Sufism: The Mystical Side of Islam

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Sufism: The Mystical Side of Islam

 

During the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., a new emphasis began to

develop within the religion of Islam. This emphasis was a reaction

against the prevailing impersonal and formal nature of Islam. For

many Muslims the shari`a, while seen as necessary, failed to satisfy

their deepest spiritual longings and desires. The search for deeper

meaning began with a pietistic asceticism, which in turn led to the

development of the popular mystical side of Islam - known as tasawwuf

or Sufism.

 

The controversial nature of the subject of Sufism becomes evident

when one realizes that this short introduction already reveals a

viewpoint which the Sufi would strongly disagree with. For, if the

Sufi spiritual quest is to be viewed as legitimate, even within Islam

itself, it must be rooted in the Quran and the sunna of Muhammad.

Andrew Rippin, in his work Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and

Practices, states that " Sufis.. in their search for legitimation of

their spiritual quest [must show] whether Islam as a religion

contained within it a spiritual-ascetic tendency from the very

beginning. " 1

 

In defense of Sufi legitimacy, some Muslims argue that it was simply

a response to the growing materialism in the Islamic world.2 However,

this argument skirts the basic reason for Sufism, as during early

Islamic times under Muhammad's leadership, wealth was enjoyed and

served as a great motivation for the military expansion of Islam.

Muslims, at the time, followed a legal system allowing unbridled

materialism, though they were fully observant of the present

religious doctrine. The formal and legal nature of the Islamic system

never addressed the issue of materialism, and as a result was seen as

inadequate by those who became Sufis in their search for deeper

spirituality. Consequentially, Islam was to all appearances a

religion of a decidedly unspiritual nature.

 

To admit this would be devastating to the religion of Islam. Yet, if

Islam is to be defended as a spiritually adequate, Sufi doctrine and

practice must be proven to be inherently Islamic in nature, as " to

suggest that Islamic mysticism is, in fact, a borrowing from outside

raises the spectre of denial of the intrinsically spiritual nature of

Islam and thence the spiritual nature of Muslims themselves. " 3

 

Thus we are left with several controversial, yet critically important

questions. First, was Sufism present from the very beginnings of

Islam, in the life of Muhammad and the Quran? Secondly, has Sufism

borrowed from the outside - from other religions? And finally, how

does the evidence for the answers to these questions reflect on the

nature of Islam itself?

 

Sufism has influenced many Muslims, and is, especially in the West,

portrayed and regarded as a valuable and legitimate part of the

Islamic faith. Fazlur Rahman, in his work Islam, says

that " considerable ink has been spent by modern scholarship on

the `origins' of Sufism in Islam, as to how far it is `genuinely'

Islamic and how far a product, in the face of Islam, of outside

influences, particularly Christian and Gnostic. " 4 Rahman seems to

hint that some of this ink has been wasted, as he concludes

that " outside influences must have played an accessory role and these

no one may deny, but they must have supervened upon an initial native

tendency. " However, aside from a vague reference to the ideas of

trust in and love of Allah as being a result of " developments within

the intellectual and spiritual life of the community, " 5 Rahman fails

to clarify or give any support to his claim that the essential and

central basis of Sufism is Islamic.

 

Another Muslim scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in his work Sufi Essays,

expresses his disdain of " [scholars of Islam in the West] following

the older practice of explaining Sufism away as some kind of alien

influence within Islam, " and rejoices with the fact that " many are

now willing to accept the Islamic origin of Sufism and the

unbreakable link connecting Sufism to Islam. " 6 While these are

responses to the questions initially posed, they seem to be more

concerned with the maintenance of the outward appearance of Islamic

unity, than with critical academic research and appraisal.

