Voices of Islam (100 page)

NOTES

This chapter originally appeared as the paper, ‘‘The Islamic View of Love as a Pillar of Peace,’’ which was delivered at the colloquium, ‘‘Truth, Justice, Love, Freedom: Pillars of Peace,’’ Vatican City, December 1, 2003. It is reproduced here by permission of the author. (Ed.) following a note signifies that the note was added by the general editor of this set.

1. The Arabic word
   madhhab
   literally means ‘‘way’’ or ‘‘path,’’ ‘‘the way in which one proceeds.’’ In Arabic usage, it most commonly takes the connotation of ‘‘method’’ or ‘‘procedure,’’ in the sense of the method or procedure of a particular school of Islamic jurisprudence. Hence,
   madhhab
   is most often understood as a synonym for ‘‘school of practice’’ especially a school of Islamic law. In Persian, these meanings are extended to include belief in formal doctrines. Hence, Dr. Pourjavady’s use of
   madhhab
   as meaning ‘‘sect’’ or ‘‘religion.’’ (Ed.)
   

2. In this verse, the Divine Name
   al-Ghani
   also carries the connotation of absoluteness: ‘‘Oh people! You are poor and in need of God (
   al-fuqara’ ila Allah
   ), but God is the Self-Suffi the Praiseworthy (
   wa Allahu huwa al-Ghani’ al-Hamid
   ).’’ (Ed.)
   

3. The terms ‘‘make love’’ and ‘‘union’’ should not be taken literally, but are metaphorical or mythological in nature. Sufis often use terms with sexual connota- tions, such as
   ‘ishq
   (‘‘desire’’) and
   wisal
   (‘‘union’’), as vehicles of comparison, to convey the idea that the spiritual and mystic union of the human being with God is a oneness that can only be compared to the most intense feelings of unification that a person experiences in day-to-day life. Since the ideal goal of love is the merging of two souls into one, this metaphor may also be used to describe the goal of the Gnostic (
   ‘arif
   ), the ‘‘knower’’ of God. (Ed.)
   

4. These terms come from Otto’s book,
   Das Heilige,
   usually translated in English as
   The Idea of the Holy.
   According to Otto, the human experience of religiosity comes from the dialectical relationship between two mysteries.
   Mysterium tremendum
   (‘‘The Great Mystery’’) refers to the fear of unknown powers, the awe and dread that people have of forces beyond their control;
   mysterium fascinans
   (‘‘The Fascinating Mystery’’) refers to the attractive power of the Holy, which draws people toward it
   

   The Sufi Way of Love and Peace
   165
   

   even against their will, like a moth to a candle flame. The moth to a candle flame analogy was often used by Sufi to express the attractive power of the love of God, which draws them ever closer until their human selves are annihilated in the ‘‘flame’’ of the Divine Essence. See Rudolf Otto,
   The Idea of the Holy,
   trans. John W. Harvey (1923; repr., London, Oxford, and New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), 12–40. (Ed.)
   

5. ‘Ali ibn ‘Uthman al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri,
   The Kashf al-Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufi
   trans. Reynold A. Nicholson (1911; repr., London, U.K.: Luzac & Company, Ltd., 1976), 190–191.
   

6. The Greek word
   eros
   means ‘‘desire’’ or ‘‘yearning,’’ as does the Arabic word
   ‘ishq.
   The Greek word
   agape
   is equivalent to the Arabic words
   hubb
   (‘‘love’’) and
   rahma
   (‘‘mercy’’), depending on the context. In his discourse on the Divine Names, Pseudo-Dionysius uses
   eros,
   in the sense of divine longing, yearning, or passion, to describe the motivating force of creation. Most Christian theologians, however, would use the term
   agape,
   which connotes a more compassionate form of love, in such a context: ‘‘The divine longing (
   eros
   ) is Good seeking good for the sake of the Good. That yearning (
   eros
   ) which creates all the goodness of the world pre-existed superabundantly within the Good and did not allow it to remain without issue. It stirred [God] to use the abundance of his powers in the production of the world.’’
   Pseudo-Dionysius: the Complete Works,
   trans. Colm Luibheid and Paul Rorem (New York: The Paulist Press, 1987), 79–80. Pseudo-Dionysius, who may have been Syrian in origin, was one of the most influential mystical thinkers of early Christianity. His works would have been widely known in Greek and Syriac among the Nestorian Christians of Baghdad during the time of Nuri and would have been widely known in Latin translation in late twelfth-century Spain, during the time of Ibn ‘Arabi. (Ed.)
   

7. See Ahmad al-Ghazali [
   sic
   .],
   Sawanih. Aphorismen u¨ber die Liebe
   (
   Sawanih
   . Aphorisms on Love), ed., Helmut Ritter (Istanbul, 1942). (Ed.)
   

8. The full Qur’anic verse in which this statement appears is as follows: ‘‘Oh you who believe! If any of you turns away from his religion, God will bring forth a people that He will love as they love Him, who are humble toward the believers, stern toward the unbelievers, who strive in the way of God and do not fear the blame of the blamers. This is the Grace of God, which He gives as He wills, for God is the All-Comprehensive, the All-Knowing’’ (Qur’an 5:54). (Ed.)
   

