Between Form and Flame: Hegel, Bulleh Shah, and the Mystical Dialectic of Existence

Summary

This article compares Hegel's dialectical philosophy with the Sufi metaphysics of Bulleh Shah, arguing that both traditions view the self as a dynamic process of becoming through negation and relation to an Absolute. Hegel seeks rational reconciliation of contradictions, while Bulleh Shah emphasizes mystical bewilderment and paradox as a way to encounter the divine. The paper concludes that their convergences and divergences support a deprovincialized metaphysics where conceptual dialectic and symbolic poetry are complementary ways of articulating existence as an unfolding unity of self, world, and Absolute.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article develops a cross-civilizational account of existence by placing G.W.F. Hegel's dialectical philosophy in dialogue with Sufi metaphysics of Bulleh Shah, read through his kalam Behad Ramza Dasda. Reconstructing two genealogies of thought - from Plato to Hegel and from Ibn Arabi and Rumi to Bulleh Shah - the paper argues that both traditions conceive the self not as a static substance but as a site of becoming, constituted through negation, relation, and participation in an Absolute. Hegel's account of self-consciousness and Absolute Spirit is brought into comparison with Bulleh Shah's motifs of fana-baqa, Ahad/Ahmad, Alif/Meem, and the divine play of conflict (Musa and Pharaoh, believer and unbeliever). While Hegel seeks rational reconciliation of contradiction, Bulleh Shah foregrounds mystical bewilderment, treating paradox as the privileged space of encounter with the Beloved. The article concludes that their structural convergences and divergences support a deprovincialized metaphysics in which conceptual dialectic and symbolic kalam emerge as complementary mode of articulating existence as an unfolding unity of self, world, and Absolute.

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