Readings

1. Lapidus, Ira. “The Personal Ethic” of A History of Islamic Societies 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 156-193
2. Ernst, Carl. “Spirituality in Practice” of Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003: 164-197. | Download Spirituality in Practice
3. Sells, Michael. “Early Muslim Spirituality and Mysticism” of The Muslim Almanac: A Reference Work on the History, Faith, Culture, and Peoples of Islam. Edited by Azim Nanji. New York: Gale Research Inc., 1996: 215-221. | Download Early Muslim Spirituality
4. Ernst, Carl. “Spiritual Life and Institutions in Muslim Society” of The Muslim Almanac: A Reference Work on the History, Faith, Culture, and Peoples of Islam. Edited by Azim Nanji. New York: Gale Research Inc., 1996: 253-260. | Download Spiritual Life and Institutions

Summary

top
The centuries leading up to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century saw a culmination of Muslim spiritual and intellectual traditions, with masterpieces of literature, metaphysics, and theology. Sufi mystics, seeking a personal, subjective experience of God, gradually came to form networks of fraternal orders spanning the Muslim world. The language of their teachings was rich in symbolism and metaphor, inspiring poets like Jalal ud-Din Rumi (d. 1273) to compose literature of supreme beauty and vitality. Thinkers such as Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (d. 1111) drew upon developments in Muslim intellectual traditions, as well as Greek philosophy and Neoplatonism, in their influential writings on mysticism and theology. They organized these ideas into comprehensive systems of faith, integrating objective and subjective forms of knowledge and religious experience.

Even during the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime some Muslims were moved to express their deep devotion to God with special spiritual disciplines. Citing such hadiths as “poverty is my pride,” they turned away from worldly accomplishments to adopt a simple lifestyle of voluntary poverty. These renunciates strove to realize the spiritual significance the message of the Quran, and the virtues of the lifestyle outlined by the hadith and sunnah. These spiritual practices were firmly grounded in the Quran, with its allusions to the “Night of Power” when the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, as well as the miraj, the Prophet’s miraculous journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and ascension through the seven heavens into the presence of God. Muslims borrowed the language and symbolism of such events in order to express their own spiritual growth and experience of God, seeking the deeper, mystical meaning of the Quran and sunnah.

Muslim mystics were called Sufis, perhaps due to the coarse woolen ropes they wore (suf is Arabic for wool), in contrast to the lavish attire of political leaders and officials. Sufis considered the extravagant lifestyles of these officials to be at odds with the teachings of the Quran and shari’ah, and sought to turn away from worldly accomplishments, like wealth and political power, which were considered distractions from their devotions. Details from the lives of early Sufis are recorded in stories which exemplify a deep-seated devotion to the basic teachings of Islam. For example, Sufis strove to replace their own selfish desires with the love of God. This teaching was exemplified by Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya (d. 801) who, with a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other, exclaimed, “I want to dowse the fires of hell and set fire to heaven so that people will love God—not out of their fear of hell or the hope of heaven—but for his own sake.” Likewise, the importance of tawhid, the affirmation of God’s unity, was famously dramatized by Husayn Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922). In a state of mystical ecstasy, Hallaj extended the implications of tawhid by claiming to be a manifestation of the divine truth. Although Hallaj was executed as a heretic, in Sufi literature his martyrdom became a popular symbol for unwavering sacrifice and mystical union with God.

From the 11th century, Sufism began to take on a formal organizational structure. Sufis began to write systematic treatises and organize themselves into loose affiliations, on par with the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Often Sufi orders were structured around a spiritual master, one who had progressed through a number mystical stages, and, in the process, achieved the qualities of sainthood. These Sufi masters, called sheikhs (spiritual guides), attracted students who congregated at meeting houses to receive instruction. Even after the death of a sheikh, students and devotees visited the tomb of the master to receive his blessing (baraka). These tombs became popular centers of pilgrimage throughout the Muslim world, and the sheikh was thought to function as an intercessor between God and the pilgrims. The concept of intercession in Sufism is not unlike the special status of the Prophet’s family and Imams in Shi’ism.

