Human Development in Islam and Sufism
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Transcript of Human Development in Islam and Sufism
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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN ISLAM AND SUFISM: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim
By Cameron Campbell
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INTRODUCTION
Any attempt to understand the complexity of Islam benefits from an explanation
of its central and most important principle. At the core of Islam is the principle of tawhid,
the oneness of God. This principle asserts God’s omnipotence, omnipresence, and
omniscience. “There is no God but God”. This over arching theological principle of
tawhid extends into society and the individual. Therefore, Islam is a socio-religious
complex in which both society and the individual are understood in relationship to the
oneness of God and are simultaneous manifestations of a unified spiritual reality.1
As a result of the principle of tawhid, Islam exists simultaneously in different
realities. On one level Islam is an internal experience of the reality of God’s existence.
On another level Islam exists in the external reality of history, society and culture. As
such Islam can be viewed from a historical and sociological perspective as a socio-
religious complex that grew out of various cultural transformations and circumstances in
the Hijaz region of Arabia, and through an exploration of the theory, meaning and
message of its holy book, the Qur’an. Simply put, Islam was and Islam is. This paper’s
aim is to view Islam from a historical and sociological perspective while attempting to
keep true to meaning and messages displayed in the Qur’an. However, since, in my
opinion there is no conceivable absolute truth, I offer only my humble interpretation of
this grand and multifarious paradigm of human development.
1 Islam is given new terminology in this paper and will be referred to as the socio-
religious complex of Islam. I use the term socio-religious complex because with a littleexplanation it clarifies the holism and multidimensionality of Islam. Firstly I use the wordsocio-religious because Muhammad’s revelations were concerned with not only theinstitution of a new religion but also a new society to practice it in. I use the termcomplex to clarify that Islam is a whole composed of various interrelated parts.
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I ground my exploration of Islam in various explanations of the concept of human
development on both individual and societal levels. Human development in this context
refers not only to the development of the individual, but the development of society, as it
is human beings that create and animate society with their various beliefs, laws, and
rituals. The socio-religious complex of Islam is based on creating a better life for the
human being by attempting to impose a harmonic order to the complexity and imbalance
of human existence.
In our contemporary historical moment Islam has been stigmatized by various
violent and intolerant manifestations in the form of radical fundamentalisms. This paper
attempts to provide a vision of human development in Islam that is rooted in the qualities
of love, mercy, compassion and generosity and gentleness, and is fortified by a deep
sense of egalitarianism, unity, dependence, and harmony on individual and societal levels
and even universal levels.
The conception of human development in Islam is based on role of the human
being as a servant and representative of God, or kalifa. According to an important Hadith,
man was made in the form and image of God, and therefore it in his nature to represent
Him. As a social-religious complex of Islam nurtures a moral purity in individuals
through iman, faith and islam, submission, as well as ihsan, doing what is good and
beautiful.2 This moral purity opens their hearts to the Will of God in order that they may
truly express the role of the human being as God’s servant and representative.
Being God’s servant and representative implies the active manifestation of God’s
Will within the self and within society. Moral purity is attained through a deep and
2William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, (England: Oneworld
Publications, 2001), 4.
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sincere realization of God’s Will in space, time, society and history and is developed by
following God’s warnings, demands and laws dictated by Muhammad, the Qur’an, the
Hadiths (sayings of Muhammad), the Sunnah (Muhammad’s code of behavior) and the
Sharia. These warnings, demands, and laws, if known, followed and experienced at a
level of pure sincerity and certitude, manifest God’s attributes in their proper places and
at the proper times, creating an individual, social and universal harmony. This harmony
cultivates a deep sense of unity and dependence both in relationship to God, and to fellow
human beings.
Ultimately a deep sincerity and certitude in realizing God’s Will, and being God’s
servant and vicegerent, creates a perfect harmony between the two poles of tawhid, God’s
distance, incomparability, wrath, severity, and majesty, or tanzih, and God’s nearness,
similarity, mercy, compassion, generosity and gentleness, or tashbih. 3 This harmony also
returns the human being to the goodness, beauty, and knowledge of his original
disposition (fitr), belonging to the prototypical human (Adam), who the Qur’an depicts as
having been taught all the names of everything in existence, and their proper place in the
hierarchy of creation. And, as God’s mercy outshines His wrath, the human being
assumes God’s most predominant qualities of mercy, generosity and compassion that
shine forth from him in infinite splendor. The end of the path of human development in
Islam is human perfection.
On a historical and sociological level, Islam grew out of complex cultural milleu.
Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam received revelations from God creating a new
paradigm of human development that responded to a period of social, economic and
3William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
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religious transition in Arabia referred to by scholars and Muslims as the Jahiliyya or “The
Time of Ignorance.”
