THE
ELEMENTS
OF SUFISM
(Excerpts Only)
By:
Shaykh
Fadhlalla Haeri
Chapter
13
Sufi Biographies
We
have selected these Sufis, not on account of their greatness, for
that is only known to God, but simply because they represent diverse
cultural, educational and vocational backgrounds and also because
the author is familiar with them. They are not arranged in any
special order.
Rabi'a
al-Adawiya (d. 801) is one of the most famous Sufis of Basra, in
present-day Iraq. She was born into a very poor family. When both
her parents died, she was sold into slavery, but was later set free
by her master due to her asceticism and piety.
Rabi'a's love and
passion for God was so intense that there was no room left in her
heart or mind for any other thought or interest.
...
For
Rabi'a the only thing that mattered was absorption in God Alone,
putting all her hope in God and losing herself in His praise. The
nightly prayer became for her a sweet and loving conversation
between her and her Beloved.
...
In
the history of Sufism, Rabi'a has become a legend, epitomizing
devotional adoration along the path of asceticism and love.
Sayyida
Nafisah was the great grand-daughter of Imam Hasan, the son of Imam
Ali, and was among the first of the family of the Prophet Muhammad
to leave the Arabian Peninsula and resettle in what is now the
outskirts of modern Cairo in Egypt. She was a woman who was renowned
for her piety, asceticism, night vigils and prayers, and widely
reputed for her saintliness and mystical powers. Imam Shafi'i, the
Sunni jurist and founder of one of the four famous schools of Sunni
Islam Law, was only one of the many religious scholars of his day to
discuss spiritual matters with her. When he died in 820, his body
was taken to her house so that she might recite prayers for him over
it.
...
Imam
Junayd al-Baghdadi (d. 910) was born in Nihawand in Persia, but his
family settled in Baghdad where he studied Islamic Law according to
the school of Imam Shafi'i, and eventually became a chief judge in
Baghdad. In Sufi discipline, he was the close follower of his uncle,
Shaykh as-Sari as-Saqti. Although he was the spiritual master of
Mansur al-Hallaj, he was obliged, in his capacity as chief judge of
Baghdad, to sign the warrant authorizing the execution of al-Hallaj.
On it he wrote: 'Under Islamic Law, he is guilty. According to the
Inner Reality, God knows.'
...
Manur
al-Hallaj was born in the province of Fars in Persia in 858. ... He was the close follower of several well-known Sufis of
his time, including Sahl al-Tustari of Basra, Amr al-Makki and Imam
Junayd of Baghdad. However, later on, on account of his saying 'Ana'l
Haqq', meaning 'I am the Truth', he was accused of
propagating an unacceptable and dangerous religious claim, for which
he was executed by the orthodox establishment in 922. From the
surviving fragments of his work, we surmise that he was a Sufi
intoxicated with divine love. His poetry is a very tender and
intense expression of spiritual yearning and love. For example, he
sang:
"Kill
me, O my trustworthy friends,
For in my being killed is my life."
Love
is, in fact, the central themes of Mansur al-Hallaj's prayers and
sayings. Describing divine love, he says:
"Love
is that you remain standing in front of your Beloved:
When you are deprived of all your attributes,
Then His attributes become your qualities."
The
later Sufis, until our own time, have quoted Mansur al-Hallaj as
being the epitome of those intoxicated by divine love.
Imam
Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali was born in Tus in north-east Persia in 1058,
three years after the Seljuks had taken over the rulership in
Baghdad. He followed the traditional course of theological studies
based on the study of the Qur`an, the recorded actions and sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad, and Islamic Law according to the school of
Imam Shafi'i. In the course of time, he was appointed as a professor
at the Nizamiyya religious school in Baghdad, where he taught
theology and Islamic Law.
...
...
One
of his famous saying is, 'Those which are learned about, for
example, the laws of divorce, can tell you nothing about the simpler
aspects of spiritual life, such as the meaning of sincerity towards
God or trust in Him.'
