A Late Ottoman Scholar Muhammad Zahid Al-Kawthart’s Approach to The Certain Issues of Süfism

Abstract

Muhammad Z?hid al-Kawthar? (d. 1371/1952), who grew up in the late Ottoman period and relocated to Egypt for political reasons, was interested in various fields of Islamic sciences, especially had?th, kal?m, and fiqh and wrote many important works. Al-Kawthar? grew up in a scientific and mystical environment and established close relations with many important S?f?s throughout his life. Al-Kawthar? dealt mainly with the spiritual lineage of the S?f? orders and made essential contributions to the S?fi literature by means of his books. He also dealt with some subjects of S?fism in the comments and presentations he wrote in reviews of other works written at that time. Al-Kawthar? adopted the Sunni S?fi understanding that was formed under the leadership of S?fis, such as al-Junayd al-Baghd?d? (d. 297/909) and grounded many of his views in this context. He stated that ??fism is the only way to reach the truth today. It contains theoretical and practical perfection, includes taqwa resulting in gnosis and aims at moral maturity. Further, he expressed his views on important aspects of S?fism, such as existence, human, the shaykh-disciple relationship, miracle, r?bita, uwaysiyya, and tawassul.. © 2021 Istanbul University Press. All rights reserved.