In the cosmic realm, human beings are like balls released into space which
have within them a hidden potential energy for flight into an infinitely sublime
world. But the gravitational attraction of worldly pleasures draws them toward
the depths of the material world, as a result of which they fall and become
degenerate; and the selfish tendencies and Satanic temptations which have become
embodied in materialistic civilizations and cultures increase the speed of their
downfall.
Amidst all this, there are a few individuals and groups of people the eyes of
whose hearts are open to spiritual truths and the ears of whose souls have
become familiar with divine messages who have the resolution to turn aside from
the pollution of their animalistic desires, who open their wings to the
illuminated horizon of the angelic domain and in the course of their evolution
they begin an ascent to the origin of all beauties, splendours, powers, and
raptures and the infinite source of perfections, and in a word, ascend toward
God. Like balls which have bounced down to the ground, they are disillusioned
with the dead-end of materialism and once again, with the same speed with which
they descended, they move in the opposite direction and rise toward the sublime
world. It is quite likely that this process will recur repeatedly.
This reaction may be well observed, nowadays, among groups of people who have
become disillusioned with corrupt Western culture and who feel within themselves
a great thirst and longing for spiritual values, and wander to and fro in order
to find the fountainhead of this lucid water. But, alas, most of them fall into
the traps laid by sorcerers who in place of the nectar of gnosis pour the poison
of perdition down their throats. They lead them from pitfall to abyss, and
through a rear door to the realm of ruin and destruction.
The centrifugal motion of materialistic culture and the turn back toward
spiritual culture is not merely restricted to individual tendencies. We are now
witnessing movements toward Islam in all corners of the world, even in the most
polluted and corrupt of afflicted lands. These movements have been accelerated
by a great Islamic revolution led by a prominent gnostic, who, taking advantage
of the flourishing talents of the people, was able to gain victory over the
Satanic forces in the rays of the lights of Islamic teachings. Despite the great
obstacles put in its way on all sides, it still gallops forward. But, although
this is not the first time that a divine man and gnostic of the Lord has
undertaken the leadership of a popular movement, it is not easy to find another
example with such scope and depth and with such firmness and stability.
In any case, this phenomenon, in turn, also can be a very strong motive for the
investigation of the role of spiritual tendencies, especially the role of
Islamic gnosis, in the positive and desirable changes in the lives of human
beings.
Section 1
Gnosis (`Irfan) in the Islamic World
From antiquity, in the Islamic world there have been tendencies by the names of
gnosis ( `iron) and sufism (tasawwuf), and from the 4th/10th to 8th/14th
centuries they reached their summit in many countries such as Iran and Turkey.
Today, there are various sufi sects all over the world. Similar tendencies also
may be found among the followers of the other religions.
Considering this common aspect, it is natural for the question to be raised as
to whether there really is any such thing as Islamic gnosis to be found in
Islam, or whether Muslims have taken this from others, so that what is called
Islamic gnosis is really the gnosis of Muslims, not a truly Islamic gnosis. If
there is such a thing as gnosis in Islam, is this the very thing which currently
exists among Muslims, or has it been subjected to changes?
In answering these questions, some have absolutely denied the existence of
gnosis in Islam and have regarded it as heretical innovation to be repudiated.
Others consider it to have come from outside the context of Islam, while holding
it to be compatible with it. In this line, some have said that sufism is an
acceptable innovation in Islam, like monasticism in Christianity. In this
regard, the Glorious Qur'an states:
And as for monasticism, they invented it themselves; We did not prescribe it for
them, except for seeking the pleasure of Allah. (57:27)
Finally, there is a group who consider gnosis to be not only a part of Islam,
but the kernel and spirit of it which comes from the Qur'an and prophetic sunnah,
just as the other parts of Islam. It is not that it was adapted from other
schools of thought and trends, and the aspects common to gnosis in Islam and
other religions is no reason to hold that Islamic gnosis was derived from them,
just as the similarities between the religious law (shari`ah) of Islam and the
heavenly religious laws of the previous religions does not mean that the former
was derived from the latter.
We approve of the last response to the question, and we add that the assertion
of the originality of Islamic gnosis is not to condone whatever has been called
gnosis or sufism in Islam. Likewise, it is not just any sort of creed or conduct
found among groups related to Islam that can be considered truly Islamic beliefs
and practices; otherwise, Islam would necessarily be a contradictory set of
beliefs with a conflicting set of values, or there would be conflicting and
contradictory Islams! In any case, with our admission of the originality of
Islamic gnosis, a gnosis whose highest degree was reached by the Noble Prophet,
may the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him and his folk, and his true
successors, we do not deny the existence of foreign elements among the Muslim
gnostics and sufis. Many of the views and manners of behaviour of the sufi
orders are disputable.
