The Other Islam

1

The Great Age of Early Sufism

The Sufi search for closeness to God began early in Islamic history. For a long time, it was pursued by individuals who had retired from worldly life. Among several interpretations of the word Sufi, the most convincing derives it from the Arabic word for wool (suf), referring to rough clothing worn by self-denying mystics.

While all Sufis find the origins of their collective vocation in the Qur'an and hadith, the most basic Islamic religious sources, the later, organized Sufi orders, or tariqas, draw their heritages from one teacher to another until the present day in a silsila, or chain of transmission through the lives of Muslim saints. The scholar Itzchak Weismann has pointed out a detail obvious to any observer of Sufism: the silsilas of Sufi orders are invented and reinvented by latter-day teachers to conform to their own interpretations, and are idealized legacies based on admiration rather than historical or religious documentation.

The silsilas of all Sufis begin with two of the outstanding companions of the Prophet Muhammad: Abubakr and Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Both were among the four original successors to Muhammad, or caliphs, in governing the Muslim community. Abubakr is also considered the progenitor of Sunni Islam, and Ali that of the Shia tradition. The great majority of Sufis, however, claim authority from Imam Ali alone. In this way, the Sufis assert their theological legitimacy as well as their continuity in history. While Sufis may formally be either Sunni or Shia, some claim to have transcended the difference, and many Sunni Sufis honor Imam Ali, the hero of the Shias, as their prime forerunner.

The first Muslim to speak eloquently of divine love, the supreme aspect of Sufi metaphysics, was a woman, Rabiya Al-Adawiyya. Rabiya died some 170 years after the life of Muhammad, in 801. She was preceded in Arab Sufism, which was then centered in Iraq, by a series of individuals described in a biographical dictionary of Sufis, the Memorials of Saints by the twelfth-century Persian writer Farid'ud'din Attar. Attar may have been the mentor of Rumi, the best-known Sufi among Westerners today.

Before Rabiya, Hasan Al-Basri, a goldsmith from the southern Iraqi city of Basra, then a great center of Mesopotamian commerce, is said to have lived in the time of Muhammad himself and to have been taught metaphysics by Imam Ali. But it is also related that Hasan Al-Basri mentored Rabiya more than a century later, in one of many examples of Sufi inspiration and companionship said to leap across time, beyond a normal life span. Hasan Al-Basri made one of the most cogent comments on religion and metaphysics known to the Sufis: When asked, "What is Islam and who is a Muslim?" he answered, "Islam is in books and the Muslim rests in a tomb."

Once, Hasan Al-Basri was walking along a river and observed a man sitting with a woman and a bottle of wine. He thought the man was hopelessly depraved and prayed that the man follow a righteous path such as the Sufi himself had chosen. But a passing boat began to sink, and the man Hasan Al-Basri had seen and lamented about leapt into the water and saved six people from drowning. The man then looked at Hasan Al-Basri and said, "If you are above me in the sight of God, at least save the seventh. But you will still have sav

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Title of ebook: The Other Islam
ISBN: 9780385526654
parent-ISBN: 9780385518192
Publisher: Doubleday Publishing
Pages: 224
Published: 09-2008
Released online for download: 09-16-2008
Author of eBook: Schwartz, Stephen

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The Other Islam

Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony
1

The Great Age of Early Sufism

The Sufi search for closeness to God began early in Islamic history. For a long time, it was pursued by individuals who had retired from worldly life. Among several interpretations of the word Sufi, the most convincing derives it from the Arabic word for wool (suf), referring to rough clothing worn by self-denying mystics.

While all Sufis find the origins of their collective vocation in the Qur'an and hadith, the most basic Islamic religious sources, the later, organized Sufi orders, or tariqas, draw their heritages from one teacher to another until the present day in a silsila, or chain of transmission through the lives of Muslim saints. The scholar Itzchak Weismann has pointed out a detail obvious to any observer of Sufism: the silsilas of Sufi orders are invented and reinvented by latter-day teachers to conform to their own interpretations, and are idealized legacies based on admiration rather than historical or religious documentation.

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