Representations of Jesus in Islamic mysticism : defining the 'Sufi Jesus'

This article examines the limits touched by one religious tradition (Islam) in its particular approach to an important symbolic structure within another religious tradition (Christianity), examining how such a relationship on the peripheries of both these faiths can be better apprehended. At the heart of this discourse is the thematic of love. Indeed, the Qur’an and other Islamic materials do not readily yield an explicit reference to love in the way that such a notion is found within Christianity and the figure of Jesus. This is not to say that ‘love’ is altogether absent from Islamic religion, since every Qur’anic chapter, except for the ninth (surat at-tawbah), is prefaced In the Name of God; the Merciful, the Most Kind bismillahi r-rahmani r-rahim). Love (Arabic habb; Persian Ishq), however, becomes a foremost concern of Muslim mystics, who from the ninth century onward adopted the theme to convey their experience of longing for God. Sufi references to the theme of love starts with Rabia al-Adawiyya (717-801) and expand outward from there in a powerful tradition. Although not always synonymous with the figure of Jesus, this tradition does, in due course, find a distinct compatibility with him. Thus, the synonymic relationship between ‘Jesus’ and ‘love’ can be noted particularly within the works of later Persian mystics such as Fariduddin Attar (1145/6-c.1221), Jalaluddin Rumi(1207-1273), Hafiz-i Shirazi (1325/6-1389/90), and Muhyeddin ibn al-’Arabi (1165-1240). The French Orientalist, Louis Massignon (1883-1962) went so far as to analogise the martyrdom of Mansour al-Hallaj (c.858-922) with the crucifixion of Christ.