Обсуждение:Вкушение

Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

Dhawq (4 081 слов) Dhawq означает «вкус» в прямом и переносном смысле. В Коране проклятое наказание «вкус», а в сунне верующие «вкусят» сладость веры. Философы и врачи пытаются объяснить физиологию вкуса и то, что может его изменить. Однако именно в рамках шуфизма этот термин нашел свое наиболее широкое применение, поскольку он вы­ра­жает невыразимую и необщительную природу духовного, любовного, созерцательного и познавательного опыта. Его ме­та­фо­рическое использование до сих пор для мастеров шуфизма — приглашение попробовать то, что не могут описать слова. 1. арабский язык Dhawq — это глагольное существительное (maddar) глагола dhāqa (также встречаются дхавак и мадхак, но реже), что означает «вкус» в прямом и переносном смысле. Хам, который часто ассоциируется с ним, более конкретно имеет смысл «аромата» чего-либо. Аль-Джаних (ум. 255/868-9) приводит несколько примеров образного использования глагола дхака в древнем языке, особенно в поэзии (см. «Маджаз ал-дхавк», в « Китаб аль-Чайаван», «Книга»). животных ", 5: 28-32). Ибн Мандур (ум. 711/1311-2) приводит другие примеры, особенно взятые из Корана и Шадита, всегда с чувством «чувствовать» или «испытывать» (Лисан аль-Шараб, «Язык арабов», 11: 401-2). 2. Коран и Сунна Глагол дхака используется в Коране один раз в буквальном смысле для Адама и Евы: «они вкусили от дерева» (7:22). Это не исключает переносного значения, если учесть, что, согласно Библии, это дерево познания добра и зла. Метафоричес­кое использование глагола дхака в основном преобладает в Коране. Его коннотации довольно негативны; во многих местах проклятое " вкусное " наказание, их тяжелое будущее (wabāl amrihim : 59:15; 62:42; 65: 9) или несчастье (al-sū s, 16:94). Бог заставляет человека испытать «незначительное наказание», то есть испытания этого мира, чтобы он мог покаяться, прежде чем почувствовать вкус «главного наказания» в загробной жизни (32:21). Точно так же тот, кто освятил себя для паломничества и нарушает запрет на охоту, должен пожертвовать животным, накормить бедных или поститься в качестве искупления, «чтобы ощутить пагубную природу его действия» (5:95). После вызова еды и мучений ада прокля­тому даже иронично сказано: «Вкус, дорогой вам, досточтимый!», А сразу после этого говорят о избранных в Рай: "Они будут там больше нет вкуса смерти; только первая смерть "(44:49 и 56). Однако также учитывается милость, которую Бог дает человеку попробовать, хотя он быстро забывает об этом, впадая в неблагодарность (ср. 10:21, 11:10, 30:33, 41:50). Вкус приобретает более позитивный оттенок в сунне. Согласно хадису, «Тот, кто принял Бога своим Господом, Ислам — своей религией, а Мухаммад — своим (Пророком и) Посланником, вкусил вкуса веры» (Ибн Шанбал, 1: 208; Муслим, Шанхи , К . al-Īmān 56, 1:46). Пророк, объясняя женщине, что она не сможет вступить в повторный брак со своим первым супругом, который отверг её, до тех пор, пока она не завершит брак со своим вторым мужем, прежде чем последний отказывается от неё, указывает ей: "Нет, не пока вы не почувствуете вкус его «маленького меда» (шусайлы) и он вашего "(ал-Бухари, шади, шахадат 3, шалак)4, 3: 208-9; 7:56 и т.д ….) Вдохновил ли этот образ определённых мастеров-суфийцев, которые видят в своей науке нечто, чему нельзя научить словами или книгами, но которое нужно «попробовать»? Как можно описать вкус мёда или сексуального удовольствия? 3. Философия и медицина Некоторые философы особенно интересовались взаимоотношениями между внешними чувствами, включая вкус, и душой или сердцем (например, al-Farābī, глава 21, Ar. Текст 81-3, trans. 65-71). Ихван аль-Шафа (тайное общество Исмаили в Басре четвёртого / десятого века) также интересовался взаимоотношениями между сенсорными способностями, включая вкус и душу (Marquet, 230-1). Что касается языка, врачи обсуждают изменения, которые могут повлиять на чувство вкуса (Шис аль-Мадхак) (Абу Бакр аль-Рази, 3: 163-4). Персидский эрудит Ибн Сина (Авиценна, ум. 428/1037) по-разному рассматривает один и тот же вопрос (Ибн Сина, 2: 254-5). 4. Риторика В области риторики, которая имеет дело с красноречием (ʿilm al-bayān), dhawq означает «вкус» языка, то есть способность выражать то, что нужно сказать, самым точным и самым элегантным способом. По словам историка арабо-исламской цивилизации Ибн Халдуна (ум. 784/1382), этот факультет, хотя и не является врожденным, все ещё требует глубокого погружения в арабскую среду и превосходного владения своими специфическими способами выражения. Поэтому его редко можно встретить среди неарабов (см. Ибн Халдун, 3: 264-7 (6-й раздел, § 50)). 5. Шуфизм В шуфизме путь к самопознанию, «вкус» не является теоретическим, но переживается внутри самого существа; в соответствии с использованием Корана, это относится к непосредственному опыту состояний бытия, в связи с другими концепциями, как мы увидим ниже, таким образом, занимая свое место в техническом словаре шуфизма. Египтянин Дху л-Нун аль-Мишри (ум. 246/861) считает, что тот, кто охвачен жгучим желанием Бога (иштияк), пробует напиток, который только усиливает его желание (шууфика фа-штака ва-дхувикха фа-шаба lahu l-madhāq) (Ибн Араби, Аль-Каукаб , 248, 252, пер. Деладьер, 302, 308 (§ 170)). Эта же идея часто встречается в работах учёного-суфийца из Хурасана аль-Хаким аль-Тирмидхи (ум. Между 295/905 и 300/910 гг.) В связи с жгучим желанием, которое обеспечивает «предвкушение» радости встречи Возлюбленный (Nwyia, 287). Часто связанный с Вадждом, подавляющим опытом божественного присутствия, дхавквсе чаще считается первой стадией этого опыта. Суфийский ученый иранского происхождения Агмад б. «Ахан ал-Рудхабари» (ум. В Тире 369 / 979-80) определяет это так: «Вкус — это первое переживание Бытия (маваджид). Те, кто теряют сознание (ахл аль-гайба), когда они пьют, видят, что их дух исчезает; те, кто остается в сознании (Ахль аль-Худдур), когда они пьют живёт полностью», как сообщает толкователь, агиограф и суфийский теоретик из Нишапура аль-Сулов (d. 412/1021) в его Табакате аль-ṣūfiyya ("Поколение о Суфи ", ас-Сулами, 498). Это чувство начала духовного опыта подтверждается теоретиком-суфийцем из Хурасана аль-Сарраджа (ум. 378/988) в его списке технических терминов; что касается любви, dhawq предшествует shurb (напиток) и Рея (питье к досыта). Но слово также сохраняет более общий смысл в практике духовного концерта / прослушивания (samāʿ) и ваджда, который оно приносит участнику, переживание, вкус и «вкус» которого (ʿaʿm) невозможно описать (al-Sarrāj, 449, 376, 388). В « Адаб аль-мулук фи баян ḥaqāʾiq al-taṣawwuf» (« Царский этикет в объяснении истин суфизма»), анонимном трактате четвёртого / десятого века, вкус открывает доступ к внутренним значениям самах . Это включает «вкус того, что мы ощущаем как Бытие, и связанные с этим реальности, которые мы рассматриваем»(дхавк вуджудихи ва-шакашик шухудихи) (Адаб аль-Мулук , 66). Связь между этими двумя способами духовного восприятия появится позже в истории суфизма. Суфий ученый из Нишапура Абдул-Карим аль-Кушайри (д. 465/1073) имеет дело с точки зрения dhawq, shurb и Рея -following sukr (опьянение) и ṣaḥw (трезвости) -как три фазы знания, которые мы получаем доступ к последовательно через духовные практики (muʿāmalāt), встречи (munāzalāt) и отношения (muwāṣalāt).Вкус обеспечивает видимость опьянения, полного опьянения и полного удовлетворения возвращением к трезвости. Цитата из Центральной Азии Шуфи Ягья б. Мунадх аль-Рази (ум. 258/872), шуфи, живший в Балхе, а затем в Нишапуре, напоминает нам, что вкус чаши любви. Вместо этого Аль-Кушайри ставит его в область знания, делая его выражением "плодов феофании " (тамарат ал-таджалли), в дополнение к открытиям и вдохновению (варидат), возникающим по мере продвижения к Богу (Кушайри, 1: 271-2). Али аль-Худжвири (из Газны, между 465 и 469/1073 и 1077) определяет дхавк по отношению к шурбу, что относится к содержанию духовного опыта. По словам одного из его учителей, ученик, который не чувствует ничего из этого удовлетворения, не принимает этого знания, в то время как знающий должен преодолеть такое восприятие, которое отвлечет его от Бога. В то время как shurb обеспечивает только радость, dhawq может быть связан как радость и страдание, что согласуется с использованием коранического (аль-Худжвирями, транс Николсоном, 392;. Транс Мортэзэви, 442-3.). По словам шуфийского мастера из Герата Абдаллаха аль-Ангари (ум. 481/1089), первая степень вкуса, связанная со вкусом обетования, — это полная аппетитность (таддик); второе, связанное со вкусом близости (не) , — это желание (irāda)а третий разворачивается, в свою очередь, ещё на три: отделение от других, связанных с союзом; стремление, связанное с воссоединением; и интимные консультации, связанные с прямым видением. В этом перечислении дхавк, который, как говорит аль-Анрири, длится дольше, чем вадж, обретает чувство полной и эффективной реализации обязательства на различных этапах духовного развития (ал-Анжари, № 70, стр. 79-80 (Ar. Text) и 111 (перевод.)). Персидский Ружбихан Бакли (из Шираз, ум. 606/1209) устанавливает дхавк в начале ступеней влюбленных (макамат ал-шашикин), предшествуя радости (ладхдха), вкус, питье и впитывание. «Вкус чаши морей Богоявления» приводит к первому свету божественных качеств, а затем к «великолепию созерцания в раскрытии» (Машраб аль-Арвах , 117). Dhawq и кашф (открытие) всегда связаны в работе образовательного мастера суфийского из Армении’Ammār аль-Bidlīsī (д. Между 590/1194 и 604 / 1207-8), Бахджат аль-ṭā'ifa би-llāh аль-'ārifa (" Радость посвященных, которые знают Бога ") и Савм аль-Кальб (" Пост сердца ") с частыми упоминаниями о дхавке на разных уровнях. Обязанности поста бывают двух видов, из-за традиций (накли)и те, которые соответствуют внутренним требованиям (дхавки) (Ṣawm , 20). Здесь дхавк отличает то, что имеет внутренний порядок от того, что основано на законе. При таком различии дхавк выступает как первый уровень внутренней реализации. Таким образом, говорится о прямоте веры, что это связано с наукой, практикой вкуса и обнародования, и о прямоте сердца говорится, что это происходит из внешней науки, что она имеет внутренний порядок и проистекает из вкуса, из духовного состояния и из открытия (дхавки шали кашфи) (Бахья , 21-2). В другом месте духовное состояние предшествует вкусу, за которым всегда следует раскрытие и, кроме того, созерцание и прямое видение (Бахья , 99). Поэтому вкус всегда указывает на опыт и объявляет знание (Zwei mystische Schriften des ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī).