Origin Of Sufism
THE ORIGIN OF TASAWWUF
Origin of
Tasawwuf, Origin Of Sufi
As the history
of Islamic religious sciences tells us, the religious commandments were not recorded
in the earliest times of Islam. The practice and oral circulation of the commandments
pertaining to belief, worship, and daily life enabled people to memorize them. This
is why it was not difficult to compile them in books. What had been memorized and
practiced was recorded and arranged on paper. In addition, since the religious commandments
mentioned above comprise the vital issues in a Muslim’s individual and collective
life, scholars gave priority to them and compiled books on them. Jurisprudents collected
and codified in the form of books the Islamic Law and its rules and principles pertaining
to all fields of life. Traditionists established the Prophetic Traditions and way
of life and preserved them in books; theologians dealt with the issues concerning
Muslim belief, and the interpreters of the Qur’an dedicated themselves to
studying the meaning of the Qur’an, including the issues which would later
be called the Qur’anic sciences such as Naskh (Abrogation of a law), Inzal
(God’s sending down the whole of the Qur’an at one time), Tanzil (God’s
sending down the Qur’an in parts on different occasions), Qiraat (recitation
of the Qur’an), and Ta’wil (Exegesis), etc.
Thanks to these universally appreciated efforts, the truths of Islam and all its
principles were established in a way not to leave any doubt concerning their authenticity.
While all this work was being done in the fields of religious sciences, essentially
based on jurisprudence, Tradition (Hadith), theology and Qur’anic interpretation,
the Sufi masters who concentrated mostly on the pure spiritual dimension of the
Muhammadan Truth tried to draw attention to the essence of man’s being, the
real nature of existence and the inner dynamics of man and the cosmos, directing
attention to the reality of things lying beneath and beyond their outer dimension.
Adding to the commentaries on the Qur’an, the narrations of the Traditionists
and the deductions of the jurisprudents, their asceticism, spirituality and self-purification,
in short, their practice and experience of religion, the Sufi masters developed
their ways. Thus, the Islamic spiritual life based on the actions of the spirit
such as asceticism, regular worship, abstention from all major and minor sins, sincerity
and purity of intention, love and yearning and man’s admission of his essential
impotence and destitution, became the subject-matter of a new science called tasawwuf
having its own method, principles, rules and terms.
Even if there emerged over time some differences among the orders that were later
established, it can be said that the basic subject-matter of this science has always
been the essence of the Muhammadan Truth. Unfortunately, it has sometimes occurred
that, although they are the two aspects of the same truth, the commandments of Shari‘a
and tasawwuf - which is in reality the spirit of Shari‘a, comprising austerity,
self-control and criticism and continuous struggle to resist the temptations of
satan and the carnal, evil-commanding self, and fulfil religious obligations, and
so on - have been presented as contradictory to each other. While adherence to the
former has been regarded as exotericism (self-restriction to the outward dimension
of religion), following the latter has been seen as pure esotericism. Although this
discrimination partly arises from the assertions that the commandments of Shari‘a
are represented by jurisprudents or muftis, and the other by the sufis, it should
be viewed as (the result of) a natural, human tendency, which is that everyone gives
priority to the way more compatible with his temperament and for which he has aptitude.
As jurisprudents,
Traditionists and interpreters of the Qur’an produced significant books based
on the Qur’an and the Sunna and following the methods dating back to the time
of the Prophet and the Companions, so also the sufis compiled books on austerity,
spiritual struggle against carnal desires and temptations, states of the spirit
and stations depending also on the same sources, with the addition of their own
spiritual experiences, love, ardour and rapture. By doing so, they tried to attract
the attention of those whom they regarded as restricted to practising the outward
dimension of religion and reflecting only on it, to their way and the spiritual
aspect of religious life. Both the sufis and the scholars, criticized for being
restricted to the outward aspect of religion, aimed to reach God by observing the
Divine obligations and prohibitions. Nevertheless,
some extremist
attitudes occasionally observed on both sides caused some disagreements between
them. Actually, there was no substantial disagreement, nor should it have been viewed
as a disagreement, that the different aspects and elements of religion were dealt
with and presented under different titles. It is by no means a disagreement that
while jurisprudence concerns itself with the rules of worship and daily life, with
how to regulate and discipline man’s individual and social life, tasawwuf
aims to enable man to live his life at a high level of spirituality through self-purification
and spiritual training. In fact, tasawwuf and jurisprudence are like the two schools
of a university which has undertaken to teach man the two faces or dimensions of
Shari‘a and educate him to be able to practise it in his life.
