The Juridical Sufism of Aḥmad Zarrūq (D. 1493): Towards A Theory Of Applied Legal Epistemology

This research focuses on the pre-modern relationship between the disciplines of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and Sufism (taṣawwuf), Islamic mysticism. Essential to this relationship is the perceived tension between the different interpretations regarding the spirit and the letter of the Revealed Law (al-sharīʿa). Is the literal interpretation all we can understand from the divine law or is there another layer, a spiritual meaning to be discovered? Stuck between the Scylla of extremely rigid interpretations by some jurists and the Charybdis of the esoteric law-relinquishing Sufis, Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 1493) offers a unique and profound solution in his development of juridical Sufism. As a prominent Mālikī jurist, theologian, and Shādhili Sufi, Zarrūq is considered one of the monumental mystics and legal scholars of fifteenth-century North Africa. Both his Sufi and his legal works and method are characterized by a systematic attempt to integrate legal rectitude within popular devotional piety, an attempt that has influenced pre-modern and modern Sunni scholars across the globe in their approach to the tension between Islamic Law and mysticism and their approach towards the reformation of Sufism.

The influence of Sufi ideas on Islamic law and legal theory itself is often overlooked (Dajani, 2022) if not completely neglected. Through a legal-theoretical lens, this proposed project aims to provide the first coherent theory of legal epistemology and hermeneutics of Juridical Sufism as expressed in Zarrūq's work. This legal-theoretical lens uncovers the underlying epistemological foundations of Sufism with a particular focus on the nature of moral responsibility (taklīf), legal pluralism, substantive law (fiqh) and Divine Law (shari’a), and spiritual progression (sulūk) within an ethical-legal context. So  rather than discussing the historical emergence of juridical Sufism, this project seeks a more conceptual understanding of Juridical Sufism. This conceptual understanding can be summarized in two basic questions: first, what does it mean for fiqh (law) to be spiritual and, second, what are the basic methods and objectives of the spiritual engagement with substantive law (fiqh)? These questions will lead us to the legal epistemological underpinnings of Zarrūq’s project. Additionally, the study of Zarrūq’s legal epistemological foundations for Juridical Sufism will offer an innovative perspective on the various forms of critique on Sufism and attempts to reform in the premodern Islamic world.  This project will build on and move beyond the current state of the art in Islamic studies and philosophy to show, first, how the domains of legal theory and law (fiqh and uṣul al-fiqh), and spirituality (Sufism) are related to one another —with a focus on the conceptual rather than the historical emergence of Juridical Sufism— and, second, how this influences the way in which Muslim scholars understand the nature and purpose of the Sharīʿa.