Sufism

[deviadah]

I think there needs to be a thread on this (searched and found none). Just to get it started I'll act like a lazy c**t an post a quote from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism) (but there are better sources out there):

Sufism is a mystic tradition within Islam that encompasses a diverse range of beliefs and practices dedicated to Divine love and the cultivation of the elements of the Divine within the individual human being. Practitioners of this tradition are known as "Sufis" generally, though some senior members of the tradition reserve this term for those who have attained the goals of the tradition.

Although some people refer to this tradition as Sufism, others refer to it as the Sufi Way. They draw this distinction because they feel that the term "Sufism" refers to a philosophy or a school of thought like capitalism or socialism, and they feel that the Sufi Way describes a practical path to follow.

A number of Sufism adherents, mostly in the West, believe or assert that Sufism is a projection of "the perennial philosophy" of man's true nature to the Divine and as such forms a subterranean current in many religions and mystical traditions and practices. This viewpoint is denied, often with great energy, by a substantial number of other Sufis.

Above all I find Sufism to be very poetic and on those grounds alone it is worth looking into to. Here are some favourite passages of mine:


A path has no value when you've arrived. - Hujwiri

A man knocked on a door.
"Who's there? asked God.
"Me," replied the man.
"Go away then," said God.
The man left and wandered in the arid desert until he realized his error and returned to the door. He knocked again.
"Who's there?" asked God.
"You," answered the man.
"Then come in," replied God. "There's no room here for two." - Sufi teaching story

A king was frightened to learn from his studies of astrology that a great calamity would soon befall him, so he built a room of solid rock to hide within and surrounded it by guards. When he was in it, he noticed a little chink of light that he filled in to prevent any harm reaching him. Thus he became a prisoner and died in that room. - Attar

Another reason why I enjoy Sufism is because they have been deemed heretic by orthodox Islamic authorities, and this often is proof enough that there are gnosis to be found i.e. heretic = interesting and accepted = bland and empty!

Have a look here: Sufism's Many Paths (http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html) by Dr. Alan Godlas

Another thread on AF connected to Sufism: Validation of a Sufi article (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?t=1756)

[Kuroyagi]

I like the stories of and -or: about Mullah Nasredin/Nasrudin etc, they have that reality hacking quality to them, like poetry. They are often paradox, many layered, wise (unexpected perspective changes) and above all damn funny!

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Nasrudin

One of the most famous ones is the one with the donkey:
Nasruddin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was visibly more and more prosperous.

Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs officers met him, years later.
"You can tell me now, Nasruddin," he said. "Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?" "Donkeys," said Nasruddin.
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~jyoti/mulla.html

[Frater Yechidah]

Thanks for starting this thread, D. I've always thought of Sufism as being the Gnosticism of Islam, and I think its poetry and mythology is clearly evident of that.

If I remember correctly, Rumi was considered a Sufi, yes?

LLLSHJ,
Y.

P.S. I'm going to post a few of those quotes on my Henosis Decanus blog, as they are beautiful and meaningful beyond compare.

[deviadah]

If I remember correctly, Rumi was considered a Sufi, yes?


"Thou art the sea of knowledge hidden in a dewdrop; thou art the universe hidden in a body three ells long." - Jalal-ud-din Rumi


Sounds pretty heremtic to me... :cool:

Those interested in Gnosticism might find that this thread and and another one called Hermeticism & Gnosticism (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?p=28448) might interlink a lot - so take your time in both.

Shitab ad-Din as Suhrawardi was an Arabic writer that lived a thousand years ago. Tobias Churton writes in his book Gnostic Philosophy that "Suhrawardi... display considerable knowledge of the Hermetica."

Check out: Alchemy of Happiness (http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/tah/index.htm) by Al Ghazzali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali)

This Sufi is a personal favourite of mine, and here are two interesting quotes from this book:
"Some of thy attributes are those of animals, some of devils, and some of angels, and thou hast to find out which of these attributes are accidental and which essential. Till thou knowest this, thou canst not find out where thy real happiness lies. The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping, and fighting; therefore, if thou art an animal, busy thyself in these things. Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit; if thou belongest to them, do their work. Angels contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely free from animal qualities; if thou art of angelic nature, then strive towards thine origin, that thou mayest know and contemplate the Most High, and be delivered from the thraldom of lust and anger. Thou shouldest also discover why thou hast been created with these two animal instincts: whether that they should subdue and lead thee captive, or whether that thou shouldest subdue them, and, in thy upward progress, make of one thy steed and of the other thy weapon."

To take a simple instance: suppose a man wishes to write the name of God. First of all the wish is conceived in his heart, it is then conveyed to the brain by the vital spirits, the form of the word God takes shape in the thought-chambers of the brain, thence it travels by the nerve-channels, and sets in motion the fingers, which in their turn set in motion the pen, and thus the name God is traced on paper exactly as it had been conceived in the writer's brain. Similarly, when God wills a thing it appears in the spiritual plane, which in the Koran is called The Throne; from the throne it passes, by a spiritual current, to a lower plane called The Chair; then the shape of it appears on the Tablet of Destiny; whence, by the mediation of the forces called angels, it assumes actuality, and appears on the earth in the form of plants, trees, and animals, representing the will and thought of God, as the written letters represent the wish conceived in the heart and the shape present in the brain of the writer.

No one can understand a king but a king therefore God has made each of us a king in miniature, so to speak, over a kingdom which is an infinitely reduced copy of His own. In the, kingdom of man God's throne is represented by the soul, the Archangel by the heart, the chair by the brain, the tablet by the treasure-chamber of thought. The soul, itself unlocated and indivisible, governs the body as God governs the universe. In short, each of us is entrusted with a little kingdom, and charged not to be careless in the administration of it.

Ring a bell?

:cool: