Kharraz describes in a book about the etiquette of ritual prayer, makes us sense even more intensely the mystic's attitude as required in his salat.
When entering on prayer you should come into the Presence of God as you would on the Day of Resurrection, when you will stand before Him with no mediator between, for He welcomes you and you are in confidential talk with Him and you know in whose Presence you are standing, for He is the King of kings. When you have lifted your hands and said "God is most great" then let nothing remain in your heart save glorification, and let nothing be in your mind in the time of glorification, than the glory of God Most High, so that you forget this world and the next while glorifying Him.
When a man bows in prayer, then it is fitting that he should afterwards raise himself, then bow again to make intercession, until every joint in his body is directed towards the throne of God, and this means that he glorifies God Most High until there is nothing in his heart greater than God Most Glorious and he thinks so little of himself that he feels himself to be less than a mote of dust. ***
Annemarie Schimmel. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. p.150
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Importance of Ritual Prayer and Ritual Purity
One of the five pillars of Islam is the ritual prayer (salat; in Persian and in Turkish, namaz) to be performed five times a day at prescribed hours between the moment before sunrise and the beginning of complete darkness. Early Muslim ascetics and mystics regarded ritual prayer, in accordance with the Prophet's saying, as a kind of ascension to Heaven, as a mi'raj that brought them into the immediate presence of God.
"Ritual prayer is the key to Paradise," says a tradition; but for the mystics, it aaas even more. Some of them connected the word salat with the root wasala, "to arrive, be united"; thus, prayer became the time of connection, the moment of proximity to God. Did not the Qur'an repeatedly state that all of creation was brought into being for the purpose of worshiping God? Thus, those who wanted to gain special proximity to the Lord, and prove their obedience and love, were, without doubt, those who attributed the most importance to ritual prayer. They might even be able to make the angel of death wait until their prayer was finished.
One of the prerequisites of ritual prayer is that ritual purity (tahara) be performed according to the strict rules laid down in the Prophetic tradition. The mystics laid great stress on the meticulous performance of the ablutions, which became, for them, symbols of the purification of the soul. A good translator of the feelings of his fellow mystics, Shibli said: "Whenever I have neglected any rule of purification, some vain conceit will rise in my heart."
Hagiographical literature is filled with stories about Sufis who indulged in ritual purification to the extent that they would perform the great ablution (ghusl) before every prayer or before visiting their spiritual director, which was, for them, a religious duty comparable to prayer. Some would purify themselves in a river even in the middle of the Central Asian winter; others would become enraptured at the very moment the water for ablution was poured over their hands. And a number of Sufis boasted of being able to perform the morning prayer while still in ritual purity from evening prayer, meaning that they had neither slept nor been polluted by any bodily function. Some of them even reached a state of remaining in ritual purity for several days.***
(Annemarie Schimmel. Mystical Dimensions of Islam)
"Ritual prayer is the key to Paradise," says a tradition; but for the mystics, it aaas even more. Some of them connected the word salat with the root wasala, "to arrive, be united"; thus, prayer became the time of connection, the moment of proximity to God. Did not the Qur'an repeatedly state that all of creation was brought into being for the purpose of worshiping God? Thus, those who wanted to gain special proximity to the Lord, and prove their obedience and love, were, without doubt, those who attributed the most importance to ritual prayer. They might even be able to make the angel of death wait until their prayer was finished.
One of the prerequisites of ritual prayer is that ritual purity (tahara) be performed according to the strict rules laid down in the Prophetic tradition. The mystics laid great stress on the meticulous performance of the ablutions, which became, for them, symbols of the purification of the soul. A good translator of the feelings of his fellow mystics, Shibli said: "Whenever I have neglected any rule of purification, some vain conceit will rise in my heart."
Hagiographical literature is filled with stories about Sufis who indulged in ritual purification to the extent that they would perform the great ablution (ghusl) before every prayer or before visiting their spiritual director, which was, for them, a religious duty comparable to prayer. Some would purify themselves in a river even in the middle of the Central Asian winter; others would become enraptured at the very moment the water for ablution was poured over their hands. And a number of Sufis boasted of being able to perform the morning prayer while still in ritual purity from evening prayer, meaning that they had neither slept nor been polluted by any bodily function. Some of them even reached a state of remaining in ritual purity for several days.***
(Annemarie Schimmel. Mystical Dimensions of Islam)
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Sufism in the West
In contrast to the fields of theology, philosophy, and the sciences, there were no translations of Sufi texts into Latin during the Middle Ages. The knowledge received about Sufism in the West by such men as Dante and, somewhat later, St. John of the Cross came from vernacular languages, oral transmission, and personal contact.