Alongside the formation of Sufi orders, schools of theology and philosophy studied the scriptures and sunnah; some even began to consider their faith in light of neighboring intellectual traditions. The writings of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonists were especially influential among Muslim intellectuals who questioned how these systems of logic, cosmology, and metaphysics could enhance Muslims’ understanding of the Quran’s teachings. Mutazilite theologians represented the rationalist position, arguing that the universe was arranged by certain principles that can be discovered by reason alone. Others felt that there were limits to the power of reason, and felt that God and his creation could be known primarily through divine revelation as conveyed in the Quran. A third group of theologians, the Ash’arites, adopted a compromise, accepting the use of reason as a tool in theological debates, but conceding that God ultimately transcends reason. Ash’arite theologians were thoroughly educated in logic and philosophy, and their positions reflect a synthesis of the major intellectual traditions current in the Middle East and surrounding areas.

Early Muslim philosophers wove ideas from Greek and neo-Platonist philosophy into their metaphysical teachings regarding the relationship between God and the universe. Ibn Sina (d. 1037), also known as Avicenna, wrote important commentaries on Greek philosophy which were to play a central role in the so-called rediscovery of philosophy by Christian scholastics like Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274). But Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina did not merely preserve earlier traditions; they incorporated these ideas into Islamic intellectual traditions and made original contributions to philosophy and theology.

The various intellectual traditions outlined above, namely, Sufism, theology, and philosophy, were brought together by Ash’arite theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (d. 1111), whose synthesis would be widely accepted as an integration of Sufi mysticism, shari’ah based religion, and philosophical methods. Al-Ghazzali’s biography is itself an embodiment of this synthesis. An accomplished professor in Islamic jurisprudence, al-Ghazzali gave up a prestigious professorship to devote himself to the search for a deeper faith. This search led to an elegant formulation of Islam, which reconciled the teachings of the Quran and the ritualism of shari’ah, with the personal experience of God found in Sufism. Al-Ghazzali argued for an integration of the objective knowledge of the scholars and the subjective knowledge of the Sufis. This fusion of reason and emotion, of outer and inner religious life, was the culmination of centuries of debates between mystics, theologians, and philosophers; to many, it would prove a satisfying solution to these debates, and a successful integration of shari’ah and mysticism.

Guiding Questions

top

1. At one time Western scholars of Islam felt that Sufism was incompatible with Islam and tried to establish, unconvincingly, that it was the product of Hindu or Christian influence. To this day the artistic expressions of Sufis, such as Jalal ud-Din Rumi, are among the most popular expressions of Islam in the West. Is there a connection between these two phenomena? What about Sufism allows it to transcend the generally negative image of Islam in the West? Are there similarities between Sufi and Western ideals, and if so, do they withstand scrutiny? What does it mean to say that Sufism is the internalization of Islam and Shari’a?
2. Occasionally one hears that Islam forbids music and representational art; this misconception fails to recognize countless examples of such art forms created by Muslim artists. In Ernst’s discussion of Islamic art, he makes a distinction between Islamic art which is directly connected to religion, and Islamicate art which is non-religious and may be created by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Try to apply this distinction to examples of visual art, architecture, literature, and music. What can you say about the differences between Islamic and Islamicate art, and, for that matter, the general usefulness of this distinction? Think about artistic traditions in your own community, and the role of religions in these traditions. To what degree is the Islamic/Islamicate distinction analogous to the distinction between sacred and secular art?
3. Both Sells and Ernst describe the relationship between the lives of the early Sufis and the teachings of the Quran and the life of Muhammad. Events from Muhammad’s life became spiritual models for Sufis; for example, the “Night of Power,” when the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, and the miraj, Muhammad’s ascension into the presence of God. How do these events lend themselves to mystical interpretations? How could Sufis model their own spiritual experiences upon these events without claiming the status of prophethood? What is the role of the Quran and sunnah in Sufism? How do the basic values of Sufism such as tawhid (affirmation of God’s unity), tawakkul (trust in God), and rida (contentment with God’s will) relate to the message of the Quran? Why did some Muslims reject Sufi practices and teachings? How do you account for tensions between Sufis and political leaders, as well as between Sufis and religious leaders?
4. Lapidus states that by the 13th century a “Sunni-scripturalist-Sufi orientation” had emerged as the “normative form of Sunni Islam.” Consider the variety of Muslim intellectual and religious traditions in currency prior to the 13th century. Which traditions played the largest roles in the formation of this normative consensus? Which approaches to jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, and mysticism did this consensus exclude and why? Compare and contrast the roles of intercession and pilgrimage in Shi’ism and Sufism. What was the intellectual and political context of al-Ghazzali’s synthesis of various strands of philosophy, theology, and mysticism? Why was this synthesis so successful?