Sufism: Difference between revisions

The original meaning of ''sufi'' seems to have been "one who wears wool (''{{transl|ar|DIN|ṣūf}}'')", and the [[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] calls other etymological hypotheses "untenable".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=William C. Chittick|title=Sufism. Sūfī Thought and Practice|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor=John L. Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0759}}</ref><ref name=EI2/> Woolen clothes were traditionally associated with ascetics and mystics.<ref name=EI2/> [[Al-Qushayri]] and [[Ibn Khaldun]] both rejected all possibilities other than ''{{transl|ar|DIN|ṣūf}}'' on linguistic grounds.<ref name=exeg>Rashid Ahmad Jullundhry, ''Qur'anic Exegesis in Classical Literature'', pg. 56. [[New Westminster]]: [[The Other Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|9789675062551}}</ref>

Sufism existed as an individual inner practice of [[Muslims]] since early Islamic history.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Abdurahman Abdullahi Baadiyow]]|title=Making Sense of Somali History: Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1dDDwAAQBAJ|date=2017|publisher=Adonis & Abbey Publishers|isbn=9781909112797|page=70}}</ref> According to [[Carl W. Ernst]] the earliest figures of Sufism are Muhammad himself and his companions (''[[Sahabah]]'').<ref name="carl1">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Tasawwuf [Sufism]|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World|year=2003|author=Carl W. Ernst}}{{full citation needed|date=February 2020}}</ref> Sufi orders are based on the ''bay‘ah'' (<big>بَيْعَة</big> ''bay‘ah'', <big>مُبَايَعَة</big> ''mubāya‘ah'' 'pledge, allegiance') that was given to Muhammad by his ''Ṣahabah''. By pledging allegiance to Muhammad, the Sahabah had committed themselves to the service of God.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://naqshbandi.org/teachings/topics/taking-initiation-bayah/|title=Taking Initiation (Bay'ah)|publisher=Naqshbandi Sufi Way}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VswAAAAYAAJ|title=Classical Islam and the Naqshbandi Sufi tradition|page=644|publisher=Islamic Supreme Council of America|author=Muhammad Hisham Kabbani|isbn=9781930409231|date=June 2004}}</ref><ref name="carl1"/>

Existing in both Sunni and Shia Islam, Sufism is not a distinct sect, as is sometimes erroneously assumed, but a method of approaching or a way of understanding the religion, which strives to take the regular practice of the religion to the "supererogatory level" through simultaneously "fulfilling ... [the obligatory] religious duties"<ref name=EI2/> and finding a "way and a means of striking a root through the 'narrow gate' in the depth of the [[rūḥ|soul]] out into the domain of the pure arid unimprisonable [[Holy Spirit (Islam)|Spirit]] which itself opens out on to the Divinity."<ref name="youtube.com">{{cite web|title=Dr. Jonathan AC Brown - What is Sufism?|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpFatRwdPm0|publisher=youtube.com|date=13 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="Martin Lings 1983, p.15"/> Academic studies of Sufism confirm that Sufism, as a separate tradition from Islam apart from so-called ''pure Islam'', is frequently a product of [[Orientalism|Western orientalism]] and modern [[Islamic fundamentalism|Islamic fundamentalists]].<ref>Michael S. Pittman ''Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism'' Bloomsbury Publishing {{ISBN|978-1-441-13113-3}}</ref>