The first work to use the term “Sufism,” as tashawwuf has come to be known in the West, was in fact written in 1821 by a German scholar by the name of August Tholuck, who wrote a study of the subject entitled Sufismus:'sive Theosophia Persarum pantheistica'. The later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries were also witness to the translations of Sufi texts from both Persia and Arabic into English, German, French, and some other European languages. The works of such translators as Sir William Jones, von Hammer Purgstall, and Rückert began to read in literary and even philosophical circles and attracted major figures such as Goethe and Emerson.
At the beginning of the last century the Swedish painter and esoterist Ivan Aguéli traveled to the Islamic world, was initiated into Sufism, and began to write seriously on the doctrines of Ibn ‘Arabi and other Sufi masters. ‘Abdul Hadi, as Aguéli was known in the Islamic world and later in Europe, must be given his due as a pioneer in the serious introduction of Sufism to the West. It must also be recalled that by the early twentieth century René Guénon had already come into contact with this current and that after 1930, when he migrated to Cairo, he lived openly as a Shadhili faqir.
The traditionalist or perennialist school that Guénon, known in the Islamic world as Shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahid Yahya, “inaugurated” was to be of the utmost importance to the West in the presentation of authentic Sufism, in both doctrine and practice, his theoretical works being complemented by the operative teachings and spiritual practices issuing from the Algerian Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi.
In the 1930s the appearance of the colossal figure of Frithjof Schuon (Shaykh ‘Isa Nur al-Din Ahmad) brought about the serious presence of the Shadhiliyya Order in the West. His works were complemented by those of several of his companions such as Titus Burckhardt (Sidi Ibrahim ‘Izz al-Din), and Martin Lings (Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din), and many others.
Meanwhile, from the 1920s onward a number of Western academic scholars began to see the Quranic origin of Sufism and wrote serious work on it. This trend began with Louis Massignon, followed by such notable figures as Henry Corbin and Annemarie Schimmel. Today there are a number of academic scholars of Islam, following the example of these illustrious figures, who are making important contributions to the study of Sufism in European languages. Some of them also belong to various Sufi orders. After the Second World War other Sufi orders began to spread to the West and their Western followers, even if not academic scholars, have produced a number of valuable studies of Sufism.
(Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In : Sufism Love and Wisdom. Edited by Jean-Louis Michon and Roger Gaetani. World Wisdom Inc. Canada. 2006)
The first work to use the term “Sufism,” as tashawwuf has come to be known in the West, was in fact written in 1821 by a German scholar by the name of August Tholuck, who wrote a study of the subject entitled Sufismus:'sive Theosophia Persarum pantheistica'. The later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries were also witness to the translations of Sufi texts from both Persia and Arabic into English, German, French, and some other European languages. The works of such translators as Sir William Jones, von Hammer Purgstall, and Rückert began to read in literary and even philosophical circles and attracted major figures such as Goethe and Emerson.
At the beginning of the last century the Swedish painter and esoterist Ivan Aguéli traveled to the Islamic world, was initiated into Sufism, and began to write seriously on the doctrines of Ibn ‘Arabi and other Sufi masters. ‘Abdul Hadi, as Aguéli was known in the Islamic world and later in Europe, must be given his due as a pioneer in the serious introduction of Sufism to the West. It must also be recalled that by the early twentieth century René Guénon had already come into contact with this current and that after 1930, when he migrated to Cairo, he lived openly as a Shadhili faqir.
The traditionalist or perennialist school that Guénon, known in the Islamic world as Shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahid Yahya, “inaugurated” was to be of the utmost importance to the West in the presentation of authentic Sufism, in both doctrine and practice, his theoretical works being complemented by the operative teachings and spiritual practices issuing from the Algerian Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi.
In the 1930s the appearance of the colossal figure of Frithjof Schuon (Shaykh ‘Isa Nur al-Din Ahmad) brought about the serious presence of the Shadhiliyya Order in the West. His works were complemented by those of several of his companions such as Titus Burckhardt (Sidi Ibrahim ‘Izz al-Din), and Martin Lings (Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din), and many others.
