WHAT IS SUFISM ADOPTED BY THE SUFIS
WHO ARE STIGMATIZED WITH CLAIMS OF “DEVIATING FROM ISLAM” IN
IRAN?
The Gonabadi Tarighat whose head office
is located in Khorasan province, has a wide base in Qum and
Lorestan provinces. The Tarighat is being criticized by the
Iranian clergy for suggesting principles which are counter
to the Shiite-Jaafari interpretation of Islam. Furthermore,
even though it has not been banned officially, the
Ahmedinejad administration considers it as a Tarighat
manipulated by the western powers to inflict sectarian
divisions.
Furthermore, recalling that incidents in
Qom city in past May resulted with the arrestments and
sentences of imprisonment and fine of around one thousand
members of the Gonabadi Tarighat, as “Our South Azerbaijan”
editorial group, we felt it necessary to conduct a research
regarding the Sufism teaching adopted by the Gonabadi
members.
Sufism, being a philosophical trend and
one of the ways to reach God in Islam, embodies many
different Tarighats. The followers of this belief are called
Sufis and there is no agreement as to whether Sufism is a
religion or not.
Sufism has been defined in different ways
by various Sufi mystics. According to one definition, Sufism
is a way to search divine truths and the truths of the
unknown world that mankind cannot attain by way of reason
through intuition. The aim is to become the “perfect man”.
In other words Sufism, according to Islamic belief, is the
journey to cleanse man from bad habits, purify the soul and
become mature.
Sufism is based in Mohammed and is the
way of presenting what is taken from God to the people in a
contemporary manner by the Olya (Saints) and Islamic
mystics who are believed to be the heirs of the Prophet
Mohammed, through gradual comprehension of God. Believing
that Islam is not only Fagheh, but is based on Science of
Fagheh, Science of Kelam, Manners and Sufism, the
fundamental principle of Islamic mystics suggests that
religion cannot be practiced fully without Sufism.
Sufism is only possible by understanding
the Qoran and adopting the Hadith of Mohammed “The one
who knows himself, knows God” as one’s way of living,
and it is believed that the path of being a mature
individual can only be found deep down inside one’s self
under the guidance of the Olya s and that the field of
education and living is Sufism. Due to the belief that
“Islamic mysticism is not a way of statement but a way of
living,” Sufism is also known as the University of Good
Manner among people.
According to some religious scholars
Sufism and Islamic mysticism are not the same. Sufism is a
higher level when compared to mysticism. Although the
Islamic mystics tried to become Sufis however they could not
manage and established convents of dervishes and schools.
However Sufism has no school. Sufism arose in Western
Turkistan. The Sufis of the first 350 years were inspired
people, property or assets were not worthy for them, they
sometimes traveled without their bundles and they
enlightened any place they visited. The first Sufis at the
Western Turkistan did not have Tarighat aims and thus did
not become famous as the Tarighat sheikhs and took their
place in the history as unknown privates. According to some,
Sufism continued until the 13th century and gave
way to Islamic mysticism in the 14th century.
However, according to some others, the Islamic mystic
becomes Sufi when he reaches his target.
Parts of the Iranian society that are not
acquainted with Sufism cannot distinguish between bigots and
Sufic Sects. But, what is worse is that even those people
who are interested in Sufism cannot recognize the
distinction between Sufism and Sufic Sects. Sufism is a way
of living, a different way of seeing life. Sects are
institutionalized phenomena that arise from Sufism. Just
like the relation of ice and water. Ice come from water but
it is the solidified, frozen form of water. When you take
ocean water and put it into a jug, to what extent will the
water in the jug preserve its quality of being ocean? Today,
our society knows that the essence and philosophy of Sufism
is just like the water and ice example.
The situation in that part of the society
which appreciate and like Sufism is no better. Sufism is
idealized as mythical among them, it is deemed identical
with the highest moral values that are hard to reach and
thus pushed outside the daily life. For them, the real Sufis
are legendary saints and dervishes who create legends.
Sufism is not for normal people living a daily life. As for
classical Sufic sects, because it becomes more important to
carry out religious duties, the applied Sufic techniques are
practiced and explained only in terms of religious worship
and within the context of acquiring a merit in God’s sight.
As an example, if we ask a member of a sect why he is
reciting litanies, he/she could explain it merely from a
religious point of view.
What sort of relationship is there
between Sufism and religion? Is it sharia that comes first
and then Tarighat? Religion is generally a social and moral
lifestyle which God reveals people through prophets. There
are rules that people must obey. You can see here an
obligation, a sine qua non. However, Sufism is the path from
the individual to God. An individual pursues God and it is
not a binding duty, that is to say, it is not an obligation.
People pursue what they love and what they like. While in
religion most worship is a binding duty, in Sufism
individuals worship as they enjoy doing so. The numerical
quantity of meditation practices, such as litanies and
ideas, is not significant in Sufism. Quality and capability
in practicing by heart and with pleasure is significant.
Certainly there are intersection points between religious
worship and Sufism. Actually, the matter of how it is done
rather than what is done makes up the difference between
religion and Sufism in many cases. For instance, if a pious
person concentrates on his prayer to such a degree that he
falls in a faint, in other words, if he does not call to
mind his personal restrictions, his ego and his
surroundings, then what remains is his ideal which he
concentrates and his act becomes mystical. And this is
Sufism. This matter also applies especially to our routine
chores and artistic activities. The endeavor of doing chores
and activities with pleasure and in the ideal way can lead
us in a state of meditation in which we forget our
restricted part, namely ego. That is to say, there is no
need for merely the religious techniques in meditation. And
in classical Sufism, it has been effectively attempted for
centuries to reach spirituality through religious techniques
and methods by passing through certain psychological and
moral steps and by dealing a blow to the ego.
According to Sufism,
there are two kinds of knowledge. One of them is the verbal
knowledge obtained from the outer world, that is “the
outward science”, and the other is the “inward science”
which could only be felt spiritually through the purity at
heart. So all kind of theoretical knowledge based on words
including the judgments of Shariah and Quran are verbal
knowledge. These could be obtained by reading.
However, the inward
knowledge could not be obtained by reading. This comes from
the nature of the human being and this constitutes the real
knowledge. According to Sufism (Islamic mysticism), it is
accepted that the real knowledge is this Sufic knowledge,
this improves the sense of brotherhood and it reaches human
beings to virtue and wisdom. The person becomes a wise human
being by reaching the outward knowledge but this wisdom is
only for his own benefit. The person with Sufic knowledge,
on the other hand, considers all humanity for all his
acts.
