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Religion
종교 탐방
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| Islamic theology (kalam) and philosophy (falsafah) are two traditions of learning developed by Muslim thinkers who were engaged, on the one hand, in the rational clarification and defense of the principles of the Islamic religion (mutakallimun) and, on the other, in the pursuit of the ancient (Greek and Hellenistic, or Greco-Roman) sciences (falasifah). These thinkers took a position that was intermediate between the traditionalists, who remained attached to the literal expressions of the primary sources of Islamic doctrines (the Qur`an, or the Islamic scripture, and the Hadith, or the sayings and traditions of Muhammad) and who abhorred reasoning, and those whose reasoning led them to abandon the Islamic community (the ummah) altogether. The status of the believer in Islam remained in practice a juridical question, not a matter for theologians or philosophers to decide. Except in regard to the fundamental questions of the existence of God, Islamic revelation, and future reward and punishment, the juridical conditions for declaring someone an unbeliever or beyond the pale of Islam were so demanding as to make it almost impossible to make a valid declaration of this sort about a professing Muslim. In the course of events in Islamic history, representatives of certain theological movements, who happened to be jurists and who succeeded in converting rulers to their cause, made those rulers declare in favour of their movements and even encouraged them to persecute their opponents. Thus there arose in some localities and periods a semblance of an official, or orthodox, doctrine. (see also Index: Islamic philosophy) |
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The beginnings of theology in the Islamic tradition in the second half of the 7th century are not easily distinguishable from the beginnings of a number of other disciplines--Arabic philology, Qur`anic interpretation, the collection of the sayings and deeds of the prophet Muhammad (Hadith), jurisprudence, and historiography. Together with these other disciplines, Islamic theology is concerned with ascertaining the facts and context of the Islamic revelation and with understanding its meaning and implications as to what Muslims should believe and do after the revelation had ceased and the Islamic community had to chart its own way. During the first half of the 8th century, a number of questions--which centred on God's unity, justice, and other attributes and which were relevant to man's freedom, actions, and fate in the hereafter--formed the core of a more specialized discipline, which was called kalam ("speech"). This term (kalam) was used to designate the more specialized discipline because of the rhetorical and dialectical "speech" used in formulating the principal matters of Islamic belief, debating them, and defending them against Muslim and non-Muslim opponents. Gradually, kalam came to include all matters directly or indirectly relevant to the establishment and definition of religious beliefs, and it developed its own necessary or useful systematic rational arguments about human knowledge and the makeup of the world. Despite various efforts by later thinkers to fuse the problems of kalam with those of philosophy (and mysticism), theology preserved its relative independence from philosophy and other nonreligious sciences. It remained true to its original traditional and religious point of view, confined itself within the limits of the Islamic revelation, and assumed that these limits as it understood them were identical with the limits of truth. |
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The pre-Islamic and non-Islamic legacy with which early Islamic theology came into contact included almost all the religious thought that had survived and was being defended or disputed in Egypt, Syria, Iran, and India. It was transmitted by learned representatives of various Christian, Jewish, Manichaean (members of a dualistic religion founded by Mani, an Iranian prophet, in the 3rd century), Zoroastrian (members of a monotheistic, but later dualistic, religion founded by Zoroaster, a 7th-century-BC Iranian prophet), Indian (Hindu and Buddhist, primarily), and Sabian (star worshippers of Harran often confused with the Mandaeans) communities and by early converts to Islam conversant with the teachings, sacred writings, and doctrinal history of the religions of these areas. At first, access to this legacy was primarily through conversations and disputations with such men, rather than through full and accurate translations of sacred texts or theological and philosophic writings, although some translations from Pahlavi (a Middle Persian dialect), Syriac, and Greek must also have been available. (see also Index: Zoroastrianism) |
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The characteristic approach of early Islamic theology to non-Muslim literature was through oral disputations, the starting points of which were the statements presented or defended (orally) by the opponents. Oral disputation continued to be used in theology for centuries, and most theological writings reproduce or imitate that form. From such oral and written disputations, writers on religions and sects collected much of their information about non-Muslim sects. Much of Hellenistic (post-3rd century BC Greek cultural), Iranian, and Indian religious thought was thus encountered in an informal and indirect manner. |
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From the 9th century onward, theologians had access to an increasingly larger body of translated texts, but by then they had taken most of their basic positions. They made a selective use of the translation literature, ignoring most of what was not useful to them until the mystical theologian al-Ghazali (flourished 11th-12th centuries) showed them the way to study it, distinguish between the harmless and harmful doctrines contained in it, and refute the latter. By this time Islamic theology had coined a vast number of technical terms, and theologians (e.g., al-Jahiz) had forged Arabic into a versatile language of science; Arabic philology had matured; and the religious sciences (jurisprudence, the study of the Qur`an, Hadith, criticism, and history) had developed complex techniques of textual study and interpretation. The 9th-century translators availed themselves of these advances to meet the needs of patrons. Apart from demands for medical and mathematical works, the translation of Greek learning was fostered by the early 'Abbasid caliphs (8th-9th centuries) and their viziers as additional weapons (the primary weapon was theology itself) against the threat of Manichaeanism and other subversive ideas that went under the name zandaqah ("heresy" or "atheism"). (M.S.M./Ed.) (see also Index: 'Abbasid dynasty) |
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Despite the notion of a unified and consolidated community, as taught by the Prophet, serious differences arose within the Muslim community immediately after his death. According to the Sunnah, or traditionalist faction--who now constitute the majority of Islam--the Prophet had designated no successor. Thus the Muslims at Medina decided to elect a separate chief. Because he would not have been accepted by the Quraysh, the ummah, or Muslim community, would have disintegrated. Therefore, two of Muhammad's fathers-in-law, who were highly respected early converts as well as trusted lieutenants, prevailed upon the Medinans to elect a single leader, and the choice fell upon Abu Bakr, father of the Prophet's favoured wife, 'A` ishah. All of this occurred before the Prophet's burial (under the floor of 'A`ishah's hut, alongside the courtyard of the mosque). |
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According to the Shi'ah, or "Partisans" of 'Ali, the Prophet had designated as his successor his son-in-law 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, husband of his daughter Fatimah and father of his only surviving grandsons, Hasan and Husayn. His preference was general knowledge; yet, while 'Ali and the Prophet's closest kinsmen were preparing the body for burial, Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and Abu 'Ubaydah from Muhammad's Companions in the Quraysh tribe, met with the leaders of the Medinans and agreed to elect the aging Abu Bakr as the successor (khalifah, hence "caliph") of the Prophet. 'Ali and his kinsmen were dismayed but agreed for the sake of unity to accept the fait accompli because 'Ali was still young |
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After the murder of 'Uthman, the third caliph, 'Ali was invited by the Muslims at Medina to accept the caliphate. Thus 'Ali became the fourth caliph (656-661), but the disagreement over his right of succession brought about a major schism in Islam, between the Shi'ah, or "legitimists"--those loyal to 'Ali--and the Sunnah, or "traditionalists." Athough their differences were in the first instance political, arising out of the question of leadership, theological differences developed over time. |
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During the reign of the third caliph, 'Uthman, certain rebellious groups accused the Caliph of nepotism and misrule, and the resulting discontent led to his assassination. The rebels then recognized the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, 'Ali, as ruler but later deserted him and fought against him, accusing him of having committed a grave sin in submitting his claim to the caliphate to arbitration. The word kharaju, from which khariji is derived, means "to withdraw" and Khawarij were, therefore, seceders who believed in active dissent or rebellion against a state of affairs they considered to be gravely impious. |
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The basic doctrine of the Khawarij was that a person or a group who committed a grave error or sin and did not sincerely repent ceased to be Muslim. Mere profession of the faith--"there is no god but God; Muhammad is the prophet of God"--did not make a person a Muslim unless this faith was accompanied by righteous deeds. In other words, good works were an integral part of faith and not extraneous to it. The second principle that flowed from their aggressive idealism was militancy, or jihad, which the Khawarij considered to be among the cardinal principles, or pillars, of Islam. Contrary to the orthodox view, they interpreted the Qur`anic command about "enjoining good and forbidding evil" to mean the vindication of truth through the sword. The placing of these two principles together made the Khawarij highly inflammable fanatics, intolerant of almost any established political authority. They incessantly resorted to rebellion and as a result were virtually wiped out during the first two centuries of Islam. |
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Because the Khawarij believed that the basis of rule was righteous character and piety alone, any Muslim, irrespective of race, colour, and sex, could, in their view, become ruler--provided he or she satisfied the conditions of piety. This was in contrast to the claims of the Shi'ah (the party of Muhammad's son-in-law, 'Ali) that the ruler must belong to the family of the Prophet and to the doctrine of the Sunnah (followers of the Prophet's way) that the head of state must belong to the Prophet's tribe, i.e., the Quraysh. |
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A moderate group of the Khawarij, the Ibadis, avoided extinction, and its members are to be found today in North Africa and in Oman and other parts of East Africa, including Zanzibar Island. The Ibadis do not believe in aggressive methods and, throughout medieval Islam, remained dormant. Because of the interest of 20th-century Western scholars in this sect, the Ibadis have become active and have begun to publish their classical writings and their own journals. (see also Index: Ibadiyah) |
