A Dialogue

MOHAMMED FAGHFOORY: I read the review on my book, Kernel of theKernel, in a recent edition of the journal [21:2] and would like to respond tosome of the reviewer’s remarks. The bulk of the review is, in fact, takenfrom the book itself and is nothing more than a description of each chapter’scontent. That is fine by itself, and your journal’s format requires that. It is,however, to his concluding paragraph that I would like to address myresponse, where he talks about Sufism in light of feminist literature and theories,which are alien to Islamic spirituality.First, the reviewer’s statement that “No women are found among all theShi`ite scholars and masters of esoteric sciences” is simply wrong. As earlyas the first Islamic century, Sufism produced masters like Rabi`ah `Adawiyah,to whom Hasan al-Basri, the celebrated patriarch of Basrah and thefirst major Sufi master, referred to frequently for spiritual advice. To this,one must add prominent women like Sayyidah Nafisah (the daughter ofImam Hasan) and Sayyidah `A’ishah (the daughter of Imam Sadiq), whosemastery of exoteric and esoteric knowledge have been acknowledged bySufi masters like Ibn `Ata’llah Iskandarani and many others. One might alsomention Fatimah of Nayshabur, the Persian Nizam, and another Fatimahwho was, in fact, the spiritual master of the octogenarian Sufi master Muhyal-Din ibn al-`Arabi.More problematic is the reviewer’s statement on Sufi doctrine and itsview on men and women. When God decided to manifest Himself, He did sothrough Revelation, cosmos, and human being (microcosm). We read in theQur’an that God is Ahad (He is One, Absolute) and Samad (Sufficient toHimself, Infinite). This means that everything is contained in Him. Thus, God ...