Major Cities of the Dar al-Islam, 10th-17th c

Mustansiriyya Madrasa, Baghdad

Built Cairo 1356-1363

For all four Sunni madhhabs, 1234

Sultan al-Hasan complex (mosque + madrasa)
Built Cairo 1356-1363
 Ghazali as Seljuq state theologian
• 1091 Nizam al-Mulk finishes his Book on
Government (Siyar al-moluk, or Siyasat-
nama) instructing Malik Shah in ways of
good Persian governance

• In same year (1091), Nizam al-Mulk

appoints Ghazzali to head Nizamiyya
madrasa in Baghdad, teaching Ash`ari -
Shafi`i fiqh and theology to 300 students.

• Ghazali also writes works of philosophy

here - now a quasi-official theologian of
the Seljuks (and the Abbasids)

• 1092 - Nizam al-Mulk assassinated --

later also Malik Shah - both possibly
killed by Nizari Ismaili “assassins” from
Alamut mountain fortress

• Memorial tomb for Malik Shah and

Nizam al-Mulk

Source: http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/nouroz/gallery/gal/Nizam-ol-Molk1.jpg
 Ghazali + Ash`ari Shafi`ism survive
Ghazali continues teaching under Seljuk Sultans Mahmud (1092-94) and
the teenage Barkiyaruq (1094-1105), but Ghazali apparently
disillusioned, or apprehensive over court politics, such as Barkiyaruq’s
execution of his uncle

1094 – brand new Abbasid Caliph, al-Mustazhir, directs Ghazali to write a

refutation of the Ismailis (Batinis – esoteric interpreters) al-Mustazáhiri fi
faza’ih al-Batiniyya (The abominations of the sectarians – Nizam al-Mulk
had called them mulhid - atheists)

1095 - Ghazali has epistemological breakdown – search for yaqin. Turning

his position over to Ahmad, uses pilgrimage as excuse to leave in
November.

Goes to Damascus and Zawiya of Nasr Maqdisi, living simply as a sufi

recluse. From there to Hebron and Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina and
back to Tus for a period of eleven years total
.
 Ghazali returns to teaching
Composes great work of lslamic piety and practice, Ihya `ulum al-din
“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”

499/1106 – Sanjar is Seljuk Sultan in Khorasan territories (from 1118-57 he

will reign over all Seljuk territory).
Sanjar’s vizier, Fakhr al-Mulk - the son of Nizam al-Mulk - urges Ghazali to
return to teaching.
Ghazali accepts – perhaps with some notion of the 500-year renewal of
Islam – mujaddid (?)

1106 – August – Ghazali begins teaching at Nizamiyya in Nayshapur

Ghazali writes Deliverance from Error (al-Munqidh min al-dalal) – a stylized

memory of his spiritual crisis and its resolution. Also founds a Khaneqah
to which he retires before the end of his life.
.
 Mujaddid - “Renewer of the Faith”
Ghazzali as towering half-millenium figure of Islam

• Concept in popular Islam of Renewer of Faith -

“Mujaddid” : but for him spirit of religion would die out

• A “renewer” to appear every 500 or 1000 years

per a Hadith (`ala ra’si kulli mi’ati sinnatin man yujadiddu lahu dinahu)

• Mujaddid status has been suggested for:

- the elected Umayyad Caliph `Umar II (b. `Abd al-`Aziz, 717-720)
- Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali, who wrote a work perhaps
pointing to this theme: “Revival” of the Religious Sciences (d. 505 H)
- Jalal al-Din Suyuti and Ahmad Sirhindi in later centuries…
 Jalal al-Din Suyuti, the “Mujaddid”?
Renewer of Islam
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, b. Cairo mid-9th
century A.H. (849/1445) - late Mamluk
Egypt.
His mother, a Circassian slave, said to
give birth in the library > Ibn al-kutub.
Father from Persian background – a
Shafi`i qadi. At 18, Suyuti took over his
father’s position, writing fatwas
Credited with over 900 books, hadith,
religion, piety, history, biography, perhaps
most prolific writer in history of Islamicate
societies
His Kashf al-mujawaza, refers to belief
that Islamic dispensation would last only
1000 years.
Suyuti died in 911 / 1505, thinking he
might be recognized as “Mujaddid.”
Source: http://www.islamophile.org/spip/article158.html
 “Renewer of the Second Millenium”
title posthumously applied to staunch Sunni scholar and
sufi from the Punjab: Mujaddid-i alf-i thani
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
(971/1564 - 1034/1624)

Important religious thinker opposed to earlier

“heterodox” tendencies of the Mughal Emperors
Akbar and Jahangir, which were reformed
under Aurangzeb (1659-1707)

Sirhindi rejects the doctrine of the Unity of Being

(wahdat al-wujud, attributed to Ibn `Arabi,
thought by its detractors to be a kind of
pantheistic monism)
Argues instead for doctrine of the Unity of
Appearance (wahdat al-shuhud)– to Sufis
absorbed in divine trance, God & the world
might appear to be indivisible unity.

Sirhindi nevertheless was committed Sufi of

Naqshbandi tradition, revered by Mujaddidi
and Haqqani lineages

His tomb in Sirhind, the Rawza Sharif (noble Source: www.punjabgovt.nic.in/TOURISM/FatehgarhSahib.htm

garden) in East Punjab in India (Fatehgarh
Sahib – Patiala province) , is a site of
pilgrimage
 Ghazali’s Achievement
Author of 5 dozen extant works (as many as 300-400 titles ascribed to him) .
Sometimes contradictory 1) wrote for different audiences (khass / `amm)
2) covered topics from different disciplinary premises
3) several shifts of thought throughout his career

On Jurisprudence (Usul al-fiqh) – "The essential theory of legal thought"

al-Mustasfa min `ilm al-usul (w. Nishapur, 1109)

