Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism.

• Author: Zargar, Cyrus Ali

Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism. By ATIF KHALIL. Albany, NY: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2018. Pp. xi + 260. $95 (cloth); $32.95 (paper).

At first glance, it might not be apparent in what ways Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism is such an original undertaking. Yet there are relatively few studies that consider Islamic ethics from the perspective of one particular virtue, and it is as a virtue within the framework of Sufi moral psychology that tawba (repentance) matters to Khalil. Within the study of Sufism, for example, there is a 1968 study on tawakkul (trust) by Benedikt Reinert (De Gruyter), as well as treatments of love (William Chittick, Yale Univ. Press, 2013; Binyamin Abrahamov, Routledge, 2013; and Joseph E. B. Lumbard, SUNY Press, 2016). In terms of other titles focused on one particular virtue in Islamic ethics more broadly, Sophia Vasalou's Virtues of Greatness in the Arabic Tradition (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019) comes to mind. Like Vasalou's, Khalil's book responds to increased interest in virtue ethics in the academy that has not been reciprocated by such interest from within Islamic Studies from anything outside of a strictly historical context. As such, Repentance and the Return to God is a very welcome addition to the study of Sufism and Islamic ethics and will be a useful resource for specialists, students of Islamic studies, and readers interested in Sufi ethical writings.

The book's first part concerns defining tawba. and, in that spirit, its first chapter considers the semantics of the word, including potential problems in translating it as "repentance." The author's defense of "repentance" as a suitable equivalent for tawba is a convincing one, resting on a careful consideration of both tawba's origins in quranic language as studied by the early lexicographers, as well as a comparative consideration of the English word "repentance" within the context of both Hebrew and Greek biblical scholarship. In chapter two Khalil acknowledges his indebtedness to the late Toshihiko Itzutsu's method of semantic analysis vis-a-vis quranic studies and Islamic ethics. This brings Khalil to locate tawba within a semantic field of words and triliteral roots with which it becomes associated in the Quran: rectification (islah) and forgiveness (maghfira). He also takes care to distinguish the term from other words indicating absolution and forgiveness, or the seeking thereof, namely...