In the eleventh-century, Sufism, which had previously been a less "codified" trend in Islamic piety, began to be "ordered and crystallized" into [[tariqa|orders]] which have continued until the present day. All these orders were founded by a major Islamic scholar, and some of the largest and most widespread included the [[Suhrawardiyya]] (after [[Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi]] [d. 1168), [[Qadiriyya]] (after [[Abdul-Qadir Gilani]] [d. 1166]), the [[Rifa'i]]yya (after [[Ahmed al-Rifa'i]] [d. 1182]), the [[Chishti Order|Chishtiyya]] (after [[Moinuddin Chishti]] [d. 1236]), the [[Shadiliyya]] (after [[Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili]] [d. 1258]), the Hamadaniyyah (after [[Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani|Sayyid Ali Hamadani]] [d. 1384], the Naqshbandiyya (after [[Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari]] [d. 1389]).<ref name="Seyyed Hossein Nasr 2007 p. 76">Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ''The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr'', ed. William C. Chittick (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2007), p. 76</ref> Contrary to popular perception in the West,<ref name="Martin Lings 1983, p.16">Martin Lings, ''What is Sufism?'' (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), p.16</ref> however, neither the founders of these orders nor their followers ever considered themselves to be anything other than orthodox Sunni Muslims,<ref name="Martin Lings 1983, p.16"/> and in fact all of these orders were attached to one of the [[maddhab|four orthodox legal schools]] of Sunni Islam.<ref name="https"/><ref name="themuslim500.com"/> Thus, the [[Qadiriyya]] order was [[Hanbali]], with its founder, [[Abdul-Qadir Gilani]], being a renowned jurist; the [[Chishti Order|Chishtiyya]] was [[Hanafi]]; the [[Shadiliyya]] order was [[Maliki]]; and the Naqshbandiyya order was [[Hanafi]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Massington, L.|author2=Radtke, B.|author3=Chittick, W.C.|author4=Jong, F. de.|author5=Lewisohn, L.|author6=Zarcone, Th.|author7=Ernst, C.|author8=Aubin, Françoise|author0=Hunwick, J.O.|date=2012|title=Taṣawwuf|encyclopedia= Encyclopaedia of Islam|edition=2nd|publisher=Brill|editor=P. Bearman|editor2=Th. Bianquis|editor3=C.E. Bosworth|editor4=E. van Donzel|editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1188}} ''q.v.'' "Hanafi," "Hanbali," and "Maliki," and under "mysticism in..." for each.</ref> Thus, it is precisely because it is historically proven that "many of the most eminent defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, such as [[Abdul-Qadir Gilani]], [[al-Ghazali|Ghazali]], and the Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn ([[Saladin]]) were connected with Sufism"<ref name="Titus Burckhardt 2008, p. 4">Titus Burckhardt, ''Introduction to Sufi Doctrine'' (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2008, p. 4, note 2</ref> that the popular studies of writers like [[Idries Shah]] are continuously disregarded by scholars as conveying the fallacious image that "Sufism" is somehow distinct from "Islam."<ref>Martin Lings, ''What is Sufism?'' (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), pp. 16-17</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Caner Dagli, "Rumi, the Qur'an, and Heterodoxy," note on Facebook|url=https://www.facebook.com/notes/caner-k-dagli/rumi-the-quran-and-heterodoxy/10100909521837752|publisher=facebook.com|date=6 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="Titus Burckhardt 2008, p. 4"/><ref>Rozina Ali, "The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi," ''The New Yorker'', Jan. 5 2017</ref>

Around the turn of the 20th century, Sufi rituals and doctrines also came under sustained criticism from [[Islamic modernism|modernist Islamic reformers]], liberal nationalists, and, some decades later, socialist movements in the Muslim world. Sufi orders were accused of fostering popular superstitions, resisting modern intellectual attitudes, and standing in the way of progressive reforms. Ideological attacks on Sufism were reinforced by agrarian and educational reforms, as well as new forms of taxation, which were instituted by Westernizing national governments, undermining the economic foundations of Sufi orders. The extent to which Sufi orders declined in the first half of the 20th century varied from country to country, but by the middle of the century the very survival of the orders and traditional Sufi lifestyle appeared doubtful to many observers.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia| first=Alexander |last=Knysh| entry=Sufism|title=The New Cambridge History of Islam|volume=Volume 4: Islamic Cultures and Societies to the End of the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010 |editor=Robert Irwin|pages=60–61}}</ref><ref name=OEIW-voll/>

The term ''neo-Sufism'' was originally coined by [[Fazlur Rahman]] and used by other scholars to describe reformist currents among 18th century Sufi orders, whose goal was to remove some of the more ecstatic and pantheistic elements of the Sufi tradition and reassert the importance of Islamic law as the basis for inner spirituality and social activism.<ref name=voll-OEIW>{{cite encyclopedia|author=John O. Voll|title=Sufism. ṢūfĪ Orders.|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor=John L. Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t236/e0759}}</ref><ref name=howell>{{cite web|title=Sufism in the Modern World|author=Julia Howell|website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/Public/focus/essay1010_surfism_modern_world.html}}</ref> In recent times, it has been increasingly used by scholars like Mark Sedgwick in another sense, to describe various forms of Sufi-influenced spirituality in the West, in particular the deconfessionalized spiritual movements which emphasize universal elements of the Sufi tradition and de-emphasize its Islamic context.<ref name=howell/><ref name=sedgwick2012>{{cite book|chapter=Neo-Sufism|author=Mark Sedgwick|title=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |editor=Olav Hammer |editor2=Mikael Rothstein|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012}}</ref> Such groups include [[Sufi Order Ināyati|The Sufi Order in the West]], founded by [[Inayat Khan]], which teaches the essential unity of all faiths, and accepts members of all creeds. [[Sufism Reoriented]] is an offshoot of it charted by the [[syncretism|syncretistic]] spiritual figure [[Meher Baba]]. The [[Golden Sufi Center]] exists in England, Switzerland and the United States. It was founded by [[Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee]] to continue the work of his teacher [[Irina Tweedie]], herself a practitioner of both [[Hinduism]] and neo-Sufism. Other Western Sufi organisations include the Sufi Foundation of America and the [[International Association of Sufism]].