Legal applications (Furu` al-fiqh) – al-Basit, al-Wasit, al-Wajiz

Philosophy (studied mainly al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, during years as law professor)
“Intentions of Philosophers” (Maqasid al-falasifa, translated to Latin in 12th century as Logica et Philosophia
Algazelis Arabis by Dominic Gundisalvi - influential work in Christendom, explains views of philosophers
“The Incoherence of the Philosophers” (Tahafut al-falasifa, w. 1095) details internal logical inconsistency of
20 maxims of philosophers, three of which make them guilty of unbelief: the claim of the eternity of the
world, the denial of God's knowledge of particulars, and the repudiation of the resurrection of the body.
In Ash`ari fashion, tends to reject causality – events may be proximate (flame and combustion) but
causality is not certain. Reason cannot attain certainty
Logic : “The Standard of Knowledge” (Mi`yar al-`ilm) and “The Touchstone of Thought” (Mihakk al-nazar)
Philosophical ethics: “The Balance of Action” (Mizan al-`amal)
 Ghazali’s achievement in Theology
Theology (`ilm al-kalam) – “The golden mean in Belief” (al-iqtisad fi al-i`tiqad)
w. 1095 in Baghdad, applies Aristotelian logic and syllogism to theological tenets of four
major legal scholars (Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi`i and ibn Hanbal) and rejects traditional
reliance on authority (taqlid). Works such as Revival of the Religious Sciences tend to
reject theology altogether, as unable to produce certain truth. Attacks the Batiniyya
(esoteric interpreters, esp. the Ismailis) but later works on hermeneutics (ta’wil) argue for
tolerance of heterodoxy:
“The Correct Balance” (al-Qistas al-mustaqim)
“The Arbiter between Islam and Heresy/atheism” (Faysal al-tafriqa bayna al-Islam wa al-
zandaqa

Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya `ulum al-din) - practical guide to Islamic piety,
written as a didactic / homiletic work for non-specialists because the ulama have corrupted
religious knowledge. Tendency toward Sufi views, including quotation of Abu Talib al-
Makki’s Qut al-qulub and Qushayri’s al-Risala. Divided into 4 volumes, each containing
10 chapters, or books: `ibadat - religious duties; `adat - social customs, muhlikat - faults of
character; munjiyat - virtues.
Ghazali also wrote supplements to it: The Book of the Forty, Kitab al-arba`in a summary of
Ihya, and another marginal gloss responds to its critics.

The Noblest Aims (al-Maqsad al-asna fi asma Allah al-husna) - exposition of the most
beautiful names of God

Tract on eschatology, “The Precious Pearl,” al-Durra al-fakhira

Ihya `ulum al-din

Vivifying (revival)
the Religious
Sciences
ms. in Tunis,
Dar al-kutub al-Wataniyya

source: http://www.ghazali.org/manuscript/ihya.jpg
 Ghazali’s achievement in Politics

Advice to Kings (Nasihat al-Moluk) Persian work advising the Sultan on the
Islamic principles of justice and statecraft, but with stories of pre-Islamic Iranian
kings and Aristotle and Alexander. Pand-nama (wrongly) attributed to him as
well, addressed to Sultan Sanjar. A later Arabic translation of Nasihat al-Moluk.

A collection of letters – written to Sultans, ministers, military commanders, jurists

and friends after his return to Khorasan.
 Ghazali’s achievement in Sufism

The Alchemy of Happiness, w. c1106, a Persian epitome of the Revival of the

religious sciences, it sets out a Sufi theology, which resolves the crisis Ghazali
experienced about certain knowledge, postulating the human heart as created
from the substance of angels in the image of God, placed in the physical human
body as an organ of intimate union with God and a seat of knowledge but also a
fount of love.

The Niche of Lights (Mishkat al-anwar) – Sufi theosophy centered around “the
Light verse” in the Qur’an (Q24:35): “God is the light of the heavens and the
earth. The parable of his light is as a niche (mishkāt) in which is a lamp; the
lamp encased in glass; the glass as if it were a shining star lit from a blessed
tree, an olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would burn bright
even if no fire touched it. Light upon light, God guides to his light whom he
wishes, and God puts forth parables for human beings, and God is knowing of
all things.”
 Ghazali’s achievement in Sufism

But, Ghazali is not primarily remembered as a Sufi:

“Imam Muhammad Ghazzali, may God have mercy on him, has dived into
the ocean of the universe, attained to a world of dominion, & unfurled
the banner of knowledge. The whole world follows him & he has
become the scholar of all the worlds. Still... If he had one iota of love
(`ishq) like Ahmad Ghazzali, it would have been better, and he would
have made known the secret of Muhammadan intimacy the way
Ahmad did. In the whole world, there is no teacher, no spiritual
guide, and no unifier like love.”

---Shams al-Din Ahmad al-Aflaki

(author of hagiography of Jalal al-Din Rumi
 Ghazzali, the Sufi brother
Ahmad al-Ghazzali (b. c453/1061 Tabaran near Tus, d. Qazvin, 1126)
younger but also quite famous brother – a popular preacher & mystical
teacher, agreed to take brother’s place when latter retired in 488 /1094
from the Nizamiyya. Wrote Arabic abridgement of brother’s famous
Revival of the Religious Sciences.
An important figure in Sufism, Ahmad wrote several works in Persian:
a treatise on Shafi`i-Ash`ari theology (La ilaha illa allah), an allegorical
treatise personifying mystical love (Savanih), a Treatise of the Birds,
popular sermons (partially preserved by a later author, Ibn al-Jawzi),
and a theological defense of Iblis / Satan.
KNOWLEDGE of self is the key to
the knowledge of God, according to
the saying:
"He who knows himself knows God,“
and, as it is written in the Qur’an:
"We will show them Our signs in the
world and in themselves, that the
truth may be manifest to them."
Now nothing is nearer to you than
yourself, and if you do not know
yourself how can you know anything
else?
--Ghazali, Vivification of the
Religious Sciences
___________________________

Qur’an 50:15
“And surely We have created man
and know what is in his mind, and
We are closer to him than his jugular 13thc ms of Ghazali Alchemy of Happiness, in
vein.” Bibliotheque Nationale de France
 Sufism & Tariqa
Inward orientation to Islam, based on love (eros)

Interior transformation through spiritual discipline

Cultivation of the ethical, moral and devotional life

(over, or alongside, exterior observance of the law (fiqh)

Privileges Baraka (spiritual charisma & authority)

Miracles, veneration of saints, training

Mysticism =
Theosophical / metaphysical speculation (`irfan)
 The Spiritual Path
Sufism (tasawwuf) – translation of “mysticism” not a close fit

• a moral psychology for the guidance of individuals directing their lives toward
a knowledge of God and seeking “purification”(related to asceticism).