 

Not only do these statements seem one-sided from a scholarly

standpoint, but they also run counter to what Nasr terms " indigenous

puritanical movements of a rationalist and anti-mystical kind " 7 found

within Islam. As one author succinctly states, the fact remains that

within Islam, Sufism is often " frowned upon by Muslim orthodoxy, yet

quite amazingly fawned upon and romantically fondled by Muslim

masses. " 8

 

In response to critics, Sufis argue that tasawwuf has been present

from the very beginnings of Islam, and profess to find evidence for

their claims in the sunna and the Quran. On this basis they state

that tasawwuf " is the esoteric or inward (batin) aspect of Islam. " 9

 

According to Sufi doctrine a number of verses in the Quran provide

clear support for their mysticism. Perhaps the most often quoted as a

proof is Surah 24:35, " Allah is the Light of Heaven and Earth! His

light may be compared to a niche in which there is a lamp; the lamp

is in a glass; the glass is just as if it were a glittering star

kindled from a blessed olive tree, {which is} neither Eastern nor

Western, whose oil will almost glow though the fire has never touched

it. Light upon light, Allah guides anyone He wishes to His light. " 10

Another verse, often chanted in Sufi gatherings, and which the Sufis

claim sums up the whole of Sufism is Surah 2:156, " Verily we are for

Allah, and verily unto Him we are returning. " 11 A third often used

verse is Surah 50:6, " We (Allah) are nearer to him (man) than his

jugular vein. " 12 The Sufis believe that Muhammad has said that every

verse of the Quran has `an outside and an inside' - a belief clearly

in line with their quest for the haqiqa.13 However, the very method

of Quranic interpretation used by the Sufis in order to support their

claims, can arguably be seen as a reliance on eisegesis rather than

exegesis.14

 

Many of the traditions about the life of Muhammad which are often

referred to by Sufis are not found in the major hadith collections

(Bukhari, Muslim, Kulayni, Ibn Babuya), having been rejected by the

collectors as unsound.15 However, within Sufi spheres the traditions

are maintained - and viewed by Sufis as giving full legitimacy to the

Sufi way of Islam. Yet, as Andrew Rippin suggests, " [this] simply

indicates that they [sufis] have, like all other Muslims, always gone

back to the prime sources of Islam for inspiration as well as

justification of their position. " 16 The ulama regarding the shari`a

as the organizing principle in the life of the Islamic community, as

the revealed way - guaranteed by Allah; have and continue to largely

oppose Sufism.17 As one scholar has stated, " [opponents] have never

been wanting; [sufis'] beliefs have been refuted, their practices

condemned, their dervishes ridiculed and occasionally executed, and

their shaikhs castigated. " 18 Thus the question remains whether the

Quran and sunna were used for justification or inspiration, an area

requiring extensive research which does not yet seem to have been

undertaken.

 

As there is clearly no consensus on Sufi legitimacy as derived from

the Quran and hadith, and as an adequate answer will require much

more detailed study, it is presently impossible " for modern

historians to take `objective' facts from this type of material. " 19

By the same token, Muslims cannot objectively argue Sufi origins from

the Quran and hadith. Thus we are brought to the question of whether

Sufism has borrowed from the outside - from other religions.

 

Titus Burckhardt, an Islamic scholar highly commended by Seyyed

Hossein Nasr for his " truly authentic expositions of Sufism emanating

from genuine teachings, " 20 objects, arguing in line with Sufi

doctrine that " there is no adequate reason for doubting the

historical authenticity of the spiritual `descent' of the Sufi

masters... in an unbroken chain back to the Prophet himself. " 21 While

Burckhardt chides orientalists for " being anxious to bring everything

down to the historical level... and attributing the origins of Sufism

to Persian, Hindu, Neoplatonic, or Christian sources, " 22 the

alternative he proposes is, as previously shown, simply inadequate

from an objective and academic perspective.

 

In comparison to Nasr and Burckhardt, some Islamic scholars, such as

Fazlur Rahman, take a more discriminate approach, admitting that

popular Sufi preachers " exerted a powerful influence on the masses by

enlarging Quranic stories with the aid of materials borrowed from all

kinds of sources, Christian, Jewish, Gnostic, and even Bhuddist and

Zoroastrian. " 23 Rahman even goes so far as to state that " a number of

[foreign] ideas were introduced into Sufism and thence into popular

Islam. " 24 However, rather than rejecting Sufism as essentially un-

Islamic, he argues that Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.1111) was the great

reformer of Sufism, " purifying it of un-Islamic elements and putting

it at the service of orthodox religion. " 25 Rahman recognizes that Ibn

al-`Arabi's (d.1240) later and influential formulation of Sufi

epistemology was absolutely unorthodox in its monism and pantheism,

but seems to attempt to negate this by giving an immense list of Sufi

and other Muslim thinkers who rejected portions of, or all of Ibn al-

`Arabi's epistemology.26 27 Rahman concludes his chapter on Sufi

doctrine with the declaration that,

 

