Re: ProgressiveMuslims digest, Vol 1 #356 - 10 msgs

In a message dated 1/29/2004 5:47:03 AM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:

> have been more constructed paths for the individual. one lets the individual acquire more freedom to *think* outside of 
> the box.

For more than a thousand and one years sufism found a place within traditional islam. While there were many instances of tension between legalistic apprach and mystical, personal but from many studies written in the 80s and 90s it seems that the "öpposition" of these 2 tendancies has been overstated in social science literature (and now in mainstream Muslim schematics) and that there was much more integretion for most of the period..... that Ulema were Sufis and vice versa for example. In any case the Path does provide structure and guidance but there are many types. Again the path of freedom existed within the cultural norms.... the freedom begins within. Insha'Allah