• should be practiced only under the direction of a guide (murshid), a wise elder
(shaykh or pir), with whom the disciple would associate and learn spirituality
through companionship (suhba).

• communities of disciples of various guides organize around famous shaykhs

or pirs

• Systematization of particular initiation rituals, practices/rules followed >

• In some centers, the mode of spirituality, or tariqa, become formal institutions

> fraternal Sufi orders, in the 13th-14th century

• Sufi Khanaqahs and Orders received patronage from elite, but tended to stay
away from court….until Timurid and Safavid period
 Meaning of “Suf” and Tasawwuf
Wearing of coarse wool (suf)

Bench (suffa) near prophet in Prophet’s mosque

Arabic root S-F-A = purity Safi, Safa

(and the Safavi order)
 Early communities following the Sufi Tariqa

A “small cloister” (duwayra) of piety-minded worshippers was

established by the ascetic ‘Abd al-Wāḥid ibn Zayd (d. c. 750)
on the island of ‘Abbādān in the Persian Gulf, which continued to
operate after his death. > an early proto-“Sufi” community

Similar circles or institutions at about this time are described in eastern Persia,
Damascus, on the Byzantine frontier, as well as in Alexandria and North Africa.

Eventually rules or an order of life are promulgated that must be followed by

those who wish to join the community
 The Greater Jihad
(jihad-i akbar)
“Human perfection resides in this, that the
love of God should conquer a man's heart
and possess it wholly, and even if it does
not possess it wholly it should
predominate in the heart over the love of
all other things.

Nevertheless, rightly to understand the

love of God is so difficult a matter that one
sect of theologians have altogether denied
that man can love a Being who is not of
his own species, and they have defined
the love of God as consisting merely in
obedience. Those who hold such views do
not know what real religion is.”

-Ghazali,
Vivification of the Religious Sciences
Dome of Khanqah-mosque of Farag ibn
Barquq (d. 1405). East Cemetery, Cairo.
Role of the Tariqa in Islamic Praxis
Ordered rules for following the path (tariqa)

a Quest to:

1) implement religious knowledge and experience

2) forge a practical path to vital self-transformation

and self-transcendence

3) Vivify the study of religion with a personal

praxis of devotional and spiritual orientation
 Some characteristics
Asceticism (fasting, voluntary poverty=faqri fakhri)

“Communes” and guides

Ecstatic sayings (shathiyyat)

Visionary recitals (mi`raj – journeys of ascent)

Esoteric teachings, tension over writing down

Manuals to explain practices and legitimize Sufism

 The Spiritual Path

ṭarīqa(t) – 1) “method,” “mode” of spirituality

2) Organized community of disciples following specific rule

Sufi thinkers of the 10th and 11th century include:

al-Junayd (d. 910), letters and tractates
al-Ḥallāj (executed 922), Tawasin treatises
al-Sarrāj (d. 988), Flashes of Intimation in Sufism (Arabic)
al-Hujwīrī (d. 1072), Removing the Veil (Persian)
al-Qushayrī (d. 1074), Treatise on Sufism (Arabic)

They understand ṭarīqa as a method or path by which an individual passing

through various psychological stages in obedience to and practice of the law
(sharī‘a) may proceed stage by stage (manzil) from one level (maqām) of
knowledge of God to a higher mystical one, with the ultimate reality of God
(ḥaqīqa = truth, reality) as the goal.
Sunna – the path the Prophet walked (example)
knowledge of sayings and doings of prophet (hadith)

Shari`a – the path of knowledge (law & ritual)

knowledge (`ilm) attained by thought (fikr) and analysis (fiqh)

Tariqa – the path of spirituality (experience)

insight/knowledge (ma`rifa) by remembrance (dhikr) & “tasting” (dhawq)
 Jalal al-Din Rumi
Masnavi, Book 5 (c. 1270)

Shari`at – the candle to light the way

Tariqat – the spiritual path the wayfarer walks

also “mode” or “method” = way

Haqiqat – “truth/ the real” the goal of the journey

Progress on the Tariqa is made by “stages” (manazil) and
“stations” (maqamat) toward the goal of understanding “truth”
 Sufi practices and devotions
• Reliance upon God through the practice of poverty (faqr) - (P. darwīsh, A. faqīr)
• Fasting (beyond the month of Ramadan)
• Seclusion (khalwa)
• Learning from saintly example by companionship (ṣuḥba) of a saint or guide
• Daily calling oneself to account for one’s behavior (muḥāsiba)
• Scrupulous introspection (murāqaba) with a view to weeding out impure intentions

Personal devotions, beyond the obligatory salat prayers:

• Performing vigils, litanies (aḥzāb) and intimate prayers (wird, munājāt, du‘ā’ )
• Remembrance of God (dhikr), contemplative or ecstatic
* groups perform ceremonial dhikr , individuals may do so alone
* repeated and rhythmic recitation of words and phrases –
usually attributes of God derived from the Qur’ān, or forms of the shahāda
• Controlled breathing
• Hal – state of entranced mystical contemplation / emotion
• Majlis-i samā‘ (“listening session” or “concert”).
From 850 CE, samā‘ houses in Baghdad for Sufis to listen to music >
draw selves into mystical states (hāl)
Chanting / singing poetry on spiritual themes, accompanied by music
Listeners respond with rhythmic movement / motive meditation / uncontrollable
 Sufi
Orders
historical
&
geographic
diffusion
&
institutional
relation
 Sufi genres of writing in the Middle Periods

Manuals explaining the Sufi tradition, 11th c

(al-Qushayri’s treatise, Kalabadhi’s Sufi Doctrines, Hujwiri’s Lifting the Veil)

Manuals of etiquette and comportment and discipline for novices

(Abu Najjib al-Suhrawardi, Etiquette of the Disciples (Adab al-Muridin)

Theoretical explorations, mystical commentaries

Umar al-Suhrawardi, Masters of Mystical Insights (Awarif al-Ma`arif)