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Although Kharijism is now essentially a story of the past, it has left a permanent influence on Islam, because of reaction against it. It forced the religious leadership of the community to formulate a bulwark against religious intolerance and fanaticism. Positively, it has influenced the reform movements that have sprung up in Islam from time to time and that have treated spiritual and moral placidity and status quo with a quasi-Khawarij zeal and militancy. |
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The question of whether works are an integral part of faith or independent of it, as raised by the Khawarij, led to another important theological question: are human acts the result of a free human choice, or are they predetermined by God? This question brought with it a whole series of questions about the nature of God and of man. Although the initial impetus to theological thought, in the case of the Khawarij, had come from within Islam, full-scale religious speculation resulted from the contact and confrontation of Muslims with other cultures and systems of thought. (see also Index: free will, determinism, predestination) |
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As a consequence of translations of Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic during the 8th and 9th centuries and the controversies of Muslims with Dualists (e.g., Gnostics and Manichaeans), Buddhists, and Christians, a more powerful movement of rational theology emerged; its representatives are called the Mu'tazilah (literally "those who stand apart," a reference to the fact that they dissociated themselves from extreme views of faith and infidelity). On the question of the relationship of faith to works, the Mu'tazilah--who called themselves "champions of God's unity and justice"--taught, like the Khawarij, that works were an essential part of faith but that a person guilty of a grave sin, unless he repented, was neither a Muslim nor yet a non-Muslim but occupied a "middle ground." They further defended the position, as a central part of their doctrine, that man was free to choose and act and was, therefore, responsible for his actions. Divine predestination of human acts, they held, was incompatible with God's justice and human responsibility. The Mu'tazilah, therefore, recognized two powers, or actors, in the universe--God in the realm of nature and man in the domain of moral human action. The Mu'tazilah explained away the apparently predeterministic verses of the Qur`an as being metaphors and exhortations. |
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They claimed that human reason, independent of revelation, was capable of discovering what is good and what is evil, although revelation corroborated the findings of reason. Man is, therefore, under moral obligation to do the right even if there were no prophets and no divine revelation. Revelation has to be interpreted, therefore, in conformity with the dictates of rational ethics. Yet revelation is neither redundant nor passive. Its function is twofold. First, its aim is to aid man in choosing the right, because in the conflict between good and evil man often falters and makes the wrong choice against his rational judgment. God, therefore, must send prophets, for he must do the best for man; otherwise, the demands of divine grace and mercy cannot be fulfilled. Secondly, revelation is also necessary to communicate the positive obligations of religion--e.g., prayers and fasting--which cannot be known without revelation. |
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God is viewed by the Mu'tazilah as pure Essence, without eternal attributes, because they hold that the assumption of eternal attributes in conjunction with Essence will result in a belief in multiple coeternals and violate the pure, unadulterated unity of God. God knows, wills, and acts by virtue of his Essence and not through attributes of knowledge, will, and power. Nor does he have an eternal attribute of speech, of which the Qur`an and other earlier revelations were effects; the Qur`an was, therefore, created in time and was not eternal. |
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The promises of reward that God has made in the Qur`an to righteous people and the threats of punishment he has issued to evildoers must be carried out by him on the Day of Judgment. For promises and threats are viewed as reports about the future, and if not fulfilled exactly those reports will turn into lies, which are inconceivable of God. Also, if God were to withhold punishment for evil and forgive it, this would be as unjust as withholding reward for righteousness. There can be neither undeserved punishment nor undeserved reward; otherwise, good may just as well turn into evil and evil into good. From this position it follows that there can be no intercession on behalf of sinners. |
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When, in the early 9th century, the 'Abbasid caliph al- Ma`mun raised Mu'tazilism to the status of the state creed, the Mu'tazilite rationalists showed themselves to be illiberal and persecuted their opponents. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (died 855), an eminent orthodox figure and founder of one of the four orthodox schools of Islamic law, was subjected to flogging and imprisonment for his refusal to subscribe to the doctrine that the Qur`an, the word of God, was created in time. |
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In the 10th century a reaction began against the Mu'tazilah that culminated in the formulation and subsequent general acceptance of another set of theological propositions, which became Sunni, or "orthodox" theology. |
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The issues raised by these early schisms and the positions adopted by them enabled the Sunni orthodoxy to define its own doctrinal positions in turn. Much of the content of Sunni theology was, therefore, supplied by its reactions to those schisms. The term sunnah, which means a "well-trodden path" and in the religious terminology of Islam normally signifies "the example set by the Prophet," in the present context simply means the traditional and well-defined way. In this context, the term sunnah usually is accompanied by the appendage "the consolidated majority" (al- jama'ah). The term clearly indicates that the traditional way is the way of the consolidated majority of the community as against peripheral or "wayward" positions of sectarians, who by definition must be erroneous. |
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With the rise of the orthodoxy, then, the foremost and elemental factor that came to be emphasized was the notion of the majority of the community. The concept of the community so vigorously pronounced by the earliest doctrine of the Qur`an gained both a new emphasis and a fresh context with the rise of Sunnism. Whereas the Qur`an had marked out the Muslim community from other communities, Sunnism now emphasized the views and customs of the majority of the community in contradistinction to peripheral groups. An abundance of tradition (Hadith) came to be attributed to the Prophet to the effect that Muslims must follow the majority's way, that minority groups are all doomed to hell, and that God's protective hand is always on (the majority of) the community, which can never be in error. Under the impact of the new Hadith, the community, which had been charged by the Qur`an with a mission and commanded to accept a challenge, now became transformed into a privileged one that was endowed with infallibility. |
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At the same time, while condemning schisms and branding dissent as heretical, Sunnism developed the opposite trend of accommodation, catholicity, and synthesis. A putative tradition of the Prophet that says "differences of opinion among my community are a blessing" was given wide currency. This principle of toleration ultimately made it possible for diverse sects and schools of thought--notwithstanding a wide range of difference in belief and practice--to recognize and coexist with each other. No group may be excluded from the community unless it itself formally renounces Islam. As for individuals, tests of heresy may be applied to their beliefs, but, unless a person is found to flagrantly violate or deny the unity of God or expressly negate the prophethood of Muhammad, such tests usually have no serious consequences. Catholicity was orthodoxy's answer to the intolerance and secessionism of the Khawarij and the severity of the Mu'tazilah. As a consequence, a formula was adopted in which good works were recognized as enhancing the quality of faith but not as entering into the definition and essential nature of faith. This broad formula saved the integrity of the community at the expense of moral strictness and doctrinal uniformity. |
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On the question of free will, Sunni orthodoxy attempted a synthesis between man's responsibility and God's omnipotence. The champions of orthodoxy accused the Mu'tazilah of quasi-Magian Dualism (Zoroastrianism) insofar as the Mu'tazilah admitted two independent and original actors in the universe: God and man. To the orthodox it seemed blasphemous to hold that man could act wholly outside the sphere of divine omnipotence, which had been so vividly portrayed by the Qur`an but which the Mu'tazilah had endeavoured to explain away in order to make room for man's free and independent action. |
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The Sunni formulation, however, as presented by al- Ash'ari and al- Maturidi, Sunni's two main representatives in the 10th century, shows palpable differences despite basic uniformity. Al-Ash'ari taught that human acts were created by God and acquired by man and that human responsibility depended on this acquisition. He denied, however, that man could be described as an actor in a real sense. Al-Maturidi, on the other hand, held that although God is the sole Creator of everything, including human acts, nevertheless, man is an actor in the real sense, for acting and creating were two different types of activity involving different aspects of the same human act. |
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In conformity with their positions, al-Ash'ari believed that man did not have the power to act before he actually acted and that God created this power in him at the time of action; and al-Maturidi taught that before the action man has a certain general power for action but that this power becomes specific to a particular action only when the action is performed, because, after full and specific power comes into existence, action cannot be delayed. |
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Al-Ash'ari and his school also held that human reason was incapable of discovering good and evil and that acts became endowed with good or evil qualities through God's declaring them to be such. Because man in his natural state regards his own self-interest as good and that which thwarts his interests as bad, natural human reason is unreliable. Independently of revelation, therefore, murder would not be bad nor the saving of life good. Furthermore, because God's Will makes acts good or bad, one cannot ask for reasons behind the divine law, which must be simply accepted. Al-Maturidi takes an opposite position, not materially different from that of the Mu'tazilah: human reason is capable of finding out good and evil, and revelation aids human reason against the sway of human passions. |
