“Pain as a Form of Piety in Rifāʿī Self-Mortification Rituals: The Role of the Body in ‘Training the Soul’ (Riyāḍat al-Nafs),” International Conference: Sufism and the Body, The Senses of Islam (SENSIS), 12–13 September 2019, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Beschreibung

The Rifaʿi Sufi order, which developed in Iraq towards the end of the twelfth century, is known for the distinctly ‘physical’ dhikr rituals its adherents carry out in remembrance of God. The Rifaʿiyya have always stressed the importance of extreme asceticism. Poverty, abstinence, denial of the body, and self-mortification rituals are central virtues.

Drawing upon a series of ethnographic observations of Rifaʿi rituals in the Kosovo and Macedonia, I will focus on ecstatic performances with self-mortification, in which pain is experienced as a form of piety through which the sensorium of physical passions and sensualities is mitigated, overcome, and mastered. The control achieved by the disciples over their nafs (often translated as ‘(lower) soul’) is confirmed through the expansion of the capacities of their bodies. The increased spiritual power of the performing dervishes is expressed by the fact that their deeds transcend the natural order in that they do not bleed or perceive pain, nor are their bodies marked by visible wounds.

In the context of the ritual, the mastering of the body’s pain and suffering is not, then, perceived as a negative but as an intrinsically positive empowering force which activates imagistic dynamics involving the inner senses. Pain and suffering in such ‘rites of passage’ are essential forces in the taming and domesticating of the participating dervishes’ own nafs, the (ongoing) ‘training (of one’s) soul’ (riyāḍat al-nafs).

Zeitraum	12 Sep. 2019 → 13 Sep. 2019
Gehalten am	Utrecht University, Niederlande
Bekanntheitsgrad	International