Hagiographies / Lives of the Saints – compendiums illustrating their wonderful and

miraculous deeds and spiritual sayings (`Attar, late 12th c, Lives of the Friends of God)

Spiritual Exploits of Famous Sufis and their successors in a given lineage

(Acts of the Gnostics, Manaqeb al-`Arefin, of Aflaki c. 1351, about the Mevlevi dervishes)

Letters and Spiritual Diaries and Discourses

Qur’an Commentaries, Treatises and Meditations on particular themes

Creative literature: Poetry and allegorical prose works

The Theosophic Path
mystical and speculative theology (`irfan = knowing)

tasting (dhawq = experiential knowledge of God – not just `ilm

of law but understanding/feeling of God’s love)

explains stages of spiritual states (hal) and stations (maqam)

in systematic way (i.e., Farid al-Din Attar’s 7 valleys)

Inspiration (ilham), manifesting (izhar), self-disclosure (tajalli)

vs. Prophetic Revelation (wahy)

Ibn Arabi and Meccan Revelations

 IBN `ARABI

* b. Murcia, 7 Aug 1165 raised from age 8 in Seville

* as teenager has mystical vision of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
* mentions two women among his mystical teachers.
• At 30, left for North Africa (Tunis, Fez), returned briefly to Andalucia (Cordoba,
Almeria), then went to Arabia for pilgrimage, staying 2 years in Mecca
• moved age 40 to Konya, in Anatolia, capital of western Seljuks.
• further travels (Cairo, Jerusalem, Baghdad)
• retired to Damascus
• died November 1240
• wrote 400 books on range of topics – Qur’an commentary (tafsir), Hadith, law,
principles of jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, mysticism
• Tended to blur genres or create new ones, including on visions (Meccan Revelations)
• Later Sufi tradition called him al-Shaykh al-Akbar, the Greatest Master

*******************************************
Amina Alaoui, Moroccan singer, performs the last lines of the poem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFat_KWG9oI
A Spanish version of the end of the poem, en estilo flamenco:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QynyemRgxkI
And a longer, but not complete selection of the poem from Ensemble d'Ibn Arabi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYUMBy4WFVQNR%3D1
********************************************
 IBN `ARABI
This ghazal from The Interpreter of Desires (Tarjuman al-ashwaq), circa 1201 - 1213.
*****

Doves, there ~
up in the salvadora and moringa ~
Have mercy!
Do not churn my griefs by mourning
Take pity not to bare by weeping and wailing
my muffled affections, hidden sorrows.

Evenings. Mornings. I resonate with them

moaning sadly, like one longing
groaning madly, like one lovelorn
The blasts of spirit swirled around my head,
there in the thicket of the tamarisks,
bending their boughs above, blowing me away
They came to me, bearing anguished, ardent
desire, and novel assorted afflictions
Who will trek the pilgrim stations with me?
In-Gathering...Satan-Stoning...Mina;
Acacia Fields' unicity...the Bliss Pool...
They circle round my heart without respite
- ecstatic, tormented - to kiss my pillars.
Thus the Best of Creatures circled the Kaaba -
though reason demonstrates its imperfections -
and kissed its stones. He, epitome of soul !
Though every human frame out-ranks the Fane...
*
How they vowed, pledged unwavering covenant.
But a worldly henna'd bride keeps no troth.
*
The most amazing thing's a veiled gazelle,
red-dyed fingers gesturing, flirtatious eyes
Her pasture: from my breastbones to my belly
Marvellous ~ A garden in the midst of flames!
My heart has come to harbor every form:
A pasture for gazelles - hermitage for monks
Pagoda for idols - Kaaba for pilgrims
Tablets for Torah - codex for Koran
I follow Love's religion, wherever
its camels turn. Love is my faith and creed!
Our exemplars are Majnun and his Layla;
Bishr and Hind, and their like, entombed in love;
and then the poet Ghaylan and his Mayya.

(Translated Franklin Lewis)

The Imaginal World
* World of God = Reality / Being
* manifests into World of Spirits
* takes incorporeal form in
imaginal world = world of ideas
* becomes physically manifest
in corporeal, sensible world
*

The Perfect Man (Insan al-kamil)

become mirror in Corporeal World
reflect Muhammad light from
ideal forms in imaginal world
developed by Ibn Arabi
and al-Jili (14th c)
 Rumi & Persian Sufism
• Form vs meaning
• Proper insight – reading of Qur’an / law
• Prophetology – kindness
• Mystical insight (practically) trumps
revelation
• Chain of Being and Noosphere
 Masnavi of Rumi
Oldest existing copy
known, dates to 677 /
1278, within 5 years of
life of poet, corrected
on the basis of a copy
authorized by Rumi

• ‫بشنو این نی چون شکایت می کند‬

• ‫از جدائی ها حکایت می کند‬
 Masnavi of Rumi – School of Love
• Partial intellect may reject love (Masnavi 1: 1982), caught in rationality:
The fearful ascete treks his faith on foot
The lovers flash ahead like lightning, wind Masnavi 5: 2192
• Fear is a human trait, not a divine attribute, whereas "Love describes the
Lord" (Masnavi 5: 2184-5). Godhead requites our love – per Q 5: 54: “God
loves a people and they love him.”
Were it not for the ocean of pure love
What reason would I have to forge the heavens? Masnavi 5: 2739
• Rumi even seems to posit love as the primal element of creation,
It's waves of love that make the heavens turn
Without that love the universe would freeze:
No mineral absorbed by vegetable
No growing thing consumed by animal / No sacrifice of anima for Him
Who inspired Mary with His pregnant breath
Like ice, all of them unmoved, frozen stiff
No vibrant molecules in swarms of motion
Lovers of perfection, every atom /
Turns sapling-like to face the sun & grow
Their haste to shed their fleshly form for soul
Sings out an orison of praise to God -Masnavi 5: 3854-9
 Masnavi of Rumi –
form and meaning
• View of the cosmos: dichotomy between form and meaning.
• By form (surat) he means a surface, a visible and accessible reality;
whereas meaning (ma‛ni) is the subtle or hidden reality beyond the form,
not always apparent, at least not to every onlooker, because it requires
vision and spiritual insight to perceive. There is the physical world which
our bodies inhabit and in which events and epiphenomena take place.
These epiphenomena in the physical world float like foam on the ocean
of meaning – brought into being by the motion of true meaning, but
unstable, ephemeral, opaque and obscuring. Yet we know that a clear
reality and meaning is hidden beneath the forms:
• Two different things: The sea's eye and its foam
Forget foam! See with the eye of the sea!
All surging of that foam comes from the sea –
How strange, you look to foam and see no sea!
• Masnavi 3:1270-71

