Sufism is a mystical form of Islam that emphasizes spiritual realization and communion with God through purification of the soul. It began as individual ascetic practices but later organized into Sufi orders centered around masters. Sufism was influenced by Christian asceticism and Hindu philosophy and meditation techniques. It aims to achieve union with God through knowledge from the Quran and practicing Islam. Early Sufis strictly followed the Quran's conception of God, but later Sufi philosophy developed the idea of God as the only true existence.
Sufism is a mystical form of Islam that emphasizes spiritual realization and communion with God through purification of the soul. It began as individual ascetic practices but later organized into Sufi orders centered around masters. Sufism was influenced by Christian asceticism and Hindu philosophy and meditation techniques. It aims to achieve union with God through knowledge from the Quran and practicing Islam. Early Sufis strictly followed the Quran's conception of God, but later Sufi philosophy developed the idea of God as the only true existence.
Sufism is a mystical form of Islam that emphasizes spiritual realization and communion with God through purification of the soul. It began as individual ascetic practices but later organized into Sufi orders centered around masters. Sufism was influenced by Christian asceticism and Hindu philosophy and meditation techniques. It aims to achieve union with God through knowledge from the Quran and practicing Islam. Early Sufis strictly followed the Quran's conception of God, but later Sufi philosophy developed the idea of God as the only true existence.
Human cognitions and behaviors are determined largely by a set of facts and values. The facts are mostly derived from the science and the values have their origin in religious or non-religious philosophies such as humanism and existentialism.[2] Spirituality being an integral part of most of the religious philosophies provides the value system for the majority of people and thereby influences their well-being. Recognizing this, the spiritual well-being, in accordance with the social and cultural patterns, was accepted as one of the important determinants of health by the World Health Organization during the 37th World Health Assembly in 1984.[3] Spiritual teaching has already found its place in the curriculum of many medical schools in the Western world.[4,5] From a mental health perspective, spirituality seems to have a far greater role as these operate on the same ground – the brain or as some would like it call it the mind or the soul. In fact, there are studies that show positive as well as the negative impact of the spiritual and religious beliefs and practices on the physical and mental well-being of people who subscribe to spiritual or religious practices.[6–11] Sufism, having a large following both in the Muslim world and outside coupled with migration of large numbers of people from eastern Sufi oriented lands to the west, is a rapidly growing form of spirituality that needs to be understood in terms of its impact on the mental well-being of its followers and the potential interactions in the mental health care clinical settings. From a more philosophical point of view, Sufism provides an opportunity to understand the source of religious knowledge in general and Islamic knowledge (revelation) in particular. In Sufi traditions, it is believed that Sufis can have similar knowledge revealing experiences as are the source of religious knowledge in the form of revelation of the Quran (the scripture of Islam) to Muhammad (the Prophet of Islam). The study of these Sufi experiences which share phenomenological ground with the prophetic experiences of revelation provides a possibility for the scientific study of the sources of religious knowledge.[12,13] From day-to-day clinical practice to research, the study of the normal and abnormal perceptual/experiential phenomena and its implications form an integral part of the mental-health related sciences and puts the students of mental-health sciences in a coveted position to study the Sufi experiences.
Historical background of Sufism
The term Mysticism had its beginning in the mystery cults of the Greeks, which involved a close circle of devotees who because of their innate capacity were believed to have the knowledge of the divine revealed to them. Etymology aside, mysticism has been practiced since ages across all the cultures and has been a vital part of the major religions of the world. Perhaps it represents an innate desire of the man to understand himself and the world around. All forms of mysticism aspire for a union with the divine and believe that it is only possible through the purification of soul to receive direct knowledge and revelation from the divine.[14] Islam began in 610 AD and established itself through the teachings of Muhammad believed to be revealed to him by God through the archangel Gabriel primarily among the Arab pagan and Christian communities. The close contact between the Muslim and the Christian communities during the formative years of Islam had its influence on the development of the Sufism – the mystic traditions of Islam. Sufism established itself within the traditions of the Islam as laid down in the Quran believed to be revealed to Muhammad by God. The Sufis believe that communion with God is possible through Muhammad, who was the recipient of the knowledge of the heart (Ilm-e-Sina) besides the outer knowledge (Ilm-e-safina). Ali, one of the Muhammad's companions and son-in-law, is considered to be the first Sufi to whom the Ilm-e-Sina was revealed by Muhammad to be taught to those capable of understanding it. Contrary to the mainstream, some schools of thought in Islam denounce Sufism as heretical and consider it an innovation in Islam.