The Origin and Journey of Sufism | Rise of Persian Sufi Literature

 What is Sufism?

Sufism is the name given to the mystical movement within Islam; a Sufi is a Muslim who dedicates himself to the quest after the mystical union (or, better said, reunion) with his Creator The name is Arabic in origin, being derived from the word suf meaning “wool”; the Sufis were distinguishable from their fellows by wearing a habit of coarse woolen cloth, in time when silks and brocades had become the fashion of the wealthy and mundane-minded, symbolic of their renunciation of worldly values and their abhorrence for physical comforts. Mystical awareness was certainly present in the Prophet Mohammad’s attitude to Allah, and “mystical” is an appropriate adjective to describe his many experiences of supernatural Presence making contact with him with a message to mankind. 

Is Sufism mentioned in Quran?

The Koran, the book of Allah’s revelations to Mohammad, contains numerous passages of a mystical character which the Sufis seized upon eagerly to buttress their own claims to personal trafficking with God

And when My servants question thee concerning Me—I am near to answer the call of the caller, when he calls to Me; so let them respond to Me, and let them believe in Me: haply so they will go aright. Sura 2: I82  

 We indeed created man, and We know what his soul whispers within him, and We are nearer to him than the jugular vein. Sura 50: 5I 

 All that dwells upon the earth is perishing, yet still abides the Face of thy Lord, majestic, splendid. Sura 55: 26

 One context was interpreted as referring to a pre-eternal covenant between God and man, the re-enactment of which became the earnest aspiration of the ardent Sufi.

And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we testify.” Sura 7: 171 

 

The ascetic outlook and practice, an indispensable preparation for mystical communion, characterized the life not only of Mohammad himself but of many of his earliest followers. Even when the rapid spread of Islam and the astonishing military conquests of neighboring ancient kingdoms brought undreamed-of riches to the public exchequer, not a few of the leading men in the new commonwealth withstood all temptation to abandon the austere life of the desert, and their example was admired and emulated by multitudes of humbler rank. Nevertheless over time, and as Islam became increasingly secularized consequent upon further victories and rapidly augmenting complications of statecraft, the original ascetic impulse tended to be overwhelmed by the flood of worldly preoccupation. Towards the end of the eighth century a.d. pious Muslims who remained faithful, through all trials and temptations, to the high ideals of the fathers began to form themselves into little groups for mutual encouragement and the pursuit of common aims; these men and women (for there were women amongst them of a like mind), opting out of the race for worldly advancement, took to wearing wool to proclaim their other worldliness and were therefore nicknamed Sufis. These circles of devotees, and many isolated anchorites besides, appeared simultaneously in various parts of the Muslim empire; anecdotes from their lives and conversations, such as are told in the following pages, constitute the hagiography of Islam. A strong tradition connects the growth of this movement with the Prophet through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Taleb, the fourth caliph whose abdication led to the greatest schism in the history of the faith, the separation between Sunni and Shiite. According to this version, the Prophet invested Ali with a cloak or kherqa on initiating him into the esoteric mysteries, imparting to him therewith the heavenly wisdom which transcends all formal learning. In his turn, Ali invested his own initiates, and through them, the selselas or chains of affiliation passed on the inner lore of mystical truth to succeeding generations. Another prominent figure in some versions of early Sufism is the Persian convert Salman, who is said to have taken part in the great siege of Medina. If any credence can be attached to this legend, Salman would certainly be the first Persian Muslim to become a Sufi; he was the forerunner of a great multitude of Persian Sufis

