ISLAMIC SUFISM
Introduction
There has been a profound link between the art and the spiritual depth of humans because the true form of art is assumed to be a reflection of the various thoughts, beliefs, and emotions existent in the spirit of the individuals. Religion is a definite medium to address all the above three aspects of humans and therefore, religion has an equally significant impact on the artworks as well. Like all the other prominent religions of the world, Sufism (Islam) is highly capable of reflecting the core facets of spiritual refinement, precision, and profundity in its art forms. The most significant contribution of the Sufi culture and its beliefs comes in the form of the spiritual- motif oriented designs affecting the different forms of art and architecture. Sufism has been extremely dominant in reforming the artworks related to the field of architecture, music, literature, and calligraphy. All these influences can be clearly seen across the various phases of Islamic culture in the world and their relevance and exoticness of art quality have been widely acknowledged by the aficionados of art. In order to have a better grasp of the true essence of the Sufi culture in the art and architecture, it is very important to have an elaborate analysis of Sufism and all of its important features that have shaped its values.
This research paper aims at exploring the details of Islamic Sufism related to the Arabic history by examining the various key factors of this culture like its origin, core beliefs, the role played in Islam, challenges faced, and present condition. The paper also tends to analyze a piece of Sufi art (poetry) to explicate how the Sufi school of thought impacted the art of that era.
The most venerated definition of Sufism is that it represents attainment of all the exalted qualities and abnegation of all the despicable qualities by an individual who seeks the actual experience of the God and his presence. During the era of the eighth century A.D, there was a new development in the core Islamic religion which was laying emphasis on reforming the prevalent uncongenial and ceremonial form of the Islamic practices. The Islamic practice of Sharia was seen a mandatory notion which was considered to lack the deepest spiritual connection and associated desires to have an eternal sense of devotion for the God. This embarked an altogether fresh literal search for a new set of ascetic beliefs and practices that aimed for developing the deepest connection with the divine entity. This search for satisfying the deeper spiritual desires of connection and devotion to the God, within the realms of pietistic and hermitic practices, led to the development of most renowned and relatively mystical side of the Islam and came to be known as Sufism.
The development of the Sufi culture within Islam is often described as a way to reform the rising materialism in the Islamic religion during the eighth century A.D. Sufism has the core aspects of mysticism, asceticism and quietism which were initially manifested in the development of Islam during the Umayyad period. Although, since the fundamentals of Sufism debated the religious validity of the prevalent practices in Islam, it was rather treated as a reformist approach and its legitimacy was questioned on many fronts to consider it to be different from elementary Islamic values. Sufism changed the very fundamentals of Islamic practices to install a deeper connection with the divine and in doing so it reformed various practices and customs in order to wipe out the existing materialism in the Islamic culture.
Who are Sufis?
The Sufis are Muslims who are the believers if the Sufism and those who seek to accept pious practices of asceticism in their life to ensure that they absorb the true message of divine presence in their heart and soul .Thus, the Sufis tend to experience the presence of God in all their actions and gain a subsequent connection with him to ensure that they are completely absorbed in his devotion and fully segregated from all the materialistic pleasures of the world.
The early Sufis had the conviction that the Prophet Mohammad had two modes of receiving the divine revelations, the first was the Holy Quran (which is believed to descend as such from the heaven) and the second was the divine inspiration that he acquired in his heart and soul .This aspect of absorbing the divine knowledge became the core notion of Sufism and the Sufis believed that there were only a few people whom the God chose for carrying his belief in their sole. This belief is also a basic tenet of Islam which is called ‘Ihsan’ and it implies to a state when the devotee is completely absorbed in his worship of the supreme power.
The Sufis developed the concept of ‘Ihsan’ to engage themselves in deeper levels of devotion and also considered the true value of the prayer (niyyah) to be inspired by a noble motive for yielding the desired results. Quran stresses on living the live between hope and fear and considering that the God is inspecting all the actions of the individuals. Therefore, most of the Muslims merely wish to lead to pious life under the fear of not involving themselves in evil actions so that they can hope to attain salvation in this life. However, Sufis believe that acknowledging the presence of God and believing him to monitor our deeds is just the first tier of devotion in Sufism .The second level of piety, as per Sufism, is the aim of experiencing the presence of God.
