The Raison d'être of
Sufism
From its advent, religion was beset with enemies from within and
without, who tried to destroy its very foundations and pillars:
sometimes through outright atheism but more often through free-
thought and corruption. In general, spiritual-minded people today
no longer have advisors and teachers who possess the caliber to
counsel them and to train them in the teachings of the prophets
and saints. Unfortunately, they do not find guides capable of
leading them in the teachings of Islam on that high road of
morality and ethics that constitute religion's essential
character.
On the contrary, today we see cases of would-be scholars (`ulama)
who are not only unscholarly, but are also ignorant and sometimes
even corrupt. Indeed, in many places, they have gotten the upper
hand and now prominently occupy seats of religious authority.
Sunk in lives of pleasure and good living, they play at the role
of guiding and advising and preaching to the Muslim community but
in reality they have cast aside the simple lifestyle and regimen
of self-denial practiced by the Prophet (s), his Companions (r)
and those of the generation immediately succeeding them.
Confronted with this situation, how can we not ask: In which
direction is our Umma (Community) headed?
It is true that timely measures could have been taken by
communities to prepare good and wise scholars whose unstained
lives would have allowed them to function as models and to
undertake the mission of reminding the Nation of the Prophet (s)
of the message brought forth in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Way of
life of the Prophet (s)). Then, our condition would have been
improved and we would have been rewarded and lifted to those
stations that Allah ordained for us both in this life and in the
Hereafter.
The situation was not always as I have described it. On the
contrary, it used to be that this sacred mission, this great
service of calling the Umma to remembrance of its proper heritage
framed by the Qur'an and set out in the Prophet's Sunnah, was
performed by devoted and sincere scholars of spirituality. These
individuals, in time, came to be known by the name of 'sufi', a
word derived from the Arabic safa'a which means
"to purify," because of the assiduousness with which
they applied themselves to holding firmly to the Sunnah and
employing it to purify their character from all defects in
behavior and morality.
The
Schools of Purification (tazkiya)
We know for example, that in the first century after the Hijra,
renunciation of the world (zuhd) grew as a reaction
against worldliness in the society. Derived in principle from the
order of Allah to His Righteous Apostle to purify people [Qur'an
2:129, 2:151, 3:164, 9:103, 62:2], the practitioners of this way
clove firmly to the Prophetic way of life as it was reflected in
the lives of his Companions and their Successors, in the ways
they employed to purify their hearts and character from bad
manners and to inculcate in their own selves and in those around
them the manners and upright moral stature of the Best of
Mankind, the Prophet Muhammad (s).
Through slow evolution, this regimen ended up as a school of
practical thought and moral action endowed with its own structure
of rule and principle. This became the basis used by Sufi
scholars to direct people on the Right Path. As a result, the
world soon witnessed the development of a variety of schools of
purification of the ego (tazkiyat an-nafs). Sufi
thought, as it spread everywhere, served as a dynamic force
behind the growth and fabric of Islamic education. This
tremendous advance occurred from the first century after the
Hijra to the seventh, in parallel with the following
developments:
•Development of the bases of fiqh (Law and Jurisprudence), through the Imams (r).
•Development of the bases of `aqidah (System of Belief) through al-Ash`ari and others;
•Development of the science of hadith (Sayings of the Prophet (s)), resulting in the six authentic collections and innumerable others;
•Development of the arts of nahu and balagha (Speaking and Writing Arabic).
Tariqat or "path" is a term
derived frim the hadith of the Prophet (s) ordering his followers
to follow his sunna and the sunna of his successors. The meaning
of sunna is "path," "way," which is also the
meaning of taraqat referred to in the Qur'anic verse,
"Had they kept straight on the path (tariqat), We would have
made them drink of a most limpid water" [72:16].
Tariqat thus came to be a term applied to groups of individuals
belonging to the school of thought pursued by a particular
scholar or "shaikh," as such a person was often called.