 Sufism and Persia

The cities of Basra, Kufa, Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad feature, along with the desert wastes of Arabia, Sinai, and Mesopotamia, as centers where the Sufi movement took root and flourished. At the same time, a “school” of the mysticism of extraordinary vitality and influence came into being in the distant province of Khorasan, the bridgehead between the Middle East and the Far East. The earliest semi-historical figure in this gallery of Persian saints is Ebrahim ibn Adham, “Prince of Balkh, whose conversion to the mystical life has been not inaptly compared with the legend of Gautama Buddha. It may be noted in this connection that in pre-Muslim times Balkh was the center of a large Buddhist community, and the ruins of the massive Buddhist monastery called Naubahar were still pointed out centuries after the coming of Islam. Ebrahim traveled from Balkh to Syria in quest of “honest toil” and 

is said to have died fighting at sea against Byzantium in about 780; he had made ‘‘ personal contact with many Sufis of Syria and Iraq. However spectacular the example of Ebrahim ibn Adham may have been, his influence upon the history of Sufism was soon overshadowed by the emergence in Khorasan of a mystical genius of the first order, Abu Yazid of Bestem, who died about 875. His recorded acts and sayings (“Glory be to Me!” he ejaculated memorably in the fervor of mystical ecstasy) reveal him as a man of profound spirituality, who through long austerity and meditation reached a state of compelling awareness of the merging of his human individuality into the Individuality of God; a long and graphic description of his “flight of the alone to the Alone”, a psychical journey performed in emulation of the Ascension of Mohammad, will be found in due place in this book. To him is attributed the introduction of “intoxication” into Sufi doctrine, and in this respect, he is contrasted with the “sober” school of Baghdad, headed by the great al-Junaid (d. 9IO). The latter, who studied and commented on Abu Yazid’s ecstatic sayings, reached indeed the same conclusions regarding the supreme mystical experience, the passing away of the temporal ego into the Eternal Ego; but he expressed the matter much more cautiously, supporting his argument by adroit “Neo-Platonic” interpretation of certain key quotations from the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet. The early years of the tenth century witnessed the climax of a sharp orthodox Muslim reaction against the individualistic transcendentalism of the Sufis (some of whom deliberately flouted the proprieties to prove their contempt for human judgments), when the Persian-born al-Hallaj, who declared himself to be the Truth, was executed for blasphemy in Baghdad in 922. Thereafter the majority of vocal Sufis labored to effect a reconciliation with traditionalism and accepted theology, and Persians played a notable part in this irenic endeavor. Textbooks aiming to prove the essential conformity of Sufi claims within the framework of strict Islamic doctrine were compiled by al-Sarraj of Tus (d. 988), Abu Bakr of Kalabadh (d. c. 995), and, most famous of all, al-Qoshairi of Nishapur (d. 1072). To Nishapur (whose most famous song to the world at large was of course Omar Khayyam) belonged also al-Salami (d. 1021), author of the oldest surviving collection of Sufi biographies; whilst Esfahan produced Abu No’aim (d. 1038) whose encyclopedic Ornament of the Saints is our chief sourcebook on Muslim hagiology. These men all wrote in Arabic, the learned and prestige language of Islam. Meanwhile, the political renaissance of Persia under the virtually independent tenth-century dynasties of Saffarids and Samanids led to a revival of the Persian language, transformed as dramatically out of the old Pahlavi as English out of Anglo-Saxon, both phenomena the results of foreign conquest; and the eleventh century produced the first Sufi compositions in that tongue. On the formal side, we have in the Kashf al-mahjub of Hojwiri the earliest Persian textbook of Sufi doctrine, in its own way fully equal to al-Qoshairi’s celebrated Resala. Then al-Ansari of Herat, an eminent Hanbali lawyer (d. 1088) who wrote notable works in Arabic including the classic Stages of the Mystic Travellers, chose Persian, and a remarkably beautiful Persian at that, as the medium of his mystical meditations and prayers (Monajat); he also produced in Herati Persian an enhanced edition of al-Solami’s Classes of the Sufis. The following extract from the Monajat made into rhyming and rhythmical prose in imitation of the original shows how closely Ansari adhered to the thought and expression of the earlier Sufis. 

O my friend, behold yon cemetery, and see how many tombs and graves there be; how many hundred thousand delicate ones there sleep in slumber deep. Much toiled they every one and strove, and feverishly burned with barren hope and selfish love, and shining garments jewel-sprinkled wove. Jars of gold and silver fashioned they, and from the people profit bore away, much trickery revealing, and great moneys stealing; but, at the end, with a full regretful sigh they laid them down to die. Their treasuries they filled, and in their hearts well-tilled planted the seed of lustful greed; but, at the last, from all these things they passed. So burdened, suddenly at the door of death they sank, and there the cup of destiny they drank. xvi introduction O my friend, ponder well thy dissolution, and get thee betimes thine absolution; or, know it full well, thou shalt in torment dwell. 