Для среднеазиатского учёного-суфийца, автора и основателя Кубравийя Наджма аль-Дина Кубры (ум. 618/1221), ученика Аммара, вкус и созерцание также тесно связаны. Что касается символического значения цветов, он говорит о зелёном, который представляет жизнь сердца: "Это значения, которые говорят сами за себя, кто бы ни получил их на двойном языке вкуса и созерцания как двух заслуживающих доверия свидетелей. Вы вкушаете для себя то, что созерцаете своим внутренним видением. То, что ты чувствуешь таким образом, — это то, что ты чувствуешь как импульс при созерцании зелени, как расширение своей души, как счастье в своей душе, восторг от своего духа и свежесть в своем внутреннем видении "(Die Fawāʾiḥ , 60, § 13) , Внутреннее восприятие проистекает из «трансформации вкуса» (tabdīl al-dhawq)то есть замена внешних чувств соответствующими чувствами во внутреннем порядке, как это происходит во сне (Die Fawāʾiḥ , 18-9, § 41 и вступление. 97, 99, 119). Каждый духовный опыт, независимо от достигнутой степени, «пробуется», потому что существо полностью в нём участвует. По словам Наджма аль-Дина, его мастер Аммар внутренне видел себя во время отступления, входящего в рай, «пока я не почувствовал, что сам был небесами» (Die Fawāʾiḥ , 27, § 57). Кубра, возвышенный Богом, кратко ощущает в себе вкус божественного суверенитета (дхавк ал-рубубийя) и признает, "что позволение Богом наслаждаться таким вкусом — это самое возвышенное из положений и харизм " (Die Fawāʾiḥ , 36 § 79)). Dhawqпозволяет уверенно понимать духовные реальности и поэтому является одним из условий достижения мастерства и святости (Наджм аль-Дин Кубра, Pratique , 271 и 273). Рождённый в Персии ученый, теоретик и проповедник, магистр мастеров (шейх аль-шуюх) в Багдаде, Шум аль-Сухраварди (ум. 632/1234), остается преданным прогрессии, определённой ас-Сарраджем и принятой аль-Сарраджем. Кушайри: вкус основан на вере, питье на науке и впитывать духовное состояние. Таким образом, Дхавк всегда является частью помещений духовного состояния (« Авариф аль-Мафариф»).2: 321). Шамс аль-Дин Мухаммад б. Аби Бакр аль-Рази (ум. После 666/1268), мастер-шуфи, родившийся в Райе, который жил в Египте, Сирии и Анатолии, определяет вкус как первую из станций и «факт переживания наслаждений высшей реальности» (Виджадан ладхдхат ал-Шакика), пить как «чистое опьянение после того, как снова выпил из чаши созерцания», и впитывать как «результат постоянства союза после превосходного отношения к Богу через дела» (Шадагик ал- qaqāʾiq , 201). Великий мистик андалузского происхождения Ибн Араби (ум. 638/1240) в своей « Исилах аль-Суфийя» («Техническая терминология суфиев» в « Расаниль ибн аль-Араби» , 6) связывает дхавка, как и аль-Кушайри, с понятиетахалли . Вкус указывает на самое начало теофаний, пьют их промежуточную фазу и впитывают их окончательное выражение в каждой станции, определения, которые повторяются в " Futūḥāt al-makkiyya "Ибн -Араби («Мекканские откровения», 2: 133). В иерархии знаний, найденных во введении в Futūḥāt(1:31) — наука о разуме, наука о духовных состояниях и наука о секретах — именно вкус позволяет постичь науку о духовных состояниях. Оно дает знание, которое не может быть понято разумом, и требует, чтобы знающий субъект прошел через духовные состояния и испытал их на вкус. Он берет пример, приведенный в начале статьи, о мёде или сексуальном удовольствии, которое нужно попробовать, чтобы быть известным, и чей вкус не поддается рациональной демонстрации. Он также утверждает, что наука о тайнах, основанная на чистом божественном вдохновении, может также принять форму рациональной науки, как наука о состояниях, что объясняет широкое использование, которое некоторые мастера, такие как Наджм аль-Дин Кубра, делают из термин dhawq . В своей « Исиланат аль-Суфийя»(«Технические термины шуфиев», 162), Абд аль-Раззак аль-Кашани (ум. 730/1329), персидский шуфи в традиции ибн rabараби, определяет дхавка как «первую степень созерцания Бога Богом». во время последовательных вспышек даже очень короткого периода теофании, которая вспыхивает, как молния " (al-tajallī al-barqī). Созерцание Бога Богом означает, что то, что здесь ощущается, — это сознание того, что Бог наблюдает Себя через того, кто созерцает. Как и в случае с Ибн Араби, термины дхавк, шурб и райи соответствуют большей или меньшей продолжительности созерцания. Два других глоссария терминологии, приписанные аль-Кашани и опубликованные под его именем, в любом случае черпали вдохновение у него. ЭтиЛанашиф ал-ишлам фи ишарат ахл ал-илхам («Тонкости информации об аллюзивных указаниях людей вдохновения», 471-3) и Рашу ал-зулал фи шарх аль-альфах аль-мутадавала байн арбах аль-адхва -l-aḥwāl (« Течение чистой воды через объяснение терминов, используемых мастерами вкуса и духовных состояний», 81-2). Было показано, что оба были работами некоего Ибн Шахира, мастера восьмого / четырнадцатого века (Бенейто). Ибн Шахир больше, чем кто-либо из своих предшественников, развивает в Ланадифе связь между ощущением вкуса и восприятием духовных значений. Он утверждает, что вкус выражает единство (ittiḥād)Знающий и известный, как известный родившийся в Персии мистический писатель и поэт аль-Халладж (казненный в Багдаде в 309/922) сказал: «Я тот, кого я люблю, и тот, кого я люблю, — это я» (первый родственник хорошо известное стихотворение; ср. аль-Халладж, Диван , 77-8; это стихотворение не упоминается в издании Массиньона). Вкус, как и сердце, должен быть чистым и свободным от любого другого восприятия, чтобы понять его цель. Он объясняет в « Раш аль-зулал фи шарх аль-альфах аль-мутадавала байн арбаб аль-адхвак ва-л-анвал», что различие между началом, серединой и концом таджалли формально относится только к теофании, когда вкус воображаемого порядка (хаяли) и в высших реальностях, когда вкус интеллектуален (шакли). Помимо этих технических значений термин " дхавк " всегда имел для мастеров-шуфи общее чувство вдохновенного знания. Персидский мистический поэт и агиограф из Герата Абд аль-Раман аль-Джами (ум. 898/1492) говорит в Дуррате аль-Фахира («Драгоценная жемчужина», 44), в отношении божественных аттибутов, «Аль-Шейх» (Муджи л-Дин ибн rabараби) сказал: «Некоторые отрицают Его атрибуты, хотя интуиция (дхавк) пророков и святых свидетельствует об обратном». Комментатор дур , Абд аль-Гафур аль-Лари (д. 910/1505), со своей стороны, утверждает, что истинность доктрины шуфи может быть доказана только посредством «ясного мистического откровения (аль-кашф ал-шани») и истинной интуиции(аль-дхавк аль-шаджи) (аль-Джами, Дуррат аль-фахира , 44). Последнее выражение предполагает, что вкус не может быть абсолютно аутентичным. Мистический автор марокканского происхождения Агмад Зарук (ум. 899/1493), отличая науку от вкуса, считает, что первое подтверждается или опровергается основополагающим авторитетом, в то время как второе может быть воспринято только тем, кто имел такой опыт, и именно его государство подтверждает или не подтверждает подлинность. Он также признает, что страсть может мешать вкусу и изменять его (Qawāʿid al-taṣawwuf , 104, qāʿida197). Марокканец Шуфи Ибн Аджиба (ум. 1809 г.), ученик марокканского мастера-суфи Мулай ал-Араби ал-Даркави (ум. 1823 г.), синтезирует раннюю литературу, сочетающую когнитивный и экзистенциальный измерения дхавк . Во-первых, он определяет это как «вспышку огней вечной Сущности над интеллектом, который, погруженный в свет вечности, больше не видит случайный мир». Он принимает идею увеличения продолжительности, которая приводит к «питью». ", Как и другие предыдущие авторы, затем опьянение (сукр), которое он сравнивает с вымиранием (фанами) души в Боге, затем с видением следов, зависящих от существования, существующего не сами по себе, а через Бога, что эквивалентно трез­вости (ṣaḥw) или постоянству(baqāʾ) или даже до исчезновения, поскольку только то, что иллюзорно, может быть уничто­жено (Ибн Аджиба, 54-5; Мишон, 243-4). Тем не менее, наряду с этими точными определениями, вкус для мастеров-шу­фи­ев продолжает означать переживание божественного присутствия, часто на языке любви, как для Абу Азза аль-Мухаджи (ум. 1861 г.) — соотечественника Ибн Аджибы и Как и он, ученик Мулая аль-Араби аль-Даркави, который начинает одно из своих стихотворений: "О, вы, кто осуждает меня, позвольте мне быть! Если бы вы попробовали то, что я попробовал, вы бы влюбились, как и я, в того, кого я люблю "(al-ʿAlawī, 71). Аль-Мухаджи, таким образом, заново открывает определение напитка любви (Шараб аль-Махабба)дано Абу-л-Хасаном аль-Шадхили (ум. 656/1258): свет, исходящий от красоты Возлюбленного для того, кто вкусит Его, полон горящей любви (аль-дханик аль-муштак) (аль-Яфини, 366 № 466). Различные значения и определения дхавк можно найти в энциклопедиях шуфийского знания — лаконично в « Джамих аль-удул» («Сборник принципов») Накшабанди Ахмада Шияха ал-Дина Кумушханли (или Гюмюшханви) (18, 18). или, более развито, в работе современного иракского Кадири, Мухаммеда аль-Касназана аль-Хусайни, Мавсушат аль-Касназана фима ишалана Шалайхи ахль аль-тацавуф ва л-ширфана («аль-Касназан-эль-сан-сайзан» о шуфизме и гнозисе согласны "(8: 419-30). Словари, посвященные технической лексике исламских наук, имеют дело с дхавкс медико-философской и суфийской точек зрения. Персидский богослов аш-Шариф аль-Джурджани (ум. 816/1413) определяет вкус как физический смысл и "свет знания, которое Бог через свою теофанию проецирует в сердца своих святых и благодаря которому они отличают то, что истинно, от того, что ложно, без использования книг или чего-либо ещё "(аль-Джурджани, 57). Мухаммед б. «Али аль-Таханави, завершивший свой» Кашшаф исилашат аль-фурун " (" Раскрытие технического термина различных искусств «) в 1158/1745 годах, вместо этого развивает чувство вкуса в соответствии с, в частности, комментарием к» Мавакиф фи "Шилм аль -kalām(«Остановка в богословской науке») иранского богослова аль-Шжи (ум. 756/1355) аль-Шарифа аль-Джурджани. На духовном уровне вкус для него — прежде всего напиток, опьяняющий тех, кто влюблен в Бога, и он принимает определение аль-Кашани в своем Исиланате (al-Tahānawī, 2: 320-1).

