A Sufi master is called a pir, and 'Abd-al-Qadir Gilani (1077-1166) was one of the most
popular teachers of the mystical doctrine. As a boy his mother sewed eighty
gold coins into his coat and sent him to Baghdad for religious education,
warning him never to speak falsely. When a robber of the caravan asked him if
he had any money on him, Gilani admitted he had the hidden coins. Gilani
explained to the chief robber he could not begin his religious quest by telling
a lie, and the chief was converted from his life of crime. At Baghdad Gilani
was severely disciplined by a syrup vendor and then practiced night worship on
his own, reciting the entire Qur'an.
Pir Gilani lectured at a madrasa college
on the Qur'an,
the traditions, and the law. When he was about fifty, he decided that marriage
was a social duty. Gilani took four wives and had 49 children. Gilani preached
outside the city to large crowds in a building that was constructed for him. He
received large amounts of money which he distributed to the poor. He founded
the first fraternal order (tariqa) that
was named Qadiriya after him. These fraternal orders became the social groups for
the Sufis.
Some of Gilani's sermons on practical morality were
collected by one of his sons as Revelations
of the Unseen. He expounded on ten virtues he believed led to
spirituality even though none of them is required by Shar'ia law. First, do not swear
by God, either truthfully or falsely. Second, speak no untruth, even in jest.
Third, do not break a promise. Fourth, do not curse or harm anything. Fifth, do
not pray for or wish for harm to anyone. Sixth, do not accuse anyone of
religious infidelity. Seventh, do not attend to anything sinful. Eighth, do not
impose any burden on others. Ninth, do not expect anything from human beings.
Tenth, only notice in others what may be superior to oneself.
The Persian philosopher Suhrawardi (1153-1191) was called
the Master of Illumination and the Martyr. He studied philosophy and psychology
at Isfahan and was influenced by Zoroastrian concepts of angels. Suhrawardi
traveled widely to meet Sufi masters and practiced asceticism in spiritual
retreats. At Aleppo he tutored the Governor Malik Zahir Shah, a son of Saladin.
However, his theosophical views were disliked by the orthodox jurists. The
famous judge al-Fadil advised Saladin to have Suhrawardi put to death, and by
the Sultan's order the prince had him executed the year King Richard arrived at
Acre.
Suhrawardi believed that mysticism and philosophy are
compatible because the principles of philosophy can be validated by the
experience of illumination. Suhrawardi was having difficulty understanding how
humans know, but in his meditation he saw Aristotle telling him that
first one has to know oneself. Suhrawardi wrote The Philosophy of Illumination for those who seek knowledge
that is both mystical and discursive. He believed that those who master both
philosophical reasoning and the wisdom of illumination are "vicegerents of
God" (khalifat Allah).
He identified the source of being as light, which is essential to all
cognition, and all beings are illuminations of the Light of Lights (God). He
adopted the classical psychology that is also found in Avicenna's work that
distinguishes the vegetative, animal, and intellectual aspects of the soul.
Suhrawardi described the five internal senses as sensory communion, fantasy,
apprehension, imagination, and memory. The moral virtues of the Sufi path he
emphasized are truthfulness, humility, compassion, honesty, and not being
jealous of others. The degree of one's purification in this world will
determine the ontological status of the soul in the next world. Suhrawardi
wrote more than fifty works in his short life and had much influence on the
Illuminationist tradition.
Muhyiddin ibn 'Arabi was born in an Arab family at Murcia
in Andalusia on August 7, 1165. He was educated in Seville and sought Sufi
masters in Spain and North Africa. As a youth he met Averroes at Cordoba, and
he was initiated into Sufism at Tunis. Ibn 'Arabi went to Mecca in 1201 and
wrote love poems, Interpreter of
Desires, to a young woman, whom he believed symbolized wisdom. He wrote
that forgiveness is better than capital punishment. He lived an ascetic,
saintly existence. When someone gave him a palace, he quickly gave it to a
beggar. Ibn 'Arabi suggested that four things are needed for salvation-serving
those in need, a pure and peaceful heart, good will to believers, and thinking
well of everyone. He traveled to Egypt, Baghdad, and Aleppo; he spent years at
Mecca but completed the 560 chapters of his Meccan Revelations at Damascus, where he died in 1240.
Ibn 'Arabi found imagination to be the link between sense
perception and the intellect. He taught perpetual transformation leading to a
mystical union of the self with the real. The images that manifest the deity
are constantly changing, and each is valid but only for the moment. Clinging to
an image leads to idolatry. The infinite is paradoxically within all and beyond
all, identical and other, immanent and transcendental. This theological view that
God is both in the entire universe and transcendent beyond it is called
panentheism. The polished mirror of the human heart is capable of every form.
Joy and sorrow are experienced as one passes away in union with the beloved.
The mystic does not become one with God but rather realizes that one
already is one with
God. As the images change, one may participate in the perpetual co-creation,
continually annihilating and re-creating. Ibn 'Arabi called Muhammad the Logos of God, and he identified
all true prophets with this universal person who is cosmic, prophetic, and
mystical. He believed in the essential unity of all religions, and he found
that the essence of this one religion is love. Because of the unity of God, in
his Divine Governance of the
Human Kingdom he argued that the soul should rule in humans just as
humans are kings on Earth. The theosophical ideas of ibn 'Arabi were later
systematized by his followers. His ideas especially influenced Persians such as
the poet Jami, Mahmud Shabistari who summarized them in his Secret Rose Garden, and the great
theosophist Mulla Sadra.
Ibn 'Ata'illa was a teacher in the Shadhili Sufi tariqa (path) at Alexandria, and
he wrote his Book of Wisdom before
his own master died in 1288. His aphoristic sayings are designed to help Sufi
students on the mystical path. He asked how the heart can be illumined while
the forms of creatures are still reflected in its mirror? Or how can one
journey to God while shackled by passions? How can one enter the presence of
God without purifying oneself of forgetfulness? How can one understand the
mysteries if one has not repented for offenses? It is better to look out for
vices hidden in yourself than to look for the invisible realities that are
veiled. Actually reality is not veiled from you, but you are veiled from seeing
it. Ibn 'Ata'illa wrote that no action arising from a renouncing heart is
small, and no action coming from an avaricious heart is fruitful. When God's justice
confronts you, no sin is minor; but when God's grace faces you, no sin is
major. Unless hope goes with action it is merely wishful thinking.
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