Origin of the Sufis
The origin of Sufis is decided from the first instance of application of their core belief and values. As discussed above, the core beliefs Sufism have emerged from the Islamic notion of ‘Ihsan’ which emphasizes on absorbing the devotion of the God in one’s heart and Soul. Therefore, the ultimate aim of Sufism is to raise the level of ‘Ihsan’ in their religious practices to experience the true presence of God. The Quran has clearly stated that the Prophet was the paragon of virtues and the Sufism believes in the Prophet to have received the divine revelation in his heart, therefore, the Prophet is considered to be the ultimate origin of the Sufis.
Following from the Prophet, religious scholars and preachers who believed in the Sufism led to the gradual institutionalization of Sufism into three mutually distinct stage of development .The first stage is that of a submission to the God (‘ihsan’) which is followed by the second stage of a communal surrender to the Sufi order (‘Tariqa’), and the final stage is that of surrender to a sheikh or a religious guru (‘taifa’).
Major role played by the Sufis in Islam
The Sufis were prominent in playing a major role in shaping the Islamic society on many fronts after the twelfth century because prior to that they were themselves occupied in clearing out the legitimacy issues and were more focused on laying stringent principles of the Sufi order (‘Tariqa’). The primary role played by the Sufi scholars was in terms of developing the literature of the Islamic culture and in redefining the music to be exclusively meant for Sufi devotion. Thus, the Sufi scholars played a crucial role in designing the music and creating religious poetry that boosted their mission of spreading the message of extreme devotion across the world. Also, the Sufi teachers were extremely active in adopting the local customs and thus enabled the penetration of Islam across the countries without any potential legal barriers. Specifically, Sufi teachers played a greater role in the propagation of Islamic beliefs in countries like Africa and Sudan where it was easy to fuse the prevalent religions into core Islamic practices.
The Sufi orders were also actively prominent in reshaping and reviewing the various religious beliefs so as to revive and retain the faith of the Muslims in the core Islamic principles and customs. In fact, the ‘Tariqas’ are considered to be the most important mode of attaining piety by most of the Muslims in the world. Also, the Sufi orders have been active in using their religious clout for influencing the political regimes to create policies for public benefit. For example, the Sufi clan called ‘Murīdīyah’ played a crucial role in shaping the agriculture sector of Senegal. Finally, the Islamic history testifies various incidents of the Sufi leaders when they led armies to fight against the tyrannical rules and infidel invaders. Thus, it can be inferred from the above-mentioned examples that Sufis have been playing major roles in almost all the aspects of the Islamic culture and their contribution to the Islamic society stands undeniable.
Challenges faced by Sufis from the rest of Islamic world
There are a lot of challenged faced by the practitioners of Sufism, because of the reformist nature of the Sufi beliefs and absence of any concrete proofs regarding their origin and adaptations. There are specific causes behind these challenges posed to the Sufis and the most prominent of them is regarding the mysticism involved in the Sufi culture and predominance of asceticism in its beliefs. The primary controversy faced by the Sufis from the rest of the Islamic world was related to the legitimacy of the Sufi beliefs and practices, specifically in terms of their origin from Quran (or via the Prophet) and possibility of the Sufi beliefs being adapted from other religions. The main challenges faced by Sufis are as follows:
Islam has its entire beliefs based on two religious guidelines, the Quran and Hadith whereas Sufism believes more is mystic asceticism related rituals which make the origin of Sufis from the Prophet an extremely controversial issue.
Islam professes stringent adherence to the Islamic law whereas Sufism emphasizes on non-materialist thought processes of spirituality and efforts to get absorbed in the devotion. This fundamental difference from the Islamic religious practices poses a challenge of the external influences on Sufism in deviating from core Islamic virtues.
The Islamic world treated the Sufi masters with extreme prejudice for preaching a path of the egotistical search related to an individual quest for salvation. They even scorned the miraculous nature of the Sufi masters and Sheikhs because it was considered to be an act of displaying one’s assumed partnership with the God. Thus, the Sufi belief of feeling the divine presence and living with it was misinterpreted by the rest of the Islamic world.
Finally, historically, the Sufi leaders were those revolutionaries who led armies of their followers against the tyranny from rulers, heresy of the impious people, and invasion of the infidel intruders. They coined the phrase ‘Jihad’ which was meant to stage a war against any punishable act of injustice within the purview of the religion. In the present context, this word (Jihad) is often misinterpreted to be an equivalent of terrorism by the majority of the Islamic world.