• For Rumi every created phenomenal form is a sign pointing to a reality

in the hidden world, if one but knows how to discern them properly.
 Masnavi of Rumi - audience
• I raise my plaint in any kind of crowd,
in front of both the blessed and the bad.
All befriend me hearing what they want to hear
None seek those secrets that I bear within
- Masnavi 1: 5-6

• The body's eye looks always body-ward

The soul's eye sees the many-splendored soul
So phrases formed within the Masnavi
waylay the superficial, guide the true
- Masnavi 6: 654-55
 Masnavi of Rumi – School of Love
• Partial intellect may reject love (Masnavi 1: 1982), caught in rationality:
The fearful ascete treks his faith on foot
The lovers flash ahead like lightning, wind Masnavi 5: 2192
• Fear is a human trait, not a divine attribute, whereas "Love describes the
Lord" (Masnavi 5: 2184-5). Godhead requites our love – per Q 5: 54: “God
loves a people and they love him.”
Were it not for the ocean of pure love
What reason would I have to forge the heavens? Masnavi 5: 2739
• Rumi even seems to posit love as the primal element of creation,
It's waves of love that make the heavens turn
Without that love the universe would freeze:
No mineral absorbed by vegetable
No growing thing consumed by animal / No sacrifice of anima for Him
Who inspired Mary with His pregnant breath
Like ice, all of them unmoved, frozen stiff
No vibrant molecules in swarms of motion
Lovers of perfection, every atom /
Turns sapling-like to face the sun & grow
Their haste to shed their fleshly form for soul
Sings out an orison of praise to God -Masnavi 5: 3854-9
Rumi’s Masnavi
After Shams, Rumi turned to two other figures in
his circle of disciples for inspiration:
* Salah ad-Din the Goldsmith (d. 1258) and
* Hosam ad-Din Chelebi, to whom Rumi
intermittently dictated in the 1260s his famous
Masnavi-e Ma‛navi, or "Couplets of True
Meaning."
* Rumi’s Masnavi opens with the plaintive cry of
the reed flute, singing of its separation from the
reed bed and the searing pain of being cut off
from its source of spiritual sustenance.
* 25,000 lines narrative verse - loosely structured
succession of tales, parables, anecdotes and
vignettes in verse, narratives which Rumi uses to
elaborate his mystical thought. The Masnavi (also
transliterated as Mathnawi or Mesnevi) inspired
innumerable commentaries in many languages,
and has even been called "the Qur'an in Persian
tongue," in the belief that it expresses in Persian
the essence of the mystical teachings of Islamic
scripture.
 Mysticism of Rumi
• Rumi did not come to mysticism primarily through visionary experiences.
• Shams inspires him as guide to loving God
• Does relate a prescient dream in one ghazal and a symbolic visionary
encounter of seven candles > men > trees (Masnavi 3: 1924ff) .
• But many of Rumi's lyrical poems express quasi-psychedelic
perceptivity that makes his imagery so distinctive and attractive
• "Light would soak the world entire / as once it did on Sinai's Mount / if I
reveal the ecstasy / of my heart's fabliaux ... (from ghazal 2789).
• But Rumi's mysticism was informed by Qur’an and praxis in asceticism
and law + penetrating vision into the pre-prismatic realm.
• Quotes from the Qur'an or alludes to its verses thousands of times, for
which reason the Masnavi came to be known as the Qur'an in Persian
tongue.
• Verse in Qur’an on primordial covenant with man
• We all were parts of Adam at one time
In paradise we all have heard these tunes
Though clay and water fill us up with doubts
We still remember something of those songs - Masnavi 736-7
 Role of the Tariqa in Sufism
Ordered rules for following the path (tariqa)

Quest to implement
religious knowledge and experience
& forge a practical path
to vital
personal
spiritual
religion
&
self-transformation
 Locus of Sufi Tariqas

As a fraternity of piety- or sufi-minded worshippers grew, it might move from the

master's private house or shop to a separate compound, which could include a
hall for devotional exercises, a large kitchen for guests and disciples, a small
mosque, possibly a school. Larger centers would include living quarters for some
initiates, either individual cells or a larger dormitory. Often such centers grew up
around the tomb of the founder of the ṭarīqa, or a local shrine visited by pilgrims.
Eventually, the terms for the houses, centers, lodges or retreats
(depending on location and function) where these communities met or
lived include:
zawiya (retreat) and ribaṭ (fort) in the Maghreb
tekke (place of reliance, from 16th c) in Anatolia and the Balkans
khanaqah (lodge) throughout Persia + India, also in Egypt and
the Levant (as khānqāh).
dargāh (threshold) is also used, particularly for a combined
tomb/shrine and Sufi lodge
Mulla Kalan khanaqah
(15th c, Sar-e Pol, Afghanistan)
 Madrasa institution and administration

Madrasa – sectarian college of law.