Meanwhile, from the 1920s onward a number of Western academic scholars began to see the Quranic origin of Sufism and wrote serious work on it. This trend began with Louis Massignon, followed by such notable figures as Henry Corbin and Annemarie Schimmel. Today there are a number of academic scholars of Islam, following the example of these illustrious figures, who are making important contributions to the study of Sufism in European languages. Some of them also belong to various Sufi orders. After the Second World War other Sufi orders began to spread to the West and their Western followers, even if not academic scholars, have produced a number of valuable studies of Sufism.
(Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In : Sufism Love and Wisdom. Edited by Jean-Louis Michon and Roger Gaetani. World Wisdom Inc. Canada. 2006)
Sufism
Among the persons who have developed an interest in “comparative religion” many will have discovered that between the vast array of myths, dogmas, and rituals characterizing the various religions there exists a common denominator, a deep affinity resulting from the central point toward which all the sacred paths aim at leading their followers. And these same persons may also have recognized that, within the framework of Islam, Sufism represents this inner dimension, the way opened to those who aspire to reach the realm of the Divine Presence. This is why a good number of contemporary thinkers who are “seekers of Truth” – and all the contributors to the present anthology belong to that category – recognize Sufism as being not only the very heart of Islam, but also a key that gives access to the deepest meaning of other sacred traditions (specific references to this recognition may be found, inter alia, in the articles by Geoffroy, Lings, Macnab, Nasr, Shah-Kazemi, and Schuon).
To avoid any misinterpretation of what is implied by the words “Sufi” and “Sufism”, it is important to note that both terms have been used since the first century of the Hijra (eighth century C.E.), when “Sufism” (in Arabic: tasawwuf, the fact of wearing a garment made of wool – suf – as an emblem of purity) was adopted to designate the quest for spiritual illumination, while “sufi” was applied to characterized the person who had attained an obvious degree of proximity to God. This indicates that Sufism has always been embedded in the texture of Islamic creed, representing an ideal mode of worship derived from the Quranic Revelation and from the customs and sayings (sunna and hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad, and then transmitted without interruption throughout the centuries.
As a way of access to the divine love and wisdom, which are the universal components of mysticism, Sufism has given abundant proofs of its authenticity and its supernatural efficiency and fecundity. This is so from the very beginning of the Revelation, when Muhammad’s Companions sat with him during night-watches filled with the recitation of the holy verses and the invocation of the divine Names, up to the present time when thousands and thousands of devotees affiliated with Sufi brotherhoods throughout all corners of the Islamic world aspire to the purification of their souls and follow the way of their saintly ancestors under the guidance of a spiritual master.
Sufism, then, has nothing to do with sectarian movements which, mostly in the Western world, have used its name, fame, and even some of its psycho-spiritual practices to attract a naïve clientele with the promise of quick spiritual advancement without any religious obligation. It is gratifying to note that many publications now exist, notably translations of treatises on Sufism written in Arabic or Persian by the most eminent Sufi masters, which may constitute a counterweight to the fallacious hopes nurtured by those who would, according to a phrase appearing several times in the Quran (e.g. 2:86), “purchase the life of this world at the cost of the Hereafter”
(Cited from : Sufism: love & wisdom. Edited by Jean-Louis Michon, Roger Gaetani)
To avoid any misinterpretation of what is implied by the words “Sufi” and “Sufism”, it is important to note that both terms have been used since the first century of the Hijra (eighth century C.E.), when “Sufism” (in Arabic: tasawwuf, the fact of wearing a garment made of wool – suf – as an emblem of purity) was adopted to designate the quest for spiritual illumination, while “sufi” was applied to characterized the person who had attained an obvious degree of proximity to God. This indicates that Sufism has always been embedded in the texture of Islamic creed, representing an ideal mode of worship derived from the Quranic Revelation and from the customs and sayings (sunna and hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad, and then transmitted without interruption throughout the centuries.
As a way of access to the divine love and wisdom, which are the universal components of mysticism, Sufism has given abundant proofs of its authenticity and its supernatural efficiency and fecundity. This is so from the very beginning of the Revelation, when Muhammad’s Companions sat with him during night-watches filled with the recitation of the holy verses and the invocation of the divine Names, up to the present time when thousands and thousands of devotees affiliated with Sufi brotherhoods throughout all corners of the Islamic world aspire to the purification of their souls and follow the way of their saintly ancestors under the guidance of a spiritual master.
