From: RBNXHS@ROHVM1.bitnet
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Sufism and Islam
Date: 16 Dec 1992 00:45:02 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
Reply-To: RBNXHS@ROHVM1.bitnet
NNTP-Posting-Host: wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu
Originator: gwydion@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu

A non-Muslim who is interested about Islam and sufism asked me the
following question when I mentioned to him that outside Islam there
is no Sufism, only confusion. The reply below, however, is written
by a friend of mine, who likes to remain anonymous. (I have added
a few quotations from the writings of sufis.) Any subsequent
question or enquiries may be directed to me, since I share
his opinion on this subject. - Habib Siddiqui.
=====================================================

Question: Is a solid foundation in Islam necessary and/or helpful
to those on the Sufi path? Why or why not?

Answer: Let us first define "solid foundation". I take it to mean
belief in, and action according to, the teachings of Islam as
opposed to mere knowledge about Islam. The answer to the above
question, then, is: being a Muslim is a necessary, though not
sufficient, condition for being a Sufi. In other words, all Sufis
are Muslims but all Muslims are not Sufis. A Sufi (except for one
who is in the ecstatic state) is one who observes all the
canonical external laws of Islam and at the same time endeavors
to comprehend the internal meanings of such laws with a view to
understanding the Mystery of Creation and the Ways of the
Creator. (S)he does not stop at the externals but is eager to
know the Creator. Another difference is that while ordinary
believers worship God in the expectation of reward, Sufis do so
solely for the sake of the Beloved. The difference between an
ordinary Muslim and a Sufi is thus one of degree, not of kind.
While an ordinary Muslim avoids the unlawful, the Sufi avoids
even the doubtful. In the words of the great woman Sufi saint
Rabia al-Adawiya:

O Lord|
     If I worship You from fear of hell, cast me into hell.
     If I worship You from desire for paradise, deny me paradise.
     But if I worship You for Your sake only, deny me not Your
Face.

In another context, she says, "I will not serve God like a
laborer, in expectation of wages."

Mansur al-Hallaj similarly said:
   If Thou (God) wert to offer to sell me Paradise for a moment of
   my time with Thee, or for one moment of the least of my spiritual
   state, I would not buy it. If Thou wert to place before me Hell-
   fire, with all it contains of torment, I would think lightly of
   it in comparison with my state when Thou art hidden from me.
   Forgive the people and do not forgive me. I do not intercede
   with Thee for myself nor beseech Thee for what is due to me.
   Do with me what Thou wilt.

Yahya bin Muadh al-Razi said:
   My God, of Thy Mercy forgive my sins. O my Lord, though my sinful
   deeds make me fear Thy Justice, yet the greatness of Thy Compassion
   makes me hope in Thee. O Lord, I have not merited Paradise by my
   deeds and I cannot endure the pains of Hell, so I entrust myself
   simply to Thy Grace. If on the Day of Resurrection, I am asked:
   "What hast thou brought unto Me?" I shall reply: "What can one
   straight from prison, with unkempt hair and tattered garment,
   burdened with worldly cares and full of shame, bring unto Thee?
   Wash me from my sins, give unto me the robe of the redeemed, and
   in Thy Mercy cast me not away from Thy Presence."

Hassan al-Basri advised:
   Sell this present world of yours for the next world and you will
   gain both in entirety, but do not sell the next world for this
   world, for so shall you lose the two together. Act towards this
   as if it were not, and towards the world to come as if it would
   never cease to be.

Abul Qasim bin M. al-Junayed said:
   The journey from this world to the next is easy for the believer;
   the journey from the creatures to the Creator is hard;
   the journey from self to God is very hard;
   and to be able to abide in God is harder still.

     It may be further noted that no one claims, "I am a Sufi" as
though it were a sect. Other people usually call them by this
name. If you ask a Sufi about his identity, the response will be,
"I am an ordinary Muslim."

Proof: I shall try to provide the proof at three levels: (a)
common sense; (b) Sufi writings; and (c) metaphysics.

