Nine Questions - Part One
The
individual who e-mailed the following questions was doing a school project on religion and was
interested in finding out about the Sufi tradition.
Question
1) Historically, how did Sufism originate?
In one
sense, the esoteric or mystical dimension of Islam has been in existence as long as human
beings have been walking the face of the Earth. However, the outer or exoteric
manifestations associated with such a spiritual tradition have varied in structural form
according to times, circumstances, needs, and so on.
Some
commentators have used the image of a wheel with spokes to help give expression to the
relationship between the esoteric and exoteric aspects of spirituality. The various spokes
symbolize so many different exoteric sets of beliefs, practices and values, while the hub
of the wheel, where the spokes join, constitutes the mystical unity which underlies all
surface differences.
When one
looks at things from the perspective of the rim of the wheel, spirituality looks like so
many separate and, often, antagonistic solitudes. When one, on the other hand, follows, by
the grace of God, the surface differences back to the Source, all of the currents of
separation tend to disappear.
Nonetheless,
despite having said the foregoing, if one is using the term "Sufi" to refer to a
historical phenomenon which arose in the context of a specific religious tradition, then
the Sufi path, or "tasawwuf" (mystical sciences), originated through Islam. But,
in point of fact, tying tasawwuf to Islam does not really contradict anything which has
been said previously.
One of the
root meetings of the Arabic word "Islam" is 'peace'. This is, among other
things, the peace which, God willing, arises when an individual comes to realize, with
certainty and in an experientially transrational way, the spiritual purpose of one's life
- namely, to come to understand the nature of one's true, essential identity, as well as
to bring on-line, so to speak and if God wishes, one's unique, spiritual capacity for
loving, worshiping, cherishing, serving and knowing Divinity.
Muslims -
that is, those who sincerely seek to align themselves totally with God's wishes concerning
life on Earth - do not look at Islam as being the youngest in a series of religions. In
deed, when one considers the idea of Islam as encompassing the spiritual currents within
ourselves, as well the spiritual currents in the lives of those around us, that seek to
draw one toward peace in the foregoing sense then, every exoteric tradition which is
authentic, and, therefore, gives expression to Divine guidance and wisdom, is a
manifestation of Islam in the aforementioned sense.
Furthermore,
the foregoing perspective also is intimately related to another root meaning of the word
Islam. This pertains to the individual's submission to- or better yet, absorption in - the
will of God concerning the nature and purpose of life, as well as submission to or
absorption in, the moral, methodological and practical ways through which one should try
to work toward and implement this nature and purpose.
Consequently,
both exoterically as well as esoterically, there is a unity of origins. Everything flows
from One Source, One Reality, One Truth, One Purpose.
However,
given that this Oneness is infinite - if not beyond infinity - then what is being said
above does not mean that any single conceptual representation of such Reality or Truth is
capable of capturing the richness, breadth, depth, and subtlety inherent in such Oneness.
Unfortunately, many people -- from all manner of exoteric and even esoteric traditions --
suppose that human beings are able to intellectually penetrate to the bottom of
everything, and this is not so - and this remains not the case irrespective of whether one
is talking in terms of mystical states and stations, or one is talking in terms of the
most elaborate and nuanced of theological systems.
Many truths
can co-exist as so many manifestations of the One underlying Truth. Similarly, many
realities can co-exist, again as so many modalities of expression or manifestation of the
One underlying reality.
This is why
one can say that the Sufi path existed, in a sense, even before humanity came into being,
because the reality, or haqiqah, to which the term "Sufi path" makes identifying
reference existed in pre-eternity (our "time" before being brought into
temporality) in the form of our primordial relationship with Divinity. At the same time,
one can, with equal justification, restrict the origins of the Sufi path to the set of
practices, values, beliefs, relationships and so on which arose during the historical time
of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
In wanting
to point to the esoteric or mystical dimension which is, and always has been, inherent in
the potential of human beings, some people begin to throw the term "Sufi' around and
try to claim that it pertains to anything which has to do with the esoteric life. When
people do this, they tend to confuse and conflate issues, and in the process, mislead
people, including themselves, about the true nature of the origins of the Sufi path.
Taoism, many
of the different forms of yoga, Zen and certain forms of Tibetan Buddhism, various aspects
of Native spirituality, different kinds of Christian mysticism (which have virtually, but
not entirely, disappeared in this day and age), and the esoteric dimension of Judaism
(sometimes referred to as the Qaballah, but this term can be very misleading) all have
justification to claim for themselves a certain spiritual authenticity and legitimacy with
respect to things mystical. Yet, none of these can correctly be said to be the Sufi path,
although there may be a working equivalency among all of these traditions in relation to
various values, beliefs, purposes, practices, teaching techniques, life style and so on
which tend to be shared by all of them in one way or another.