Section 2
The Concepts of 'Irfan, Sufism, Hikmat and Philosophy
Before explaining the originality of Islamic gnosis, in order to avoid confusion
and misunderstanding it is appropriate here to give an explanation of the terms
gnosis (`irfan) and sufism (tasawwuf).
The term gnosis (`irfan), like another term of the same family, ma`rifah, [also
translated as gnosis] literally means knowledge, but its technical meaning is
specific to knowledge of a certain kind which can be achieved neither through
the senses nor experience, nor through reason nor narration, but rather is
acquired by inner witnessings and interior unveilings.
Then, these are generalized to some propositions which describe these
witnessings and unveilings. Considering the fact that the acquisition of such
witnessings and unveilings which depend on special exercises and spiritual
discipline are also called gnosis (`irfan), it is known with the qualification `amali
(practical), i.e., as practical gnosis, or the manner of spiritual wayfaring (sayr
wa suluk), just as the propositions which describe the witnessings are called
theoretical gnosis, and also, like the Philosophy of Illumination, [1] is mixed
to some extent with rational argumentation.
The expression sufism (tasawwuf), which, according to the most likely
possibility, is derived from the word suf (wool), meaning wearing woolen
garments, which symbolizes the hard life far from comforts and hedonism, is more
appropriately used for practical gnosis, as the term gnosis ('irfan) is more
appropriate to theoretical gnosis. In this way, in the realm of gnosis, at least
three elements can be identified. One is the specific practical instructions
which are alleged to lead man to intuitive and interior gnosis and conscious
knowledge by presence related to God, the Exalted, and the Most Beautiful Names
and His sublime attributes and their manifestations. The second is the specific
spiritual and psychic states and traits of character, and ultimately, the
unveilings and witnessings achieved by the wayfarer.
The third is the propositions and statements indicating these intuitive direct
findings, and even for those who personally have not travelled the pant of
practical gnosis, can be more or less understood, although finding their truth
and essence is specific to the true gnostics.
By attending to these explanations it becomes clear that the true gnostic is the
one who follows a specific practical programme and attains an intuitive and
direct gnosis of God, the Exalted, and His attributes and actions. Theoretical
gnosis is, in fact, an account and interpretation of this gnosis, which,
naturally, has many shortcomings. If we are not very exact about the terminology
and expand its scope we can use the term gnosis for all spiritual wayfaring
which is undertaken to find the truth and attain felicity, as well as the
resulting spiritual states and witnessings. In this way, gnosis will include
even the kinds of gnosis found in Buddhism and Hinduism and the gnosis of some
of the tribes of Siberia and the native tribes of Africa, just as the term
religion may be applied, with the same sort of extended meaning to Buddhism,
totemism, and the like.
Here it is appropriate to indicate the concepts of wisdom and philosophy, too.
The expression hikmah (wisdom), which is an originally Arabic word, means a firm
and certain gnosis (ma`rifah), and it is often applied to practical gnosis, as
the sense in which it is used in the Glorious Qur'an (17:39). However, in
current terminology it has the meaning of divine philosophy as well as practical
philosophy and the science of ethics, and in ethics itself it is used in the
sense of a trait of the soul related to the use of reason, and as the mean
between the extremes of cunning and stupidity. In any case, it is not applied to
atheistic philosophies or skepticism, to the contrary of philosophy which is
derived from Greek roots meaning any intellectual or rational efforts to
understand the problems of all existence, even if this leads to the rejection of
certain and established gnosis, or even the rejection of objective existence.
Notes:
[1]. The Philosophy of illumination was formulated by Shihab al-Din Yahya
Sohravardi (1153?1191).
Section 3
The Originality of Islamic Gnosis
Anyone who attends carefully to the ayat of the Glorious Qur'an, the words of
the Noble Prophet, and the pure people of his household, may the Blessings of
Allah be upon them, all of them, without a doubt will be able to find many
sublime and profound subjects in the realm of theoretical gnosis, as well as
numerous prescriptions and practical instructions in relation to the spiritual
wayfaring of the gnostic. For example, we can refer to the ayat related to the
unicity of the divine essence, attributes and actions in Surat al?Tawhid (Ikhlas)
as well as the beginning of Surat al?Hadid, and the last ayat of Surat al Hashr,
and likewise the ayat indicating the divine presence throughout the world of
being, and His comprehension over all existents, and the existential
glorification and prostrations of all creatures for God, the Exalted.
