The mystical Earth of Hurqalya with emerald cities: it is situated on the summit of the cosmic mountains, which the traditions handed down in Islam cal the mountain of Qaf. (Corbin, H
Sufism therefore embodies more than any other facet of Islam the various aspects of Islamic spirituality." (Nasr, 1987
Sufism therefore embodies more than any other facet of Islam the various aspects of Islamic spirituality." (Nasr, 1987
Sufism therefore embodies more than any other facet of Islam the various aspects of Islamic spirituality." (Nasr, 1987
It is a departure from orthodox Islam in that it advocates practices in addition to following the Divine Law -- the rules set down by Muhammad-as the path to enlightenment. While following the Divine Law is one component of the path to enlightenment, it is not sufficient without the addition of zikr, meaning "remembrance" (Bayat, 10)
In other words, you have to do the work. While having a spiritual master as a guide can be helpful, it is essentially the responsibility of the seeker to open his heart to the point that God-realization is possible for, as Hafiz says, "However great be the teacher, he is helpless with the one whose heart is closed" (Khan, 256)
Says Hafiz in his appropriately entitled poem, This Constant Yearning, "We are / Like lutes / Once held by God. / Being away from His warm body / Fully explains / This / Constant / Yearning" (Ladinsky, 116)
The term "Sufi" came into existence about 150 years after the passing of Muhammad (Bayat, 10). Meaning "wool," it is thought that the early Sufis came to be known as such for the rough wool clothing worn by the early orders, the purpose of which was to signify a renunciation of worldly material comforts (Schwartz, 35)
An example often given of terrorist activities that have resulted from the close proximity of different ethnic and ideological groups is the Jewish - Palestinian conflict and related acts of violence. Religious differences are seen as a source of terrorism that goes hand-in-hand with economic and ideological differences (Howell 2003, p
As has been referred to, Zen Buddhism and Christianity seem to opposites in that Zen does not acknowledge any deity or God and refuses to subscribe to any rational dogma in its understanding of the numinous. However, as one comparison of these two faiths notes, "They both agree that the origin of delusive passions is a falling way from the true source of the self, and that this a fall from man's orginal state" (Kadowaki, 1977, p
It must do whatever is necessary to empower the experience. (Raff, 2000 p
The Qadiri Order. The Sufi brotherhoods would play a decisive role in the revolutionary movements that transformed political life in North Africa and India during the period 1750 to 1850 (Abun-Nasr 1965)
In such narratives the Muslim holy man (generally though not exclusively cast as a Sufi) variously competes in the performance of miracles with the figure of a Hindu, Buddhist, shamanic, or Christian holy man" (2004, 221). An early Western observer of Sufism in Morocco emphasizes the importance and mystical practices of saints in the Sufi religion: "The cult of these saints has given rise to two of those unpleasant fraternities, under which are united almost all the low classes of Morocco -- taifas -- madmen and neurotic persons, who work themselves into a frenzy by a succession of songs, dances, and religious cries, ending in a paroxysm of religious ardor, which enables the Aissaoua to eat all sorts of horrible things, the Hamadsha to receive the heaviest weights on their heads, and Droughiyin to slash their skulls with hatchets" (Aubin (1906, 346)
269). The activist of rebellious aspect of some Sufi orders was used by various leaders over time, though, to mobilize forces against European colonizers throughout the Moslem world (Azra 2006)
During the troubled years in which the occupation of Oujda (1907) was followed by the French troops' landing in Casablanca, Mohammed ben Abdelkebir Kettani established himself as the champion of domestic reforms and of the struggle against the invaders" (17). In addition, in 1907, the ruling sultan was overthrown in Marrakech, to the benefit of the brother who was brought to the throne precisely on the basis of such a program (Hammoudi 17)
Notwithstanding the Sufi practices that appeared bizarre to Westerners, the "religious ardor" that the Sufi religion inculcated was successful in mobilizing the faithful to overthrow one powerful foreign occupier after another. Moreover, the Sufis in Morocco were faced with a Moroccan king who was analogous to the Pope for Roman Catholics and who claimed to be a direct descendant from the Muslim Prophet Mohammed and bore the distinguished title of Amir al Mouminine ("Commander of the Faithful"); the king was and is both the spiritual and temporal leader of Morocco (Howe 2005)
The Wahhabi movement in its attempt to re-create the conditions of primitive Islam in the Arabian desert was perhaps the purest example of this conservative revolution. In North Africa similar impulses tended to express themselves through Sufism, a mystical strain of Islam which had developed in reaction to the excessive rationalism of the original creed (Kanya-Forstner 1969, 16)
35). In their first step toward illumination, neophyte Sufis would first be cleansed in preparation to receive their teachings and then would be introduced to a spiritual master who served them a special meal and assigned a personal zekr, or chant (McManus 1999)
For example, Morgan advises, "Each order had its own invocation; some of them made their prayer beads of a hundred beads, others used only twelve. And while the Senussis were tolerant and would perform their recitations and prayers with others, the Tijanis preferred isolation for their devotions" (Morgan 1958, 248)
1363 / 1846) of Medina, spread out from Libya, but it created the Rah-m-niyyah in the Hijaz and the Yashrut-iyyah in the Levant. In addition, other Sh-dhil-s would move southward into Africa (Nasr 1997, 45)