The Qu’ran indicates that historical mission of Islam is to create a just and
equitable society that is united by a common faith in One God. The Qu’ran says, “We
have created the best community ever raised up to mankind enjoining the right and
forbidding the wrong, and having faith in God.” (A.J. 3, 110)4 Fazlur Rahman states,
“For Muhammad’s monotheism was, from the very beginning, linked up with a
humanism and a sense of social and economic justice whose intensity is no less than the
intensity of the monotheistic idea, so that whoever reads the early Revelations of the
Prophet Muhammad cannot escape the conclusion that the two must be regarded as
expressions of the same experience.”5
The emergence of the socio-religious complex of Islam provided a path of human
development that rejected the arrogance, self-sufficiency, individualism, and the
overwhelming idolatry that pervaded the Jahiliya, and attempted to create a harmonious
spiritual society supported and bound by a common faith and submission to God, and a
sincerity in carrying out his Will through good, and beautiful actions. The creation of the
community of the faithful, the ummah, and the social and economic justice and
egalitarianism required within it were, and are actualized and implemented by the
individual’s commitment to fulfilling God’s Will and the role as a servant and
representative of God. From a historical and sociological perspective, Islam, dispelled,
4 The Koran Interpreted, trans, Arthur John Arberry, 1st Touchstone edition: (New
York: Simon and Shuster, 1955). All Qu’ranic references are from this translation andwill contain A.J.
5 Fazlur Rahman, Islam, Second Edition: (1966: Chicago: University of ChicagoPress: 1979), 12.
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reformed and appropriated various social and religious values that existed in pre-Islamic
Arabia, and reoriented them into a new paradigm of human development, the socio-
religious complex of Islam, which valued the importance of mercy, compassion,
generosity as well as social and economic justice and egalitarianism over all other values.
Therefore the intrinsic mercy, compassion and generosity intrinsic to Islam can be
supported, and validated through a sociological and historical perspective, as well as
through a theological one.
Section 1 of this paper takes a historical and sociological perspective of the
particular social, economic and religious transformations in the Jahiliyya or “Time of
Ignorance, in 6th century Arabia, (Mecca in particular) that led to the emergence of the
socio-religious complex of Islam. The Jahiliyya represents the social, economic and
religious imbalances and problems that God and Muhammad restore through the socio-
religious complex of Islam. It provides a description of the dissolution and division of
tribal society, and the disintegration values of social and economic egalitarianism, and
generosity, as a result of increased commericialization and capitalization of Mecca, the
Ka’bah, and Muhammad’s tribe of Quraysh, and the resulting attitude of self-sufficiency,
and individualism. It also discusses the various religious conditions that influenced the
social and economic transformations, and increasing inequality and self-sufficiency, as
well as the influence of various monotheistic faiths, such as hanifism, that influenced the
emergence of the monotheistic religion of Islam.
Section 2 is an explanation of the socio-religious complex of Islam. The second
section shows how Muhammad radically re-oriented human development on individual
and social levels through the introduction of the socio-religious complex of Islam based
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on belief in One God and the creation of a society based on social and economic justice
and egalitarianism. New values appear in the form of warnings and demands stressing a
personal devotion to sincerity in fulfilling God’s Will, through faith and submission, as
God’s servant and representative. This section places particular attention on the
importance of tawhid, the oneness of God, and the creation of the ummah, the community
of the faithful, within the socio-religious complex of Islam. In the ummah, the
problematic divisions within tribal society are replaced by a society based on social and
economic justice and egalitarianism, and religious solidarity. This section discusses
aspects of social and economic egalitarianism, within the ummah, such as zakat as well as
individual and collective rituals such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage that are central to
being God’s servant and representative. and that support the cultivation of moral purity
and social harmony in the ummah. This section also highlights the importance of
cosmological pressures and conceptions, such as the emphasis on Paradise, Gehenna and
the Day of Judgment, in enforcing faith and submission to God on individual and
collective levels.
Section 3 uses Sufism an example of the most complete expression of human
development in Islam, as it seeks to realize the very nature of man’s existence. In this
section Islam is understood from a theological perspective that illuminates its existence as
an inner experience of the divine reality. Sufism is defined as the path to human
perfection. Sufism provides an example of the extent to which the human being can
become God’s servant and representatives through a balance of tanzih and tashbih.6
Human perfection is achieved by realizing God’s Will though a manifestation of His
6 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
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attributes such that the characteristics of Muhammad and eventually God Himself shine
through the heart. Sufism reveals that the ultimate aim of human development in Islam is
to “manifest the fullness of God’s generosity and mercy.”7 It explains the struggles that
man experiences between tanzih and tashbih. It stresses the importance of different
human faculties in the path towards human perfection in order to attain a perfect
knowledge, and experience of God. Sufism stresses the importance of iman, faith, islam,
submission, ihsan, doing what is good and beautiful, and sincerity ikhlas in cultivating an
awareness of God.8 This section discusses how Sufis have extended regular Muslim
practices aimed at cultivating a complete awareness of God through techniques of Dhikr
or remembrance so that they may remember and be with God at all times. It highlights a
deeper aim of human development in Islam, beyond the creation of a society of economic
justice, the attainment of human perfection and unity with the Divine mercy, compassion,
generosity and love from which all things came and therefore a complete harmony with,
God, society, and the universe.
SECTION 1
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND RELIGIOUS TRANSITIONS IN THE JAHILIYYA
The Prophet Muhammad’s revelations, while universal, certainly addressed and
responded to the social, economic and religious conditions of the time. Since the birth of
Islam both Muslims and Islamicist historians have often referred to pre-Islamic Arabia as
7 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path Of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics ofImagination (New York: SUNY Press, 1989), 21.
8 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 4.
