Hold Fast the Reins and Be Guided: Embodied Expressions of Taqwā in Prophetic Hadith and Orations of ʿ⁠⁠Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib

Abstract

Abstract This essay examines the interplay of form and content in early Islamic expressions of taqwā (translated variously as piety, or fear or consciousness of God), with a primary focus on prophetic hadith and the orations of ʿ⁠Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Through this analysis, two major observations can be made. First, expressions of taqwā in these sources are indelibly corporeal, articulated through forms of bodily intimacy, whether between rider and mount, or as the cure for bodily sickness. Second, attention to both form and content and their interstices elucidates a picture of taqwā that expands our notion of embodiment to encompass the realm of the internal. Taqwā involves techniques of the limbs, tongue, eyes, and ears as well as techniques of the heart. To demonstrate this, I explore both the ways that believers are enjoined to seek taqwā as well as how taqwā is articulated as enacting transformations in/on those believers.