Traversing in Modernity: Sufi Path of NUḤ ḤA MIM Keller in His Sea Without Shore

In 2011 Nuh Ha Mim Keller, an American convert living in Jordan and considered to be a shaykh of the Shadhili ṭariqa, authored a contemporary Sufi manual Sea Without Shore (2011) in an attempt to provide spiritual guidance to the modern Muslim. Being a Sufi manual, Keller situates his work within the corpus of the classical Sufis, who wrote in this genre and whose manuals were concerned with the esoteric dimension of Islam and its connection to the religion's required exoteric practices. As a result of the impact of modernity that is seen by Keller as a frame of new values and beliefs, Keller's manual reinterprets classical Sufi doctrines in a manner suited to modern subjectivities. Such reinterpretations offered repositionings of central Sufi themes such as concept of spiritual elect (wilaya), miracles, dreams and other issues pertinent to Sufism. Moreover, Keller's manual offers insights related to ritual practices performed by his fraternity. Borrowing from Western literature, Keller provides new voices of authority to the Sufi path and explains old concepts in light of these new discourses with the aim of resolving contemporary issues ushered in by modernity. This thesis analyzes, evaluates, and situates Keller's contemporary manual in the context of relevant themes in Sufi literature, as well as traces the other voices of authority pertinent to Keller's manual. Moreover, this study demonstrates the tensions at play in Keller's interpretation of tradition. Since the time of its publication, Sea Without Shore became renowned among neo-traditionalist networks, and the excerpts from the manual were partially republished in the various websites, signifying Keller as an authority on Sufi-related issues. Despite this sort of reception, there has been no study fully dedicated to the manual and Keller's Sufism when compared to the neo-traditionalist phenomenon, a scope for which receives considerable attention. This thesis aims to fill this gap.