in Arabic and the 
second panel’s in English. 

Suad al-Hakim (Lebanese University) 
presented a paper entitled “Ethics in 
Sufism: Between the Refinement of the Soul 
and the Refinement of Behavior,” based 
on the works of three Sufi personalities: 
al-Qaṣṣāb (ninth century CE), al-Jarīrī (d. 
923), and al-Kittānī (d. 933). The paper 
amounted to a reflection on the idea of 
ethics as public performance and not only 
as a set of internal qualities.

Chafika Ouail (Orient Institute Beirut) 
presented “The Ordering of Knowledge to 
(Re)Produce Ethical Concepts in Sufism,” 
tracing the gradual transformation of 
ethical values from communally inherited 
concepts to ontological ideas that bear 
different meanings and practices from 
their original forms. The paper als o 
explored the varying social repercussions 
of such values and their production and 
practice between the personal and the 
communal and in relationship with their 
evolving sociohistorical context.

The paper of Issam Eido (Vanderbilt 
University), read by Bilal Orfali, was 
titled “Shades and Hues of Sufis and the 
Concept of Ethics in Sufi Literature,” and 
it explored and analyzed the two basic Sufi 
concepts of “station” (maqām) and “state” 
(ḥāl) within the nuances of the ideas of 
fixity and instability, using the theoretical 
works of Foucault and his analysis of Greek 
ethical categories.

Concluding the first panel was a paper 
by Khaled Abdo (Muʾminūn bilā ḥudūd 
Institute), “From Criticism of Sufism to 
the Reform of Sufi Ethics: Discovering the 
works of al-Daylamī.” The paper presented 
the interesting case of a scholar who 
veered from a critical stand on Sufism in 
general to its adoption, while trying to 
pave the way to its reformation. This paper 
explored the works of al-Daylamī (d. 1192), 
focusing in particular on his book The 
Reformation of Ethics (Iṣlāḥ al-akhlāq), 
which deals with Sufi ethics and the 
reformation of Sufism as well as the Sufi 
stance toward philosophy; al-Daylamī’s 
book has been so far overlooked as a 
potentially theoretical grounding work on 
this subject.

The second panel began with Michael 
Arnold (American University of Beirut), 
who presented a paper entitled “Sufism 
as an Ethical Panacea? Situating Taṣawwuf 
i n  I s l a m i c  E t h i c s . ”  A c k n o w l e d g i n g 
that no exact equivalent of ethics as a 
philosophical category can be found 
within the Islamic intellectual heritage, 
and recognizing that Muslim scholars have 
not methodically studied this category 
as defined today, this paper explored 
the place of the Sufi tradition in dealing 
with ethical considerations in the Sunni 
intellectual tradition while challenging 
the commonly held view that the latter 



Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019)

 Conference Report: Mysticism and Ethics in Islam •  269

took an antiphilosophical and antirational 
turn after al-Ghazālī’s (d. 1111) critique of 
philosophy.

F o l l o w i n g  o n  t h e  d i s c u s s i o n  o f 
al-Ghazālī’s heritage in the previous 
presentation, Sophia Vasalou (Birmingham 
University) presented a paper entitled 
“Does al-Ghazālī Have a Theory of Virtue?” 
Focusing particularly on al-Ghazālī’s 
works, the paper shed light on the dynamic 
between philosophy and Sufi discourse 
and on how virtue (faḍīla) is problematized 
within the broader concern with the 
“ethics of virtue” as found in the works 
of thinkers more closely associated with 
philosophy, such as al-Farābī (d. 950) and 
Miskawayh (d. 1030).

Concluding the second panel, Jeremy 
Farrell (Emory University) presented “A 
‘Value Theory’ of Obligations: Early Sufi 
Approaches to Zuhd.” Understanding zuhd 
as supererogatory ethical practice in the 
context of early Sufism, this paper showed 
that “value theory” allows us to better 
understand why early Sufis adopted such 
practices. It traced the reasoning behind 
such practices in the works of al-Muḥāsibī 
( d .  8 5 7 )  a n d  l a t e  t e n t h - c e n t u r y  S u f i 
handbooks.

