Alif of the Heart: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen's Embodied, All-Encompassing Qur'anic Vision



Author: Azeem Muhammad Khan



Mentor: Dr. Ibrahim Farajajae



The binary created between so-called "folk" versus "high" religion has been followed nearly dogmatically up until the present day both inside and outside of academia. This distinction is most obvious in the study of religious scriptures, since it is believed that only the elite can truly comprehend their depth. Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyadeen, a modern Sri Lankan Sufi Muslim offers a doorway to another possibility- one that suggests that some of the highest, most sophisticated, esoteric knowledge of Islam has been and continues to be passed down orally through seemingly simple language. In fact Bawa's work hints at the influence of Ibn al'Arabi, various south asian scholars and persian poets. That in addition to a literacy in Sri Lankan traditions, Hinduism and Buddhism. One is not able to separate what is "high" and what is "low" in Bawa's works, since all are blended seamlessly, defying categorization and presumptions. Grounded in Islamic history, Bawa sees the Qur'an as a tripartite text, existing outwardly as a text, inwardly in the body and as the cosmos as a whole. The Qur'an is meant to be embodied, internalized within the heart as a key to unlock a unity-consciousness, which the goal of Bawa's path. Allah, the only Being can only be known by one who annihilates their limited sense of being into the unlimited. As he continuously points out, "Only Allah can know Allah". The implications of this Qur'anic vision are not only the breaking down of common understandings of "oral" religion as was previously mentioned, but a real tool of transforming the self, following the example of the Prophet Muhammad in tracing the light of revelation back to its source.