by William Foster (1968)
STUDENTS OF MOVEMENTS in the Near and Middle East have,
during the past three decades, turned up a wholly unexpected
wealth of information on Sufism and the Sufis. This has
originated with personal investigations by travellers and residents
in the area, with a re-examination of traditional Sufic materials,
and with an apparent desire by Sufis themselves to make available
hitherto restricted information about their beliefs, practices
and working structures. (Bibliography: Davidson).
Two major results will emerge from this new information:
almost all dictionary and encyclopaedia entries will have to be
changed; and the emotionally-religious aura which has been
allowed to surround the Sufis will be lifted.
The background of Sufism for the average Western student
until the recent discoveries and revelations may be said to have
been copied, in the first place, from Moslem divines' writings.
Anxious to identify the undoubted prestige of Sufi thinkers with
their own view of the Islamic heritage, they have emphasised
the points of resemblance (often superficial) between Sufi and
Islamic theological thought, and conveniently ignored or played
down the areas of Sufic thought and action which do not seem
to accord with the social and psychological norms of their part
of traditionalistic society. Many quasi-Sufic organisations, dating
from the Middle Ages until today, may be said to have been
'taken over' by theologians in the Middle East. As a result
such organisations serve mainly to condition applicants to the
acceptance of Islam. In the second place, the Sufis' own efforts
to represent themselves as wholly compatible in their thinking
with Moslem tradition has confused the issue and given the
Eastern and Western students alike the opportunity to identify
Sufism with Islam.
In Victorian times, an additional complication arose, and it
is one which is amply represented in the literature of the time,
and one whose ghost is still with us. This was the rise of the
theory that the Sufic ideas and activities which could not be
explained by reference to Moslem scripture or tradition and
some of which were even seen to be opposed to these, must be
regarded as fragments of shamanism, or as a reaction of the
Persians against the Semitic thought-patterns of the Arabs. As
in almost every facile assumption of this kind, it was found
possible to produce, by selective extracts, 'evidence' of these influences
which are found upon examination to be nothing more
than 'proof by selected instances'. The same goes for the energetic
attempts to relate Sufism to various forms of Indian philosophy.
This reached its apogee of absurdity when Orientalists
were to be found using Sufi-influenced Hindu theories to prove
the Indian 'origin' of Sufism. (Reference: S. A. Latif).
Even in more modern times, Sufism has not had an easy
passage in its examination by committed scholars and others who
seek to relate it to, or judge it by, some personal preoccupation
of their own. Hence followers of Christian, Zoroastrian, Hindu,
Theosophical and other cults have, from time to time, all tried
to find affinities, resemblances, even origins for Sufism in their
own sanctions. Sometimes they have attempted the reverse:
trying to show the roots of their own beliefs to be in Sufism.
Most of such efforts have failed: but they have still left their
mark on the general stock of literature on the subject: to the
extent that any objective student of Sufism in Eastern or Western
literature may be forgiven for finding himself excessively
confused by what he reads. Before he can begin to understand
the materials, he has to have a thorough background of the bias
of the writers whose works are pieces of polemic just as much
as sources of information.
Watered-down forms of Sufism, centred around an Eastern
exponent or two visiting or residing in the West, have added
their quota of confusion and cultishness, which has often been
coloured by the sectarian and universalist tendencies which are
so often to be seen as alternating factors in almost all matters
which appertain to the human mind.
And yet, in spite of it all, the sheer accumulation of information
about the Sufis and their work has made it possible to steer
a course through these subjectivities.
When such a course has been steered, Sufism and the individualities
of the Sufi exponents emerge as something very
different from what they are represented to be. Further, and
perhaps more significant, Sufism stands revealed as a series of
systems which have only the slightest resemblance to the
"mystical', 'religious', 'idealistic', 'cultish' organisations with
which we tend automatically to bracket it.
It is, in short, something on its own. It is a different kind
of entity from the inevitable cults with which we are familiar.
Because of this, and because of its intrinsic interest, it may
well have something to contribute which could be salutary to
our thinking patterns. Certainly it is to be welcomed because
of its very 'difference'.
But what is it? It is compatible with Islam, though it is
claimed by some to have preceded Islam. Moslems and Christians
alike have called it a form of Christianity. But Christ is not its
central figure. Sufis themselves claim that it is something of
which religion is a misguided variety, and a diluted one at diat.
Sufism is a study. It is centred around collections of people,
includes ideas and practices, aims at some kind of a 'perfectioning'
of man.
Here is a literary form of this 'deliberate evolution' theory,
from the thirteenth-century
Couplets of Inner Meaning, by
Jalaluddin Roumi, one of the greatest Sufis:
'He came, at first, into the inert world, and from minerality
developed into the realm of vegetation. Years he lived thus.
Then he passed into an animal state, bereft of memory of
his having been vegetable. Except for his attraction to
Spring and flowers. This was like the innate desire of the
infant for the mother's breast. Or the affinity of disciples for
an illustrious Guide. Their attraction originates with that
shadow. When the shadow is no more, they know the cause
of attachment to the Teacher . . .
From realm to realm man went, reaching his present
reasoning, knowledgeable, robust state—forgetting earlier
forms of intelligence.
'So, too, shall he pass beyond the current form of perception
.. . There are a thousand other forms of Mind .. .
Because of necessity, man acquires organs. So, necessitious
one, increase your need . . .'*
* The London University Zoologist W. Tschernezky showed the inadequacy
of the 'environmental' theory of evolution, and cited examples of
'deliberate' evolution, supporting Sufi claims of 700 years before, by his
article in the
New Scientist, 22 August, 1968 ('Dolphins and the mind ofMan').
In order to develop organs of perception, Sufis have to undergo
training. But this is as far as the resemblance with other
systems goes, because Sufi teaching, poetry, literature, seemingly
having discovered the effects of 'conditioning' long before I. P.
Pavlov, (Hadiqa—see References) claims to be dedicated to preventing
the establishment of conditioned reflexes (habit-patterns)
in man.
Our mental set may be responsible for making it difficult for
us to conceive how this could be done. But the Sufis are insistent
upon it, apart from those who have developed their organisations
into indoctrination systems, and which by reference to Sufi
classics cannot genuinely be called Sufic at all.
References:
DAVIDSON, R. WEAVER,
Documents on Contemporary Dervish
Communities.
(Hoopoe), London, 1965, reprinted 1967.
Contains accounts of Sufi thought and communities collected
from books on sociology, journals and magazines (including
the London
Times), and one scientific paper on psychotherapeuticprocedures.
LATIF, S. A.,
An Outline of the Cultural History of India,
Hyderabad (India), 1958, pp. 200 et passim. (Inst. of
Indo-Middle East Cultural Studies).
PAVLOV, I. P.,
Conditioned Reflexes, Dover Publications (NewYork), 1960.
HADIQA, STEPHENSON, MAJ. J.
The First Book of the Hadiqat
L'Haqiqat
(Enclosed Garden of Truth) of Hakim Sanai ofGhazna; (Calcutta), 1910, passim.
Note:
This is documentation, not necessarily recommended reading.
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