I begin in the name of Lord, the most Beneficent and Merciful
Sufism is as old as man himself. There is no word like Sufism in the study of the subject. The German scholar while studying the science and the learning of the Sufis wrote a book terming the subject as Sufism. From then on the western nations and western scholars have been calling the study of Islamic mysticism as Sufism, which study in Islam is known as ‘Irfaan’, the knowledge of your own self or ‘Tasawwuf’, the depth of the knowledge of the Divine. How did this Sufism arrive and has it got any basis and has it got any logic is an often question asked by strangers to this subject. People confuse religion with mythology. The atheist and empirical minded say that mythology is based on superstitious believes of the people and they being in dark always assume that some strange things happen in the cosmos and there is influence of the planets and that creates problems in the world. There is a lack of understanding of their own self and its nature.
Sufism is a subject which has been made into a theory. It is more of practice to reach the Divine. The belief is that God was a secret and wanted to reveal Himself. It is believed that the Creator of the whole universe, the Creator of all that is there in the space, moon and all the universal bodies, the Creator of all the matter, is a Single Unitary Being. Being which is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. And He has no partner, no avatar and He is existing from ever and will exist forever.
He just said “KUN” (Be) and the whole universe came into existence.
It could be akin to the theory of big bang when universe has come into existence. Lord gave the command “BE” and the command has fulfilled itself in bringing into existence the entire ever expanding cosmos. The Lord after having revealed Himself in the form of beauty and love, desired to place His vicegerent, a representative on the earth in His own image. So He created man, whose first name was Adam, with four elements of fire, water, dust and air. He blew His soul into this Adam’s clay. It’s believed that the soul did not sustain inside the dark being of Adam. So He had to create light and Muslims refer this light to be the light of Prophet Mohammed (Saw), Christians believe it to be the light of Jesus, and Hindus believe it to be the light of Brahma. This light along with the soul of the Lord dwelled in the heart of the Adam. The first beings created are the angels from light, who were commanded to bow down before Adam, but the arch angel, who was a Jinn created from fire, refused to do so. The arch angel was thrown out from the presence of the Lord and he became a devil or Satan. The belief is that Satan took permission from the Lord to way lay Adam and the generations to be born from the seeds of the man.
God created from the rib of Adam, his life mate Eve. They dwelled in the garden of bliss. God had commanded them not to go near the tree of knowledge but Satan instigated Adam who refused to heed Satan but Eve fell to the glib and honeyed talk of the devil. Eve instigated Adam to eat the fruit of knowledge and that resulted in their banishment. After God taught them the secret words and all the names of the Lord they sought pardon. God commanded them to adjourn on earth to do good deeds, stay away from the bickering, to stay away from the instigations of the Satan. Lord commanded man to know his own self and cleanse his own self and purify all the blemishes of the heart and mind. So that the Effulgence of the Lord shines in the heart. Thus, the knowledge of the inner self dawned from the primordial time, from the time when God created Adam and thus God commanded man to search for him in his own self.
You would see the reflection of the Divine in every particle of the matter, in every particle of space. It is the Divine who runs the whole show, and we are all mere puppets. This is the belief of Sufi poets, who would put this thought in their poetry. The Lord has been sending great Prophets and men of letters, men of learning and men of wisdom from ages to enlighten man. Men of very high accomplished thinking, logic and inner understanding would enlighten all those who come to them. That is how the subject of law has come into existence. Thus, evil was driven away by the acts of goodness.
When Gautama Siddhartha left for the search of truth and found that it is the attachment to one’s own self, which gives rise to frustration in the mind and the heart. You have to rise above frustrations to reach ‘moksha’, the peace, the internal peace ‘As-salaama’. You have to live above all the worldly desires and surrender to the Great Being.
The qualities of Mercy and Beneficence are very close to the heart of God. So He commands man to color his own being in these great two qualities of the Lord of Mercy and Compassion. All religions of the world teach compassion and mercy. Now in order to reach the pinnacle of success of beneficence and mercy, man has to free himself from all that is disturbing in his mind and heart and his living has to be a life of purity. Purity of mind, purity of soul and purity of heart is the basic teaching of Sufis. Thus, Sufism has arrived in this world from the time of the birth of man. Man has been in search of his own Master.
Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi, one of the greatest poets and a great Sufi of erst while era wrote a great Mathnawi, a long poem of more than 20,000 lines in which he has written and taken strength from the stories of the times and from them has drawn the philosophy that the man, who has lost his roots needs to go back to the Divine. The method to reach the Divine is by love and it is only through love, forgiveness, patience, thank fullness, gratitude and all such heavenly qualities, that can take man to the Divine. His every particle in his being should speak of the Divine and Divine alone. His life should become pure, his living should become pure. So also his work should become pure, his actions should become pure. He has to live a life of purity and for that he has to be put in to the cradle of love, which he found in abundance when he was born in his mother’s lap. The mother gives love, nurtures the child with love and affection. Thus, the Sufis believe that if at all we have to reach the heaven then we have to serve our mother. Heaven lies at the feat of the mother, so said our Prophet (sas). These heavenly qualities are dealt in-depth by an adept, a Sufi master, who has received this training from his master and the chain goes up to the Prophet (sas).
To reach the kingdom of heaven one has to practice the principles of honesty, truthfulness, integrity and these qualities have to be inculcated in the mind and heart. It is the Sufi Master who keeps looking at the eyes of the disciple and reads his mind and heart and would be able to tell him as to what is troubling him; whether it’s the ego or it’s the pride or it is the baser elements of lust or such other baser qualities which disturbs the pupil. The master is a trained adept, who has conquered his inner self and reached the Divine by purification of his soul. Sufis live a life above themselves and they live for others. They are the most recluse persons, they live a life of total subjugation, a life of surrender to the Lord and surrender to the Prophet’s commands and live a life of purity.
Sufis wore wool. The wool is soft and warm signifying kindness and warmth of the heart. They always sit in the first line in the assemble of prayers and they are the first to acknowledge the greatness of the Great soul of the cosmos. They refuse to believe that God could transcend into the human self and that self could become his avatar. They only believe that the man has been created for worship and he has to subjugate himself and find the path to reach the Divine but not claim himself to be divine or a god himself or become mini god himself. That philosophy of avatars or avatars taking birth or the guru becoming god is not accepted in Sufism or in the religion of Islam or in any other monotheistic religions.
What are the teachings of a Sufi master and how does one search for a Sufi master? Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi warns that many devils are in the garb of Sufi masters. He warns man not to lend his hand and become a disciple of the person claiming to be a Sufi master or a peer or a peeran unless you are satisfied that he is a totally surrendered person and a person of truth, a person of honesty and a person of integrity and his only interest is to make you perfect, help you polish your mirror of the heart, so that you can see the Divine in your own self. A Sufi Master should have no other desire, no other attachment, no other plan. Neither he has a desire to acquire money and wealth but his only desire is to reach the Divine, to spread the knowledge of the Divine. Only such a person is entitled to teach Sufism. You may say it’s very difficult to find such a Master in this world. If you search in your own self then the Divine will show you the path.
The Holy Quran speaks about the three inner consciousnesses. As a human being, the biologist say that man is a product of evolution and that he is an evolved being from the apes and the monkeys. If this be true then the carnal desires in man is the animal consciousness that is ‘nafse-e-ammara’. The Sufis recognize that man has initially acquired all the instincts and behavior of an animal. An animal will always search for food, satisfy his hunger, satisfy his lust, fight for his territory, conquer anyone who would attempt to seize him and he lives for his own desires and his lust. In such a person, the inner consciousness is filled with anger, jealousy and other instincts of ego and greed. The animal consciousness makes a person proud and his heart turns into a stone.
So the first and foremost aspects of the teachings are that a person’s heart and mind and soul is filled with animal consciousness and that man should conquer the animal consciousness. This has to be conquered by the various methods as taught in Sufism.
The second stage is ‘nafs-e–lawwama’, the consciousness which teaches you about right and wrong. You are told as to what is right and what is wrong. Man keeps developing moral consciousness which keeps telling him as to what he shall do and what he shall not do. This is based on the teachings of the society and also about the purity which dwells in the heart and mind. The moral consciousness reminds man not to do a wrong, a wrong which hurts another human being and which takes away the liberty of other human beings. A wrong destroys the goodness of the man and nature.
The third consciousness is referred to as ‘nafs-e-mutmainna’. In this self dwells divinity. The self which seeks the Lord; man begins to live by the dictates of the Lord and remains in the purified state. He practices day in and day out to remain in that position. He keeps remembering the names of the Lord. The cleanliness of the body is by taking regular bath by water. The cleanliness of the tongue is by shunning evil talk. The cleanliness of the mind is to remove all that disturbs the mind, to maintain equanimity; to maintain the benevolence of the mind and heart. So the ‘nafs-e-lawwwama’ achieves the Divine. This perfection is achieved through daily attempt to retain the light in the heart and mind. This process is carried out from morning till evening. A Sufi master teaches his pupil to be true to his own self, to be true to his mind and heart and carry on the dictates of God. As a humble servant, one is required to carry out all the duties assigned to one’s self in a most perfect manner and without disturbing one’s mind and heart. The main focus of life is to see the inner light and to enlighten oneself. To enlighten one’s being with the knowledge of the Divine. To live a very honest, simple, humble and sublime life.
