The interpretive reading of Islamic Sufism in the writings of Muhammad Shawqi Al-Zein

Abstract

This research aims to shed light on one aspect of the efforts of the Algerian writer and researcher Mohamed Shawqi Al-Zain, which is the aspect related to the contemporary reading that he presents of the Sufi heritage through investing in interpretation as a method and cognitive theory. What prompted us to write on this topic is our interest in contemporary readings of the Islamic heritage, and our belief that such efforts seem serious and fruitful. In order to reach objective results, we relied on the original texts of the writer, and we looked closely and contemplated them, relying on the descriptive and analytical method, while trying to deduce the public and hidden positions in these texts. One of the most prominent results we reached is that the interpretive reading that Shawqi Al-Zain adopted in reading the texts of the Sufi heritage is a reading that works to try to overcome the strict epistemological tendencies and critical rationalities, which until recently were similar to the fashion in contemporary Arab thought, towards activating a modern reading represented in the interpretation that opens up to difference and heterogeneity and acknowledges the multiplicity of connotations and meanings in a single text.