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SUFIISM (tafawwuf)
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See also:SUFIISM (tafawwuf) , a See also:term used by Moslems to denote any variety of See also:mysticism, is formed from the Arabic word Sufi, which was applied, in the and See also:century of See also:Islam, to men or See also:women who adopted an ascetic or quietistic way of See also:life. There can be no doubt that Sufi is derived from suf (See also:wool) in reference to the woollen garments often, though not invariably, worn by such persons: the phrase labisa's-suf (" he clad himself in wool ") is commonly used in this sense, and the See also:Persian word pashminapush, which means literally "clothed in a woollen garment,," is synonymous with Sufi. Other etymologies, such as Safa (purity)—a derivation widely accepted in the See also:East—and oo4s6s, are open to objection on linguistic grounds. In See also:order to trace the origin and See also:history of mysticism in Islam we must go back to See also:Mahomet. On one See also:side of his na See also:ture' the See also:Prophet was an ascetic and in some degree a mystic. Not-withstanding his condemnation of See also:Christian monkery (rahbaniya), i.e. of See also:celibacy and the solitary life, the example of the IIanifs, with some of whom he was acquainted, and the Christian hermits made a deep impression on his mind and led him to preach the efficacy of ascetic exercises, such as See also:prayer, vigils and See also:fasting. Again, while See also:Allah is described in the See also:Koran as the One See also:God working his arbitrary will in unapproachable supremacy, other passages See also:lay stress on his all-pervading presence and intimate relation to his creatures, e.g. " Wherever ye turn, there is the See also:face of Allah " (ii. 109), " We (God) are nearer to him (See also:Man) than his See also:neck-vein " (1. 15). The germs of mysticism latent in Islam from the first were rapidly See also:developed by the See also:political, social and intellectual conditions which prevailed in the two centuries following the Prophet's See also:death. Devastating See also:civil See also:wars, a ruthless military despotism caring only for the things of this See also:world, Messianic hopes and presages, the luxury of the upper classes, the hard See also:mechanical piety of the orthodox creed, the spread of See also:rationalism and freethought, all this induced a revolt towards See also:asceticism, See also:quietism, spiritual feeling and emotional faith. Thousands, wearied and disgusted with worldly vanities, devoted themselves to God. The terrors of See also:hell, so vividly depicted in the Koran, awakened in them an intense consciousness of See also:sin, which drove them to seek salvation in ascetic practices. Sufiism was originally a See also:practical See also:religion, not a speculative See also:system; it arose, as Junayd of See also:Bagdad says, " from See also:hunger and taking leave of the world and breaking See also:familiar ties and renouncing what men deem See also:good, not from disputation. " The See also:early Sufis were closely attached to the See also:Mahommedan See also: Henceforward the use of symbolical expressions, borrowed from the vocabulary of love and See also:wine, becomes increasingly frequent as a means of indicating See also:holy mysteries which must not be divulged. This was not an unnecessary precaution, for in the course of the 3rd century, Sufiism assumed a new See also:character. Side by side with the quietistic and devotional mysticism of the early period there now sprang up a speculative and pantheistic See also:movement which was essentially See also:anti-Islamic and rapidly came into conflict with the orthodox ulemd. It is significant that the See also:oldest representative of this tendency—Ma`ruf of Bagdad—was the son of Christian parents and a Persian by See also:race. He defined Sufiism as a See also:theosophy; his aim was " to apprehend the Divine realities." A little later See also:Alin Sulaiman al+Darani in See also:Syria and Dhu'I-See also:Nun in See also:Egypt developed the doctrine of gnosis (ma'rifat) through See also:illumination and See also:ecstasy. The step to See also:pantheism was first decisively taken by the See also:great Persian Safi, Abu Yazid (Bayezid) of Bistam (d. A.D. 8.74); who introduced the doctrine of annihilation (See also:fang), i.e. the passing. away of individual consciousness in the will of God. It is, no doubt, conceivable that the See also:evolution of Sufiism up to this point might not have been very different even although it had remained wholly unaffected by influences outside of Islam. But, as a See also:matter of fact, such influences made them-selves powerfully See also:felt. Of these, See also:Christianity, See also:Buddhism and See also:Neoplatonism are the See also:chief. Christian See also:influence had its source, not in the Church, but in the hermits and unorthodox sects, especially perhaps in the Syrian Euchites, who magnified the See also:duty of See