Wayward Sufi Fathers: Or, How Mysticism Makes Abandoning, Ignoring, or Caring for One’s Children Equally Radical and Pious Choices

Can a man be a mystic and a good father? The orthodox obligation to marry and have children meant Muslim men often had to navigate the equally weighty demands of fatherhood and mystical life. Hagiographies of medieval Sufi men have a curious tension: they often praise men who abandoned and ignored their children in pursuit of mystical insight, but also show vast Sufi family networks and discuss in-home Sufi education. While it seems that wayward fathers were idealized, the lived reality indicates that many “ordinary” Sufi men were likely quite active in attending to their children’s spiritual, emotional, and financial needs. Drawing on Sufi manuals, hagiographies, ethical, and legal texts, I begin to trace the major questions of the relationship between mystical fatherhood, saintly narrative, and how an “ordinary” father’s mystical achievement can be recovered and elevated for scholarly consideration.