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Despite these important initial differences between the two main Sunni schools of thought, the doctrines of al-Maturidi became submerged in course of time under the expanding popularity of the Ash'arite school, which gained wide currency particularly after the 11th century because of the influential activity of the Sufi theologian al-Ghazali. Because these later theologians placed increasing emphasis on divine omnipotence at the expense of the freedom and efficacy of the human will, a deterministic outlook on life became characteristic of Sunni Islam--reinvigorated by the Sufi world view, which taught that nothing exists except God, whose being is the only real being. This general deterministic outlook produced, in turn, a severe reformist reaction in the teachings of Ibn Taymiyah, a 14th-century theologian who sought to rehabilitate human freedom and responsibility and whose influence has been strongly felt through the reform movements in the Muslim world since the 18th century. |
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The Shi'ah are the only important surviving sect in Islam. As noted above, they owe their origin to the hostility between 'Ali (the fourth caliph and son-in-law of the Prophet) and the Umayyad dynasty (661-750). After 'Ali's death, the Shi'ah (Party; i.e., of 'Ali) demanded the restoration of rule to 'Ali's family, and from that demand developed the Shi'ite legitimism, or the divine right of the holy family to rule. In the early stages, the Shi'ah used this legitimism to cover the protest against the Arab hegemony under the Umayyads and to agitate for social reform. (see also Index: 'Alid family) |
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Gradually, however, Shi'ism developed a theological content for its political stand. Probably under Gnostic (esoteric, dualistic, and speculative) and old Iranian (dualistic) influences, the figure of the political ruler, the imam(exemplary "leader"), was transformed into a metaphysical being, a manifestation of God and the primordial light that sustains the universe and bestows true knowledge on man. Through the imam alone the hidden and true meaning of the Qur`anic revelation can be known, because the imam alone is infallible. The Shi'ah thus developed a doctrine of esoteric knowledge that was adopted also, in a modified form, by the Sufis, or Islamic mystics (see below Islamic mysticism, Sufism). The orthodox Shi'ah recognize 12 such imams, the last (Muhammad) having disappeared in the 9th century. Since that time, the mujtahids(i.e., the Shi'i divines) have been able to interpret law and doctrine under the putative guidance of the imam, who will return toward the end of time to fill the world with truth and justice. (see also Index: esotericism, Ithna 'Ashariyah, messiah) |
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On the basis of their doctrine of imamology, the Shi'ah emphasize their idealism and transcendentalism in conscious contrast with Sunni pragmatism. Thus, whereas the Sunnis believe in the ijma' ("consensus") of the community as the source of decision making and workable knowledge, the Shi'ah believe that knowledge derived from fallible sources is useless and that sure and true knowledge can come only through a contact with the infallible imam. Again, in marked contrast to Sunnism, Shi'ism adopted the Mu'tazilite doctrine of the freedom of the human will and the capacity of human reason to know good and evil, although its position on the question of the relationship of faith to works is the same as that of the Sunnis. |
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Parallel to the doctrine of an esoteric knowledge, Shi'ism, because of its early defeats and persecutions, also adopted the principle of taqiyahor dissimulation of faith in a hostile environment. Introduced first as a practical principle, taqiyah, which is also attributed to 'Ali and other imams, became an important part of the Shi'ah religious teaching and practice. In the sphere of law, Shi'ism differs from Sunni law mainly in allowing a temporary marriage, called mut'ah which can be legally contracted for a fixed period of time on the stipulation of a fixed dower. |
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From a spiritual point of view, perhaps the greatest difference between Shi'ism and Sunnism is the former's introduction into Islam of the passion motive, which is conspicuously absent from Sunni Islam. The violent death (in 680) of 'Ali's son, Husayn, at the hands of the Umayyad troops is celebrated with moving orations, passion plays, and processions in which the participants, in a state of emotional frenzy, beat their breasts with heavy chains and sharp instruments, inflicting wounds on their bodies. This passion motive has also influenced the Sunni masses in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent, who participate in passion plays called ta'ziyahs Such celebrations are, however, absent from Egypt and North Africa. |
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Although the Shi'ah number only about 40,000,000 (Shi'ism has been the official religion in Iran since the 16th century), Shi'ism has exerted a great influence on Sunni Islam in several ways. The veneration in which all Muslims hold 'Ali and his family and the respect shown to 'Ali's descendants (who are called sayyidsin the East and sharifs in North Africa) are obvious evidence of this influence. |
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Besides the main body of Twelver (Ithna 'Ashariyah) Shi'ah, Shi'ism has produced a variety of more or less extremist sects, the most important of them being the Isma'ili. Instead of recognizing Musa as the seventh imam, as did the main body of the Shi'ah, the Isma'ilis upheld the claims of his elder brother Isma'il. One group of Isma'ilis, called Seveners (Sab'iyah), considered Isma'il the seventh and last of the imams. The majority of Isma'ilis, however, believed that the imamate continued in the line of Isma'il's descendants. The Isma'ili teaching spread during the 9th century from North Africa to Sind, in India, and the Isma'ili Fatimid dynasty succeeded in establishing a prosperous empire in Egypt. Isma'ilis are subdivided into two groups -- the Nizaris, headed by the Aga Khan, and the Musta'lis in Bombay, with their own spiritual head. The Isma'ilis are to be found mainly in East Africa, Pakistan, India, and Yemen. (see also Index: Isma'ilite, Nizari Isma'iliyah) |
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In their theology, the Isma'ilis have absorbed the most extreme elements and heterodox ideas. The universe is viewed as a cyclic process, and the unfolding of each cycle is marked by the advent of seven "speakers"--messengers of God with Scriptures--each of whom is succeeded by seven "silents"--messengers without revealed scriptures; the last speaker (the Prophet Muhammad) is followed by seven imams who interpret the Will of God to man and are, in a sense, higher than the Prophet because they draw their knowledge directly from God and not from the Angel of Revelation. During the 10th century, certain Isma'ili intellectuals formed a secret society called the Brethren of Purity, which issued a philosophical encyclopaedia, The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, aiming at the liquidation of positive religions in favour of a universalist spirituality. (see also Index: "Rasa`il ikhwan as-safa` wa khillan al-wafa` ," ) |
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The late Aga Khan III (1887-1957) had taken several measures to bring his followers closer to the main body of the Muslims. The Isma'ilis, however, still have not mosques but jama'at khanahs ("gathering houses"), and their mode of worship bears little resemblance to that of the Muslims generally. |
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Several other sects arose out of the general Shi'ite movement--e.g., the Nusayris, the Yazidis, and the Druzes--which are sometimes considered as independent from Islam. The Druzes arose in the 11th century out of a cult of deification of the Fatimid caliph al- Hakim. |
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During a 19th-century anticlerical movement in Iran, a certain 'Ali Mohammad of Shiraz appeared, declaring himself to be the Bab ("Gate"; i.e., to God). At that time the climate in Iran was generally favourable to messianic ideas. He was, however, bitterly opposed by the Shi'ah 'ulama` (council of learned men) and was executed in 1850. After his death, his two disciples, Sobh-e Azal and Baha` Ullah, broke and went in different directions. Baha` Ullah eventually declared his religion--stressing a humanitarian pacificism and universalism--to be an independent religion outside Islam. The Baha`i faith won a considerable number of converts in North America during the early 20th century (see also in the Micropædia: DRUZE and BAHA`I FAITH ). |
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Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, emerged out of early ascetic reactions on the part of certain religiously sensitive personalities against the general worldliness that had overtaken the Muslim community and the purely "externalist" expressions of Islam in law and theology. These persons stressed the Muslim qualities of moral motivation, contrition against overworldliness, and "the state of the heart" as opposed to the legalist formulations of Islam. For a complete exposition of Sufi history, beliefs, and practices, see below Islamic mysticism, Sufism . |
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In the latter half of the 19th century in Punjab, India, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be an inspired prophet. At first a defender of Islam against Christian missionaries, he then later adopted certain doctrines of the Indian Muslim modernist Sayyid Ahmad Khan--namely, that Jesus died a natural death and was not assumed into heaven as the Islamic orthodoxy believed and that jihad "by the sword" had been abrogated and replaced with jihad "of the pen." His aim appears to have been to synthesize all religions under Islam, for he declared himself to be not only the manifestation of the Prophet Muhammad but also the Second Advent of Jesus, as well as Krishna for the Hindus, among other claims. He did not announce, however, any new revelation or new law. |
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In 1914 a schism over succession occurred among the Ahmadiyah. One group that seceded from the main body, which was headed by a son of the founder, disowned the prophetic claims of Ghulam Ahmad and established its centre in Lahore (in modern Pakistan). The main body of the Ahmadiyah (known as the Qadiani, after the village of Qadian, birthplace of the founder and the group's first centre) evolved a separatist organization and, after the partition of India in 1947, moved their headquarters to Rabwah in what was then West Pakistan. |
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Both groups are noted for their missionary work, particularly in the West and in Africa. Within the Muslim countries, however, there is fierce opposition to the main group because of its claim that Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet (most Muslim sects believe in the finality of prophethood with Muhammad) and because of its separatist organization. Restrictions were imposed on the Ahmadiyah in 1974 and again in 1984 by the Pakistani government, which declared that the group was not Muslim and prohibited them from engaging in various Islamic activities. |