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Jahiliyya meaning “Time of Ignorance.” Technically the Jahiliyya refers to the time just
before the emergence of the religion and community of Islam. The Jahiliyya was by no
means a static or ignorant period of time. It was in fact defined by change. According to
the Islamic perspective Jahiliyya was defined by social and cultural collapse (a gradual
dissolution of tribal values); moral depravity and religious idolatry in the form of
paganism; a divergence from the true monotheistic religion of Abraham. Although this
description of Pre-Islamic Arabia is very simplistic and ignores the complexity and
diversity of Pre-Islamic Arabian religions and society, it provides the description of what
Muhammad was called by God to rectify through the socio-religious complex that
became known as Islam. It also clarifies the multidimensional nature of Islam as socio-
religious complex that sought to change the course of human development on social,
economic and religious levels.
The existing social, economic and religious conditions in 6th century Arabia
during the genesis of Islam were all in a state of progressive transition. The social and
individual developments were changing drastically. The tribal society in which
dedication to ones tribe and clan was the backbone of its ethical framework was being
eroded by a society and culture based on the advancement of individual material
accumulation and wealth, or what Karen Armstrong calls “a rampant and ruthless
capitalism.”9
9 Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4, 000 Year Old Quest of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam (United States: Alfred A. Knopf: 1993), 220.
10
During the 6th century in Arabia there existed two general categories of tribal
people, the nomadic Bedouin and the sedentary people. 10 The Bedouins were nomadic
tribal people who lived in the harsh, bleak and barren desert steppes. They herded sheep
and camels and depended mostly on their animals’ milk and meat for sustenance with
occasional trading at agricultural oases for grains and dates.11 Bedouins would also
conduct raids if needs were dire. The sedentary towns people were wealthier than the
Bedouin and had houses built of mud-brick and stone. Some of them were agricultural
cultivators who settled near oases, others were traders or craftspeople in trading towns, or
practiced a combination of these occupations. 12 Sedentary towns were typically near the
coasts and borders where specific trade relationships had continually developed since
antiquity.
Both the Bedouin and the sedentary townspeople of the Arabian Peninsula had
been, for several centuries, surrounded by and either directly or indirectly connected to
several Empires who competed for wealth, power and religious dominance. Towards the
end of the 6th century various sedentary tribes had become increasingly dependent on the
commercial competition and trade of the surrounding Sasanian, Abyssinian and Roman
Empires. Earlier stages of this progressive change had contributed to the diversification
of Arab society and the growth in the numbers of sedentary Arabs as nomadic Bedouins
10 Some scholars have reserved the words Bedouin for the nomads, but others do
not. For the sake of clarity I will use the distinction.
11 Johnathan Bloom, Sheila Blair, Islam: A Thousand Years of Power and Faith(United States: Yale University Press: 2002), 10.
12 Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples ( New York: Warner Books,1992), 11.
11
began to settle in trading towns.13 The Empires supported different tribes for trade
purposes and to exert their control over Arabian territories. As a result many tribes began
to accumulate an amount of material wealth and power that generations earlier had been
unforeseen for the people of the area. Many of the tribes near the borders of the large
empires became trade centers and tribes that existed on or in between trade routes also
benefited. The increased commercialism had a profound impact on the society, culture
and religion of these tribal groups because it replaced tribal values, rituals and ethics with
new ones that held individual wealth to be more important than tribal unity.
The gradual changes in the economic demographics of the region characterized
by increased trade were made most manifest in town called (Makkah) Mecca that
belonged to the tribe of Quraysh situated in the Hijaz, a western coastal area. Mecca not
only provided a perfect example of the progressive transition occurring in Arabian
society, but was Muhammad’s birth place and the source of the emergence of the religion
Islam.
Mecca became the most import religious pilgrimage and most important financial
center in Arabia because of its possession of a very important shrine called the Ka’bah
that hosted a huge variety of statues and representations pagan deities such as Hubal, Al-
Uzza (the mighty) Al-Lat (the goddess) and Manat (the goddess of fate, or dahr.14 as well
as important representatives of Christianity such as Jesus and Mary. It not only drew
pagans but also drew monotheists such as Christians and Hanifs (an early Arab from of
monotheism, practiced by many including Muhammad based on the rejection of
13 Marshal G. S. Hodgson. The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of
Islam (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1974), 107.
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polytheism.) Before the emergence and spread of Islam, Arabia was a religiously diverse
place teeming with many different kinds of monotheism, Christianity, Judaism, Hanifism,
Zoroastrianism (questionable), and many different kinds of paganism. The Quraysh had
acquired this highly respected shrine under the leader Qussay five generations before
Muhammad.
All trading caravans, merchants and dealers wishing to enter the city of Mecca
were required to have all their goods tallied and their trading missions surveyed. Meccan
officials surveyed the values of the textiles, oils, grains and dates that the traders had
accumulated. For their services, officials collected the fee for entering Mecca, a tax on
the commerce that took place in and around the city. All business ventures had to be
conducted before entering the Ka’bah.15
The intense and bustling trade that existed on the outskirts of Mecca and the
Ka’bah was a result of specific rules and regulations that kept the sanctity of the shrine
intact. As Reza Aslan puts it:
“Like all Semitic sanctuaries the Ka’bah transformed the entiresurrounding area into a sacred ground, making the city of Mecca a neutralzone where fighting among tribes was prohibited and weapons were notallowed. The pilgrims who traveled to Mecca during the pilgrimageseason were encouraged to take advantage of the peace and prosperity ofthe city by bringing with them merchandise to trade. To facilitate this thegreat commercial fairs of the Hijaz coincided with the pilgrimage season,and the rules for one complemented those for the other.”16
The location of Mecca between two major trade routes made it one of the most
important trading centers of Western and Central Arabia. Trade routes coming from the
15 Reza Aslan, No God, but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
(New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006), 24.
