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Wajjad-al-wahud
From SikhiWiki Wahdat al-Wujud: a fundamental doctrine in Sufism
Contents
1 Introduction 2 The doctrine of Tawhid in Sufism 3 The background 4 The beginning 5 Qur'anic passages & Wahdat al-Wujud 6 Al-Ghazali, the mediator 7 Ibn al-Arabi's concept of Wahdat al-Wujud 8 Wahdat al-Wujud versus Wahdat al Shuhud 9 Sirhindi's criticism of Wahdat al-Wujud 10 References 11 Bibliography
Introduction
The concepts of al-Insan al-Kamel, the perfect man and Wahdat al-Wujud, the transcendent Unity of God are seen as two fundamental doctrines in Sufi 1 Islam. God is the ground of all being and there is nothing except Him. Thus our goal is to go back and be absorbed in Him. It is believed that there is essential unity between humanity and God. Both doctrines are, in fact, complementary. However in this essay we will concentrate on Wahdat al-Wujud. The doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud asserts that everything that exists can only exist because it is an aspect of Divine Reality, hence an aspect of Divine Unity itself. However, Sufi doctors assert that although Wahdat alWujud may be interpreted that Sufism see the face of God everywhere, it does not mean that it has reduced God to everything. God remains supremely transcendent, even though everything which arises and exists resembles him (tashbih). He resembles nothing but himself (tanzih).2 From the philosophical point of view God is pure; from the mystical and devotional point of view He is Absolute Beauty, of which earthly beauty, whether it be of form, or thought, or action, is but a dim reflection. Our finite minds cannot comprehend the Infinite: we can only speak in metaphors. Overwhelmed by His Beauty, Sufi Muslims conceive of Him, above all things, as the eternally Beautiful. Hence Sufi hymns borrow the impassioned language of the lover. He is all Beautiful, and the whole universe is the mirror of His Beauty. It is said that seventy thousand veils separate the Absolute Being, or Beauty, from the world of matter and sense. Sufism speaks of advancement in the spiritual life as a journey and the seeker after God as a salik or a traveller. Its teaching is intended to guide the traveller to the attainment of the perfect knowledge, marifat of God, the only Reality diffused through all things. A believer is led onwards by slow stages, maqamat and through the
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experience of certain stages, ahwal, along a Path, at-tariqat, to the desired goal of union with God called fana f'il-haqiaqat, absorption (lit. extinction) in Reality. A Sufi in his journey along the Inward Path breaks through these veils and passes in time through seven "stages" during each of which ten thousand more are encountered. During this progress his conception of the Absolute Being changes from that of an objective reality to One having identity with himself and with the universe. The changes in the perception so reached may be expressed as follows: At the first phase the simple creed, "There is no god but Allah," implies three things: there is no agent but Allah, there is no object of worship outside Allah, and there is no existence save Allah. In the later phase the creed takes the form, "There is no god but Thou." In the final stage the creed becomes, "There is no god but I." This is the final goal of the Sufi's journey along the Path.
The background
In Sufism all doctrine is related to the mind. The divine name Allah is the synthesis of all truth and therefore the root of all doctrine. Though the doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud has been developed and extended over the period of several centuries, Sufi Muslims believe that it has its origins in Qur'anic passages, as interpreted by Sufi exegetes. In the circumstances of the second and third centuries (A.H.), the Muslim religious intelligentsia was divided into two groups: the Ulema or pure theologians and jurists on the one hand, and on the other those who gave to religion a more personal basis in religious devotion. The materialistic ways of those in power and later the various debates and controversies between groups, for example, Mutazila and the Hanbalites encouraged further development of Sufi ideas.
The beginning
For the first two centuries of Islam Sufi doctrine and practice was a spontaneous phenomenon which had its beginning in the activity of individuals who themselves were influenced by the earliest believers known as 'ascetics (Zuhhad). It is believed that the first and greatest sufis were the first and the fourth caliphs, Abu Bakr, the Prophet's close friend and father in-law, and Ali the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law. Among other companions of the prophet there were some like Abu Dharr who practised asceticism. There were reciters (Qurra) who wept as they recited the Qur'an and preached. These popular preachers, also known as Qusas or storytellers, exerted a powerful influence on the masses by expounding Qur'anic stories with the aid of materials from other sources including Jewish and Christian.4 As the Sufi way of life became common as a recognised practice, the term Sufi slowly replaced the older names Zuhhad and nussak applied to this group of believers.
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With the development of the formal disciplines of Islamic law and theology, there gradually grew up, with them, the "knowing ones" Ulema. They rapidly developed into an institution with tremendous power. It appears that with growing divergence between Sufi practice and its implicit ideology on the one hand and the emerging orthodox system on the other, Sufis, in order to justify their stand, also started to refer more to Qur'anic verses and statements from Muhammad and some of his companions.5 Thus from the third century onward there arose a whole series of important innovative Sufis who both by their practice and teaching sought to integrate orthodoxy and Sufism in this way. During the third and fourth century of Islam Sufism developed a doctrine of Gnosis (marifa), of an inner experiential knowledge. The 'unity of God' was transformed through the Sufi mystical experience into 'union' with God. The term Tawhid was taken to mean both 'regarding something as one' and also 'unification of something with something else'. Sufis propagated the doctrine that God alone really exists and from there on moved to the belief that 'God is the sole reality of everything.'
