This paper tries to expose critically and analitically the historical dimension of tasawuf as far as its epistemological development is concerned. It argues that as a system of knowledge, tasawuf constitutes part and parcel of the larger Islamic epistemological system and shares with other forms of knowledge in its historical dimension. By referring in particular to the evolution of sufistic id…
This paper traces back the origin of tasawuf to the early period of Islam by investigating the ideas propagated by one of its best scholars named Abû Nas r al-Sarrâj. The paper tries to find the link between his thought and that of the earlier sufis on the one hand, and his response to the social and epistemological contexts that shape it on the other. In doing so, it discusses first the deba…