Sufism, then, has nothing to do with sectarian movements which, mostly in the Western world, have used its name, fame, and even some of its psycho-spiritual practices to attract a naïve clientele with the promise of quick spiritual advancement without any religious obligation. It is gratifying to note that many publications now exist, notably translations of treatises on Sufism written in Arabic or Persian by the most eminent Sufi masters, which may constitute a counterweight to the fallacious hopes nurtured by those who would, according to a phrase appearing several times in the Quran (e.g. 2:86), “purchase the life of this world at the cost of the Hereafter”
(Cited from : Sufism: love & wisdom. Edited by Jean-Louis Michon, Roger Gaetani)
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Involuntary and Voluntary Journey
Know that you are a wayfarer (salik)seeking your Lord and ultimately
one day you would meet Him, as said in a tradition: Whoever hopes to meet God should
know that the time of the meeting will come. And you should know that God, the Exalted,
by leis perfect Might and Wisdom has destined two journeys for the Children of Adam.
One of them is involuntary (qahri), and the other one is voluntary (ikhtiyari).
As to the involuntary journey, the starting point is the father's loins (sulb); the second stage is the mother's womb; the third stage is the physical world; and the fourth stage is that of the grave, which is either a garden out of the gardens of paradise or is a pit out of the pits of hell. The fifth stage is the Day of Resurrection, which is equal to fifty thousand years of this world. After that stage you will reach your eternal home and attain the real abode - that is, the abode of peace (dar al-salam)and the paradise of security and peace, in case you are among the felicitous and the friends of the Haqq; or your home will be the abode of fire and torture, if, God forbid, you should be among the wretched and the enemies of the Haqq, as Allah has said: "On the Day of Resurrection a group will be in paradise and a group in hell." Every breath that you take is a step towards the stage of death. Every day of your life is equal to a parsang. Each month is like a stage (marhalah)and each year like a station (manzil). Your journey is like the movement of the sun and the moon - yet you are oblivious of this journey and movement - and in your ignorance and forgetfulness you have failed to make ready and equip yourself properly for the station (manzil)of the grave and the onward journey to the station of the Day of Resurrection and your eternal and real home.
As to the involuntary journey, the starting point is the father's loins (sulb); the second stage is the mother's womb; the third stage is the physical world; and the fourth stage is that of the grave, which is either a garden out of the gardens of paradise or is a pit out of the pits of hell. The fifth stage is the Day of Resurrection, which is equal to fifty thousand years of this world. After that stage you will reach your eternal home and attain the real abode - that is, the abode of peace (dar al-salam)and the paradise of security and peace, in case you are among the felicitous and the friends of the Haqq; or your home will be the abode of fire and torture, if, God forbid, you should be among the wretched and the enemies of the Haqq, as Allah has said: "On the Day of Resurrection a group will be in paradise and a group in hell." Every breath that you take is a step towards the stage of death. Every day of your life is equal to a parsang. Each month is like a stage (marhalah)and each year like a station (manzil). Your journey is like the movement of the sun and the moon - yet you are oblivious of this journey and movement - and in your ignorance and forgetfulness you have failed to make ready and equip yourself properly for the station (manzil)of the grave and the onward journey to the station of the Day of Resurrection and your eternal and real home.
But the voluntary journey is of two kinds: one is the journey of the souls and the hearts
toward the Almighty and All-powerful King of the world. The second is a physical journey
(safar jismani)in the earth of God. We will devote a separate chapter to each one of these
two journeys, so that you receive the required guidance for attaining their goals and are
guided in preparing the means, in opening the gates, and in learning the principles (adab),
which will be your companion and assistant in matters relating to every good and piety, and
so that it assists the people of love (`ishq)and yearning during their journey, and serve
insha' Allah ta’ala, for the compiler as a provision for the Day of Resurrection vis-a-vis his
Lord (Mawla).
O Lord, open the gates of Your grace and mercy to us! O Lord, Who art Bounteous and Magnanimous!
(Shaykh Najmuddin Kubra. Adab al Suluk. http://www.sufi.ir/books/download/english/najmeddin-kobra-en/Adab-al-suluk.pdf)
O Lord, open the gates of Your grace and mercy to us! O Lord, Who art Bounteous and Magnanimous!
(Shaykh Najmuddin Kubra. Adab al Suluk. http://www.sufi.ir/books/download/english/najmeddin-kobra-en/Adab-al-suluk.pdf)
The Stages of the Stations of the People of Suluk
Know that there are for the people of suluk, in this station (i.e. paying attention to the humility of servitude and the Glory of His Lordship) and other stations, countless stages and degrees, only to a few of which we can generally refer, since comprehensively knowing all their aspects and counting all the stages are beyond the capacity of this humble creature: "The ways to Allah are as numerous as the breaths of the creatures".
