Abstract
Most of the Orientalists have been studying Islam with the intention of casting doubts and suspicions on the Islamic thoughts and disciplines for their nefarious purposes. The renowned British Orientalist, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson is generally presented as a moderate and unbiased scholar. His main area of research was Islamic Mysticism and he is considered an authority on this particular subject in the West. The reason behind his interest in this subject was his thought that Mysticism could provide a common ground for the people of diverse faiths to understand each other better, nevertheless he considered Christian Mysticism to be superior to Islamic Mysticism. In spite of his immense interest, he was unaware of the true spirit of Islam and Islamic Mysticism. He is found criticizing Islam, the Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him), Qur’an, Hadith and other Islamic disciplines even Islamic Mysticism in his writings, lectures and speeches. The purpose of this analytical paper is to understand and investigate Nicholson’s study of Islamic Mysticism through his book “The Idea of Personality in Sufism”. In fact, this book is comprised of his three lectures on Islamic Mysticism delivered at the London University. The main objective of these lectures was to show that unlike Christianity, the personal relationships between God and man cannot be established in Islam because Muslims do not believe in a personal God. Nicholson was unable to understand how the Sufis i.e. the Islamic mystics could claim closeness to God in the absence of these personal relationships. This research paper provides a critical analysis of his understanding of Islamic Mysticism.
Dr Muhammd Riaz Mehmood, Sadaf ansar. (2017) کا تنقیدی جائزہ"The Idea of Personality in Sufism" مستشرق نکلسن کا مطالعہ تصوف: کتاب, Epistemology: Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 4, Issue 4.
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