Dr. Abdur Rabb
Published in canadaBdNews.com on January 23, 2011 
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In the beginning of my article on Sylhet published in canadaBDnews on January 9, 2011, I explained the meaning of the word ‘sufi’ and other names by which Sufis are called. I shall now try to explain in simple language the beliefs and practices of Sufis. This article will hopefully help to clarify the present controversy about the legitimacy of Sufism in Islam.
Before I proceed any further, I shall say a few words of caution. At some point we shall talk about the Sufi experience of Allah subhanahu ta’ala. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to ‘understand’ that experience unless a person has had it himself. Try to explain to a person what honey tastes like. If that person has never tasted honey in life, how can you make him understand what honey is like? You may say, “Honey is sweet.” Sugar is sweet too. Molasses are sweet. Sap from date palms is also sweet. So the word ‘sweet’ does not tell us much about honey. Hence Sufis refrain from discussing the matter of their experience to the general run of masses. A second reason for their unwillingness to discuss their experience openly is that the masses may misunderstand what they talk about, and that may land the Sufis into trouble. We have seen disastrous consequences of this kind of misunderstanding in Islamic history. Mansur al-Hallaj gave his life, and a few others were persecuted. We must mention however that, in spite of these difficulties, Sufis have tried to explain their experience to their murids (disciples) for the sake of teaching; and they have written books about it. We shall also try, only try, to understand it as much as possible.
The word ‘sufi’ is derived from the Arabic root safa meaning pure. Sufis are called by that name because of the purity of their hearts. Sufis consider themselves the lovers of Allah subhanahu ta’ala. Just as it is the case with young lovers, the goal of Sufi life is to achieve closeness to their Beloved Allah. The organ with which they can come close to Allah is the heart (qalb). Since Allah is Pure, it is only the pure hearts that can come close to Him. Sufis therefore have adopted various methods of purifying their hearts. They go through a rigorous training on what we call tariqah or Sufi Path. We shall now try to understand what tariqah means. This word is also used to refer to a specific system of teaching and practices of a group of Sufis, e.g., the Chistia Tariqah (Order). At the present moment we shall take the word tariqah only to mean the Sufi Path.
The first thing that we must understand is that Sufis are Muslims. The most fundamental requirement of the people starting their journey on the Sufi Path is that they must be good Muslims fulfilling all the requirements of shariah: prayer, fasting, hajj, and so on. Then they accept a Sufi as their guide or master (pir, shaykh). You may ask: “Why do we need a master?” Actually we do not need a master. Accepting a master makes the journey easy and less risky. We can very easily follow the route map from Montreal to Toronto, and drive from my city to the other metropolitan city of Canada; but if I meet somebody who came to Montreal from Toronto yesterday, he will tell me where the road is smooth, and where it is rough. He will also tell me the places where on the way I could buy good foods, and so on. Guidance from him will make my journey risk-free and easy. We all know that for climbing the Mount Everest we need the help of the sherpas who have had the experience of climbing that mountain. A Sufi master has already travelled on the Sufi Path. He can now guide his murids on that path to reach their destination more easily than they otherwise could.
Now the murids will be instructed to go through what we call mujahadah (mortification or control) of the nafs (self). Allah has made us of two elements: one higher (soul) and the other lower (self). If we tune in to the higher, we raise ourselves to the level of angels in respect of the purity of our hearts; but if we tune in to the lower, we may go down to a level worse than that of a animals. Nafs, the source of all evil desires and passions, is very powerful. We can compare it with a powerful wild horse. If we ride on a horse of that description, it may jump into a fire or into the ocean from a high rocky cliff. In either case we shall be destroyed. Sufis therefore ask that we wage a jihad against the nafs and bridle it. The qalb, when associated with the nafs, is like a rusty mirror which cannot reflect my face. We need to continue to polish the mirror until it is clean enough to do its function. This process of cleansing is called mujahadah . You remember that our Prophet said before he died: “The outer jihad has been completed; now it is time to do inner jihad.” Mujahadah is actually that inner jihad.
