The Islamic Siva

This article stems from two questions: How have Muslim communities reconciled the veneration of Hindu divinities with belief in God’s Oneness? Why have the Islamic elements of “Malay magic” been interpreted as syncretic rather than normative? Revisiting the works of scholars in British Malaya, for whom Islam was assimilated into pre-Islamic religion, the article turns to a manuscript compendium of Islamic esoteric science. This text hierarchically integrates Hindu divinities – particularly Siva – into Islamic cosmologies, portraying Siva as a metaperson within an Islamic hierarchy, subject to a singular God. However, this integration is marked by ambiguity, divergence, and multiple cosmologies, instead of assimilation. It is perhaps the lack of closure that has enabled Siva to be represented across a broad scale of forms, from tutelary divinity to demon. Rather than compromising Islamic normativity, Siva’s resilience highlights the processes of translation, negotiation, and resistance central to the diversity of Islam

Christian ministry · Compendium · Divinity · Hinduism · Islam · Subject (documents) · Veneration · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Studies and History · Indian and Buddhist Studies