''Walī'' ({{lang-ar|ولي}}, plural {{transl|ar|''ʾawliyāʾ''}} {{lang|ar|أولياء}}) is an Arabic word whose literal meanings include "custodian", "protector", "helper", and "friend."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=1302,ll=3066,ls=79,la=4919,sg=1252,ha=906,br=1072,pr=171,aan=742,mgf=869,vi=392,kz=3008,mr=805,mn=1581,uqw=1902,umr=1196,ums=1010,umj=961,ulq=1833,uqa=460,uqq=444|title=Mawrid Reader|website=ejtaal.net}}</ref> In the vernacular, it is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic [[saint]], otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God."<ref name="John Renard 2008">John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); Idem., ''Tales of God Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), et passim.</ref><ref name="Radtke etal">{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Radtke, B.|author2=Lory, P.|author3=Zarcone, Th.|author4=DeWeese, D.|author5=Gaborieau, M.|author6=Denny, F.M.|author7=Aubin, Françoise|author8=Hunwick, J.O.|author9=Mchugh, N.|date=2012|title=Walī|encyclopedia= Encyclopaedia of Islam|edition=2nd|publisher=Brill|editor=P. Bearman|editor2=Th. Bianquis|editor3=C.E. Bosworth|editor4=E. van Donzel|editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1335}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Dictionary of the Sudan |series=Historical Dictionaries of Africa |author1=Robert S. Kramer |author2=Richard A. Lobban Jr. |author3=Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban |year=2013 |edition=4 |location=Lanham, Maryland, USA |publisher=Scarecrow Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield |page=361 |isbn=978-0-8108-6180-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OKZRewiEOsC&q=%22holy+man%22+wali&pg=PA361 |quote=QUBBA. The Arabic name for the tomb of a holy man... A qubba is usually erected over the grave of a holy man identified variously as '''wali''' (saint), faki, or shaykh since, according to folk Islam, this is where his baraka [blessings] is believed to be strongest... |access-date=2 May 2015 }}</ref> In the traditional Islamic understanding of [[saint]]s, the saint is portrayed as someone "marked by [special] divine favor ... [and] holiness", and who is specifically "chosen by God and endowed with exceptional gifts, such as the ability to work [[miracle worker|miracles]]."<ref name="ReferenceB 89-90">Radtke, B., "Saint", in: ''Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān'', General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C..</ref> The doctrine of saints was articulated by Islamic scholars very early on in Muslim history,<ref>J. van Ess, ''Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam'', II (Berlin-New York, 1992), pp. 89-90</ref><ref>B. Radtke and J. O’Kane, ''The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism'' (London, 1996), pp. 109-110</ref><ref name=EI2/><ref>B. Radtke, ''Drei Schriften des Theosophen von Tirmid̲'', ii (Beirut-Stuttgart, 1996), pp. 68-69</ref> and particular verses of the [[Quran]] and certain ''hadith'' were interpreted by early Muslim thinkers as "documentary evidence"<ref name=EI2/> of the existence of saints.

[[Bayazid Bastami]] is a recognized and influential Sufi personality from Shattari order. <ref>{{Cite web|title=Shattari Silsila|url=http://www.shattari.blogspot.com|url-status=live|access-date=9 July 2021|website=[[shattari]]}}</ref> Bastami was born in 804 in [[Bastam]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=1914-|first=Ahmad, Khwaja Jamil|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/977150850|title=Hundred great Muslims [by] Jamil Ahmad.|date=1971|publisher=Ferozsons|oclc=977150850}}</ref> Bayazid is regarded for his devout commitment to the [[Sunnah]] and his dedication to fundamental Islamic principals and practices.