16 Ibid, 26.
13
East and the South crossed through the town of Mecca bringing it increased commercial
and material interaction.
As the tribe of Quraysh, and the city of Mecca grew economically it changed
socially and culturally, the important communal values once upheld by tribal society
were replaced by a greedy and materialistic ethic of self-sufficiency and private fortune.
These values stood in contrast to the more traditional tribal lifestyle that emphasized the
ideas of communalism, material obligation and relative egalitarianism, a vengeful system
of justice and an overall dependence on others for survival. The pagan religious systems
of the traditional Bedouin Arabs did not have an overtly ethical character. Religious
beliefs were secondary to tribal beliefs. There was no “absolute morality dictated by a
divine code of ethics” as Reza Aslan puts it.17 The most important concept in tribal
society was maintaining communal solidarity and unity. In a world that was based not on
material accumulation and trade, but constant movement through the harsh and barren
desert steppes of Arabia, survival required a constant dedication to tribal solidarity and
unity on behalf of all the tribal members. “Economics” as a system of profit making was
an impractical conception in the tribal world of pre-Islamic Arabia.
The closest thing to a religious code of ethics was called belief in muruwah on
which tribal values were based. The traditional Bedouin concept of muruwah or
“generous manliness” or chivalry promoted the virtues of bravery, patience and
endurance in suffering, honor, hospitality, strength in battle, concern for justice, complete
dedication to the tribe over the individual and a generous and relatively egalitarian
distribution of wealth and possessions among the members of the tribe by the chief
17 Ibid, 42.
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(Sayyid or Shaykh).18 The Sayyid or Shaykh either inherited his position or was elected as
“the greatest of equals” for embodying the ideals of murruwah. The main job of the
Shaykh or Sayyid was to protect the life of everyone in the tribe, as best he could against
death, especially those people who could not easily protect themselves, such as the very
young, the elderly, the orphans and the widows. 19
The Bedouins used the word karim to refer to someone who was noble. The
designation karim not only praised the individual link to his illustrious ancestors but
represented the most important virtue of Bedouin, extravagant and unlimited generosity
as it was the most blatant and concrete example of nobility. A karim would always be
ready to fight to preserve his community and his ancestral honor. 20 This conception of
honor and kinship was the cohesive force of Bedouin society.
The concept of nobility and honor in the Jahiliyya however was also closely
linked to a sense of personal dignity that was defined by a refusal “to accept anything
whatsoever that might degrade his personal dignity, a fierce passionate nature to hurl
back with scorn anything that might make him feel humbled and humiliated even in the
slightest way.” 21 This characteristic seemed to be more prominent after increased
commercialism altered the Bedouin lifestyle.
18 Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4, 000 Year Old Quest of Judaism,Christianity and Islam, 24.
19 Reza Aslan, No God, but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, 29.
20 Michel Sells, Approaching The Qur’an: The Early Revelations. (United States:White Cloud Press, 1999), 36.
21 Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Qur’an: Semantics of the Qu’ranicWeltanschauung (Malaysia: Islamic Book Trust, 2002), 220.
15
Despite the emphasis on personal dignity, in Bedouin tribal society everyone was
valuable and had to contain a large element of humility, especially toward the Shaykh..
To play their part in the survival of the tribe each member was required to follow every
command of the chief and to hold steadfast to muruwah, but important decisions were
made on a communal basis. However, other tribal members also held specific and
important positions within Bedouin societies. The Qa’id was the military leader, the
Kahin, who played the role of poet and soothsayer, and the Hakam who settled domestic
and intertribal disputes.
The Bedouin system of justice was based on “The Law of Retribution”.22 “The
Law of Retribution” was based firmly on the communal ethic. It dictated that for every
committed crime an equal retaliation was taken. For example “the theft of a camel
required payment of exactly one camel” or the death of one tribal member was avenged
by the Shaykh or Sayyid by killing a member of the murderer’s tribe.23 To facilitate this
law, “blood money” was established for all goods and assets, as well as for every member
of society and even every body part.24 As Karen Armstrong points out, “The vendetta or
blood feud was the only way of ensuring a modicum of social security in a region where
there was no central authority, where every tribal group was a law unto itself and where
there was nothing comparable to a modern police force.”25 This system of justice often
drove the tribes into continual warfare and may have been a problematic result of the
22 Reza Aslan, No God, but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, 30.
23 Ibid, 30.
24 Ibid, 30.
25 Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4, 000 Year Old Quest of Judaism,Christianity and Islam, 134.
16
communal ethic, but the concern for justice was still strong and the virtues of generosity,
patience, hospitality, and endurance in suffering became central to Muhammad’s socio-
religious complex.
