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Dhikr & Sama'

Dhikr & Sama'

• Brings together God and believer to purify the worshipper

• Concentration through repetition of God’s attribution d

• Uses subha (string of beads)

• Not always musical

• Not done in mosque, in convent like setting or homes

3 forms of dhikr

• dhikr al awqat- the set of dhikr each day, regulated and prescribed by one’s master

• dhikr al khafi- under the guidance of one’s shaykh, emphasizes breathing control, long solitary periodsuote

• dhikr al-hadra- dhikr of presence, a communal, sacred type

Masters and Disciples: The Forms and Foundations of Sufi Orders

• Elaborate form of hadra centered in music and dance as a means

of reaching ecstasy

• Al-Ghazali wrote treatise against sama'

• His brother Ahmed, favored sama’

• Mawlawi order, most highly developed form

Jalal al- Din al-Rumi and the Mawlawis

The Silsila or Spiritual Lineage

Islamic Mysticism and the Disciplines of Esoteric Piety

1. Reflect on Denny’s definition of Sufism. What insights do you gain from his definition?

2. Why does Denny believe that “to some extent, Sufism was the inner power of Islam from the beginning”?

3. What are the sources of Sufi spirituality?

4. What are some salient attributes of Sufi spirituality and how do they differ from Sunni or Shia thought?

5. What role does asceticism, symbolism, and poetry play in early Islamic contexts? Give examples, and cite pages.

6. What major forms/ways of Sufism does Denny describes and to who are they attributed to? Cite name, pages and

examples.

7. What major points does Denny convey concerning Al-Ghazali?

Masters and Disciples: The Forms and Functions of Sufi Orders

1. Who seems to have been the first to establish a definite brotherhood or order with governing disciplines and residence,

according to Denny?

2. Describe the master-disciple relationship.

3. Analyze the following statement by Denny:

“In such contexts these spiritual lineages came to serve in a precisely parallel functional manner to the isnads that scholars

attached to hadiths” (239).

4. List some particular characteristics of the following Sufi orders (founder, location, key figures and doctrines, etc.) –

Qadiri Order, Suhrawardiya Order, Shadhiliya Order, Badawiya Order, Mawlawiya.

5. What is the importance of the silsila (spiritual lineage)?

6. Define and distinguish the terms tariqa and ta’ifa.

8. What is the central means by which Sufis worship God and invoke his presence?

9. What major points does Denny convey concerning Ibn ‘Arabi’s Sufi theosophy?

• “chain” by means of which order traces their

heritage directly through authoritative

masters all the way to the Prophet

• Form of written lineage, appears relatively late

in development of Sufism

• Became important during rise of orders

• Earliest silsila-10th cent Jafar al-Khuld, d. 959

The Bekhtashiya Order

• Popular characteristic dance prominent in Western mind

• Order’s name Mawlawiya

• Mawlana (our master)

• Founded in Konya, Turkey in 13th century

• Called Mevlevi order in Turkey

• Al-Rumi- the Roman refers to the eastern Roman empires and its capital in Constantinople

• Born in Afghanistan

• Family fled Mongol invasion and traveled throughout Near east, Iran, Syria

• Family settled in Konya

• Son Sultan Walad left narratives on his life, more accurate info than other Sufi masters full of hagiography

Prophet Muhammad

Anas ibn Malik

Hasan al-Basra

Ma’ruf al-Karkhi-Farqad al-Sabakhr

Sari al-Saqati

al-Junayd

Jafar al-Khuld

• Named after Haji Bektash Veli from Khorasan, but founded by Balim Sultan in the 13th century

  • Prominent among Turks, Ottoman military elites

• Independent of orthodox Islam's ulama and mosque

• Includes Christian and traditional folk elements in doctrines and rituals

• Salat as non-essential, adherance to recognition of the 12 imams of Shiism

Tariqa and Ta’ifa

• Tariqa passed down by means of silsila

• Ta’ifa association, organization, concrete contexts for tariqas

Women’s Status in Sufism

The Shadhilya Order

The Suhrawardiya Order

  • Women ascetics were significant participants and contributors to Islamic mysticism
  • Essentially, the distinction between male and female does not exist in Sufism
  • Not every Sufi order allows women to participate in its ceremonies but women and men are thought of as equals
  • Women may participate strictly as worshippers or may go through the proper training and become teachers in their own right.
  • Historically, Sufis who have criticized or marginalized women in their writings

• Founded in N. Africa by Nur al-Din Ahmed ibn Abdullah al-Shadhili (1196-1258)

• Prominent in N. Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Syria

• Extreme in practices

• Shihab al-Din ‘Umar ibn ‘AbdAllah al-Suhrawardi (1144-1234 CE)

• Moderate doctrines, close to orthodoxy

• Influential in India and Bangladesh

• Drew Muslims of all classes

The Badawiya Order

Shaykhs and Faqirs:

Master-Disciples Relationship

The Qadiri Order

  • Before orders relationship between masters (shaykhs/pirs) and disciples (faqirs/shagird)
  • Usually “potent spiritual personality”
  • Attracted large numbers of disciples

• Involved importing knowledge and techniques and includes a personal dimension of intense mutual engagement

• For spiritual reasons and desire to transform awareness

• “The faqirs must present himself to his shaykh as a corpse to the one who washes it before a final community to the grave” (246).

• Shaykh passes on central doctrines of the tariqa to disciples

• Disciples maintain the tradition of brotherhood

• Dynamics enabled Sufism to develop strong permanent institutions.

• Founded by Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi (Sidi Ahmed) in 13th cent.

• Born in Morocco from Hejazi family traced back to Ali

• Greatest Sufi of Egypt

• Early life was horsemen and fighter

• About age 30 became Sufi and withdrew from world

• Unusual feats of spiritual athleticism

• Miracles

• Birthday celebrations/ mawlid

• Color red associated with him

• Khalifa (Ahmed’s successor) wears a bright red robe

• Major International Sufi brotherhood

• Founded by ‘Abdal al-Qadir al-Jilani (1078-1166 CE)

• Student of Hanbali fiqh in Baghdad

• Followers established several sub-orders

• Doctrines included much orthodox matter

The Rise of Sufi Orders

• Small groups also clustered together in homes and meeting places for training in meditation

• In early periods more of an elite spiritual occupation, later period around the 11th-12th century more of a popular movement

• al-Ghazali seems to have established the 1st definite order or brotherhood.

• Had governing disciple/role and a residential element (zawiya) convent-like

HAGIOGRAPHY

1: biography of saints or venerated persons

2: idealizing or idolizing biography

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