Founded and funded by waqf (charitable endowment)
mudarris – professor, salaried
students- receive ijaza (permission/diploma) at successful
conclusion of study
mufid - assistant
mu`id - repetitor
administrator
janitors
 Khanaqah institution

Khanaqah – center for sufi-oriented community, established by waqf

often attached to the tomb of a famous saint
Shaykh / Pir / murshid – (elder / sage / guide) the spiritual leader
of a Sufi community (often an `alim)
murid – disciple, initiate
Deputy of Pir – khirqa designation (sometimes by lineage)
cf. Khal`at – royal robe
Hostelry, hospital, library, other charitable functions

Chishtiyya shaykhs in India prefer to use their own personal residence,

designated as a “community home” (jamā‘at-khāna), so as to avoid the adepts
becoming entangled in the mundane distractions of administering a large center
and its endowments.
17th/18thc Khanaqah complex, Isfahan
(now used as auditorium for University of Art, Isfahan)

http://www.archnet.org/library/images/one-image.jsp?location_id=5754&image_id=40763
Nematollahi khaneqah, Mahan, Iran
15th c dome over tomb of Shah Ne`mat Allah Vali (d. 1431)
Built by the Bahmani rulers as a sign of devotion, but the Nematollahi, esp. the Gonabadi branch, are
persecuted in Iran today

http://flickr.com/photos/12940007@N02/2419091779
 Khanaqah operation

Some khānaqāh centers kept open house, while others might

be visited only by appointment.
The shaykh might live with his family in one quarter, see his
disciples at fixed hours, and lead the five daily prayers.
Some larger khānaqāhs provided long- and short-term
lodging for visitors.
Sa‘īd al-Su‘adā’ khanaqah in Egypt, est. 1173 by Saladin,
who turned former Fatimid palace into Sufi lodge (not extant).
Accommodated 300 dervishes; contemporary chronicles
record how every Friday people used to gather round to gain
blessings (baraka) by watching them leave the compound for
the Friday noon prayer. 14th c – influence of Ibn al-Arabi
 Tariqa – from method to fraternal order
• Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir c. 1234 encouraged the spread of young men’s guilds
and chivalric societies, the futuwwa orders, establishing an interest in and
conveying legitimacy on the idea of urban fraternal organizations.

• Futuwwa order and madrasa institution, & Christian monastic orders (St. Francis
tries to convert Caliph) suggest models for Sufi organization

• Teacher’s “method,” or ṭarīqa, becomes school or set of recognized practices:

e.g., “the method of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā” = Kubrāwiyya >> Kubrawi Order.

• Tariqa orders develop into formal religious institutions, centered around a lodge
or shrine, following a fixed rule, and endowed in perpetutity.

• Process begins 12th C per some orders’ silsilas; documented from 13th-14th
Usually children or grand-children of the “founding” shaykhs, or next-generation
disciples, organized the disciple communities into institutional orders

• Disputes over succession, geographical dispersion, or the emergence of new

charismatic saints within a particular order, could lead to break-away formation of
new orders.

• Ottoman period, the institutional ṭarīqas became corporate entities, with sub-
branches s.t. described by generic term, ṭā’ifa (plural ṭawā’if) as “societies”.
Population of Dervishes in Istanbul
 Initiation Rituals
• Similar from Tariqa to tariqa, but with specific ceremonies and ritual greetings

• Often adept is quite young, initiation celebrated by festival, and life by the rule of the order in the
khanaqah is seen as the boy’s intellectual and moral education.

A model initiation ceremony, as described in one of the manuals for the Qadiriyya Order:

• the candidate first performs ritual ablutions

• he then prays two rak‘as and sits facing the shaykh, with his knees pressed together.

• Clasping his shaykh’s right hand, he recites the opening sura of the Qur’ān followed by a series of
formulas invoking blessings upon the Prophet, and the various silsilas, especially those of the
Qādirīya line, by which his shaykh establishes his authority.

• The shaykh has him repeat, phrase by phrase, a formula containing various components: a prayer
asking God's forgiveness; a testimony that the vow he is taking is that of God and his apostle;
recognition that the hand of the shaykh is that of ‘Abd al-Qādir, founder of the order; and a
promise that he will recite the dhikr as the shaykh requires him to do.

• The shaykh then utters a prayer and recites the Qur’ānic verse of allegiance (48:10): “Those who
vow their allegiance to you, vow their allegiance to God; the hand of God is upon their hands.
Thus whoever violates it, violates himself, but whoever fulfills what he has promised God he will
undertake, God will give him a mighty reward.” Alternately, verse 16:91 is used: “Fulfill the pact of
God once you have made a pact with him” (Q48:10).

• Manuals of all orders replete with stories illustrating and enjoining delicate, tactful and respectful
behavior on the ṭarīqa initiates demonstrates a remarkable sensitivity to etiquette and propriety.
One of the earliest treatises on the norms of proper behavior among members of a ṭarīqa, Abū al-
Najīb al-Suhrawardī’s Ādāb al-murīdīn (The Manners of the Disciples) dates from the 20th century.
Institutional transmission of spiritual charisma
Spiritual authority of Tariqas and shaykhs certified by a silsila (“chain” of
transmission, modeled on the isnād of a hadith report) linking the founder of
the order to a presumed oral tradition of interpretation from the Prophet.

Silsilas (not all historically plausible) function as spiritual genealogies and

vary according to Tariqa. But most converge on Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq (d. 765) and
then ‘Alī, who has special mystical significance for both Sunni & Shi‘i Sufis.

Spiritual power (baraka) – Pirs of outstanding spiritual authority and charisma

(walaya) might be thought to work saintly miracles (karama) even after
death. Tomb visited and prayers offered / wishes sought

Succession – Pir designates successor by bestowing ceremonial patchwork

cloak (khirqa) on one or more chosen disciples, who inherit authority and
continue work, in the home khānaqāh or an ancillary one in another city.

New shaykh designated from elder shaykh’s sons or disciples, or elected, to

transmit authority and baraka to future generations of disciples.
 Qadiriyya Order
• Qādiriyya thought 1st brotherhood with structured organization; still operating today.

• Began Baghdad, spread to the Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, the Maghreb, West Africa, India,
and Southeast Asia. A website representing Qadiriyya: http://www.qadiriyya.com/

• Claims ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (1088–1166 from Gilan) as founder, silsila through Junayd.

• Jilani was Ḥanbalī legal scholar (strictest, most literalist school of Islamic law) invested
with Sufi habit by the founder of the first Ḥanbalī madrasa.

• Though a stern teacher, ‘Abd al-Qādir has become perhaps the most famous saint in the
Islamic world, with many miracle stories from Java to Morocco. Old Sindhi songs says
‘Abd al-Qādir’s spiritual realm extends through every town & region Istanbul to Delhi.

• Tomb in Baghdad place of pilgrimage for members of the brotherhood to the present-
day, with pilgrims– many of them from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, where the
Qādiriyya was introduced in the late 14th c – remaining there for weeks, silently sweeping
his sanctuary with little brooms

• Qādiriyya had very broad appeal among all strata of society from ruler to peasant.