These two schools cannot be one without the other. One teaches how to perform the
prescribed prayers, how to realize the canonical purity required for worship, how
to fast, how to give the obligatory alms, and how to regulate his daily life from
shopping to marriage, etc. The other concentrates on the meaning of these and other
acts of, how to make worshipping an inseparable dimension of man’s existence
and how to elevate man to the rank of a universal, perfect being, which is the true
humanity. That is why neither of these disciplines can be neglected. Although some
impertinent ones among those claiming to be sufis have gone so far as to label religious
scholars as ‘scholars of ceremonies’ and ‘exoterists’, the
real,
perfected sufis
have always depended on the basic principles of Shari’a and based their thoughts
on the Book-Qur’an-and the Sunna, deriving their methods from these basic
sources of Islam. The Wasaya (‘Advices’) and Ri’aya (‘Observation
of Rules’) by al- Muhasibi, al-Ta’arruf li-Madhhabi Ahl al-Tasawwuf
(‘A Description of the Way of the People of Tasawwuf’) by Kalabazi,
al-Luma‘ (‘The Gleams’) by al-Tusi, Qut al-Qulub (‘The Food
of Hearts’) by Abu Talib al-Makki and al-Risala (‘The Treatise’)
by al-Qushayri are among the precious sources where tasawwuf is dealt with according
to the Book and Sunna. Among these sources some concentrate on self-control, the
purification of the self, while others elaborate various topics concerned with tasawwuf.
After these great compilers mentioned came Hujjat al-Islam Imam al-Ghazali , the
author of Ihya’ al-Ulum al-Din (‘Reviving the Religious Sciences’),
his most celebrated work.
He reviewed all the terms, principles and rules of the way of tasawwuf and, establishing
those agreed on by all the Sufi masters and criticizing others, united once more
these two disciplines, namely the outer and inner dimensions of Islam or jurisprudence
and tasawwuf. The Sufi masters coming after him presented tasawwuf as one of the
religious sciences or a dimension thereof, promoting the unity or agreement between
themselves and those once called the scholars of ceremonies. In addition, they were
able to make some subjects of sufism like the states of the spirit, certainty or
conviction, sincerity and morality, which are dealt with by tasawwuf more profoundly,
a part of the curriculum of madrasas-the institutions where religious sciences are
taught. Although tasawwuf mostly concentrates on the inner world of man and deals
with the religious commandments with respect to their meaning and effects on man’s
spirit and heart and is therefore abstract, it is not contradictory with any of
the Islamic ways based on the Book and the Sunna.
Far from being
contradictory, it has its source, just like other religious sciences, in the Book
and the Sunna and the conclusions the purified scholars of the early period of Islam
drew from the Qur’an and the Sunna-ijtihad. It dwells on knowledge, knowledge
of God, certainty, sincerity, perfect goodness and other similar, fundamental virtues.
Defining tasawwuf with different titles such as the science of esoteric truths or
of mysteries or the science of man’s spiritual states and stations or the
science of initiation, does not mean that it is completely different from other
religious sciences.
Such definitions are the results of experiencing Shari‘a throughout centuries
by men of different temperaments and dispositions. It is a distortion to present
the viewpoints of the sufis and the thoughts and conclusions of the scholars of
Shari‘a as essentially different from each other. Although it is an undeniable
fact that there have been some sufis fanatically adherent to their own ways, as
well as some religious scholars-jurisprudents, Traditionists, and interpreters of
the Qur’an-restricted to the outward dimension of religion, those who follow
and represent the middle, straight path have always formed the majority. Therefore,
starting from some unbecoming thoughts cherished and words uttered by some jurisprudents
and sufis against each other, it is wrong to conclude that there is a serious disagreement
between them. As compared with those always on the side of tolerance and consensus,
the numbers of the others who have started or participated in conflict have been
very few. This is what is natural, for like the jurisprudents who have depended
on the Book and the Sunna in their ways, the sufis have also depended on these two
main sources of Islam.
In addition,
the priorities of tasawwuf have never been different from those of jurisprudence.
Both of these ways or disciplines have stressed the importance of belief, doing
good deeds and good conduct. The only difference is that, more than the jurisprudents,
the sufis have also focused on purification of the self, deepening in the meaning
of good deeds and multiplying them, and attainment of higher standards of good morals,
by which man’s conscience awakens to knowledge of God and man can enter a
way leading to the required sincerity in practising the religion and obtaining God’s
good pleasure.
Since man can, by means of these virtues, acquire another nature-another heart-spiritual
intellect-within the heart, a deeper knowledge of God, and another ‘tongue’
to mention God-he can perform all the commandments of Shari‘a in a deeper
consciousness of, and with a disposition for, servanthood to God, and in greater
exhilaration. It is by means of tasawwuf that man deepens in spirituality. Through
the struggle with the selfhood, through solitude or retreat, invocation, self-control
and self-criticism, the veils over the inner dimension of existence are torn apart
and, as a result, man gains a strong conviction of the truth of all the major and
minor principles of faith.