Tasawwuf and Sharia
Shafiq ur-Rahman
ALL PRAISES ARE DUE TO ALLAH. WE PRAISE HIM,
seek His help, and ask His forgiveness. We seek
refuge in Allah from the evil in our souls and from
our wrong actions. Whoever Allah guides, no one
can mislead. And whomever Allah misguides, no
one can guide. I testify that there is none worthy of
worship except Allah. He is One, having no
partner. And I testify that Muhammad is His
servant and messenger. May Allah bless him and
give him peace, with his family and Companions.
Verily the best speech is the Book of Allah. And the
best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad
(sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ).
With this opening invocation, I turn my attention
to Tasawwuf - a realm of the Islamic sciences that
is easily misunderstood without qualified
instruction. Any discussion and/or comments on
Tasawwuf must be backed by the knowledge of
scholars in this field. Tasawwuf is one of the
several Islamic sciences (ulum ). Like most of the
other Islamic ulum , it was not known by name, or
in it's later developed form, during the time of the
Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ). This does not
make it less legitimate. There are many Islamic
sciences that only took shape many years after the
Prophetic age; principles of jurisprudence (usul al-
fiqh), for example, or the hadith methodology (ulum
al-hadith ). The essence of Tasawwuf is purely
Islamic. To make this point, I will, in sha Allah,
limit myself to reproducing opinions of scholars
and taking extracts from several authentic sources.
I begin with a description of Tasawwuf in a
recently published comprehensive work on Islam,
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic
World, edited by Professor John L. Esposito, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, May 1995, 4 vols.: "in a
broad sense, Sufism can be described as the
interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith
and practice. The original sense of sufi seems to
have been 'one who wears wool.' By the eighth
century the word was sometimes applied to
Muslims whose ascetic inclinations led them to
wear coarse and uncomfortable woolen garments.
Gradually it came to designate a group who
differentiated themselves from others by emphasis
on certain specific teachings and practices of the
Quran and the sunnah. By the ninth century the
gerund form tasawwuf, literally 'being a sufi' or
'sufism,' was adopted by representatives of this
group as their appropriate designation.
Understood as Islam's life-giving core, sufism is co-
extensive with Islam. Wherever there have been
Muslims, there have been sufis. If there was no
phenomenon called 'sufism' at the time of the
Prophet, neither was there anything called 'fiqh' or
'kalam' in the later senses of these terms. All these
are names that came to be applied to various
dimensions of Islam after the tradition became
diversified and elaborated. In looking for a
Quranic name for the phenomenon that later
generations came to call sufism, some authors
settled on the term ihsan, 'doing what is beautiful,'
a divine and human quality about which the
Quran says a good deal, mentioning in particular
that God loves those who possess it. In the famous
Hadith of Gabriel, the Prophet describes ihsan as
the innermost dimension of Islam, after Islam
('submission' or correct activity) and iman ("faith"
or correct understanding)." [vol. 4, pp. 102-104.]
The link between Ihsan and Tasawwuf is reiterated
in the English translation of Sahih Muslim by
Abdul Hamid Siddiqi in a footnote to the above
hadith: "Ihsan means beneficence, performance of
good deeds, but in the religious sense it implies the
doing of good deeds over and above what is just
and fair. It is indicative of the intense devotion of
man to his Creator and Master and his enthusiasm
for virtue and piety. What is implied by the term
tasawwuf in Islam is nothing but Ihsan. The aim of
Ihsan is to create a sense of inner piety in man
and to train his sensibilities in a way that all his
thoughts and actions flow from the fountainhead of
the love of God." [vol. 1, pp. 3-4.]