Mawlana
Jalal'ud-Din Rumi was born in Balkh in present day Afghanistan in
1207. His father Baha'ud-Din, was a noted theologian and Sufi. In
1220, when Balkh was threathened by the invading hordes of Mongols
from central Asia, Baha'ud-Din and his family left Balkh and,
travelling via Khurasan and Syria, reached the province of Rum in
central Anatolia, which is in present-day Turkey. They settled in
Qonya, the capital of Rum, and soon Baha'ud-Din's teaching and
preaching met with great success, even attracting Sultan Ala'ud-Din
Kayubad. Jalal'ud-Din was brought up in his father's tradition of
learning, and after his father's death, he was introduced to direct
knowledge of God and the deeper mysteries of spiritual life by
Shaykh Burhan'ud-Din Muhaqiq al-Tirmidhi. Under Shaykh al-Tirmidhi's
guidance, Rumi underwent many spiritual retreats of forty days each,
until he was awakened and enlightened.
...
The
Safavid period in Persia was one of the most active periods in the
intellectual and gnostic life of Islam. During this period, the most
debated issue in the Muslim intellectual world was the relationship
between science and faith. The harmonious blending and integration
of science and faith, and reason and revelation, was the
contribution of the prolific philosopher and gnostic, Sadru'ud-Din
Shirazi, usually known as Mulla Sadra.
Mulla
Sadra was born in Shiraz in Persia in 1571, into a wealthy and
influential Shi'ite family, and received his early education in that
city which was then one of the most important cultural centers of
the country. After completing his early training, he set out for
Ispahan, the capital and intellectual center of Persia at that time,
in order to complete his formal education. There he studied with the
leading authorities of the day, learning in the religious sciences
from Mir Damad. Having completed his formal education, he retired
from worldly life and withdrew to a small village called Kahak, near
Qum, where he spent about seven years undergoing spiritual practices
and the discipline of much remembrance of God for the purification
of his soul, which led to his self-realization and awakening. He
finally emerged as an illuminated sage.
...
The
Chisti Order, probably the most widespread and influential of the
Sufi Orders in the sub-continent of India, was introduced into India
by Khwaja Mu'in'ud-Din Chisti, popularly known as Hazrat Gharib
Nawaz which means the Helper of the Poor. He was born in about 1142
in Seistan in central Asia, and was descended from both Imam Hasan
and Imam Husayn. He studied the traditional Islamic sciences of the
Qur`an and the recorded actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
in the universities of Bukhara and Samarkand. However, his yearning
for the inner knowledge of self-unfoldment led him to become the
close follower of Khwaja Uthman Herwani, a Chisti Sufi master from
the Nishapur region of Kurasan in Persia. He served this spiritual
master devotedly for twenty years, accompanying him on many travels
throughout central Asia and Arabia. After going on the pilgrimage to
Mecca, and visiting the tomb of Muhammad in Medina, he was asked to
establish Islam in India. After spending forty days in spiritual
retreat next to the tomb of Shaykh Hujwiri (d. about 1075) in
Lahore, Shaykh Chisti made his way to India.
...
...
The
proof of the universality of Hazrat Gharib Nawaz's message and his
role as a teacher is that today, as throughout all the centuries
since his death, his tomb in Ajmer is visited by innumerable Muslims
and countless thousands of Hindus who acknowledge his high spiritual
station. Every day, all the year round, as in his lifetime, gifts of
food from the more well-off flood into the hands of his descendants,
only to be cooked in giant cauldrons and redistributed to the less
well-off before the end of the day.
