Muslim Cosmology: Mystic Participation and Spiritual-Psychic Energy

In Muslim cosmology, the visible material world is connected to an invisible, more authentic spiritual realm. This connection is embodied in Sufi practices—bodily rituals, mystic participation, and esoteric beliefs—that generate spiritual-psychic energy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt, the paper describes how this hierarchical cosmology is infused with mystic dimensions, including spirituality, sanctification, illumination, and unification, which coexist with everyday activities.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This is an anthropological study of the hierarchically ordered Muslim cosmology with its seen and unseen spheres. Cosmology and mystic participation in Islam are manifested, for instance, in Sufism (tṣawwuf). This paper proposes that the connection between the visible and invisible spheres of the Muslim cosmology is embodied in the Sufis’ bodily rituals, mystic participations and esoteric beliefs resulting in spiritual-psychic energy. Muslim cosmologies are ethnographically addressed within the views and values of Muslims living in Egypt. Muslim cosmology is infused with deeply significant mystic dimensions according to which there exists, beyond the cosmos’ material reality, another imperceptible cosmos that is viewed as more real and more authentic. Muslim cosmology is contingent on models of spirituality, sanctification, illumination, unification and creation without nullifying mundane activities.