Unfortunately, the commercialism of Meccan society was creating new
hierarchies that were destroying the positive virtues of tribal society leading a transition
from a communal lifestyle to “a rampant and ruthless capitalism.”26 To be fair, many
people in the tribe of Quraysh saw their new wealth as a salvation from the harshness of
nomadic life, “cushioning them from the malnutrition and tribal violence that were
endemic to the steppes of Arabia.”27 However, this could only be said by the emerging
nouveau riche. The new social and economic stratification of society eroded the social
egalitarianism of tribal society.
However, despite whatever cushioning the people of Quraysh and Mecca
experienced there was an over all decline in moral standards. And in reality tribal
violence continued to persist and was being exacerbated and complicated by new social
and economic divisions due to unequal levels of material accumulation and the
disintegration of communal values. Hodgson explains that the attitude of the majority of
Meccans during Muhammad’s time was based on “ individual and group pride and point
of honor- pride in birth, pride in one’s wealth and prowess, pride which lead when
crossed, to an unremitting pitiless vengeance; to a passionate and heedless (if sometimes
magnificent) pursuit of self centered, inherently trivial ends.”28 The extravagant and
26 Ibid, 132.
27 Ibid, 133.
17
unlimited generosity of the Shaykh became an extravagant and magnificent hoarding of
individual wealth. The Shaykhs of Quraysh and other people of growing wealth and
power had kept honor as a most important principle. However nobility and honor lost
their cohesive force and became more reflective of the individual dignity based on the
refusal to be humiliated or to maintain a level of humbleness in the face of any perceived
threat.
Increasing individual wealth began to dissolve the tribal values of social
egalitarianism. Shaykhs were too busy in matters of trade to care any longer for
protecting the poor, weak and disenfranchised. Wealthier members of the tribes, those
who were part of the ruling tribes, began to build capital without the interests of the
weaker and poorer members of the community in mind, creating large gaps between the
rich and powerful and the poor and weak. Within the tribes, each clan (families within the
tribes) began to fight each other for their piece of Meccan wealth and individuals within
each clan became greedy and did not share their revenue.
Even the Law of Retribution was ineffective when no one could stand up to the
authority of the wealthiest members of society. Primitive feuds of vengeance began to
take on a vicious and unpredictable ferocity. In this context intertribal relations were hard
to keep balanced and the survival of less wealthy clans such as Muhammad’s Banu
Hashim were severely threatened.
The pursuit of self-centered ends was promoting, among the men an increased
indulgence in pleasures of the flesh, gambling, and usury (money-lending with interest
rates). Extra-marital sex was contributing to the increasingly dissolution of family and
28 Marshal G. S. Hodgson. The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of
Islam, 173, 174.
18
communal ties that were once the key to a good life. There was also a growing lack of
patience and growing impulsivity as people struggled for worldly significance and
pleasure, placing value on material accumulation and individual judgment.
The ruling families had not only an economic monopoly over Mecca, but as
owners of the Ka’bah they had a religious monopoly. As Reza Aslan tells us, “Consider
that the Hanifs, who the traditions present as severely critical of the insatiable greed of
their fellow Meccans, nevertheless maintained an unshakable loyality to the Quraysh,
whom they regarded as the legitimate agents of the Abrahamic sacredness of Mecca and
the Ka’bah.”29
In a place like Mecca where religion and economics were part of the same system,
the progressive transition was not only defined by social and economic changes, but
religious and spiritual changes as well. In a broader historical context the surrounding
Empires had introduced monotheistic beliefs such as Judaism, Christianity and
Zoroastrianism into Arabia and propagated them. Even the polytheistic paganism of the
sedentary Bedouins had become henotheistic, that is, held a high god, (in most cases
Allah the Creator) above all others. Furthermore, the practice of hanifism, an attempt at
renouncing polytheism in favor of a return to the pure religion of Abraham had developed
in the area of the Hijaz. However, a majority of Meccan and of Arabians for that matter
were still pagans until Muhammad spread the religion of Islam and many submitted to
become the servant of One God, Allah.
Bedouin tribal paganism, even in its henotheistic sedentary formulation, remained
as bleak as their traditional existence as desert nomads when they had to fight each day
29 Reza Aslan, No God, but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, 32
19
for survival. As Izutsu explains it, “The pagan view of life is conceived as a series of
calamitous events, governed not by the natural law of growth and decay, but by the
inscrutable will of a dark, blind, semi personal Being, from who’s strong grip there can
be no escape.”30 Because of frequent death due to blood-feuds and tribal turbulence, they
had a firm belief in Dahr, Time, which translates as Death, or Fate.
The pagan belief system had no explicit conception of human development, such
as the one that exists in Islam. There was no teleological significance to the continuance
of man’s existence, beyond the various cultural elements of self-sufficiency and
capitalism. Generally, there was no meaning or goal to a human’s life beyond what he or
she had as a member of the tribe. As tribal values of social egalitarianism and generosity,
were being replaced by material greed, unpredictable barbarism, and the trivial pursuit of
self centered aims, the meaning of life was increasingly measured by individual wealth
and power.