Though these shaikhs applied different methods in training their
followers, the core of each one's program was identical. The
situation was not unlike what we find in faculties of medicine
and law today. The approach in different faculties may be
different, but the body of law, the state of art in medicine
remains essentially the same everywhere. When students graduate
from these faculties, each student bears the stamp of its
character. Yet, none are considered less a lawyer or doctor
because their respective affiliations differ.
In a similar way, the student product of a particular shaikh will
bear the stamp of that shaikh's teaching and character.
Consequently, the names given to various schools of Sufi thought
differ according to the names and the perspectives of their
founders. This variation manifests itself in a more concrete
fashion, in the different supererogatory devotions, known as
awrad, a zab or adhkar, used as the practical methodology of
spiritual formation. Such differences, however, have nothing to
do with the religious principle. In basic principle, the Sufi
schools are essentially the same.
The Sufi regimen under which individuals undertook the path to
Allah, was a finely-honed itinerary which charted the course of
inward and outward progress in religious faith and practice (din).
Following the tradition of the Companions of the Prophet (s) who
used to frequent his company named Ahl as-Suffa ("the People
of the Bench"), the practitioners of this regimen lived a
communal life. Their dwelling-places were the mosque-schools (zawaya),
border forts (ribat), and guest-houses (khaniqah)
where they gathered together on specific occasions dedicated to
the traditional festivals of the Islamic calendar (`id).
They also gathered on a regular basis in associations for the
conveying of knowledge (suhba), assemblies to invoke the
names of Allah and recite the adhkar (plural of dhikr,
"remembrance") inherited from the Prophetic Tradition,
and circles of study in Islamic law. Yet another reason for their
gathering was to hear inspired preaching and moral exhortations (wi`az ).
The shaikhs exhorted their students to actively respond to Allah
and His Messenger (s), to cleanse their hearts and purify their
souls from the lower desires prompted by the ego and to reform
erroneous beliefs. All this was accomplished by cleaving to the
Prophetic Sunnah. The methods of remembering Allah which they
instilled in their students were the very same methods passed
down from the Prophet (s). In this way, they propagated upright
behavior both through word and deed, while they encouraged the
believers to devote themselves to Allah Almighty with their whole
hearts. The aim of their endeavor then was nothing less than
obtaining Allah's satisfaction and inspiring love for His Prophet
(s). In short, what they aimed for was a state where God would be
pleased with them even as they were pleased with God.
These shaikhs therefore were the radiant beacons that dispelled
darkness from a believer's path as well as the solid cornerstones
upon which the Ummah could build the foundations of an ideal
society. The ideal here was the spirit of sacrifice and
selflessness that characterized their every effort. These values,
in time, imbued the entire social fabric of Islam.
The guesthouses, for example, were more often than not found in
neighborhoods of the poor and economically disadvantaged.
Needless to say, for this reason they became remedies for many
social ills.
As a result of such teaching and training we find that many
students of Sufi shaikhs graduated from their course of studies
fully empowered to carry other people's burdens, even as they
strove to illumine the way of Truth. Furthermore, through their
training and self-discipline they had developed the manifest and
decisive will to do so. Genuine scholars and teachers of tariqat
leave no stone unturned in conducting their jihad, a word which
means both the physical struggle against unbelief and the
spiritual struggle against the unseen allurements that trap the
soul.
History books are filled with the names of Sufi mujahideen
(People Who Struggle) and shuhada (Martyrs) that have
devoted their lives to confronting the enemies of the faith and
calling mankind to the divine Presence of Allah, as well as
calling back those who had deviated form the true path and the
Sunnah of the Prophet (s). They accomplished this with wisdom and
they were effective. Their names and stories are too numerous to
list in the span of a single book, even if it had hundreds of
volumes.
It suffices to say that the lives of these Sufi Shaikhs are
overwhelming evidence that Sufism, far from encouraging escapism
and quietism that impedes social progress, upheld the highest
values of social consciousness as well as religious inquiry and
science. In fact, they provide adequate testimony to an
unremitting jihad and struggle against social injustice and
social inaction that took place over the centuries.