(a) The Creator's purpose of creating the universe and the
various forms of life we see today can only make sense if He
wanted to be known through His creation. Thus, he created human
beings - potentially the most superior form of life - in His Own
Image. How can the finite creature know the Infinite?

     Over time, He sent prophets and apostles whose sole purpose
was to call humankind to God. The form the message took evolved
over time, depending on the needs of the times and the receptive
capacity of the people. Thus, the message which Allah first sent
to Adam (AS) was finally perfected by Muhammad (SAW). Think of
Allah seeking to make His Light known. First, there was the
cinder, then the match, then the candle, ... , and finally the
sun. When the sun (i.e., Muhammad(SAW)) became visible, what is
the need of the candle? This is not to suggest that the candle
was useless. It helped to make possible the subsequent appearance
of the sun. When you purchase a medicine from the pharmacy, it
will have an expiry date after which the healing powers of the
medicine will have been gone. So it is with the revelations; note
that the medicine was useful for the time it was meant for.

     That is why Islam makes it incumbent on believers to believe
in all prophets. Muslims in general and Sufis in particular
respect and venerate all prophets including Abraham (AS), Jesus
(AS), Moses (AS) and Muhammad (SAW). This may be the reason that
some Christians falsely detect "Christian tendencies" in the
Sufi. In fact, the veneration of all prophets is a teaching of
the Quran. This is also why the arrival of Islam and perfection
of religion abrogates all previous religions. Thus, there will be
no prophet after Muhammad (SAW), the Message having being
delivered in its entireity, there is no need for any more
messenger. Thus, the advice of the Sufi Shaikh Salih al-Adawi to
the great Sufi ibn al-Arabi, "O my son, when you have tasted
honey, taste no more of vinegar. God has opened the Way to you,
so stand firm in it." Recall from basic Euclidean geometry that
there is only one straight line (or path) between two points;
every other path has to be crooked or curved. Recall also the
definition of a point: it has position but no magnitude; does
this sound similar to the human condition? Can we therefore
afford to take a path which is not straight? In the words of the
great Sufi Bayazid Bistami:

     The true seed was made in Adam's time. The miracle of life,
existence.
     It germinated in the period of Noah. The miracle of growth,
rescue.
     By the time of Abraham it had sent four branches. The
miracle of spreading, maintenance.
     The epoch of Moses saw the making of the grapes. The miracle
of fruit.
     The time of Jesus was that of ripening of the yield. The
miracle of tasting, joy.
     Muhammad's time saw the pressing of clear wine. The miracle
of attainment, transformation.

     In further proof of the fact that the Sufis consider that
there is only one true path, consider the following lines of
Rumi, one of the greatest Sufi poets and mystics:

     The Way has been marked out.
     If you depart from it, you will perish.
     If you try to interfere with the signs on the road, you will
be an evil-doer.

Or the following line from Saadi: "I have never seen a man lost
who was on a straight path."

(b) The following contains excerpts from the writings of Sufis
which leave no doubt that their belief rests firmly on the Quran
and the Sunnah.

(i) "Sufism means that God makes thee to die to thyself and to
become alive in Himself. It is to purify the heart from the
recurrence of creaturely temptations, to bid farewell to all
natural inclinations, to subdue the qualities which belong to
human nature, to keep far from the claims of the senses, to
adhere to spiritual qualities, to ascend by means of Divine
knowledge, to be occupied with that which is eternally the best,
to give wise counsel to all people, faithfully to observe the
Truth, and to follow the Prophet in respect of the religious
Law." -al-Junaid

(ii) "The way of salvation consists in cleaving to the fear of
God, and the fulfillment of what He has ordained (fara'id), and
scrupulous observation (wara') of what He has made lawful and
unlawful, and all His canonical sanctions (hudud) and the service
of God for His own sake alone (ikhlas), and in taking His Apostle
(i.e., Muhammad(SAW)) as a model." -al-Muhasibi

(iii) "May God make you a traditionist who is a Sufi and not a
Sufi who is a traditionist." -Sari Saqati

