Are there any esoteric paths for those in Sunni Islam?

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

I can think of a few friends who are very open-minded and analytical Muslims, not Persian but North African and Palestinian, and I notice that they seem to have interest in everything surrounding esotericism between psychedellic research, cutting edge science, and mysticism but I also notice that Sufism as it's commonly sold and it's usual proponents like Rumi, Omar Kayyam, etc. don't jive well with them.

In their case I see a lot of myself in them - they're Muslims of the variety that I was Catholic ie. I wanted to stay on the straight and narrow of truth but I also really wanted to get my life right with the core source and reason for being as much as possible. Unfortunately with Rumi and Omar there's a lot of wine analogy which would ring more tantric, in it's own way that probably rings a bit Crowley'esque to them, and I can't imagine Shiite authorship being particularly welcoming.

So what I'm wondering - are there organizations out there that hold the Quran central, bypass the Sunni/Shiite sticking points, and take an esoteric/internal/transcendental read on the Suras without having the libertine aspects? I keep hearing - not just from Arabic speakers but people who study language a lot - suggestions that Arabic is one of the most magical and transcendental languages in its structure; quite amazing if there wasn't a significant secret doctrine set within it.

[Frumens]

Did they tell you that they reject Sufism, or is this something you are assuming?

[Rin]

My understanding is that Sufism is the only major mystical current within Islam, but it's not an area I know much about, so I could be incorrect. Honestly, I think if they struggle even with Sufism, they're not going to find any other outside mystical schools which they're comfortable with. After a certain point dogmatic religiosity just doesn't work alongside mystical practice and something has to give one way or the other.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Did they tell you that they reject Sufism, or is this something you are assuming?

I at least think that they're not going to be into anything that has outright tantric tendencies - particular in it's poetry. I think they themselves would need something more equivalent of a Sunni equivalent of AMORC or BOTA, something that's closer to 'feeling right' for those who've grown up in the ambient culture. I wouldn't say they've rejected Sufism outright, just that the most famous are a miss. I'm sure Sufiism is a wide group, I'll just have to keep looking and see if there are any particularly Sunni-leaning schools that seem to do a good job of embracing rather than repelling pious sensibilities.

[Frumens]

I'm a bit confused. Did they ask you to research esoteric Islam for them, or are you trying brainstorm a way to push them into it without offending their orthodox sensibilities?

I did some Goolging and was unable to find anything about Islamic spirituality that didn't include the word Sufi. If they're not comfortable touching anything related to Sufism, nondualism, or inter-faith spirituality, I don't know what they can do. If they become more open, I would recommend the works of Lex Hixon, a.k.a. Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi.

You could ask people on an Islamic forum. They would know more than me.

https://www.religiousforums.com/forums/islam-dir.11/

[Desecrated]

The Isma‘ili Tradition

School of Shiraz

The Four Journeys of the Intellect (al-Asfār al-arba‘āt al-‘aqliyyah) is a philosophical and gnostic exposition
Metaphysical Penetrations (al-Mashāri‘), Wisdom of the Throne (Ḥikmat al-‘arshiyah), The Unity of the Knower and the Known (Ittiḥād al-‘āqil wa’l-ma‘qūl), and Secrets of the Qur’anic Verses (Asrār al-āyāt), a gnostic commentary on the famous light verses.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

I'm a bit confused. Did they ask you to research esoteric Islam for them, or are you trying brainstorm a way to push them into it without offending their orthodox sensibilities?

They're very interested in all related topics, fascinated by what I'm doing just that they wouldn't be able to do it themselves particularly in that the mysteries I'm in are Judao-Christian oriented.

I'm not hoping to push them but I am hoping to at least help them gain clarity on their options if there are any.

I did some Goolging and was unable to find anything about Islamic spirituality that didn't include the word Sufi. If they're not comfortable touching anything related to Sufism, nondualism, or inter-faith spirituality, I don't know what they can do. If they become more open, I would recommend the works of Lex Hixon, a.k.a. Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi.

They're not interested in being winos. I think that's pretty much it. They're moderate but they generally want to engage a spirituality that doesn't go licentious in behavior. A form of Sufism that perhaps abstractly engages things like QM, abstractly lays out Allah's creative process and will, and something with growth oriented and transcendental liberalism, even pulling a reincarnational Great Work from the contexts of Quranic texts - I think they'd be fine with that, just that again - things that seem to come face front with a left-hand-path sort of cover isn't something they'd be interested in. Much like when I was just coming out of the fundamentalist outlook on Christianity AMORC and BOTA were accessible - Thelema would not have been, I'm trying to find something that would be more their own AMORC or BOTA.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

The Isma‘ili Tradition

Only downside is it's Persian/Shi'a.

I did see someone mention the following schools of Sufism being potentially Sunni-geared:
Qadiriyya, Naqshbaniyya, Chistiyga and Mouliviyya. I'll be checking into those to see what they're about and whether they'd be the right kind of thing.

I'll probably take another shot at reading the Quran next month just to see what kinds of internal narratives jump out and what schools seem to do the best at weaving a values-friendly and transcendental framework together. I've wanted to read the full 114 suras for a while anyway so it'll be a good exercise regardless.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

On the surface this looks like it might have some promise - I'll have to do some more digging and, of course, review this one a bit closer after a round with the suras:
http://www.sufiway.net/sec2=edcu=teaTQ811326.html

[Desecrated]

The Isma‘ili Tradition

Only downside is it's Persian/Shi'a.

I did see someone mention the following schools of Sufism being potentially Sunni-geared:
Qadiriyya, Naqshbaniyya, Chistiyga and Mouliviyya. I'll be checking into those to see what they're about and whether they'd be the right kind of thing.

I'll probably take another shot at reading the Quran next month just to see what kinds of internal narratives jump out and what schools seem to do the best at weaving a values-friendly and transcendental framework together. I've wanted to read the full 114 suras for a while anyway so it'll be a good exercise regardless.

In some sense you are asking if there is a golden dawn school without any hermeticism in it...

All Christian magic have some trace of non-orthodox christianity.
All Muslim magic has some Sufi elements in them.

[cyberdemon]

As the conclusion of the Abrahamic trilogy, the Quran is actually pretty cool. It's the one book that's "completely" the word of god and not accounts of the word of god by various people. There are references to medically relevant things hidden away in it, demonologically relevant things hidden away in it, things related to physics hidden away in it.. but most importantly, it reminds One constantly not to ever associate anyone or anything as partners of god for example. It's funny how humans would rather look to associate Moses with the Jews, Jesus with the Christians or Muhammed with the Muslims, but as many times as you hear of god you are told "God is One", etc etc..

Anyway. This website details some contemporary esoteric views in Islam and there's quite a bunch of cool things to take from reading it. http://www.quran-islam.org
"Islam is derived from the Quran and not from the traditions or culture of Muslim people".

Those are my 2 cents in the vending machine.

[Vovi]

I don't think any of us can begin a truly esoteric path without bursting our own bubbles or thinking outside the box of the culture we live in or the religion of that culture. Such a path comes from many cultural sources in the beginning, but we have to be open to them first.