The emphasis on Dahr, the pagan belief system, gave the poor and the
unfortunate people little hope in, or faith about the potential possibilities of this life and
denied all pagans any hope or faith of a better life after death. Karen Armstrong notes
that the “pagan pantheon of deities…had not developed a mythology that explained the
relevance of these gods and holy places to the life of the spirit.”31 Many people like
traders or chiefs who accumulated wealth, did not care for the life of spirit, and
considered their prayer to the pantheon of pagan deities central to the subsistence and
30 Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Qu’ran: Semantics of the Qu’ranic
Weltangschauung, 132.
31 Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4, 000 Year Old Quest of Judaism,Christianity and Islam, 135.
20
creation of their fortune. For those who had the blessings of wealth this semi personal
Being was sufficient, but for the poor and disenfranchised this semi personal Being did
nothing for their dim futures other than end them forever.
In this context some people began to search elsewhere for spiritual fulfillment that
gave them significance beyond Death through the presence of monotheism. Others, who
were not so fortunate, just longed for it. One can only imagine that there was a lack of
faith, especially for poorer and more unfortunate people whose prayers to the various
deities proved effortless in light of growing social and economic inequality and injustice.
A lack of faith also stemmed from a general feeling of inferiority. As is common
the pagan polytheistic Arabs, especially the desert Bedouins, were mistreated by alien
monotheists and constantly threatened. There was also a feeling of inferiority among the
Meccan monotheists (hanifs) such as Muhammad. Many of them asked themselves why
they had been blessed by the presence of the Ka’bah and this great wealth but not by a
Prophet.
SECTION 2
THE SOCIO-RELIGIOUS COMPLEX OF ISLAM
From the laissez-faire culture of pre-Islamic Arabia, in which one could choose
from a variety of religions and gods, a menu of evolving cultural systems and an
underlying emphasis of individual self-sufficiency in a city dominated by trade and
commercialization, Islam emerged as holistic alternative paradigm of human
development, a comprehensive socio-religious complex. It was at once a new religion, it
21
created the framework for a new society, and provided the guidelines for systematic
human development.
The socio-religious complex of Islam through a fundamental rejection of self-
sufficiency and idolatry set about restoring and purifying Abrahamic monotheism,
extending the central concept of tawhid, the Oneness of God into every realm of social,
economic and political interaction. The concept of a community of believers, the ummah,
proposed a vision of society in order to counter act the problems of Jahiliyya. The socio-
religious complex introduced an explicit conception of human development on individual
and societal levels. The central tenets of Islam, iman, faith and trust in God, and islam,
submission to God, actualized the moral qualities allowing man to fulfill the ultimate goal
of human development and realize his role as a servant and representative, or khalifa of
God. A new system of values evolved in which prosperity was the sum of man’s positive
virtues, and good deeds towards God and others. These values on a cultural level were
part of a restoration and revitalization of tribal values and virtues that had been dissolving
in the Jahiliyya and was part of arevitalization of the true religion of Abrahamic
monotheism.
Man was urged to strive (jihad) to bring this prosperity about within society at
large and within the individual. The concepts of Paradise and Gehenna (hell) served as an
incentive and a warning. Ultimately this world-view permeated aspects of economics
and governance so that the socio-religious complex of Islam absorbed both church and
state and created a whole new identity above and beyond tribe and nation.
It all began with one man, and one experience. Muhammad (ibn al-Ahmed), a
man from the tribe of Quraysh, the clan of Banu Hashim, had an experience that called
22
him to prophecy. Muhammad was a merchant and participated in the growing economy
of Mecca. He himself had experienced the changing worldview and lifestyles of the
Meccans. Muhammad had been born an orphan, and had a deep empathy for the
disenfranchised. Muhammad was a man of moral stature and was deeply concerned with
the social and economic inequality of Meccan society, the dissolution of tribal values and
virtues and the idolatry of the polytheists. It was a ritual for Muhammad, a practicing
monotheistic hanif, to take spiritual retreats and meditate on God, moral responsibility,
social and economic inequality or on whatever may be ailing or awing him. During one
of these retreats while Muhammad was meditating in a cave on Mt. Hira he had a
religious experience in which God came to Him through the angel Gabriel. God spoke
these words through the angel:
Recite: In the Name of Thy Lord who created,created Man out of a blood clot,
Recite: And Thy Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen,Taught Man what he knew not.
No indeed; surely man waxes insolent, For he thinks himself self-sufficient,Surely unto thy Lord is the returning. (96, 1-8 A.J.)
This experience began a series of revelations (called the Qur’an, meaning
recitation) that validated the Reality of his monotheistic God, Allah. These revelations
also validated Muhammad’s role as a prophet and a messenger of God, as well as the
leader of a radical social and religious movement.
As a result of its holism and multidimensionality the socio-religious complex of
Islam was able to bring about changes on various different levels, notably on the
individual level and on the societal level. At their very core all of these changes are
23
developmental changes because at its very heart Islam is concerned with the ultimate
conditions and aims of humanity, in other words human development. The socio-
religious complex of Islam, was able to create an explicit conception of human
development through a dramatic reorientation of the beliefs, values and practices that
existed in the Jahiliyya. Using a term derived from the discipline of Development
Studies, the socio-religious complex of Islam is based on a structural adjustment of the
value systems of society and the individual as a means of reorienting its developmental
trajectory.
