The development of religious sciences in the thought of Abû Tâlib el-Mekkî and sufism

Abû Tâlib al-Makkî is one of the most important authors of early Sûfi history. In his work "Qût al-qulûb", he has explained the developmental progress of Sufism by criticizing other religious sciences such as hadith, fiqh, kalam, tafsir. Also, it was placed the criticisim intended for some groups called "Bid'at" while explaining the developmental progress of Sufism in his work. In this frame Abû Tâlib al-Makkî stated that Sufism has been a "science" that has existed since the Prophet Muhammed that is has received various names but the aim of this knowledge has never changed and Sufism was seen as a basis for other religious sciences which formed later. In his work, the idea of "History of Science" of Abû Tâlib al-Makkî will be classified under various headings and it will be investigated as to what effect it has on the appearange of Sûfi understanding. Because Ghazali, one of the great Islamic scholars, was deeply influenced by Abu Talib al-Makkî and his thoughts. This study consists of introduction part, four different chapters and conclusion part. In the first part of this study, we tried to reveal Makkî's understanding of knowledge and his thoughts about the methods of obtaining information. Thus, we tried to determine the contribution of Makkî to the process of compilation of sufism as a science. In the second part, after we made a general evaluation about the tradition of classification of sciences; with the light of Qût al-qulûb, we tried to reveal some classifications that Makkî applied about the sciences. In this section, we tried to give a general ramework about the criticism of Makkî toward religious sciences which is the main topic of our work. In doing so; by considering the views of other early period Sufi's, we want to show comparatively the Makkî's consideration of the religious sciences which consists two parts named "known by the Salaf" and "emerging later". In the third and fourth section, by referring to the common aspects between Makkî and early period Sufi's such as Abû Nasr Sarraj and Kalabazi, we tried to reveal the Makkî's concept of sufism which dominate Hijri 4th century and the opinion of Makkî about religion. In this framework, we have included Sufis' thoughts about on subjects such as source of sufism, decency of sufism, sama, vajd/ecstasy and music. Also, we have included Makkî's ideas about Ilm al-Yaqîn and its states.