Sufism

"Be enlightened like the sun, blossom like the rose garden, try to swim like a fish, that endless sea is coming"

Rumi

The heart of Sufism is the love of God. It is built on the Qur'anic assurance that "God loves the God-fearing" (3:76), and fulfils their devotions in love. "Nothing is more beloved to Me" - God is heard to say in a Holy Hadith - "than that my servant approaches Me with constant acts of devotion. And when I love him I am the eye by which he sees and the ear by which he hears. When he approaches a span I approach a cubit, and when he comes walking I come running."

The Sufi is he that is dead to self and lives by the Truth; he has escaped from the grip of human faculties and has truly attained to God. The prophet Muhammad once said that the paths are equal in number to the true believers, meaning that each person should develop his or her own spiritual practice.

The Sufi path is like a ladder. Each rung is a "stage" (maqam) of spiritual striving which must be achieved before passing to the next. Sufi orders differ in the ways they identify and arrange the stages, but they typically involve repentance, conversion, renunciation, trust, gratitude, poverty, patience and love. Each stage belongs to the category of acts, and requires ceaseless human striving.

Sufis teach that every stage of spiritual striving needs to be fulfilled by a special grace which God bestows on the heart of the aspirant. This is called a state (hal). They are understood as spiritual qualities o the heart which descend from God, without the recipient being able to attract or repel them by his or her own effort. They also are variously understood in the Sufi orders, but commonly include satisfaction, certainty, intimacy, separation, love, union and knowledge/gnosis.

Through practice of the path, Sufis seek to internalise the worship and law of Islam. In addition to the ordinary mosque service, they developed other forms of worship. These range from the quiet recitation (dhikr) of the Names of God, to singing hymns in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, and some orders use music and dance to intensify the emotional side of worship.

The destination of the path is intimacy with God. The person who reaches it is a wali or saint (literally one who is near to God). Only a saint can truly be called a Sufi. A passage from the Qur'an is often quoted to express this highest of spiritual states: "All upon earth passes away: the face of your Lord, Owner of Glory and Grace, abides" (55:27-28). The antithesis of "passing away" and "abiding" point to the Sufi experience of God. By annihilating all that is impure, only the pure remains.

Extracts taken from "A Lion Handbook, The World’s Religions", various editors, ISBN 0745937209

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