It should be noted here that Allah has mentioned the necessity of purification. He says in the Qur’an, “Successful is the one who has purified himself” ( qad aflaha man tazakka). The word tazakka comes from the Arabic root zakiya, to purify. The word zakat comes from the same root. There is also an element of purification of the self in giving zakat.
Allah has also demonstrated the act of purification. Referring to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, He says, “Have We not expanded your chest?” (a lam nashrah laka sadrak). One interpretation of this verse is the following:
Allah planned to make Muhammad His Messenger. The function of the spiritual king of the world demanded a broad knowledge of life and the universe. Hence Allah expanded Muhammad’s horizon of knowledge and vision. Later in life Muhammad was also going to receive the Holy Quran. It is only the holy that could receive the Holy. Further, one day, in his mi’raj (ascension, Night Journey) he was going to come very close to His Lord, even closer than two-bow lengths. Only the pure could come so close to the absolutely Pure. Hence Allah prepared His friend Muhammad for these experiences by having removed all the impurities of his self when he was a young boy tending animals in the desert. Allah also prepared Musa alayhi wa sallam to receive Allah’s wahi (revelation) and talk to Him one day. Allah had Musa thrown into the Nile, picked up by the family of the Pharaoh, and so on—all in preparation for his holy acts in the future.
As the chosen of Allah, the purification of the Prophets’ selves was done by Allah Himself in a special way. The ordinary Muslims like you and I need to go through a long and difficult process of purifying the self. We cannot however complete the whole journey by our own efforts. We work very hard to achieve our goal, and at some point Allah’s especial grace (lutf) will lift us close to Him.
The process of mujahadah involves a great deal of work of discipline. The murids need to have a complete trust in Allah. There is an example of this kind of trust. A man was almost drowned in the Euphrates River. People from the bank of the river shouted at him saying, “Do you want to be rescued?” “No”, replied the drowning man. Do you want to be drowned? “No.” “Then what do you want?” “I want not to want anything. May Allah’s Will be done.” This is an extreme example. What is meant by complete trust is simple: accept whatever happens to you as an act of Allah’s Will, for whatever He does is for our good.
Murids are required to do a great deal of fasting. Here we are not talking of fasting in the month of Ramadan which they must also do. We are talking about additional fasting. Experience has shown that fasting works as a good means of controlling the low desires and passions and thus of purifying the heart.
Next we come to the practice of zikr (remembrance) of Allah. Sufis consider zikr as the practice per excellence. Repeating the Names of Allah and other formulas prescribed by the master many times, either alone or in groups, is considered the best means of purifying the heart. The formulas most used in Sufi zikr are ‘Allah’ and ‘la ilah illallah’. I have heard people saying, “At prayer the mind may wander way; but in zikr it does not.” Of course Allah has ordered us in the Qur’an to do zikr of Him while standing, sitting, and lying on our sides.
The ultimate result of the process of mujahadah is the experience of tawhid, unification (not union because there cannot be a union between the Creator and the created). Generally we use the word tawhid to refer to Allah’s oneness. We mainstream Muslims are people of tawhid in the sense that we believe in Allah as One. As Muslims Sufis must also accept Allah as One except that they go much further than mere belief in Allah’s oneness; they verify Allah’s oneness by ‘seeing’ Him as One. Let us take an example to illustrate the point. We are sitting in a gathering in a room when a man comes to inform us that there is a fire in the neighbourhood. We all know that this informer is a trustworthy person; he would never tell a lie. Hence we all accept his statement to be true, and believe that there is a fire in the neighbourhood. In the same manner, we all Muslims believe that Allah is One because Allah and His trustworthy Prophet told us so. A couple of people in our gathering want to be surer about the existence of the fire. Hence they go outside and look at the sky in the direction from which the fire is supposed to be burning. They see smoke in the sky. Hence they are confirmed about the existence of the fire. Reason or intellect tells them that wherever there is smoke, there is fire. All the people of the gathering accept the statement of these two people of intellect. Our mutakallimun (theologians), the people of reason and understanding, not only believe that Allah is One; they also have ‘proofs’ for Allah’s oneness. There is one person in the gathering who believes in the first informer and accepts the verdict of the intellectuals; yet he wants to be absolutely certain about the existence of the fire. Hence he walks to the location of the fire and sees the burning fire with his own eyes. This person represents the position of the Sufis with regard to the idea of tawhid.