Panel 3: From Grief to Love

C h a i r e d  b y  S e b a s t i a n  G ü n t h e r 
(University of Göttingen), the third panel 
was opened by Riccardo Paredi (American 
University of Beirut) with his paper “To 
Grieve or Not to Grieve? The Concept of 
Ḥuzn in Early Sufism.” Tracing the notion 
of ḥuzn and its evolution from the Quran 
through the first three centuries of Islam, 
when it was initially viewed as a negative 
emotion (as in the Quranic “Do not grieve”), 
t h e  p a p e r  s h o w e d  t h a t  i n  e a r l y  S u f i 

literature, this emotion is seen as positive 
and its virtuous merits are discussed, as, 
for example, in the chapter dedicated to 
ḥuzn in al-Risāla al-Qushayriyya.

T h e n  A t i f  K h a l i l  ( U n i v e r s i t y  o f 
Lethbridge) presented “On Patience in 
Early Sufi Ethics,” which dealt with a 
quality with obvious virtuous dimensions 
that has played a central role in Islamic 
piety. The paper analyzed the importance 
of the notion of patience, which is one 
of God’s qualities but did not become a 
subject of wide discussion until the work 
of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240). Along the way, 
Khalil explored the works of Sarrāj (d. 
988), Kālābādhī (d. 990), Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī 
(d. 998), al-Qushayrī (d. 1072), Hujwīrī 
(d. 1072), and Sirjānī (d. 1077) and their 
approaches to ṣabr.

K a z u y o  M u r a t a  ( K i n g ’ s  C o l l e g e ) 
presented a paper titled “Sufism and 
the Pursuit of Happiness.” Whereas the 
Greek concept of eudaemonia, translated 
in Arabic as saʿāda, is heavily discussed 
by Sufi writers versed in falsafa, this 
paper argued that the Sufi discourse on 
happiness as a goal of human life is not 
a simple carryover of this Greek antique 
term. Rather, it covers different ideas 
and their associated notions, such as riḍā, 
surūr, and faraḥ, all under the generic 
umbrella of “happiness.” These various 
notions have been explored by the likes of 
al-Qushayrī (d. 1072), Khwāja ʿAbd Allāh 
al-Anṣārī (d. 1087), and Rūzbihān al-Baqlī 
(d. 1209).

M o h a m m e d  R u s t o m  ( C a r l e t o n 
University) concluded this panel with his 
paper “Theo-Fānī: ʿAyn al-Quḍāt and the 
Fire of Love” on the famous Sufi martyr 
ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 1131), who 
belonged to the Persian Sufi “school 
of passionate love” (madhhab-i ʿishq). 



270  •  Louise GaLLorini 

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019)

T h e  p a p e r  e x p l o r e d  ʿ A y n  a l - Q u ḍ ā t ’ s 
multifaceted understanding of love as it 
pertains to the Divine-human relationship 
and the lived human experience of love.

Keynote Address

Jamal Elias (University of Pennsylvania) 
presented a keynote lecture entitled 
“ R e v i s i t i n g  R ū m ī ’ s  M a t h n a w ī  a s  t h e 
‘Persian Qurʾān’ through the Lens of 
Anqarawī.” The lecture provided a glimpse 
into a commentary on Rūmī’s Mathnawī 
by one of the most influential Mevlevi 
s h a y k h s ,  I s m ā ʿ ī l  R u s ū k h ī  A n q a r a w ī 
(d. 1631). Entitled Majmuʿat al-laṭāʾif 
wa maṭmūrat al-maʿārif (Collection of 
subtleties and treasure of knowledge) 
and consisting of seven volumes, it is 
usually known as Sharḥ-i Mathnawī. It 
curiously contains a commentary on what 
is supposed to be a seventh volume of 
Rūmī’s Mathnawī, which Elias analyzed in 
the context of the frequent reference to 
the Mathnawī as the “Persian Quran” by 
classical scholars and authors such as Jāmī 
(d. 1492)—although it should be noted that 
this comparison is not to be understood in 
the sense of a formal resemblance to the 
Quranic text but is rather is to be seen as 
emphasizing its great importance in and 
impact on the Persianate world.

