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History of Sufis

SUFIISM,  (from Ar. sūfī, clad in woolen, from sūf, wool). A system of Mohammedan mysticism, having its home chiefly in Persia. Mohammedanism is not a mystical religion, but it contained from the first elements which could be used by mystics. Not till its second century did mysticism become organized in it. The word "Sufiism" seems to have been first adopted by Abu Hashim, a Syrian (A.D. 780), who founded a mystic community at Ramleh in Palestine. Abul Said Abul Khair (about 820) is mentioned as founder, while Al-Ushairi (1073) states that the name was in common use about 815. Mythical tales give the origin to Rabia al Adawiyya (752), a pious woman much spoken of in Sufiism. There seems to be historic evidence to prove the Sufi claim that, in spite of Mohammed's precautions against mysticism, his favorite Ali was not free from its influence. Sufiism is radically theistic and is led by its theism to consider God as absorbing the universe. The Vedanta is pantheistic with occasional theistic phraseology. The Sufis are so strongly devoted to the Beloved (viz., God) that they look for Divinity everywhere and see Divinity anywhere, It became easy, even for the Persians, to interpret this in a pantheistic way. The intellectual forms given to most of the Sufi doctrines in Persia are from foreign sources, among which must be mentioned Buddhism, the Peripatetic philosophy, and Neo-Platonism.

A few really great Sufis lived before the close of the second century of the Hejira (815). Among them and those immediately after are to be mentioned the Egyptian Dhun-Nun (859), who introduced the doctrine of ecstasy and mystical stages; Sirri Sagvati (867), who introduced unification; Junaid (910), who reduced Sufiism to writing; and Al-Nallaj, who became famous because he went about crying "I am the true One," for which he was put to death by torture (921). The Fihrist (987) represents him as a "wily conjurer," but Sufis consider his death the result of the workings of the occult law which brings death upon him who divulges divine secrets. Ghazali (q.v.) (died 1111) and Jalal ud din Rumi (q.v.) (died 1273) were the two most famous doctors in Sufiism. The most brilliant Persian poetry is Sufi. Aside from Rumi, the Sufi poets are Nizami (q.v.), Farid ud din Attar (q.v.), Sadi (q.v.), Shamsi, Hafiz (q.v.), Anvari, Jami (q.v.), and Hatifi (q.v.). It may be added that Omar Khayyam (died 1123), known to the West through FitzGerald's translations, is not a Sufi. Jami (died 1492) has been called the last Sufi, and with some justice. After him Sufiism slowly declined, but the nineteenth century saw its powerful revival in Turkey, though its Turkish representative names are almost unknown outside of Turkey. From Turkey and Egypt comes what may be called a Neo-Sufiism.

Primitive Sufiism is not doctrinal; it is an "experience," a "feeling of God," a "mystery of godliness," and does not primarily have anything to do with the notions of the intellect. Within 200 years from its origin, however, it assumed doctrinal forms. The two chief doctrines of Sufiism are that of the One (Ahad) and that of "the Way to the One" (tarīqat). A Sufi first of all endeavors to realize that "the One" is the only existence, that there is not only "no god but God," but that there is nothing but God. Next, he enters upon "the journey to the rose garden of Union." The Sufi's belief is not pantheism in the Greek sense; he does not "make everything God except God himself"; on the contrary, everything is naught except Divinity and it is Divinity that gives life to the dead Nonbeing. The world is a phantasmagoria, and the time will come when it shall pass away. God's reason for creating the world is found in this saying: "I was a Hidden Treasure and I wished to be known, so I created Creation that I might be known." The form of creation is not only truth and goodness, but also and essentially beauty. Sufis lay more stress upon the conception of Divinity as beauty than other mystics or religions.

The Sufi "way to God" is similar to the well known ideas on that subject among Western mystics. With the help of a guide, "the traveler" ascends step by step to union with God or through awakening to regeneration and sanctification to union. The "Way" is ascetic and full of occult practices, such as dances, silences, etc., and leads to the mystic trance of perfect union with God, when man loses all sense of independent individuality. All men may reach union.

Sufl symbolism permeates the entire system of Sufiism. A symbol to a Sufi is not merely an object which stands for some other object or idea. For him every object has besides its own immediate signification also an ideal content, and it is this latter which is the real object of the Sufi's search. He finds it by means of love (isq). Objects are therefore veils, not veils that hide, but veils that reveal the One. All Sufi poetry is written with a double sense and the initiates can read five other senses besides. The now comparatively well-known ghazels of Hafiz, Sadi, Jami, and others abound in veils, which the Occidental calls voluptuous and bacchanalian, but to the Sufi they are descriptive of emotions or soul life. As such they suggest to him deeper and more universal states of life.

There are many sects among the Sufis, but their differences are not strictly Sufiistic; they have arisen on external and unessential ground and are of little interest outside of Sufiism. Sufiism has exerted a powerful influence in Arabia, Persia, and Egypt, and it is flourishing to-day in Turkey. India also has a large number of Sufis. Persian literature, more than any other, bears strong impress of it.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 638-639.