Book Review

Essential Sufism
Edited by James Fadiman and Robert Frager. Foreword by Huston Smith
Publisher: San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.
ISBN: 978-0-06-251475-2

In his foreword to this volume the late Huston Smith, a renowned scholar of comparative religion, describes Sufis, the mystics of Islam, as “the impatient ones. They want God now – moment by moment, day by day, in this very life. And they are willing to undergo the disciplines that make that possible.” He explains that there are three modes of finding union with God across all religious traditions – ecstasy, intellection or sobriety, and love. Sufis are known for and honour all three – but mostly practice the third. For him love for God is the main theme of the book.

The book itself begins with a 31-page introduction to Sufism through the eyes of Sheikh Ragip Robert Frager Al-Jerrahi, a modern sheikh (spiritual master) and one of the editors. He explains how Sufis progress through four stages – shariah (religious law), tariqah (the mystical path), haqiqah (Truth), and marifah (Gnosis). Sufism teaches how to develop a “heart that can pray” and thus gain the three great blessings given those who love God – islam (submission), iman (faith), and ihsan (beneficence, doing good, awareness of God, worshipping God as if you see him). This progress requires constant effort, but the results lie in God’s hands.

This is true both spiritually and materially. Many people work diligently, but not everyone who works becomes a millionaire. But some do, if God wills. By the same token, some people do become successful on the spiritual path and reach the level of constant awareness of God…. Some people reach this final spiritual state in forty days, others in forty years. And for some, a whole lifetime of effort is not enough. The best path is to let go and surrender to God’s will.

The remainder of the book is an anthology of sayings, prayers, fables, and parables from Sufi teachers, from medieval to modern, including Ibn Arabi, al-Ghazzali, Hafiz, Attar, and Rumi. The editors assembled these, often with their own rewordings, from published translations.

The twenty-three chapters of the book are arranged in eight parts, each part addressing a fundamental aspect of the Sufi path: The Many Faces of Sufism, Living in the World, Love and an Open Heart, Sufi Teachers, Sufism in Action, In Touch with the Divine, Faces of the One, Transformation. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction by the editors.

In the first chapter, The Sufi Way, a quote from al-Ghazzali explains that Way:

The Sufis do not abandon this world, nor do they hold that human appetites must be done away with. They only discipline those desires that are in discordance with the religious life and the dictates of sound reason.… They know the true value and function of everything upon the earth. They nourish their bodies and simultaneously set their hearts free. God becomes the focal point toward which their whole being leans. God becomes the object of their continual adoration and contemplation.

The chapter The World, Mirror of the Divine quotes Jami:

When you see beauty and perfection in this world, it is nothing but a sign of Him. A beautiful creature is merely a single blossom from the vast garden of God. But remember that a picture fades, a flower dies, and the reflection in the mirror is eclipsed by the real Light. It is God who is real and remains so forever. So, why waste your time over something that is here today and gone tomorrow? Go directly to the Source without delay.

The chapter Lower Self is especially rich in insights. Nafs in Arabic, translated as “self,” “ego,” “essence,” or “breath,” is generally used in the sense of “that which incites to wrongdoing,” or “Commanding Self.” The nafs, however, can evolve through seven stages from complete self-centeredness to pure spirituality: the Commanding Self, the Regretful Self, the Inspired Self, the Contented Self, the Pleased Self, the Self Pleasing to God, and the Pure Self. A favoured metaphor among the Sufis for the lower self is the feet of the peacock. A peacock feels great joy on spreading out its beautiful feathers. “But as soon as it looks down at its own feet, it becomes embarrassed.” For human beings the peacock’s foot is our lower self, the “black spot of ignorance that always stays” with us. Awareness of this lower self is beneficial for the Sufi practitioner, as Samani points out:

I saw my lower self in the form of a rat. I asked, “Who are you?” It replied, “I am the destruction of the heedless, for I incite them to wickedness. I am the salvation of the friends-of-God, for if it were not for me, they would be proud of their purity and their actions. When they see me in themselves, all their pride disappears.