May 3rd, 2019

Panel 4: Late Pre-Modern Sufism

The conference’s second day opened 
w i t h  a  p a n e l  c h a i r e d  b y  B i l a l  O r f a l i 
(American University of Beirut). Matthew 
Ingalls (American University of Dubai) 
began with his presentation, “Al-Shaʿrānī’s 
Laṭāʾif al-Minan and the Virtue of Sincere 
Immodesty.” This work addresses the 
tension between the virtue of hiding 

one’s spiritual accomplishments in order 
to preserve their pure intention and 
the role of a Sufi master in showing his 
students the different blessings bestowed 
by God upon him as a guiding example 
for them. The paper explored this tension 
and the author’s knowledge of it, his way 
of dealing with the problem, the possible 
cynicism that future readers of this work 
may have, and the attendant ethical stand 
the reader would adopt in order to avoid 
this potential pitfall.

The paper by Rizwan Zamir (Davidson 
C o l l e g e ) ,  p r e s e n t e d  b y  M o h a m m e d 
Rustom, was entitled “‘Dogs Are Better 
t h a n  Y o u ! ’  M o c k e r y  i n  P u n j a b i  S u f i 
Poetry.” The paper analyzed the poetry of 
three well-known South Asian Sufis, Shah 
Husayn (d. 1593), Sultan Bāhū (d. 1691) and 
Baba Bulleh Shah (d. 1758), focusing on 
the aspect of mockery, which Zamir sees 
as reflecting ethical, mystical, social, and 
personal discussions in a Punjabi society 
whose hollowness and hypocrisy the poets 
decried.

Then Alexandre Papas (French National 
Center for Scientific Research) presented 
“ S u f i s m  a n d  E t h i c s  i n  C e n t r a l  A s i a : 
Ṣūfī Allāhyār’s Thabāt al-ʿĀjizīn and Its 
Legacy,” a paper exploring the work of Ṣūfī 
Allāhyār (d. 1721), a Naqshbandī Mujaddidī 
Sufi from Samarqand whose influence was 
greater as an author than it was as a Sufi 
shaykh. Composed in mathnawī form, his 
work became popular in Central Asian 
madrasas, exposing a sober Sufi view on 
faith, observance, morals, and ethics.

Marcia Hermansen (Loyola University 
Chicago) presented a paper titled “Shāh 
W a l ī  A l l ā h  a n d  t h e  V i r t u e s , ”  w h i c h 
discussed the different frameworks for 
conceiving of the relationship between 
mysticism and ethics that can be found in 



Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019)

 Conference Report: Mysticism and Ethics in Islam •  271

the work of Shāh Walī Allāh (d. 1762) of 
Delhi at the juncture between premodern 
a n d  e a r l y  m o d e r n  I s l a m .  T h e  p a p e r 
uncovered his formulation of the virtues 
one needs to cultivate in order to attain 
felicity, and his view of how these virtues 
are related to the four Platonic virtues in a 
Sufi ethical context. 

Concluding this panel was a presentation 
by Paul Heck (Georgetown University),  
“Mystical Traditions of Prophetic Ethics in 
Moroccan Sufism: The Case of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz 
al-Dabbāgh (d. 1719).” Starting with the 
works and example of this Moroccan 
mystic, this paper presented the ethical 
aspects of the spiritual path in the late 
premodern Islamic West, with a focus on 
how spiritual sovereignty interacts with 
worldly power.

Panel 5: Literary Engagements

Chaired by Enass Khansa (American 
University of Beirut), this panel was opened 
by a presentation in Arabic by Lina Jamal 
(American University of Beirut), “Sufi 
Dreams,” which discussed the influence 
of Greek thought on oneiric Sufi writings 
and their symbols. The paper analyzed 
the symbolism of wool (ṣūf) in dreams 
from Artemidorus (second century) to 
al-Nābulsī (d. 1731) and demonstrated how 
this symbol was adopted by Sufis for their 
own concerns. This adoption represents 
an example of a Greek element used and 
modified within the Islamic tradition.

Richard McGregor (Vanderbilt Univer-
sity) presented a paper titled “Beauty, 
Vision, and the Disciplines of Bodies in Sufi 
Aesthetics.” With an emphasis on Egyptian 
traditions, this paper delved deeper into 
the relationship between ethics and visual 
practice in Sufism and into the discipline 

of the mind and body in the pursuit of 
“beauty” geared toward the development 
of a virtuous self.

Concluding this panel, Vahid Behmardi 
(Lebanese American University) presented 
“ S o c i a l  E t h i c s  i n  R ū m ī ’ s  M a t h n a w ī . ” 
Discussing Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273) for a 
second time in this conference, this paper 
explored the social ethics that can be read 
in his Mathnawī, which is not restricted 
to a purely personal mystical dimension 
but also gives the reader social values to be 
developed in society so that the spiritual 
and religious being can simultaneously 
flourish.