In his work, The Cultural Atlas of Islam, Macmillan
Publishing Co., New York, 1986, Professor Ismail R.
al Faruqi, a modern Islamic scholar and activist,
devoted a chapter to sufism. The introduction to
the chapter states: "Tasawwuf, or the donning of
wool, is the name given to a movement that
dominated the minds and hearts of Muslims for a
millennium, and is still strong in many circles of
the Muslim world. It nourished their souls, purified
their hearts, and fulfilled their yearning for piety,
for virtue and righteousness, and for closeness to
God. It grew and rapidly moved to every corner of
the Muslim world. It was responsible for the
conversion of millions to Islam, as well as for a
number of militant states and socio-political
movements." [p.295.]
In his work, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam,
HarperCollins, New York, Cyril Glasse describes
Tasawwuf as "the mysticism or esotericism of
Islam." He writes: "The word is commonly thought
to come from the Arabic word suf ('wool'): rough
woolen clothing characterized the early ascetics,
who preferred its symbolic simplicity to richer and
more sophisticated materials. The essence of sufism
is purely Islamic. Sufism is found everywhere in
the Islamic world; it is the inner dimension of
Islam, from which the efficacy and force of Islam
as a religion flow. Historically, the sufis have been
grouped into organizations called tawa'if (sing.
ta'ifah ), or turuq (sing. tariqah, 'path'), the latter
word being used more commonly in the later
period, from the time of the Qadiriyyah order.
Tariqah is now also a technical term for
esotericism itself. Turuq are congregations formed
around a master, meeting for spiritual sessions
(majalis), in zawiyahs , khanaqahs, or tekkes , as the
meeting places are called in different countries.
These spiritual meetings are described in the
words attributed to the Prophet: "Whenever men
gather together to invoke Allah, they are
surrounded by Angels, the Divine Favor envelopes
them, Peace (as-sakinah ) descends upon them, and
Allah remembers them in His assembly."
Sufism may take many forms, but it always
contains two poles: doctrine and method. Doctrine
can be summarized as intellectual discrimination
between the Real and the unreal, the basis for this
being found essentially in the shahadah : "there is
no god but God" or "there is no reality but the
Reality." Methods can be summarized as the
concentration upon the Real by the "remembrance
of God" (dhikr Allah), the invocation of the Divine
Name (dhikr means "remembrance", "mention",
"invocation"). Both doctrine and method must,
however, be complemented by perfect surrender to
God and the maintenance of an equilibrium
through the spiritual regime, which is Islam. In
scholastic terms this is a movement from potency
to act - in effect to the realization of the Oneness of
God (tawhid ), which is the goal of sufism. The
Qur'an often underlines the importance of
invocation in words such as these: "Remember God
standing and sitting. . ." (3:191); " . . . Those who
believe and do good works, and remember God
much. . . " (26:227); and "Surely the Remembrance
of God is Greatest" (wa ladhikru-Llahi akbar )
(29:45). The principle of reciprocity between God
and man is expressed by God's revealed words:
"Therefore remember Me; I will remember
you" (fadhkuruni adhkurum) (2:152).
All spiritual method also necessarily involves the
practice of the virtues, summarized in the concept
of ihsan, the surpassing of self, which a Sacred
Hadith defines thus: "Worship God as if you saw
Him, for if you do not see him, nevertheless, He
sees you." To this, the sufis add: "And if there were
no you, you would see,' and make the summation
of mystical virtue the quality of "spiritual
poverty" (faqr ). By faqr they mean emptying the
soul of the ego's false "reality" in order to make
way for what God wills for the soul. They seek to
transform the soul's natural passivity into re-
collected wakefulness in the present, mysteriously
active as symbolized by the transformation of
Moses' hand. Humility and love of one's neighbour
cut at the root of the illusion of the ego and
remove those faults within the soul that are
obstacles to the Divine Presence. "You will not
enter paradise," the Prophet said, "until you love
one another." The disciple should live in
surroundings and in an ambience that are
aesthetically and morally compatible with spiritual
interiorization, in the sense that "The Kingdom of
God is within you." The need of such supports for
the spiritual life can be summed up in the Hadith:
"God is beautiful and He loves beauty." [pp. 375-8]
In his Al-Maqasid , Imam Nawawi, the great Shafi'i
scholar, discusses sufism at great length. His
conclusions may be summarized as follows: "The
basic rules of the way of sufism are five:
having godfearingness
privately and publicly,
living according to the
sunna in word and
deed,
indifference to whether
others accept or reject
one,
satisfaction with Allah
Most High in scarcity
and plenty, and
turning to Allah in
happiness or
affliction.