The experience of tawhid occurs in an ecstatic state of the heart charged with emotion. There are two aspects of this experience: fana’ and baqa’. The Arabic word fana’ means obliteration or disappearance. At this state, Sufis are lost to the world; they are completely unaware of what is happening around them. This is the negative aspect of their experience of tawhid. Positively, Sufis are in a state of baqa’, permanence. If they are lost to the world, they must be present somewhere: they are present with Allah. Thus considered from the point of the world, Sufis are in a state of fana’; but viewed from the point of view of Allah, they are in a state of baqa’. In the state of baqa’, Sufis submit completely to the Will of Allah. They feel that they have no power, volition or initiative of their
own. They experience Allah’s hand in everything that they do. When they act, move and speak, they feel that Allah is doing all these through them. They become tools or chattels in the hands of Allah. At sijdah we Muslims are supposed to surrender our will to Allah’s Will. In the state of baqa’ the Sufis are in ultimate sijdah in which their will merges in that of Allah.
In trying to achieve the experience of Allah murids work very hard on the Sufi Path; yet there is no guarantee that they will receive that experience. The experience of tawhid is actually a gift that must be granted by Allah to His chosen ones. The situation is somewhat like this. We may somehow climb to about 10 feet from the top of a royal palm (tal gachh); but it is impossible to climb the last ten feet. This area near the top has been made very slippery by the hard leaves hitting the stem of the palm when strong wind blows. Sufis by their own efforts may be able to climb to the point where the slippery part of the palm begins; but then Allah will have to pull them up to the top.
The experience of tawhid brings to the Sufis a special kind of knowledge called ma’rifah. Ma’rifah is direct and immediate knowledge of Allah. Actually this knowledge is Allah’s own knowledge of Himself. He gives a tiny part of that knowledge to His friends (awliya, plural of wali). Because Sufis are endowed with ma’rifah, they are sometimes referred to as ‘arifun (plural of ‘arif, ‘knower’). In Iran Sufis are called ‘irfan today.
I am sure you will like to know the unusual utterances that some Sufis have made. Mansur al-Hallaj shouted saying, “Ana al- Haqq”, I am the Reality, I am the Truth. Abu Yazid al Bistami said, “Subhani, ma a’jama al- sha’ni”, Glory be to me! How great is my majesty! We Muslims are supposed to say, “Anta al-Haqq”, You are the Truth; and “ Subhanaka, ma a’jama al-sha’nuka,” Glory be to You. How great is Your majesty! Hence the statements made by those Sufis go against shari’ah. Sufis themselves have an explanation of these paradoxical statements.
Sufis have sometimes been divided into two categories: drunken and sober. They say that it is the drunken ones who make those extravagant utterances. Think of a torrential rainfall on the mountain. Now the rain water will come down the narrow river; but the enormous amount of water and the force with which it comes down cannot be contained by the river. The result is that the valley and the land below are flooded, trees uprooted, houses destroyed, and so on. In the same manner, when the Sufis experience the enormity of Allah’s presence, some of them lose control of themselves. Hence the expressions such as those made by al-Hallaj and al-Bistami flow down their tongues in an uncontrolled fashion. As soon as they come out of that overwhelming experience, they repent for having made those expressions. Once after Abu Yazid became sober his disciples told him what he had said in a state of intoxication. He was shocked to hear what he had said. He told his disciples, “Kill me if I say something like that again.” Most of the Sufis in the history of Islam were sober Sufis. Their control over themselves was strong enough to bear the overwhelming experience of Allah. Al-Junayed al-Baghdadi and Imam al-Gazzali are example of sober Sufis.
Sufis have sometimes compared Musa’s experience on the mountain and Muhammad’s experience at the court of Allah in the Heavens. Musa wanted to see Allah, but Allah showed unwillingness to show Himself to Musa. At his insistence, Allah then said, “I shall reveal Myself on the mountain. If the mountain can bear Me, you shall see Me.” Allah revealed Himself on the mountain, but the mountain could not bear Him. The result was that the mountain was burned to ashes, and Musa fell fainted. Muhammad on the other hand ascended to the court of Allah, saw Him and had a conversation with Him—all in a state of sobriety.