 

In this same period Abu Sa’id ibn Abi ‘l-Khair of Maihana (Khorasan), a man of great saintliness who met and corresponded with the master philosopher Avicenna, is credited with having used the newly invented and popular roba’i as his medium for expressing mystical ideas and experiences. His contemporary Baba Taher, a wandering dervish, composed dialect verses in a somewhat similar quatrain form to court the Heavenly Beloved, pictured as coy and cruelly reluctant as any rustic maiden. 

Like hyacinths on roses Thy tangled locks are strung; Shake out those gleaming tresses, And lo, a lover young On every hair is hung. The breeze that fans thy tresses Surpasseth fragrant posies. In sleep I press thine image, And as mine eye uncloses I breathe the scent of roses. introduction xvii Give me thy two soft tresses, Therewith my lute I’ll string; Since thou wilt never love me, Why dost thou nightly bring Soft dreams, my heart to wring? Two eyes with surmeh languid, Two curls that idly stray, A body slim, seductive— And dost thou truly say, “Why art thou troubled, pray?” Thou hast me, soul and body, My darling, sweet and pure; I cannot tell what ails me, But this I know for sure, Thou only art my cure.

• The Rise of Persian Sufi Literature 

The central theme of this ecstatic literature of early Persia Sufism was the yearning of the lover (the mystic) for the Beloved (God), and for a renewal of that intimate union that existed between the two before the dawn of creation. The language and imagery of old Arab erotic poetry became transformed into a rich and highly symbolical vocabulary of mystical aspiration 

This theme was taken up again by Ahmad alGhazali of Tus, brother of the more famous Hojjat al-Islam whose learned and eloquent Arabic writings completed the reconciliation between Sufism and orthodoxy. The Savannah of Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 1123), a series of short and very subtle meditations in prose and verse upon the trinity of Beloved, Love, and Lover, set a fashion that was followed by, amongst others, Ain al-Qozat of Hamadan (executed in 1131), the poet Iraqi (d. 1289), and the great Jami (d. 1492).

• Sufism in Twelfth Century

By the beginning of the twelfth century, the ghazal (lyric) had also, like the roba’i, been taken over for Sufi use by the mystical lovers of God, who combined with its erotic symbolism bacchanalian imagery deriving from the profane songs of Abu Nowas and his school. The qasida (formal ode), the ancient creation of the pagan bards of Arabia and originally confined to panegyric and satire had been converted to religious purposes by Naser-e Khosrau the Isma'ili propagandist (d. 1060). The way was thus prepared for the emergence of the first major mystical poet of Persia, Sana’i, who devoted a long life (ending about 1140) and great talent to preaching in verse the Sufi discipline and doctrine

The nightingale hath no repose For joy that ruby blooms the rose; Long time it is that Philomel Hath loved like me the rosy dell. ‘Tis sure no wonder if I sing Both night and day my fair sweeting: Let me be slave to that bird’s tongue Who late the rose’s praise hath sung! O saki, when the days commence Of ruby roses, abstinence By none is charged; then pour me wine Like yonder rose incarnadine.

Not content with using qasida, ghazal, and roba’i in a masterly fashion, Sana’i broke new ground in taking over the mathnavi (the rhyming couplet perfected and immortalized by Firdausi in his Epic of Kings) as the medium par excellence for mystical instruction, an example presently followed by Nezami (once in his Treasury of Secrets). Attar, Rumi, and thereafter by a host of notable emulators. His Hadiqat al-haqiqa (“Garden of Truth”), divided into ten graduated chapters in which the doctrine is kindly interspersed with illustrative anecdotes, is in effect an adaptation in verse of the prose treatises of al-Qoshairi and Hojwiri. As a poet Sana’i perhaps did not reach the topmost heights; as a pioneer of what was to prove the mainspring of poetic inspiration in Persia (and without his example, we might never have enjoyed the masterpieces of Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, Jami, and how many more) he fully merits the fame which he has secured.