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After World War II an Islamic movement arose among blacks in the United States; members called themselves the Nation of Islam, but they were popularly known as Black Muslims. Although they adopted some Islamic social practices, the group was in large part a black separatist and social protest movement. Their leader, Elijah Muhammad, who claimed to be an inspired prophet, interpreted the doctrine of Resurrection in an unorthodox sense as the revival of oppressed ("dead") peoples. The popular leader and spokesman Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) broke with Elijah Muhammad and adopted more orthodox Islamic views. He was assassinated in 1965. After the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, the group was renamed World Community of Islam in the West and officially abandoned its separatist aims. The name was again changed in the late 1970s, to American Muslim Mission. |
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Mysticism is that aspect of Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of man and God and to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world. |
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Islamic mysticism is called tasawwuf (literally, "to dress in wool") in Arabic, but it has been called Sufism in Western languages since the early 19th century. An abstract word, Sufism derives from the Arabic term for a mystic, sufi, which is in turn derived from suf, "wool," plausibly a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics. The Sufis are also generally known as "the poor," fuqara`, plural of the Arabic faqir, in Persian darvish, whence the English words fakir and dervish. |
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Though the roots of Islamic mysticism formerly were supposed to have stemmed from various non-Islamic sources in ancient Europe and even India, it now seems established that the movement grew out of early Islamic asceticism that developed as a counterweight to the increasing worldiness of the expanding Muslim community; only later were foreign elements that were compatible with mystical theology and practices adopted and made to conform to Islam. |
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By educating the masses and deepening the spiritual concerns of the Muslims, Sufism has played an important role in the formation of Muslim society. Opposed to the dry casuistry of the lawyer-divines, the mystics nevertheless scrupulously observed the commands of the divine law. The Sufis have been further responsible for a large-scale missionary activity all over the world, which still continues. Sufis have elaborated the image of the prophet Muhammad--the founder of Islam--and have thus largely influenced Muslim piety by their Muhammad-mysticism. Without the Sufi vocabulary, Persian and other literatures related to it, such as Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, and Panjabi, would lack their special charms. Through the poetry of these literatures mystical ideas spread widely among the Muslims. In some countries Sufi leaders were also active politically. |
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Islamic mysticism had several stages of growth, including (1) the appearance of early asceticism, (2) the development of a classical mysticism of divine love, and (3) the rise and proliferation of fraternal orders of mystics. Despite these general stages, however, the history of Islamic mysticism is largely a history of individual mystic experience. |
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The first stage of Sufism appeared in pious circles as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (AD 661-749). From their practice of constantly meditating on the Qur`anic words about Doomsday, the ascetics became known as "those who always weep" and those who considered this world "a hut of sorrows." They were distinguished by their scrupulous fulfillment of the injunctions of the Qur`an and tradition, by many acts of piety, and especially by a predilection for night prayers. |
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The introduction of the element of love, which changed asceticism into mysticism, is ascribed to Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyah (died 801), a woman from Basra who first formulated the Sufi ideal of a love of God that was disinterested, without hope for paradise and without fear of hell. In the decades after Rabi'ah, mystical trends grew everywhere in the Islamic world, partly through an exchange of ideas with Christian hermits. A number of mystics in the early generations had concentrated their efforts upon tawakkul, absolute trust in God, which became a central concept of Sufism. An Iraqi school of mysticism became noted for its strict self-control and psychological insight. The Iraqi school was initiated by al-Muhasibi (died 857)--who believed that purging the soul in preparation for companionship with God was the only value of asceticism. Its teachings of classical sobriety and wisdom were perfected by Junayd of Baghdad (died 910), to whom all later chains of the transmission of doctrine and legitimacy go back. In an Egyptian school of Sufism, the Nubian Dhu an-Nun (died 859) reputedly introduced the technical term ma' rifah ("interior knowledge"), as contrasted to learnedness; in his hymnical prayers he joined all nature in the praise of God--an idea based on the Qur`an and later elaborated in Persian and Turkish poetry. In the Iranian school, Abu Yazid al-Bistami (died 874) is usually considered to have been representative of the important doctrine of annihilation of the self, fana` (see below); the strange symbolism of his sayings prefigures part of the terminology of later mystical poets. At the same time the concept of divine love became more central, especially among the Iraqi Sufis. Its main representatives are Nuri, who offered his life for his brethren, and Sumnun "the Lover." |
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The first of the theosophical speculations based on mystical insights about the nature of man and the essence of the Prophet were produced by such Sufis as Sahl at-Tustari (died c. 896). Some Hellenistic ideas were later adopted by al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi (died 898). Sahl was the master of al-Husayn ibn Mansur al- Hallaj, who has become famous for his phrase ana al-haqq, "I am the Creative Truth" (often rendered "I am God"), which was later interpreted in a pantheistic sense but is, in fact, only a condensation of his theory of huwa huwa ("He he"): God loved himself in his essence, and created Adam "in his image." Hallaj was executed in 922 in Baghdad as a result of his teachings; he is, for later mystics and poets, the "martyr of Love" par excellence, the enthusiast killed by the theologians. His few poems are of exquisite beauty; his prose, which contains an outspoken Muhammad-mysticism--i.e., mysticism centred on the prophet Muhammad--is as beautiful as it is difficult. |
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Sufi thought was in these early centuries transmitted in small circles. Some of the shaykhs, Sufi mystical leaders or guides of such circles, were also artisans. In the 10th century, it was deemed necessary to write handbooks about the tenets of Sufism in order to soothe the growing suspicions of the orthodox; the compendiums composed in Arabic by Abu Talib Makki, Sarraj, and Kalabadhi in the late 10th century, and by Qushayri and, in Persian, by Hujviri in the 11th century reveal how these authors tried to defend Sufism and to prove its orthodox character. It should be noted that the mystics belonged to all schools of Islamic law and theology of the times. |
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The last great figure in the line of classical Sufism is Abu Hamid al- Ghazali (died 1111), who wrote, among numerous other works, the Ihya` 'ulum ad-din ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences"), a comprehensive work that established moderate mysticism against the growing theosophical trends--which tended to equate God and the world--and thus shaped the thought of millions of Muslims. His younger brother, Ahmad al-Ghazali, wrote one of the subtlest treatises (Sawanih; "Occurrences" [i.e., stray thoughts]) on mystical love, a subject that then became the main subject of Persian poetry. |
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Slightly later, mystical orders (fraternal groups centring around the teachings of a leader-founder) began to crystallize. The 13th century, though politically overshadowed by the invasion of the Mongols into the Eastern lands of Islam and the end of the 'Abbasid caliphate, was also the golden age of Sufism: the Spanish-born Ibn al'Arabi created a comprehensive theosophical system (concerning the relation of God and the world) that was to become the cornerstone for a theory of "Unity of Being." According to this theory all existence is one, a manifestation of the underlying divine reality. His Egyptian contemporary Ibn al-Farid wrote the finest mystical poems in Arabic. Two other important mystics, who died c. AD 1220, were a Persian poet, Farid od-Din 'Attar, one of the most fertile writers on mystical topics, and a Central Asian master, Najmuddin Kubra, who presented elaborate discussions of the psychological experiences through which the mystic adept has to pass. |
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The greatest mystical poet in the Persian language, Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (1207-73), was moved by mystical love to compose his lyrical poetry that he attributed to his mystical beloved, Shams ad-Din of Tabriz, as a symbol of their union. Rumi's didactic poem Masnavi in about 26,000 couplets--a work that is for the Persian-reading mystics second in importance only to the Qur`an--is an encyclopaedia of mystical thought in which everyone can find his own religious ideas. Rumi inspired the organization of the whirling dervishes--who sought ecstasy through an elaborate dancing ritual, accompanied by superb music. His younger contemporary Yunus Emre inaugurated Turkish mystical poetry with his charming verses that were transmitted by the Bektashiyah (Bektasi) order of dervishes and are still admired in modern Turkey. In Egypt, among many other mystical trends, an order--known as Shadhiliyah--was founded by ash-Shadhili (died 1258); its main literary representative, Ibn 'Ata` Allah of Alexandria, wrote sober aphorisms (hikam). (see also Index: Turkish literature) |
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At that time, the basic ideals of Sufism permeated the whole world of Islam; and at its borders as, for example, in India, Sufis largely contributed to shaping Islamic society. Later some of the Sufis in India were brought closer to Hindu mysticism by an overemphasis on the idea of divine unity which became almost monism--a religiophilosophic perspective according to which there is only one basic reality, and the distinction between God and the world (and man) tends to disappear. The syncretistic attempts of the Mughal emperor Akbar (died 1605) to combine different forms of belief and practice, and the religious discussions of the crown prince Dara Shukoh (executed for heresy, 1659) were objectionable to the orthodox. Typically, the countermovement was again undertaken by a mystical order, the Naqshbandiyah, a Central Asian fraternity founded in the 14th century. Contrary to the monistic trends of the school of wahdat al-wujud ("existential unity of being"), the later Naqshbandiyah defended the wahdat ash-shuhud ("unity of vision"), a subjective experience of unity, occurring only in the mind of the believer, and not as an objective experience. Ahmad Sirhindi (died 1624) was the major protagonist of this movement in India. His claims of sanctity were surprisingly daring: he considered himself the divinely invested master of the universe. His refusal to concede the possibility of union between man and God (characterized as "servant" and "Lord") and his sober law-bound attitude gained him and his followers many disciples, even at the Mughal court and as far away as Turkey. In the 18th century, Shah Wali Allah of Delhi was connected with an attempt to reach a compromise between the two inimical schools of mysticism; he was also politically active and translated the Qur`an into Persian, the official language of Mughal India. Other Indian mystics of the 18th century, such as Mir Dard, played a decisive role in forming the newly developing Urdu poetry. (see also Index: Hinduism, Mughal dynasty) |