" [the synthesis of Sufism and orthodoxy] provides us with a shining

example of the fundamentally catholic genius of Islam - a panorama of

continued tensions and challenges and of equally persistent efforts

to resolve these tensions and meet these challenges in a process of

modification, adaptation and absorption. " 28

 

While Rahman's literary skills are clearly evident, his critical

appraisal of Sufism essentially ends at al-Ghazali, subsequently

revealing the tendency to act as an apologist by avoiding any further

mention of un-Islamic elements in Sufism, focusing instead on

the `catholic genius of Islam'.

 

A thorough and critical examination of historical and present day

Sufism, quickly reveals the influence of numerous religious ideas

foreign to Islam. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who so vehemently argues

against the idea that Sufism is based on religious practice and

doctrine inherently alien to Islam, does admit that in his opinion,

Zoroastrianism " had more intimate contact with Islam than did

Manichaeism. " 29 Nasr states that in Persia " Zoroastrianism provided

first of all a vocabulary for Sufi poets like Hafiz who often speak

of the `fire-temple', the Zoroastrian priest, etc., as symbols of the

Sufi center (khaniqah or zawiyah), the spiritual master and so

on.. " 30 Nasr also states that " Zoroastrian angeology and cosmology

were also resuscitated by Shibab al-Din Suhrawardi, the founder of

the [sufi] school of Illumination or Ishraq, who made these symbols

transparent in the light of Islamic gnosis. " 31 Though these

assertions have a solid scholarly basis, they fly in the face of

Nasr's earlier attempts to declare Sufism a legitimate and original

development of Islam. Nasr appears to realize the quandary he has

placed himself in, attempting to resolve the dilemma with the

declaration that " this manner of speaking, however, does not at all

imply an historical influence of Zoroastrianism upon Sufism. " 32 Most

scholars would be perplexed by this rather illogical conclusion,

especially when it is considered that Zoroastrianism as a religion

predated Islam by over 1000 years.

 

The further one delves into Sufism from an academic perspective, the

more clear it becomes that both the origins and content of Sufism

clearly show the inclusion of religious ideas and influences contrary

and contradictory to orthodox Islam. The scholar Elliot Miller states

that " [being] based on experience rather than doctrine, Sufism has

always been more open to outside influence than other forms of

Islam... in addition to early influences from Christianity, one can

find elements of Zoroastrianism, Neoplatonism, Hinduism, and other

diverse traditions. " 33

 

Martin Lings, himself a practicing Sufi, in his work What is Sufism?,

states that " Prince Dara Shikoh (d.1619), the Sufi son of the Mogul

Emperor Shah Jahan, was able to affirm that Sufism and Advaita

Vedantism [Hinduism] are essentially the same, with a surface

difference of terminology. " 34 Prince Dara Shikoh was also responsible

for the translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, the Yoga Vasishtha, and the

Upanishads into Persian.35 Seyyed Hossein Nasr acknowledges

that " many Sufis in India called Hinduism the religion of Adam, "

and, " [the] orthodox Naqshbandi saint Mirza Mazhar Jan Janan

considered the Vedas as divinely inspired. " 36

 

While Sufi teachings have been influenced by various religions, their

practices also bear close similarities to those of Hinduism and other

mystical religions of the East. The Sufi orders are led by shaikhs,

who play the same role as Hindu gurus. Some of the shaikhs were

described as having " pronounced psychic powers. " 37 The master-

disciple relationship was seen as an essential facet of Sufism by the

reformer al-Ghazali who stated,

 

the murid [disciple] must of necessity have recourse to a shaikh

[master] to guide him aright. For the way of faith is obscure, but

the Devil's ways are many and patent, and he who has no shaikh to

guide him will be led by the Devil into his ways. Wherefore the murid

must cling to his shaikh as a blind man on the edge of a river clings

to his leader, confiding himself to him entirely, opposing him in no

matter whatsoever, and binding himself to follow him absolutely. Let

him know that the advantage he gains from the error of his shaikh, if

he should err, is greater than the advantage of his own rightness, if

he should be right.38

 