16
‌

S
UFI
W
OMEN
’
S
S
PIRITUALITY
: A T
HEOLOGY OF
S
ERVITUDE

•

Rkia Elaroui Cornell

The earliest book about Sufi women in Islam is
Dhikr al-niswa al- muta‘abbidat al-sufi yat
(Memorial of Female Sufi Devotees), by the great systematizer of Sufi doctrine, Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 1021
CE
). Sulami, a resident of the city of Nishapur in eastern Iran, describes Sufi women as practicing a Theology of Servitude. He depicts this theology as a practice-oriented complement to the more theoretical doctrines followed by Sufi men.
1
The Theology of Servitude that was practiced by Sulami’s Sufi women is based on the idea that spiritual engagement operates on two levels: an outer (
zahir
) level and an inner (
batin
) level. Each of these levels also has an outer and an inner dimension. On the inner level of spiritual engagement, the outer dimension consists of an engagement with God; this is because God is conceived as being outside of one’s self (
nafs
). The inner dimension of the inner level of spiritual engagement consists of an engagement with one’s own soul (
ruh
); this is because the soul represents a transcendence of the self (
nafs
), but it is also found within the self. The outer level of spiritual engagement in Sufi women’s Theology of Servitude consists of religious prac- tices that are part of the Sufi woman’s engagement with her self. The outer dimension of these practices concerns the types of practices employed to discipline and transform the self. The inner dimension of the outer level of spiritual engagement concerns the transformation of the spiritual under- standing that the religious practices and spiritual disciplines are meant to bring about.

According to Sulami, Sufi women are different from ordinary Muslim women because they practice
ta‘abbud:
literally, ‘‘making oneself a slave’’ (
‘abd
).
Ta‘abbud
is the Arabic term that Sulami uses to designate the Theology of Servitude. For Sulami,
ta‘abbud
, the Theology of Servitude, is the essence of Sufi women’s spirituality. It is their means to divine inspira- tion, and it is the spiritual method that distinguishes them from their male Sufi counterparts.

168
Voices of the Spirit

Although Sulami makes the Theology of Servitude a characteristic of Sufi women, the concept for which it stands has long been part of Islamic piety. The Arabic term for worship (
‘ibada
) means ‘‘servitude.’’ The famous statement about worship in the Qur’an (Qur’an 51:56), ‘‘I have not created Jinn and humankind except to worship me (
illa li-ya‘buduni
),’’ shows that the concept of servitude is all-inclusive: it envelops not only humans, but other forms of creation as well. The Theology of Servitude is also expressed in the Hadith, the Prophetic traditions of Islam. For example, in the
Musnad
of Ibn Hanbal (d. 855
CE
), the Prophet Muhammad states that one of the names most favored by God is
‘Abd Allah
(Slave of God). The other name most favored by God is
‘Abd al-Rahman
(Slave of the Bestower of Grace). Both names include the term
‘abd,
‘‘slave.’’
2

In the Qur’an, the concept of
Islam
—the submission of the self to God—is frequently expressed in terms of servitude. ‘‘Selling oneself to God’’ is the quintessential attribute of the true believer and is one of the spiritual traits that Islam shares with both Judaism and Christianity. This is stated explicitly in the following verse:

Verily God has purchased from the believers their persons and possessions in return for Paradise. They fight in the cause of God and they slay and are slain. This is a binding promise on God, stated in truth in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an. Who is more faithful to his promise than [God]? So, rejoice in the sale of yourself that you have concluded, for it is the supreme achievement.

(Qur’an 9:111)

In his exegesis of the Qur’an titled
Haqa’iq al-tafsir
(The Realities of Qur’an Interpretation), Sulami often discusses the Theology of Servitude through the words of Ahmad ibn ‘Ata’ (d. 921
CE
), a famous Sufi of Baghdad. In these passages, another term for servitude is used:
‘ubudiyya,
which is commonly understood as ‘‘worshipfulness,’’ but literally means ‘‘slavery.’’ In his commentary on the Chapter on Women in the Qur’an (Qur’an 4,
Surat al-Nisa’
), Sulami quotes Ibn ‘Ata’ as saying: ‘‘Servitude is a combina- tion of four traits: (1) to be true to one’s covenants; (2) to preserve moral rectitude; (3) to be satisfi with whatever one finds; (4) to patiently bear what has been lost.’’
3

Being true to one’s covenants corresponds to the outer dimension of the outer level of spiritual engagement described above. Engagement with God is expressed in the Qur’an by the covenant struck between God and humanity before the creation of Adam (Qur’an 7:172). Engagement with other human beings depends on other types of covenants such as oaths and contracts, which figure prominently in the Qur’an as well (see, for example, Qur’an 16:94; 5:1, 5:89). Both types of engagements require renewal and reaffirma- tion, and both types rely on moral rectitude (Ibn ‘Ata’s second trait of

Sufi Women’s Spirituality
169

servitude) for their fulfillment. Moral rectitude is the key to the outward pro- cess of spiritual engagement. In Islam, moral rectitude entails the emulation of the Prophet Muhammad’s actions and the embodiment of his moral fiber, which is fundamental to the concept of
Sunna.
The Qur’an states: ‘‘And you [Muhammad] are of great moral character’’ (Qur’an 68:4). Ibn ‘Ata’s third and fourth traits of servitude, which are to be satisfi with whatever one fi s and to patiently bear what has been lost, correspond to the inner dimension of the outer level of spiritual engagement. These disciplines corre- spond to the Qur’anic teaching to regard the life of the world as nothing but a ‘‘sport and a pastime’’ (Qur’an 6:32), and help the seeker on the spiritual path turn her attention from the outer life of the world toward the Abode of the Hereafter and the inner life of the soul.