Pathmakers: The Spiritual Journeys of Sufi Converts to Islam

This thesis argues that journeying is a crucial framework through which converts to Islam articulate spiritual transformation and progression on Islam's spiritual path. Rather than focusing solely on theological tenets or ritual performance, I examine the affective, relational, and imaginative dimensions of religious life. Focusing on converts to Islam, the study analyses how seekers negotiate Sufi epistemology by cultivating hybrid modes of knowing and relational hermeneutics. I pay particular attention to how seekers learn to make sense of their life experiences in a relational and semiotic dimension in which the world around them is to be interpreted like scripture.

Islam's inner path grants particular significance to semiotics as seekers attune their hearts to be receptive to Divine guidance. Islam's scriptural sources play an important role in this process, mediating trust between seekers and their spiritual guides, whose interpretive authority is connected to their capacity to transmit exegesis that resonates with seekers' lived experiences. While entrusting oneself to a guide entails a leap of faith, it is also grounded in relational discernment, as seekers learn to interpret and evaluate signs of their teachers' spiritual nobility.

By listening to how seekers narrate their own paths, this thesis illuminates the profound creativity, courage, and care involved in building community in the modern world. The stories of these seekers invite us to rethink conversion and transformation not as isolated events, but as ongoing processes embedded in complex relational fields. From the mastery of the self to the restructuring of society and economy, the chapters collectively map the lived landscape of a community in search of spiritual and worldly integration.