Likewise, there are ayat which include special prescriptions and manners which
can be called the way of Islamic spiritual wayfaring, such as the ayat
pertaining to contemplation and meditation, constant remembrance (dhikr) and
attention, rising in the pre-dawn hours and remaining awake at night, fasting,
prolonged prostrations and glorifications during nights, humility and
resignation, crying and falling down when reciting and listening to the ayat of
the Qur'an, sincerity in worship, and the performance of good deeds out of love
and affection toward God in order to achieve nearness to Him and His
satisfaction, as well as ayat pertaining to trust in God, divine pleasure, and
submission before the Lord.
The points which can be found among the narrations attributed to the Noble
Prophet and Pure Imams, may Allah bless all of them, and in their supplications
and intimate devotions related to the above topics are uncountable.
In view of these explicit ayat and dear explications of the Noble Prophet and
his immaculate household, May God's infinite blessings be showered upon them,
two groups have gone to opposite extremes. One group of narrow minded and
superficial people give a trivial and simple meaning to these ayat, and even
consider God as having mutable states and physical ascent and descent, and they
empty the ayat and narrations of their noble and sublime contents. These are the
sort of people who generally reject the existence of anything by the name of
gnosis in the Islamic texts.
Another group under the influence of various social factors have discovered and
accepted some strange foreign elements from others, as a result of which they
have come to believe things which one cannot consider to originate from
religious texts and the contents of the divine Book and Sunnah. Rather, some of
them might be in opposition to the explicit texts which are not capable of
exoteric interpretation. Likewise, regarding practice, they have invented their
own rites and customs, on the one hand, or have borrowed them from non?Islamic
sects. On the other hand, they believe in the suspension of duties for the
accomplished gnostic.
Of course, those who have an exceptionally favourable opinion of all gnostics
and sufis have given excuses and interpretations for all of these issues. But it
is fair to say that at least some of these contentions do not have an acceptable
justification, and we should not be so over impressed with the scholarly and
spiritual greatness of some figures that we accept whatever they say or write
with closed eyes and ears and confirm them, and deny others any right to
criticize and inquire into their works.
Of course, it is clear that the acceptance of the right to criticize does not
mean to condone unrefined or ill considered judgments, or the unfair expression
of bias, nor the failure to pay due heed to positive and valuable points. In any
case, one should seek what is right and true, and travel the way of justice and
fairness and avoid extreme and unreasonable optimism and pessimism and seek help
from God to recognize the truth and to be persistent in the way of the Truth.
It is self-evident that to observe all the issues pertaining to gnosis, sufism,
wisdom and philosophy and their interrelations and each of their relations with
Islam is not a task to be performed within the confines of a single article.
Thus, considering the summary nature of the remarks, we shall be concerned with
the most significant points, and postpone further investigation to the occasion
of more extensive discussion.
Section 4
Gnosis and Reason
One of the fundamental problems which is a matter of contention between the
supporters and opponents of gnosis is whether reason can make any judgment about
what is given through gnosis, which is supposedly acquired by interior
unveilings and witnessings, or whether, for example, reason can refute some of
them or not. The answer to this question is important with regard to the fact
that many gnostics make assertions which cannot be given any rational
explanation. They claim that they discovered these things through the esoteric
way, and that reason does not have the capacity to understand them, and
naturally, that reason thus has no right to refute or reject them.
The most important subject of this kind of controversy is that of the unity of
existence (wahdat al-wujud), which has been propounded in various forms. One is
that, basically, there is nothing, has been nothing and shall be nothing but
God, the Exalted. Whatever has been called other than Him, is said to be nothing
more than illusions and fantasies. Another form of this proposition is that
nothing exists outside the essence of God or outside the vessel of His
knowledge. In this way, a sort of multiplicity in oneness may be accepted.
Another form of this claim, which is more prevalent, is that the wayfarer at the
end of his journey, reaches the station of annihilation (land ), and nothing
remains of him save a name. Finally, the most moderate form of the claim is that
the wayfarer reaches a station in which he sees nothing but God, and all things
fade away into God. In more exact terminology, he witnesses the fading of all
things into the existence of God, the Exalted, like the fading of a weak light
before the light of the sun.
In such cases, the opponents generally take advantage of rational arguments, and
the proponents eventually say that these sorts of matters transcend the limits
of reason. In this way they shirk the burden of the rational explanation of
their claims. Considering these developments, this basic question will be posed:
Are there truths about which reason is incapable of comprehending and has no
right to reject?
What may be said in summary here is that although reason is concerned with
concepts and the function of reason is not to recognize the truth of the
objective existence or origin of any objective thing, let alone the divine
exalted existence, but the positive and negative judgments of reason, when they
are self?evident or may lead to self-evidence, are undeniable and through
concepts may be applied to objective things. The assumption of the error of such
judgments involves contradiction. In other words, although the function of
reason is not knowledge of the origins of existence, with the above mentioned
qualifications, there can be no doubt about the validity of judgments about
phenomena.