also:constant prayer, abandoned their all and wandered as poor brethren. Sufiism owed much to the ideal of unworldliness which they presented. Conversations between Moslem devotees and Christian ascetics are often related in the See also:ancient Sufi See also:biographies, and many Biblical texts appear in the See also:form of sayings attributed to eminent Sufis of early times, while sayings ascribed to Jesus as well as Christian and Jewish legends occur in abundance. More than one Sufi doctrine-that of tawakkul may be mentioned in particular—show traces of Christian teaching. The monastic See also:strain which insinuated itself into Sufiism in spite of Mahomet's See also:prohibition was derived, partially at any See also:rate, from Christianity. Here, however, Buddhistic influence may also have been at See also:work. Buddhism flourished in See also:Balkh, Transoxiana and See also:Turkestan before the Mahommedan See also:conquest, and in later times Buddhist monks carried their religious practices and See also:philosophy among the Moslems who had settled in these countries. It looks as though the See also:legend of Ibrahim ibn Adham, a See also:prince of Balkh who one See also:day suddenly See also:cast off his royal See also:robes and became a wandering Sufi, were based on the See also:story of See also:Buddha. The use of rosaries, the doctrine of fand, which is probably a form of See also:Nirvana, and the system of " stations" (magdmdt) on the road thereto, would seem to be Buddhistic in their origin. The third great See also:foreign influence on Sufiism is the Neoplatonic philosophy. Between A.D. 800 and 86o the See also:tide of See also:Greek learning, then at its height, streamed into Islam from the Christian monasteries of Syria, from the Persian See also:Academy of Jundeshapur in Khuzistan, and from the See also:Sabians of IIarran in See also:Mesopotamia. The so-called " See also:Theology of See also:Aristotle," which was translated into Arabic about A. D. 840, is full of Neoplatonic theories, and the mystical writings of the pseudo-See also:Dionysius were widely known throughout western See also:Asia. It is not See also:mere coincidence that the doctrine of Gnosis was first worked out in detail by the See also:Egyptian Sufi, Dhu '1-Nun (d. A.D. 859), who is described as an alchemist and theurgist. Suflism on its theosophical side was largely a product of Alexandrian See also:speculation. By the end of the 3rd century the See also:main lines of the Sufi mysticism were already fixed. It was now fast becoming an organized system, a school for See also:saints, with rules of discipline and devotion which the novice was See also:bound to learn from his spiritual director, to whose guidance he submitted himself absolutely. These See also:directors regarded themselves as being in the most intimate communion with God, who bestowed on them miraculous gifts (kardmdt). At their See also:head stood a mysterious personage called the Qutb (See also:Axis) : on the See also:hierarchy of saints over which he pre-sided the whole order of the universe was believed to depend. During the next two See also:hundred years (A.D. 900-I100), various manuals of theory and practice were compiled: the Kitab al Luma' by Abu Nair al-Sarraj, the Oil al-Qulub by Abu Ta1ib al-Makki, the Risala of Qushairi, the Persian Kashf al-Maki-4h by `All ibn `Uthman al-Hujwiri, and the famous Ihya by Ghazali. Inasmuch as all these See also:works are founded on the same materials, viz., the Koran, the Traditions of the Prophet and the sayings of well-known Sufi teachers, they necessarily have much in See also:common, although the subject is treated by each writer from his own standpoint. They all expatiate on the discipline of the soul and describe the See also:process of purgation which it must undergo before entering on the contemplative life. The traveller journeying towards God passes through a See also:series of ascending " stations " (magamat) : in the oldest extant See also:treatise these are (I) repentance, (2) See also:abstinence, (3) renunciation, (4) poverty, (5) See also:patience, (6) trust in God, (7) acquiescence in the will of God. After the " stations " comes a parallel See also:scale of " states " of spiritual feeling (ahwal), such as fear, See also:hope, love, &c., leading up to contemplation (mushdhadai) and See also:intuition (yaqin). It only remained to provide Sufiism with a metaphysical basis, and to reconcile it with orthodox Islam. The See also:double task was finally accomplished by Ghazali (q.v.). He made Islamic theology mystical, and since his See also:time the See also:revelation (kashf) of the mystic has taken its place beside tradition (nagl) and See also:reason (`aql) as a source and fundamental principle of the faith. Protests have been and are still raised by theologians, but Moslem sentiment will usually tolerate whatever is written in sufficiently abstruse philosophical See also:language or spoken in See also:manifest ecstasy. The Sufis do not form a See also:sect with definite dogmas. Like the monastic orders of