The Beginnings of Sufism
The Sufis trace the origin of Tasawwuf to the Prophet of Islam himself. All the religious orders trace their lines of succession back to him. It is believed that the revelations received by the Prophet were two-dimensional—one was in the form of the words of the Quran, the other was in the form of divine inspiration within his heart. The former was meant for all, while the latter was to be imparted to the chosen few through a line of succession, that is from heart to heart. “Book knowledge” — of the words of the Quran and Hadith — was known as ilm-e-Safina, while “heart-knowledge” was known as ilm-e-Sina.
The knowledge of the wonders of the Quran and Hadith was passed on from one generation to another by the religious scholars or Ulama while the knowledge of the heart was imbibed by those called Sufis.
The claim of the Sufis that tasawwuf originated from the life of the Prophet and his companions seems to have some basis in fact. The Prophet led an extremely simple life. He avoided all luxuries. He would pray to God for a major portion of the night (Quran 73:20) whatever valuable presents he received he immediately disposed of in charity. Even when he had conquered Arabia, he did not possess more than an ordinary mattress to sleep on and a pitcher to keep water in. He fasted continuously for months together and slept little at night.
Thus the Prophet committed himself to religion in both theory and practice at a deeper level.
There are also traditions which tell us that the Prophet discouraged people from spending all their time in ritual worship and not taking interest in worldly activities.
Sufis have always laid emphasis on Safa, that is, purification. The Quran has this to say: He indeed shall be successful who purifies himself. (87:14) He will indeed be successful who purifies his soul, and he will indeed fail who corrupts his soul. (91:9-10)
We learn from the Quran that God made the human soul perfect and inspired it to understand what is right and wrong for it. (91:7,8) So the purification of the heart and soul is essential to attain divine appoval.
There comes a stage where man’s will becomes one with the divine will. And there is the type of man who gives his life to seek the pleasure of God. And God is full of kindness to his servants. (2:207)
The Rite of Purification
Sacrificing one’s life for God is the only way to win Divine approval. The rite of unification is essential for the follower of the spiritual path.
In Sufism, the follower, the Salik receives the rite of initiation from his Shaykh or Murshid, who in his turn has received it from his Shaykh and this chain goes back to the Prophet himself.
They believe that the Prophet conferred this right upon only some of his companions, who in turn passed it on to their companions and in this way this right up to the present day in unbroken succession is still passed on. This chain of succession is known in Arabic as silsilah. The mystic was first a seeker, then a traveller and then an initiate.
For the achievement of spiritual realization, the initiation, the counsel, and guidance of the Shaykh, or spiritual master, is necessary.
It is around the Shaykh that the disciples gather to receive the initiation which, through a long chain is ultimately derived from the Prophet himself as the Sufis believe. All the silsilahs are traced back to one or the other of those companions whom the Prophet himself initiated. Particularly the caliphs Abu Bakr and Ali.
The first great Sufi order was the Qadri order (Tariqa) which was founded by Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (1071-1166).
This was followed by the Suhrawardi Order (1144-1234).
There are three great categories of the religion of Islam: Iman: Submission to the revealed law, Itaah: obedience to the Shahaadah (The Islamic Creed), and Ihsan: Virtue and sincerity.
A tradition regarding Ihsaan as narrated by Caliph Umar, reads, “One day when we were with the Prophet of God, there came to him a man whose clothes were of an exceeding whiteness, and his hair was of an exceeding blackness, nor were there any signs of travel upon him. Although none of us had seen him before, he sat down opposite the Prophet. He asked the Prophet to tell him what it means to surrender to God. The Prophet answered: “The surrender is that you should say five prayers, fast during Ramadan, distribute alms and, if you can, go on the pilgrimage to the Holy house (the Kabah).” He said: “You have spoken truly.” We were amazed that, having questioned the Prophet, he should corroborate what he said.
