Silta jumalalliseen rakkauteen

Listening to sung poetry is a core practice of the Chishti Nizami Sufis of the Indian Subcontinent. Much of this poetry is not unambiguously religious but could also refer to erotic love between humans. How do the practitioners learn to interpret the reactions elicited by such poetry as religious emotions? I approach the topic through texts and ethnographic material, drawing on the ideas of Jesse J. Prinz and Jenefer Robinson, who view emotions as bodily reactions triggered by thoughts or perceptions of external reality that are later labelled as particular emotions. The Chishti Nizamis cherish such sudden gut reactions caused by poetry and music but try to affect the practitioners’ interpretation of them by surrounding the listening of love poems with religious frames, such as reciting the Quran at the beginning and end of the practice. In this way, the practitioners are to learn to interpret gut reactions as religious emotions. The effectiveness of this process is never guaranteed, but when successful, it can lead to surprising and unpredictable experiences of religious emotions.