Sufism is from the Arab word sufi, which means
‘mystic’. Sufism is Islamic mysticism.The
Arabic word is tasawwuj.
The
early practices of asceticism, introspection and meditation
on God depicted in the Koran eventually developed
in classical Sufism (eighth and eleventh) into the
spiritual journey of the mystic. The first stage in
the journey was that of stations (maqamat)
that were reached through individual effort, , abnegation
and spiritual exercises. The Sufi suppressed his individual
ego and attachment to worldly things and emotions.
He then became receptive to the levels of states (ahwaal),
which were vouchsafed to him through God’s grace.
These culminated in the final states of bliss, which
were identified as love (mahabba), mystical
knowledge (ma ‘rifa) and total loss of ego
consciousness. This led to the concomitant absorption
and subsistence in and through God
(fana and baqa).
Sufism
was integrated into mainstream Islam primarily as
a result of the works of al-Ghazali (eleventh century).
It was integrated into a complex and multifaceted
system of theosophy in the monumental work of Ibn‘Arabi..
This system rests on the pivotal concept of unity
of being (wahdat al-wujud), according to which
God is the only being and only reality. The entire
creation constitutes a series of His dynamic and continuous
self-manifestations. The individual who combines in
himself the totality of these manifestations to become
the prototype of creation, as well as the medium through
which God can be known is the Perfect Man, identified
with Prophet Muhammad.
Sufi Sayings
An
al-haq (I am the Truth or I am God.)
-Mansur
al-Hallaj
I
saw my Lord with the eye of the heart.
I said who art Thou?
He answered: Thou.
-Mansur al-Hallaj
I
died as mineral and became a plant, died as plant
and rose as animal .I died as animal and rose as man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once
more I shall die as Man, to soar with angels blest.
But even from angelhood I must pass on.
-Jalal-ud-din
Rumi
The
Sufi is absent from himself and present with God.
-Hujwiri
You
will not be a mystic until you are like the earth---both
the righteous and the sinner tread upon it---and until
you are like the clouds---they shade all things---and
until you are like the rain---it waters all things,
whether it loves them or not.
-Bayazid
Bistami
Sufi
Verse
Faceless,
the face of reality stands
Still in its place;
Round and round the chandelier turns
And creates many a face.
-Asgar
We are the curtain that lies between,
Without
us who would hide from whom?
-Mir
Sufi
Humour
One
Friday, Hodja stood up in the pulpit in the mosque
to preach a sermon.
“O
ye believers, do you know what I am going to talk
about today?”
“We
have no idea” they answered him.
“Well
if you have no idea at all, what is the use of me
talking to you?”
With
that remark he descended from the pulpit and went
home.
The
next Friday he returned to the mosque, and once again
stood in the pulpit and asked the congregation, “O
ye true believers, do you know what I am going to
talk about today?”
‘Yes”
they answered.
“Well,
if you already know, then what is the use of telling
you?”: and again he descended and went home.
Again
the following Friday he entered the mosque, mounted
the pulpit and asked the same question.
The
congregation had prepared the answer in advance: “Some
of us do, and some of us don’t”.
“In
that case” Hodja said, “Let those who do tell those
that don’t”: and went home.
Sufism
and Science
A
book review
Ali
Ansari has the credentials for a book that straddles
the worlds of quantum physics, biology, neurology,
psychology, philosophy and mysticism. He holds a Ph.D..
In mechanical engineering and has taught at various
universities in India and the US He is .a writer and
a poet and has been conducting “encounter group” workshops
in Coimbatore and Bangalore based on his original
research into Sufism.
The
Sufi hypothesis is that there is, in the human psyche,
an evolutionary urge to develop slowly, but decisively
to a point of absolute freedom and that freedom is
liberation from the dichotomy of ‘me’ and ‘thou’.
It is the split of the whole into ‘me’ and ‘thou’
that produces the spiritual dynamic of the urge to
reunite and become whole again. This yearning for
wholeness is a natural “higher human instinct”.
If
we trace the history of life upon this earth, we see
that every organism operates on the basis of a perception
of its identity and the will to preserve it. Every
organism places itself first and in a situation of
limited supply of food considers every other organism
a competitor and a threat. Fear is a biochemical device
invented by life as part of a self-defense apparatus.