• In popular belief ‘Abd al-Qādir was a renewer of Islam; well-known story that he
discovered a man by the wayside on the point of death and revived him. The “man” then
revealed that he was the religion of Islam.

• Order played a particularly important role in the islamization of West Africa.

 Rifa`iyya Order
• Establishment of Rifā‘iyya order in southern Iraq credited to
Aḥmad al-Rifā‘ī (d. 1182).

• Never as popular as the Qādiriyya,

• Widespread in Antaolia by 14th c, still represented there & in Egypt.

• Distinct ritual practice: particularly loud recitation of the dhikr >

known as the “Howling Dervishes.”
A website representing order : http://www.rifai.org/sufism/english
 Suhrawardiyya Order
• Named after Abū al-Najīb ‘Abd al-Qāhir al-Suhrawardī (d. 1168), author of the Ādāb al-
murīdīn (Manners of the Disciples), & professor of Shafi`i law at Baghdad Niẓāmiyya

• pupil of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (d. 1126), younger brother of the great Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī
(d. 1111) who helped win acceptance for the Sufi dimension of Islam.

• Order shaped by ‘Abū al-Najīb’s fraternal nephew and student, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ
‘Umar al-Suhrawardī (1145–1234), whose treatise ‘Awārif al-ma‘ārif (Masters of Mystical
Insights) became standard work on the theory of Sufi devotion.

• Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir built a ribāṭ for Shihāb al-Dīn and his disciples in 1203, and
appointed him caliphal envoy to Ayyubid rulers of Egypt and Syria in 1208, and then to
the Saljūqs of Asia Minor in 1221.

• Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī’s disciples spread from Asia Minor and Syria through Persia
and northern India becoming prominent and influential brotherhood

• subdivided into numerous branches after the fourteenth century.

• Website: http://www.islam786.org/silsilaesuhrawardiya.htm
 Shadhiliyya Order
• Founded by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī of Tunis (1196–1258), traveled widely in Maghreb and
Spain,settled and died in Alexandria.

• Internalized and silent devotions. Focus on private prayer, but against solitary and institutional life
- urged his followers to worship God through faithful attention to their daily responsibilities in
society.

• Not enjoined to voluntary poverty; Egyptian sources refer to the Shādhilīs’ tidy attire, which
distinguished them from other Sufis. Shādhilīya of Yemen discover value of brewed coffee beans

• Subtle teachings with appeal esp. among officials and civil servants of the middle class, whose
responsibilities, values, and attitudes are embodied in the order’s attention to detail.

• Shādhiliyya promotes no special theosophical ideas, apart from the fact that members are
believed to have been predestined from pre-eternity to join the order.
• Goal is deep, sober spirituality, drawing on al-Muḥāsibī (teacher of al-Junayd), on al-Makkī and
his Qūt al-qulūb (The Nourishment of the Heart), and on the spiritual teaching of al-Ghazālī in the
fourth volume of Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn (Vivification of the Religious Sciences).
• The Maxism (Ḥikam ), classic of Sufi spirituality written by Abū al-Ḥasan’s immediate successor,
Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 1309) - collection of 262 brief sayings followed by four short
treatises and a number of prayers, has generated numerous commentaries in many of the
languages of the Muslim world.

• Local offshoots include the Ḥāmidiyya Shādhilīs, one of the modern orders that still attracts and
provides a basic spiritual formation for many Egyptians. Following among some European
Muslims as well.
 Chishtiyya Order
• Chishtiyya among earliest ṭarīqas active in the Indian subcontinent, and the first to originate there.

• Founded by Mu‘īn al-Dīn Chishtī (d. 1236), a native of Sīstān, once a disciple of Abū Najīb al-
Suhrawardī. He arrived in Delhi in 1193 and then moved to Ajmer, an important city in newly
conquered Rajputana, where he founded a khānaqāh.

• Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyā’ (d. 1325) for 50 years extended Chishtiyya throughout India by dispatching
hundreds of his own disciples from his center in Delhi.

• Characterized by simplicity and ardor, extreme hospitality and charity, readiness to welcome
guests without discrimination.

• At first kept their distance from government, later developed close association with Mughal court.
Salīm (later Jahāngīr), the heir apparent of Emperor Akbar (d. 1605), was born in the home of a
Chishtī shaykh, and in gratitude Akbar commissioned a splendid dargāh for the Chishtiyya in
Fatehpur Sikri. Jahāngīr himself decorated the Chishtī city of Ajmer with beautiful buildings of
white marble, while Jahānārā Begum (d. 1681), daughter of Shāhjahān and Mumtāz Maḥall, wrote
about the life of Mu‘īn al-Dīn Chishtī and requested to be buried in his shrine compound.

• A Chishtī, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, who lived during the reign of Awrangzīb (1658–1707), regarded as the
greatest mystical poet in the Pashto language.

• This ṭarīqa noted for active encouragement of practice of samā‘, an example followed by various
other orders in South Asia > genre of Sufi music known as Qawwālī developed, which Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan and other performers popularized around the world in the 1980s.
 Naqshbandiyya Order
• Bahā’ al-Dīn-i Naqshband (1318–1388), traces his mystical heritage through Amīr Kulāl, a spiritual advisor to
Tīmūr (Tamerlane), to the Persian-speaking Central Asian lineage of Sufis, the Khwājagān, initiated by Abū Yūsuf
‘Alī Hamadānī (d. 1140). Bahā’ al-Dīn founded the Naqshbandī ṭarīqa in Bukhara, which he left only three times:
twice for pilgrimage to Mecca, and once to meet with the ruler of Herat, Mu‘izz al-Dīn Ḥusayn, to whom he taught
the Naqshbandī principles. Bahā’ al-Dīn’s tomb, surrounded by a large shrine complex, is a place of pilgrimage.