Dhawq (4,081 words) Dhawq means «taste» in the literal and figurative senses. In the Qurʾān, the damned «taste» punishment, and, in the Sunna, the believers «taste» the sweetness of faith. Philosophers and physicians endeavour to explain the physiology of taste and what can alter it. It is within Ṣūfism, however, that this term has found its most pervasive use, as it expresses the ineffable and incommunicable nature of spiritual, amorous, contemplative, and cognitive experience. Its metaphorical use is still, for the masters of Ṣūfism, an invitation to taste what words cannot describe. 1. Arabic language Dhawq is the verbal noun (maṣdar) of the verb dhāqa (dhawāq and madhāq also occur, but more rarely), meaning «to taste» literally and figuratively. Ṭaʿm, which is often associated with it, has more specifically the sense of the «flavour» of something. Al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868-9) gives several examples of figurative uses of the verb dhāqa in the ancient language, especially in poetry (cf. "Fī majāz al-dhawq, " in Kitāb al-ḥayawān, "The book of animals, " 5:28-32). Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311-2) provides other examples taken especially from the Qurʾān and ḥadīth, always with the sense of «to feel» or «to experience» (Lisān al-ʿarab, "The language of the Arabs, " 11:401-2). 2. Qurʾān and Sunna The verb dhāqa is used once in the Qurʾān in its literal meaning, with regard to Adam and Eve: «they tasted of the tree» (7:22). This does not exclude a figurative meaning, if we consider that, according to the Bible, this is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The metaphorical use of the verb dhāqa largely prevails in the Qurʾān. Its connotations are rather negative; in many passages the damned «taste» punishment, their dire future (wabāl amrihim: 59:15; 62:42; 65:9) or unhappiness (al-sūʾ, 16:94). God makes Man taste the "minor punishment, " that is, the trials of this world, so that he may repent before getting a taste of the «major punishment» in the afterlife (32:21). Similarly, he who has sanctified himself for the pilgrimage and violates the prohibition to hunt must sacrifice an animal, feed the poor or fast, as atonement, «to taste the pernicious nature of his action» (5:95). After evoking the food and torments of hell, it is even said ironically to the damned, «Taste, you who are the cherished, the honoured one!,» while just after that it is said of the ones chosen for Paradise that «they will no more taste death there; only the first death» (44:49, and 56). Also involved, though, is the mercy that God lets Man taste, although he quickly forgets it, falling back into ingratitude (cf. 10:21, 11:10, 30:33, 41:50). Taste takes on a more positive connotation in the Sunna. According to a ḥadīth, «He who has accepted God as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muḥammad as his (Prophet and) Messenger, has tasted the flavour of faith» (Ibn Ḥanbal, 1:208; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, K. al-Īmān 56, 1:46). The Prophet, explaining to a woman that she will not be able to remarry her first spouse, who has repudiated her, until she has consummated the marriage to her second husband, before the latter repudiates her, points out to her, «No, not until you have had a taste of his ‘little honey’ (ʿusayla) and he of yours» (al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, shahādāt 3, ṭalāq 4, 3:208-9; 7:56 etc….). Has this image inspired certain Ṣūfī masters, who see their science as something that cannot be taught through words or books but must be «tasted»? For how can the taste of honey or of sexual pleasure be described? 3. Philosophy and medicine Some philosophers were interested especially in the relationship between the external senses, including taste, and the soul or the heart (e.g., al-Farābī, chap. 21, Ar. text 81-3, trans. 65-71). The Ikhwān al-Ṣafā (an Ismāʿīlī secret society in fourth/tenth-century Basra) were also interested in the relationship between the sensory faculties, including taste, and the soul (Marquet, 230-1). Regarding the tongue, physicians discuss changes that can affect the sense of taste (ḥiss al-madhāq) (Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, 3:163-4). The Persian polymath Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, d. 428/1037) deals differently with the same question (Ibn Sīnā, 2:254-5). 4. Rhetoric In the branch of rhetoric that deals with eloquence (ʿilm al-bayān), dhawq means the «taste» of the language, i.e. the ability to express what one has to say in the most precise and most elegant way. According to the historian of the Arabo-Islamic civilisation Ibn Khaldūn (d. 784/1382), this faculty, without being innate, still requires a profound immersion in an Arab environment and an excellent command of its specific modes of expression. It is therefore rarely to be found among non-Arabs (see Ibn Khaldūn, 3:264-7 (6th section, § 50)). 5. Ṣūfism In Ṣūfism, the path to self-knowledge, «taste» is not theoretical but is experienced within the innermost being; in accordance with Qurʾānic usage, it refers to the direct experience of the states of being, in relationship with other concepts, as we will see below, thus taking its place in the technical vocabulary of Ṣūfism. The Egyptian Dhū l-Nūn al-Miṣrī (d. 246/861) believes that he who is seized by the burning desire for God (ishtiyāq) tastes a drink that only increases his desire (shuwwiqa fa-shtāqa wa-dhuwwiqa fa-ṭāba lahu l-madhāq) (Ibn ʿArabī, al-Kawkab, 248, 252, trans. Deladrière, 302, 308 (§ 170)). This same idea is often found in the work of the Ṣūfī scholar from Khurāsān al-Ḥākim al-Tirmidhī (d. between 295/905 and 300/910) in relation to the burning desire that provides a «foretaste» of the joys of meeting the Beloved One (Nwyia, 287). Often associated with wajd, the overwhelming experi­ence of the divine presence, dhawq comes increasingly to be considered the first stage of this experience. The Ṣūfī scholar of Iranian origin Aḥmad b. ʿAṭāʾ al-Rūdhabārī (d. in Tyr 369/979-80) defines it thus: "Taste is the first experience of Being (mawājīd). Those who lose consciousness (ahl al-ghayba) when they drink see their spirit vanish; those who remain conscious (ahl al-ḥuḍūr) when they drink live fully, " as reported by the exegete, hagiographer, and Ṣūfī theorist from Nīshāpūr al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) in hisṬabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya ("The generations of Ṣūfīs, " al-Sulāmī, 498). This sense of a beginning of a spiritual experience is confirmed by the Ṣūfī theorist from Khurāsān al-Sarrāj (d. 378/988) in his list of technical terms; with regard to love, dhawq precedes shurb (drink) and rayy (drinking to one’s fill). But the word also retains a more general sense in the practice of the spiritual concert/audition (samāʿ) and the wajd it procures for the participant, an experience whose taste and «flavour» (ṭaʿm) are impossible to describe (al-Sarrāj, 449, 376, 388). In Adab al-mulūk fī bayān ḥaqāʾiq al-taṣawwuf («The kings’ etiquette in the explanation of Ṣūfism’s truths»), an anonymous treatise of the fourth/tenth century, taste gives access to the inner meanings of samāʿ. It involves «the taste of what we experience as Being and the related realities we contemplate» (dhawq wujūdihi wa-ḥaqāʾiq shuhūdihi) (Adab al-mulūk, 66). The link between these two modes of spiritual perception will reappear later in the history of Sufism. The Ṣūfī scholar from Nishapur al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1073) deals with the terms dhawq, shurb, and rayy—following sukr (inebriation) and ṣaḥw (sobriety)—as three phases of knowledge that we access successively through spiritual practices (muʿāmalāt), encounters (munāzalāt), and relationships (muwāṣalāt). Taste provides a semblance of inebriation, drinking a total inebriation, and imbibing to full satisfaction a return to sobriety. A quotation by the Central Asian Ṣūfī Yaḥyā b. Muʿādh al-Rāzī(d. 258/872), a Ṣūfī who lived in Balkh and then in Nishāpūr, reminds us that the taste is that of the cup of love. Al-Qushayrī sets it instead in the realm of knowledge, by making it an expression of the «fruits of theophany» (thamarāt al-tajallī), further to the unveilings and inspirations (wāridāt) that arise as one progresses toward God (al-Qushayrī, 1:271-2). ʿAlī al-Hujwīrī (from Ghazna, d. between 465 and 469/1073 and 1077) defines dhawq in relation to shurb, which refers to the contentment of the spiritual experience. According to one of his masters, a disciple who feels none of this contentment does not partake of this knowledge, while the knowledgeable one must overcome such a perception, which would drive him away from God. While shurb provides only joy, dhawq can be related to both joy and affliction, which is consistent with Qurʾānic usage (al-Hujwīrī, trans. Nicholson, 392; trans. Mortazavi, 442-3). According to the Ṣūfī master from Herat ʿAbdallāh al-Anṣārī (d. 481/1089), the first degree of taste, associated with the flavour of promise, is that of full apperception (taṣdīq); the second, associated with the flavour of intimacy (uns), is that of willingness (irāda), and the third unfolds, in its turn, into three more: separation from others, linked to union; aspiration, linked to reunion; and intimate consultation, linked to direct vision. In this enumeration, dhawq, which al-Anṣārī says endures longer than wajd, takes on the sense of the full and effective realisation of a commitment in various stages of spiritual progression (al-Anṣārī, no. 70, p. 79-80 (Ar. text) and 111 (trans.)). The Persian Rūzbihān Baqlī (from Shiraz, d. 606/1209) sets dhawq in the beginning of the stages of lovers (maqāmāt al-ʿāshiqīn), preceding joy (ladhdha), flavour, drinking, and imbibing. «The taste of the cup of the seas of theophany» leads to the first lights of the divine attributes and then to «the splendour of contemplation in the unveiling» (Mashrab al-arwāḥ, 117). Dhawq and kashf (unveiling) are always associated in the work of the educational Ṣūfī master from Armenia ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī (d. between 590/1194 and 604/1207-8), Bahjat al-ṭāʾifa bi-llāh al-ʿārifa («The joy of the initiates who know God») and Ṣawm al-qalb («The heart’s fast»), with references to dhawq being frequent and on various levels. The obligations of fasting are of two sorts, those due to tradition (naqlī) and those corresponding to inner demands (dhawqī) (Ṣawm, 20). Here dhawq distinguishes what is of an inner order from what is rooted in the law. Under this distinction, dhawq appears as the first level of inner realisation. It is thus said of the rectitude of faith that it is due to science, to the practice of taste and to the unveiling, and of the rectitude of the heart it is said that it springs from external science, that it is of an inner order and springs from taste, from the spiritual state, and from the unveiling (dhawqī ḥālī kashfī) (Bahja, 21-2). Elsewhere, the spiritual state precedes taste, always followed by unveiling and, beyond that, contemplation and direct vision (Bahja, 99). Taste therefore always indicates an experience and announces knowledge (Zwei mystische Schriften des ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī). For the Central Asian Ṣūfī scholar, author, and founder of the Kubrāwiyya Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221), a disciple of ʿAmmār, taste and contemplation are also closely associated. Regarding the symbolic meaning of colours, he says of green, which represents the life of the heart: «These are meanings that speak for themselves to whoever receives them in the dual language of taste and contemplation as two trustworthy witnesses. You taste for yourself what you contemplate through your inner vision. What you taste this way is what you feel as an impulse when contemplating greenery, as a expansion of your soul, as happiness in your soul, delight of your spirit, and freshness in your inner vision» (Die Fawāʾiḥ, 60, § 13). Inner perception results from «the transformation of taste» (tabdīl al-dhawq), that is, the substitution of the external senses by the corresponding ones in the inner order, as it occurs in dreams (Die Fawāʾiḥ, 18-9, § 41, and introd. 97, 99, 119). Every spiritual experience, no matter the degree attained, is "tasted, " because the being participates in it entirely. According to Najm al-Dīn, his master ʿAmmār inwardly saw himself, during a retreat, enter heaven, «until I tasted that I myself was Heaven» (Die Fawāʾiḥ, 27, § 57). Kubrā, elevated by God, senses briefly within himself the taste of divine sovereignty (dhawq al-rubūbiyya) and confides «that being allowed by God to savour such a taste is the most sublime of stations and charismas» (Die Fawāʾiḥ, 36 § 79). Dhawq allows for a sure grasp of spiritual realities and is therefore one of the conditions for achieving mastery and holiness (Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Pratique, 271 and 273). The Persian born Ṣūfī scholar, theorist, and preacher, master of masters (shaykh al-shuyūkh) of Baghdad, ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī (d. 632/1234) remains committed to the progression defined by al-Sarrāj and taken up by al-Qushayrī: taste is based on faith, drink on science, and imbibing on the spiritual state. Dhawq thus always forms part of the premises of the spiritual state (ʿAwārif al-maʿārif, 2:321). Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr al-Rāzī (d. after 666/1268), a Ṣūfī master born in Rayy who lived in Egypt, Syria and Anatolia, defines taste as the first of the stations and «the fact of experiencing the delights of the higher reality» (wijdān ladhdhat al-ḥaqīqa), drink as "pure inebriation after having drunk again from the cup of contemplation, " and imbibing as «the result of the permanence of the union after the excellence of relating to God through works» (Ḥadāʾiq al-ḥaqāʾiq, 201). The great mystic of Andalusian origin Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), in his Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya ("Technical terminology of the Ṣūfīs, " in Rasāʾil Ibn al-ʿArabī, 6) links dhawq, as did al-Qushayrī, with the notion of tajallī. Taste indicates the very beginning of the theophanies, drink their intermediate phase, and imbibing their final expression in each station, definitions that are repeated in Ibn ʿArabī’s Futūḥāt al-makkiyya ("Meccan revelations, " 2:133). In the hierarchy of knowledge found in the introduction to the Futūḥāt (1:31)—the science of reason, the science of spiritual states, and the science of secrets—it is taste that makes it possible to grasp the science of spiritual states. It provides knowledge that cannot be grasped by reason and requires the knowing subject to qualify himself through the spiritual states and to taste them. He takes the example, cited at the beginning of the article, of honey or sexual pleasure, which needs to be tasted in order to be known and whose taste defies rational demonstration. He also asserts that the science of secrets, resulting from pure divine inspiration, can as well take the form of a rational science as that of the states, which explains the broad use that some masters, such as Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, make of the term dhawq. In his Iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya ("Technical terms of the Ṣūfīs, " 162), ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī (d. 730/1329), a Persian Ṣūfī in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī, defines dhawq as «the first degree of contemplation of God by God during the successive flashes of even a very brief duration of the theophany that flashes like lightning» (al-tajallī al-barqī). The contemplation of God by God means that what is tasted here is the consciousness that God is witnessing Himself through the one who is contemplating. As with Ibn ʿArabī, the terms dhawq, shurb, and rayy correspond to the longer or shorter duration of contemplation. Two other glossaries of terminology, attributed to al-Qāshānī and published under his name, in any case took their inspiration from him. These are Laṭāʾif al-iʿlām fī ishārāt ahl al-ilhām ("The subtleties of information on the allusive indications of the people of inspiration, " 471-3) and Rashḥ al-zulāl fī sharḥ al-alfāẓ al-mutadāwala bayn arbāb al-adhwāq wa-l-aḥwāl ("The flowing of pure water through the explanation of the terms used by the masters of taste and spiritual states, " 81-2). It has been shown that both were the works of a certain Ibn Ṭāhir, a master of the eighth/fourteenth century (Beneito). More than any of his predecessors, Ibn Ṭāhir develops, in the Laṭāʾif, the relationship between the sense of taste and the perception of spiritual meanings. He asserts that taste expresses the unity (ittiḥād) of the knower and the known, as the famous Persian-born mystic author and poet al-Ḥallāj (executed in Baghdad in 309/922) said: «I am the one I love and the one I love is me» (first hemistich of a well-known poem; cf. al-Ḥallāj, Dīwān, 77-8; this poem is not mentioned in Massignon’s edition). Taste, like the heart, must be pure and free of any other perception in order to grasp its object. He explains in Rashḥ al-zulāl fī sharḥ al-alfāẓ al-mutadāwala bayn arbāb al-adhwāq wa-l-aḥwāl that the distinction made between the beginning, the middle, and the end of tajallī applies only to theophany formally, when taste is of an imaginal order (khayālī), and in the higher realities, when taste is intellective (ʿaqlī). Apart from these technical meanings, the term dhawq has always had, for the Ṣūfī masters, the general sense of inspired knowledge. The Persian mystical poet and hagiographer from Herat ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī (d. 898/1492) says, in Durrat al-fākhira ("The precious pearl, " 44), with regard to the divine attibutes, «al-Shaykh (Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī) said, ‘Some denied His attributes, although the intuition (dhawq) of the prophets and saints testifies to the contrary’.» The commentator on the Durra, ʿAbd al-Ghafūr al-Lārī (d. 910/1505), maintains, for his part, that the truth of the doctrine of the Ṣūfīs can be proven only by "clear mystical revelation (al-kashf al-ṣaḥīḥ) and true intuition (al-dhawq al-ṣaḥīḥ) (al-Jāmī, Durrat al-fākhira, 44). The latter expression suggests that taste cannot be perfectly authentic. The mystical author of Moroccan origin Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493), in distinguishing science from taste, considers that the first is confirmed or disproved by the underlying authority, while the second can be perceived only by him who has had that experience, and it is his state that does or does not confirm the authenticity. He also recognises that passion can interfere with taste and alter it (Qawāʿid al-taṣawwuf, 104, qāʿida 197). The Moroccan Ṣūfī Ibn ʿAjība (d. 1809), a disciple of the Moroccan Ṣūfī master Mūlāy al-ʿArabī al-Darqāwī (d. 1823), synthesises earlier literature combining the cognitive and existential dimensions of dhawq. First, he defines it as «the fulguration of the lights of the eternal Essence over the intellect that, immersed in the lights of eternity, no longer sees the contingent world.» He takes up the idea of an increasing duration that leads to "drink, " like the other previous authors, then to intoxication (sukr), which he likens to extinction (fanāʾ) of the soul in God, then to the vision of traces contingent on existence, subsisting not by themselves but through God, which is equivalent to sobriety (ṣaḥw) or to permanence (baqāʾ) or even to the extinction of extinction, as only what is illusory can be extinguished (Ibn ʿAjība, 54-5; Michon, 243-4). Yet, alongside these exact definitions, taste continues, for the Ṣūfī masters, to mean the experience of the divine presence, often in the language of love, as for Abū ʿAzza al-Muhājī (d. 1861)—a compatriot of Ibn ʿAjība and, like him, a disciple of Mūlāy al-ʿArabī al-Darqāwī—who begins one of his poems, «Oh, you who condemn me, let me be! If you had tasted what I have tasted, you would have fallen in love, as I did, with the one I love» (al-ʿAlawī, 71). Al-Muhājī thus rediscovers the definition of the drink of love (sharāb al-maḥabba) given by Abū l-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī (d. 656/1258): light radiating from the beauty of the Beloved for him who tastes Him, full of a burning love (al-dhāʾiq al-mushtāq) (al-Yāfiʿī, 366, no. 466). The various meanings and definitions of dhawq can be found in the encyclopaedias of Ṣūfī knowledge—succinctly in the Jāmiʿ al-uṣūl («Collection of principles») by the Naqshabandī Aḥmad Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Kumushkhānlī (or Gümüshhanevī) (d. 1893), or, more developed, in the work by the contemporary Iraqi Qādirī, Muḥammad al-Kasnazān al-Ḥusaynī, Mawsūʿat al-Kasnazān fīmā iṣṭalaḥa ʿalayhi ahl al-taṣawwuf wa l-ʿirfān ("al-Kasnazān’s encyclopaedia of the terms on which the men of Ṣūfism and gnosis agree, " 8:419-30). Dictionaries dedicated to the technical lexicon of the Islamic sciences deal with dhawq from the medico-philosophical and Ṣūfī points of view. The Persian theologian al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d. 816/1413) defines taste as the physical sense and the «light of knowledge that God projects through his theophany into the hearts of his saints and through which they distinguish what is true from what is false, without the use of books or anything else» (al-Jurjānī, 57). Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Tahānawī, who completed his Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn («Unveiling the technical term of different arts») in 1158/1745, develops instead the sense of taste in line with, among others, the commentary on the Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām («The halts in the science of theology») of the Iranian theologian al-Ījī (d. 756/1355) by al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī. On a spiritual level, taste is, for him, above all a beverage that intoxicates those in love with God, and he adopts the definition of al-Qāshānī in his Iṣṭilāḥāt (al-Tahānawī, 2:320-1).

