Like a leech, life's disappointments are
able to suck the blood out of existence,
leaving the spirit shrivelled and
disfigured. While Sufi sayings can balm the
mutilated soul; constituting a retort to the
age-old lament that life is suffering for
"Suffering is He Himself, whereas happiness
comes from Him". Through the Sufi path of
love and its ecstatic flight towards the
Beloved, senses are soothed and negativity
dispelled - a journey said to culminate in a
union with the divine, where along the way
the wayfarer shears the external world of
its illusions. Even death becomes
immaterial, "If you want to live, die in
Love; die in Love if you want to remain
alive".
The study of the Sufi world, with its
endless depth and esoteric circles, is said
to be a never-ending quest. For those
seeking to further find out about the
history of Sufism and its various
philosophical dimensions, an interesting
book to examine is Annemarie Schimmel's
The Mystical Dimensions of Islam
(although it must be kept in mind that "far
from this lore being available in books, a
great part of it [Sufi knowledge] must be
communicated by means of an interaction
between the teacher and learner"- Idrees
Shah).
Schimmel's scholarly book provides detailed
insights into the lives of the Sufis and
their orders, words and deeds. She starts
with a discussion on what constitutes
Sufism. The meaning of the word 'Sufism',
both literal and metaphysical, is
deliberated. "Some assert that the Sufi is
so called because he wears a woollen garment
(jama-i suf), others that he is so
called because he is the first in rank (saff-i
awwal), others say it is because the
sufis claim to belong to the ashab-i
suffa...Others, again, declare that the
name is derived from safa, purity"
(Hujwiri).
In addition, "Sufism is not [achieved] by
much praying or fasting, but it is the
security of the heart and the generosity of
the soul" (Junayd), an ability "to find joy
in the heart when grief comes" with the
knowledge that "where ever he sees, he sees
it from God and knows that God's loving
kindness embraces all creation" (Dhu'n-Nun).
Interesting to discover in this book are the
fates of dissent Sufis, who suffered because
their words and beliefs were too unorthodox
for the mainstream and the ordinary minds to
comprehend (Junaiyd of Baghdad said, "None
attains to the degree of Truth, until a
thousand honest people have testified that
he is a heretic"). Like Hallaj, who for
other Sufis like Rumi, became a symbol of
suffering love.
"When Al-Hallaj was in prison, he was asked
'What is love?' He answered, 'You will see
it today and tomorrow and the day after
tomorrow.' And that day they cut off his
hands and feet, and the next day they put
him on the gallows, and the third day they
gave his ashes to the wind". This story
conveys in a nutshell the secret of Hallaj's
love, life and death, which became a source
of poetic and intellectual inspiration for
many. As a Sindhi folk song goes, "When you
want to know the way of love, ask those who
are like Mansur", while Ghalib said, "The
secret that is hidden in the breast is not a
sermon/ You cannot utter it in the pulpit
but on the gallows."
Schimmel calls Sufis like Hallaj the
representative of intuitive experience and
suffering love. Their experience is
comparable to the fate of the moth that
approaches the flame and on getting burned
realizes the Reality of Realities. He casts
himself into the flames never to return and
never to give any information about Reality,
for he has reached perfection.
Interestingly, Sufis have also lambasted
posterity for honouring just the names of
these martyrs but forgetting their words.
"We remember and honour the names of our
greatest teachers. But do we remember what
it was that they taught? How many people,
not being Sufis, who revere the very mention
of any of these names, as paying the highest
penalty for their work, trouble themselves
to enquire what these men should have been
doing which was so important? Their
successors have avenged themselves on us;
because they have shrugged aside Hallaj,
adopted their opponent Ghazali as one of
their own and pretended that Suhrawardy was
merely obsessed. Are we going to allow them
to win once and for all? Who among us is
going to follow the path and in so doing,
say to the scholars and clerics, "Enough
brother, Ghazali, Suhrawardy and Mansur
still live!'"(Itibari The Martyrs)
In the book Schimmel also provides the
historical outlines of classical Sufism and
describes the Sufi orders and fraternities.
She discusses the different steps on the way
that leads towards God by the image of the
Path, theosophical Sufism, Persian and
Turkish mystical poetry as well as Sufism in
Indo-Pakistan. The appendix contains two
erudite examinations of letter symbolism in
Sufi literature and the feminine element in
Sufism.
Annemarie Schimmel wrote over a hundred
books that introduced readers to the world
of Islam. She has been particularly drawn
towards the great mystic Rumi. For lovers of
Rumi's poetry, her compact book Look!
This is love is a delight for the
senses, which transports the reader into the
world of whirling dervishes, and each verse
brims with longing, despair, hope and
ecstasy of love. "I think of rhymes, but my
beloved says: 'Don't think of anything but
of my face.'"
It seems like the stanzas are tantalizingly
shrouded in gauzes of mystery and beauty,
and every time one veil has been lifted
there is more that remains to be discovered.
"Deep frozen stays the ice in shady
places
Which did not see the radiance of my Sun.
But ev'ry ice that saw the sun-face smiling
Says, melting: "I'm the water that grants
life."
Another interesting book on the related
genre is The Sayings of Rumi and Iqbal
by Dr Khawaja Abdul Hamid Irfani, which
shows the relationship between Iqbal and
Rumi. Dr Irfani writes that Rumi and Iqbal
bridge the past many centuries of man's
endeavours in all the various realms of
thought and intuition and they constitute a
wholesome fusion of the physical and
metaphysical.
All the three books mentioned, albeit in
different forms, present the readers with a
view and pathway to truth. As Rumi had said,
"Do not look at my outward shape; But take
what is in my hand." These books offer the
reader, depending on their temperament, the
choice to be either illuminated in the light
of contemplation or burned in the fire of
love for the spiritual for the poetic beauty
of the sayings of these great Sufis
penetrates to the heart where they rest
pulsating with a life of their own. |
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