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Sufism's Many Paths


Dr. Alan Godlas, University of Georgia

Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars

and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today,

however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of

Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in

his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for

the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.

After nearly 30 years of the study of Sufism, I would say that in spite of its many

variations and voluminous expressions, the essence of Sufi practice is quite simple.

It is that the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over and over; which involves

embracing with love at each moment the content of one's consciousness (one's

perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one's sense of self) as gifts of God

or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.



Sufism -- Sufis -- Sufi Orders
Sufism: an Introduction
'Ibaaraatuhum shattaa wa-husnuka waahid
Wa-kullun ilaa dhaaka al-jamaali yushiir
Their expressions are manifold and Your loveliness is one
And everyone points to that beauty
Quoted by Shaykh 'Abd al-Halim Mahmud, former Shaykh al-Azhar


Jumla ma'shuq ast-o 'aashiq pardah'i
Zenda ma'shuq ast-o 'aashiq mordah'i
All is the Beloved and the lover is a veil
The Beloved is alive and the lover is dead
Rumi, Mathnawi

Man qaala laa ilaaha ill Allah, dakhala al-janna
Whoever says, 'There is no god, but God,' enters Paradise.
Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad

Ever since Sufis first began to speak about Sufism, they have defined it in many

different ways. Read a number of these at the link Classical Sufi Definitions of

Sufism, (fixed 16 Nov. 1998) and see as well the online version (minus the footnotes

of the original) of the poem, translated from Persian, titled What is Tasawwuf

(Sufism)? and commented on by Dr. Godlas. For some time now, scholars in the West

have discussed Sufism's definition and origin. Sufis--which is what practioners of

Sufism are called--see themselves to be on a spiritual journey toward God. In order

to guide spiritual travellers and to express the states of consciousness experienced

on this journey, Sufis produced an enormously rich body of literature, often using a

specialized technical vocabulary, some of the terms of which can be found in this

Glossary of Sufi Terms. This journey is referred to as the path (tariqah). While all

Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in

Paradise--after death and the "Final Judgment"-- Sufis believe as well that it is

possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness--while one is

alive.

Furthermore, the attainment of the knowledge that comes with such intimacy with God,

Sufis assert, is the very purpose of the creation. Here they mention the hadith

qudsi in which God states, "I was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be known, so

I created the creation in order to be known." Hence for the Sufis there is already a

momentum, a continuous attraction on their hearts exerted by God, pulling them, in

love, towards God. They experience the joyful ecstasy of being gently drawn to their

Eternal Beloved, yet this primordially blissful return seems to have been

interrupted. The Persian poet Hafiz remarked,
O Wine giver, pour me a cup and pass it around
for love seemed easy at first, but later the difficulties arose.


Sufism: Obstacles on the Path
The difficulties in following the path or obstacles to getting closer to God derive

primarily from one's self or ego (nafs). In other words, it can be said that if one

is not recognizing or experiencing God's "closeness" or presence, the responsibility

for this condition lies with one's own self.

Some of the gross effects of the dominance of the nafs are that one may become

overwhelmed by the need to gratify desires such as anger, lust, and the many

addictions that afflict us. Other gross effects are that one may become dominated by

states of consciousness such as anxiety, boredom, regret, depression, and

self-pity-- so that one feels like a powerless victim or prisoner tortured within

one's own mind.

Given that the Sufi regards every thought, feeling, and perception that he or she

has (including his or her sense of self) as a manifestation of God or as a

particular view of God's face ("Wherever you turn there is God's face"--Qur'an), a

more subtle effect of the dominance of the nafs than those expressed earlier (but

still a devasting effect) is to imagine that God is absent from one's experience or

to imagine that one does not have the choice to embrace the way in which God appears

at this moment. Such mistaken imaginings often cause one to cease to surrender

gratefully and lovingly into God's embrace. In fact, being overcome by these subtle

effects opens the door for the gross effects mentioned earlier.

Hence, one of the emphases of Sufism is upon the struggle to overcome the dominance

that one's nafs has over one, a struggle that first and foremost involves choosing

at each moment to remember and surrender actively to God--irrespective of whether

the form in which God becomes manifest is one of absence or presence, benevolence or

severity. As Rumi said:

I am a lover of both his benevolence and severity!
Amazing it is that I'm in love with these opposites!

