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This book aims to provide readers with a useful and up to date chronological introduction to Sufi approaches to Qur’an exegesis, spanning across a wide variety of languages and cultural contexts throughout Islamic history up to the modern period. Drawing on insights from the broader field of Islamic Studies as well as Comparative Religious Studies, it explores the degree to which a common Sufi hermeneutical methodology can be identified, revisiting the question of the existence of a distinct genre of “Sufi Qur’an commentary” or “commentary through allusion” (al-tafsīr al-ishārī). By providing a broad and comprehensive survey of Sufi writings and historical records, as well as the works of Qur’an commentators not typically associated with Sufism, it challenges the tendency to define Sufi Qur’an exegesis simply according to the evidence of Sufi Qur’an commentaries.

Published: Oct 1, 2025

Book Contributors

• Author - Harith Bin Ramli (hbr@cambridgemuslimcollege.org - hbramli) 'SOAS, Cambridge Muslim College, University of Cambridge'

Series

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Section	Chapter	Authors
Introduction
	Introduction	Harith Bin Ramli
Conclusion
	Conclusion	Harith Bin Ramli
Part 1: The Formative Period
	1. Mystical and Esoteric Scriptural Exegesis in Pre-Islamic Settings	Harith Bin Ramli
	2. Early Tafsīr and the Emergence of the Sufi Tradition	Harith Bin Ramli
	3. Qur’an Exegesis in the Writings of the Fourth/Tenth Century Sufis	Harith Bin Ramli
Part 2: Sufism in the Muslim East
	4. The Sufi Scholars of Khurasan: al-Sulamī, al-Qushayrī, al-Ghazālī	Harith Bin Ramli
	5. The Path of Love: Aḥmad al-Ghazālī, ʾAyn al-Quḍāt al- al-Hamadhānī, Ruzbihān al-Baqlī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī	Harith Bin Ramli
	6. Central Asian Masters: The Kubrawiyya, the Khwājagān and the Rise of Sufi Orders on the Post-Mongol Era	Harith Bin Ramli
	7. Further East: Qur’an Exegesis in the Writings of Sufis in India, China and the Malay Archipelago	Harith Bin Ramli
Part 3: Sufism in the Muslim West
	8. al-Andalus	Harith Bin Ramli
	9. Ibn ʿArabī and the Akbarī School	Harith Bin Ramli
	10. Ibn ʿAjība and the Later Medieval North African Tradition	Harith Bin Ramli
Part 4: Beyond East and West
	11. Sufi Tafsīr in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras	Harith Bin Ramli
	12. al-Suhrawardī and the Ishrāqī School	Harith Bin Ramli
	13. Sufi Tafsīr in the Age of “Gunpowder Empires”	Harith Bin Ramli
	14. Contemporary Approaches to Sufi Tafsīr	Harith Bin Ramli