Question
2) What are the basic principles or beliefs of the Sufi path?
There are
many ways in which one might respond to this question and all such responses, if
thoughtfully done, would be, each in its own way, more or less correct. However, one,
somewhat arbitrarily, also could answer this question with three words: "fana",
"baqa" and "adab". Starting with the last word first, adab encompasses
the entire framework of relationships which one has with creation and one's Creator.
There is not
a single moment or circumstance of life which does not have its adab or appropriate
spiritual etiquette. Parents, spouse, children, relatives, non-relatives, strangers,
teachers, fellow travelers of the path, those who are not interested in the spiritual
life, vegetation, animal life, the mineral realm, angels, Prophets, auwliya (friends of
God), people younger and older than oneself, various spiritual states and stations, as
well as oneself all are owed fiduciary entitlements - that is, the entitlements which God,
or the Reality underlying and making possible all being, has set as being proper to people
and circumstances and with which human beings have been entrusted..
There is no
'Rule' book which can exhaust how one should discharge the foregoing responsibilities.
Rather, one must engage these tasks through the idea of non-linear principles which retain
a recognizable essential spirit even as they shift and change according to the structural
character of the life-context under consideration.
For
instance, love, sincerity, charitableness, forbearance, tolerance, forgiveness, integrity,
kindness, and so on are not capable of being reduced down to rules such that whenever one
comes to a certain kind of situation, then one always responds in a particular
rule-governed fashion. These situations are quite different from, for example, being
required to fill out a form before seeing a civil servant at a given gate or window
(although even here there may be discretionary room for exceptions to these sorts of rule
as well).
As such, a
rule plus its exceptions do not add up to a principle. Rules tend to operate on an
algorithmic basis ( the recursive application of some set linear formula), whereas
principles are non-algorithmic in character.
Exoterically
oriented individuals often tend to try to stuff everything in life into a rule-governed
category of one kind or another, with, sometimes, problematic, even disastrous,
consequences. As such, they engage the idea of adab, or spiritual etiquette, from a very
narrowly conceived point of view of what is permissible or impermissible.
The people
of tasawwuf operate out of a framework in which there tend to be more degrees of freedom
for finding an acceptable solution to an adab-issue - that is, one which is reconcilable
with the character of the principle and problem under consideration. Therefore, not
everyone is necessarily required to resolve a given situation in precisely the same way,
and, yet, these solutions will all bear what Wittgenstein referred to as a
"family" resemblance to one another. In other words, they will be understood as
having recognizable similarities to one another without being considered as the same.
None of what
has been said in the foregoing should be construed to mean that anything and everything is
compatible with putting a principle into motion. In fact, in many ways the rule-governed
character of Shariah, or Divine Law, places limits and sets parameters of appropriateness
within which principles may operate with some degree of flexibility while, simultaneously,
meeting the requirements of the exoteric rule-governed parameters.
At the same
time, when rule-governed behavior is isolated from the spiritual principles at the heart
of Islam - and, therefore, when they are isolated from the properties of tasawwuf - the
letter of the law often becomes empty of the very qualities which are necessary to
modulate and temper the narrowness, harshness, and rigidity which tends to characterize a
great deal of rule-governed behavior. In these circumstances, blind, unbalanced,
superficial, uninspired, mechanical, self-serving, and thoughtless activity is let loose
upon the world to wreak havoc in personal, family, community and international life.
The
relationship between proper rule-governed behavior and legitimate principle governed
behavior has a sort of yin-yang quality to it. In order for either one to function
properly, it must be circumscribed, informed and guided by the other.
Although a
Sufi should be concerned about all matters of adab, and although a great deal of the Sufi
path can be described from a perspective of coming to an essential, full and certain
understanding of what, in reality, adab is all about, the sine qua non of adab on the Sufi
path is the relationship between the mureed (seeker) and the Sufi shaykh who is, in turn,
and according to the spiritual capacity of the shaykh, a reflection of the mureed's
relationship with both, each in its own way, the Prophetic tradition and Divinity. The
heart and spirit of the mureed, shaykh, and Prophetic tradition are but different
reflections and manifestations of the Divine Names and Attributes of God.