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Bibliography

ʿAbdallāh al-Anṣārī, Manāzil al-sāʾirīn, trans. Serge de Laugier de Beaurecueil, Les étapes des itinérants vers Dieu, Cairo 1962

ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī, Iṣṭilāḥāt al-Ṣūfiyya, ed. Muḥammad Kamāl Ibrāhīm Jaʿfar, Cairo 1981

ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī, Laṭāʾif al-iʿlām fī ishārāt ahl al-ilhām, ed. Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ, Cairo 1996

ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī, Rashḥ al-zulāl fī sharḥ al-alfāẓ al-mutadāwala bayn arbāb al-adhwāq wa-l-aḥwāl, ed. Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ, Cairo 1995

Anon., Adab al-mulūk, ed. Bernd Radtke, Beirut and Stuttgart 1991

Aḥmad b. Muṣṭafā al-ʿAlawī, Dīwān, Damascus 1963

ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī, Zwei mystische Schriften des ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī, ed. Edward Badeen, Stuttgart 1999

Pablo Beneito, An unknown Akbarian of the thirteenth-fourteenth century. Ibn Ṭāhir, author of Laṭāʾif al-iʿlām, Asian and African Area Studies, special paper no. 3, Kyoto University 2000

al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, 9 vols. in 3, Istanbul 1311/1893-4, repr. Cairo n.d.

al-Farābī, Arāʾ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila, trans. Youssef Karam, Joseph Chlala, and Antonin Jaussen, Beirut 1980

al-Ḥallāj, Dīwān al-Ḥallāj, ed. Kāmil Muṣṭafā al-Shaybī, Bagdad 1984

al-Ḥallāj, Le Dîwân d’al-Ḥallāj, trans. Louis Massignon, Paris 1955

ʿAlī al-Hujwīrī, Kashf al-maḥjūb, trans. Reynold A. Nicholson, Leiden 1911, repr. London 1976, French trans. Somme spirituelle, by Djamshid Mortazavi, Paris 1988

Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība, Miʿrāj al-tashawwuf ilā ḥaqāʾiq al-taṣawwuf, Tetuan 1982

Ibn ʿArabī, Futūḥāt al-makkiyya, 4 vols., Cairo 1329/1911, repr. Beirut n.d.

Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya, in Rasāʾil Ibn al-ʿArabī, 2 vols. (Hyderabad 1948), no. 29

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Kawkab al-durrī fī manāqib Dhī l-Nūn al-Miṣrī, in Rasāʾil Ibn ʿArabī, vol. 3, ed. Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ, Beirut 2002, trans. Roger Deladrière, La vie merveilleuse de Dhû l-Nûn l’Égyptien, Paris 1988

Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, ed. Cairo 1313/1895-6, repr. Beirut n.d.

Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿarab, 20 vols., Bulāq 1307-8/1883-91, repr. Cairo n.d.

Ibn Sīnā, al-Qānūn fī l-ṭibb, comp. Muḥammad Amīn al-Ḍinnāwī, 3 vols., Beirut 1999

al-Jāḥiẓ, Kitāb al-ḥayawān, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn, 8 vols., Cairo 1965-9

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī, al-Durrat al-fākhira, trans. Nicholas Heer, The precious pearl, Albany 1979

al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, Tunis 1971

Muḥammad al-Kasnazān al-Ḥusaynī, Mawsūʿat al-Kasnazān fīmā iṣṭalaḥa ʿalayhi ahl al-taṣawwuf wa-l-ʿirfān, 24 vols., Damascus and Beirut 2005

Aḥmad Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Kumushkhānlī (Gümüşhanevi Ahmed Ziyaüddin), Jāmiʿ al-uṣūl, Cairo 1328/1910

Yves Marquet, La philosophie des Iḥwān aṣ-Ṣafâ, Algiers n.d.