[15,16] However, the concept of God, the possibility of esoteric knowledge and the ways to access God through purification of self by means of prayer, fasting and repentance that form the foundations of Sufism find their source in the Quran and the teachings of the prophet known as Hadith.[14] Sufism in the beginning was primarily an individual endeavor. The Sufis would usually live in isolation practicing self-mortification and were distinguished by a cloak of wool (Suf), a tradition of Muhammad, which is believed to be the origin of the word Sufi.[15,17] A group of such devouts lived a life of poverty and incessant prayer and fasting on a stone bench in front of Muhammad's mosque. These people of the bench (Ashab-e-suffa), 45 to over 300 in number, were given to much weeping and repentance and are believed to be the origin of the Sufism.[18] However, the name Sufi was given to such ascetics only around the second century of death of Muhammad. The Sufis in the early period were primarily ascetics and Sufism had not yet evolved into a fully developed system of theosophical doctrines, which became the core feature of the later Sufism.[14] The companions of Muhammad like Bilal, Salman Farsi, Ammar bin Yasir were the early mystics. Later with the spread of Islam Sufism flourished in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Persia and Central Asia and gave birth to the renown Sufis like Rabia Basri, Hasan Basri, Junayd Baghdadi, Dhun Nun Misri, etc., around the 9th and 10th century.[16,19] As the early Sufi masters started teaching those in search of divine, a distinct tradition in the form of closely-knit communities centered around these masters flourished. The transformation of such communities into those, which shared a spiritual lineage, took place around the 11th century and led to the formation of Sufi orders (silsilas), chains through which they would eventually link their disciples to Muhammad.[20] The early Sufi orders like Muhasibis, Qassaris, Junaydis, Nuris, Sahlis, Hakimis, Kharrazis, Sayyaris, and Tayfuris though limited to particular geographic locales were influential in the development of Sufi thought. Later major Sufi orders with a wider appeal were established around Sufi masters like Qadri by Abdul Qadir Jilani (Baghdad), Chishti by abu Ishaq Shami (Syria), Suharwardi by abu Najib Suharwardi, Yasavi by Ahmed Yasavi (Kazakhstan), Kubrawiya by Najmuddin Kubra (Central Asia), Rifai by Ahmed Rifai (Iraq), Shadhili by abul Hasan Shadhili (Morocco), Mevlavi by Jalal ud Din Rumi (Konya), Naqshbandhi by Bahauddin Naqshband (Bukhara), Nimatullahi by Nuruddin Muhammad Nimatullah (Syria) and Tijani by Abbas Ahmad ibn al Tijani (Algeria). The Sufi orders practiced presently run in hundreds but most of these represent the off shoots of the earlier ones. The 13th century considered the golden age of Sufism was marked by the development of comprehensive mystical and theosophical doctrines of Sufism by the Sufi scholars like ibn ul Arabi of Spain, ibn ul Farid of Egypt and the popular Persian Sufi poet Jalal ud Din Rumi After the golden era the Arab-Muslim world produced only few notable Sufi scholars though the influence of Sufi orders continued to grow. The rise of Wahabism in the late 18th and 19th century that condemned Sufism as a heresy and the social and political reforms in the Muslim world during the 20th century that considered Sufism as an impediment to development restricted the growth of Sufi philosophy and confined it to closely-knit circles of spiritual education.[16] Apart from the Christian asceticism, Hinduism had a significant influence on Sufism both in terms of the philosophical basis and the meditation practices, which started much before Sufism reached the Indian subcontinent. The concept of existential unity of being (wahdat-ul-wujood) propounded by the ibn ul Arabi in the 13th century bears striking similarity to the Advaita philosophy (unified Brahma-Jnana) of the Puranas (ancient Hindu religious texts). The concept of wahdat-ul-wujood has been a dominant philosophy in the later day Sufis which brought them closer to the Hindu mystics like Ramanand, Chaitanya, Ramanuja, Namdev, Mira Bai, Tukaram, and Ramdas, resulting in social movements like the Bhakti movement. The Sufis also incorporated some of the meditation techniques from the Hindu mystics like the breathing techniques to facilitate their Sufi practices.[21,22] In the 11th century, Saifuddin Kaziruni from Iran was the first Sufi to settle in the Indian subcontinent.[23] Later the subcontinent became home to some of the great Sufi saints and scholars such as Moinuddin Chishti, Nizamuddin Awliya, Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar, and Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, whose teachings were influential in much of the growth and acceptance of Islam.[15,16]
Sufism: The essence
