Sufis and Sharīʿa: The Forgotten School of Mercy

This book highlights a number of the major Sufi figures whose writings on legal theory were strongly shaped by their Sufism, showing how they belonged to the same tradition and developed each other's ideas. The book focuses in particular on Ibn ʿ
Arabī
, giving a detailed analysis of his legal thought and revealing his influence on a number of major Sufi figures all the way up to the 19th century. Other key figures whose influence is explored are al-Tirmidhī
, al-Shaʿ
rā
nī
and Ibn Idrī
s. This is the first study to give a full picture of the role that Sufi thought played in the revivalist Islamic movements of the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries.

This book is not about Sufism. It is about the nature of the Sharī
ʿ
a. In the first three centuries of Islam, many scholars believed that juristic differences were rooted in the Sharī
ʿ
a's inherent flexibility. As this pluralistic attitude began to disappear, a number of Sufis defended and developed this idea through the centuries. They aimed to preserve the leniency and simplicity of the Sharī
ʿ
a against the complications and restrictions created by many jurists.