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c h a p t e r t w o The Holy Man in Islam Insights have come to you from your Lord; one who experiences them, it will be for his own self; one who is averse to them, then it will be to his own loss; I am not your protector. (Qur£an: 6:104) R eligious authority is not confined to the scholarly elite. It can also be conferred to or acquired by a holy man. In this chapter, I intend to examine the emergence of the holy man in Sufism and the authority that he wielded in the Muslim community. I will contrast this with the genre of authority that was exercised by the Shi¡i holy man. In addition, I will examine the role of the shrine culture in enhancing the authority of the holy man. It is essential, at the outset, to define the holy. The term “holy” refers to the source or object of religious veneration that is separated from the realm of the mundane and connected to the divine. The concept of holiness is extended to include attributes of people and actions that have claimed connection with God. It also comprises things and objects that derive their sanctity or holiness from association with God.1 In his The Idea of the Holy, Rudolph Otto examines the different genres of primary religious experience. He divides the holy into two distinct elements: the moral/rational and nonrational.2 As an ethical category, the holy denotes a sense of piety and morally upright demeanor that is predicated on the performance of various acts of ascetic and devotional exercises. From this ethical perspective, holiness becomes a process of sanctification that is conjoined to the purification of the heart. 38 The Heirs of the Prophet Otto uses the term “holy” primarily in a nonrational and nonethical sense. Holiness is, for Otto, a moment of spiritual encounter with a metaphysical link that encapsulates every religious tradition. This comprehensive definition means that the sacred or holy is a universal religious phenomenon that governs human interaction with an object of veneration. Otto further maintains that since God is not a rational object of discernment, the nature of religious experience is not connected to thoughts about God but to a feeling whose object is the holy. Hence, the encounter with the holy is, for Otto, an emotional rather than an intellectual experience. Feelings for the holy are a necessary part of religious experience. Otto calls these feelings or awareness of the presence of the divine “the numinous .” The word is derived from the Latin numen, referring to a divine spirit or localized power that the Romans perceived in nature. The numinous is the object of religious experience or feeling, and is held by the religiously devout to be a reality transcending the experience of an individual.3 Experience of the numinous, Otto claims, is an intrinsic component that is associated with any encounter of the holy, because it lies at the heart of all types of religious experiences.4 Otto further elucidates his theory of emotive experience of the numinous by maintaining that the experience of the holy has a three-fold characteristic : (1) the numinous experience is a mystery of such intensity that the self is entirely subsumed within it. The awareness of this mystery is completely different from our everyday experience. (2) It is also tremendous insofar as it overpowers and captivates the worshipper, generating an awe-inspiring feeling that one has in the presence of a superior power. The feelings of awe are often accompanied with feelings of exaltedness or majesty reflecting the highest form of emotions of the mysterious. The effects of the sense of being overpowered by the numinous vary from sudden eruptions of emotions that emerge from the depths of the soul to intoxicated frenzy.5 (3) At the same time, the holy is so fascinating that human beings are often captivated by and drawn to communicate with it. The sense of fascination with the numinous entices many to establish a deep, personal relationship with the numinous. Otto’s typology of the numinous experience suggests that the holy is a mysterious “other” whose character is incommensurate with and totally alien from our own. The experience of holiness reveals a unique category of value and state of mind that cannot be investigated by normal empirical methods. Hence, holiness becomes an aspect of the deity that transcends and even eludes...

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