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In the Arabic parts of the Islamic world, only a few interesting mystical authors are found after 1500. They include ash-Sha'rani in Egypt (died 1565) and the prolific writer 'Abd al-Ghani an-Nabulusi in Syria (died 1731). Turkey produced some fine mystical poets in the 17th and 18th centuries. The influence of the mystical orders did not recede; rather new orders came into existence, and most literature was still tinged with mystical ideas and expressions. Political and social reformers in the Islamic countries have often objected to Sufism because they have generally considered it as backward, hampering the free development of society. Thus, the orders and dervish lodges in Turkey were closed by Kemal Atatürk in 1925. Yet, their political influence is still palpable, though under the surface. Such modern Islamic thinkers as the Indian philosopher Muhammad Iqbal have attacked traditional monist mysticism and have gone back to the classical ideals or divine love as expressed by Hallaj and his contemporaries. The activities of modern Muslim mystics in the cities are mostly restricted to spiritual education. |
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Though a prophetic saying (Hadith) claims that "he who knows God becomes silent," the Sufis have produced a literature of impressive extent and could defend their writing activities with another Hadith: "He who knows God talks much." The first systematic books explaining the tenets of Sufism date from the 10th century; but earlier, Muhasibi had already written about spiritual education, Hallaj had composed meditations in highly concentrated language, and many Sufis had used poetry for conveying their experiences of the ineffable mystery or had instructed their disciples in letters of cryptographic density. The accounts of Sufism by Sarraj and his followers, as well as the tabaqat (biographical works) by Sulami, Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, and others, together with some biographies of individual masters, are the sources for knowledge of early Sufism. (see also Index: Islamic arts) |
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Early mystical commentaries on the Qur`an are only partly extant, often preserved in fragmentary quotations in later sources. With the formation of mystical orders, books about the behaviour of the Sufi in various situations became important, although this topic had already been touched on in such classical works as Adab al-muridin ("The Adepts' Etiquette") by Abu Najib as-Suhrawardi (died 1168), the founder of the Suhrawardiyah order and uncle of the author of the oft translated 'Awarif al-ma'arif ("The Well-known Sorts of Knowledge"). The theosophists had to condense their systems in readable form; Ibn al-'Arabi's al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah ("The Meccan Revelations") is the textbook of wahdat al-wujud (God and creation as two aspects of one reality); his smaller work on the peculiar character of the prophets--Fusus al-hikam ("The Bezels--or cutting edges--of Wisdom")--became even more popular. |
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Later mystics commented extensively upon the classical sources and, sometimes, translated them into their mother tongues. A literary type that has flourished especially in India since the 13th century is the malfuzat, a collection of sayings of the mystical leader, which are psychologically interesting and allow glimpses into the political and social situation of the Muslim community. Collections of letters of the shaykhs are similarly revealing. Sufi literature abounds in hagiography, either biographies of all known saints from the Prophet to the day of the author, or of saints of a specific order, or of those who lived in a certain town or province, so that much information on the development of Sufi thought and practice is available if sources are critically sifted. |
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The greatest contribution of Sufism to Islamic literature, however, is poetry--beginning with charming, short Arabic love poems (sometimes sung for a mystical concert, sama') that express the yearning of the soul for union with the beloved. The love-relation prevailing in most Persian poetry is that between a man and a beautiful youth; less often, as in the writings of Ibn al-'Arabi and Ibn al-Farid, eternal beauty is symbolized through female beauty; in Indo-Muslim popular mystical songs the soul is the loving wife, God the longed-for husband. Long mystic-didactic poems (masnavis) were written to introduce the reader to the problems of unity and love by means of allegories and parables. After Sana`i's (died 1131?) Hadiqat al-haqiqah wa shari'at at-tariqah ("The Garden of Truth and the Law of Practice"),came 'Attar's Manteq ot-teyr ("The Birds' Conversation") and Rumi's Masnavi-ye ma'navi ("Spiritual Couplets"). These three works are the sources that have furnished poets for centuries with mystical ideas and images. Typical of Sufi poetry is the hymn in praise of God, expressed in chains of repetitions. |
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The mystics also contributed largely to the development of national and regional literatures, for they had to convey their message to the masses in their own languages: in Turkey as well as in the Panjabi-, the Sindhi-, and the Urdu-speaking areas of South Asia, the first true religious poetry was written by Sufis, who blended classical Islamic motifs with inherited popular legends and used popular rather than Persian metres. Sufi poetry expressing divine love and mystical union through the metaphors of profane love and union often resembled ordinary worldly love poetry; and nonmystical poetry made use of the Sufi vocabulary, thus producing an ambiguity that is felt to be one of the most attractive and characteristic features of Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literatures. Sufi ideas thus permeated the hearts of all those who hearkened to poetry. An example is al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, the 10th-century martyr-mystic, who is as popular in modern progressive Urdu poetry as he was with the "God-intoxicated" Sufis; he has been converted into a symbol of suffering for one's ideals. |
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The mystics drew their vocabulary largely from the Qur`an, which for Muslims contains all divine wisdom and has to be interpreted with ever-increasing insight. In the Qur`an, mystics found the threat of the Last Judgment, but they also found the statement that God "loves them and they love him," which became the basis for love-mysticism. Strict obedience to the religious law and imitation of the Prophet were basic for the mystics. By rigid introspection and mental struggle the mystic tried to purify his baser self from even the smallest signs of selfishness, thus attaining ikhlas, absolute purity of intention and act. Tawakkul (trust in God) was sometimes practiced to such an extent that every thought of tomorrow was considered irreligious. "Little sleep, little talk, little food" were fundamental; fasting became one of the most important preparations for the spiritual life. |
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The central concern of the Sufis, as of every Muslim, was tawhidthe witness that "There is no deity but God." This truth had to be realized in the existence of each individual, and so the expressions differ: early Sufism postulated the approach to God through love and voluntary suffering until a unity of will was reached; Junayd spoke of "recognizing God as He was before creation"; God is seen as the One and only actor; He alone "has the right to say 'I'." Later, tawhid came to mean the knowledge that there is nothing existent but God, or the ability to see God and creation as two aspects of one reality, reflecting each other and depending upon each other (wahdat al-wujud). |
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The mystics realized that beyond the knowledge of outward sciences intuitive knowledge was required in order to receive that illumination to which reason has no access. Dhawq, direct "tasting" of experience, was essential for them. But the inspirations and "unveilings" that God grants such mystics by special grace must never contradict the Qur`an and tradition and are valid only for the person concerned. Even the Malamatis, who attracted public contempt upon themselves by outwardly acting against the law, in private life strictly followed the divine commands. Mystics who expressed in their poetry their disinterest in, and even contempt of, the traditional formal religions never forgot that Islam is the highest manifestation of divine wisdom. (see also Index: intuition) |
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The idea of the manifestation of divine wisdom was also connected with the person of the prophet Muhammad. Though early Sufism had concentrated upon the relation between God and the soul, from AD 900 onward a strong Muhammad-mysticism developed. In the very early years, the alleged divine address to the Prophet--"If thou hadst not been I had not created the worlds"--was common among Sufis. Muhammad was said to be "Prophet when Adam was still between water and clay." Muhammad is also described as light from light, and from his light all the prophets are created, constituting the different aspects of this light. In its fullness such light radiated from the historical Muhammad and is partaken of by his posterity and by the saints; for Muhammad has the aspect of sanctity in addition to that of prophecy. An apocryphal tradition makes even God attest: "I am Ahmad (= Muhammad) without 'm' (i.e., Ahad, 'One')." |
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A mystic may also be known as wali. By derivation the word wali ("saint") means "one in close relation; friend." The awliya` (plural of wali) are "friends of God who have no fear nor are they sad." Later the term wali came to denote the Muslim mystics who had reached a certain stage of proximity to God, or those who had reached the highest mystical stages. They have their "seal" (i.e., the last and most perfect personality in the historical process; with this person, the evolution has found its end--as in Muhammad's case), just as the prophets have. Woman saints are found all over the Islamic world. |
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The invisible hierarchy of saints consists of the 40 abdal ("substitutes"; for when any of them dies another is elected by God from the rank and file of the saints), seven awtad ("stakes," or "props," of faith), three nuqaba` ("leader"; "one who introduces people to his master"), headed by the qutb ("axis, pole"), or ghawth ("help")--titles claimed by many Sufi leaders. Saint worship is contrary to Islam, which does not admit of any mediating role for human beings between man and God; but the cult of living and even more of dead saints--visiting their tombs to take vows there--responded to the feeling of the masses, and thus a number of pre-Islamic customs were absorbed into Islam under the cover of mysticism. The advanced mystic was often granted the capacity of working miracles called karamat (charismata or "graces"); not mu'jizat ("that which men are unable to imitate"), like the miracles of the prophets. Among them are "cardiognosia" (knowledge of the heart), providing food from the unseen, presence in two places at the same time, and help for the disciples, be they near or far. In short, a saint is one "whose prayers are heard" and who has tasarruf, the power of materializing in this world possibilities that still rest in the spiritual world. Many great saints, however, considered miracle working as a dangerous trap on the path that might distract the Sufi from his real goal. (see also Index: Sufism) |
