The dynamic of interpretation in the Sufi text - A digging approach at the available hermeneutic levels -

Abstract

This research paper aims to dig into the hermeneutical layers that stand behind the production of meaning in the Sufi text, by identifying the most important levels that the Sufi interpretative act went through and its relationship to the texts produced at each level. In this regard, it is important to highlight the need to focus on the role of the cultural and social backgrounds that accompanied the hermeneutic practices and contributed in directing them at each stage of the formation of the Sufi text. When talking about the interpretation of a Sufi text, we should bear in mind the idea that the Sufi text is a special text which cannot be dealt with as any other ordinary discourses. What gives this text a uniqueness is the nature of the thought it produces, considering that the text is the product of a thought, its translation, a linguistic picture or a discursive manifestation of an earlier mental image. As for interpretation, we basically need a text from which we start and a supreme language in order to decipher it. We do not interpret any ordinary and direct speech but rather an enigmatic speech, and this leads directly to the second characteristic of the Sufi text, which is that it constitutes a symbolic environment full of sign. All in all, the questions that arise are: - Where did this symbolic abundance come from in the Sufi text? - What are the reasons behind this abundance? - What is the place of the hermeneutical practice in the strategy of coding in the Sufi discourse?