3 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 2 0 2 Methodological Challenges Studying our topic is meticulous work with resources from different research fields and careful picking up of scarce in - formation that can be useful in our analysis of chosen matter. During our study we have realized several key methodologi - cal problems, which we have categorized into four following groups. First Problem When we focus on articles and books concerning Islamic religious context, that use the exact phrase religious experience , we find out, that conception of religious experience as we know it from the research of classics in the Western Psychology of Religion, as Wilhelm Wundt, Gordon Allport, William James, Charles Y. Glock or Rodney Stark, is unknown to Islamic studies. Therefore, the first problem that we identi - fy concerning our study is terminological aspect, which does not allow us to use the phrase religious experience generally, with no regards to broad religious context that builds Islam. After our analysis of publications mentioned above, we are able to conclude that religious experience is applied to six topical areas: • political impact of concrete religious doctrines; • emancipation of women; • environmental issues; • personal responsibility towards God; • fulfillment of religious ritual obligations known as Five Pillars of Islam; • Sūfism. The phrase religious experiencehas in the first case the func - tion of the synonym of words applicability and application of religious doctrines in political, public sphere; in the second case it is a product of different interpretations of Qur’an and Sunnah in the frame of questions belonging to the discipline of Gender Studies; in the third case it describes humans’ behavior regarding natural environment, that is in harmony with the doctrine of God the Creator; in the fourth case that is personal behavioral-moral profile; in the fifth case it is about religious ritual obligations, arkān al-Islām , i.e. shahada , salat , zakāt , sawmand hajj ; in the sixth case it is analysis of mystical praxis of Sūfis. If we stay at linguistic research plane of the usage of the phrase religious experience in Islam, we can’t avoid analytic philosophy of language and linguistic turn according to Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russel, Ludwig Wittgenstein etc., which goes beyond the scope of our study. In our study the phrase religious experiencewill be applied as “ experience, acts and feelings of individual in relation to what he or she considers the divine ” (James 1902, 31), thus to Allah and his obedience. As evident, we have decided to use the basis of James’ definition of religious experience that we are relating to respective religion, to Islam and its monotheism. Second Problem Our topic of spirituality and religious experience of Muslim spouses and their fighting infertility is an unknown and totally new issue that we introduce. Interconnectedness of spirituality and religious experience of respective individuals and their efforts to overcome the state of helplessness regarding infertility has not been, up to our knowledge, considered yet. Qur’an mentions two cases of infertile pious cou - ples: Ibrahim and Sara (51:28–30), and Zakariya and al-Yash - bi’ (21:89–90), so there is a strong inspiration for believers to follow the hope of the chosen couples, who were given the gift of the descendant in the time appointed by God alone, thus highly aged. Third Problem Monolithic and generalized approach to analysis of spiritu - ality and religious experience connected to infertility issue in whole Islamic world is not possible, because it would be reductionistic and oversimplistic; e. g. while Iranian reproductive clinics organize at their place education of infertile couples by public transmission of gynecological surgery encompassing usage of chosen assisted reproductive technology; in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh it is unthinkable for men a and women even to sit together in one room, because Muslims in Southern Asia have separate rooms for males and females; not to mention watching together gynecological surgery. As follows, in this respect we have to consider the variety of attitudes towards women’s human rights. CEDAW, as one of 10 core UN human rights instruments, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. Nearly 97% of
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