This study investigates the Deobandī engagement with classical Sufi thought through the writings of one of modern South Asia’s most influential Sufi thinkers, namely Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī (d. 1943). The article brings to focus Thānavī’s contributions to South Asian Sufism by showing how he sought to preserve, defend, revive, and disseminate classical Sufi teachings in a climate of social reform. The article documents how Deobandī scholars such as Thānavī – far from being propagators of shallow fundamentalist discourses – immersed themselves in the ocean of some of the most sophisticated strands of Islamic learning such as Sufi metaphysics that often employ rational methods of argumentation, alongside symbols and imageries to articulate complex metaphysical doctrines in both prose and poetry.

本研究通过现代南亚最有影响力的苏菲思想家之一，即 Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī（卒于 1943 年）的著作，调查 Deobandī 与古典苏菲思想的互动。这篇文章通过展示他如何在社会改革的气氛中寻求保存、捍卫、复兴和传播经典的苏菲教义，将焦点集中在 Thānavī 对南亚苏菲主义的贡献。这篇文章记录了像 Thānavī 这样的 Deobandī 学者——远非浅薄的原教旨主义话语的传播者——如何将自己沉浸在一些最复杂的伊斯兰学问的海洋中，例如经常采用理性论证方法的苏菲形而上学，以及符号和图像在散文和诗歌中阐明复杂的形而上学学说。