Sufism, the Path of Love

Sufism - The Path of Love

The word Sufi is derived from the Greek "Sophia", meaning
Wisdom. It is known as Tasawwuf ( Mysticism ) in Arabic, and
is considered by scholars as the mystical, the inner or
psycho-spiritual aspect of Philosophia Islamica. The great
scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, considered Sufism as the
esoteric dimension of Al Islam.

Sufism emphasises on the Unity of Absolute Being, Wahdat al
Wujud. Absolute Being alone exists in se and the Relative
Universe is only a superimposition upon the Absolute
Reality. Absolute Being is also Absolute Beauty, before
Whose Beauty all earthly beauty is but a pale comparison !

The Influence of Neoplatonism on Sufism

Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism conceived the Divine
as the Alpha and Omega of Existence, its Source & Goal. The
translations of Plotinus provided the philosophical ground
for Sufism. One is struck by the similarities which exist in
both systems, with regard to the concept of God, the soul,
the body, Vice and Virtue, Life and Death and Beauty !
Sufism was influenced by Orpheus and Pythagoreanism. Orpheus
was a poet who lived in Anatolia in the 6th and 7th
centuries BCE. He had divine qualities and he could
influence wild animals with his music. He postulated that
the human soul can achieve perfection by refining itself
from all passions and worldly possessions. Soul travels from
body to body for self purification and reaches the Perfect
State. Pythagorus adopted Orpheus' philosophy and integrated
it with his own concepts. Plotinus, the founder of
Neoplatonism took Plato's Theory of Ideas and reinterpreted
them from Protagoras' point of view. Neoplatonism considers
the Divine as the Alpha & the Omega. From Him everything
comes into being, in Him everything exists, and to Him all
return. Communion or Union with Him is the highest Goal,
therefore. Our lives have only a symbolic meaning and it is
good and necessary as a Becoming. But all Becoming has Being
as its Goal and Fulfillment and God is the only Being !

Sufism is the Path of Love - Al Muhabba. The Lord is
understood as Universal Love and the aim of Sufism is to
unite with the Source of all Being, Universal Love ! Love
without Philosophy is superstition and Sufism therefore
encourages the adventures of the intellect, the scientific
and the philosophical pursuit, Al Marifa !

When he was asked about Sufism, Junayd ( the preceptor of
Mansur Al Hallaj ) said, "Sufism is that you should be with
the Divine-- without any attachment."

Sufism emphasises upon the struggle to overcome the
dominance that one's Negative Ego ( Nafs ) has over one. The
war depicted in the great Epics - Iliad & the Odyssey etc -
depict the great war between Good and Evil happening inside
the human bosom - where the great struggle for supremacy is
fought out on the ground floor of our existence, between the
black and white opposites of Virtue and Vice, Light and
Darkness, prosperity & adversity. The Beloved ( God ) may
manifest as Benevolence or Severity and the Sufi aspirant
has to love both !

As Rumi said:

I am a lover of both His benevolence and severity! Amazing
it is that I'm in love with these opposites !

If the aspirant can overcome one's Negative Ego, ( in the
inner War, Jihad ul Nafs ) he can achieve Bliss, the Bliss
for which the world's derelict sorrows yearn !

If you could get rid of yourself just once, The secret of
secrets would open to you. The face of the Unknown, hidden
beyond the universe Would appear on the Mirror of your
perception. ~Rumi

Annihilation in the Divine Ocean

Like the waves of the Ocean, we are individual egos in the
Divine Ocean of Existence. The aspirant, desirous of union
with the Beloved, has to go through many stages of
Consciousness. He has to lose his illusory individuality in
the Infinite and this can only be achieved by Annihilation
and Subsistence.

The Sheik of Naqshbandi wrote

In my annihilation of annihilation In my annhilation I
found You !

Annihilation in the Divine Beloved.

For every initiate, there will be a Master ( Shaikh ). The
Shaikh imparts his power to the disciple. The initiate goes
through a process of purification and initiation. Once the
initiate attains maturity, by the Grace of his Shaikh, he
attains the state of Fana fi Shaikh, a state of annihilation
in the astral plane.

The next stage is Fana fi Rasool, enjoying the qualities of
the Prophet. Grace descends on him as he furthur advances on
the path.

Next stage in the Evolution of Consciousness is the state of
Fana fi Allah, annihilation in the Beloved. The initiate
loses his identity in the all embracing Beloved, who he now
understands is the Prime Mover of everything and who
permeates the cosmos !

Rumi wrote

I thought about You so often That I completely became You
! Little but little You drew near Slowly but slowly I
passed away.

This passing away is Annihilation in the Beloved ( Fana fi
Allah ). There is another intermediary state - Fana al Fana
and the last state is Baqi bi Allah or Permanence in the
Beloved, which is the Eternal or Ultimate State. Fanah
refers to Annihilation & Bakah refers to Subsistence.

The Universal Truth, extolled by all religions and
philosophies, is the Essential Self, which is the substratum
or the basis for the Persona, or the superficial
personality. Every man has a Persona or Mask, but deep
within him is the Ultimate Reality or Essential Self. Now to
manifest the Essential Self, the initiate goes through a
process of purification & transmutes his carnal ego into a
refined ego, by the process of Prayer and Meditation. He
seeks the Divine, loves the Divine, embraces the Divine,
lives with the Divine and sacrifices for the Divine ! By his
noble sacrifice, he earns for himself Heaven ! Only by hard
sacrifice is high Heaven earned !

About Universal Truth, Ibn Arabi, the Great Master , ( al
Shaikh al Akbar ) wrote

She has eluded the learned of Islam

And those who have studied the Psalms

The Jewish Rabbi

The Christian priest !

The greatest Sufi was Mohammed himself ( Peace be upon him
), he who said that " Shariah ( Ethical Law ) is my speech,
Tariqat ( the Way ) my actions and Haqiqat ( Truth ) my
states " !

Sufism can function as a Universal Religion & the well known
scholar Kabir Edmund Helminski wrote thus about Sufism

" If Sufism recognizes one central truth, it is the unity of
being, that we are not separate from the Divine. The unity
of being is a truth which our age is in an excellent
position to appreciate -- emotionally, because of the
shrinking of our world through communications and
transportation, and intellectually, because of developments
in modern physics. We are One: one people, one ecology, one
universe, one being. If there is a single truth, worthy of
the name, it is that we are all integral to the Truth, not
separate. The realization of this truth has its effects on
our sense of who we are, on our relationships to others and
to all aspects of life. Sufism is about realizing the
current of love that runs through human life, the unity
behind forms."

Inner & Outer Jihad ( Struggle ) in Sufism

"And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly
guide them in Our ways, and God is surely with the doers of
good". (Quran XXXIX; 69)

"You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater
jihad" . (Hadith)

Jihad means struggle and there are two types of struggle.
The lesser Jihad is struggle against the oppressors; the
greater Jihad is the inner struggle against the inner
enemies, the Seven Deadly Sins ( lust, greed, anger,
jealousy, sloth, covetousness & gluttony). The outer
struggle is defined as Al Jihad Al Asghar and the inner
struggle is Al Jihad Al Akbar !

Fighting against one's negative ego is the most difficult,
as the most difficult conquest is the conquest of the Mind.
Verily it is said that the noblest conquest is the conquest
of Mind or the greatest conquest is the conquest of oneself.

In his journey, the aspirant ultimately overcomes his
Negative Ego & he becomes the Perfect Man, Al Insan Al Kamil
!