Stunningly Brief Introduction to Sufism

Islam is the youngest of the great world religions, and although most people associate it primarily with the Middle East, its one billion adherents can be found in every part of the globe (and in fact, the country with the largest Muslim population is not in the Middle East, but is Indonesia). As it grew and spread, Islam was able to adapt to people's local cultures and ways of life, and in each setting has been colored by the culture found there (so that Indonesian Islam, for instance, is very different from Egyptian Islam--although to any student of sociology this point is so obvious that it seems unnecessary to belabor).

One of the reasons it has been able to do this is that the core of Islam is very simple: faith in one, supreme, omnipotent God (Allah), who has revealed His will throughout history to human beings--first through the Jewish prophets (Abraham, Isaac, etc.), then through Jesus, and finally and definitively through the Prophet Muhammed (570-622 CE). The revelations given through Muhammed were written down as the Qur'an ("Recitation," literally of Allah's word). The Quran reveals Allah's will for human beings and the way that they should live, and for Muslims has the importance that Christians ascribe to the person of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, faith in Allah is never just a matter of speaking, but a matter of DOING. The literal meaning of Islam, "submission," implies action as well as assent, and on the Day of Judgment (another basic tenet of Islam) Allah will judge human beings according to what is written in the "Book of Deeds" (sending the righteous to Paradise, and the unrighteous to the fire). There are five ritual actions required of all believers that are so central to Islam that they are called the 5 "Pillars":

1. Profession of Faith--that Allah is the only God, and that Muhammed is his final Prophet.

2. Required Prayers--five times a day.

3. Almsgiving--to support the poor in the community.

4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan.

5. Pilgrimage to Mecca (at least once in one's lifetime, if one is able to do so.)

These are the basic practices of Islam, and anyone who keeps these is considered a good Muslim. Yet from the earliest days of Islam, there were Muslims who were not just satisfied with "doing the minimum" to SERVE Allah, but who were hungering for some direct and personal communion with Allah. They were, for want of a better word, mystics. At the beginning these seekers stressed an ascetic life: prayer, fasting, celibacy, repentence, meditations on the Day of Judgment, and reading the Qur'an for hidden guidance. Not surprisingly, given this dour ascetic tone, it remained a very small group at first. The movement took a qualitative shift with the influence of Rabi'a (d. 801 CE), who stressed not only detachment from the world and obedience to Allah, but passionate love of Allah. Beginning with Rabi'a, Sufis began to conceptualize of Allah not only as a judge and master, but as a friend, companion, and confidante, and Sufism developed into a mass movement.

Within two hundred years, Sufism saw the development of the loose organizations that have marked it ever since. The heart of this organization is the individual relationship between pir ("master") and murid ("disciple"), in which the pir takes complete responsibility for the disciple's spiritual development (gearing the teaching to what will give each individual disciple the most benefit), while the disciple follows the pir without question. Each pir is a living representative of a spiritual lineage (silsala)--pirs were given the authority to teach by their pirs, who received the teaching from THEIR pirs, and so on back (usually) to the Prophet Muhammed. Since in any "generation" of disciples a pir can empower any number to teach (based, of course, on the judgment that they are fit to do so), each spiritual lineage can branch and spread, just as a biological one can. The pir is believed to be close to Allah by virtue of his (or her) piety and sanctity, in popular belief this closeness gives them the ability to confer divine blessings (baraka)--not of themselves, but as channels for the power of Allah.

The central belief of Sufism is that the ego-centered self has to be destroyed (fana), so that the human being could be filled with consciousness of Allah. There were various practices that the Sufis used to accomplish this:

1. Poverty, fasting, celibacy, etc. to weaken attachment to the world.

2. "Remembrance" (dhikr), the chant-like repetition of the name of Allah, as a way to implant it in the heart.

3. Music (sama) dance, and bodily movements to trigger ecstatic states.

The most important method, and the one which had the most effect on the lives of ordinary people, was the veneration of the Prophet and the Sufi saints. As already mentioned, these saints were seen in their lifetimes as having the power to give divine blessings, and this power to bless was seen as present at their tombs even after their deaths. The graves of Sufi saints have become pilgrimage sites to all sorts of petitioners, and the most important ones have become building complexes--not just the tomb, but mosques and other buildings as well--which often perform social services such as providing the poor with food, medicine, and education. Even though physically dead, the saint is still believed to be present at the tomb, and attentive to the requests of the people coming to visit there.

Not surprisingly, the prospect of encountering someone with the ability to confer divine blessings has been very attractive to people suffering all sorts of tribulations, from physical ailments to "problems in living," and although the generally held belief is that "Islam was spread by the sword," in reality the piety, example, and reputed power of these men and women has been a much greater force. Even today Indian Hindus will go to the Sufi graves with their requests; ordinary people tend to be drawn to religious power, wherever it may lie, if they think it can fulfill their everyday needs.