Sufism: The most beautiful way to reach the God
A famous quote about the nature of Sufism states that it is not about possessing anything in this world, rather it is about not letting anything from the world possess the individual . The beauty of the Sufi beliefs, as a way to reach the God, is evident from the core notion of setting an objective for oneself in terms of getting absorbed in the divine presence of the God. Sufism emphasizes on detaching oneself from material possessions and this issue is perhaps the biggest cause of all the destruction caused in this world. Further, the concepts of inherent mysticism and obvious asceticism make it more cryptic which ultimately gets very beautifully reflected in all the artworks associated with it. This is the only religious belief where the masters never propagate their mentorship to their disciples in return for any materialistic rewards. Rather, the inherent benefits of freeing oneself from the vicious circle of worldly demands and getting absorbed into divine presence are the sole attractions which pull the followers towards the Sufi masters.
Definitely, the impression of Sufism on various forms of art like literature, music, architecture, calligraphy, etc. renders it an esoteric expression that drives the curiosity of most of the religions to get inspired from its practices. Finally, there is absolutely no religion that emphasizes on abstaining from the worldly desires and materialistic possessions to access the path to the God, whereas the core notion preached by Sufism is related to giving up everything to gain the company of God, which is considered to be the ultimate salvation across all the religions. It can definitely be inferred from all of the above-stated observations that Sufism is perhaps the most beautiful way to reach the God.
Sufism in the present world
The modern day Sufi life is based on all opposite assumptions when compared to that of a normal individual. A Sufi believes himself to be impoverished if he has wealth, humble when he has authoritative power and covert when he is famous. The Sufis dwell in rich Sufi beliefs evident in their artworks, specifically music and architecture. The world music values the true essence of Sufism evident in almost all the forms of music and literature. Sufi poems, songs, lyrics, etc are all widely admired by the art lovers across the world because they are moved by the inherent mysticism in them. Although the modern generations are not willingly accepting the selfless preaching of the Sufism, the direct impact of this loss of followers is evident on the Sufi art as well.
Very few people outside the Islamic world are aware of the gradually dying Sufi culture and many international organizations are already working in the preserving the rich cultural heritage of Sufism. UNESCO declared the year 2007 as the International year of famous Persian Sufi scholar Rumi. The entire western world has been swayed by the new translations of the poetry works of Rumi and all these versions have already topped the best-seller lists in America. The appreciators of art have valued the works of Rumi to be uniquely relishing in terms of their intense spiritual sense of devotion and ultimate passion for God as expressed in his core Sufi poetry. The latter half of the twentieth century saw the advent of neo-Sufism which adapted with the changes required for a harmonic conduct of the Muslim world’s interface with the westernized modernity and this adaptation added to the admirers of this culture. Hence, it can definitely be stated that in spite of the gradual mortification of the Sufi heritage, there is still immense scope for the joint efforts from the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds to preserve the true artistic and religious values of this culture.
Analyzing the excerpts from Yunus Emre’s poetry
This segment focuses on analyzing the content and creative aspect of the famous Anatolian Sufi poet, Yunus Emre (1241-1321) whose works have the profound implications of the Sufi culture. The first poem motivates the reader to seek the presence of God within himself by following the path of a righteous life. He emphasizes the need of living with noble virtues because the death cannot be reversed and the life gives only one chance to give and take love by doing good deeds. The poem concludes by recommendation a maximum utilization of life to do noble deeds because there is very little time for all to perform as per God’s wish. The second poem presents a medium of knowing the God by seeking the right path that leads to him. The poem also professes the righteousness of actions and all prayers in order to reach the God and any act of worshipping the God with false motifs or evil intentions can be completely futile in their results.
Thus, the Sufi approach of following the noble intentions oriented approach in worship and getting fully absorbed in the devotion to God is the core message conveyed in both of the poems. The style of writing in the poem is extremely simple and the usage of the words is kept deliberately simple so that the Sufi thoughts could be easily accessed by even the common man.
Conclusion
The research paper was based on a thesis that aimed at exploring the various facets of Islamic Sufism like its origin, core beliefs, the role played in Islam, challenges faced, present condition, and core teachings. The conducted research on each of the above factors was specifically elaborated to explain how and why the Sufi culture within Islam came into existence and how the difference of beliefs with the conventional Islam led to various challenges rising for the Sufis. The paper also gave analytical insight over the present condition of Sufism and analyzed the poetry of famous Anatolian Sufi poet Yunus Emre to have a clear understanding of how the Sufi culture changed the Art of the era. Finally, it can be concluded that the Islamic Sufism is still the most beautiful way to attain salvation by accessing the perfect path to the God.
Bibliography
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