Panels 6 and 7: Sufism in the Nineteenth 
and Twentieth Centuries

The sixth panel was chaired by Lyall 
A r m s t r o n g  ( A m e r i c a n  U n i v e r s i t y  o f 
Beirut) and started with a presentation by 
Ahmed El Shamsy (University of Chicago) 
entitled “Modernist Appropriations of Sufi 
Ethics.” Looking beyond the existing view 
of Muslim reformers’ criticism of Sufism, 
this paper described how, on the contrary, 
such reformers embraced and promoted 
certain aspects of classical works of Sufism, 
a prime example being the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm 
al-dīn by al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), which was 
used by reformers such as Rashīd Riḍā (d. 
1935) and Muḥammad ʿAbduh (d. 1905) in 
driving home their own ethical concerns.

Leila Alzamova (International Relations 
K az an Fed eral U niv ers it y )  p res ent ed 
“Sufism and Modern Muslim Ethics in 
20th Century Russian Islamic Thought,” 
which explored the differing views of two 
Muslim scholars in twentieth-century 
imperial Russia, Ziyaaddin Kamali (d. 
1942) and Musa Bigiev (d. 1949), and their 
divergent criticisms of Sufi shaykhs and 



272  •  Louise GaLLorini 

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 27 (2019)

their practice in the context of the great 
changes brought by modernity and the 
perceived backwardness of the Islamic 
world vis-à-vis the West.

Oludamini Ogunnaike (University of 
Virginia) presented a paper titled “The 
Existential, Epistemological Ethics of 
Tarbiyah: Ibrahim Niasse’s Maqāmāt al-Dīn 
al-Thalāth.” This presentation focused on 
the branch of the Tijāniyya Sufi order that 
is the largest in in the world and the most 
popular one in sub-Saharan Africa thanks 
to the significant influence of Shaykh 
Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975). Analyzing his 
works, the paper shed a great deal of light 
on Niasse’s spiritual training, tracing its 
origins and exploring the relationship it 
postulates between ethics, epistemology, 
ontology, and Sufi anthropology.

The seventh and final panel of the 
conference was chaired by Bashshar Haydar 
(American University of Beirut), with two 
presentations in Arabic. The first of these 
was by Mohammed Helmi, “The Question 
of Sufism on the Contemporary Horizon: 
History and Destinies.” It presented an 
overview of the last century’s criticisms 
of Sufism, from internal criticism by prac-
titioners of Sufism to external criticism 
from non-Sufis, according to different 
religious approaches and currents identi-
fied by Helmi.

Then Adbelouahab Belgherras (Centre 
de recherche en anthropologie sociale 
et culturelle) presented “Sufi Ethics in 
Contemporary Discourse: The ‘Perfect’ 
Man and World Citizenship.” This paper 
discussed the contemporary relevance 
of the Sufi understanding of the “perfect 

human” in regard to the idea of “world 
citizenship” through examples such as the 
International Day of Living Together in 
Peace on May 16 of each year, which was 
recently adopted by the United Nations as 
the result of an initiative by Shaykh Khaled 
Bentounes of the ʿAlawiyya International 
Association.

T h e s e  i n t e n s e  t w o  d a y s  g a v e  t h e 
audience a window into trends in the 
current scholarship and research being 
conducted on Islamic mysticism—both 
on its established themes, such as Rūmī’s 
works and heritage, and less known but 
promising fields, such as early Sufi texts 
and non-Arabic works from different parts 
of the premodern Islamic world.

The particular focus on ethics, an area 
that is overall not yet systematically 
researched in Islamic and Middle Eastern 
studies, helped bring together scholars 
specialized in different time periods and 
different Islamic languages, which made 
for fruitful exchanges among participants 
and with the public. 

The conference also proved to be a 
logical step in the context of a growing 
interest, both scholarly and otherwise, 
in the subject of Sufism. This is hopefully 
the beginning of regular exchanges and 
organized discussions around Sufism in 
particular and Islamic studies in general at 
the AUB, an institution uniquely situated 
to bring together scholars from different 
traditions and disciplines. Indeed, the 
AUB can help foster a rare dynamic and 
discussion between scholars from within 
and outside of the Islamic world.