Most Sufi orders still consider the five pillars of Islam to be

essential, and practice them piously. However, under the leadership

of the shaikh they go far beyond this, aiming " to break the

conditioned patterns of behaviour which inhibit the desired spiritual

awakening. " 39

 

The mystical quest is pursued through a number of mental and physical

exercises. These include whirling dances " intended above all to

plunge the dancer into a state of concentration upon Allah. " 40 Martin

Lings states that " the body stands for the Axis of the Universe which

is none other than the Tree of Life. The dance is thus a rite of

centralization, a foretaste of the lost Centre... " 41 A Morrocan Sufi

order reduces the dance to a rigorous " rhythmic up and down movement

of the body, " combined with " a rhythmic rise and fall of the breast

as the lungs are filled and emptied. " 42 As a result the Sufi may " see

visions, hear the voices of angels and prophets, and gain from them

guidance... it is a condition of joy and longing, and when the

condition seizes the seeker he falls into ecstasy. " 43 Breathing

exercises are also combined with meditation in order to induce

altered states of consciousness.44

 

Central to all of these practices are ritual " invocations of the

Divine Name, " also known as dhikr, which can be done either silently

or in a chant.45 Here similarities with Hindu mantras are

unmistakable. One author declares, " the Sufi doctrine of the dhikr

coincides with that taught by the nineteenth-century Hindu saint Rama-

krishna, who succinctly summed it up in the phrase: `God and His Name

are one.' " 46

 

The Rifa`iyya, a major Sufi order which spawned numerous sub-groups

and associated branches, was named after Ahmad b. `Ali al-Rifa`i (d.

1182). The practices of this order reveal the extremes to which some

Sufi rituals went as the Rifa`i dervishes " became famous for their

extreme practices like eating live snakes and performing various

feats with fire. " 47 This preoccupation with snakes and fire is

clearly paralleled in the practices and rituals of Hinduism.

 

In response to Sufi rituals, John Alden Williams states that " the

observer may encounter things which seem to belong in a case book of

abnormal psychology; or witness what looks remarkably like demonic

possession. " 48 Elliot Miller says, " the natural (and, from the

Christian perspective, God-given) mental barriers to psychic

intrusion are broken down, and a link is established to the spirit

world. " 49

 

The evidence of Sufi borrowings from other religions such as Hinduism

and Zoroastrianism is certain. The similarities in teachings and

ritual are overwhelming. It is no surprise then that the goals of

Sufism reflect the pantheism and monism of Hinduism and other Eastern

religions.

 

Idries Shah, a famed twentieth-century Sufi thinker, states that Sufi

practice in the mystic quest culminates when " by divine illumination

man sees the world to be illusion. " 50 Numerous other Sufi saints also

clearly reflect monistic and pantheistic beliefs in their sayings:

 

Mansur al-Hallaj (d.922): " I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart. I

said: Who art Thou? He answered: Thou. "

 

Abu Maydan (d. 1197): " Everything outside of God is unreal,

everything taken individually or collectively, when you truly know

it... Whatever does not have root in his Being, can in no wise be

real. "

 

Muhammad al-Harraq (d. 1845): " Seekest thou Laila [Divine Reality],

when she is manifest within thee? Thou deemest her to be other, but

she is not other than thou. " 51

 

Jalal al-Din Rumi (d.1273): " Though the many ways [diverse religions]

are various, the goal is one. Do you not see there are many roads to

the Kaaba? " 52

 

In some Sufi orders the goal of the mystical quest is " personified as

a woman, usually named Laila which means `night'... this is the

holiest and most secret inwardness of Allah... in this symbolism

Laila and haqiqa (Divine Reality) are one. " 53 This, and the above

statements appear to be distinctly contrary to Muslim orthodoxy in

their blatant echoes of Eastern mystic religions. Yet, for Sufis this

is not a problem. As Ibn `Arabi stated,

 