Tawhid
The emergence of the socio-religious complex of Islam arose as a result of divine
revelations that dictated to Muhammad the religious and social demands that reoriented
the course of human development. The introduction and reorientation of human
development on social and individual levels rested on the restructuring of value systems.
At the top of the new orientation of values, Muhammad placed the transcendental value
of One God. Muhammad’s God was not a new God. Part of Muhammad’s divinely
inspired mission was to restore the pure monotheism of Abraham that had existed in the
Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Christianity. The polytheistic pagans, and the hanifs
were, due to the henotheistic currents of the time, already familiar with a High God,
Allah, who was the Creator of the World. Muhammad’s revelations dictated that Allah
was the God of Abraham and the One and only true God in existence. In the new socio-
religious complex of Islam self-sufficiency and idolatry were replaced by faith and
24
submission the Will of a single God, Allah, and a commitment to a society based on
social and economic justice and egalitarianism.
In the new system nothing was of value unless it was oriented towards the One
God, Allah. In this new value system nothing is of value unless it is oriented towards the
One and only God, Allah. Simply put: Allah sits on His Throne at the top (or the center)
of the hierarchy of values because he is the source of all existent, and non-existence
things. Muhammad’s revelations continually reminded him and the listener of the
omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of God. One aya, or verse from the Sura
of the Cow emphasizes this reality clearly. It says:
“God, there is no God but He the, Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizesHim not, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heaven and theearth. Who is there that shall intercede by Him save by His leave? Heknows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehendnot anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His Thronecomprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Himnot. He is the All-high, All-glorious.” (2:259-274).
The principle of tawhid implies that there is a greater unity that exists above and
beyond the individual reality of each seemingly independent entity, and person, and the
point of existence is to realize this larger unity on an individual, societal and universal
level. As a result the socio-religious complex of Islam, is at base an other-oriented system
of human development that shifted the focus away from over indulgence with one’s self
towards the unifying reality of God, as well as toward the unity of the community. As
such the other-oriented system necessarily focused on the values of compassion, mercy
and generosity among other important virtues such as patience, sincerity and humility,
through faith and submission to the Will of God.
25
The unity of the ummah is a reflection of God’s unity. On a purely theological
level, the ummah is community in which all things were oriented toward God, while on a
sociological level, this re-orientation also placed a pressure upon the individual to realize
God’s Will through a commitment to individual and community well-being. Human
development in the socio-religious complex occurrs on both the individual and societal
level as both are part of the divine reality of God. Fazlur Rahman makes clear the
importance of human development on both individual and societal levels in Islam when
he says:
There is no doubt that a central aim of the Qur’an is to establish a viablesocial order on earth that will be just and ethically based. Whetherultimately it is the individual that is significant and society merely thenecessary instrument for his creation or vice versa, is academic, forindividual and society appear to be correlates. There is no such thing as asocietiless individual.32
Faith
In the socio-religious complex of Islam, a large emphasis is placed on individual
moral responsibility, defined by faith, iman and submission, islam to the Will of God.
Faith and submission replaced the heedlessness, idolatry and self-sufficiency that defined
the Jahiliyya, and provided the basis for servant-hood and represenation.
In the early Muslim community Muhammad revitalized the communal tribal
values of, sincerity, patience and mercy and re-interpreted them into the socio-religious
complex of Islam. As part of this new system they were no longer values derived from a
godless sense of community commitment and forced allegience to the tribal Shaykh, but
32 Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of The Qur’an, (Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica,
1980), 37.
26
values that came from the demands of a divine authority, Muhammad, and through the
voice of God Himself.
In the socio-religious complex of Islam, faith in God, demands the values of
patience and sincerity and mercy. The individual has to be sincere in his beliefs and
merciful in his actions towards God and other people, as God and Muhammad Wills. He
also has to exhibit patience both as an act of self-restraint, as well as part of his faith and
trust in God, the acknowledgment that God’s Will dictated the past, present and the
future.33
The Qur’an indicates that, iman , faith or trust in God, includes belief in the
principles tawhid, prophecy, and eschatology. Faith in tawhid means an
acknowledgement that God is One. Faith in prophecy entails a belief in the lineage of the
Abrahamic prophets or messengers, the final and most purified being Muhammad, and
His Books (the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths). Faith in eschatology means a belief in
the Last Days, when each individual is judged by God and sent to Paradise or Gehenna.
Submission
In the socio-religious complex of Islam, iman, faith, was accompanied by islam,
which means, submission, surrender or servitude, and comes from the same root as the
word peace. As Karen Armstrong points out about the early Muslim community, “In
practical terms, islam meant that Muslims had a duty to create a just and equitable society
33 Marshal G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of
Islam, 174.
27
where the poor and vulnerable are treated decently.”34 Quite literally then, Islam is the
religion of submission, peace and equality. Submission, as the word implies, meant
acknowledging that the individual was dependent on God, and obedient to Him. It was an
existential surrender to God’s omnipotence, omniscience. Therefore submission, not only
defined the relationship between God and the individual, but also the relationship
between one Muslim and his fellow Muslims. Submission, in Islam entails an active
duality, based on the rejection of self-sufficiency and idolatry, and commitment to the
community of the faithful.