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The path ( tariqah) begins with repentance. A mystical guide (shaykh, pir) accepts the seeker as disciple (murid), orders him to follow strict ascetic practices, and suggests certain formulas for meditation. It is said that the disciple should be in the hands of the master "like a corpse in the hand of the washer." The master teaches him constant struggle (the real "Holy War") against the lower soul, often represented as a black dog, which should, however, not be killed but merely tamed and used in the way of God. The mystic dwells in a number of spiritual stations (maqam), which are described in varying sequence, and, after the initial repentance, comprise abstinence, renunciation, and poverty--according to Muhammad's saying, "Poverty is my pride"; poverty was sometimes interpreted as having no interest in anything apart from God, the Rich One, but the concrete meaning of poverty prevailed, which is why the mystic is often denoted as "poor," fakir or dervish. Patience and gratitude belong to higher stations of the path, and consent is the loving acceptance of every affliction. (see also Index: religious education) |
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On his way to illumination the mystic will undergo such changing spiritual states ( hal) as qabd and bast, constraint and happy spiritual expansion, fear and hope, and longing and intimacy, which are granted by God and last for longer or shorter periods of time, changing in intensity according to the station in which the mystic is abiding at the moment. The way culminates in ma'rifah ("interior knowledge," "gnosis") or in mahabbah ("love"), the central subject of Sufism since the 9th century, which implies a union of lover and beloved, and was therefore violently rejected by the orthodox, for whom "love of God" meant simply obedience. The final goal is fana`("annihilation"), primarily an ethical concept of annihilating one's own qualities, according to the prophetic saying "Take over the qualities of God," but slowly developing into a complete extinction of the personality. Some mystics taught that behind this negative unity where the self is completely effaced, the baqa`, ("duration, life in God") is found: the ecstatic experience, called intoxication, is followed by the "second sobriety"; i.e., the return of the completely transformed mystic into this world where he acts as a living witness of God or continues the "journey in God." The mystic has reached haqiqah ("realty"), after finishing the tariqah ("path"), which is built upon the shari'ah ("law"). Later, the disciple is led through fana` fi ashshaykh ("annihilation in the master") to fana` fiar-Rasul ("annihilation in the Prophet") before reaching, if at all, fana` fi-Allah ("annihilation in God"). |
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One of the means used on the path is the ritual prayer, or dhikr("remembrance"), derived from the Qur`anic injunction "And remember God often" (surah 62:10). It consists in a repetition of either one or all of the most beautiful names of God, of the name "Allah," or of a certain religious formula, such as the profession of faith: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet." The rosary with 99 or 33 beads was in use as early as the 8th century for counting the thousands of repetitions. Man's whole being should eventually be transformed into remembrance of God. (see also Index: prayer) |
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In the mid-9th century some mystics introduced sessions with music and poetry recitals (sama') in Baghdad in order to reach the ecstatic experience--and since then debates about the permissibility of sama', filling many books, have been written. Narcotics were used in periods of degeneration, coffee by the "sober" mystics (first by the Shadhiliyah after 1300). |
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Besides the wayfarers (salik) on the path, Sufis who have no master but are attracted solely by divine grace are also found; they are called Uwaysi, after Uways al-Qarani, the Yemenite contemporary of the Prophet who never saw him but firmly believed in him. There are also the so-called majdhub ("attracted") who are often persons generally agreed to be more or less mentally deranged. |
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The divine truth was at times revealed to the mystic in visions, auditions, and dreams, in colours and sounds, but to convey these nonrational and ineffable experiences to others the mystic had to rely upon such terminology of worldly experience as that of love and intoxication--often objectionable from the orthodox viewpoint. The symbolism of wine, cup, and cupbearer, first expressed by Abu Yazid al-Bistami in the 9th century, became popular everywhere, whether in the verses of the Arab Ibn al-Farid, or the Persian 'Iraqi, or the Turk Yunus Emre, and their followers. The hope for the union of the soul with the divine had to be expressed through images of human yearning and love. The love for lovely boys in which the divine beauty manifests itself--according to the alleged Hadith "I saw my Lord in the shape of a youth with a cap awry"--was commonplace in Persian poetry. Union was described as the submersion of the drop in the ocean, the state of the iron in the fire, the vision of penetrating light, or the burning of the moth in the candle (first used by Hallaj). Worldly phenomena were seen as black tresses veiling the radiant beauty of the divine countenance. The mystery of unity and diversity was symbolized, for example, under the image of mirrors that reflect the different aspects of the divine, or as prisms colouring the pure light. Every aspect of nature was seen in relation to God. The symbol of the soulbird--in which the human soul is likened to a flying bird--known everywhere, was the centre of 'Attar's Manteq ot-teyr ("The Birds' Conversation"). The predilection of the mystical poets for the symbolism of the nightingale and rose (the red rose = God's perfect beauty; nightingale = soul; first used by Baqli [died 1206]) stems from the soul-bird symbolism. For spiritual education, symbols taken from medicine (healing of the sick soul) and alchemy (changing of base matter into gold) were also used. Many descriptions that were originally applied to God as the goal of love were, in later times, used also for the Prophet, who is said to be like the "dawn between the darkness of the material world and the sun of Reality." (see also Index: religious symbolism) |
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Allusions to the Qur`an were frequent, especially so to verses that seem to imply divine immanence (God's presence in the world), such as "Whithersoever ye turn, there is the Face of God" (surah 2:109), or that God is "Closer than your neck-vein" (surah 50:8). Surah 7:172--i.e., God's address to the uncreated children of Adam ("Am I not your Lord" [alastu birabbikum])--came to denote the pre-eternal love relation between God and man. As for the prophets before Muhammad, the vision of Moses was considered still imperfect, for the mystic wants the actual vision of God, not His manifestation through a burning bush. Abraham, for whom fire turned into a rose garden, resembles the mystic in his afflictions; Joseph, in his perfect beauty, the mystical beloved after whom the mystic searches. The apocryphal traditions used by the mystics are numerous; such as "Heaven and earth do not contain me, but the heart of my faithful servant contains Me"; and the possibility of a relation between man and God is also explained by the traditional idea: "He (God) created Adam in His image." |
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Sufism, in its beginnings a practical method of spiritual education and self-realization, grew slowly into a theosophical system by adopting traditions of Neoplatonism, the Hellenistic world, Gnosticism (an ancient esoteric religiophilosophical movement that viewed matter as evil and spirit as good), and spiritual currents from Iran and various countries in the ancient agricultural lands from the eastern Mediterranean to Iraq. One master who contributed to this development was the Persian as- Suhrawardi, called al-Maqtul ("killed"), executed in 1191 in Aleppo. To him is attributed the philosophy of ishraq ("illumination"), and he claimed to unite the Persian (Zoroastrian) and Egyptian (Hermetic) traditions. His didactic and doctrinal works in Arabic among other things taught a complicated angelology (theory of angels); some of his smaller Persian treatises depict the journey of the soul across the cosmos; the "Orient" (East) is the world of pure lights and archangels, the "Occident" (West) that of darkness and matter; and man lives in the "Western exile." |
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At the time of Suhrawardi's death the greatest representative of theosophic Sufism was in his 20s: Ibn al-'Arabi, born at Murcia, Spain, where speculative tendencies had been visible since Ibn Masarrah's philosophy (died 931). Ibn al-'Arabi was instructed in mysticism by two Spanish woman saints. Performing the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca, he met there an accomplished young Persian lady who represented for him the divine wisdom. This experience resulted in the charming poems of the Tarjuman al-ashwaq ("Interpreter of Yearning"), which the author later explained mystically. Ibn al-'Arabi composed at least 150 volumes. His magnum opus is al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah ("The Meccan Revelations") in 560 chapters, in which he expounds his theory of unity of being. |
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The substance of theosophic Sufism is as follows. According to the Hadith qudsi, or "holy tradition"--"I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known"--the absolute, or God, yearned in his loneliness for manifestation and created the world by effusing being upon the heavenly archetypes, a "theophany (a physical manifestation of deity) through God's imaginative power." The universe is annihilated and created every moment. Every divine name is reflected in a named one. The world and God are said to be like ice and water, or like two mirrors contemplating themselves in each other, joined by a sympathetic union. The Prophet Muhammad is the universal man, the perfect man, the total theophany of the divine names, the prototype of creation. Muhammad is the "word," each particular dimension of which is identified with a prophet, and he is also the model for the spiritual realization of the possibilities of man. The mystic has to pass the stages of the Qur`anic prophets as they are explained in the Fusus al-hikam ("Bezels of Wisdom") until he becomes united with the haqiqa Muhammadiya (the first individualization of the divine in the "Muhammadan Reality"). Man can have vision only of the form of the faith he professes, and Ibn al-'Arabi's oft-quoted verse, "I follow the religion of love wherever its camels turn," with its seeming religious tolerance means, as S.H. Nasr puts it: "the form of God is for him no longer the form of this or that faith exclusive of all others but his own eternal form which he encounters." The theories of the perfect man were elaborated by Jili (died c. 1424) in his compendium Al-insan al-kamil ("The Perfect Man") and became common throughout the Muslim world. |