My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for

gazelles and a convent for Christians, and a temple for idols and the

pilgrims Ka`ba and the tables of the Torah, and the book of the

Koran. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels

take, that is my religion and faith..54

 

Another Sufi saint, Mahmud Shabistari, in his work Gulshan-i Raz (The

Mystic Rose Garden) concurs, declaring, " ..what is mosque, what is

synagogue, what is fire temple? ... `I' and `You' are the Hades veil

between them.. When this veil is lifted up from before you, there

remains not the bond of sects and creeds. " 55

 

Thus, not only has Sufism been influenced by other religions, but its

mystic quest for spirituality has led it to embrace all sorts of

religion, as abundantly shown in the writings of the great Sufi

saints. To try to deny this as a scholar is incomprehensible. Yet,

those scholars who are sympathetic towards Islam, as previously

shown, have a marked tendency to minimize or altogether ignore these

facts.

 

How then, in conclusion, does the evidence presented, reflect not

only on the nature of Sufism, but on the very nature of Islam itself?

 

Sufism is clearly a reaction or response to what was lacking in early

Islam. The argument for Muslim materialism lends support to the

concept of a spiritual void in Islam - keenly felt by many Muslims as

their civilization began to expand and come into contact with other

religions. There was a hunger for more spirituality, along with the

realization that despite all of the shari`a Islam did not effectively

deal with the problems of materialism.

The very strength of Islam, in its reliance on a simple creed and the

five pillars of practice, proved to be the very weakness of Islam.

While the Islamic system had allowed for rapid expansion, and the

five practices were a uniting force, it soon became evident that one

could accept this framework and step right through it into whatever

they pleased. In the early days this meant earthly success, as Islam

spread rapidly through the desire for wealth and gain. Yet, just as

those caught up in materialism had accepted and stepped through the

framework of the shari`a, all the while continuing in their

materialistic lives, so also the Sufis in reaction to the materialism

of the Islamic civilization, stepped through the framework of

legality into a world of mysticism. However, in their reaction, the

Sufis created a more serious problem for Islam, as due to their

religiosity, they introduced new teachings, reinterpreting the Quran

and sunna.

 

Another area of weakness in Islam, which helped lead to the problem

of Sufism, is found in the teachings of Muhammad. Here the vagueness

of character caused by the doctrine of the indescribability of Allah

allowed for the influence and development of pantheistic and monistic

ideas, in essence creating a contradictory belief system. The

orthodox ulama developed their theology in line with what they viewed

as their `Judeo-Christian' roots, while the Sufis were largely

influenced by Eastern mystics. Consequently, the influences of

Hinduism, and other forms of mystical religions on the development of

Sufism, can be seen, in part, as a result of the doctrine of the

indescribability of Allah.

 

Sufism does contribute a lacking spirituality to the religion of

Islam. Growing out of the weakness of the Islamic system of belief

and practice, it, however, added a dimension which has diversified

and further weakened the structure of Islamic belief and practice.

 

Reflecting on the evidence presented, and conclusions given, we see

that to assume Sufism, with its radical concepts, is a legitimate

part of Islam introduces definite problems for anyone who then

attempts to try to defend Islam as a logically coherent set of

beliefs. For Sufism not only points to a lack of spirituality in

Islam, but also contradicts orthodox Muslim teachings - in the

process clearly opening the door to all the world's religions.

 

Sufism: The Mystical Side of Islam

www.rim.org/muslim/sufism.htm

 

Reference Notes:

1Andrew Rippin, Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (New

York: Routledge, 1990), 118.

 

2see Appendix A - Sufism: An Interview with Imam Mohamad M.

Algalaleni.

 

3Rippin, 118..

 

4Fazlur Rahman, Islam (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1966), 131..

 

5Rahman, 131..

 

6Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Sufi Essays (London: George Allen and Unwin

Ltd., 1972), 11-12..

 

7Nasr, 12..

 

8Tara Charan Rastogi, Islamic Mysticism - Sufism (New Delhi: Sterling

Publishers Private Ltd., 1982), 1..

 

9Titus Burckhardt, An Introduction to Sufism (Wellingborough: The

Aquarian Press, 1990), 15..

 

10Rippin, 119..

