Exploring the Lived Meaning of Divine Encounter Through a Phenomenological Study of Muslim and Christian Mystics

Abstract

Religious experience, particularly mystical encounter, has become an essential focus in comparative theology as scholars increasingly emphasize spirituality as a lived and experiential reality. Within this broader field, phenomenological inquiry offers a framework to explore how individuals consciously perceive and interpret the Divine across different religious traditions. Yet, existing studies have primarily examined mysticism through doctrinal or historical analysis, leaving insufficient understanding of how the Transcendent is experienced in the immediacy of human consciousness. This study addresses that gap by applying interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore how Muslim and Christian participants encounter and make meaning of divine presence in their lived experiences. Using in-depth interviews, the research identified four essential structures of experience divine unity, ineffability, personal transformation, and inclusive consciousness each revealing how mystical awareness transcends linguistic and theological boundaries. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed following the standard IPA stages of coding, theme clustering, and interpretative synthesis to ensure methodological transparency and replicability. The findings demonstrate that phenomenology effectively captures the existential depth of spiritual experience, uncovering shared modes of sacred awareness that unite distinct faith traditions. By situating mystical experience as both personal and interreligious, the study extends phenomenological theology toward a more integrative understanding of faith as an experiential phenomenon. These insights enrich comparative theology and suggest that future research should expand phenomenological inquiry to include diverse spiritual contexts, fostering dialogue grounded in lived experience rather than abstract belief.