Sufism

Who is that? Aha, it’s Rābia al- Adawiyya, or Rabia of Basra. What is she doing? - I want to put out the fires of Hell, and burn down the rewards of Paradise. They block the way to Allah. I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of Allah.

Rabia al-Adawiyya is a saint in the Muslim mystic tradition. Mysticism is when someone tries to reach understanding of God by turning inwards. The goal is most often to unite with the divine. Islamic mysticism is called Sufism. The word Sufism most probably has its origin in the Arabic word for wool - suf.

The first mystics withdrew from society to lead simple and poor lives and often wore simple clothes of wool. Withdrawing from society, leading a simple life and meditating to gain spiritual growth is called asceticism, and this is what some Muslims were already doing in early Islamic times. But in the 8th century, Rabia al-Adawiyya appears. She thinks that the most important thing is to focus on the love of God. And it’s thanks to her that Sufism gains its special trait: the theme of love.

Sufis often mention two concepts: “the Beloved” and “the Lover”. This may sound as if they’re talking about a love relationship between two people. But what they mean is the love between a person and God. In the thirteenth century this theme of love becomes even more obvious, because now this Persian writer appears: Jalal al-din Rumi. Rumi writes beautiful texts that are read by many, even in modern times.

They may be read as love poems, but are really about love between God and the person. There are different groups of Sufi, some lead lives of withdrawal, others live as most people do, and then there is this group of whirling dancers, the Dervishes. The dancing Dervishes try to spin themselves into ecstasy to forget their human personalities - their egos. Besides whirling very quickly, they also turn one hand upwards and one hand downwards to illustrate that humanity is tied to both heaven and earth. Sufis are divided into groups that study under religious teachers: shaykhs.

The shaykhs are thought to have been given their mission from God and are sometimes looked upon as saints. Sufism is present in both of the great Muslim branches: Shia and Sunni. Mohammad is just as important to the Sufis as to other Muslims, and they follow the same rules. So most of the time the Sufis are accepted by other Muslims. But sometimes they are misunderstood by other, more fundamental Muslims who feel that the Sufis’ beliefs go against Islam.

This Sufi saint Mansur al-Hallaj lived between the years 858 and 922. In his meditations he came to the recognition that: - Anā al-ḥaqq This means “I am the truth”, which is like saying “I am God”. Because of this, he was executed. But how did he come to the conclusion that he was the truth? And maybe even God?

Well, just as with mysticism in other religions, Sufism deals with feeling the divine within. To reach oneness with one’s god. In the relationship between the lover and the beloved, this is becoming one with Love so much as to erase oneself. Only God remains. The Sufis believe Mohammad said: “die before you die”.

They interpret this as the human ego needs to die, so that one can be one with God. One way to become this is to realise that the beloved and the lover are the same. Understandably, this might be hard to grasp. And this is why the Sufis give so much time to meditation, poetry, and ecstatic dancing.