To historical or semi-historical anecdote, the raw material of Sufi hagiography, now came to be added the apologue, the invented parable. Credit for the perfecting of this genre in Persian Sufi literature belongs to Sohrawardi Maqtul (executed at Aleppo in 1191), a rigorous philosopher turned mystic whose beautiful myths (in which animal symbolism is freely used, harking back to the Fables of Bidpai mediated through the Kalila VA-Demna which the Persian Ibn al-Moqaffa’ in about 75 put into Arabic from the Pahlavi) mount back via Avicenna to Plato. Thus, the Neo-Platonist doctrine of the descent of the soul into the body, which had been accepted by the Sufis as a prefiguration of the Koranic concept of a Primordial Covenant and which found eloquent expression in Avicenna’s famous Poem of the Soul, is built by Sohravardi into a very striking a graphic myth.

 A certain king possessed a garden which through all the four seasons never lacked for fragrant herbs, verdant grasses, and joyous pleasances; great waters therein flowed, and all manner of birds sitting in the branches poured forth songs of every kind. Indeed, every melody that could enter the mind and every beauty that imagination might conceive, all was to be found in that garden. Moreover, a company of peacocks, exceedingly graceful, elegant, and fair, had there made their abode and dwelling-place.

One day the king laid hold of one of the peacocks and gave orders that he should be sewn up in a leather jacket, in such wise that naught of the colors of his wings remained visible, and however much he tried he could not look upon his own beauty. He also commanded that over his head a basket should be placed having only one aperture, through which a few grains of millet might be dropped, sufficient to keep him alive.

Some time passed, and the peacock forgot himself, the garden kingdom, and the other peacocks. Whenever he looked at himself he saw nothing but a filthy, ugly sack of leather and a very dark and disagreeable dwelling place. To that he reconciled himself, and it became fixed in his mind that no land could exist larger than the basket in which he was. He firmly believed that if anyone should pretend that there was a pleasurable life or an abode of perfection beyond it, it would be rank heresy and utter nonsense and stupidity. For all that, whenever a breeze blew and the scent of the flowers and trees, the roses and violets and jasmine and fragrant herbs wafted to him through the hole, he experienced a strange delight and was curiously moved, so that the joy of flight filled his heart. He felt a mighty yearning within him, but knew not the source of that yearning, for he had no idea that he was anything but a piece of leather, having forgotten everything beyond his basket-world and fare of millet. Again, if ever he heard the modulations of the peacocks and the songs of the other birds he was likewise transported with yearning and longing; yet he was not wakened out of his trance by the voices of the birds and the breath of the zephyr.

Conclusion

The rest of this myth, with its subtle use of quotations from ancient Arabic poetry and the Koran, may be read in Classical Persian Literature. It recalls a greater animal fable with a spiritual meaning, the sublime Manteq al-tair of Attar which Edward FitzGerald epitomized in his Bird-Parliament. Meanwhile, within the field of hagiography (with which this present book is primarily concerned), full-length biographies of individual Sufi saints had begun to appear. The life and sayings of Abu Yazid of Bestem provided al-Sahlagi with very rich materials. Ibn Khafif of Shiraz found a Boswell in his pupil al-Dailami. The poet-mystic Abu Sa’id ibn Abi ‘l-Khair was commemorated by two biographers of his own descendants. The fashion was thus established for countless disciples to collect the acts and words of their Sufi masters; a very famous later instance is the Fihe ma fihe in which one of Rumi’s circles published the Discourses of that great man. Mention may be made in this context of the Ma’aref (“Gnoses”) of Rumi’s father, a lengthy autobiography recording in a wealth of detail the spiritual experiences of the Sufi.  

Such in brief is the background against which we may assess the works and achievements of the  Sufis of many orders. You can Check out our video on Sufism to know more 👇👇

Rise of Sufism and Hasan-al-Basri