(June 24, 2019 at 9:05 pm)chimp3 Wrote: I would say that some Sufi's defer to poets more than Koranic sources.
This is also important, I think, in understanding religious people.
Some Muslims and some Christians (and maybe others) stick entirely to their respective scriptures. But traditionally, people in a particular religion may practice their faith based on all kinds of other sources. Either Church Fathers, or religious poetry, or (sad to say) TV preachers.
The whole sola scriptura thing is modern. Demanding that believers read and interpret original sources for themselves hasn't always been the case. In fact it may get bad results, since stupid people tend to interpret stupidly.
So I think that it makes perfect sense for Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or whatever to get their inspiration from the arts of all kinds. That's what it's for, I'm pretty sure.
And this has been authorized by some pretty serious religious people. Kobo Daishi, for example, said that esoteric sutras are so hard that paintings are actually better for understanding certain concepts.
