Monks and Sufis

There was in fact no monasticism in Islam, not in the Christian sense of individuals or groups removing themselves from the world and society and living under perpetual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But the spirituality of Muslims and Christians often took parallel and very similar paths, and both the similarities and the differences appear in this advice given to the aspiring Sufi novice by one of the great masters, Ibn al-Arabi (1164–1240 C.E.) of Murcia.

Among the things you must possess, my brother, is (the grace) not to live at the expense of other people, to be a burden to no one, to accept no support from man either for yourself or anyone else, but to practice your own trade and be abstemious in the matter of your living expenses. (Exercise restraint) also in your words and glances on all occasions, whether you are moving about or are stationary. Be not extravagant in matters of housing or dress or food, for what is lawful (therein) is but little and leaves no room for lavishness. …

Among the things you must possess, my friend, is (the grace of doing with but) little food, for (abstinence) in this and cheerfulness in obedience drives away laziness. You must be careful to apportion out your time by day and by night. As for the hours when the religious law summons you to stand before God, they are the five prayer periods for the canonical prayers. But beyond them are the other times consecrated by the custom of the Prophet. So if you are a craftsman, labor diligently to make enough in one day to provide your needs for several days. If you are a business man, do not hasten away from your place of prayer after the dawn prayer until the sun has risen, nor after the afternoon prayer until the sun has set. … Do not sleep until you are quite overcome by slumber. Do not eat save what is needful, nor dress save as is necessary to guard against heat and cold, with the intention of covering the genitals and removing a peremptory impediment to the worship of God. …

Among the things you must possess is (the grace of) having an accounting with yourself, a seasonable examination of your innermost thoughts, putting a shamefacedness before God as the raiment on your heart, for if you possess a true feeling of shame before God you will prevent your heart from harboring fancies which God would find blameworthy, or from being moved by emotions with which God Most High would not be pleased. We ourselves used formerly to have a master who was accustomed to record his emotional states during the day in a book that he had, and when night came he would set the pages in front of him and have an accounting with himself for what was written therein. …

Take care to be continent. That is, avoid everything that would leave an impression on your soul. … If you live in that state of continence which is the foundation of religion and the path to God, your works will thrive and your undertakings be successful, your condition in life will prosper, supernatural blessings will hasten toward you, and you will be guided by divine care in all your affairs. We have no doubt about it. But whenever you turn aside from the path of continence and go straying in every valley (of desire), God departs from you and leaves you to yourself, so that Satan gets the mastery of you. (Ibn al-Arabi, A Treatise on What the Novice Must Possess) [JEFFERY 1962: 643–645, 653]

At times even the externals of the two types of spiritual endeavor, that of the monk and that of the Sufi bore remarkable similarities, as one Muslim had occasion to observe. The era is the eleventh century, the Latin Crusader century in Palestine, and it is a community of Christian monks that first attracts the attention of Usama.

I visited the tomb of John [the Baptist], the son of Zachariah— God's blessing on both of them—in the village of Sebaste in the province of Nablus [that is, the biblical Samaria]. After I said my prayers, I went into the square that was bounded on one side by the holy precinct (where the tomb was located). I found a half-closed gate, opened it and entered a church. Inside were about ten old men, their bare heads as white as combed cotton. They were facing eastward, and wore [embroidered?] on their breasts staffs ending in crossbars turned up like the rear of a saddle [that is, some form of a cross, as Usama likely knew very well]. They swore their oaths on this sign, and gave hospitality to those who needed it. The sight of their piety touched my heart, but at the same time it displeased and saddened me, for I had never seen such zeal and devotion among the Muslims.

I brooded on this experience for some time, until one day, as Mu’in al-Din and I were passing the Peacock House, he said to me. "I want to dismount here and visit the shaykhs." "Certainly," I said, and so we dismounted and went into a long building set at an angle to the road. At first I thought that there was no one there. Then I saw about a hundred prayer-mats and on each one of them a Sufi, his face expressing a peaceful serenity, and his body humble devotion. This was a reassuring sight, and I gave thanks to Almighty God that there were among Muslims men of even more zealous devotion than those Christian priests. Before this I had never seen Sufis in their convent and so was ignorant of the way they lived. (Usama, Book of the Staff 528–529)

A century later, in 1183 C.E., the Muslim traveler Ibn Jubayr likewise had occasion to note communities of ascetics, now in Damascus, and he too was impressed and edified.

Ribats for Sufis, which are here called khanaqas, are numerous. They are adorned residences; water flows through all of them and they present the most delicious prospect imaginable. The members of this type of Sufi organization live like kings here since God had provided for them even beyond the necessities and so freed their minds from any concern for earning a living, and thus they can devote themselves entirely to His service. He has lodged them in halls which give them a foretaste of those of Paradise. So these fortunate men, the most favored of the Sufis, enjoy by God's favor the blessings of both this world and the next. They follow a praiseworthy vocation and their life in common is conducted in an admirable fashion.

Ibn Jubayr observed, and obviously approved of, something else new and unusual about the Sufi life, their manner of prayer.

Their manner of worship is peculiar to them. Their custom of assembling for highly charged musical recitals is most pleasant. Sometimes, so carried away are some of these rapt ascetics when they are under the influence of this condition, that they can scarcely be thought of as belonging to this world at all. (Ibn Jubayr, Travels 284)

 

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