Shaykh
Nizam'ud-Din Awliya, who is considered the greatest Sufi master of
medieval India, was born in Bada'un in North India in 1238 into a
family whose genealogy traced back to the Prophet Muhammad and who
had originated from Bukhara. He studied the sciences of Islamic Law
in order to qualify as a judge, but in about 1257 was inspired to
travel to Ajodhan to visit Shaykh Farid'ud-Din Ganji Shakar, the
most celebrated Chisti spiritual master of that time. There his
destiny changed. He became the close follower of this spiritual
master, and on his third and final visit Ajodhan Shaykh Farid'ud-Din
designated him as his successor. He advised him to continue with his
studies of the Qur`an and Islamic jurisprudence, alongside his
supererogatory prayers and the pursuit of the sufic sciences, and to
devote himself to whichever finally won the upper hand.
...
...
Shaykh
Nizam'ud-Din's respect for the devout Hindus, for whom his doors
were always open, is known by his comment to his close follower, the
famous poet Amir Khusraw, when watching some of them at their
devotional practices: 'Every community has its own path and faith
and its own way of worship.' It was through Amir Khusraw, that the
practice of 'quwali', which is the singing of the praises of God and
the Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions, accompanied by
music, was developed and perfected.
...
...
Shah
Wali'ullah, the great Muslim reformer of eighteenth-century India,
was born in 1702 into a family that had already produced many Muslim
scholars, especially his father, Shah Abdur-Rahim, who had founded
the Ranimiyya center for religious learning in Delhi. Shah
Wali'ullah's father supervised his son's Islamic education, and
before his death in 1719, he appointed Shah Wali'ullah as the head
of his religious school and initiated him into the Naqshbandi Order.
During
his visit to Mecca on the pilgrimage in 1730, Shah Wali'ullah claims
to have received a vision of Muhammad in which his station as a
divinely appointed reformer for his people was revealed to him. At
this stage in the history of Islam, the lack of a vibrant, living
Islam in India had contributed towards a situation in which the
corrupt Mughal Empire was disintegrating amidst the growing power of
the Hindus and the Sikhs and the increasing influence of the British
East India Company. Shah Wali'ullah saw in the lives of Muhammad and
his Family and Companions the key to a correct code of behavior
whereby a renaissance of Islam in his own country could be achieved.
On his return to India in 1732, he directed his efforts towards
re-establishing a simple Arab-style Islam, purified of the Turkish,
Persian and Hindu cultural elements which had become prevalent
amongst the Muslims in India at that time.
Shah
Wali'ullah was a strong Sunni Muslim who was attracted to the
teaching of Imam Malik in his Al-Muwatta. He displayed a critical
anti-Shi'a stance, which may in part have arisen as a result of the
distorted Shi'a practices which were prevalent in his time in the
Sub-Continent, and his lack of exposure to the original Shi'a
teachings. He said that one of the books which would be the key to
establishing Islam in the West would be Ash-Shifa of Qadi Iyad.
...
...
Shaykh
Abu'l-Hasan Ash-Shadhili was born in the north of Morocco in 1175
into a family of peasant laborers. For his education he went to the
Qarawiyyin University in Fees, where he met some scholars who
introduced him to the sciences of Islamic Law. He also traveled to
many countries. In Iraq he met a great Sufi called Wasiti who told
him to return to his country where he would find Moulay Abdas-Salam
ibn Mashish, the great Moroccan spiritual master. He did so, and
became the close follower of this spiritual master who initiated him
in the way of remembrance of Allah and enlightenment. When he met
Moulay Abdas-Salam after ritually washing himself, he said, 'O
Allah, I have been washed of my knowledge and action so that I do
not possess knowledge or action except that comes to me from this
Shaykh.'
...
Shaykh
Taj-ud-Din Ahmad Ibn Ata'illah was born in about 1250 into a
distinguished family of religious scholars who followed the school
of Imam Malik in Alexandria. His father was a close follower of
Shaykh Abu'l Hasn ash-Shadhili. Ahmad ibn Ata'illah became the close
follower of Shaykh Abu'l-Abbas al-Mursi after he had completed his
study of Islamic Law as transmitted by the school of Imam Malik.