Jean-Louis Michon, Le soufi marocain Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība et son Miʿrāj. Glossaire de la mystique musulmane, Paris 1973

Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 4 vols., Istanbul 1329/1911

Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Fawāʾiḥ al-jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-jalāl, ed. Fritz Meier, Die Fawāʾiḥ al-ğamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-ğalāl, Wiesbaden 1957

Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, La pratique du soufisme. Quatorze petits traités, trans. Paul Ballanfat, Nîmes 2002

Paul Nwyia, Exégèse coranique et langage mystique, Beirut 1970

al-Qushayrī, Risāla, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd and Maḥmūd b. al-Sharīf, Cairo 1972

F. Rahman, Dhawḳ, EI2 (contains other references and deals especially with the physical and aesthetic aspect of taste, but very little with its spiritual meaning)

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, al-Ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb, 8 vols., Beirut 2000

Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr al-Rāzī, Ḥadāʾiq al-ḥaqāʾiq, ed. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn, Beirut 2002

Rūzbihān Baqlī, Mashrab al-arwāḥ, ed. Nazif M. Hoca, Istanbul 1974

al-Sarrāj, al-Lumaʿ, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd and Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Bāqī Surūr, Cairo and Baghdad 1960

ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, ʿAwārif al-maʿārif, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd and Maḥmūd b. al-Sharīf, 2 vols., Cairo 1993

al-Sulamī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya, ed. Nūr al-Dīn Sharība, Cairo 1969

Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Tahānawī, Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn, ed. Luṭfī ʿAbd al-Badīʿ, 4 vols., Cairo 1963-77

ʿAbdallāh b. Asʿad al-Yāfiʿī, Raw al-rayyāḥīn fī ḥikāyāt al-ṣāliḥīn, Cairo 1989

Aḥmad Zarrūq, Qawāʿid al-taṣawwuf, ed. Ibrāhīm al-Yaʿqūbī, Damascus n.d.

Cite this page

Gril, Denis, «Dhawq», in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_26001>

Journal of Qur'anic Studies / Taste My Punishment and My Warnings (Q. 54:39)

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Taste My Punishment and My Warnings (Q. 54:39): On the Torments of Tantalus and Other Painful Metaphors of Taste

AbstractChoose In this article, I investigate a hitherto neglected aspect of the Qur'an's alimentary universe, namely its literary, cognitive, and sensory dimensions of taste. Thus, this article does not unfold the ritual, legal, and food-historical contexts and interpretations of the Qur'an which have been the usual priority of scholarship and exegesis. As a point of departure, I call attention to the fact that food and drink not only provide nourishment and gastronomic delight, but may just as well foster strong affective and bodily reactions of displeasure and disgust. The border between appetite and it's antithesis can be fine. Indeed, gustation or taste (part and parcel of food and drink) is very often connected to pain, punishment, and disgust in the Qur'an. Furthermore, the notion of taste plays an important role as an epistemic metaphor. In this study, three dimensions of alimentary and gustatory dystopias will be given analytical priority. I conclude that taste and the alimentary constitute a basic sensory and highly affective register by means of which the Qur'anic voice aims to appeal to and inculcate in its audience the almost visceral urgency of its renewed monotheist message.

ChooseIntroducing the Alimentary and Gustatory It remains a truism that food and drink, the preparation of it, its consumption, and its taste—indeed, all that can be grouped under the domain of the alimentary—constitutes an important and complex field.1 Beyond the rich variety of drinks and dishes, the alimentary comprises and gives rise to intricate legal systems and rules of reasoning (e.g. what is ḥalāl and ḥarām), enigmatic symbolisms (e.g. the role of milk and dates), theological speculation (e.g. food and drink in Paradise and Hell), mythical narratives (e.g. the foodstuff of Adam and Eve), and fe(a)stive and mundane ritualisation (e.g. ʿĪd al-Fiṭr). Islam is no exception in this regard.

Alimentary issues may also give rise to collective passions and identity politics that signal and celebrate religious, cultural, and political difference—the alimentary and sundry strategies of mukhālafa, here defined as the strategy of creating a distinction between oneself and other groups in terms of law and practice, often go hand in hand.2 Yet food and drink also integrate people and communities, not least around the actual meal and its consumption. Consequently, most religions incorporate the alimentary in their lived and speculative theologies, in their myths and rituals, and in their dietary regulations (or lack and transgressions thereof).3 One of the basic ideas in the Qur'an is that God's creation, not least the alimentary aspects, requires man's gratitude. God is muqīt, ‘the One who provides with sustenance’ (Q. 4:85 and Q. 41:10).

In addition to the socio-cultural and symbolic dimensions of the alimentary field,4 the real, historical fields are to be excavated. How, for instance, did the wine of the pre-Islamic poets taste? What kind of agricultural methods did the Western Arabs actually use? How precisely was food and drink prepared and so forth? Patricia Crone's article ‘How did the Quranic Pagans Make a Living’ is one such attempt to connect material history with history of religion.

Although further studies on the alimentary universe of the Qur'an are still needed, in this article I concentrate on an aspect that has hitherto been completely neglected, namely its literary, cognitive, and sensory dimensions of taste, in particular in the context of the root dh-w-q, ‘to taste’, which is attested 63 times in the Qur'an. Thus, this article does not unfold the ritual, legal, and food-historical contexts and interpretations of the Qur'an that have been the usual priority of scholarship and exegesis. As a point of departure, I call attention to the fact that food and drink does not just provide nourishment and gastronomic delight to human beings in the Qur'an; rather, food and drink seem to comprise a semantic field that also fosters strong affective and bodily reactions of displeasure, pain, and disgust.5 The border between appetite and its anathema can be quite fine.

Indeed, the gustatory dimension, or simply ‘taste’, is very often connected to pain, punishment, and disgust in the Qur'an. This, however, does not seem to reflect any historical and material reality. Rather, the notion of taste plays an important role as an epistemic metaphor: to taste is also to ‘realise’ and ‘understand’ something in a very direct manner. The nexus between taste and knowledge is certainly not exclusive to Qur'anic metaphorical language, but seems to be used globally in all kinds of languages, both in highly artistic and innovative expressions as well as in much more mundane and hackneyed utterances. While the ubiquity of the metaphor and people's propensity to exploit them to such a degree that they loose their metaphorical force and instead become ‘dead metaphors’ and idiomatic phrases may seem to relativise the specialness of the Qur'an, it really does not. As soon as one looks behind the idiomatic crust of the dead metaphors, their original metaphorical force and sensory raison d’être reappears—as any exegete and close reader will have experienced. Thus, a couple of close readings of the ‘taste’/dh-w-q term and its usage in the Qur'an will hopefully convince the reader that the Qur'an merits the category of ‘specialness’ in terms of rhetorical and literary prowess. The notion of ‘specialness’, which resembles the classic Islamic notion of iʿjāz has been investigated and developed theoretically recently by Ann Taves, who draws heavily on Emile Durkheim's classic definition of the sacred as ‘things set apart and forbidden’.6

In this article, three dimensions of alimentary and gustatory dystopias will be given analytical priority.

(i) The Qur'anic version of the torments of Tantalus: This dystopic scenario is most strikingly evoked in the simile set forth in Q. 13:14, To Him is the call of truth; and those upon whom they call, apart from Him, answer them nothing, but it is as a man who stretches out his hands to water that it may reach his mouth, and it reaches it not. The prayer of the unbelievers goes only astray (lahū daʿwatu'l-ḥaqqi wa'lladhīna yadʿūna min dūnihī lā yastajībūna lahum bi-shayʾin illā ka-bāsiṭi kaffayhi ilā’l-māʾi li-yablugha fāhu wa-mā huwa bi-bālighihi wa-mā duʿāʾu'l-kāfirīna illā fī ḍalāl).7

(ii) Dystopic consumption: Various scenarios of painful, grotesque, and loathsome consumption, usually taking place in Hell, occur regularly in the Qur'an. A most salient, and somewhat enigmatic, example concerns the fruits of the tree known as al-zaqqūm and their consumption. Now and again, the hellish food is contrasted directly with the delicious food and drink that the inhabitants of Paradise consume. See for example the lush scenarios associated with the Garden of Bliss, jannātu'l-naʿīm, in Q. 56:17–21, Everlasting youths will go round among them with glasses, flagons, and cups of a pure drink that causes no headache or intoxication; [there will be] any fruit they choose; the meat of any bird they like (yaṭūfu ʿalayhim wildānun mukhalladūna/ bi-akwābin wa-abārīqa wa-kaʾsin min maʿīnin lā yuṣaddaʿūna ʿanhā wa-lā yunzifūna wa-fākihatin mimmā yatakhayyarūna wa-laḥmi ṭayrin mimmā yashtahūna).

(iii) Gustatory metaphor: Deeply related to these scenarios of eating and drinking is the notion of gustation, taste, which usually functions a vital metaphor for the abstract concept of epistemic knowledge and ultimate ethical recognition. An example can be found in Q. 3:106, Taste the torment for what you used to disbelieve (fa-dhūqū’l-ʿadhāba bi-mā kuntum takfurūna). Here, the imperative is integrated within an argumentative structure signaled by the particle fa- and a reference to a prior lack of faith, which consequently must be punished.

The article will conclude that the alimentary and the gustatory constitute a basic sensory and highly affective register by means of which the Qur'anic voice appeals to and inculcates in its erstwhile audience the almost visceral urgency of its renewed monotheist message.

ChooseLust (and Disgust) for Food It is evident that food and drink can attract people in various forms of alimentary communitas, to use Victor Turner's famous term for a certain feeling of solidarity and bonding that expresses deep societal (and religious) ideals in such a manner that it is experienced as something that stands ‘outside’ of society; from the simple and unassuming meal in the family to the festive banquets and haute cuisine prepared for al-khāṣṣa, the elite. The ritual preparation and sharing of food and drink during religious festivals (thus taking place outside ordinary time) is of course the most salient example of communitas; the ritual slaughter that takes place on ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā, for example, does not only constitute an alimentary precondition for a family meal, but also forges an even broader feeling of communitas when a portion of the meat is distributed to the poor.8

However, food and drink can also cause offense, generate tensions, and build and sustain hierarchies. The eating habits of ‘others’ can be deemed barbaric and abhorrent while ‘we’ rise above ‘them’ in terms of good taste.9 Given this, it is hardly a coincidence that the domain of the gustatory, from the tasteful to the tasteless, is one of the most laudatory and stigmatising metaphors that language can provide. Furthermore, it should come as no surprise that food and drink can generate some of the most fundamental sensations of desire and pleasure as well as disgust and aversion. When hungry, the mere thought of food and drink can turn us into pure Pavlovian subjects, with increased levels of what he called ‘psychic secretion’, i.e. saliva. In other cases, however, our stomachs can literally become quite unruly, and in extreme cases, the wrong food and drink can provoke people to gag or even vomit. Between these contrasting and instinctive reactions, a spectrum of emotional, rational, and moral deliberations and (stomach) sensations can be found. A verse from Sura 16, al-Naḥl, captures the intricate balance between the delicious and the repulsive:

In livestock, too, you have a lesson—We give you a drink from the contents of their bellies, between waste matter and blood, pure milk, sweet to the drinker.

[Wa-inna lakum fī’l-anʿāmi la-ʿibratan nusqīkum mimmā fī buṭūnihī min bayni farthin wa-damin labanan khāliṣan sāʾighan li'l-shāribīn.]

This verse, Q. 16:66, points to the remarkably close connection, and thus ambivalence, between the tasty and the repulsive while emphatically signalling that this close connection also should provide humans with a ‘lesson’ (ʿibra), that is, some kind of knowledge. Judicious observation and epistemological realisation is part and parcel of sheer gut-feeling. ChooseThe Menu and Ingredients of the Qur'an Not only does the Qur'an now and then reveal something about its material culture and the environment underlying its alimentary production in the broadest sense, such as herding and agriculture,10 it also mentions a number of items of food and drink that range from the raw to the cooked,11 for instance ‘cattle’ and ‘grain’ as well as ‘roast meat’ and ‘bread’. These range from the mundane and basic to the miraculous and supernatural, for instance ‘dates’ and ‘manna’, ‘milk’ and Paradisiacal ‘wine’. These alimentary items constitute, as it were, the menu card or ingredients of the Qur'an.

