Volume 43, Issue 3, September 2024, Pages 809–821
Amedjar Lahoucine1
1 Mohammed V University, Faculty of Letters, Rabat, Morocco
Original language: English
Copyright © 2024 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The mystical teachings of world traditions alongside the spiritual teachings of Sufism have long been occupied with the idea of understanding the nafs (the inner self) and the various inflictions of the ego. Although the perception of the nafs differs from one religious, spiritual, philosophical tradition to the other, it is a matter of fact that all of these teachings have sought to establish the centrality of the human struggle in the process of cultivating the nafs and overcoming the fluctuations of the ego for the purpose of achieving self-salvation and liberation. In this regard and based on a legal and theological understanding of the notion of tazkiyah (self-purification) as well as a textual reading of some oral narratives and stories from the teachings of Zen spirituality, Christian mysticism, and Moroccan Sufism which have linked the reprehensible and blameworthy attributes of the human nafs to the vicious aspects of wild animals, including oxen, tigers, bears, and lions, the research seeks to underline the medieval Moroccan Sufi imaginary of of tazkiyah. It argues that some oral narratives of medieval Moroccan ascetics on possessing the karāma (saintly marvel) of taming the lion symbolizes the idea of subduing the nafs.
Author Keywords: zen spirituality, christian mysticism, moroccan sufism, self-purification, spiritual struggle, self-reform, saintly marvel, taming animals.
Amedjar Lahoucine1
1 Mohammed V University, Faculty of Letters, Rabat, Morocco
Original language: English
Copyright © 2024 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The mystical teachings of world traditions alongside the spiritual teachings of Sufism have long been occupied with the idea of understanding the nafs (the inner self) and the various inflictions of the ego. Although the perception of the nafs differs from one religious, spiritual, philosophical tradition to the other, it is a matter of fact that all of these teachings have sought to establish the centrality of the human struggle in the process of cultivating the nafs and overcoming the fluctuations of the ego for the purpose of achieving self-salvation and liberation. In this regard and based on a legal and theological understanding of the notion of tazkiyah (self-purification) as well as a textual reading of some oral narratives and stories from the teachings of Zen spirituality, Christian mysticism, and Moroccan Sufism which have linked the reprehensible and blameworthy attributes of the human nafs to the vicious aspects of wild animals, including oxen, tigers, bears, and lions, the research seeks to underline the medieval Moroccan Sufi imaginary of of tazkiyah. It argues that some oral narratives of medieval Moroccan ascetics on possessing the karāma (saintly marvel) of taming the lion symbolizes the idea of subduing the nafs.
Author Keywords: zen spirituality, christian mysticism, moroccan sufism, self-purification, spiritual struggle, self-reform, saintly marvel, taming animals.
How to Cite this Article
Amedjar Lahoucine, “Medieval Moroccan Sufi Imaginary of Tazkiyah: Oral Narratives on Taming the Lion as a Manifestation of Subduing the Nafs,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 809–821, September 2024.