(iv) "The light of the Sufi's gnosis does not obscure the light
of his abstinence (wara'), he does not assert about esoteric
knowledge what is contrary to the exoteric knowledge of the Quran
and the Sunnah, and the gift of the power of working miracles
(karamat) should not lead him to draw aside the veil from what
God has made unlawful." -Bishr al-Hafi

(v) "You must remain true to the Quran.
     You must remain faithful to the Sunna of the Holy Prophet.
     You must be honest in all your doings and make an honest
living.
     You must not harm any individual.
     You must keep yourselves away from all sins.
     You must beg forgiveness for your sins.
     You must discharge all your responsibilities faithfully.
     He who does all this, on him is the Mercy of God."
                     -Abu Muhammad Sahal bin Abd Allah

(vi)  "Bandegi is three things: (1) obey the regulations of Shariah,
      (2) to be satisfied with predetermination and taqdir, and (3)
      instead of unbound self-independence, desires of nafs, wants
      and needs - to be satisfied with wishes of Allah." - al-Ghazzali.

(vii)  "Tasawuuf or spirituality is two things: (1) unbroken, pure
       relation with the Creator, and (2) courteous and patient
       relationship with the creation. And  a person who has the
       combination of these qualities is called a saint or a Sufi."
       - al-Ghazzali.

(viii) "The ones who like to be away from any madhab, try to bring him
       to madhab." - al-Ghazzali.

     I could continue with numerous quotations like the ones
above. It is clear, however, that the essential belief of the
Sufis is the Quran and the Sunnah (as taught by the Prophet
Muhammad (SAW)). If we examine (iii) above, it is obvious that
knowledge of the traditions and the Sunnah should come first, and
then by practising asceticism and devotion the person might
advance in knowledge of Sufism and become a Sufi gnostic. The
reverse process of trying to attain to the higher degrees of
Sufism without being well grounded in orthodox theology is
dangerous. And this is further emphasized in (viii) above.

     The final proof in this regard is that all known Sufis
scrupulously observed the religious injunctions of Islam, e.g.,
prayer, fasting, etc. The litanies they practised and later
passed on to students were always Islamic, usually Quranic verses or
Name(s) of Allah. Furthermore, all Sufis trace their chain of
command to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), usually through Ali (RA).
There are, however, some Sufis who trace their chain of command
through Abu Bakr (RA), Umar (RA) and Uwais al-Qarani (RA). There
is no Sufi who does not trace his/her chain to the Prophet (SAW).

     Let me end this section with what Junaid defines as the
eight qualities of a Sufi:

     Liberality such as that of Abraham;
     Acceptance of his lot, as Ishmael accepted;
     Patience, as possessed by Job;
     Capacity to communicate by symbolism, as in the case of
Zacharias;
     Estrangement from his own people, which was the case of
John;
     Woolen garb like the shepherd's mantle of Moses;
     Journeying, like the travelling of Jesus;
     Humility, as Muhammad had humility of spirit.

(c) The proof of every proposition presupposes an impartial and
unbiased reader. Can you prove that the color of something is
green to a person who is color-blind and sees green as yellow? I
hope you will consider the above with the light of reason. Note
that I have deliberately avoided any use of the Quran or Hadith.
The reason for that is this: the questioner asked whether Islam
is a prerequisite for Sufism and I have attempted to answer the
question based on the writings of Sufis themselves.

