Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion recapitulates the main complementary objectives of the book: the wish to construct a history of Sufi conceptions of the vision of God using Qurʾān commentaries as our main source. Sufi Qurʾān commentaries indeed proved to be a useful and varied source for the reconstruction of a (partial) history of Sufi eschatology and the vision of God. The boundary between this world and the otherworld is generally imagined to be porous and crossable, mainly by means of Sufi stations and states, among which communion (waṣla), nearness and vision were most prominent. As for the issue of genealogy and originality, it concludes that the four Qurʾān commentaries following on al-Sulamī all contain elements of both genealogy and originality. These elements appeared not to be mutually exclusive, and could easily coexist within one and the same commentary. There appeared to be a great diversity in style and content, and genealogy generally did not determine the structure and content of the commentaries as much as is generally the case in its conventional counterparts.