Now we have an important question: What do the Sufis do after they have experienced tawhid? They must come down from the mountain top, and live an ordinary life. Many of the Sufis had professions in which they worked. They have responsibilities to their families, friends, relatives and the society at large. Islam does not accept the life of a hermit who abandons the world and lives in a cave. A Sufi may be a professor, a peasant or a rickshaw-puller. Although they live like other Muslims, they have an extra quality: they have had an experience of the Divine. People should be able to see the external signs of their inner experience in their words, movements and dealings with others. Second, since they have had the experience of tawhid already, they should be able to re-experience that easily. Third, the journey on the Sufi Path and the resultant experience have made them doctors of the heart. They must therefore now help others to walk on the Sufi Path so that others may also reach the end of the path one day.
What about the miracles associated with the Sufis? The answer is simple: genuine Sufis do not believe in miracles. It is the other people who attribute miracles to them.
How do we know who a genuine Sufi is? I think there is a simple test. If you see that someone considered a Sufi is boastful and hankers after material gain, run away from him.
Let us now compare the position of the Sufis with that of mainstream Muslims and mutakallimun. Let us say that we live in Nepal. There is flat land on the southern end of the country, the city of Kathmandu at a higher level on the valley of the Himalayas, and of course the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest. The mainstream Muslims live on the flat land area. They do the work of agriculture, carpentry, teaching, and so on. They believe in Allah and His Prophet, and act according to the Quran and the sunnah. They are the majority of the Nepalese Muslims. At a higher level in Kathmandu live the mutakallimun. In addition to accepting Allah as one and Muhammad as His Prophet, and acting according to the Quran and the sunnah, they have a trained reason by means of which they understand why they do what they do. Then there are the Sufis who have reached the Mount Everest. They possess the positive qualities of the mainstream Muslims and mutakallimun; but they have one additional quality: experience of the Divine. All the three groups of people are on the right path. The difference among them is that the mutakallimun are closer to Allah than the Muslim masses on the south; and the Sufis, having been on the mountain top, are the closest to their Lord. Hence they are called awliy’a (plural of wali, a close friend) of Allah.
In conclusion, we shall describe the contributions of the Sufis to Islam. Those who have had the good luck of meeting genuine Sufis know that the Sufis are extraordinary people. They are the humblest, kindest, softest, and most generous and gentle people. They also know human psychology. In many cases they have been great poets and thinkers. The most important contribution that they made is that they spread the religion of Islam far and wide. After Muhammad’s death Muslims conquered lands after lands. Within 80 years of Muhammad’s death Muslim conquerors reached India in the east and Spain on the west –indeed a miracle of history. In the wake of the conquests came the Sufis, set up khankas (Sufi centers) and taught Islam and the Sufi way of life to the conquered people. If we take the case of old India, we find a large number of people of lower castes, especially in the eastern area, suppressed and oppressed by the higher caste Hindus. These lower caste Hindus found the Islamic teaching of equality and the extraordinary human qualities of the Sufis very attractive. Hence they flocked to the khankas to join Islam. In my article on Sylhet referred to above I have mentioned how Shah Jalal and other Sufis spread Islam in our beloved land Bangladesh. The largest Islamic country of the world is Indonesia. It is the Sufis who were responsible for spreading Islam there.
Sufis have also emphasized the element of love in Islam. Allah to them is more of an object of love than of fear. Hence the objective of their life is to come close to Him. They also inspire their murids to become compassionate, loving and tender human beings like themselves. As it is well known, Sufis have contributed a great deal to Islamic thought and literature. Mention may be made of Rumi, Hafiz, and Ibn al-Arabi in this respect.
Sufism is gentle, loving, caring, tolerant and moderate Islam. It is through the Sufis that many people of western and northern Europe, Africa and North America are becoming Muslims today. I think that Sufi teaching can also counteract the bane of our societies today: extremism. I strongly feel that a country like Bangladesh should introduce Sufi teaching in the educational institutions as a means of preventing the growth of extremism. I may venture to say that Sufi teaching may also reduce corruption that is eating into the vitality of Bangladesh.