Christendom, they comprise many shades of See also:opinion, many See also:schools of thought, many divergent tendencies—from asceticism and quietism to the wildest extravagances of pantheism. See also:European students of Sufiism are See also:apt to identify it with the pantheistic type which prevails in See also:Persia. This, although more interesting and attractive than any other, throws the transcendental and visionary aspects of Sufiism into undue See also:relief. Nevertheless some See also:account must be given here of the Persian theosophy which has fascinated the noblest minds of that subtle race and has inspired the most beautiful religious See also:poetry in the world. Some of its characteristic features occur in the sayings attributed to Bayezid (d. A.D. 874), whom Buddhistic ideas unquestionably influenced. He said, for example, " I am the winedrinker and the wine and the See also:cup-See also:bearer," and again, " I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, ' O Thou I.' " The See also:peculiar imagery which distinguishes the poetry of the Persian Sufis was more fully developed by a native of See also:Khorasan, Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khair (d. A.D. 1049) in his mystical quatrains which See also:express the relation between God and the soul by glowing and fantastic allegories of earthly love, beauty and See also:intoxication. Henceforward, the great poets of Persia, with few exceptions, adopt this symbolic language either seriously or as a convenient See also:mask. The See also:majority are Sufis by profession or conviction. " The real basis of their poetry," says A. von Kremer, " is a loftily inculcated ethical system, which recognizes in purity of See also:heart, charity, self-renunciation and bridling of the passions the necessary conditions of eternal happiness. Attached to this we find a pantheistic theory of the See also:emanation of all things from God and theirultimate See also:reunion with him. Although on the See also:surface Islam is not directly assailed, it sustains many indirect attacks, and frequently the thought flashes out, that all religions and revelations are only the rays of a single eternal See also:sun; that all prophets have only delivered and proclaimed in different See also:tongues the same principles of eternal goodness and eternal truth which flow from the divine soul of the world." The whole doctrine of Persian Sufiism is expounded in the celebrated Mathnaun of Jalaluddin See also:Rumi (q.v.), but in such a discursive and unscientific manner that its leading principles are not easily grasped. They may be stated briefly as follows:
God is the See also:sole reality (al-Hagq) and is above all names and See also:definitions. He is not only See also:absolute Being, but also absolute Good, and therefore absolute Beauty. It is the nature of beauty to See also:desire manifestation; the phenomenal universe is the result of this desire, according to the famous Tradition in which God says, " I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known, so I created the creatures in order that I might be known." Hence the Sufis, influenced by Neoplatonic theories of emanation, postulate a number of inter-mediate worlds or descending planes of existence, from the primal Intelligence and the primal Soul, through which " the Truth " (al-Hagq) diffuses itself. As things can be known only through their opposites, Being can only be known through Not-being, wherein as in a See also:mirror Being is reflected; and this reflection is the phenomenal universe, which accordingly has no more reality than a See also:shadow cast by the sun. Its central point is Man, the See also:microcosm, who reflects in himself all the Divine attributes. Blackened on one side with the darkness of Not-being, he bears within him a spark of pure Being. The human soul belongs to the spiritual world and is ever seeking to be re-See also:united to its source. Such See also:union is hindered by the bodily senses, but though not permanently attainable until death, it can be enjoyed at times in the See also:state called ecstasy (dl), when the See also:veil of sensual See also:perception is See also:rent asunder and the soul is merged in God. This cannot be achieved without destroying the illusion of self, and self-annihilation is wrought by means of that divine love, to which human love is merely a stepping-See also: It tends to abolish the distinction between good and evil—the latter is nothing but an aspect of Not-being and has no real existence—and it leads to the deification of the hierophant who can say, like kIuwain b. Mansur al-Hallaj, "I am the Truth." Sufi fraternities, living in a See also:convent under the direction of a See also:sheikh, became widely spread before A.D. 1100 and gave rise to See also:Dervish orders, most of which indulge in the practice of exciting ecstasy by See also:music, dancing, drugs and various kinds of hypnotic See also:suggestion (see DERVISH). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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