Tasawwuf Is the Inward Dimension of Islam
By
Muhammad Maroof Shah
July 15,
2020
Do we ever ask about the contemporary relevance of the use of intellect, sunlight, air and water? Similarly, we shouldn’t ask about the relevance of Tasawwuf today. Let me explain why.
Anyone who
reflects on what is Tasawwuf or what are its key definitions/characterisations
would understand that Tasawwuf or what is said to be its true signified is to
be treasured by everyone, every sane human and every Muslim. Just reflect on
the standard definitions and characterisations of Tasawwuf here italicised
followed by brief comments on our part.
Spiritual
Self Defence
-----
It is the
inward/deeper dimension of Islam. A Muslim can never ask about the relevance of
the core of Islam. It is worshipping God as if one sees Him or imagining that
God is seeing one. Isn’t it perennially the requirement of all true prayer or
worship? Isn’t ihsan the perfection of Islam, the ideal end to which faith is
oriented? Ihsan has also been linked to husnpaidakerden (creating
beauty/doing everything in a style or as it should be done). Does one need to
justify this? It is attention to the breath. Yes, the royal road to the science
of developing attention or awareness, or being present or developing
one-pointedness or concentration needed for doing any task with perfection and
wishing away daydreams. We all need this. Who would ask if this is relevant?
Tasawwuf
has classically been called Fiqhiawsat which is higher than fiqhiasgar that is
commonly called law with which shariah is popularly identified. In this
classification that was dominant in the Islamic world, it is unimaginable to
oppose it in principle. Tasawwuf is attention to the purity of thought, deed
and intention. Ikhlas. Sincerity. It is primarily the science of virtues
and not passing states. These virtues constitute well-known stations and
include universally sought ethical prerogatives such as trust, patience,
sincerity It is tasting truth as against speculating about it. Who is not
interested in tasting reality/truth/God? It is dying to be born anew. Death
before death means the conquest of the fear of death, immortality, drinking Aab-I
Hayat.
Understanding
why one can’t ask about or dispute the relevance of Tasawwuf
Taswwuf
poetry by Mirza Ghalib
-----
A Sufi is
one who says nothing from hearsay and is required to verify experientially what
he upholds in theory by progressing on the path of realisation. Where else are
such high standards of verification? And how come we reject what is not a
creed, a proposition but a method, an attitude, an invitation to openness?
Religion
has been insightfully defined by attending to its core as what one does with
one’s solitude. Tasawwuf is the science of silence. And silence is not fought
with noise or speech. It can best be understood and approached by mastering
science from within.
Dalael
us Salook - Proofs of Tasawwuf/ Facebook Page
-----
Tasawwuf
has been defined, notably by Ibn Khald?n, as “the knowledge that comes directly
from God” (Al-‘Ilm Al-Ladun?). Now how can the blind judge the colours?
Saints alone know saints. So, who can dictate terms to God or assume God
doesn’t share His knowledge directly with his friends? Kashf/Ilham/IlmiLudniis
universally claimed by mystics across traditions and its fruits are well known
in the annals of history. In fact, prophecy itself rests on the claim of direct
communication from God. Muslim tradition has affirmed the reality of Kashf
and veridical dreams. So Sufi claim of being God’s taught is irrefutable on
either traditional or experiential grounds. The only dispute that is still
possible is in interpreting these communications or their value/reliability for
non-mystics.
Saints
constitute an irrefutable argument by their very presence for Tasawwuf in whose
womb they have, generally speaking, matured. Tasawwuf, identified with the
science of sainthood – is the apogee of all spirituality. Saints are, in fact,
as Simone Weil said, needed as “as a plague-stricken town needs doctor.”
Key
definitions of Tasawwuf bypass speculative doctrinal disputes. Such important
definitions of Tasawwuf as attention to breath implying centring consciousness
on the present, service of the Other, doing everything as it should be ideally
done, the sincerity of purpose, guarding against nafs and all its disguises,
one-pointed focus on God alone or exclusive attachment to the Real, cultivating
love/gnosis, the science of stations/virtues, freedom, adab, giving everything
its due, seeing everything in terms of beauty, as a journey within from the
self/ego to the non-self/Self, psyche to Spirit embody universally treasured
aspirations of mankind. If Tasawwuf is a deviation from the Revealed Norm,
indulgence in ecstasies, worship of desires or airy abstractions or
transgressions of various kinds, it has not been the reigning
self-understanding of major Sufi authorities.
More
paradoxical characterisations of Tasawwuf make the case of Tasawwuf all the
more irrefutable while appropriating usual criticisms of it. Note, for
instance, “Tasawwuf is nothing but idolatry, for its purpose is to preserve
one’s heart from all that is not God; but, there is nothing other than God.”
(Shibl?) For Ibn Arabi, a saint can’t brag about being a saint as saintliness
is not his but in him and its presence makes him disregard the “I.” “Anyone who
would express his thoughts on Tasawwuf is not a Sufi; anyone who bears witness
to Tasawwuf is not a Sufi. To live Tasawwuf, one must be ‘absent’ from it”(Ibn
B?khil?). Tasawwuf is a state in which all human traces have vanished.” For
Shibli, the fact that Sufis had been given a name is due to their having fouled
their egos and if they had been really ‘transparent,’ devoid of their
attributes, no name could have been attributed to them. We may thus say that
one can’t claim to be a Sufi; one can’t assert one has arrived or achieved
perfect openness to unveilings of Being. Like Justice, it can only be
approximated.
By way of
conclusion, one may say that Tasawwuf interests and addresses everyone and we
are all, willy nilly, seekers or would be Sufis. It is not a particular object
or experience and is not dependent on this or that exercise or narrative; it is
attention to one’s work and repose in one’s being and deepening of the
moral-aesthetic-spiritual dimension of being human. Since Tasawwuf is a certain
way of seeing things and not believing this or that about them and is a method
for tasting reality as evidenced in consequent joy it yields and as such it is
self-validating for its practitioners. It can’t be refuted as it is,
quintessentially, seeing instead of believing and is not a linguistic
conceptual construct or statement of a proposition that one can deconstruct. It
can only be misunderstood.
Muhammad
Maroof Shah has done his doctoral work on applying the insights of comparative
mysticism in literary criticism besides having widely published in journals on
Mysticism and Muslim thought
Original
Headline: Who is not a Sufi? Tasawwuf for all seasons
Source: The Daily Times, Pakistan
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/tasawwuf-inward-dimension-islam/d/122395
New
Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African
Muslim News, Arab
World News, South
Asia News, Indian
Muslim News, World
Muslim News, Women
in Islam, Islamic
Feminism, Arab
Women, Women
In Arab, Islamophobia
in America, Muslim
Women in West, Islam
Women and Feminism