Shaykh Abu'l-Abbas al-Mursi predicted that Ahmad ibn Ata'illah would
become an authority on both the Sufi path and Islamic Law, and it
was in Cairo that this prediction of future greatness came true, for
there he led two lives. One was his professional life as a teacher
of Islamic Law in accordance with what had been transmitted through
Imam Malik in various public institutions and mosques in Cairo, such
as Al-Azhar and the newly built Al-Mansuriyyah, together with his
public preaching which attracted large audiences; his other life was
devoted to his duties as a spiritual master of the Shadhili Order,
in which he transmitted the transformative teaching of the Muhammadi
code to sincere seekers of wisdom and gnosis. Shaykh Ahmad Ibn
Ata'illah was also influential in the Mamluk court, and used to
counsel Sultan al-Mansur (d. 1298) on religious matters.
...
[ Please see
The Wisdom
of Ibn Ata 'Allah ]
Shaykh
Moulay al-Arabi ad-Darqawi was born around the middle of the
eighteenth century in a village near Fes in Morocco. He studied the
Qur`an and Islamic Law under the guidance of the traditional
teachers in his village, and then went to Fes, where he met many
religious scholars of Islamic Law, as well as some of the spiritual
masters of inner unfoldment, but not yet his real master.
...
...
The
teachings of Shaykh Moulay al-Arabi ad-Darqawi were simple and based
on adherence to the way of Islam, appropriate ethical actions, noble
character, modesty, silence, contemplation, doing without, poverty
and abasement before Allah. For twenty-five years, he and his family
lived from day to day, never storing up any food for the next day,
but, like the birds who have nothing at the beginning and end of
each day, trusting completely in God for all their needs to be met.
A large part of his teaching deals with overcoming the lower self.
Some of his sayings are:
Sufism
is observing the outer law of the way of Muhammad, surrendering
the will to the Lord of the worlds, and having good character
towards the Muslims.
The
Sufi is the one who is not saddened when he lacks something, great
or small.
...
Shaykh
Sayyid Muhammad as-Sanusi, the founder of the Sanusi Order of
Algeria, was born into a distinguished family, which was noted for
its many learned men who were influential in many localities, near
Mustaganim in northern Algeria in about 1787. He was instructed in
all the traditional Islamic sciences by a number of teachers at an
early age. He learned the entire Qur`an by heart and excelled in his
understanding of the recorded actions and sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad, the nature of existence, Islamic jurisprudence and the
Arabic language. In the company of his teachers, he moved about from
place to place, living in such towns as Tlemsen, Mu'askara and
Mustaganim, before traveling to Fes where he continued his studies
at the Qarawiyyin mosque-university. There he studied all the
Qur`anic sciences and the science of Unity, and became so
well-versed that he attained great distinction in the spiritual
knowledges.
...
...
Shaykh
Muzaffer was born in Istanbul in 1916. His father, Hajji Mehmed
Efendi of Qonya, was an Islamic scholar and a teacher at the court
of Sultan Abdal-Hamid. His mother was the grand-daughter of Shaykh
Seyyid Efendi, the spiritual master of the Halveti Order in the town
of Yanbolu. On his father's death, when he was only six years old,
Muzaffer was taken into the care of Shaykh Seyyid Samiyyi Saruhani
of the Qadiri, Naqshbandi, Ushaki and Halveti Orders. From an early
age, he studied the Qur`an, the recorded actions and sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad and Islamic Law, under the guidance of the
spiritual leader of the Fateh mosque in Istanbul and Arnavut Husrev.
Hafiz Islamil, the some of the famous musician Zekai Efendi of the
Mevlavi Order, taught him many religious hymns and odes. Later on he
was appointed as the spiritual leader of the Veznejiler mosque,
where he served for 23 years. When that mosque collapsed and was
destroyed, he was appointed as the spiritual leader of the mosque in
the Covered Bazaar in Istanbul. As well as being the spiritual
leader in these two mosques, he also taught and preached to people
in 42 other mosques in Istanbul, including the famous Blue Mosque.
...
The
End
