Shatahat and galatat in Abu Nasr al-Sarraj

In this thesis, the issue of shatahat in Sarraj's book titled al-Luma is evaluated in terms of being a problem during the formation process of Ṣūfism. Sarraj evaluated in al-Luma the mistakes of the Sūfīs as galat; on the other hand, he tackled shatahat as a more special case where interpretation is possible. During the formation processes of Ṣūfism, Sūfīs uttered the words called shatahat (singular: shath) under the influence of certain states such as sakr and wajd. Since these words include claims specially about God and their apparent meanings are contradictory to the knowledge of sharia, this caused Sūfīs to be described with the discourse close to disbelief. Shatahat which gave rise to many problems in Ṣūfism is one of the most important issues to be resolved specially to regulate the relationship between the Sūfīs and the other scholars. Additionally shatahat has been evaluated as one of the concepts of reconciliation which is the result of Sunnī Ṣūfism. The source of this approach is undoubtedly al-Luma. Shatahat has always been a contradictory concept since it has been the source of problem between Ṣūfism and other religious sciences and it has been the expression of reconciliation. Some problems caused by this ambivalent situation were followed through Sarraj's historiography about shatahat. Therefore, shatahat has become one of the key concepts which we can follow the breaking points of Ṣūfism during its formation process.