One of those stages is the stage of Knowledge ['ilm], which is such that it proves, by scientific conduct [suluk] and philosophic argument, the humility of servitude and the Glory of (His) Lordship. This is a pure sort of knowledge, since it is clearly proved in the high sciences and supreme philosophy that the entire House of Realization [dar-i tahaqquq] and the complete circle of existence are mere relation and attachment and nothing but poverty. The Glory, Kingdom and Sovereignty belong to His Sanctified Essence of Majesty. No one can have any share of Glory and Majesty, while the humility of servitude and poverty is engraved on the forehead of every body, and is registered in the innermost part of their truth. The truth of gnosis and vision [shuhud], and the result of suffering and suluk, are in lifting the veil off the face of the truth, and discerning the humility of servitude and the origin of poverty and lowliness in oneself and in all the creatures. The invocation ascribed to the master of all beings (the Prophet of Islam) (SA):"O Allah, show me the things as they are", may be a reference to this stage, i.e. wishing to see the humility of servitude which requires discerning the Glory of the Lordship.
Therefore, if the salik on the road of the truth, the traveler in the way of servitude, covers this distance with the steps of scientific suluk and the mount of intellectual advance, he will fall in the veils of knowledge and attain to the first station of humanity. But this veil is a thick one, as it is said: "Knowledge is the greatest veil." The salik should not stay behind this veil. He is to tear it, since, should he be contented with this stage and keep his heart chained by it, he would fall into istidraj (being engaged in other than the Haqq). Istidrajin this stage, means becoming engaged in the numerous secondary branches of knowledge, presenting many arguments justifying his intellectual roamings in that field, and depriving himself of the other stages, because his heart is attached to this stage only, neglecting the wanted result, which is attaining to annihilation in Allah. He, thus, would spend his life in the veil of argument [burhan] and its branches. The more these branches, the thicker the veil and the greater the distance from the truth. The salik, therefore, should not be deceived, in this stage, by Satan, secluding himself from the truth and reality, and stopping his journey to the goal on the pretext of being a great scholar, a very learned person and a powerful man of argument. He must set to work briskly, be serious in his quest for the real demand, and take himself to the next stage, which is the second stage. And that is such that he should write what (his) reason has understood through irrefutable proof and scientific conduct, with the pen of intellect on the tablet of the heart, to convey the truth of the humility of servitude and the Glory of Lordship to the heart and free himself from the chains and the veils of knowledge. We shall refer to this stage presently, insha'allah. so, the result of the second stage is acquiring belief in the facts.
The third stage is that of "tranquility and calmness of the soul", which is, in fact, the perfect stage of faith. Allah, the Exalted, said to his "friend" [khalil = Ibrahim] :"Have you not believed [yet]? " He said: "I have, but just to have a calm heart." A reference to this stage may come later.
The fourth stage is that of "vision" [mushahadah], which is a divine light and a divine manifestation, as a consequence of the manifestations of the Names and the Attributes appearing in the secret of the salik, and enlighting his complete heart with the visionary light. This stage comprises many degrees that are out of the capacity of these pages. In this stage an example of the effect of the nafilahs: (I would be his hearing, sight and hand) [26a] will appear, and the salik will see himself drowned in limitless ocean, beyond which there is another very deep ocean, in which the secrets of "fate" are partly disclosed. Each one of these stages has its specialistidraj (being engaged in other than the Haqq) through which the salik is exposed to great perishing [halakat]. So, he will have to rid himself, in all stages, of egoism and I-ness. He should not be self-conceited nor egotistic, both of which are the sources of most of evils, especially for thesalik. However, we shall have another reference to this subject presently insha'allah [Allah willing].
(Imam Khomeini. Adabus Salat. The Disciplines of the Prayer. http://www.al-islam.org/adab/)
Meaning of Suluk and Salik
You shall most certainly journey from stage to stage.