Although the list of ingredients is not very long, not all will be mentioned here.12 Several of the Qur'anic categories are generic categories like ṭaʿām (‘food’) and sharāb (‘drink’), as well as more particularised categories like khubz (‘bread’), laḥm (‘meat’), zayt (‘olive [oil])’, khamr (‘wine’), laban (‘milk’), and ʿasal (‘honey’). If we venture beyond these semantic categories, further concepts would appear, for instance, the ‘sweet water’ (māʾan furātan, Q. 77:27), and its perverse contrast, the hellish hamīman wa-ghassāqan (sometimes rendered ‘scalding and dark/decaying water’ or ‘boiling water and pus’, Q. 78:25).

Despite Daniel Waines’ valuable articles on ‘Food and Drink’ and ‘Agriculture and Vegetation’ in the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, it is still evident that an academic monograph on the Qur'an's alimentary universe is a desideratum, not least compared with the amount of work done in this area in Biblical studies.13 This desideratum pertains to both the material factors and lived contexts of Western Arabia in the seventh century, but also with to the semantic naẓm and raison d’être of the alimentary as a theo-semiotic sign to be deciphered and appreciated, as shown, for instance, in this didactic extract from Q. 6:98–99:

… We have distinguished the signs for a people who understand. It is He who sent down out of heaven water, and thereby We have brought forth the shoot of every plant, and then We have brought forth the green leaf of it, bringing forth from it close-compounded grain, and out of the palm-tree, from the spathe of it, dates thick-clustered, ready to the hand, and gardens of vines, olives, pomegranates, like each to each, and each unlike to each. Look upon their fruits when they fructify and ripen! Surely, in all this are signs for a people who do believe.

[Qad faṣṣalnā’l-āyāti li-qawmin yafqahūna wa-huwa'lladhī anzala mina'l-samāʾi māʾan fa-akhrajnā bihī nabāta kulli shayʾin fa-akhrajnā minhu khaḍiran nukhriju minhu ḥabban mutarākiban wa-mina'l-nakhli min ṭalʿihā qinwānun dāniyatun wa-jannātin min aʿnābin wa'l-zaytūna wa'l-rummāna mushtabihan wa-ghayra mutashābihin'nẓurū ilā thamarihī idhā ʾathmara wa-yanʿihī inna fī dhālikum la-āyātin li-qawmin yuʾminūna.]

The alimentary in such cases generally constitute al-ṭayyibāt (‘the good things’) provided and allowed by God, and therefore to be appreciated by humankind. It is worth noticing that these good things not only include particular food items and beverages (some of which must only be consumed subject to ritual formulas), but also particular categories of women (for example, see Q. 5:4–5). As a contrast to these good things there are the ‘bad things’ (al-khabāʾith, which could also be rendered ‘the disgusting/abominable things’), as in, for instance Q. 7:157, …making lawful for them the good things and making unlawful for them the abominable things … (wa-yuḥillu lahumu'l-ṭayyibāti wa-yuḥarrimu ʿalayhimu'l-khabāʾitha). To be included, of course, is also the forbidden food listed in the sura appropriately titled ‘The Table’ (al-Māʾida), for example in Q. 5:3: Forbidden to you are carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, what has been hallowed to other than God, the beast strangled, the beast beaten down, the beast fallen to death, the beast gored, and that devoured by beasts of prey—excepting that you have sacrificed duly—as also things sacrificed to idols, and partition by the divining arrows; that is ungodliness. Today the unbelievers have despaired of your religion; therefore fear them not, but fear you Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My blessing upon you, and I have approved Islam for your religion. But whosoever is constrained by hunger14 and not inclining purposely to sin—God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

[Ḥurrimat ʿalaykumu'l-maytatu wa'l-damu wa-laḥmu'l-khinzīri wa-mā uhilla li-ghayri'llāhi bihī wa'l-munkhaniqatu wa'l-mawqūdhatu wa'l-mutaraddiyatu wa'l-naṭīḥatu wa-mā akala'l-sabuʿu illā mā dhakkaytum wa-mā dhubiḥa ʿalā’l-nuṣubi wa-an tastaqsimū bi'l-azlāmi dhālikum fisqun al-yawma yaʾisa'lladhīna kafarū min dīnikum fa-lā takhshawhum wa'khshawni'l-yawma akmaltu lakum dīnakum wa-atmamtu ʿalaykum niʿmatī wa-raḍiytu lakumu'l-Islāma dīnan fa-mani’ḍṭurra fī makhmaṣatin ghayra mutajānifin li-ithmin fa-inna'llāha ghafūrun raḥīm.]

One cannot but notice that this verse, traditionally counted as one of the very last revelations given to the Prophet (and for this reason imbued with an aura of closure that, by means of the root k-m-l, tallies well with the topic of ‘perfection’, ‘completion’, and final approval), is so heavily invested in alimentary matters. To sum up; in general, food and drink belong to ‘the good things’, al-ṭayyibāt, although prohibitions on certain kinds of food and drink apply—with the usual dispensatory rulings and emphatic statements on God being not only compassionate and forgiving, but also pragmatic and lenient as to people's weaknesses and abilities.15 Al-ṭayyibāt are functionally good because they nourish and sustain, but they are also ‘good to think with’ since they holds didactic and heuristic qualities. In other words: food for thought, as researched in particular by structuralist anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Mary Douglas. There is, however, also a more sinister and painful dimension with regard to the alimentary towards which I would like to devote some attention.

ChooseThe Alimentary Dystopia in the Qur'an as Text The nature of the images and the images of nature vary throughout the Qur'an from the prosaic and realistic to the spectacular and downright grotesque and terrifying,16 the latter being in particular prominent in the apocalyptic and eschatological passages that rehearse the collapse of cosmos and present disturbing and promising images of Hell and Paradise.17 These images are always presented with an urgency and acuteness that compel the listener to decide before it is too late. A significant component of these otherworldly topographies concerns the alimentary dimension. As for Hell, we might call it the alimentary dystopia par excellence (from the Greek words dys, ‘bad’, and topos, ‘place’). In the following, I will deal with three aspects of Hell's alimentary dystopia: first, the Qur'anic version of the torments of Tantalus; second, the painful and repulsive consumption; and finally, the metaphor of taste.

ChooseThe Fata Morganic Torments of Tantalus in the Qur'an18 Perhaps the most archetypal—or trivial—scenario we can suggest with regard to Qur'anic wilderness imagery is the image of the scorching desert.19 To be sure, desert motifs do not abound in the Qur'an, but this only makes the references that are made all the more evocative.20 As with pre-Islamic poetry, the Qur'anic audience would be familiar with the setting of the desert and its latent dangers of potentially fatal thirst,21 thirst that might combine with illusory images of water, also known as the mirage. The mirage, thus, was not only a recognisable image, it also posed as obvious metaphorical source material to construe and articulate topics such as hope and illusion, disappointment and fatality. Q. 24:39 provides one such example, here as an extended simile:22

But the deeds of those who disbelieve are like a mirage in a desert: the thirsty person thinks there will be water but, when he gets there, he finds only God, who pays him his account in full—God is swift in reckoning

[Wa'lladhīna kafarū aʿmāluhum ka-sarābin bi-qīʿatin yaḥsabuhu al-ẓamʾānu māʾan ḥattā idhā jāʾahū lam yajidhu shayʾan wa-wajada'llāha ʿindahū fa-waffāhu ḥisābahū wa'llāhu sarīʿu'l-ḥisāb.]

Q. 78:20 provides the only other Qur'anic example of a mirage, and it is only fitting that this verse leads into other verses that depict scenarios of thirst and painful tastes in the passage Q. 78:20–30: When the mountains will vanish like a mirage Hell lies in wait, a home for oppressors to stay in for a long, long time, where they will taste no coolness nor drink except one that is scalding and dark—a fitting requital, for they did not fear a reckoning, and they rejected Our messages as lies. We have recorded everything in a Record. ‘Taste this: all you will get from Us is more torment.’

[Wa-suyyirati'l-jibālu fa-kānat sarāban inna jahannama kānat mirṣādan li'l-ṭāghīna maʾāban lābithīna fīhā aḥqāban lā yadhūqūna fīhā bardan wa-lā sharāban illā hamīman wa-ghassāqan jazāʾan wifāqan innahum kānū lā yarjūna ḥisāban wa-kadhdhabū bi-ayātinā kidhdhāban wa-kulla shayʾin aḥṣaynāhu kitāban fa-dhūqū fa-lan nazīdakum illā ʿadhāban.]

We may now ask ourselves the philosophical question: what kind of image are images? In the words of one of the leading theoreticians on images, W.J.T. Mitchell, images as such are indeed tantalising:23 But images are also, notoriously, a drink that fails to satisfy our thirst. Their main function is to awaken desire; to create, not gratify thirst; to provoke a sense of lack and craving by giving us the apparent presence of something and taking it away in the same gesture. (Perhaps to the ‘Medusa‘, ‘Pygmalion,’ and ‘Narcissus’ effects of images we should add the ‘Tantalus’ effect, the way it which the image tantalizes its beholder. We might interpolate in the Sprite slogan [‘Image is nothing. Thirst is everything’], then, a logical connective: ‘It is because image is nothing that thirst is everything.’24

Ironically, as for these passages of the Qur'an, it is indeed this aspect of the fata morganic imagery that allows it to evoke in the mind of its audience a gratifying realisation that the believers themselves are not tormented by the same self-delusions and fatal lack as the unbelievers and the oppressors. The story of Tantalus, which has been rewritten and adapted many times in literature and the visual arts, derives from the Greek myth of King Tantalus, the most famous version stemming from Homer's Odessey (Book XI, ll. 582–592). Tantalus was the son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto, who, having played a vengeful and disgusting alimentary trick on the gods by serving them a meal of human flesh, was condemned to eternal dissatisfaction. The gods devised a clever punishment for Tantalus: he was to stand in a pool of water just below a fruit tree and every time he tried to reach the fruit on the branches, they sprang out of reach. As for the water, whenever he tried to drink it out of thirst, it withdrew. Thus, the torments of Tantalus symbolise temptation without any chance of satisfaction, as in the verb ‘to tantalise’, i.e. to torment someone with something, or with the sight of something desired but out of reach; to tease by arousing expectations that are repeatedly disappointed. This archetypal motif of unfulfilled alimentary desire is also evoked in the Qur'an. The most striking instance of this scenario is presented to us in Q. 13:14:

The only true prayer is to Him: those they pray to besides Him give them no answer any more than water reaches the mouth of someone who simply stretches out his hands for it—it cannot do so: the prayers of the disbelievers are all in vain.

[Lahū daʿwatu'l-ḥaqqi wa'lladhīna yadʿūna min dūnihī lā yastajībūna lahum bi-shayʾin illā ka-bāsiṭi kaffayhi ilā’l-māʾi li-yablugha fāhu wa-mā huwa bi-bālighihī wa-mā duʿāʾu'l-kāfirīna illā fī ḍalāl.]

