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THE
ORIGIN OF TASAWWUF
As the history of Islamic religious sciences
tells us, the religious commandments were not recorded in
the earliest times of Islam. The practice and oral circulation
of the commandments pertaining to belief, worship, and daily
life enabled people to memorize them. This is why it was not
difficult to compile them in books. What had been memorized
and practiced was recorded and arranged on paper. In addition,
since the religious commandments mentioned above comprise
the vital issues in a Muslim’s individual and collective life,
scholars gave priority to them and compiled books on them.
Jurisprudents collected and codified in the form of books
the Islamic Law and its rules and principles pertaining to
all fields of life. Traditionists established the Prophetic
Traditions and way of life and preserved them in books; theologians
dealt with the issues concerning Muslim belief, and the interpreters
of the Qur’an dedicated themselves to studying the meaning
of the Qur’an, including the issues which would later be called
the Qur’anic sciences such as Naskh (Abrogation of a law),
Inzal (God’s sending down the whole of the Qur’an at one time),
Tanzil (God’s sending down the Qur’an in parts on different
occasions), Qiraat (recitation of the Qur’an), and Ta’wil
(Exegesis), etc. Thanks to these universally appreciated efforts,
the truths of Islam and all its principles were established
in a way not to leave any doubt concerning their authenticity.
While all this work
was being done in the fields of religious sciences, essentially
based on jurisprudence, Tradition (Hadith), theology and Qur’anic
interpretation, the Sufi masters who concentrated mostly on
the pure spiritual dimension of the Muhammadan Truth tried
to draw attention to the essence of man’s being, the real
nature of existence and the inner dynamics of man and the
cosmos, directing attention to the reality of things lying
beneath and beyond their outer dimension. Adding to the commentaries
on the Qur’an, the narrations of the Traditionists and the
deductions of the jurisprudents, their asceticism, spirituality
and self-purification, in short, their practice and experience
of religion, the Sufi masters developed their ways. Thus,
the Islamic spiritual life based on the actions of the spirit
such as asceticism, regular worship, abstention from all major
and minor sins, sincerity and purity of intention, love and
yearning and man’s admission of his essential impotence and
destitution, became the subject-matter of a new science called
tasawwuf having its own method, principles, rules and terms.
Even if there emerged over time some differences among the
orders that were later established, it can be said that the
basic subject-matter of this science has always been the essence
of the Muhammadan Truth.
Unfortunately, it has
sometimes occurred that, although they are the two aspects
of the same truth, the commandments of Shari‘a and tasawwuf
- which is in reality the spirit of Shari‘a, comprising austerity,
self-control and criticism and continuous struggle to resist
the temptations of satan and the carnal, evil-commanding self,
and fulfill religious obligations, and so on - have been presented
as contradictory to each other. While adherence to the former
has been regarded as exotericism (self-restriction to the
outward dimension of religion), following the latter has been
seen as pure esotericism. Although this discrimination partly
arises from the assertions that the commandments of Shari‘a
are represented by jurisprudents or muftis, and the other
by the sufis, it should be viewed as (the result of) a natural,
human tendency, which is that everyone gives priority to the
way more compatible with his temperament and for which he
has aptitude.
As jurisprudents, Traditionists
and interpreters of the Qur’an produced significant books
based on the Qur’an and the Sunna and following the methods
dating back to the time of the Prophet and the Companions,
so also the sufis compiled books on austerity, spiritual struggle
against carnal desires and temptations, states of the spirit
and stations depending also on the same sources, with the
addition of their own spiritual experiences, love, ardor and
rapture. By doing so, they tried to attract the attention
of those whom they regarded as restricted to practicing the
outward dimension of religion and reflecting only on it, to
their way and the spiritual aspect of religious life.
Both the sufis and
the scholars, criticized for being restricted to the outward
aspect of religion, aimed to reach God by observing the Divine
obligations and prohibitions. Nevertheless, some extremist
attitudes occasionally observed on both sides caused some
disagreements between them. Actually, there was no substantial
disagreement, nor should it have been viewed as a disagreement,
that the different aspects and elements of religion were dealt
with and presented under different titles. It is by no means
a disagreement that while jurisprudence concerns itself with
the rules of worship and daily life, with how to regulate
and discipline man’s individual and social life, tasawwuf
aims to enable man to live his life at a high level of spirituality
through self-purification and spiritual training. In fact,
tasawwuf and jurisprudence are like the two schools of a university
which has undertaken to teach man the two faces or dimensions
of Shari‘a and educate him to be able to practice it in his
life. These two schools cannot be one without the other. One
teaches how to perform the prescribed prayers, how to realize
the canonical purity required for worship, how to fast, how
to give the obligatory alms, and how to regulate his daily
life from shopping to marriage, etc. The other concentrates
on the meaning of these and other acts of, how to make worshipping
an inseparable dimension of man’s existence and how to elevate
man to the rank of a universal, perfect being, which is the
true humanity. That is why neither of these disciplines can
be neglected.
