Sufism

Carl Ernst
Reli 180,
Introduction to Islamic
Civilization

Outline
Problems of definition
Modern European and fundamentalist
concepts of Sufism
Quick vocabulary check on Sunni/Shi`I
Ibn Khaldun on Sufism
Institutional development of Sufism, post
1200
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1. Definition and the problem of

essentially contested terms
Examples: Liberal; justice; freedom (see
George Lakoff, Whose Freedom? The Battle
over America's Most Important Idea)
Different perspectives on Sufism: foreign &
non-Islamic, or the heart of Islam?
Where do definitions come from?
Summaries of analytical observation (Plato)
Historical record (Oxford English Dictionary)
Authority (political/religious figures)
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Arabic definitions
The derivations of Sufi
suf, wool, garment of ascetic denial
Safa, purity
safwa, the elite
Ahl al-suffa, the people of the bench (early Muslims who
shared everything in common)

Tasawwuf, becoming a Sufi explained by teaching

definitions
How might that differ from Sufism as part of the catalog of
isms?

2. Rediscovery of the Sufi

tradition
Spirituality, experience, mysticism: loaded terms
from European/Christian history
Early Europeans like Sufi poetry (love and wine),
thought it couldnt possibly be Islamic must be
from somewhere else?
Recent colonial/postcolonial reformations of
Islamic identity (fundamentalism) reject Sufi
saints, intercession, Sufi lineages and practices, as
evil innovations
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3. Who overlaps with whom?

A quick vocabulary check

Sunni Sufis, and Shi`i Sufis

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Human face
composed of
Allah,
Muhammad,
Ali

4. Ibn Khaldun on Sufism

belongs to the sciences of the religious law that
originated in Islam
Divine worship, devotion to God, aversion from
the world, abstinence from wealth, retirement into
solitude for worship all common among early
Muslims
Special name Sufi developed a couple of
centuries later [compare special technical terms of
Islamic law and hadith]
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Ibn Khaldun: characteristics of

Sufism
Asceticism
Intuitive perception of psychological states
and stations
Self scrutiny and quest for knowledge and
unity with God
Special language for inner experience,
parallel to other fields of religious knowledge

Ibn Khaldun explains Sufism

Philosophical psychology as an explanation of Sufi
experiences
Removal of the veil as a key metaphor for
perception that goes beyond the senses
Different views on God as separate or one with
creatures (362); alleged similarity with
philosophical and Christian views
Disapproval of Sufis by legal scholars (muftis, who
give fatwas)
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Ibn Khaldun criticizes Sufism

Theories of absolute oneness: only God
exists
Theory of cosmic imagination
-- dismissed as contrary to reason and
experience

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More criticism of Sufism requires

distinction of topics
1. pious exertions of meditation and worship
2. Removal of the veil, perception of
supernatural realities
3. The operation of divine grace in the world
4. Ecstatic expressions that arouse suspicion (I
am the truth Hallaj) These are the
primary problem; they should be disapproved
or reinterpreted
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Ibn Khalduns final verdict

Seeking inner experience is fine, but its
better not to discuss them publicly!

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5. Institutional development of
Sufism, post 1200
Saints or living friends of God
Problems with using the term saint

Tombs as centers of pilgrimage: local forms

Masters (shaykh, pir) and disciples (murid)
Chains (silsila) of master and disciple,
going back to the Prophet [Sufi orders]
Ways (tariqa) taught by orders
Veneration of the Prophet
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Tomb of Mu`in al-Din Chishti

(Ajmer, India, d. 1235)

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Tomb of Ahmadu Bamba (Touba,

Senegal, d. 1910)

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Scale of Sufi shrine pilgrimage

Ajmer receives 1.5 million pilgrims at the
annual festival
Touba receives over 2 million pilgrims
Neither pilgrimage center is aware of or
connected to the other
Both challenge the hajj to Mecca in size
To what extent should they be considered
marginal in modern Islam?
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More institutional developments

Chanting the Arabic names of God as a ritual of
remembrance (dhikr)
Rituals of music, recitation of poetry
Sometimes arms-length from politics, sometimes
tightly involved
Abolition of Sufism in Turkey by secular govt.,
in Saudi Arabia by fundamentalists
Modern phenomenon of Sufism for non-Muslims
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Conclusion
Problems of definition:
Once Sufism was a reality without a name;
now it is a name without a reality
-- Abu al-Hasan Fushanja (11th century)

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