Arabic Heritage 3.pdf

III. Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes in Turkey Sufism — Sufism is a mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. — Ibn Khaldun, the 14th century Arab historian, described Sufism as: “... dedication to...

III. Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes in Turkey Sufism — Sufism is a mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. — Ibn Khaldun, the 14th century Arab historian, described Sufism as: “... dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone.” Stages of Growth -The appearance of early asceticism (roughly form the late 7th century to th the mid 9 century) Rabi’a al-’adawiyya (d. 801) -The development of classical mysticism (roughly from the mid ninth century to the end of 11th century) -The proliferation of fraternal orders of mystics (sufi orders turuq) (most probably from the 12th century onward). Second Stage(From Asceticism to Mysticism) — The introduction of the element of love, which changed asceticism into mysticism, is ascribed to Rabi‘ah al-‘Adawiya(died 801), a woman from Basra who first formulated the Sufi ideal of a love of God that was disinterested, without hope for paradise and without fear of hell. — O my Lord, if I worship you from fear of hell, burn me in hell. If I worship you from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates. But if I worship you for yourself alone, grant me the beauty of your Face. q A number of mystics concentrated on tawakkul, absolute trust in God, which became a central concept of Sufism. Other Sufi masters introduced the doctrine strict self-control and the annihilation of the self, fana’. q The last great figure in the line of classical Sufism is Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (died 1111) § He wrote among numerous other works, the Ihya’ ‘Ulum ad-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), a comprehensive work that establish what some consider to be a moderate form of mysticism. The Third Stage (Mystical Orders) — Real orders came into existence only from the 12th century onward. — The 13th century was the golden age of Sufism, and mystical orders began to crystallize. — ‘Abd al-Qadir al Jilani (died 1166) established the Qadiriyah, the first and still most important and widely spread order(his tomb in Baghdad still being a place of pilgrimage) — Abu Najib al- Suhrawardi (died1168) established the Suhrawardiyah order Third Stage: The rise and proliferation of fraternal orders Some of the sufi orders (tariqas) which became the most significant for the development of institutional Sufism were the Qadiriyya attributed to Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d.1166) the Suhrawardiyya attributed to al-Suhrawardi (d.1168) the Rifa’iyya deriving from Ahmad ibn al-Rifa’I (d.1182); the Shadhliyya attributed to Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Shadhili (d.1258), became popular in Egypt. — the Mawlawiyya inspired by the Persian Sufi poet, Jala al-Din al-Rumi (d.1273), which was restricted to Anatolia; — the central Asian Naqshabandiyya, eventually associated with the name of Muhammad Baha’ al-Din al-Naqshabandi (d.1389). — — — — — All subsequent tariqas claim to be derivatives of one or more of these chains.’ Sufi orders — Initially mystical orders in Islam started as a ṭarīqa to the maʿrifa of the ḥaqīqa. And deeply rooted in the notion of a special and personal murshid-murīd relationship, or the master-disciple relationship. — The unveiling of the divine truth (haqīqa) is acquired through meditation and by the passage through the psychological experiences and ecstatic states known as aḥwāl and maqāmāt. Missionary and Political Activities — Sufis have been responsible for a large-scale missionary activity all over the world. — Missionary activity was often joined with political activity q For example, Naqshdandiyah exerted strong political influence in the 17th-and 18th century Central Asia. q In North Africa Ø Tijaniya, founded in 1781, extended the borders of Islam, and their representatives were engaged in politics. Ø Sanusiyah, active since the early 19th century, fought against Italy, and the former King of Libya was the head of the order Theosophical Sufism Ibn ‘Arabi as an example — The Spanish-born Ibn al-‘Arabi created a comprehensive theosophical system that became the cornerstone for his theory wahdat al-wujud “Unity of Being”(all existence is one, a manifestation of the underlying divine reality). — Ibn al-‘Arabi wrote al-Futuhat al-Makkiya (The Meccan Revelations) and Fusus al-hikam(the cutting edges of wisdom)(a smaller work on the peculiar character of the prophets) — Ibn al-’Arabi also wrote poetry. — Famous sufi poets include Ibn al-Farid and Jalal al-Din al-Rumi. Ibn ‘Arabi — — — — — — — — — — — My heart has become capable, of every form. It is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for monks. And a temple for idols, And the circulating-pilgrim’s Ka’ba And the tables of the Torah And the book of the Quran. My religion is the religion of love: whatever way Love’s caravan takes! So love is my religion and my faith. Terminology The mystics drew their vocabulary largely from the Qur’an. — Tawakkul: trust in God (every thought of tomorrow was considered irreligious) — Dhikr“remembrance”: ritual prayer which consists of a repetition of one or all of the most beautiful names of God, or of a certain religious formulas. The rosary with 99 or 33 beads was in use as early as the 8th century. — Wali (plural awliya’)“saint” means “one in close relation or friend.” later the term wali came to denote the Muslim mystics who had reached a certain stage of proximity to God, or those who had reached the highest mystical stages. Sufism and The Orthodox Muslims — The advocates of Sufism aimed to establish that the seeds of Sufism lay in the early Islamic tradition by tracing its origins back to the Prophet and his Companions. — The orthodox Muslims disagree with some aspects of Sufism such as Visiting of the shrines Musical performances The importance given to the figure of the master Shaykh videos — Sufism — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EQtaQYpzTw — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dflhkfF558c&t=512s — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVSZaxcg6RY&t=308s