Epistemologi Sufi dan Tanggung Jawab Ilmiah

Abstract

A Characteristic of sufi knowledge or epistemology based onintuition and reality of the spiritual world that only could be experienced by sufis. This distinctive mode of epistemology invited numerous questions, especially for those who were influenced by empirical-positivistic points of view. How it could be and how is it scientifically responsible. For them, this mode of knowledge is assumed as “unreal", and is impossible to being scientific, let alone objectively recognized for its reliability. This article attempts to respond to that challenge or perhaps “accusation", while stressing the point on two aspects: first, exposition of characteristics of sufi epistemology that seem so different from Western mode of epistemology (rationalism or empiricism), and second, trying to rationalize the reality of sufi spiritual experiences as being scientifically responsible.