 

11In Arabic " Inna li'Llahi wa-inna ilayhi raji `un. " Martin Lings,

What Is Sufism? (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1975), 28..

 

12Lings, 32..

 

13Haqiqa refers to the `inner Truth' or `inner Reality' that Sufis

believe is at the heart of Islamic revelation. William Stoddart,

Sufism - The Mystical Doctrines and Methods of Islam (New York:

Paragon House Publishers, 1986), 41..

 

14Eisegesis, or the practice of interpreting meaning into a passage,

bears a striking resemblance to Sufi methods of Quranic

interpretation. Orthodox Muslims opposed to Sufism argue that Sufi

interpretations are indeed eisegesis - in other words the Sufis are

ascribing an `inner' meaning which the verses themselves do not

contain. See also note 17 for further comment on Sufi self-

legitimatization..

 

15Rippin, 119..

 

16Rippin, 120..

 

17Fazlur Rahman in his work Islam states, " the Sufis, in order to

justify their stand, formulated (ie. verbally invented) statements,

sometimes quite fanciful and historically completely fictitious,

which they attributed to the Prophet. " Rahman, 134..

 

18J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford: The

Clarendon Press, 1971), 246..

 

19Rippin, 120..

 

20Nasr, 15..

 

21Burckhardt, 16..

 

22Burckhardt, 16..

 

23Rahman, 132..

 

24Rahman, 133..

 

25Rahman, 140. Other authors also agree with Rahman's position on

this point. A.J. Arberry argues that Abu Hamid al-Ghazali brought

about Sufism's reconciliation and assimilation with orthodox Sunni

theology and religious law, through a number of writings consolidated

in the Ihya'`ulum al-din, which was written between 1099 and 1102

A.D. A.J. Arberry, Sufism - An Account of the Mystics of Islam

(London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1950), 74. .

 

26Rahman, 148..

 

27Ibn al-`Arabi (1165-1240 A.D.) was one of the great Sufi masters of

all time and is referred to as `The Greatest Shaikh' (al-Shaykh al-

Akbar). Muslim opinion has always been split about Ibn al-`Arabi: for

some he is a great heretic; for others, a great saint. Ian Richard

Netton, A Popular Dictionary of Islam (London: Curzon Press, 1992),

110..

 

28Rahman, 149..

 

29Nasr, 137..

 

30Nasr, 138..

 

31Nasr, 138..

 

32Nasr, 138..

 

33Elliot Miller, " Sufis - The Mystical Muslims, " Forward

(Spring/Summer 1986), 17-23..

 

34Martin Lings, What is Sufism? (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,

1975), 99..

 

35Dara Shikoh (also spelled Shukuh) was a Sufi of the Qadiriyyah

order and a devout Muslim - according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Shukuh

believed the Upanishads to be the `Hidden Books' to which the Quran

refers (lvi. 77-80) and wrote that " they contain the essence of unity

and they are secrets which have to be kept hidden. " Nasr states

that " it is enough to read Shukuh's translation of any of the

Upanishads to realize that he was not only translating words into

Persian but also ideas into the framework of Sufism. " However, as

usual Nasr follows up with a statement denying that this is " an

attempt to syncretize, " once again revealing a blatant disregard for

the evidence presented, not to mention a complete lack of logical

thought. Nasr, 141..

 

36Nasr, 139..

 

37Miller, 19..

 

38Miller, 19..

 

39Miller, 20..

 

40Lings, 85..

 

41The members of one popular order (the Mawlawiyya) begun by Jalal ad-

Din Rumi (d. 1273) are the origin of the Western term `whirling

dervishes'. Lings, 84..

 

42Lings, 85..

 

43Miller, 21..

 

44Miller, 21..

 

45Stoddart, 66..

 

46Stoddart, 67..

 

47Netton, 214..

 

48John Alden Williams, ed., Islam (New York: George Brazillier,

1962), 155-156..

 

49Miller, 21..

 

50Idries Shah, Reflections - Fables in the Sufi Tradition (Baltimore:

Penguin Books, 1972), 1.; Miller, 20..

 

51Stoddart, 83-84..

 

52Nasr, 149..

 

53Stoddart, 74..

 

54Nasr, 147..

 

55Nasr, 147.