SUFISM

Irtikaz, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 1978-79, pp 72-74.

It is not possible to undertake an extensive inquiry into the history of sufism and its various degrees. The scope of this article therefore is to describe briefly sufism and its link with Quran.

“Sufism”, said Junaid Baghdadi[1], “is that God make thee die to thy self and make thee live in him”. Sufism is an extreme love of being self with the Divine Self. It is an intimate association of the two. Jami has explained it in the following way: “You are a mirror shining with the image of God; therefore, you are hidden and He is manifest”.

To discover the reality of the Divine Self is an objective of a sufi and in the way,  he comes across many difficulties. Knowledge of Divine Self cannot be attained unless union between being self and Divine Self is brought about. The union in which the sufi, as it were, sees God or Divine Self  face to face. This stage precedes the final experiences of “fana” and “baqa”. It is the state of satisfaction, which is defined as the “acquiescence of the heart in God’s decision and the argument of the heart with what He wills and chooses, and again, satisfaction in the acceptance of Divine Self decisions with joy”. Abu Said, a famous sufi writer, is reported to have said that “man is a sufi who is satisfied with what so ever God does, or God will be satisfied with what so ever he does”. A sufi cannot reach his destination unless he dedicates himself to the entire satisfaction of the Beloved. He cannot devote himself to the purpose with out having extreme love for it – the love in which the Divine Self influence inclines the soul towards the love of God. Ali-ul-Hajwiri[2] Says :

“Man’s love towards Divine Self is a quality which manifests itself in the heart of the pious believer in the form of veneration and magnification, so that he seeks to satisfy his Beloved and becomes impatient and restless in his desires for vision of Him and cannot rest with anyone except Him ; and grows familiar with the remembrance of Him.”

A sufi cuts off from all habits and associations and renounces sensual passion and turns towards the court of love and submits to the law of love and knows God by His attributes of perfection. Perfection in love is the only factor which creates union between being self and the Divine Self. Every sufi starts his journey with it and ends with the achievement of knowledge of Ultimate Reality. With out such perfection in love, a sufi cannot be more then an alam. The difference between them is as is the difference between state of drunkenness and knowledge of drunkenness. Therefore, with such perfection in love, a sufi cannot be a sufi for otherwise he will not be able to devote himself to the cause. Consequently, he will not be able to acquire what he wanted to. The high degree of perfection and enthusiasm can be seen in the case of Hallaj Mansur.

There are as many paths starting from love and ending at the acquisition of knowledge of the beloved, as many as are sufis. Nevertheless, despite of the variety of paths the motivation is the same. Selection of the path, for the murid, depends entirely at the murshids will and disposal. A sufi adopts these paths in order to fana or annihilate the nafs and to achieve baqa – persistence. By this he does not see Ultimate Reality or Divine Self but himself becomes part of it. He sees God through God. Nicholson[3] has explained this sufi motive very clearly. While elucidating the relative position of annihilation and persistence, he says, fana—the passing away of sufi from his phenomenal existence involves baqa – the continuance of his real existence. However, fana is a necessary stage in spiritual development for baqa cannot be reached unless fana has been passed through. Apparently, it is not possible to flee to God unless self is abandoned. To a sufi the mystic state is a movement of intimate association with a Unique Other Self ; transcending, encompassing and momentarily suppressing the private personality of the subject of experience they achieve their goal.

Sufism has its inception in Mohammed (P.B.U.H) himself and that all the religious orders trace their lines of succession back to him. He said to have been the recipient of a two-fold revelations, the ones embodied in the Quran, the others within his heart, the former was meant for all and is binding on all ; the later was to be transmitted to the few capable ones through these lines of succession. Hence it is that Muhammad’s (P.B.U.H) knowledge in popular language, is described as being ilm-Safina, book knowledge and ilm-Sina, heart knowledge. The former is incorporated in the doctrinal teaching of the ulama, the later is strictly esoteric, the mystical teaching of the sufis.  

As a matter of face sufism passed through several phases in the process of its development. As we have seen that, the germ of sufism is found in certain passages of the Quran itself. In it, are to be found also justification and support for the mystical tendencies. So strongly menifested by some of Muhammad’s (P.B.U.H) companions and friends, tendencies which inevitably resulted in a life of detachment, poverty and mortification.

Since sufiism presents the inner aspects of Islam its doctrine is in substance and esoteric commentary on the Quran. The last Prophet himself gave the key to all Quranic exegesis, in teachings. Among these sayings of the Prophet some are fundamental for sufism and they are those which the Prophet enunciated and propounded not as a law-giver, but as a contemplative saint, saying which were addressed to those of his companions who later become the first sufi masters. There are also the holy utterances in which God speaks in the first person, by the mouth of the Prophet. These have the same degree of inspiration as the Quran, though not the same objective mode of revelation, and mainly they set forth truth not intended for the whole religious community, but only for contemplations.

Devotional sufism alone tries to understand the meaning of inner experiences which the Quran declares to be one of the three sources of knowledge, the other two being history and nature says Buchhardt[4]. As the Prophet stated, the Quran contains in each part several meanings. The interpretation of the inner meanings of the Quran is founded both on the symbolical nature of the things mentioned and on the multiple meanings of the words. The languages in the Divine Books have a synthetic character. It might be said that the ordinary exegesis of the Quran takes the expressions in their immediate meanings where as the sufi exegesis uncovers their transposed meanings, when for example, the Quran says that “he who accepts God’s guidance will he guided for himself and that he who remains ignorant is so on himself”. The exoteric interpretation is limited to the idea of the recompense and punishment. The sufi understands this verse of the Quran in the sense of the sayings of the Prophet : “He who knows himself knows his Lord”.

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[1] Junaid Baghdadi, Asrar al-Tawhid (اسرارالتوحید, or "The Mysteries of Unification") written by Muhammad Ibn Monavvar.
[2] Ali Hujwiri, Kashf-ul-Mahjoob, Sang-e-Meel Publications., Lahore, 1978. (Translator Reynold A. Nicolson).
[3] Reynold A. Nicolson, The Mystics of Islam, World of Islam, 2002.
[4] Titus Buckhardt, Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, World Wisdom, Inc., 2008.