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Ibn al-'Arabi's theosophy has been attacked by orthodox Muslims and mystics of the "sober" school as incongruent with Islam because "a thoroughly monistic system cannot take seriously the objective validity of moral standards." Even the adversaries of the "greatest master" could not, however, help using part of his terminology. Innumerable mystics and poets propagated his ideas, though they only partly understood them, and this circumstance led also to a misinterpretation of the data of early Sufism in the light of existential monism. Later Persian poetry is permeated by the pantheistic feeling of hama ost ("everything is He"). |
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Ibn al-'Arabi's contemporary in Egypt, the poet Ibn al-Farid, is usually mentioned together with him; Ibn al-Farid, however, is not a systematic thinker but a full-fledged poet who used the imagery of classical Arabic poetry to describe the state of the lover in extremely artistic verses and has given, in his Ta`iyat al-kubra ("Poem of the Journey"), glimpses of the way of the mystic, using, as many poets before and after him did, for example, the image of the shadow play for the actions of the creatures who are dependent upon the divine playmaster. His unifying experience is personal and is not the expression of a theosophical system. |
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Mystical life was first restricted to the relation between a master and a few disciples; the foundations of a monastic system were laid by the Persian Abu Sa'id ebn Abi ol-Kheyr (died 1049), but real orders or fraternities came into existence only from the 12th century onward: 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (died 1166) gathered the first and still most important order around himself; then followed the Suhrawardiyah, and the 13th century saw the formation of large numbers of different orders in the East (for example, Kubrawiya in Khvarezm) and West (Shadhiliyah). Thus, Sufism ceased to be the way of the chosen few and influenced the masses. A strict ritual was elaborated: when the adept had found a master for whom he had to feel a preformed affinity, there was an initiation ceremony in which he swore allegiance (bay'at) into the master's hand; similarities to the initiation in Isma'ilism, the 9th-century sect, and in the guilds suggest a possible interaction. The disciple (murid) had to undergo a stern training; he was often ordered to perform the lowest work in the community, to serve the brethren, to go out to beg (many of the old monasteries subsisted upon alms). A seclusion period of 40 days under hard conditions was common for the adepts in most orders. (see also Index: initiation rite) |
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Investiture with the khirqah, the frock of the master, originally made from shreds and patches, was the decisive act by which the disciple became part of the silsilah, the chain of mystical succession and transmission, which leads back--via Junayd--to the Prophet himself and differs in every order. Some mystical leaders claimed to have received their khirqah directly from al-Khidr, a mysterious immortal saint. |
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In the earliest times, allegiance was sworn exclusively to one master who had complete power over the disciple, controlling each of his movements, thoughts, visions, and dreams; but later many Sufis got the khirqah from two or more shaykhs. There is consequently a differentiation between the shaykh at-tarbiyah, who introduces the disciple into the ritual, forms, and literature of the order, and the shaykh as-suhbah, who steadily watches him and with whom the disciple lives. Only a few members of the fraternity remained in the centre (dargah, khanqah, tekke), close to the shaykh, but even those were not bound to celibacy. Most of the initiated returned to their daily life and partook in mystic services only during certain periods. The most mature disciple was invested as khali fah ("successor") to the shaykh and was often sent abroad to extend the activities of the order. The dargahs were organized differently in the various orders; some relied completely upon alms, keeping their members in utmost poverty; others were rich, and their shaykh was not very different from a feudal lord. Relations with rulers varied--some masters refused contacts with the representatives of political power; others did not mind friendly relations with the grandees. |
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Each order has peculiarities in its ritual. Most start the instruction with breaking the lower soul; others, such as the later Naqshbandiyah, stress the purification of the heart by constant dhikr ("remembrance") and by discourse with the master (suhbah). The forms of dhikr vary in the orders. Many of them use the word Allah, or the profession of faith with its rhythmical wording, sometimes accompanied by movements of the body, or by breath control up to complete holding of the breath. The Mawlawis, the whirling dervishes, are famous for their dancing ritual, an organized variation of the earlier sama' practices, which were confined to music and poetry. The Rifa'is, the so-called Howling Dervishes, have become known for their practice of hurting themselves while in an ecstatic state that they reach in performing their loud dhikr. (Such practices that might well degenerate into mere jugglery are not approved by most orders.) Some orders also teach the dhikr khafi, silent repetition of the formulas, and meditation, concentrating upon certain fixed points of the body; thus the Naqshbandis do not allow any emotional practices and prefer contemplation to ecstasy, perhaps as a result of Buddhist influence from Central Asia. Other orders have special prayers given to the disciples, such as the protective hizb al-bahr ("The protective armour of the sea"; i.e., for seafaring people--then extended to all travellers) in the Shadhiliyah order. Most of them prescribe for their disciples additional prayers and meditation at the end of each ritual prayer. |
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The orders formed an excellent means of bringing together the spiritually interested members of the community. They acted as a counterweight against the influence of hairsplitting lawyer-divines and gave the masses an emotional outlet in enthusiastic celebrations ('urs, "marriage") of the anniversaries of the deaths of founders of mystic orders or similar festivals in which they indulged in music and joy. The orders were adaptable to every social level; thus, some of them were responsible for adapting a number of un-Islamic folkloristic practices such as veneration of saints. Their way of life often differed so much from Islamic ideals that one distinguishes in Iran and India between orders ba shar' (law-bound) and bi shar' (not following the injunctions of the Qur`an). Some orders were more fitting for the rural population, such as the Ahmadiyah (after Ahmad al-Badawi; died 1286) in Egypt. The Ahmadiyah, however, even attracted some Mamluk rulers. The Turkish Bektashiyah (Haci Bektas, early 14th century), together with strange syncretistic cults, showed a prevalence of the ideals of the Shi'ites (from Shi'ah--the followers of 'Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, whose descendants claimed to be rightful successors to the religious leadership of Islam). The figure of 'Ali played a role also in other fraternities, and the relations between Sufism in the 14th and 15th centuries and the Shi'ah still have to be explored, as is also true of the general influence of Shi'ite ideas on Sufism. Other orders, such as the Shadhiliyah, an offshoot of which still plays an important role among Egyptian officials and employees, are typically middle class. This order demands not a life in solitude but strict adherence to one's profession and fulfillment of one's duty. Still other orders were connected with the ruling classes, such as, for a time, the Chishtiyah in Mughal India, and the Mawlawiyah, whose leader had to invest the Ottoman sultan with the sword. The Mawlawiyah is also largely responsible for the development of classical Turkish poetry, music, and fine arts, just as the Chishtiyah contributed much to the formation of classical Indo-Muslim music. |
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The main contribution of the orders, however, is their missionary activity. The members of different orders who settled in India from the early 13th century attracted thousands of Hindus by their example of love of both God and their own brethren and by preaching the equality of men. Missionary activity was often joined with political activity, as in 17th- and 18th-century Central Asia, where the Naqshbandiyah exerted strong political influence. In North Africa the Tijaniyah, founded in 1781, and the Sanusiyah, active since the early 19th century, both heralded Islam and engaged in politics; the Sanusiyah fought against Italy, and the former king of Libya was the head of the order. The Tijaniyah extended the borders of Islam toward Senegal and Nigeria, and their representatives founded large kingdoms in West Africa. Their influence, as well as that of the Qadiriyah, is still an important sociopolitical factor in those areas. |
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It would be impossible to number the members of mystical orders in the Islamic world. Even in such countries as Turkey, where the orders have been banned since 1925, many people still cling to the mystical tradition and feel themselves to be links in the spiritual chains of the orders and try to implement their ideals in modern society. The most widely spread group is, no doubt, the Qadiriyah, whose adherents are found from West Africa to India--the tomb of 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in Baghdad still being a place of pilgrimage. The areas where the Sanusiyah live are restricted to the Maghrib, the Atlas Massif, and the coastal plain from Morocco to Tunisia, whereas the Tijaniyah has some offshoots in Turkey. Such rural orders as the Egyptian Ahmadiyah and Dasuqiyah (named after Ibrahim ad-Dasuqi; died 1277) are bound to their respective countries, as are the Mawlawis and Bektashiyah to the realms of the former Ottoman Empire. The Bektashiyah had gained political importance in the empire because of its relations with the Janissaries, the standing army. Albania, since 1929, has had a strong and officially recognized group of Bektashiyah who were even granted independent status after World War II. The Shattariyah (derived from 'Abd ash-Shattar; died 1415) extends from India to Java, whereas the Chishtiyah (derived from Khwajah Mu'inud-Din Chishtip; died 1236 in Ajmer) and Suhrawardiyah remain mainly inside the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. The Kubrawiyah reached Kashmir through 'Ali Hama-dhani (died 1385), a versatile author, but the order later lost its influence. |
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The great variety of possible forms may be seen by comparing the Haddawah, vagabonds in Morocco, who "do not spoil God's day by work" and the Shadhiliyah with a sober attitude toward professional life and careful introspection. Out of the Shadhiliyah developed the austere Darqawiyah, who, in turn, produced the 'Alawiyah, whose master has attracted even a number of Europeans. The splitting up and formation of suborders is a normal process, but most of the subgroups have only local importance. The High Sufi Convent in Egypt counts 60 registered orders. |