In the chapter Love, a quotation from Muzaffar links love and gratitude: “Love is to see what is good and beautiful in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all God’s bounties.” The all-consuming quality of love manifests in Rabia’s answers to two questions. When asked, “Do you love God?,” she answered, “Yes.” When asked, “Do you hate the devil?,” her answer was, “No, my love of God leaves me no time to hate the devil.”

A precious quote from Rumi starts out the chapter Teachers and Students: “The true teacher knocks down the idol that the student makes of him.” Another quotation makes a point well-known among Sufis, that mercy is often disguised as cruelty – just as physicians of the body often use painful methods to cure disease, so do the physicians of the soul, the mystic teachers. And it shows how we readily mistake painful treatments as not cures but afflictions.

An ailing king summoned a physician-sage to treat his illness. The sage refused to come. The king had his soldiers seize the physician and bring him to the palace.

The king said, “I have brought you here because I am suffering from a strange paralysis. If you cure me, I will reward you. If not, I will kill you.”

The physician said, “In order to treat you, I need complete privacy.” So the king sent everyone out of the room. Then the physician took out a knife and said, “Now I shall take my revenge for your threatening me.” He advanced on the king. Terrified, the king jumped up and ran around the room, forgetting his paralysis in his need to escape the seemingly crazed physician.

The sage fled the palace one step ahead of the guards. The king never realized that he had been cured by the only method that could have been effective.

The disciplines and practices of Sufism are aimed at self-knowledge, as is evident from a quote by Reshad Feild in the chapter Practices:

You cannot wake up by reading books that tell you you are asleep. You may not even wake up just because a teacher tells you that you are asleep. You can only wake up if you want to, and begin the work on yourself to cut away all the rubbish in order to come upon the nature of who and what you are.

The essence of the Sufi path is the cultivation of love for God, as beautifully expressed by Sheikh Badruddin in the chapter How to Know God:

God said, “I loved to be known, so I created creation.” This is reflected in the ones whom God loves. The qualities of loving, knowing, hearing, seeing, will, power, and talking are all God’s gifts to humanity. But God’s greatest gift is love, the manifestation of His love of knowing Himself. Love is the primary sustenance for human beings. They cannot live without it, and mankind learned to love from God.

The introduction to the chapter Remembrance of God explains the meaning of dhikr or remembrance:

In Arabic, repetition and remembrance are the same word. It is said that remembrance of God begins with the repetition of God’s Names by the tongue. Then, the repetition of the tongue descends and becomes the remembrance of the heart. Finally, the remembrance of the heart deepens and becomes the remembrance of the soul. At first, you chant the Divine Names, then they chant themselves, then God chants through you.

The end goal of the Sufi path is the opening of the heart. In the chapter Opening the Heart we read the famous saying of the Prophet Muhammad, “The heart of the believer is the sanctuary of God, and nothing but God is allowed access there.” We learn in this chapter that repetition of the divine Names helps engender the purity required for the opening of the heart. Muhammad said, “There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and the polish of the heart is dhikr, the invocation of God.”

A chapter is devoted to service as a core component of the Sufi path. In its introduction we read:

Service is a form of worship – and also a powerful method of self-transformation. Most service that we offer is selfish; it is service for the sake of reward: money, praise, or fame. By service, the Sufis meant service “for God’s sake,” without any thought of reward. This kind of service comes when we remember that we are a part of God’s creation, and that by serving creation we are serving our Creator – not for a heavenly reward, but out of love and gratitude. An old sheikh once said, “Service without love is like a beautiful corpse. The outer form is lovely, but it is lifeless.”

In the chapter Virtues, faith, humility, gratitude, poverty, patience, and generosity are discussed. Al-Ghazzali offers insight into true faith, himself quoting Ibrahim Adham: “Faith in God will be firmly established if three veils are cast aside: feeling pleasure in possessing anything, lamenting over the loss of anything, enjoying self-praise.” Jami offers us great encouragement and hope: “No one ever suffered on the path of faith who did not find the remedy for his or her pain.”