Phenomenological Approach to Islam: A case study of Annemarie Schimmel’s Approach to God (Tawheed)

Abstract

In this article, the famous German Orientalist Annemarie Schimmel's phenomenological approach to Islam is synthesized and analyzed. Consequently, it discusses the phenomenology of religion and focuses on Annemarie Schimmel's phenomenological approach to Islam. A special attention is made in this article to the phenomenological approach being adopted by Schimmel in her famous book “Deciphering the Signs of God”. This article also deals with the idea that how Schimmel has brought under discussion various phenomena highlighting them from the Qur’an, Prophetic narrations and mystical traditions. According to her, Islam has been misrepresented by its opponents and has been studied through social and psychological lenses rather than as a religion. So, the phenomenological study is the best-suited approach to study religion objectively with the perspective of actual practitioners of the concerned religious tradition.