Emotions in Classical Islam: Becoming One’s Own Religious Authority
Abstract:
When it comes to emotions (sorrow, joy, anger, etc.) as expression of religious sentiment (and in general), one question is the extent to which such emotionality is “scripted” (that is, follows societal expectations). The idea that emotions are either scripted or genuine is arguably a false dichotomy. Nevertheless, looking at a set of texts from Classical Islam, we see signs of a kind of discernment that believers are invited to undertake to explore the nature of their emotions to determine whether they have been promoted by God. In this way, I suggest, believers are enabled to discover a sense of religious satisfaction and even a kind of authority in the way in which God might be “speaking” to them through their emotions. This authority is not necessarily in conflict with the religious law but is, rather, a matter of making the religion one’s own.
Paul L. Heck, professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, received his PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago and was a member of the Society of Fellows at Princeton University. His current research focuses on spirituality and society, political theology, and the religious nature of emotions. He is the founding director of the Study of Religions across Civilizations (SORAC), which offers scholarly programs in inter-religious and inter-cultural encounter between Morocco and the US. He has most recently launched the Theo-Humanism Project (THP), a partner project of Georgetown University’s Humanities Initiative, with the goal of promoting scholarly reflection around the relation of religious reasoning to university knowledge pursuits.