     Let me try to explain further with an analogy. How can you
prove to me what the taste of a mango is, if I have never eaten
it? You may describe it to me and I would understand that it is
solid. You could show it to me and I could see that the color is
yellow or red. Many other things are also yellow or red; so how
do I understand the essence of the mango? I could touch it and I
would know that it does not feel as hard as a rock. But: how can
I know what the taste is until I eat it? If I know several (or
many) people and everyone says that it is sweet, I shall be
strongly inclined to believe that it is sweet. But the ultimate
proof lies in one's tasting.
     Furthermore, what if I don't know what "sweet" means because
I have never experienced that taste? You may try to explain to me
that it is the opposite of "bitter" and I may understand to some
extent but not completely. But what if I have not even
experienced the sensation of bitterness? If I consulted fifty
people who have tasted a mango, I would get the same answer, "The
mango is sweet." Is my understanding of the mango's taste in any
way enhanced by these lengthy discourses? If, at the same time, I
also consult people who have no idea about a mango but pretend
they do, the inevitable result for me would be confusion.
     This is why genuine religious experiences cannot be
understood or proven by vicarious means but by one's own
knowledge and experience. In the words of the Sufi, al-Muhasibi,
"Knowledge is to the mind as a lamp is to the eye, and as the
light of the sun to the sight. Knowledge was given to man by God,
so that his reason, making use thereof, might enable him to
realize how the darkness of ignorance veils him from the
remembrance of the next world and the regard of his Lord upon
him. The reason is like the eye which seeks help from the lamp,
knowing what is result of darkness in the house, and so the wise
servant strives with his intellect to make use of knowledge and
to act in accordance with it, and so ward off the sinful
suggestions of the self and the Adversary (i.e., Satan)." An
example is that of a person walking along a road in darkness and
in heavy rain. Sight will not profit him unless he has a
flashlight, and the flashlight will not profit him unless he has
sound sight. Sound sight and the flashlight together will not
profit him unless he directs his eyes to the spot where he places
his feet. Sound sight is like the reason and the flashlight is
like knowledge and the gaze, directed toward his footings, is
like the gaining of assurance or proof (i.e., true faith) by
means of the reason and making every effort to understand,
without prejudice, what is presented to him by Divine Favor.
     Look around you and observe nature and read all books you
can with an open mind and God will show you the true path. It is,
however, obligatory on you to search and follow up the results of
your search with called-for actions. In the words of a poet:

     However much you study, you cannot know without action.
     A donkey laden with books is neither an intellectual nor a
wise man.
     Empty of essence, what learning has he -
     Whether upon him is firewood or book?

In a similar vein is the following writing of the Sufi, Khawwas:

                WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO HAVE DONE
     All wisdom can be stated in two lines:

     What is done for you - allow it to be done.
     What you must do yourself - make sure you do it.

     How can you know the truth? The Almighty, in His Compassion,
shows the correct path to every sincere seeker. Unless a person
is a dilettante - that is, one who is a dabbler and does not
follow the dictates of the Truth even when it is manifestly clear
to his heart - the Grace of Allah flows to the servant. This is
why a dabbler would be called an oppressor, i.e., one who opposes
the spiritual inclinations of the spirit. To quote another Sufi,
Sufyan b. Unayna al-Hilali al-Kufi, "Nothing is more injurious
than knowledge (of good) which is not acted upon." The
significance of this statement is that knowledge of good comes
about only due to the Mercy of God. A person who does not act on
such knowledge is, therefore, one who rejects the Favors of Allah
and is thus injuring his own spirit.

     In the search for Truth, let nothing come in the way:
family, parents, money, prestige. Just ask yourselves whether any
of these (or anything else, for that matter) will be able to
rescue you on Judgment Day. Talk to your conscience and it will
not lie. Thus a great Sufi, Abu Said, says, "Being a Sufi is to
put away what is in your head - imagined truth, preconceptions,
conditioning - and to face what may happen to you." Truth can be
attained only after surrender to the Will of Allah. This is the
basic teaching of Islam and of the Sufis. The Grace and Mercy of
Allah is, however, conditional on submisssion to His Will. In
this matter there is no co-sharer. Consider a person accused of
murder entering a plea that he killed someone because his father
told him to do so and he wanted to please his father. Would the
judge be any less lenient or would he be more inclined to punish
the father along with the son? If one follows a religion solely
(or mainly) because his/her parents do so, then it is not
religion, it is mere imitation (a form of behavior associated
with animals like monkeys because of their lack of deductive and
inductive powers) and is properly categorized as a cult. The
responsibility of every human being to the Creator is personal,
not collective. Let me quote a Bengali saying, "Follow your own
conscience and you may be a saint; follow the dictates of other
people and you will be worse than a dog."