This simile only seems to reserve these Tantalus-like torments for the unbelievers, while telling them that their prayers are futile, which stand in contrast to the Qur'an's reassurance that the prayers and hopes of the believers will be granted. As already remarked, it seems evident that the articulation of the torments of Tantalus partly reflects the original climatic conditions of the Qur'anic milieu.25

A more hellish variety of Tantalus’ torments is found in Q. 73:12–13, We have fetters, a blazing fire, food that chokes, and agonizing torment in store for them (inna ladaynā ankālan wa-jaḥīman wa-ṭaʿāman dhā ghuṣṣatin wa-ʿadhāban alīman). The food that chokes, however, does not precisely reiterate the ideal-typical Tantalus torment as known from the Greek myth. Rather it represents a cruel intensification of it since the food that has been secured and is about to get swallowed gets stuck in the victim's throat, causing a suffocating and choking effect.26 The expected and typical sensation of satiety and satisfaction has instead turned into a painful and panic-inducing sense of suffocation. The fact that Hell itself is sometimes portrayed as an insatiable and monstrous glutton merely underscores the alimentary themes, as in Q. 50:30, We shall say to Hell on that day, ‘Are you full?’ and it will reply, ‘Are there no more?’ (yawma naqūlu li-jahannama hal imtalaʾti wa-taqūlu hal min mazīd).27 Christian Lange, in his investigations of Qur'anic Hell likewise calls attention to a number of Biblical texts that depict Hell as an insatiable monster with a great mouth (1 Enoch 56:8; Isaiah 5:14) with which it swallows (1 Enoch 56:8), or as having a monstrous and voracious belly (3 Baruch 4:5 and 5:3, and Ephrem's Nisibene Hymns).28

In another eschatological sura, we come across yet another Tantalusian effect, in Q. 88:6–7, when we are told that those entering Hell will find it equipped with no food for them except bitter dry thorns that neither nourish nor satisfy hunger (laysa lahum ṭaʿāmun illā min ḍarīʿin lā yusminu wa-lā yughnī min jūʿ). In this ironic inversion of the truism that there is no gain without pain, here pain only leads to absolute nothing. Food has become painfully futile.

We can conclude that the Tantalusian motif is most suitably geared to convey a general Qur'anic principle of reciprocity. This principle dictates that lack of faith and disbelief must be reiterated and reciprocated in the torments of Tantalus; given that one ‘believed in nothing’ in this world, one will now have to be forced to taste ‘nothing’ in al-akhīra—with the deeply ironic twist that ‘nothing’ is pain-full. This painful didactic leads us to the next section regarding painful and abhorrent consumption.

ChoosePainful and Abhorrent Consumption Besides these immediately intelligible passages on painful and futile food and drink, the Qur'an also adduces imagery that is utterly mystifying, grotesque, and bizarre. The example par excellence is the tree of zaqqūm, the tree in Hell that offers nothing but painful nourishment, as in Q. 44:43–49:

The tree of zaqqūm will be food for the sinners: [hot] as molten metal, it boils in their bellies like seething water ‘Take him! Thrust him into the midst of Hell! Pour scalding water over his head as punishment!’ ‘Taste this, you powerful, respected man!’

[Inna shajarata al-zaqqūmi ṭaʿāmu'l-athīmi ka'l-muhli yaghlī fī’l-buṭūni ka-ghalyi'l-ḥamīmi khudhūhu fa’ʿtilūhu illā sawāʾi'l-jaḥīmi thumma ṣubbū fawqa raʾsihī min ʿadhābi'l-ḥamīmi dhuq innaka anta'l-ʿazīzu'l-karīm.]

The nexus between being catapulted into the ‘midst of Hell’ and digesting painful nourishment in the midst of the body, i.e. in the stomach, integrates hellish spatiality with a most ‘centrist’ gut-feeling. The pain is here in the middle of one's gut-feeling. The choice to express this torment in direct imperative addresses only accentuates the acuteness of the verse: it is now! Last but not least, the sarcasm directed against the man is deeply ironic and almost blasphemous; the phrase al-ʿazīzu'l-karīm (‘powerful, respected man’) would usually be reserved for God, but here it is turned against a being who is now utterly and painfully powerless. As Henry Watson Fowler once noted, ‘The essence of sarcasm is the intention of giving pain by (ironical or other) bitter words.’29 The imperative dhuq, ‘Taste!’, is only fitting in this context. In another verse, Q. 37:62–66, the audience becomes witness to a grotesque and macabre detail about the tree of zaqqūm—that it bears fruits that look like the heads of devils or satans:

Is this the better welcome, or the tree of zaqqūm, which we have made a test for the evildoers? This tree grows in the heart of the blazing Fire, and its fruits are like devils’ heads. They will fill their bellies eating from it.

[A-dhālika khayrun nuzulan am shajaratu al-zaqqūmi innā jaʿalnāhā fitnatan li'l-ẓālimīna innahā shajaratun takhruju fī aṣli'l-jaḥīmi ṭalʿuhā ka-annahū ruʾūsu'l-shayāṭīni fa-innahum la-ākilūna minhā fa-māliʾūna minhā’l-buṭūn.]

One may ask what this tree and its fruit look like (and artists have indeed tried to imagine this hellish scenario).30 Geert van Gelder notes in his Of Dishes and Discourse that ‘it does not matter that no one seems to know what exactly this fruit looks like: its very obscurity strengthens its horrible nature’.31 In another verse, Q. 69:34–36, the sins of the misers are recompensed with ironic alimentary punishments. The culprits are fed in Hell with ‘nothing’, except the vile and unspecified ghisl: He never encouraged feeding the hungry, so today he has no real friend here, and the only food he has is the filth that only sinners eat32

[wa-lā yaḥuḍḍu ʿalā ṭaʿāmi'l-miskīni fa-laysa lahu'l-yawma hāhunā ḥamīmun wa-lā ṭaʿāmun illā min ghislīnin lā yaʾkuluhū illā’l-khāṭiʾūn.]

The poetic justice is evident: the neutral ‘nothing’ that the stingy man offered to the hungry is ‘now here’, ‘on this day’ (al-yawma hāhunā), inverted to the most intensified and ironic form of ‘nothing’, that is, nauseating filth, ghisl. Just as in Q. 44:43–49, the punishment is acute and in the present ‘now’. And, just as Q. 44:48, the word ḥamīm is employed, but this time in a wordplay where the hellish context prompts us, the audience, to remember the word's other scalding usages (such as Q. 6:70, Q. 10:4, and Q. 37:67), while simultaneously having to process the fact that the word here means ‘friend’. The wordplay of the hapax ghisl and its root-connection to ‘washing’ (and thus cleanliness) is also evident. Rhetorically, these wordplays evoke an unpleasant, yet efficacious, cognitive dissonance in the mind of the listener. These quotations lead us to the last section of this article, which attends to the metaphors of painful taste. ChooseTasting Pain in the Qur'an Ubiquitous in language, it should be no surprise that metaphors abound in the Qur'an too. Whether or not construed as divine language, the Qur'an is language through and through. How to define, identify, and interpret metaphors has been an ongoing endeavour in rhetorical, literary, philosophical, and psychological studies since Antiquity. The vastness and ingenuity of Muslim language-orientated analysis and exegesis is self-evident.33 Consequently, no attempt to survey and synthesise these endeavours will be pursued in this article, instead I will focus on the relevance of one modern approach that seems to tally particularly well with the topic of taste.

The approach invoked here stems from the field of cognitive linguistics, in particular cognitive semantics or conceptual metaphor theory, which is associated with figures like George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, and Mark Turner, and their work on conceptual metaphor theory, as well as actual analyses of metaphors—both trivial and so-called ‘dead’ metaphors, and more complex and artistic ones. Metaphor (including simile), according to Lakoff and Johnson, is in essence ‘understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another’.34 Furthermore, in conceptual metaphor theory, it is argued that metaphors emerge in embodied minds, that is, they are deeply connected to bodily experience and the different modalities of the senses (in particular sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch), and also to our evolutionary imprints and cultural experiences. This is also called the embodiment hypothesis: ‘human physical, cognitive, and social embodiment ground our conceptual and linguistic systems.’35 Metaphors, then, are not viewed as mere rhetorical decorum or mere poetic innovations, but rather as something ubiquitous in language and thinking, constantly informed by and interacting with bodies and their phenomenological interactions with its environment.

One of the most basic insights that this research has generated is into the way that metaphors draw on a corporeal and sensory lexicon when a more abstract and elusive state of affairs must be communicated. Consider for instance the word ‘insight’ just used in the previous sentence. Here, the somewhat epistemological notion of comprehension and knowledge is conceptualised by means of imagery that draws on vision as the faculty or act of seeing.36 Adding the prefix in-, accentuates the introspective and mental aspect of the word. Without our corporeal experiences of eyesight and gaze this so-called dead metaphor would be quite difficult to understand. To give a Qur'anic example; lisān basically means ‘tongue’, but in order to express more abstract ideas about discourse and language, lisān can be used, as in, for example, Q. 14:4, We have never sent a messenger who did not use his own people's language (wa-mā arsalnā min rasūlin illā bi-lisāni qawmihi). The same kind of basic nexus between knowledge and bodily sensation is pointed out by Balil Abd al-Karim in his recent linguistic and semantic investigations on Qur'anic terminology:37

… The term maʿrifah, which is associated with sensation, the ‘seeing’ of the heart, and the distinction between what is known and what is not, is both more specific and more complete than the word ʿilm, which is taken from the world of abstract thought … The term maʿrifah is employed in the Qur'an in the sense of an acquired perception. In numerous places it is accompanied by mention of a visible sign, either in the face, in which case the instrument of perception will be the eye, or in speech, in which case the instrument of perception will be the ear.

Such basic insights from cognitive metaphor research can also be applied to the study of language in religious communication. Biblical studies, for instance, has enthusiastically employed the cognitive approach in the past couple of decades.38 Recently, Biblical studies have combined this with new interesting investigations into the Biblical sensorium, such as Yael Avrahami's The Senses of Scripture. Within Qur'anic studies, only sporadic and tentative attempts at a cognitive approach to the text and the mind(s) behind have been pursued.39 Most fortunately, Qur'anic studies seems eventually to have taken up this enterprise; the newly launched European Research Council project ‘The Senses of Islam’ (SENSIS) directed by Christian Lange illustrates this new tendency. When it comes to the alimentary study of the Qur'an, the cognitive-cum-embodied approach presents an obvious opportunity. Eating and drinking, including tasting, constitutes one of the body's most basic motor programs and senses, a basic prerequisite for biological survival, and a powerful potential for pleasure. Hence, it should come as no surprise that that this aspect of corporeality becomes embodied in terms of metaphorical language in the Qur'an. The final section of this article will thus focus on the concept of taste, specifically the Arabic root dh-w-q. The root is attested 63 times in the Qur'an and if we adhere to Nöldeke's chronological ordering it seems as if ‘taste’ is distributed across all the four major historical phases of the Qur'an.40 Furthermore, the root appears in four different grammatical forms, the majority of which hold the grammatical status of transitive form I verbs, ‘to taste something’, or form IV verbs, ‘to let or cause someone taste something’, which then again imply the act of the following four experiential sensations:

i) to distinguish a flavour of by taking something into the mouth;

ii) to eat or drink a small quantity of something;

iii) to feel a substance and its texture in the mouth (haptic dimension);

iv) to experience something in a metaphorical way.

Besides these semantic considerations, we might even ponder the inherent iconicity effect (i.e. the conceived similarity or analogy between the form of the linguistic sign and its meaning) of the root.41 Thus, if we want to pronounce the consonant of dhāl, we notice that it is an apical consonant that is produced with the tip of the tongue, and it actually forces this part of our linguistic body to protrude a little bit in the mouth—as if we were about to taste something. When it comes to the notion of taste, the intuitive experiential associations are connected to predominantly positive sensations. Despite a lot of evolutionary trial and error, elementary human survival is intricately coupled with the act of tasting, and a basic fulfilment of need in terms of hunger and thirst. Being bereft of taste buds would certainly leave human beings at serious risk with regard to a number of poisonous and harmful food items. Despite the metaphorical potentials of taste-lexemes, it should be specified that the greater part of its linguistic usage would imply the concrete non-metaphorical act and sensation of tasting. In other words, it is no coincidence that dictionaries always list the basic and literal senses of the word first and only later on, the metaphorical senses.

