THE ELEMENTS OF SUFISM
(Excerpts Only)

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Chapter 9
Sufism and Orthodox Islam

Since the early history of Sufism, many conventional esoteric scholars of the religion of Islam and rulers have not tolerated the Sufis or their teachings. Sufis have been persecuted, denounced, exiled, imprisoned and in some cases even hanged or killed: Mansur al-Hallaj was hanged in 922; Yahya Suharawardi was killed mysteriously in the fort of Allepo in Syria in 1191; the works of Shaykh Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) were banned during his lifetime; Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ata'illah, the Shadhili Sufi master, (d. 1309) was severely confronted by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) who was a staunch enemy of Sufis; the great gnostic Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) was made an outcast for his teachings and ideas by the esoteric religious scholars of Persia; Shaykh Moulay al-Arabi ad-Darqawi (d. 1823) was imprisoned; and in more recent times, the ruler of Turkey, Kamal Ataturk (d. 1938), tried his best to wipe out all the Sufi Orders and Sufi sanctuaries in Turkey. In this context I asked the late Shaykh Muzaffar (d. 1986), the Sufi master of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order of Turkey, as to what happened after the almost complete destruction of the Sufi Orders in Turkey by Kamal Ataturk. He paused, smiled and said, 'You look upon it as destruction. We look upon it as slightly excessive grooming.' Then he continued, 'It is like chopping a grapevine to the ground. If he had chopped a little, the branches would have grown only a few meters away, but because he cut the whole grapevine to the ground, it will now grow all over the place. It is only a matter of time. Allah says in the Qur`an, 'They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, and Allah will not consent save to perfect His light, though the unbelievers are averse.' (Qur`an 9:32).

The conventional criticism and accusation levied against Sufis from within the Islamic community is that they care only for inner development, and are interested only in the unseen world, and that they neglect the outer laws of the Islamic Law and renounce the physical world. The path of original Islam is multi-dimensional and encompasses every aspect of life, outer as well as inner, for all these manifestations are part of one reality. There is one fundamental unifying factor behind all the visible and invisible worlds. The distinction between outer and inner, or gross and subtle, is only for the purpose of intellectual or practical discrimination, like distinguishing different colors on one horizon. People differ in taste and preference, and therefore some give more attention to the ritualistic aspects of the way of Islam, and some to its meaning or philosophical aspects. For lasting results a balance is necessary. Every human being contains an inner and an outer reality, and both require care and nourishment. Excessive attention to only one aspect could weaken the other, and the result when this happens is a lack or harmony in a person's being. The same principle applies to society and to natural ecology. If gentle folk allow tyrants to rule over them, then oppression and destruction will be the outcome, instead of the kindness and tolerance which they advocate and desire to be the prevailing mode of life.

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After the death of the blessed Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), Islamic codes began to be structured, formalized and centralized. Later on, the so-called Muslim kings and rulers, whose human and spiritual qualities were generally low, were not true followers of the prophetic norm of behavior and way of life. Once this happened, as we have already seen, we begin to see the seeds of Sufism being sown. The greater the emphasis placed by these rulers and their adopted scholars of religion – whose concern was mainly for the outer Islamic Law and orthodoxy – on outer conformity, the more we find the needs of the reverse – inner qualities – being emphasized and beginning to manifest. The rise of Sufism came with the need to pay more attention to the inner – inner nourishment and satisfaction and inner awakening – in order to balance the outer orthodox rituals and outer laws.

As a result of this discrimination being made between inner and outer, and the loss of spontaneity of understanding of the original unific way of Islam, we find clashes occurring between orthodox religious scholars and the Sufis, simply because, although both groups claimed they were following the way of Islam, their existential experience of life and their understanding of it, and therefore their actions and general behavior, were different. These clashes were and are often cyclical, which signifies the duality and polarity of the outer law and the inner reality. Since everything is in its opposite, emphasis on the outer law will inevitably result in its emphasis on the inner reality, just as emphasis on the inner reality will inevitably result in emphasis on the outer law. Very few people are able to maintain an even balance between the two.

Generally, the bias is more towards orthodoxy and the outer Islamic Law because it is easier to discuss them and apply them and uphold them. There is no doubt that some Sufis, like anyone else, may transgress some aspect of the outer Islamic Law, knowingly or unknowingly, at some time or other. It is said that if people did not have wrong actions, then how could God show His compassion and extend His forgiveness to them? However, there is an orthodoxy within Sufism itself, for like any movement which has a mainstream, there are extremist Sufis. Furthermore, the pseudo-sufis are sometimes thought, mistakenly or intentionally, to be exemplars of the Sufi movement. However, the majority of the Sufis, especially the main Sufi Orders, uphold and apply all aspects of Islam and act upon them in all aspects, both outer and inner, the letter of the law as well as its spirit. So the Sufi is outwardly conformist and restricted, and inwardly exposed to the wide horizons of unrestricted freedom and bliss. There is a recorded saying attributed to Muhammad in this context:

The outer law is my action,
The path of purification is my way
And the inner reality is my state.

So the Sufi's outer action is normality, commonality and orthodoxy, and his inner is a world which reflects the truth as God makes it available to him. He is watchful of what comes across his way because he believes that God is his Guide, his Nourisher and the One Who has brought him near to Him. The Sufi believes that God will guide him as appropriate, necessary and useful for him, and that after experiencing death, he will return to a new life which does not have any limitations and encumbrances as the life on this earth has.

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