- Al Quran, [8]4:19
Those who attain faith and do righteous work: blessedness is for them, and a beauteous station will be their journey's end. - [13]:29
.. between them We had appointed stages of journey in due proportion: travel therein, secure, by night and by day. - [34]:18
In his writing, The Hundred Steps, Shaikh 'Abd al-Qadir as-Sufi ad-Darqawi wrote:
- Al Quran, [8]4:19
Those who attain faith and do righteous work: blessedness is for them, and a beauteous station will be their journey's end. - [13]:29
.. between them We had appointed stages of journey in due proportion: travel therein, secure, by night and by day. - [34]:18
Sulook or Suluk, as a noun, means pathway, and specifically refers to a spiritual pathway. As a verb, it means to walk or journey upon a pathway, to travel on road.
The term Suluk when related to Islam and Sufism means to walk a (spiritual) path (to God). Suluk involves following both the outer path (exoterism /shariah) and the inner path (esoterism/haqiqa) of Islam virtuously. Suluk also involves being ardent (passionately eager) in the search for God or said in another way, to attune with Divine Will, to decipher The Signs of God, the Ultimate Truth, understanding the self, and understanding the essential meaning of life, particularly of one's own life.
The word Sulook is derived from the Qur'anic term "Faslooki" in chapter 16, An-Nahl (The Bees), verse 69: Faslooki subula rabbiki zululan (engage in the paths of your Lord made easy [for you]). A person who is engaged in this spiritual path is called salik.
The terms Sulook and salik are usually found in relation to Sufism. The term salik is also used for the member of a particular Sufi order or tariqah.
In his writing, The Hundred Steps, Shaikh 'Abd al-Qadir as-Sufi ad-Darqawi wrote:
Suluk is the science of all the internal elements of the Way. The salik is the one who cements himself in the knowledge necessary to prevent madness. When the time comes that the Heart moves and Love is awakened in it, and the center of the creature is possesed by the winds of desire and the torments of yearning.
When the world and all of its things are converted to torment and test for the seeker, suluk guides the walker to wisdom, so that he can avoid rushing when it is necessary to restrain himself, and make possible a valiant action when it is tempting to abandon oneself. Suluk is the means through which it is possible to benefit from Yadhb (attraction) without turning into a Majdhub; mad for Allah: that is: there is attraction - that is essential - but one avoids defenseless attraction. This means that one can have the experience without being condemned to the station.
Our Way is to be salik-majdhub. Externally sane and internally mad for Allah. Externally sober and internally intoxicated. Externally suluk is to change bad words for good words, bad actions for good actions, bad intentions for good intentions, until one lives in correct and straight words, actions and intentions. The sign of the salik is that he is safe from his own hand and his own tongue.
Suluk permits one to benefit from the state by the absorption of the doctrine and to leave the station with the expectation of further gifts from the Merciful Lord. Its ending is to have its renewed confirmation by the seekers and avoid pretensions except by the tongue of the real.
(http://www.mysticsaint.info/2010/10/stages-of-stations-of-suluk.html)
Monday, August 12, 2013
Is Islamic Mysticism Really Islam?
There is a lovely story from the life of the Prophet Muhammad, remembering that a mysterious visitor came upon him and his companions. The visitor, later revealed to be the archangel Gabriel, proceeded to sit intimately next to Muhammad and quiz the Prophet. He asked Muhammad about three increasingly higher and deeper levels of religiosity, which the Prophet answered sequentially as Islam (wholehearted submission to God), Faith and, lastly, Loveliness (ihsan). This third quality the Prophet identified as worshipping God as if we could see the Divine, and if we cannot, to always remember that God nevertheless sees us.
The sequence is fascinating, as it reveals that what we think of as Islam (the attestation to Divine Unity, the performance of the prayers, the pilgrimage to Mecca, the paying of the alms tax, the fast of Ramadan) mark only the very first layer -- though the foundational layer -- of religiosity. Above that is faith, and above faith is the spiritual and mystical layer of spiritual beauty, for ihsan is literally the realm of actualizing and realizing beauty and loveliness (husn), of bringing beauty into this world and connecting it to God, who is the All-Beautiful.
Throughout Islamic history, this realm of ihsan was most emphatically pursued by the mystics of Islam, the Sufis. Historically, this mystical realm of Islam formed a powerfulcompanion to the legal dimension of Islam (sharia). Indeed, many of the mystics of Islam were also masters of legal and theological realms. The cultivation of inward beauty and outward righteous action were linked in many of important Islamic institutions. In comparing Islam with Judaism, the mystical dimension of Islam was much more prominently widespread than Kabbalah. And unlike the Christian tradition, the mysticism of Islam was not cloistered in monasteries. Sufis were -- and remain -- social and political agents who went about seeking the Divine in the very midst of humanity.