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Sufism had always been both a great stimulus and a persistent strain in Islamic literature. From this period on, many prolific writers and Persian poets of the first-rank, in particular, were mystics. It can be seen, for instance, in the work of the great Persian poets Umar Khayyam (d.1124), Rumi (d.1277), Sa'di (d.1292) and Hafiz (d.1390).
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called Ilhamiya, inspired; they generally uphold the doctrine of Wahdat al-Shuhud, a belief that all existence is One; unity of Being in vision or the unity of consciousness. Due to restriction on length of the essay we consider only Sirhindi's view.13
References
1 Nowadays, to most scholars the title Sufi seems to be originally derived from suf or wool, the coarse material these people used for clothing as a sign of asceticism and renunciation. Some suggest that Sufi comes from the root safa, to be pure or from suffa , the raised platform in the Prophet's mosque in Madina where poor people used to sit and exercise devotion. Hujwiri says that in the time of the Companions of the Prophet of Islam and their immediate successors, this name did not exist but its reality was in everyone. (Kashf al-Mahjub, p. 34-35; 81-82). Others believe that the word is derived from sophia, wisdom (Hughs, Dictionary of Islam, p. 608), but this has little reliable foundation. Some scholars identify it with Sophos in the sense of "theosophist" (Idris Shah, Special problems in the study of Sufi idea, p. 11). 2 Glasse, The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, p.379
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3 Ansari, Sufism and Shariah, p.101 4 Fazalur Rahman, Islam, p. 132 5 Fazalur Rahman, Islam, p.134 6 Esposito, John. (Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 2, p. 160 7 The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. III, p. 708. 8 "Although Ibn Al-'Arabi is considered to be one of the most intellectual of Sufis, for him mahabbah, love, and not ma'rifah, knowledge, is the summit of mysticism, for it is love which actually makes Divine union, tawhid, possible." (Glasse, p. 168) 9 Macdonald, The Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, p. 262 10 Even though by some the doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud is ascribed to him, there are indications in the Sufism history that this has been the fundamental and central doctrine of all Sufism throughout the Muslim era. What Ibn Al-Arabi did was to respond to the needs of his age by writing down and making explicit what was taught before him orally. (Glasse, p. 414) 11 Rippin, Muslims: Their religious Beliefs and Practices, Vol. 1, p. 128 12 He also wrote the book al-Insan al-Kamil, a treatise on the doctrine of realisation of the true self. 13 Sirhindi seems to have improved on the idea of the great Sufi Junayad of Baghda (d. 910) who was one of its exponents. 14 Esposito, John. (Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 4, p. 219 15 The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. III, p. 711 16 Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad, Maktubat-i- imami rabbani, ed. Nur Ahmad, Vol. I and II 17 Esposito, John. (Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, Vol. 4, p. 79 18 Wali Allah, Hama'at, p. 64. 19 Wali Allah, Al-Tafhimat 'l-Ilahiyah, Vol. II, pp. 266-7. 20 Lings, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, p. 126
Bibliography
The Holy Qur'an. (tr. A. Yusuf Ali), Maryland: Amana Corp. 1983. Ansari, Muhammad Abdul Haq. Sufism and Shariah, (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 1986 Esposito, John. (Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World [Vol. 1-4], (Oxford University Press, 1995). Glasse, Cyril, The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, (London: Stacey International, 1989) Hughes, Thomas Patrick.. Dictionary of Islam, (Delhi: Cosmo Publications. 1978).
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Hujwiri, Ali B. Usman Al Jullabi. Kashf al-Mahjub, [tr. Nicholson], (Karachi: Darul Ishaat, 1990). Idries Shah. The Way of the Sufi, (London: Penguin Books, 1974) Idris Shah. Special Problems in the Study of Sufi Ideas, (Kent: The Society for the Understanding of the Foundation of Ideas, 1968). Lings, Martin. What is Sufism? (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1975) Lings, Martin. A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, (Cambridge: The Islamic Text Society, 1993) Macdonald, Duncan B. Macdonald. The Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, (London: Darf Publishers, 1985) Nicholson, Reynold. Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) Rahman Fazlur. Islam, (London: University of Chicago press, 1979) Rippin, Andrew. Muslims: Their religious Beliefs and Practices, Vol. 1, (London: Routledge, 1990) Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad. Maktubat-i- imami rabbani, ed. Nur Ahmad, Vol. I and II; (Lahore: Nur Company, 1964) Wali Allah. Hama'at, [Ed. Nurul Haq and Ghulam Mustafa], (Hyderabad: Shah Wali Allah Academy, 1964) Wali Allah. Al-Tafhimat l-Ilahiyah, Vol. II, (Hyderabad: Shah Wali Allah Academy, 1967) __ The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol.10 "Tasawwaf", (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990). Retrieved from "http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Wajjad-al-wahud&oldid=95466" This page was last modified on 29 January 2011, at 12:08.
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