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Sufism has helped to shape large parts of Muslim society. The orthodox disagree with such aspects of Sufism as saint worship, visiting of tombs, musical performances, miracle mongering, degeneration into jugglery, and the adaptation of pre-Islamic and un-Islamic customs; and the reformers object to the influences of the monistic interpretation of Islam upon moral life and human activities. The importance given to the figure of the master is accused of yielding negative results; the shaykh as the almost infallible leader of his disciples and admirers could gain dangerous authority and political influence, for the illiterate villagers in backward areas used to rely completely upon the "saint." Yet, other masters have raised their voices against social inequality and have tried, even at the cost of their lives, to change social and political conditions for the better and to spiritually revive the masses. The missionary activities of the Sufis have enlarged the fold of the faithful. The importance of Sufism for spiritual education, and inculcation in the faithful of the virtues of trust in God, piety, faith in God's love, and veneration of the Prophet, cannot be overrated. The dhikr formulas still preserve their consoling and quieting power even for the illiterate. Mysticism permeates Persian literature and other literatures influenced by it. Such poetry has always been a source of happiness for millions, although some modernists have disdained its "narcotic" influence on Muslim thinking. |
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Industrialization and modern life have led to a constant decrease in the influence of Sufi orders in many countries. The spiritual heritage is preserved by individuals who sometimes try to show that mystical experience conforms to modern science. Today in the West, Sufism is popularized, but the genuinely and authentically devout are aware that it requires strict discipline, and that its goal can be reached--if at all--as they say, only by throwing oneself into the consuming fire of divine love. (An.Sc.) |
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The origin and inspiration of philosophy in Islam are quite different from those of Islamic theology. Philosophy developed out of and around the nonreligious practical and theoretical sciences; it recognized no theoretical limits other than those of human reason itself; and it assumed that the truth found by unaided reason does not disagree with the truth of Islam when both are properly understood. Islamic philosophy was not a handmaid of theology. The two disciplines were related, because both followed the path of rational inquiry and distinguished themselves from traditional religious disciplines and from mysticism, which sought knowledge through practical, spiritual purification. Islamic theology was Islamic in the strict sense: it confined itself within the Islamic religious community, and it remained separate from the Christian and Jewish theologies that developed in the same cultural context and used Arabic as a linguistic medium. No such separation is observable in the philosophy developed in the Islamic cultural context and written in Arabic: Muslims, Christians, and Jews participated in it and separated themselves according to the philosophic rather than the religious doctrines they held. (see also Index: Arabic language) |
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The background of philosophic interest in Islam is found in the earlier phases of theology. But its origin is found in the translation of Greek philosophic works. By the middle of the 9th century, there were enough translations of scientific and philosophic works from Greek, Pahlavi, and Sanskrit to show those who read them with care that scientific and philosophic inquiry was something more than a series of disputations based on what the theologians had called sound reason. Moreover, it became evident that there existed a tradition of observation, calculation, and theoretical reflection that had been pursued systematically, refined, and modified for over a millennium. |
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The scope of this tradition was broad: it included the study of logic, the sciences of nature (including psychology and biology), the mathematical sciences (including music and astronomy), metaphysics, ethics, and politics. Each of these disciplines had a body of literature in which its principles and problems had been investigated by classical authors, whose positions had been, in turn, stated, discussed, criticized, or developed by various commentators. Islamic philosophy emerged from its theological background when Muslim thinkers began to study this foreign tradition, became competent students of the ancient philosophers and scientists, criticized and developed their doctrines, clarified their relevance for the questions raised by the theologians, and showed what light they threw on the fundamental issues of revelation, prophecy, and the divine law. |
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Although the first Muslim philosopher, al- Kindi, who flourished in the first half of the 9th century, lived during the triumph of the Mu'tazilah of Baghdad and was connected with the 'Abbasid caliphs who championed the Mu'tazilah and patronized the Hellenistic sciences, there is no clear evidence that he belonged to a theological school. His writings show him to have been a diligent student of Greek and Hellenistic authors in philosophy and point to his familiarity with Indian arithmetic. His conscious, open, and unashamed acknowledgment of earlier contributions to scientific inquiry was foreign to the spirit, method, and purpose of the theologians of the time. His acquaintance with the writings of Plato and Aristotle was still incomplete and technically inadequate. He improved the Arabic translation of the "Theology of Aristotle" but made only a selective and circumspect use of it. |
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Devoting most of his writings to questions of natural philosophy and mathematics, al-Kindi was particularly concerned with the relation between corporeal things, which are changeable, in constant flux, infinite, and as such unknowable, on the one hand, and the permanent world of forms (spiritual or secondary substances), which are not subject to flux yet to which man has no access except through things of the senses. He insisted that a purely human knowledge of all things is possible, through the use of various scientific devices, learning such things as mathematics and logic, and assimilating the contributions of earlier thinkers. The existence of a "supernatural" way to this knowledge in which all these requirements can be dispensed with was acknowledged by al-Kindi: God may choose to impart it to his prophets by cleansing and illuminating their souls and by giving them his aid, right guidance, and inspiration; and they, in turn, communicate it to ordinary men in an admirably clear, concise, and comprehensible style. This is the prophets' "divine" knowledge, characterized by a special mode of access and style of exposition. In principle, however, this very same knowledge is accessible to man without divine aid, even though "human" knowledge may lack the completeness and consummate logic of the prophets' divine message. (see also Index: matter) |
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Reflection on the two kinds of knowledge--the human knowledge bequeathed by the ancients and the revealed knowledge expressed in the Qur`an--led al-Kindi to pose a number of themes that became central in Islamic philosophy: the rational-metaphorical exegesis of the Qur`an and the Hadith; the identification of God with the first being and the first cause; creation as the giving of being and as a kind of causation distinct from natural causation and Neoplatonic emanation; and the immortality of the individual soul. |
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The philosopher whose principal concerns, method, and opposition to authority were inspired by the extreme Mu'tazilah was the physician Abu Bakr ar-Razi (flourished 9th-10th centuries). He adopted the Mu'tazilah's atomism and was intent on developing a rationally defensible theory of creation that would not require any change in God or attribute to him responsibility for the imperfection and evil prevalent in the created world. To this end, he expounded the view that there are five eternal principles--God, Soul, prime matter, infinite, or absolute, space, and unlimited, or absolute, time--and explained creation as the result of the unexpected and sudden turn of events (faltah). Faltah occurred when Soul, in her ignorance, desired matter and the good God eased her misery by allowing her to satisfy her desire and to experience the suffering of the material world, and then gave her reason to make her realize her mistake and deliver her from her union with matter, the cause of her suffering and of all evil. Ar-Razi claimed that he was a Platonist, that he disagreed with Aristotle, and that his views were those of the Sabians of Harran and the Brahmins (Hindu teachers). |
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Isma'ili theologians became aware of the kinship between certain elements of his cosmology and their own. They disputed with him during his lifetime and continued afterward to refute his doctrines in their writings. According to their account of his doctrines, he was totally opposed to authority in matters of knowledge, believed in the progress of the arts and sciences, and held that all reasonable men are equally able to look after their own affairs, equally inspired and able to know the truth of what earlier men had taught, and equally able to improve upon it. Isma'ili theologians were incensed, in particular, by his wholesale rejection of prophecy, particular revelation, and divine laws. They were likewise opposed to his criticisms of religion in general as a device employed by evil men and a kind of tyranny over men that exploits their innocence and credulity, perpetuates ignorance, and leads to conflicts and wars. |
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Although the fragmentary character of al-Kindi's and ar-Razi's surviving philosophic writings does not permit passing firm and independent judgment on their accomplishments, they tend to bear out the view of later Muslim students of philosophy that both lacked competence in the logical foundation of philosophy, were knowledgeable in some of the natural sciences but not in metaphysics, and were unable to narrow the gap that separated philosophy from the new religion, Islam. |
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The first philosopher to meet this challenge was al- Farabi (flourished 9th-10th centuries). He saw that theology and the juridical study of the law were derivative phenomena that function within a framework set by the prophet as lawgiver and founder of a human community. In this community, revelation defines the opinions the members of the community must hold and the actions they must perform if they are to attain the earthly happiness of this world and the supreme happiness of the other world. Philosophy could not understand this framework of religion as long as it concerned itself almost exclusively with its truth content and confined the study of practical science to individualistic ethics and personal salvation. |
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In contrast to al-Kindi and ar-Razi, al-Farabi recast philosophy in a new framework analogous to that of the Islamic religion. The sciences were organized within this philosophic framework so that logic, physics, mathematics, and metaphysics culminated in a political science whose subject matter is the investigation of happiness and how it can be realized in cities and nations. The central theme of this political science is the founder of a virtuous or excellent community. I | | | |