After the Prophet Muhammad, many of the most influential of all Muslims were and remain mystics. Mawlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi, known to Turks as Mevlana and to Americans as Rumi, remains the most beloved of all Sufi poets, whose Masnavi was perhaps the only work ever compared directly with the Quran. Ibn 'Arabi, the Spanish Muslim sage, remains the most widely read metaphysician, and his school of "Unity of Being" (Wahdat al-wujud) has been both influential and controversial from Spain to Indonesia. The most important Muslim theologian, al-Ghazali, identified the realm of Sufism as the highest Islamic quest for knowledge, one that dealt most directly with other-worldly matters.
Nor was the practice of Islamic mysticism limited to intellectuals and poets. At the level of popular practice, some of the Sufi shrines received as many (if not more) annual visitors that the Mecca does for the Hajj pilgrimage. Entire Muslim-majority regions (Iran, Turkey, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, etc.) came to develop understandings of Islam that are and remain inseparable from mystical understandings of Islam. Much of the higher dimensions of Islamic aesthetics (calligraphy and poetry) have been inseparable from Sufism.
And yet, today, the word "Sufi" is a highly suspect one for many modern Muslims, and even thinkers and preachers whose frameworks and anecdotes are permeated with those of the mystical dimension of Islam eschew the mere mention of the word Sufi, either not wanting to alienate their suspicious audience or not wishing to "erode" their authority by connecting their teachings to anything other than the Quran and the example of the Prophet.
So how did such a powerful and beautiful dimension of Islam come to be viewed with such suspicion by so many Muslims?
So how did such a powerful and beautiful dimension of Islam come to be viewed with such suspicion by so many Muslims?
The marginalization of Sufism came about through an initially unlikely perfect storm, an alliance of European Orientalists and conservative/modernist Muslims, whose agenda in demarcating Islam from Sufism ironically supports that of certain New-Agey Universalists who sought to extract Sufism out of Islam. Let's explore this somewhat odd association a bit more closely.
The Orientalist scholars (whose approach began in Europe and dominated much of the American scholarly engagement with Islam) based their approach on a study of Islam that privileged "classical" legal and theological Arabic texts from 800-1100 C.E. Of all those texts, the most important ones were held to be the ones closest historically to the "foundational" period. The Orientalists became interested in Sufism very early on, almost as early as their translations of the Quran. They found themselves attracted to the deep beauty and wisdom of Sufi poetry, particularly from Persian. Quite inconveniently for them, they were also committed to a bifurcated view that divided the world into Semitic (Arabs and Jews, characterized primarily by law, monotheism, and dry deserts) and Indo-Europeans (Hindus, Europeans and Iranians, who lived through philosophy, art, mysticism and logic). The Orientalists had no problem thinking that entire blocks of humanity share certain "mentalities" and "temperaments" connected to their languages. Even though they admired the poetry of mystics like Sa'di, Hafez and Rumi, they could not admit that Muslims (who were "Semitic" after all) could come up with such beauty, mysticism and poetry. Therefore, the Orientalists decreed that Sufism must be "un-Islamic" and due to Christian, Persian, Hindu or Neoplatonic "influences" -- anything but Islam, anything but the experience of Prophet Muhammad in encountering God, which is what the Sufis have always claimed as the primary source of their inspiration!
The Muslim conservative/modernists (what we broadly refer to as the Salafi tradtion) came to have a profound distrust of what might be termed "the tradition(s) of Islam," believing that the historical tradition of Islamic scholarship -- and the scholars who had been the authoritative interpreters of Islam -- were increasingly irrelevant to the historical trials and tribulations through which 19th and 20th century Muslims were suffering. They wanted to remain pious and observant Muslims, but believed that the way to return to the "glory days" of Islam was to "return" to the original spirit of vitality and authenticity of Islam, before the influence of "foreign ideas" crept into Islam, sapping its authenticity. These foreign ideas they equated both culturally (the contribution of Persians, Indians, Turks, etc.) and intellectually (the traditions of philosophy, mysticism and all non-scriptural sciences).