As for the issue of the unity of existence, it must be said that the denial of
existence of things other than God and the absolute denial of multiplicity not
only imply the denial of the validity of the judgments of reason, but also
involve the denial of the validity of knowledge by presence belonging to the
active and passive aspects of the soul. In this way, how can we hold that
witnessings and unveilings have any validity, regarding the fact that the best
evidence for their validity is their being present to consciousness? So, the
unity of existence, on this interpretation, is not acceptable at all. However,
we may consider an acceptable interpretation which is propounded in transcendent
philosophy [2] from which it is obtained that the existence of creatures in
relation to God, the Exalted, is a relative and dependent existence, and to be
precise it may be said that they are the very relation and dependence, and they
have no independence of their own.That which is discovered by the gnostic is
this very denial of the independence of other things [than God], which they call
the denial of their real existence.
Here the question may be posed in another form: Can we consider the judgment of
reason prior to intuition and unveiling. In reply, it should be said that pure
knowledge by presence is in truth the discovery of reality itself. Thus, it is
irrefutable. However, knowledge by presence is usually accompanied by a
subjective interpretation in such a way that any distinction between them
requires great care.
These subjective interpretations which involve conceptual knowledge, are
fallible. What are rejected by rational proofs are incorrect subjective
interpretations of observations and knowledge by pretence, not the objects of
knowledge by presence themselves. In the case of the unity of existence, that
which is realized through witnessings is restricted to the independent existence
of God, the Exalted, which due to inattention is called true existence,
according to which true existence is denied of other existents.
It is worth mentioning that the great Islamic gnostics have explicitly claimed
that some unveilings are Satanic, invalid, and may be recognized through some
evidence, and ultimately may be distinguished from others by placing them under
the scrutiny of rational certain arguments, the divine Book and the Sunnah.
It is clear that an investigation into all the kinds of unveilings and
witnessings and the types of knowledge by presence and the ways in which they
are qualitatively reflected in the mind, the causes for the incorrectness of
some subjective interpretations and the way to distinguish the correct from the
incorrect, are beyond the scope of this article.
[2]. Transcendent philosophy refers to the philosophy of Sadr al-Din Shirazi,
known as Mulla Sadra (1571-1640).
Section 5
Gnosis and Religious Law
Another important problem worthy of consideration at the end of this article is
the relation between practical gnosis and the precepts of religious law, or the
relation between tariqah and shari'ah. A group has imagined that practical
gnosis is an independent way to discover truths, to be used without regard to
religious law, and that Islam either corroborates it (by acceptable innovation)
or; at the very least, poses no obstacle to it. And they have continued in this
direction to the point of holding that basically, they considered it to be
unnecessary to be committed to any religion in order to reach gnostic stations,
and others have considered commitment to any one of the religions, and in a more
moderate form, commitment to one of the divine religions, to be sufficient.
However, from an Islamic point of view, gnostic spiritual wayfaring is not along
a way independent of and aside from that of religious law; rather it is a more
exact and subtle part of it. If we restrict the term shari'ah to the outward
precepts, it must be said that tariqah is along with shari'ah, or in its
interior, and it may only be realized with the observation of the precepts of
shari'ah. For example, shari'ah determines the precepts for the ritual prayer;
and tariqah undertakes the ways of concentration and the presence of the heart
in prayer; and the conditions for the perfection of worship. In shari'ah the
performance of worship in order to avoid divine chastisement and to reach the
blessings of heaven is sufficient.
However, gnosis emphasizes the purification of intentions of everything other
than God. This is what is known in the language of the Ahl al Bayt, Peace be
upon them, as "the worship of the free." Likewise, idolatry (shirk) according to
shari'ah is exoteric idolatry by worshipping idols and the like; however, in
tariqah there are more precise types of hidden idolatry and levels of hiddenness.
Having any hope in anything other than God, fear of other than God, seeking the
help of other than God, and love for other than Him, if all of these are taken
as fundamental and independent, and not based on obedience to the divine
commands, they will be considered kinds of idolatry.
Therefore, all kinds of innovations (bid`ah) and arbitrary rites are not only
undesirable but may be obstacles to the achievement of true gnosis, let alone
the use of things which have been explicitly and definitely prohibited and
forbidden. Although it may be the case that some works may bring about transient
so-called gnostic states, they do not have a good result. They may be a Satanic
trap for ultimate downfall, and we should not be deceived by them. It is to be
concluded that the way of Truth is the one that God, the Exalted, has stated:
And what is there after the truth but error? (10:32)
And Peace be upon those who follow the Guidance.
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