The Essence and Shell of Religion from the Viewpoint of Islamic Mysticism

“The Essence and Shell of Religion” is a philosophical and theological problem that is Occidental in context, dating back to the Renaissance. “Religious Experience” and “Sophia Perennis” are two mooted theories on this issue. The essence of religion, according to the first theory, lies in the experience that renders its possessor a religious person and the shell is a set of beliefs that has its origin in the independence that the wayfarer feels after touching the essence. The second theory defines religion as a two-layered phenomenon whose inward layer is monotheism as manifested in the form of Sophia Perennis inside the human being and the shell consists of the traditions that lead the wayfarer toward the gem. In Islamic mysticism, religion is an integrated seamless truth that has triple manifestations: exoteric, esoteric, and ultra-esoteric. The esoteric manifestation is the individual unity that is also the gem of religion. Even though they are seen as the shell, exoteric manifestations are merely diluted shadows of the same esoteric truth and thus they are imperishable. Religiosity is also a threefold entity whose essence is the absolutely certain intuition of mystical monotheism. Thus conceived, religion and religiosity are coextensive in their essence.