When silence is “yeelen” (light): Exploring the corporeality of the mind in a nocturnal solo zikr practice (Odienné, Ivory Coast)

Abstract

In the town of Odienné (Ivory Coast), Madou forges his faith in God by performing long sessions of solo zikr (recollection of God) after midnight. This article ethnographically explores the theme of light in this Sufi practice of concentration as an experiential form of being. It first describes how the light and darkness of the penumbra of the night co-initiate what I call “the devotional place” of zikr. Following a phenomenological writing, it then describes how, as hours go by, Madou’s concentration navigates towards “ yeelen” (spiritual light) through the silence of the deep night. In doing so, this article elaborates the “corporeal mind” as synesthetic instants in this journey when the body becomes the mind and the mind faith, as the penumbra becomes silence and silence light. In other words, it explores the sensuous unboundedness of the self that happens in regular and long practice of nocturnal solo zikr. This article therefore offers a corporeal understanding of the light of God among practitioners of prolonged nocturnal solo zikr in West Africa.

Enlightening religion: Light and darkness in religious knowledge and knowledge about religion

“…Practicing zikr , the body becomes the center of a ‘devotional space’ that opens up towards experiencing divine light. Exceeding the domain of metaphor as a figure of speech, this corporeal experience brings about a deeper union with the divine in which the “light of God is lived and forged in the concentration” (Chappatte 2021, 179). In line with the arguments of Islamic scholars discussed by Lange and Abuali, Madou insists that while God is ‘beyond darkness and light’, the performance of zikr nevertheless produces the effect that ‘You are within light’.…”