Today
we are in a bizarre situation. Human beings, by solving
the problem of the scarcity of food and the problem
of threat to human life from other organisms, now
stand at a completely new place in the saga of evolution.
What
is needed today is a new kind of human mind that is
meta-primate. We have to let go of our imagined sense
of security. We have to conquer the fear of the “other”.
We can acquire a new mind only if we grasp a few deeper
realities.
We
have to understand that our senses are components
of a essentially biased system, intended to deceive
us. What appears to us, as a material body is, according
to modern physics, a configuration of energy that
is inextricably embedded in a vast and seamless energy
landscape. Our minds perceive our bodies as disconnected,
distinct, bonded material entities. We are programmed
to believe this sensory illusion, so that we may be
absolutely committed to protecting the body as a separate
entity.
Spirituality
has always considered this samsara to be an
illusion. Modern science now supports the mystics
in this belief. New Sufism believes that part of the
human psyche is not tricked by the senses and is aware
of the background energy landscape and the underlying
connectedness of individual bodies. This creates a
subtle tension between the sensory perception and
the episensory perception. The spiritual quest is
a natural response of the mind to resolve this tension
and break the illusion of separateness.
Matter
is the key to this illusion. A piece of matter is
a bounded island of energy and made visible and distinct
by the selectivity and limitation of the senses. Once
this illusory world is created, our consciousness
gets trapped in it and matter becomes our focus of
interest.
Only
matter can be owned, not energy. Involvement with
matter is the centerpiece of the primate mind. In
its focus on matter, the primate human mind gets stuck
in scarcity consciousness. If the focus is shifted
to energy, one’s relationship to life changes dramatically.
It is seen that we live in an infinite universe in
which energy flows freely, integrating everything
and making the notion of boundaries meaningless. The
fear of scarcity is replaced by a sense of plenty.
We
get energy not just from food but also from many,
many things-activities, relationships and interactions
that are enjoyable and meaningful. We begin to see
ourselves as managers and enjoyers of energy and understand
William Blake’s ecstatic proclamation: ‘Energy is
eternal delight’.
As
we begin to understand the calculus of energy, we
make an enormous discovery. The body is an apparatus
available to us to move up to a higher octave of consciousness.
For this we have to awaken the sleeping organism and
keep it awake. When consciousness confronts the mind,
the process of awakening begins. Through an awakened
body and mind we learn the secret of energy.
Sufis
believe that all organisms are asleep in as much as
they function under the automatic operation of the
principles that make up life-survival, procreation,
avoidance of pain and seeking of pleasure. An awakened
organism is not ruled by these principles. It does
not automatically seek its own gain. It is not scarcity
conscious. It is not primed for self-defense and self-protection.
The
transformed being is changed in many ways. Its natural
tendency for self-indulgence is fundamentally transformed.
It ceases to be a point for struggle. It gets naturally
aligned to a transcendental order and a higher sensibility.
In the spiritual quest, truth has always been
emphasized. The ancient Hindus taught that the soul
was liberated when it realized its own eternal truth.
The missing link is love. We should understand that
in love the individual energies interpenetrate. The
rigid form and separation implied by matter are overridden
in this experience of Interpenetrating of energies.
The form of Sufism that Ali Ansari proposes
combines love and knowledge and makes them one. Both
help to reprogamme our primate brain. Knowledge helps
us understand the roots of the me-thou dichotomy,
of fear, conflict, self-interest, control, ownership,
mindless consumption and ecological destruction. Love
gives us an experience of efficiency and abundance
outside the realm of material finiteness.
The experience of love eliminates the feeling
of fear, greed and insufficiency. As we welcome this
experience more and more and allow it to happen, we
discover beauty and wholeness. We become free. We
are no longer ‘we’, as we have known ourselves to
be.
Sai devotees will notice a familiar ring about
Ansari’s findings. Sai Baba teaches both sathya
or truth and prema or love, in addition
to the three other basic values of dharma (righteous
conduct), shanti (peace) and ahimsa
(non-violence). To the modern mind trained in scientific
mode of thinking, what is of value in the book is
the corroboration of the mystic experience in the
latest findings of various scientific disciplines.
