Sufis and Shar??A: The Forgotten School of Mercy

This book is not about Sufism. It is about the nature of the Shar??a. In the first three centuries of Islam, many scholars believed that juristic differences were rooted in the Shar??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 Shar??a against the complications and restrictions created by many jurists.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 ?Arab?, 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.