     I desire to end this section with a quotation that is
attributed to Ali (RA).

                       TO BE A BELIEVER
     You probably seem to yourself to be a believer, even if you
are a believer in disbelief.
     But you cannot really believe in anything until you are
aware of the process by which you arrived at your position.
     Before you do this you must be ready to postulate that all
your beliefs may be wrong, that what you think to be a belief may
only be a variety of prejudice caused by your surroundings -
including the bequest of your ancestors for whom you may have a
sentiment.
     True belief belongs to the realm of true knowledge.
     Until you have knowledge, belief is mere coalesced opinions,
however it may seem to you.
     Coalesced opinions serve for ordinary living. Real belief
enables higher studies to be made.

     In conclusion, I can think of nothing better than to
reproduce the writings of an anonymous person, "Let the person
consider and reflect, seek the truth and apply the methods of
reflection; (s)he will arrive at the truth and affirm the
correction of a belief so long as (s)he does not show prejudice,
deny (the fruits of) reflection, or seek corruption, and performs
his/her deductions by the proper methods. The unbeliever uses
reason and reflection, but does not believe in (the fruits of)
reflection and denies it; and when one denies something his/her
use of it is never sound. The disputant denies, mocks, and does
not consider perfectly, but lays down corrupt premises, and
consequently never achieves correct reflection. Therefore, if the
disputant did not deny the validity of his/her means, was not
obstinate, and considered correctly, the proof of reason would
surely bring him/her to God." In the words of the Bengali Sufi
poet Lalan Shah, "Argument is a waste of time; the reward of
faith is close at hand."

     I hope my very limited knowledge of the Sufi way has enabled
me to answer your question adequately. A topic as vast as this
would require many volumes of exposition. (If you have any specific
question/comment about what I wrote or about any other matter where
I can be of any help, please do not hesitate to contact me through
H. Siddiqui.) The bottom line is this: prolixity in discourse or
argument is no substitute for faith and action. There really is
no time to lose because each breath may be our last. And the door
to truth is always open to the genuine seeker; if this were not
so, the very purpose of Creation would be defeated. Let me
recount here a story from the life of Rabia al-Adawi.

     Salih of Qazwin taught his disciples: "Whoever knocks at the
door continually, it will be opened to him."
     Rabia, hearing him one day, said: "How long will you say:
"It will be opened'? The door has never shut."

     This is the door of repentance which leads to the truth. The
precondition is the niyat (intention) of the seeker and the
latter's ability to make the search his/her primary goal for the
sake of which (s)he is willing to sacrifice everything. There
must be a willingness to put into action what is learnt. The
Grace of God flows in overabundance to the one who can do this.
If action does not follow, however, the Grace is withheld and the
so-called seeker then encounters only confusion. Think of a fly;
it settles down on sweet things as well as on filthy things like
garbage. On the other hand, the bee looks for sweet things only.
Have you ever seen a bee on the garbage heap? One who has tasted
honey has no need for (and indeed turns his/her face away from)
anything else. A genuine Sufi has available to him/her the
complete revelation in the form of the Quran and has no need for
other corrupted books. There is no sense for a human being to act
like a fly. Let us try to emulate the bee: having tasted honey,
let us not hanker after excrement. Some people - who may be best
described as pseudo-Sufis - are like flies. They will partake of
good food and then also eat from the garbage by trying to take
things from different religions. This is the veil of self-
delusion which is usually the product of the ego. The Sufi
movement is an attempt to understand the Truth; it is NOT a
hippie movement. In the words of Haji Bektash:

                   PERCEPTION AND EXPLANATION
     For him who has perception, a mere sign is enough.
     For him who does really heed, a thousand explanations are
not enough.

     May the Almighty lead us all to the true path and keep us
there. May He give us the means to avail of His overflowing Grace
at all times.