As such we
are talking about the reflection (for example, the heart of the mureed) of a reflection
[e.g., the heart of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)] of a further reflection (the
light of the heart of the Macrocosmic being) of the Names and Attributes of Allah or God.
This same idea can be expressed in terms of the symbolism of nested shadows (zil) in a
similar way.
In broad
terms, "fana", the second of the three terms that are crucial to the Sufi
perspective mentioned at the outset of the current answer to your question, represents the
passing away of the false-self. This is the self through which we normally engage
ourselves and the rest of the universe, as well as the medium through which we approach
Divinity.
The
false-self is filled with, and vulnerable to, all manner of forces that generate
distortion, error, bias, lacunae, ignorance, blindness, rebellion, misunderstanding,
heedlessness, selfishness, and so on. When, by the grace of God, the false-self is
dissolved in an Ocean of barakah (Divine blessings) by means of one's relationship with
one's teacher (this is the medium of Agency and not of Causality), the individual becomes
overwhelmed with the nearness, majesty, beauty, compassion, greatness, and love of
Divinity, and, as a result, looses sight of one's created individuality.
One Sufi
Shaykh explained the notion of fana along the following lines. When one ventures outdoors
on a clear, moonless night, and goes far enough from the lights of the city, then one can
see a sky filled with - as Carl Sagan used to say - billions and billions of stars. If,
however, one went outdoors during the daytime, the stars of the previous night would no
longer be visible.
The stars
have not disappeared. Instead, their feeble light is overwhelmed by the brightness of the
Sun's relative nearness to Earth.
Similarly,
when the false-self is dissolved, it is not that the individual per se no longer exists,
but, rather, the feeble light of our normal sense of individuality is engulfed by the
presence of Divinity. This Divinity is always, and everywhere, Present, but,
unfortunately, the nature of the false-self is such as to be able to induce a sort of
state of self-hypnosis in which we are oblivious, for the most part, to everything except
our own feeble light of awareness.
Some people
talk in terms of three kinds of fana. These are, in turn, fana-fil-shaykh, fana-fil-Rasul,
and fana-fil-Allah. In other words, supposedly the progression of awareness is away from
one's false-self and toward, in succession, an understanding and awareness of the reality
of the teacher, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and Allah.
In truth,
however, these three things are merely different manifestations of one and the same
'phenomenon', if you will - namely, one's relationship with Divinity. If one truly
understands either one's essential nature, or the essence of one's spiritual guide, or the
essence of the Prophet of God, then one realizes that one has come face to face with
manifested or reflected Divinity.
Baqa - the
third of our initial three terms - involves a further unveiling, beyond that of fana.
Whereas fana is the dissolution (whether temporarily or permanently) of the false-self,
baqa constitutes the spiritual ascendancy or coming on-line of one's true, essential self.
When, if God wishes, this occurs, then one comes to understand in a direct manner of
gnosis (and more) that in our essence, there is Divinity, although this is balanced with a
countervailing understanding that we are not Divinity in Essence.
In short,
there is a distinction between Creator and the created, but this distinction is enveloped
in a Divine mystery. Those who are, by the grace of God, opened-up to this dimension or
potential of the human being both understand and, yet, are bewildered by the constant
on-going way in which Divinity is manifested in ways that are never repeated.
One of the
facets of this aspect of non-repeatability of manifestation is that every human being has
within herself or himself a unique way of giving expression to, and, therefore, serving
Divine purposes. Yet, if the condition or station of baqa is not established within us,
then we can never be sufficiently free to be able to transmit, with all of its radiance
and beauty, the full fruition of our essential spiritual uniqueness.
If we return
to the issue of adab, for a moment, the brief discussion of fana and baqa have
ramifications for the observance of adab in any given set of circumstances. As long as the
false self is present, and we are absent from our true, unique, essential selves, we
cannot properly discharge the fiduciary responsibilities associated with the sincere
observance of adab or spiritual etiquette, and this is true no matter what the nature of
the relationship one is considering..
Pursuing
adab on all of its levels leads one, if God wishes, toward fana and baqa. Yet, somewhat
paradoxically, we cannot properly satisfy the requirements of adab until fana and baqa
have, with God's blessings and support, taken place.
Similarly,
one will never get to the heart of principle-governed behavior until fana and baqa have
occurred. One uses rule-governed behavior -- that is, Shariah, or Divine Law -- to work
toward a proper insight to the nature of principle-governed behavior, but one can never
properly understand Shariah until the spiritual transformation which comes through fana
and baqa have transpired and become firmly established.
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