SUFISM AS A MODEL FOR RUSHDIE’S MIGRANT CONDITION IN GRIMUS AND THE SATANIC VERSES

John E. Fausz (Dr. Hena Ahmad) English Department, Truman State University 100 E Normal, Kirksville MO 63501

The study of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses has been linked so concretely with the controversy that has surrounded it, that in most cases a deeper examination of its influences and spiritual core is precluded. There is, however, enmeshed in the novel, what can be seen as a marked influence of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, from which the novel derives an ambivalent spirituality that undermines the main arguments of its controversy. One of the keys to understanding the mystical aspects of the problematic Satanic Verses is Grimus, the author’s first novel, in which we find metaphysical concerns that are developed further in The Satanic Verses. By reading the novel through this lens, the main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, should be seen as a composite migrant everyman and represent, in their divergent mutations into an angel and a demon, a mystical manifestation of the complementary forces of good and evil. This paper will illuminate, then, the ways in which the elements of Sufism that pervade Grimus are used as motifs in the Satanic Verses. Additionally, the Sufi dimension of both novels, as this paper will argue, allows the reader to come closer to fully understanding the complex spirituality of the Satanic Verses.

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