Nonetheless, in the case of the Qur'an, the use of this gustatory lexeme betrays a predominance of metaphorical usage. In terms of prevalence, its metaphorical use clearly trumps the literal use.42 Secondly, the metaphorical use of taste in Qur'an is predominantly focused on highly dysphoric notions and sensations, such as punishment, cruelty, pain, and death. Out of the 63 textual instances that involved taste, only six of them expressed positive notions and sensation. In all six cases these formulations connect taste with mercy, as can be seen, for example, in Q. 10:21, No sooner do We let people taste some mercy after some hardship than they begin to scheme against Our revelations … (wa-idhā adhaqnā’l-nāsa raḥmatan min baʿdi ḍarrāʾa massathum idhā lahum makrun fī ayātinā). As for the remaining gustatory cases, they almost exclusively refer to the ‘taste of the punishment/torment’, as, for instance in Q. 3:106, … Taste the torment … (fa-dhūqū’l-ʿadhāb). In several instances, this punishment may be specified by genitive iḍāfa-constructions or adjectival specification. Usually, the passages in question refer to God's punishment of man in the hereafter, though it sometimes remains unclear whether God's punishment will befall them in the worldly sphere or not. Other gustatory punishments can also be mentioned, for example:

i) violence (baʾsa): Q. 6:65, and make you taste each other's violence (wa-yudhīqa baʿḍakum baʾsa baʿḍ).

ii) shame/disgrace (khizya): Q. 39:26, God gave them the punishment of disgrace in this world to taste (fa-adhāqahumu'llāhu'l-khizya fī’l-ḥayāti'l-dunyā).

iii) torment/trial (fitna): Q. 51:14, ‘Taste the punishment!’ (dhūqū fitnatakum).

iv) death (mawt): for example, Q. 3:185, Every soul will taste death (kullu nafsin dhāʾiqatu'l-mawt); see also Q. 21:35, Q. 29:57, Q. 39:57, and Q. 44:56.

v) evil (sūʾa): Q. 16:94, and you should taste evil (wa-tadhūqū’l-sūʾ).

vi) the consequences of one's acts of evil (wabāla amrihī): for example, Q. 5:95, so that he may taste the full gravity of his deed (li-yadhūqa wabāla amrihī) (or Q. 5:15, Q. 64:5, or Q. 65:9).

vii) the ‘touch of Hell/Saqar’: Q. 54:48, ‘Taste now the touch of Saqar!’ (dhūqū massa saqar).

As demonstrated here, it is evident that the discourse of taste goes beyond the literal and frequently combines with a strong metaphorical sense. As already noted, Qur'anic taste-attestations are distributed among early and middle (although apparently not late) Meccan and Medinan suras, but it seems as if the greater part of them belong to the Meccan suras. Despite the threefold division of Meccan phases, overall it seemed to define a period in which the Qur'anic Muslims constituted a relatively powerless yet religiously enthusiastic community that felt deeply attracted to the somewhat paradoxical currents of the terrifying eschatological-apocalyptical messages that ran alongside world-affirming and grateful messages regarding the generous Creator-God and Sustainer.43 Man has to be threatened, encouraged, charmed, and wisely persuaded in order to accept the theological, ethical, ritual, social, economic, and political program of the Prophet's revitalised monotheism. That is why the many passages relating to taste tally well with the urgency of the eschatological-apolocalyptic register and the accentuation of this world's wonderful rizq (‘provision’ or ‘sustenance’), generously provided by al-razzāq, ‘the Provider’. On the one hand, gustatory passages in the Qur'an are rhetorically designed to evoke strong emotional and visceral affect44 by prompting a most basic human sensory faculty and experience. On the other, this archetypal and deeply ingrained corporeality of taste is most appropriate to exploit metaphorically, especially for those parts of human existence that can be difficult to conceptualise, such as death, shame, and the consequence of one's acts. Finally, the discourse of taste and its rhetorical-cognitive potential as metaphorical speech and thinking added leverage to what was the most pressing and urgent challenge facing the prophets of history, namely to convince their fellow human beings of the authenticity of their message.

Notes 1 The author wishes to thank the anonymous peer reviewer whose erudite comments, questions, and suggestions substantially improved the original manuscript, and also the thoughtful and professional editors of JQS for their numerous suggestions, corrections, and tweaks.

2 For investigations of its conceptual and social history, see Kister, ‘“Do Not Assimilate Yourselves … ”, and Mazuz, ‘The Relationship between Islam and Judaism’. The theoretical and empirically tested apparatus of so-called Social Identity Theory could be applied with advantage in regard to Islamic and Qur'anic studies; see, for example, Tucker and Baker, T&T Clark Handbook, which also provides an introduction to the theory beyond New Testament studies.

3 For a comparative religion overview of dietary laws, see Borgeaud et al., ‘Dietary Laws’. For Qur'anic and early Islamic studies, see Cook, ‘Early Islamic Dietary Law’. For an overview of the alimentary in the Qur'an, see Waines, ‘Food and Drink’.

4 One example of socio-cultural and symbolic research is van Gelder's monograph Of Dishes and Discourse: Classical Arabic Representations of Food, also published under the title God's Banquet.

5 Beyond the natural sciences, the study of the senses is still a developing field. Alain Corbin's historical work on microhistory and sensibilities is an early frontrunner, see for example his The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination. Important works in anthropology have been published by David Howes, who is also director of a Centre of Sensory Studies at Concordia University, Montreal; see, for example, his The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses. In Religious studies, an anthology like Brent Plate's Key Terms of Material Religion provides a multi-facetted approach to matters of materiality and the senses in religion. In Biblical studies, Yael Avrahami's The Senses of Scripture provides a state of the art perspective to the nexus between a Semitic text and the senses.

6 See Taves, ‘Special Things’.

7 The Qur'an translations in this article are either that of Arberry or Abdel Haleem.

8 Ritual slaughter in Islam is one of its most striking differential markers with regard to its two most kindred religions, i.e. Judaism and Christianity, both of which abandoned ritual slaughter. The maintenance of a sanctuary, Mecca, is the other important differential marker.

9 In recent years, there has been a growing literature on Islam/Muslims and the social-symbolic relationship to non-Muslims (or even ‘wrong’ Muslims), often designated as ‘the Other’. See, for example, Bashear, Arabs and Others in Early Islam’ for an early historical view; Peters, ‘Alius or Alter’, for a Qur'anic view on Christian Others; and Wilde and McAuliffe, ‘Religious Pluralism and the Qur'an’ for a general overview of Qur'anic Others.

10 See Crone, ‘How Did the Quranic Pagans’, and Waines, ‘Agriculture and Vegetation’.

11 The notions of the raw and the cooked became an important conceptual pair in structuralist analyses due to Claude Lévi-Strauss, but the approach has, to my knowledge, never really been tested on the Qur'anic material.

12 For one attempt to provide some kind of systematic classification, see Ambros and Procházka's The Nouns of Koranic Arabic, in particular the following semantic categories ‘22.11. Food and beverages’, ‘14. Vegetation’, and ‘15. The Animal Kingdom’.

13 The article on ‘Food and Drink’ in Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān by David Waines is the best introduction to the topic.

14 Arberry translates ‘in emptiness’, but I prefer to render makhmaṣat as ‘hunger’, as in Q. 9:120.

15 This concerns the whole idea of Islam as the dīn al-yuṣr (‘the easy religion’), and God as the dispenser of rukhṣā (‘lenience’). This author currently functions as PI for a research project named ‘Ambiguity and Precision in the Qur'an’, a subproject of which deals with dispensatory language in the Qur'an (conducted by Johanne Louise Christiansen).

16 Hoffmann, ‘Notes on Qur'anic Wilderness’; Neuwirth, ‘Geography’.

17 For the most substantial investigations into Paradise and Hell, see respectively the monographs and anthologies of Günther, Lawson, and Mauder (on Paradise), and Lange (on Paradise and Hell) cited in the bibliography of this article.

18 Inspirational for this ‘tantalising’ reading of the Qur'an is the Danish literary scholar Mads Julius Elf and his book Tantaluskvaler.

19 The cultivated and civilised version of the desert is the ‘deserted places’ (umam khāliya), see Neuwirth, ‘Geography’.

20 See Brunschvig, ‘Simples remarques négatives’.

21 Eksell, Descriptions of Water in Jahiliya Poetry.

22 For a related analysis, see Christiansen, ‘The Dark Koran’.

23 Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?, pp. 80–81.

24 Mitchell adds a footnote to his remarks on tantalizing images that is strikingly relevant to our context: ‘The link between idolatry and gluttony, the lust of the eyes and the mouth, is made clear in the story in the book of Exodus of the festival of eating and drinking that accompanies the worship of the golden calf’ (p. 81).

25 Less evident, but worth contemplating, are the possible connections with the Greco-Roman version of the Tantalus myth. Similar possibilities of Greco-Roman interdependencies and rewritings are being probed within Biblical studies. See, for example, Strohmaier, ‘The Greek Heritage in Islam’, and, from Biblical studies, Wajdenbaum, Argonauts of the Desert. As for the Qur'an, further studies are demanded in order to explore the Tantalus motif in the religious cultures of Late Antiquity, especially Christianity.

26 ‘s.th. too big to be swallowed and so causing choking; a choking’ (Ambros, A Concise Dictionary, p. 201).

27 Alan Jones’ rendering of one of Hell's names, al-ḥuṭama in Q. 104:4, as ‘the insatiable’, seems felicitous in this context.

28 Lange, ‘Revisiting Hell's Angels’, pp. 84–87.

29 Fowler, ‘Sarcasm’.

30 For an example of visual representation view, for example, this specimen from the David Collection: https://www.davidmus.dk/en/current_events/nyerhvervelser/genstande/14-2014?image_index=1. The illustration of the tree seems an exact copy of the famous Uighur Mi'rajnameh in the Bibliothèke nationale de France.

31 van Gelder, Of Dishes and Discourse, p. 23. For a full investigation into al-zaqqūm, see Radscheit, ‘Der Höllenbaum’.

32 The topic of miserly people who eventually are punished by being forced to eat filth is noted in Seigneuret, Dictionary, p. 435.

33 For introductions, see Simon, ‘Istiʿara’, and ‘Majāz’; Beaumont, ‘Simile’; and Heath, ‘Metaphor’. The only full-blown monographs on Qur'anic metaphors and similes are Sabbagh, La Métaphore dans le Coran, and Sister, Metaphern und Vergleiche im Koran.

34 Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, p. 5. In conceptual metaphor theory, the difference between a metaphor (‘A is B’) and a simile (‘A is like B’) is regarded as inconsequential and merely a formal difference.

35 For an introduction to cognitive linguistics and the embodiment hypothesis, see Rohrer, ‘Embodiment and Experientialism’, p. 27.

36 For this line of reasoning, see Christiansen, ‘The Dark Koran’, pp. 207ff.

37 Abd al-Karim, Qur'anic Terminology, pp. 13, 15.

38 See, for example, Fayearts, The Bible Through Metaphor and Translation.

39 See Hoffmann, ‘The Poetics of Qur'anic Force Dynamics’, and ‘The Moving’ Qurʾān’.

40 See also the table of attestations in Lange, ‘Revisting Hell's Angels’, pp. 94–95.

41 The notion of iconicity and Qur'anic language is underresearched.

42 This metaphorical predominance is also noted with regard to the physical disabilities such a blindness, dumbness, and deafness. See Christiansen, ‘The Dark Koran’.

43 In the last hundreds years the research literature has debated which topic carries the most weight: the world-rejecting apocalyptic-eschatological or the world-affirming. Recently, the apocalyptic-eschatologcal ‘school’ has experienced a renaissance (not least due to Steven Shoemaker's work), but this author is inclined to agree with Rudi Paret that most modes were present and equally important, see Paret, Mohammed und der Koran, pp. 62–71.

44 For an important article on affect and emotion in the Qur'an, see Bauer, ‘Emotion in the Qur'an’. For an overview of the field at present, see Corrigan, The Oxford Handbook.

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