The foundations of all of these consist of five
things:
high aspiration,
keeping Allah's
reverence,
giving the best of
service,
keeping one's spiritual
resolves, and
esteeming Allah's
blessings.
The principles of sufism's signs on a person are
also five:
seeking Sacred
Knowledge in order to
perform Allah's
command;
keeping the company of
sheikhs and fellow
disciples in order to
see with insight;
forgoing both
dispensations from
religious obligations
and figurative
interpretations of
scripture, for the sake
of cautiousness;
organizing one's time
with spiritual works to
maintain presence of
heart; and
suspecting the self in
all matters, in order to
free oneself from
caprice and be safe
from destruction.
One reaches Allah Most High by
repenting from all
things unlawful or
offensive;
seeking Sacred
Knowledge in the
amount needed;
continuously keeping
on ritual purity;
performing the
prescribed prayers
[fard ] at the first of
their times in a group
prayer (and praying the
confirmed sunnas
[sunna mu'akkada ]
associated with them);
always performing
eight rak'as of the
nonobligatory
midmorning prayer (al-
duha ), the six rak'as
between the sunset
(maghrib ) and nightfall
('isha) prayers, the
night vigil prayer
(tahajjud ) after having
risen from sleeping,
and the witr prayer;
fasting Mondays and
Thursdays;
reciting the Qur'an
with presence of heart
and reflecting on its
meanings;
asking much for
Allah's forgiveness
(istaghfar );
always invoking the
Blessings on the
Prophet (Allah bless
him and give him
peace); and
persevering in the
dhikrs that are sunna
in the morning and
evening.
These include, among others, the following verses
of the Qur'an:
Al-Bakarah: 285-6,
At-Tauba: 129,
ar-Rum: 17-19,
Surah Ya-Sin,
Al-Hashr: 21-24,
Sura Al-Ikhlas,
Sura al-Falaq, and
Sura al-Nas.í [pp.
85-92]
Let me turn to another scholarly work of the
Muslim world and the most recognized and
authentic English translation of Quran by Abdullah
Yusuf Ali: "The soul of mysticism and ecstasy is in
the Quran, as well as the plain guidance for the
plain man which a world in a hurry affects to
consider as sufficient." Preface to first edition of
The Meaning of the Holy Quran, Abdullah Yusuf
Ali, Amana Corporation, Maryland, 1991, p. xi.
"Then came philosophy and the mystic doctrine of
the Sufi schools. The development of the science of
kalam (built on formal logic), and its further
offshoot, the Ilm al-aqa'id (the philosophical
exposition of the grounds of our belief) introduced
further elements on the intellectual side, while
ta'wil (esoteric exposition of the hidden or inner
meaning) introduced elements on the spiritual side,
based on a sort of transcendental intuition of the
expositor. The Sufi mystics adhered to the rules of
their own Orders, which were very strict. But many
of the non-Sufi writers on ta'wil indulged in an
amount of licence in interpretation which has
rightly called forth a protest on the part of the
more sober Ulama." Commentaries on the Quran,
The Meaning of the Holy Quran, Abdullah Yusuf
Ali, p. xv.
