Page vii - Preface:
"The ‘whirling dervishes’ were a piece of exotica left over from
nineteenth-century travelers’ accounts, but today people learn ‘Sufi
dancing’ in health clubs and New Age centers."
Commentary:
Through the context surrounding the above statement, which appears within the Preface of Sufism
- A Short Introduction, the author is quite clear in arguing that despite an
increased familiarity in the West with words like "Sufi" and related terms -
such as "whirling dervishes", nonetheless, there still exists considerable
confusion in the West about what the Sufi Way or Path involves. While granting the general
point the author is trying to make concerning the issue of confusion, the author might
have begun the process of diffusing much of the confusion almost immediately if he had
taken the time to write just a few paragraphs in his Preface to help set a tone and
orientation for the remainder of his introductory book.
Unfortunately, this was
not done. Instead, seeds were sown in the Preface which take the reader in a different
direction - one that sets the stage for adding to the prevailing confusion, rather than
contributing to the elimination of such misunderstanding.
For example, one can
agree with the author that just because the name "sufi" has greater currency
today, relative to 40-50 years ago, this does not mean that people currently living in the
West have any better grasp of the reality to which this term makes identifying reference.
However, the impression one tends to gather from the Preface of Sufism - A Short
Introduction, as well as from other places in his book, is that a great deal of
the confusion surrounding the Sufi tradition has to do with the vast and considerably
diverse array of understandings concerning this tradition - many of which, according to
the author, portray this Path in "radically different" ways.
In truth, the major
source of confusion concerning the Sufi Path is that many of the people who are writing
and speaking about this spiritual tradition have had no real, essential, prolonged contact
with an authentic, living exemplar of the very tradition which they are purporting to
introduce to people. Thus, while one could acknowledge that the term "whirling
dervishes" was used by certain people in the West to refer to something going on in
the Orient that had been witnessed - usually in a very limited fashion - by various
travelers to those regions, nevertheless, the activity to which this term makes reference
was never a piece of exotica left over from the nineteenth-century except to those who
didn’t know the truth about the reality from which the term had been torn. The
spiritual practice in question has continued, uninterrupted, right down to the present
day.
To be sure, there was a
period in, for example, Turkey’s history - lasting for much of the 20th century - in
which all Sufi activity was, more or less, publicly outlawed. However, the activity to
which the term "whirling dervishes" attempts to make identifying reference
actually continued on in private.
In fact, I had the good
fortune of meeting with one Sufi shaykh, who used to be a caretaker, many years ago, at
the shrine in Konya, Turkey, where the body of Hazrat Jalal ad-Din Rumi (May Allah be
pleased with him) is laid to rest. The shaykh with whom I spoke indicated that despite the
governmental ban on this kind of Sufi activity, nonetheless, late at night, after the
shrine had been cleaned and maintained, the Sufi devotees would gather together and engage
in that which had been forbidden by the government.
A second point which
needs to be addressed in the quote at the top of the first page, concerns the notion of
"Sufi dancing". Although the author is quite correct that there is something
being taught today, in a lot of places, under the rubric of "Sufi dancing" -
including health clubs and New Age centers, in truth, there is no spiritual or mystical
practice recognized by authentic Sufi shaykhs which is known as ‘Sufi dancing’.
There are Sufi
activities, such as ‘sacred turning’ or ‘sacred movement’, which are
observed by three or four different orders - including the Mevlevi Order that is rooted in
the teachings of Jalal ad-Din Rumi and to which the moniker "whirling dervishes"
is frequently applied in the West. These practices do - in part - involve, as the
foregoing terms suggest, a change of position within space and time, but such spiritual
movements are no more dancing than are the movements of a drill team on a parade ground,
or are the movements of people going about their business in the course of everyday life.
The idea of "Sufi
dancing" is a Western innovation often involving a nifty two-step piece of conceptual
choreography. First, one removes virtually everything of essential importance from the
mystical tradition except the "sufi" label, and, then, one interjects into this
emptied label an arbitrary set of activities which one identifies as a Sufi practice known
as "dancing" - an activity which, historically, was never observed by any of the
Sufi Orders.
The author of Sufism
- A Short Introduction purports to be introducing people to the
‘reality’ of the Sufi Path and, supposedly, is attempting to clear up confusions
concerning this spiritual way. Yet, when he has a golden opportunity to do just this in
his Preface, he backs away.
People who considered
"whirling dervishes" as a piece of exotica left over from the
nineteenth-century, knew nothing of the reality of the context out of which this term
emerged. Similarly, people who speak approvingly of "Sufi dancing" tend to be
ignorant of the underlying reality of "sacred turning" or "sacred
movement".
Consequently, nothing
really has changed. People who know, knew then, and know now. People who do not know, did
not know then, and do not know now.
The author could have, in
his own way, pointed these things out in his Preface. He did not, and, instead, went in a
different direction - a problematic one as it turns out.
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