“On the Lookout: A Qur’anic Verse and its Sufi and Jewish Exegesis”
Professor Diana Lobel, Boston University Department of Religion
This text-based presentation explored traditional and Sufi interpretations of a mysterious Qur’anic verse. Sufi improvisation on this verse in turn provided the key to an enigmatic passage in Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart, a profound guidebook of medieval Sufi-Jewish spirituality.
Diana Lobel has written extensively on the intertwined traditions of Jewish and Islamic mysticism and philosophy, particularly the impact of Sufi mysticism on Jewish thought. Her first book, Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi’s Kuzari, was published as a part of the SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy in 2000. Her most recent book, A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart, explores the full extent to which Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart marks the flowering of the “Jewish-Arab symbiosis,” the interpenetration of Islamic and Jewish civilizations. Bahya’s book reveals an extraordinary time when Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers participated in a common spiritual quest, across traditions and cultural boundaries.