Idries Shah

In the Muslim historical and cultural context, examples of peaceful means to negotiation must be explored to break down the stereotypical assumptions about Islamic endorsement of or mandate toward violent means to address religious and social differences.  The following paper explores the life and leadership model of Idries Shah (1924-1966) as one such case of an individual whose Sufi Muslim convictions provided a natural platform for Koestler’s model of the yogi.  Shah’s strategy primarily targeted Western audiences whose misperceptions of Islamic thought and practice contributed to conflict.  His literary works in Sufism provided peaceful means to discuss Islam through honest exploration of mysticism, magic, fables and storytelling rather than resorting to a rigid interpretation of the Qur’an, reiterating of Hadith or a legal discussion on sharia.  As exemplified by Shah, Sufism had the potential to address twentieth century crises of globalization through a peaceful exchange of wisdom and spiritual renewal.

Western Sufism is sometimes dismissed as a relatively recent "new age" phenomenon, but in this book, Mark Sedgwick argues that it actually has very deep roots, both in the Muslim world and in the West. In fact, although the first significant Western Sufi organization was not established until 1915, the first Western discussion of Sufism was printed in 1480, and Western interest in some of the ideas that are central to Sufi thought goes back to the thirteenth century. Sedgwick starts with the earliest origins of Western Sufism in late antique Neoplatonism and early Arab philosophy, and traces later origins in repeated intercultural transfers from the Muslim world to the West, in the thought of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and in the intellectual and religious ferment of the nineteenth century. He then follows the development of organized Sufism in the West from 1915 until 1968, the year in which the first Western Sufi order based not on the heritage of the European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment, but rather on purely Islamic models, was founded. Later developments in this and other orders are also covered.

Western Sufism shows the influence of these origins, of thought both familiar and less familiar: Neoplatonic emanationism, perennialism, pantheism, universalism, and esotericism. Western Sufism, then, is the product not of the new age but of Islam, the ancient world, and centuries of Western religious and intellectual history. Drawing on sources from antiquity to the internet, Mark Sedgwick demonstrates that the phenomenon of Western Sufism not only draws on centuries of intercultural transfers, but is also part of a long-established relationship between Western thought and Islam that can be productive, not confrontational.

Intensywne procesy migracyjne do Europy sprawiają, że
niezwykle aktualną kwestią staje się dialog międzykulturowy, ze
szczególnym uwzględnieniem mentalności charakterystycznej dla
arabsko-muzułmańskiego kręgu kulturowego. Propozycją pogodzenia
sposobu myślenia charakterystycznego dla Wschodu i Zachodu
oraz dialogu między przedstawicielami obu kręgów kulturowych
może być nauczanie sufickie prezentowane przez Idriesa Shaha.

This short article uses a sufi quote from Idries Shah to illustrate how the Pythagoreans may have looked at different tiers of followers (in the Pythagorean case, auditors and mathematicians).  I do not consider this a comprehensive answer to the auditor/mathematician split, but rather food for thought.  Knowledgeable scholars often reject the auditor/mathematician division and/or the Pythagorean/Pythagorist division.  I think that they are thinking of Pythagoras in terms of the king, not the Master portrayed in the sufi story.