Sufism or Tasawwuf or Irfan, the inner core of Islam, teaches humanism, love, brotherhood and oneness and believes in creating a world citizenship through “Tauheed” (monotheism). Sufism or Irfan is a way of life to achieve perfection in manners, cultivate and culture the mind and heart with purity of thought and good behavior, through possession of all virtues and negation of all vices by a process of self-annihilation, self realization, self sacrifice and surrender of will before the Supreme Will of Almighty Allah. Sufism is an absolutely peaceful and totally non-violent movement to awaken the soul to greater grandeur through simple living and practicing lofty ideals, through meditation, Zikr’ (incantation), Sama (singing of holy hyms) and other Sufi practices, by accepting the Risalat (Prophethood) of our Holy Prophet Mohammed sallallahu alaihi wasallam; by strengthening of faith, servitude (yaqeen), by protecting the precepts of Holy Prophet, performance of daily Namaz (prayers); acts and deeds of righteousness, seeking and observing ‘Taqwa’ (awe of Allah); ‘Taubah’ (repentance). “Tawakkal” (full surrender and trust in Allah);‘Ikhlas’ (Sincerity), ‘Sidq’ (Truth fullness), ‘contentment (Tawakkul), ‘Haya’ (shame), ‘Sabr’(patience), ‘Shukr’ (gratitude, thankfulness), ‘Zikr’ (remembrance), ‘Zohad’ (renunciation),‘Khauf’ (Fear), ‘Rida’ (hope), Khushu’ (fearfulness, humility), ‘Istiqamat (uprightness) a ‘state’in which Allah’s grace comes perpetual for it implies the perfect performance of Allah’s service, ‘Firasa (insight) as Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said “Beware of the believers insight, for he sees with the sight of Allah”; ‘Wara’ (abstaining, that is from all unnecessary and unseemly occupations) and ‘Simt’ (silence). The Prophet is quoted as having said “Whosoever believes in Allah and his last day, let him speak good or else let him be silent”. Silence is interpreted both literally as meaning that the man should learn to govern his tongue and metaphorically is referring to a heart that silently accepts whatever Allah may decree), ‘Adab’ (Decent manners, as Prophet (sas) said ‘Allah mannered me and taught me good manners” live in righteous conduct; Dua (Prayer, seeking constantly supplicant to Allah, for Allah says, pray for me and I will answer you”) ‘Faqr’ (poverty) for Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said “The poor shall enter paradise five hundred years before the rich, ‘Tafakkur’ (meditation), ‘Muraqaba (contemplation)and ‘Muhasabah’ (Self examination), ‘Tauheed’ (belief in one Allah), ‘Mahabba’ (love), ‘Shauq(yearing), Uns’ (intimacy), ‘Rida’ (satisfaction). Truth is realized by daily submission to the rule of law laid down by Allah, for achieving the perfection of human self by “Mujahida; a collateral form of Jihad’ to mean ‘earnest striving after the mystical life”. As the Holy Quran says “And they that strive earnestly in our cause, we surely guide upon our paths (Quran 29: 69). Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam says that the “greater warfare (Al Jihad ul Akbar) is against the earnest striving with the carnal soul (mujahidat un nufs). It is by seeking refuge in Allah and seek His protection from the animal and satanic forces working in man, by observing ‘Saum’ (fasting) for the purpose of purification of inner and outer actions of man, by ‘Kurbani’ (sacrifice) so as to enable man to break away from the shackles of selfishness, self centeredness and to break away from the indulgence of pleasure seeking, materialism, ritualism, taboos and superstitions so as to achieve perpetual peace and “As-Sakina” (eternal peace) through deeds of everlasting goodness(Baqiyat us Salihat), thus to achieve Allah’s realization.
Sufism enlightens the mind, sharpens the wit, broadens the outlook and purifies the heart and thinking. Above all Sufism or Irfan makes a person humane and a perfect gentleman in every sense of the term. Sufism is a branch of Islamic spiritualism and its study and practice is known as “Tasawwuf” (Gnosis). The study is divided into four branches “Shariat” (common law), ‘Tariqat’ (spiritual path), “Ubudiat (servanthood – unity with Allah) and ‘Marifat’ (Allah’s realization – Gnosis). Sufism begins with acceptance of ‘Tawheed’ (monotheism) and Risalath of Prophet Mohammed sallallahu alaihi wasallam by observance of personal hygiene, strict disciplined life, doing charity and earning through the sweat of the brow.