The idea for the Muslim modernists was that the remedy for Islam consisted of a textual return "away from the blemishes ... of the later phases" back to "yearning for truth" of the founders of Islam. In this, they found themselves oddly in full-agreement with the orientalists. They came to be suspicious of many traditions of Islamic thought and practice that developed through time, including that of Sufism. Perhaps most polemically, they identified Sufism as having contributed to a corrupt and inward-looking mentality that allowed the colonial powers to dominate Muslims. Throughout Islamic history, particular Sufi ideas and practices (such as the "Unity of Being," certain meditation techniques and commemoration of the Prophet's birthday) had always been contested by other Muslims. It was in this modern and modernist context that the whole of Islamic mysticism came to be viewed with great suspicion as being un-Islamic if not outright anti-Islamic.
So where do the New Agers come into play? It was only in the 20th century that human beings became capable of uttering a sentence like "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." Historically all religious traditions have had mystical dimensions, and their mystical traditions have arisen within the very depth of each tradition, partaking of its key symbols and emulating the spiritual experiences of its main exemplars. It was in this modern context that a deep and new suspicion of the outward forms and institutions of religion was cultivated, with people who believed that they were on the edge (or already inside) a "New Age" of human consciousness. It was these new Agers who, dissatisfied with their own experiences of Judaism and Christianity, turned "East" to the mystical traditions of Buddhism, Hindu traditions and Islam to obtain the mystical truth that they so yearned for -- without necessarily wanting to adopt the legal and institutional aspects of those traditions. In many cases, the engagements were complicated by colonial politics, as the "eastern" traditions of wisdom were connected to colonized countries that many of the same Westerners looked down upon, even as they were fascinated by them.
So what we have had for the last few decades is a situation of Orientalists and Salafi Muslims seeking to construct a "real Islam" that is untainted by Sufi dimensions, and many new agers seek to extract a mysticism that stands above and disconnected from wider, broader and deeper aspects of Islam.
Yes we have learned that the human yearning for the Divine, for beauty, for love and for loveliness is too deeply engrained in the human spirit to be partitioned off or exiled. Today, many Muslims world-wide are increasingly dissatisfied with what they see as dry as stale bread interpretations and practices of Islam, and want -- and demand -- something more spiritual and more beautiful. They know about the deep spiritual experience of the Prophet Muhammad, who came face to face with God, and they too yearn for their own spiritual experiences.
All Muslims seek to emulate the Prophet Muhammad. The Quran reminds them that if you love God, follow Muhammad. The mystically oriented among Muslims take the emulation a bit more literally: If Muhammad arose to have his own face-to-face encounter with the Divine, they too aspire to rise in the footsteps of the Prophet, to have their own meeting with God. As it was said of the great Rumi, they too want to be "off-springs of the soul of Muhammad."
Omid Safi is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He is the Co-Chair of the Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion, and the author of 'Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters' (HarperOne, 2009).
Monday, August 5, 2013
Sufism is a Part of Islam
"Sufism and Islam cannot be separated in the same way that higher consciousness or awakening cannot be separated from Islam. Islam is not an historical phenomenon that began 1,400 years ago. It is the timeless art of awakening by means of submission. Sufism is the heart of Islam. It is as ancient as the rise of human consciousness."(The Elements of Sufism by Shaikh Fadhlalla Haeri, published by Element Books Ltd. ISBN 1-85230-159-7)
Many scholars and jurists may join issue with the above statement. They perceive sufism as an unacceptable distortion of Islamic beliefs and way of life. They find the rituals and practices as well as the beliefs of many sufis repugnant to the teachings of Islam. They argue that sufism has brought about a confusion in the minds of its believers leading them away from the simplicity and purity of the glorious faith.
Many orientalists, on the other hand, do not accept that sufism has a direct link with Islam and reject the idea that it has evolved from the consciousness inspired by the Quraan or the teachings of Muhammad. They affirm that its origin is firmly embedded in the mysticism of the Jew and Christian hermits and monks of the time and that their traditions not only inspired but also dictated the evolution of sufism.
The historical links between the three major monotheistic faiths makes it inevitable for a measure of similarity in the spiritual experience in each of them and this commonality of experience is seen by many enlightened scholars as an important factor which might be constructively employed for engendering a better understanding between the three communities.
"If Judaism, Christianity and Islam have no little in Common in spite of their deep dogmatic differences," remarks the Editor of 'the Mysticism of Islam ' by R. A. Nicholson 1966 edition, "the spiritual content of that common element can best be appreciated in Jewish, Christian and Islamic mysticism, which bears equal testimony to that ever-deepening experience of the soul when the spiritual worshipper, whether he be follower of Moses or Jesus or Muhammad, turn whole- heartedly to God."
(Source: http://www.al-islam.org/beliefs/spirituality/suffism.html)
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