Then he said: Tell me what faith (Iman) is. Then the Prophet said: “It is that you should believe in God, in angels and the books, the prophets and the Last Day, and you should believe that no good or evil comes but by His providence.” “You have spoken truly,” he said, and then he said, “Tell me what excellence, Ihsan is.” The Prophet answered, “It is that you should worship God as if you saw Him, or if you do not see Him, truly, He sees you.” Then the stranger went away. I (Umar) stayed there long after he had gone, until the Prophet said to him, “O Umar, do you know who the questioner was?” I said “God and His Prophet know best, but I do not know at all.” “It was Gabriel,” said the Prophet. “He came to teach you your religion.” This spiritual way emphasizes the inner illumination of Islam and Imaan by Ihsan. Dhikr: Remembrance of God, is necessary to achieve excellence (Ihsaan). In this spiritual path dhikr is of the utmost importance.
The recitation of a special Quranic litany (Wird) is an important sufi practice. It differs slightly from one order to another. First the Salik asks forgiveness from God. Second, he asks God to bless the Prophet, the third formula comprises the Shahadah, the attestation of the divine Unity.
The rosary is normally recited morning and evening. Each formula being repeated a hundred times. Dhikr means remembrance of God. It is most important so far as the spiritual method of the Sufis is concerned. The Quran attaches the utmost importance to the remembrance of God, by invoking His name. “Invoke the name of your Lord and devote yourself to Him with utter devotion.” (73:8).
Prayer preserves one from uncleanness and grave sin, but “remembrance of God is greatest.” (29:45)
Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts finds rest.
“Remember Me and I shall remember You. (2:152).
In Sufism Dhikr has the central place in the spiritual method. The Sufi has to practice it under the guidance of a Spiritual master. Dhikr is done in both gatherings and in spiritual retrial privacy (Khalwat).
In most orders, formal dhikr sessions (Majaalis) are held at regular intervals. Under the guidance of his Shaykh or his representative, the Salik (disciple) engages in Dhikr for an hour or two. This may be done silently or loudly in the form of a chant, motionlessly or accompanied by spiritual music and dance. At times, the music is accompanied by the beatings of a drum. Khalwat (Solitary spiritual retreat) for the purpose of spiritual invocation is engaged in from time to time. This may go on for as short a period as several hours or may last several days. Along with this, Dhikr is to be done silently at all times of the day, even when one is engaged in other activities.
Objectives
There are different levels of excellence of worship. The objective of tasawwuf is to raise this level. It is called ‘Ihsan’ in the Quran.
Ihsaan is the level at which the devotee is completely absorbed in prayer to God. According to a hadith, you should pray to God as if you saw Him. And if you can’t see Him, He sees you.*
Ihsan is defined by Sufis, as the attainment of that degree of devotion at which one begins to experience the presence of God one’s feelings ranging back and forth between hope and fear. The Quran lays down that the path of virtue lies between hope and fear. It is very clear on this point when it says: “And pray to Him with fear and hope; His mercy is within reach of the righteous.” (7:55).
Thus, according to the Sufi definition, consciousness of the fact that the Lord is watching our movements and knows the innermost recesses of our hearts is the lowest grade of devotion and prayer. When one is conscious of the fact that God is watching us, then we certainly shall desist from evil actions. It is in this sense that prayer keeps us from indecency and evil, as is stated in the Quran. (29:45).
However, it is only if the prayer is performed in its true spirit that it can yield the desired result. This is the first grade level of piety: God is watching us. On the second level we are seeing God. When one, loving God, with his whole heart prostrates himself and at other moments when he has the psychological experience of seeing God face to face, his total absorption results in ecstasy. So the Sufis say.
They have the feeling of seeing God, their beloved One, as they call Him. There are even instances of Sufis having fallen senseless when possessed by the manifestations of extreme love. The Sufis say that the Prophet and some of his companions were totally absorbed in their prayers and that this complete absorption in prayer is the foundation of ecstasy.
The Sufis hold that at the time of the Prophet and his companions, the obligatory prayers were done with full concentration in complete remembrance of God. But later on, the Sufis emphasized Dhikr to the point that it was given more importance than even the canonical prayers.
Dhikr literally means remembering God. The Quran Says “Remember God always so that you may prosper.” (62:10) Then at another place, it says: “Believers, be ever mindful of God: praise Him morning and evening.” (33:41).
The Quran mentions 99 different names of God and according to another version God has as many as 90,000 names. Each name indicates a particular attribute of God.
So the believers used to remember God even when performing their worldly duties. They believed that they would also receive a reward for discharging their duties to their fellow men, while still remembering God and acting in accordance with His will. The idea was that anything done in the name of God, conforming to His commands amounted to remembering God or performing Dhikr.