The origin of sufism was also discussed by a great
scholar of sufism, Ali Ibn Uthman al-Hujwiri, in his
book Kashf al-Mahjub (English translation by
Reynold A. Nicholson, Luzac and Company,
London, 1976): "Some assert that the sufi is so
called because he wears a woolen garment (jama'i
suf); others that he is so called because he is in the
first rank (saff-i awwal ); others say it is because the
sufis claim to belong to the Ashab-i Suffa , with
whom may God be well-pleased! Others, again,
declare that the name is derived from safa
(purity)." [p. 30]. He then describes Ashab al-Suffa
or Ahl al-Suffa (the People of the Veranda) in the
following words: "Know that all Moslems are
agreed that the Apostle had a number of
Companions, who abode in his Mosque and
engaged in devotion, renouncing the world and
refusing to seek a livelihood. God reproached the
Apostle on their account and said: 'Do not drive
away those that call on their Lord morning and
evening, seeking only to gain His Face' (Qur'an
6:52). . . . . . It is related by Ibn Abbas that the
Apostle passed by the People of the Veranda, and
saw their poverty and their self-mortification and
said: Rejoice! for whoever of my community
perseveres in the state in which you are, and is
satisfied with his condition, he shall be one of my
comrades in Paradise.' [p. 81]. The Ahl al-Suffa
included, among others, Bilal ibn al-Rabah, Salman
al-Farisi, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, Abu Dharr al-
Ghifari, Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, Abdullah ibn Umar,
and Abdullah ibn Masud (RadiyaíLlahu anhum)" [p.
81].
No discussion of Tasawwuf would be complete
without mentioning the work of Imam al-Ghazzali.
In his essay on Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali in The
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World,
Professor Muntansir Mir writes: ". . . Abu Hamid
al-Ghazzali, medieval Muslim theologian, jurist,
and mystic. Few individuals in the intellectual
history of Islam have exerted influence as powerful
and varied as did Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali. When
he died at the age of fifty-two, he had attempted,
with an exceptionally perspicacious mind and a
powerful pen, a grand synthesis of the Islamic
sciences that has ever since evoked the wonder and
admiration of scholars, both Muslims and non-
Muslims. He gained distinction in the court of the
Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk, and at the age of
thirty-four he was appointed professor at the
Nizamiyah College at Baghdad. After teaching there
for several years, al-Ghazzali suffered a crisis of
confidence. Losing faith in the efficacy and
purpose of the learning he has acquired and was
now disseminating, he searched for the truth and
certitude that alone could set his moral doubt at
rest. He left his position at the Nizamiyah,
withdrew from practical life, and spent eleven
years in travel, meditation, and reflection. When
he returned he had found the object of his search -
in sufism. The details of al-Ghazzali's quest for
knowledge that would give certitude are found in
his autobiography, Al-munqidh min al-dalal
(Deliverer from Error). Al-Ghazzali tells us that, of
the four groups of people who claimed to be in
possession of the truth, only the sufis, who walked
the right path, because they combined knowledge
with action, had sincerity of purpose, and actually
experienced the serenity and contentment that
comes from direct illumination of the heart by
God.
Al-Ghazzali's critique of the philosophers, the
esotericists, and the theologians constituted the
critical aspect of his work, but there is a
constructive aspect to it also; in fact the two aspects
are closely linked. In a sense the principal motif of
all al-Ghazzali's work is spiritualization of
religious thought and practice; form must be
imbued with spirit, and law and ritual with ethical
vision. Taking salvation in the hereafter as the
final goal, and therefore the ultimate point of
reference, he set out to identify and analyze the
aids and impediments to that goal. This resulted in
his best-known work, Ihya ulum al-Din , an attempt
to integrate the major disciplines of Islamic
religion - theology and law, ethics and mysticism.
Here as in other works, al-Ghazzali seeks to
demystify Islam. He maintains, for example, that in
order to be a Muslim it is sufficient to hold the
beliefs that have been laid down by God and his
Prophet in the Quran and sunnah, and that
knowledge of the complex arguments advanced by
the theologians is not requisite of faith. The
essence of religion is experience, not mere
profession, and the sufis are the ones who are able
to experience the realities that theologians only
talk about. [vol. 2, pp. 61-63].............. To be continued later