Sufism -- Sufis -- Sufi Orders
Sufism: Struggle With One's Nafs
The behavioral absolutes of the shari'ah (Islamic law) set the outer limits that the

Sufi must keep within. But the Sufi struggle with one's nafs puts further curbs on

the Sufi's behaviour and consciousness. Usually this struggle is spoken of as having

two dimensions: negation (nafy) and affirmation (ithbat), corresponding to the two

components of the first shahadah (testification of faith), La ilaha (There is no

deity) and illa Allah (except for God). In reference to the two kinds of effects of

the dominance of the nafs mentioned above, the "negation" can be said to take the

form of attempting
to control oneself from acting out one's anger or gratifying addictions,
to negate the thought that one will find fulfillment through these means,
to negate the sense that one cannot escape one's depression, and
to give up imagining that God is absent.
The "affirmation" can be said to take the form of embracing and engaging the

presence of God in whatever form it may appear within one's consciousness--even in

the form of the thoughts that "God is absent," "I am depressed, or "I am distant

from God." This unconditional embrace of the presence of God is simply called taslim

in Muslim languages. This word is cognate with and is at the root of the word

"Islam," and in light of the meaning expressed here, I have translated it as

"engaged surrender."

In this regard, the struggle with one's own nafs has been called the greater

struggle or greater "holy war" (al-jihad al-akbar) in contrast to the lesser

struggle (al-jihad al-asghar), which is against injustice and oppressors in this

world. The concept derives from the popular hadith of the Prophet, in which he said

to Muslims returning from a battle, "You have returned from the lesser struggle to

the greater struggle." And he was asked, "What is the greater struggle?" He

answered, "The struggle against one's self (nafs), which is between the two sides of

your body." Needless to say, in Sufism these two struggles are mutually reinforcing

and occur simultaneously. In particular, the practice of "engaged surrender" in the

"greater" struggle with one's own nafs diminishes certain obstacles in the

consciousness of the Sufi, obstacles that--if not stuggled against--will hinder the

Sufi's capacity to engage in the "lesser" struggle in their life in the world.


An early text on the struggle with one's self is the treatise Jihad al-nafs, written

by the al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. 932). (Fixed, 1 October 2000.)

Another treatise on the struggle with the nafs is al-Ghazali's jihad al-nafs. This

is taken from his masterpiece Ihya' 'ulum al-din (The Revival of the Religious

Sciences). Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) is one of the most well-known Islamic scholars and

is often credited with establishing the orthodoxy of Sufism. A substantial biography

of al-Ghazali emphasizing his contribution to Islamic philosophy is by the scholar,

Kojiro Nakamura. A short biography of Al-Ghazali is present in the online

Encyclopedia Britannica (but only a few paragraphs are online unless the reader has

a paid subscription to the Britannica, which libraries often have, or which

individuals can obtain for free though a 14-day subscription). (Link fixed, Jan. 1,

2002.)

See also Jihad al-akbar, an except from the book Islamic Beliefs and Doctrine

According to Ahl al-Sunna: A Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations written by the

contemporary Naqshbandi, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. In this online article, the author

discusses the idea of the struggle against one's self, the "greater jihad" (al-jihad

al-akbar), paying particular attention to the various evidence from hadith

literature. Note that at the beginning of the excerpt a reference is made to the

"above Hadith." It is possible that the hadith in question is the hadith on the

"greater jihad" that I have mentioned above.

A contemporary discussion of jihad from a Sufi perspective is expressed in the essay

The Spiritual Significance of Jihad by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George

Washington University.


Sufism: Awakening to the Awareness of the Unmanifest World
At any moment in the course of following the Sufi path, Sufis may have an experience

in which they become drawn into the presence of God. This experience has often been

called jadhbah (attraction) or wajd (ecstasy) (lit. finding). Another way of

speaking of this experience is to describe it as "awakening to the 'unmanifest or

unseen world'(al-ghayb)." The following link, written by the Muslim scholars of the

as-Sunnah Foundation, explains both the Prophet Muhammad's knowledge of the Unseen

as well as the unveiling (kashf ) or knowledge of the Unseen that the "friends of

God" or "saints" (awliya' ) attain.