• Bahā’ al-Dīn-i Naqshband established connections with trade and craft guilds and merchant houses, which led to
the accumulation of material wealth. The order gained power in the Timurid court and, assuming a custodial role
over government, supervised the administration of religious law. Indeed, under the leadership of Khwājah Aḥrār of
Herat (1404–1490), the Naqshbandiyya virtually dominated political life in Central Asia. It was his conviction that
“to serve the world, it is necessary to exercise political power”; in other words, it is necessary to maintain adequate
control over rulers in order to ensure that they implement the divine law in every area of life

• Geographic rivals the popularity and influence of Qādiriyya - Central Asia and India, and also developed branches
in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, China, as well as Sumatra, the Riau archipelago, Java, and other Indonesian islands.
Late 18th century, Ma Ming-Hsin became a Naqshbandī-Jahrī while on pilgrimage to Mecca, returned to Kansu
province in China and founded politically important “New Teaching” movement. In the first Indonesian elections in
1955, a Sumatran Naqshbandī was elected to the national parliament as the sole representative of the “Tariqah”
political party.

• Unlike the Chishtiyya and those who followed their example, the Naqshbandiyya recited their dhikr silently,
banning music and rhythmic movements in the belief that through dhikr without words one could achieve a level of
contemplation in which subject and object became indistinguishable, and the individual soul returned to God as it
had been before creation.

• Among their techniques of meditation was concentration on their shaykh (tawajjuh); regular visitation of saints’
tombs in the hope that, by concentrating on the spirit of the departed shaykh, they would increase their spiritual
strength. Did not demand heroic austerities – like Shādhiliyya, spiritual purification and education of the heart seen
as more productive than harsh mortification designed to conquer the lower soul. A middle way - the mean
between excessive hunger and excessive eating -- was the safest. The true fast consists of keeping one’s mind
free from the food of satanic suggestions.] Despite its essential sobriety, this method proved congenial to the
poets of the time, and by the turn of the eighteenth century, the leading poets in the Indo-Persian style were either
members of the Naqshbandī ṭarīqah or under its influence.
 Naqshbandiyya and Politics
• Naqshbandiyya played important role in the religious and political history of Mughal
India as leaders of a movement of reaction against the syncretist Dīn-i ilāhī (Divine
Religion) of the emperor Akbar.

• Aḥmad Sirhindī (d. 1624) was initiated into the order by its shaykh, Khwājah Bāqī
Billāh, in 1600. The order remained involved in political developments, including a
strong reaction against Hindu practices, up to 1740.

• Shāh Walī Allāh (1703–1762) – concurrent member of Naqshbandiyya and Qādiriyya,

Muslim reformer of eighteenth-century Delhi and influential figure in early modern
renewal of Islam.

• In Sulaymāniyya in Iraqi Kurdistan, Mawlānā Khālid Baghdādī (d. 1827). Cultivated

relations with the Ottoman elite, and fought for the Turks in the Russo-Turkish war;
later implicated with opposition to the Turkish Republic, it was closed down with the
rest of the Sufi orders in Turkey in 1925. After the Iraqi revolution in 1958, the
Khālidīyah shifted its operations to Iranian Kurdistan, until the Iranian Revolution of
1979.

• Naqshbandi literature written in Persian, the great mystical poet ‘Abd al-Raḥmān
Jāmī (d. 1492) being a prominent member. Because of its Sunni loyalties, it was
uprooted from Persia in the sixteenth century by Shi‘i Safavid dynasty
 Tariqas and Politics
• Safaviyya, paradoxically traces its lineage to a Sunni Sufi teacher, Ṣafī al-
Dīn of Ardabīl (1252–1334)

• Safi al-Din joined Zaydiyya order, but in 1301 took over the order from a
lineage-based system. Under Safi al-Din and his successor, Sadr al-Din
Musa, order became propagandizing movement. Fell afoul of the Mongol
administration

• Shrine at Ardabil important center of pilgrimage; followers there wear red

hats and eventually form quasi-militia (kizilbash). Qara Qoyunlu amir
attacks them and threatens to destroy the town if the militia did not disperse.
Under Aq Qoyunlu leaders of the order were killed. Shah Isma`il leads
them against state and succeeds.

• Safi al-Din was Shafi`i Sunni, but his descendants eventually converted the
order to Shi‘ism, built it into a militant movement, and ultimately conquered
Iran in the late 15th century
 Tomb of
Shaykh Safi of
Ardabil
Sufi orders could develop into
militias and enter the political
arena
 2nd Poem by Sana’i (c. 1110) on a madrasa/khanaqah
Friends! last night we had a banquet at the inn! Blocking others, the doorman let me pass,
The way was hard, the night dusky, but I went. For my name--at your service--was famed in love.
Upon the road to that King of Idols' court That night the body of my soul, in person,
I saw all of love that was veiled in the world: met his personage but gazed not on his face,
No thought of lamp or candle, as the beauty for he overwhelmed my figure and I bowed,
of the fair-faced ones cast light upon light. to see held in that idol's hand a scroll
None could offer gifts befitting him, for etched with the affirmation of our being,
the tears of his lovers spilled like scattered pearls. crossed with negation of that "no"'s command!
Perfume lost all savor along his lane, whose Gazing on the scroll I noted well its words:
very dust sheds ambergris and camphor. The mysteries of the lectures
of Mahmud ebn Mansur
The countenance and lips of wine-imbibers
formed a carpet on his terrace floor;
his lovers sat reclined on Houris' eyes.
His fountain flowed, I saw, with wine, not water;
beneath each branch a thousand drunken lovers lolled.
Many a man much mentioned in the world
he graced with no regard nor glance, while many
a poor man with sore heart he mentioned there.
Whoso feared him, he came near and greeted,
and who approached him boldly, he avoided.
A million stood dumbfounded, like Moses,
in his path, where each stone was Mount Sinai.
All the invitations bore the heading:
"Thou shalt not see me," beauty nor splendor.
The lovers wailed, the righteous lamented;
None knew it a funeral or a fête.
 Reactions against Sufism
• Intercession of guides, reliance on spiritual preceptors

• Saint worship (visitation of tombs)

• Antinomian practices (wine, hashish)

• Political intervention of Sufi orders

• Quietism of most orders – not involved in reform or profitable profession, but

begging and “navel-gazing”

• In the modern period - Backwardness of Islam, stagnation of Islamic

societies
Reactions against Sufism: Banning Lodges
Reactions against Sufism