The ultimate aim of the Sufi is communion with God through spiritual realization, which is achieved through the knowledge revealed by Quran (ilm) and the practice of Islam (amal).[24] Since its inception the Sufi philosophy has revolved around the concept of God and the ways and nature of communion with him. The early Sufis adhered strictly to the Quran in their interpretation of the concept of the God as infinite, eternal, unchangeable, creator, all-powerful, merciful and the cause of all existence. With the growth of Sufi philosophy, the concept of God changed from the one as the cause of all existence to the idea of God as the only real existence. This philosophy reached its ultimate in the concept of the wahdat-ul-wujood.[14,22] Sufis regards the soul as the agency for communication with God. It is the higher soul, as Sufis believe, created before any human being came into existence, consisting of heart (qalb), spirit (ruh), and conscience (sirr) that has the ability to know God. The sirr is regarded by many Sufis to represent the “secret shrine of God himself, wherein he knows man and man can know him.”[18] The heart (qalb) has an important place is Sufism and is considered to contain the divine spark that leads to spiritual realization. Sufis cherish the revelation by God that “I, who cannot fit into all the heavens and earths, fit in the heart of the sincere believer.”[25] For the heart (qalb) to reflect the truth as it is, it has to be cleansed of the rust of worldly influences.[26] The concept of the covenant (misaq) described in Quran “And (remember) when thy Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves (saying): Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! Of this we were unaware” forms the basis of the Sufi philosophy of communion with God.[16,27] There is another soul (nafs) that Sufis regard as the seat of passions that creates hurdles in the communion of the higher soul with God. The nafs has to be transformed from nafs-e ammara (lustful soul; cf. Id) to nafs-e lawwama (self-blaming soul; cf. ego) and ultimately into nafs-e mutmaenna (peaceful soul; cf. super-ego) to return to truth.[14,26] Muhammad, has a special place in Sufism. The spiritual enlightenment or the ascendance of the higher soul for communion with God is believed to go through a chain of transmissions to Muhammad as through him only can the communion be achieved. Sufis refer to the saying of Muhammad “the first thing that Allah created was my light, which originated from his light and derived from the majesty of his greatness” as a basis for this belief. Sufis believe that the ascendance is possible only through the process of purification of the soul – the way (tareeqa). [16]
Tareeqa: The Sufi way
Muhammad, in a tradition related to him, described faith (iman) as “to acknowledge with the heart, to voice with the tongue, and to act with the limbs.” These three elements of faith are believed to correspond to the three aspects of the Sufi philosophy – sharia (act with the limbs), tareeqa (voice with the tongue), and haqeeqa (acknowledge with the heart). Sufis outwardly follow the sharia while on the way (tareeqa) for communion with the God (haqeeqa).[24] The Sufi tareeqa has been described as comprised of three stages – the stage of stations (maqamat), the stage of states (ahwal), and finally the stage of achievement (tamkin). The first stage represents the traveler's (salik's) striving for his lord and is achieved through self-mortification (mujahida). The salikis supposed to pass through the stations of repentance (tawba), piety (zuhd), trust in God (tawwakul), poverty (faqr), remembrance of god (zikr), patience (sabr), thankfulness (shukr), and contentment (rida) to reach the final station love (mohabba) of the first stage. The states (ahwal) are believed to result from the divine graces (tajalli) flowing from the God and occur during or after the first stage. The ahwal, as a matter of faith, are solely dependent on the God's grace and cannot be induced by the Sufi. The final stage of achievement (tamkin) represents the end of the quest when the Sufi is supposed to receive the gnosis (marifa), the divine knowledge and become one with God. While on the tareeqa, the Sufi is first supposed to annihilate himself in his mentor (fana-fi-shaykh), then in Muhammad (fana-fi-rasul), and finally in God (fana-fi-allah) before he achieves eternal existence in his God (baqa).[14,16–18] Go to:
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES IN SUFISM
Different perspectives Spiritual or psychic experiences are a quite common occurrence across cultures and religions. Though there are no specific studies related to Sufism, surveys reveals the percentage of people having had psychic experiences to range from 20% to 45%; the frequency varying with the time, gender, religion, etc.[28] Surprisingly the experiences share many features notwithstanding the differences in practices, beliefs, and cultures within which they occur. The psychic experiences occur in the domains of thought, perception and feeling (a complex perceptual experience) and share certain features regardless of the domain. The psychic experiences, partly based on individual accounts of Sufis, are immediate, usually transient, ineffable, unanalyzable, involving intimate association with a unique other self, transcending time, space and person, and felt as a deep sense of bliss.[14,13,28] Historically, psychic experiences have been attributed to divine experiences, possession by demons, regarded as heresy and even insanity. The interpretations have varied with the political and religious environs of the times and have been influenced by the societal class of the claimant, the content of the experiences vis-à-vis the existing political and religious norms, gender, etc. The experiences have been interpreted to promote or discredit a particular political thought and even used as a plea for insanity. The case of two famous Sufis who claimed extreme forms of mystical experiences, Mansur al Hallaj and Bayazid Bastami needs a mention here. Both were and are considered as great Sufis on one hand and as heretics on the other and were even sentenced to death during their times for heresy.[29,30]