In one of the more important works of early Persian literature, Kashf al-mahjub

(Uncovering the veiled), Hujwiri, or Data Ganj Bakhsh as he is also known, in the

11th cent. CE discussed various views of Ma'rifah: Gnosis or Direct Knowledge of

God, which is an important epistemological principle in Sufism.

Al-Ghazali's Treatise on Direct Knowledge from God: Introduction indicates the

opinion of one of Islam's greatest scholars concerning the possibility that

humans--aside from prophets--can attain "direct knowledge" from God.

For more on the unveiling of the unmanifest realm (kashf al-ghayb) see the article

On Kashf and Mukashafat, also written by scholars of the as-Sunnah Foundation.


Sufism: Remembering God
The Qur'an instructs Muslims to remember God, whose reality encompasses and pervades

both the unmanifest and manifest worlds (al-ghayb wa-al-shahadah). Sufis have

developed this into the quintessential Sufi practice of silent and vocal dhikr

(remembrance). An inherent problem in dhikr, however, is the difficulty in

remembering God when one has little or no awareness of God. To start with, Muslims

begin with a name of God, such as "Allah," which is often called the "comprehensive"

name (al-ism al-jami'). It is comprehensive in the sense that it comprises all of

the infinite names of God, which refer to the source of the awareness of all of

reality. In down to earth terms, the ultimate source of one's awareness of the words

on this page, for example, is the reality of one of the names of God, all of which

are encompassed by the name Allah. In short, the source of one's present

awareness--whatever that awareness may be--is encompassed by the name Allah. Thus,

remembering God can begin quite simply and ordinarily with the awareness of two

things: one's present awareness and the name Allah--even when one has no awareness

of the reality to which the name Allah refers. (to be continued...)

The hadith scholar al-Mundhiri (d. 656/1258) compiled a collection of hadith that

could inspire desire for God and those that could inspire fear of God. This

collection, called the al-Targhib wal-al-tarhib, was abridged by the scholar Ibn

Hajar al-Asqalani. The hadiths that are related to dhikr in Ibn Hajar's work can be

accessed in English translation on the web page of the Muslim scholar Ayesha Bewley

called Chapter on Dhikr..

Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari (d. 709/1309), a Shadhili shaykh, wrote the treatise

Miftah al-falah, (The Key to Success). See the following section On Dhikr,

translated by Ayesha Bewley.

The on-line book Dhikr, Remembrance of Allah, (link down as of Nov. 24, 2001; the

new link may be Questions on Dhikr (Remembrance of Allah)), chapter 9 in the

Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine) is an on-line book written by the as-Sunnah

Foundation-- which is affiliated with the Naqshbandi Shaykh Hisham as well as with

his shaykh, Shaykh Nazim-- discusses in detail many aspects of Dhikr.

Dhikr: Remembrance of God, written by scholars affiliated with the Naqshbandi order,

is a concise article in which the following topics are discussed: dhikr in the

Qur'an and Sunnah, opinions of great Muslim scholars on dhikr, and the two major

forms of dhikr: vocal and silent.

Dhikr in Islam excerpted from the book The Naqshbandi Sufi Way, written by the

contemporary Naqshbandi, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, this is a concise article focusing

on the Islamic basis for the practice of dhikr.

Dhikr from Nuzhat al-majalis Translated by scholars affiliated with the Naqshbandi

order, this passage on dhikr from a medieval Arabic text is accompanied by the

translator's notes in brackets. (Fixed, 1 October 2000.)


Sufism, Remembrance (dhikr), and Love
The Sufi follows the path toward God primarily by means of love. For the Sufi who is

enraptured with the love of God (who is the source of all existence, or, as some

might say, who is all of existence), all of existence is extraordinarily beautiful.

In contrast, one who is not in love with God to this degree will not see what is so

awesome about existence. A discourse on love by Shams-i Tabrizi (the man who was the

catalyst of Rumi's divine ecstasy) illustrates this.

While some Sufis such as Rumi become utterly consumed by love's fire, for most who

wish to love God, their love is merely a wavering flame, ever in danger of

diminishing. Hence, by remembering God's forgotten reality and beauty, Sufis

rekindle the flame of their love for God. In Sufism, it is remembrance that makes

the heart grow fonder. In a nutshell, this is the relationship between dhikr and

love.

Courtesy- http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html

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