Although some impertinent
ones among those claiming to be sufis have gone so far as
to label religious scholars as ‘scholars of ceremonies’ and
‘exoterists’, the real, perfected sufis have always depended
on the basic principles of Shari’a and based their thoughts
on the Book-Qur’an-and the Sunna, deriving their methods from
these basic sources of Islam. The Wasaya (‘Advices’) and Ri’aya
(‘Observation of Rules’) by al- Muhasibi, al-Ta’arruf li-Madhhabi
Ahl al-Tasawwuf (‘A Description of the Way of the People of
Tasawwuf’) by Kalabazi, al-Luma‘ (‘The Gleams’) by al-Tusi,
Qut al-Qulub (‘The Food of Hearts’) by Abu Talib al-Makki
and al-Risala (‘The Treatise’) by al-Qushayri are among the
precious sources where tasawwuf is dealt with according to
the Book and Sunna. Among these sources some concentrate on
self-control, the purification of the self, while others elaborate
various topics concerned with tasawwuf.
After these great compilers
mentioned came Hujjat al-Islam Imam al-Ghazali , the author
of Ihya’ al-Ulum al-Din (‘Reviving the Religious Sciences’),
his most celebrated work. He reviewed all the terms, principles
and rules of the way of tasawwuf and, establishing those agreed
on by all the Sufi masters and criticizing others, united
once more these two disciplines, namely the outer and inner
dimensions of Islam or jurisprudence and tasawwuf. The Sufi
masters coming after him presented tasawwuf as one of the
religious sciences or a dimension thereof, promoting the unity
or agreement between themselves and those once called the
scholars of ceremonies. In addition, they were able to make
some subjects of sufism like the states of the spirit, certainty
or conviction, sincerity and morality, which are dealt with
by tasawwuf more profoundly, a part of the curriculum of madrasas-the
institutions where religious sciences are taught.
Although tasawwuf mostly
concentrates on the inner world of man and deals with the
religious commandments with respect to their meaning and effects
on man’s spirit and heart and is therefore abstract, it is
not contradictory with any of the Islamic ways based on the
Book and the Sunna. Far from being contradictory, it has its
source, just like other religious sciences, in the Book and
the Sunna and the conclusions the purified scholars of the
early period of Islam drew from the Qur’an and the Sunna-ijtihad.
It dwells on knowledge, knowledge of God, certainty, sincerity,
perfect goodness and other similar, fundamental virtues.
Defining tasawwuf with
different titles such as the science of esoteric truths or
of mysteries or the science of man’s spiritual states and
stations or the science of initiation, does not mean that
it is completely different from other religious sciences.
Such definitions are the results of experiencing Shari‘a throughout
centuries by men of different temperaments and dispositions.
It is a distortion to present the viewpoints of the sufis
and the thoughts and conclusions of the scholars of Shari‘a
as essentially different from each other. Although it is an
undeniable fact that there have been some sufis fanatically
adherent to their own ways, as well as some religious scholars-jurisprudents,
Traditionists, and interpreters of the Qur’an-restricted to
the outward dimension of religion, those who follow and represent
the middle, straight path have always formed the majority.
Therefore, starting from some unbecoming thoughts cherished
and words uttered by some jurisprudents and sufis against
each other, it is wrong to conclude that there is a serious
disagreement between them. As compared with those always on
the side of tolerance and consensus, the numbers of the others
who have started or participated in conflict have been very
few. This is what is natural, for like the jurisprudents who
have depended on the Book and the Sunna in their ways, the
sufis have also depended on these two main sources of Islam.
In addition, the priorities
of tasawwuf have never been different from those of jurisprudence.
Both of these ways or disciplines have stressed the importance
of belief, doing good deeds and good conduct. The only difference
is that, more than the jurisprudents, the sufis have also
focused on purification of the self, deepening in the meaning
of good deeds and multiplying them, and attainment of higher
standards of good morals, by which man’s conscience awakens
to knowledge of God and man can enter a way leading to the
required sincerity in practising the religion and obtaining
God’s good pleasure. Since man can, by means of these virtues,
acquire another nature-another heart-spiritual intellect-within
the heart, a deeper knowledge of God, and another ‘tongue’
to mention God-he can perform all the commandments of Shari‘a
in a deeper consciousness of, and with a disposition for,
servanthood to God, and in greater exhilaration.
It is by means of tasawwuf
that man deepens in spirituality. Through the struggle with
the selfhood, through solitude or retreat, invocation, self-control
and self-criticism, the veils over the inner dimension of
existence are torn apart and, as a result, man gains a strong
conviction of the truth of all the major and minor principles
of faith.
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