Voices of Islam (164 page)

Sa‘id ibn Zayd reported that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, ‘‘He who is killed while guarding his property is a martyr, he who is killed while defending himself is a martyr, he who is killed defending his religion is a martyr, and he who dies protecting his family is (also) a martyr.’’ This hadith is narrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Tirmidhi. The latter considers it a sound hadith.

Feisal and Daisy

13
‌

D
IE BEFORE
Y
OU
D
IE

•

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

Die before You Die.

—Hadith of the Prophet

We’re never far from the appetites of our body.

Our senses are ready to spring at the slightest touch. We stand on a bloody field to survey the booty,

but once collected, it soon becomes too much.

We walk inside our flesh-case like a brush wielded by a painter making rapid splashes, filling empty scroll-sheets with the blush

of skin-tones come alive in lightning dashes.

Existence comes and goes in furtive flashes. Nothing belongs to us. It’s all on loan.

We are those fleshly bursts like fluttering lashes that open and close on eyes, and then are gone.

If we could see our real deaths we might die. To die while still alive wakes up the eye.

5 Ramadan

NOTE

This poem fi appeared in Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore,
The Ramadan Sonnets
(San Francisco and Bethesda, Maryland: City Lights/Jusoor Books, 1996). The work was reprinted from Jusoor/City Lights Books and republished in the Ecstatic Exchange Series. The poem is reproduced here by permission of the author.

14
‌

S
UFI
F
OUNDATIONS OF THE
E
THICS OF

S
OCIAL
L
IFE IN
I
SLAM

•

Kenneth Lee Honerkamp

Sufism is ethical conduct.

Whoever surpasses you in ethical conduct Surpasses you in Sufism.

—Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Kattani (d. 838
CE
)

Ethics has been a central issue of scholarly discourse in the Muslim world for over fourteen centuries. However, it is not just centuries of scholarly discourse that make ethics an important issue for Islam today. We live in a time when the ethical values that have traditionally formed the foundation of Islamic societies have come under question. In the eyes of many, these values are in need of reevaluation. Globalization, political activism, and radical religious ideologies have forced upon many people a view of the world in which the only ethical options are a choice between secular humanism and a pragmatic ethics of survival. The rhetoric of the ‘‘Clash of Civilizations’’ has marked our communities today such that the spiritual roots that have tradi- tionally defined the moral basis of society seem unrealistic and even childish. Many people now question whether any religious tradition can meet the needs of today’s diverse and changing world. This dilemma is not unique to Islam. However, given the clear-cut framework from which Muslims have traditionally drawn their ethical inspiration—the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad—that such a dilemma should be facing the Muslim community at all today is disquieting.

This chapter focuses on the central role Sufism has played in the develop- ment of Islamic ethics. Sufism is rarely mentioned as a source of ethics, and the mentors of the Sufi path have almost been forgotten as ethical exemplars. In the following pages, the ethical teachings of the Sufis and their role in the formation and transmission of the ethical norms that have defi ed Islamic social life will be highlighted, in hopes of reintegrating this essential source

182
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

of knowledge into the ongoing discourse on Islamic values. In particular, this chapter delineates the manner in which Islamic spirituality interfaces with Sufi ethical discourse, using original source materials from early Sufi works. Finally, in hopes that the reader might gain fi knowledge of the teachings and methods that the Sufis bring to ethical discourse, this chapter focuses on the teachings of Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 1021
CE
), a well-known exemplar of ethical teachings on the Sufi path.

ETHICS AND THE SPIRIT

The earliest definitions of Sufism that have come down to us clearly align the teachings of Sufism with ethical conduct.
1
The word for ethical conduct in Arabic is
akhlaq.
Many Sufi of the formative period defi Sufi as
akhlaq.
Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri (d. 908
CE
) said, ‘‘Sufism is neither formalized practices nor acquired sciences; rather, it is ethical conduct (
akhlaq
).’’
2
In the words of Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Kattani (d. 838
CE
) quoted at the beginning of this chapter: ‘‘Sufism is ethical conduct (
akhlaq
). Whoever surpasses you in ethical conduct (
akhlaq
) surpasses you in Sufism.’’
3
In the following genera- tion, Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Qassab defi Sufi in the following terms: ‘‘Sufism consists of noble conduct that is made manifest at a noble moment on the part of a noble person among a noble folk.’’
4
Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd (d. 910
CE
), renowned as the Master of the Folk of the Sufi Path, portrayed Sufism as a process of purification that was like a journey: ‘‘Sufism is departure from base character and arrival at lofty character.’’
5
The focus on ethical conduct as the guiding principle behind Sufi practice has continued to resonate throughout the Muslim world. As recently as the eighteenth century, the Moroccan Sufi and scholar Ahmad Ibn ‘Ajiba (d. 1809
CE
)
6
defined Sufism as, ‘‘The science of learning the manner of journeying toward the presence of the King of Kings; or [one could say] inward purification from base tendencies and inward beautification with lofty character traits.’’
7
Quotations like those cited above challenge the widely held opinion that

Sufi is preoccupied only with metaphysics and mystical experience. On the contrary, the teachings of Sufi affi that the experiential aspect of human existence is most meaningful when it is understood within a context of spiritual transformation that is based on a normative code of behavior (
adab
) and ethical conduct (
akhlaq
). Sufism teaches that spiritual transforma- tion is inherent to humanity, although within the individual it is only a latent or virtual possibility. From an Islamic perspective, participation in this pro- cess of transformation is one of the functions of religious life. Through its core teachings of
akhlaq
and the living examples of Sufi shaykhs, Sufism has played an important role in transmitting the ethical values of Islamic society.

Ruh
is the Arabic term for spirit or soul, the substantial or essential aspect of the human being. The Arabic term
ruhaniyyat
refers to the teachings of Islam that deal most directly with the spirit. From the Sufi perspective, spirit

Sufi Foundations of the Ethics of Social Life in Islam
183

defines the human condition, on the one hand, and is the essential substance of the process of spiritual transformation, on the other hand. When speaking of spiritual transformation, the Sufis have often employed the metaphors of a ‘‘path’’ that is followed by a ‘‘journeyer’’ or a ‘‘seeker,’’ in which the jour- neyer passes through various stages or domains of knowledge of God as he encounters increasingly subtle states of the spirit. For example, Ibn ‘Ajiba wrote, ‘‘The
ruh,
as long as it is engrossed in ignorance, is called the ‘ego- self’ (
nafs
) and will never access the divine presence.’’
8
For Ibn ‘Ajiba, the process of self-transformation is an awakening of the
ruh
—in other words, a reorientation of the individual’s ego-self until it awakens to its true nature and perceives the phenomenal world, not as a discrete entity separate from God but as a continuum of divine presences, or centers of divine manifesta- tion. Spirituality, within the context of Sufi teachings, is thus a function of the process of transformation or reorientation of the ego-self. For the Sufis, this implied that the degree to which one participates in this process of trans- formation is the degree to which one participates in Islamic spirituality.