And it is, in this sense that the Prophet’s companions understood the meaning of Dhikr, that is, remembering God even when they were performing worldly duties. But the Sufis gave Dhikr a formal shape, attaching greater importance to its popular meaning. In this way, they limited the scope of this verse of the Quran. And giving subsidence to this limited interpretation, the Sufis invented a number of ways of calling out the name of God—silently loudly and even with the beating of drums. This shows how much the teachings of Islam came under the influence of different cultures.
Besides, converts from different traditions brought their own influences from their own cultures and gradually they were all Islamized, or given Islamic names, Such as the yogic practices which found acceptance among the Sufis.
The Prophet’s companions and the Companions of the Companions regarded all forms of prayers other than compulsory prayers as Nawafils or works of supererogation; In Islam this term was used in the sense of doing good in addition to the performance of one’s obligatory duties (Faraiz) Islam enjoins a minimum of duties to be discharged by the believers and this is given the name of Faraid. Anyone who enters the fold of Islam has to discharge these minimal duties, but if he does more than this then he doubly earns the favour of All-Merciful God by his additional acts. This is known as Nafl. The Prophet himself used to perform supererogatory prayers. He used to say his midnight prayers but he and his followers interpreted nafl in a very general sense and understood from it, good actions performed over and above one’s duties. The later Sufis, however, restricted the word to its narrow sense of saying prayers in addition to the fixed prayers. They did the same to limit the meaning of the word Dhikr to only repeating the names of God. This change took place so slowly that proper notice could not be taken in time and these notions came to be accepted by the general public. Another thing, which was not in accordance with the spirit of the Quran was that the Sufis attached too great an importance to the mere recitation chanting of the words of the Quran. In the true Islamic spirit, it is not the mere recitation of the words which is important, but rather the spirit of prayer, and our attachment to God, and our willingness to surrender our will to His will, by perusing and reflecting upon the meanings of the divine words. Now, if we are perpetually confined to a Hujra (a small, dark room) for worship, how can we be tested on whether or not we have surrendered to God’s will in our day-to-day life.
God has made this world a testing ground. And the divine test can be carried out only when we interact with others, when we have dealings with others, and we always act with thoughts of God in our minds. So, it is in our discharging of our worldly duties that we are tested on whether or not we have truly imbibed the True Islamic Spirit.
God has not told us to worship Him, in the formal sense, twenty four hours a day. Therefore, if we follow this path, it would amount to a shift in emphasis. According to the Quran, God desires us that He be eternally remembered, while taking part in all the lawful activities of the world.
So the great importance given to the chanting of certain words and phrases for long hours amount to a shift of emphasis. In the Indian context, the Sufis definitely came under the influence of Yogi Spiritual Exercises. In Hinduism, it was believed that words had special effect and that by chanting them, a certain number of times, even gods could be controlled, and their favours could be received.
The early Sufis laid stress, above all on the renunciation of worldly pleasures. And they also emphasized the fear of God and Judgement Day and that their thoughts should be centered on the fact that we will be judged according to our good and bad deeds on the Day of Judgement. So we have the early celebrated Sufis like Hasan Basri, Abu Darda who used to remember God most of the time; they would pray to God, and cry to seek His pardon. When asked why they did so, they would reply that even if they had not made any intentional mistake, they might have made some unintentional mistake. So they kept seeking God’s forgiveness and for the greater part they would resort to Nafl prayer, remembering God, reciting the verses of the Quran and always going in fear of God. Their most characteristic feature was that they did not want to involve themselves in the world. This is the point of departure from the spirituality of the Companions of the Prophet.
For we find that in the life and times of the Prophet, he and his companions and their companions performed all their worldly duties and in doing so, they remembered God and they thought that if they did all those necessary mundane activities and in the midst of that, they continued to remember God and their thoughts were centered on God, they would earn a double reward—one for discharging the obligatory duties and the other for remembering God at times other than those of formal worship.
The early Sufis became known for their asceticism. Poverty was their ideal. They thought that it was the world which distracted their attention. So, if they did not accumulate worldly things, they would be spared any distraction so their prayers would become of a far better quality, because of their full concentration.
