The Representation of the Human Body in Sufi Poetry: A Sacred Sanctuary and a Cosmic Space

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Sufi poets represent the human body and its manifestation in mystical poetry as a sacred sanctuary and a cosmic space, whose contours are shaped by Sufi imagination. This conception is tied to their interpretation of the relationship between the self and the Absolute, revealing systems of reference in poetic representation that borrow from the visible world to express an intelligible one. The Sufi poet thus seeks to embody the Absolute in the manifestations of human beauty, where the individual and singular body becomes a cosmic body, a sign of the presence of the Sublime. This study attempts to explore the limits of the poetic imagination of the body and the horizons of the Sufi interpretation of absolute beauty, conveyed through this human body sublimated in poetic imagery. Such an approach allows for a nuanced understanding of traditional conceptions of the body in Sufi mysticism, often perceived as a suffering and denied body.