Sufi Remembrance Practices in the Meditation Marketplace of a Mobile App

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

10-11-2019

Department 1

Religious Studies

Abstract

This chapter explores religion on mobile meditation apps through a focus on Sufi guided ‘meditation’ practices found on the mobile app Insight Timer. Sijapati offers an account of digital presentations of religious practices and considers how representations of religious practices as ‘meditation’ may expand app users’ encounters with religion into a marketplace model. Both the presence and the content of Sufi meditation practices on the app raise fruitful points for consideration of how religious identity, practice, religiosity/spiritualism, and community are intertwined in the digital age and through mobile apps in particular. Examining Sufi practices on this app within the context of a particular Sufi order, and in the context of competing ‘meditation’ practices on the app, she discusses how these app ‘meditations’ facilitate outsider engagement with Sufism, in part through the elision of Sufi and Islamic identity markers.

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-26376-8_2

ISBN/ISSN

978-3-030-26376-8

Required Publisher's Statement

This chapter is available on the publisher's website.

This item is not available in The Cupola.

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