Sufism
by Idries Shah
from The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987)
Sufi individuals and groups became publicly known in Arabia in the 8th century. As mystics, esteemed for religious piety, they were able to exercise the role of mentors of devotion and conduct in the theocratic community of Islam. Observers have been attempting, for 1,000 years, to categorize them, but conventional assessment has proved extremely difficult. Accepting Muhammad the Prophet as the originator of the current phase of Sufi manifestation, they also regard Jesus as a Sufi: while one of the greatest of all Sufis, Jalaluddin Rumi, openly declared that many non-Muslims understood Sufism better than ordinary Muslims. Al-Ghazzali, one of the foremost Sufis, is credited with having saved Islamic thought from dissolution by Greek philosophy. From his time (d. 1111) all Islamic thought may be regarded as being indebted to Sufism. Like all gnostic systems, Sufism regards conduct as secondary, and divine illumination as primary. Sufi masters are therefore those who, having experienced the 'path' to such cognition, are able to guide others along it and also to relate it to terrestrial social needs.
There are three distinct ways in which assessment of this powerful and extraordinary movement has been approached:
(i) The largely Western, scholarly approach, which has sought to analyse literature, seek origins, and identify affinities. The multiplicity of resemblances between Sufi thought and practices and those of other systems has led many of the followers of this technique to 'proof by selected instances'. According to which expert one reads, therefore, one will find Sufism attributed to Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, animist, or other origins. A listing of the proofs invoked by such students shows that they cancel one another out.
(ii) The conclusions reached by Muslim non-Sufis, mainly in the East, over the centuries. Nasrollah Fatemi (1976) provides a summary:
"To some it denotes humanitarianism, tolerance, harmony ... love of mankind and the attempt to achieve spiritual fellowship. To a few, the Sufis are dreamers, rebels and meddlers who interfere with the serious rituals of the church and the business of the state.
"To others, they are the conscience of society and the antennae of the community, who exhibit in their activities a pronounced concern for humanity [and] the values that lie at the core of society, and who accuse the civil and religious authorities of lacking social conscience. The Sufis felt the need to resist the corrupt, tyrannical and arrogant, to ridicule the cruel rich and merciless might, to exalt the low and to help the helpless."
(iii) The assertions made by the Sufis themselves about what they are and what they do and why they do it.
Although it cannot be expected that the Sufis' contentions about themselves will be accepted by those with different assumptions, it can be seen that the Sufi rationale provides a better explanation than has been offered heretofore by members of the outside observing groups. The Sufis say that they have no history, because Sufism is experience, not recording information. Their goal is attaining knowledge of a higher reality, of which familiar religion is a lower level: that of social and psychological balance. When the goal is attained, the Sufi acquires not only knowledge of the divine (and of extra-dimensional reality) but also functions associated with it which are not to be confused with repetitious observance or emotional stimulus. Those alone who have reached this stage may properly be called 'Sufis'. Anyone else is 'on the Path', or a 'dervish', roughly equivalent to a monk or friar. It is this belief that gnosis commands action of all kinds that explains, according to the Sufis, why they are found in so many branches of literature, philosophy, science, administration, and so on. Their instrumental intervention is directed from beyond conventional limitations and, the doctrine continues, cannot be imprisoned in repetitious activity. Although this assertion is not necessarily acceptable to contemporary Western workers, the rich writings of the Sufis have in recent years interested psychologists and sociologists. Sufism itself was 'named' by August Thöluck, in his Sufismus, sive Theosophia Persarum pantheistica, published in Berlin in 1821. Before that it was known as Islamic mysticism and by a number of other names, such as Divine Wisdom (extracted by letter–number substitution cipher from the Arabic).
Sufi 'orders' came into being much later than teachers and schools, and they clearly resemble traditional orders in, for example, Christianity. The orders are therefore regarded as secondary, and few, if any, of their putative founders, famous Sufi masters, were really connected with their establishment. Their practices are mostly of a devotional auto-hypnotic nature, and produce conditioned states which are much at variance with essential Sufi theory relating to the need for individual and specific teaching. Most groups which employ the name Sufi in the Middle and Far East and Africa are in fact Islamic prayer congregations of the enthusiast type. Many closely resemble formal churches of whatever religion, and hence have an attraction for people brought up in parallel systems.
The Sufis enjoy, on the whole, a high reputation in the East, and have been extensively appreciated by non-Islamic religionists and scholars, including Western mystics. The numerous extrasensory manifestations which have always been associated with Sufi activity are regarded by the Sufis themselves as undesirable and preliminary (at best) phases; although they continue to excite those who attempt to study such things. At the present time, self-deluded and spurious 'Sufis' abound, in the East and West, as in the case of all enterprises of this nature.
(Published 1987)
— The Sayed Idries Shah
Bibliography:
Burke, O. M. (1973). Among the Dervishes.
Eastwick, E. B. (1974). The Rose-Garden of Sheikh Muslihu'd-Din Sadi of Shiraz.
Fatemi, N. S. (1976). Sufism.
Lewin, L. (ed.) (1976). The Elephant in the Dark.
Shah, I. (1968, 1971). The Way of the Sufi.
Shushtery, A. M. A. (1966). Outlines of Islamic Culture.
Subhan, J. A. (1938). Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines.
Whinfield, E. H. (trans.) (1975). Teachings of Rumi.
Williams, L. F. R. (ed.) (1973). Sufi Studies: East and West.