When submitting to God Muslims have a commitment to the community of the
faithful, the ummah as well. As John L. Esposito says, “…the submission incumbent on
the Muslim is not that of mere passivity or acceptance of a set of dogmas or rituals, rather
it is a submission to the divine command, to strive (jihad) to actively realize God’s Will
in space-time, and history.”35 The active realization of God’s Will in space, time and
history was the defining characteristic of being God’s servant and representative.
Like the values of patience, sincerity and mercy that followed from a sense of
faith in God, the values of humility and generosity that followed from submission to God
were appropriated from the tribal Bedouin context and given new significance in the
socio-religious complex of Islam. Submission to God and the ummah bestowed the
values of humility and generosity to the believer. The individual had to be humble in the
face of God, but also generous toward Him. On societal level these qualities had to be
34 Karen, Armstrong, A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest for Judaism
Christianity and Islam, 142.
35 Voices of Resurgent Islam, ed. By John L. Esposito, (United States: OxfordUniversity Press, 1983), 4.
28
expressed towards other individuals as well.36 The values of humility and generosity
replaced the egotism, greed and arrogance that were blatant in the Jahiliyya.
Iman and islam function as a symbiotic system within the ummah. That is, they
depend on each other for strength and continuity. True submission can only be attained if
one has true faith and trust in God. True faith and trust in God requires submission to
God’s Will. The unification of iman and islam led to ihsan, doing the beautiful.37 As a
team iman, and islam helped the individual develop taqwa, God-wariness or God-
consciousness which sharpened his awareness of the omnipresent, omniscient, and
omnipotent Allah.
Paradise And Gehenna
Muhammad, following his revelations presented to the people of Mecca and the
surrounding areas a choice between two different relationships. In the Islamic context the
menu of religions and lifestyles had been simplified to a right religion and lifestyle,
Islam, on the one hand, and a large pool of wrong ones on the other. Islam accepted
Christians and Jews as people of the Book, and therefore gave them a certain amount of
respect, but the various types of pagans and polytheists, often called “unbelievers” in the
Quran were considered to be ignorant, heedless and wrong.
Ambiguous conceptions of human development that differed from the Islamic
conception failed to understand the very nature and purpose of humanity, the very
36 Marshal G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of
Islam, 174.
37 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 4.
29
teleology of human existence. It can be said that Islam introduced a definitive conception
of human development and a beneficial teleological philosophy, in a culture that may
have lacked a cohesive one, based on the idea of the human being as a servant and
representative of God.
In the socio-religious complex of Islam, on one hand, an individual can submit
and have faith in God and accept his moral and social demands, in which case God will
accept him out of his mercy and guide him in the straight path of moral purity and ensure
social harmony. In the Quranic context the realization of these moral and social demands
is described as “doing good deeds.”
Doing good deeds if followed properly is what makes someone a good servant
and representative and allows the individual to live eternally in Paradise after the Day of
Judgment. This is the only right choice in the Islamic context. It allows the human being
to develop to his fullest capacity.
On the other hand, in contrast to the idea of Paradise, people can turn away from
God, and become absorbed in their own personal wishes and fortunes, in which case God
would turn away from them, and they would by punished by burning in the hell fires of
Gehenna as heedless “evil doers.” Muslims can also be heedless and ignorant and
hypocritical, if they claim to be Muslims but fail to do good deeds and therefore fail to be
good servants and representatives. However, the Qur’an also emphasizes that God is
forgiving to those who repent, as a result of His ultimate mercy and compassion.
Unbelievers are considered to have ingratitude (kufr), but if they repent, remember God,
and the path they were created for, they are forgiven.
30
The conception of Paradise was central to the reorientation of human
development particularly on an individual level because it changed the fate and destiny of
man. Firstly, it replaced the pagan notions of Dahr, that emphasized the tragedy of life
and the imminence of final and total death, with the more rewarding conception Paradise.
As Izutsu puts it so beautifully, “In fact the Qur’ an offers an entirely different picture of
the human condition. All of a sudden the sky clears up, the darkness is dissipated and in
place of the tragic sense of life there appears a bright new vista of the eternal life.”38
Secondly, the concepts of Paradise and Gehenna places a pressure of ultimate
consequence on the actions, thoughts and intentions of the individual. The beautiful
descriptions of Paradise and the horrible descriptions of Gehenna make individuals fear
God, and places greater emphasis on the importance of dependence and obedience, and
faith and submission.
Prosperity
One of the defining characteristics of the Jahiliyya was the increased
commercialism and capitalism that gave rise to a culture that emphasized individual self-
sufficiency and wealth accumulation. Therefore, prosperity was measured by the
accumulation of material goods. In the socio-religious complex of Islam the idea of
prosperity is completely reoriented. Ideas of material prosperity are replaced with
prosperity that implies giving as opposed to gaining. Prosperity in the Islamic context
does not entail making as much money, or accumulating as many material possessions as
possible, but entails a strict adherence to God’s moral and social demands, and an
38 Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Qu’ran: Semantics of the Qu’ranic
Weltangschauung, 136.
31
understanding of tawhid. The greatest type of prosperity, eternal prosperity is
experienced in the afterlife if the individual lived a good enough life. The Qur’an says
quite explicitly:
Prosperous are the believerswho in their prayers are humbleand from idle talk turn awayand at alms giving are activeand guard their private parts
save from their wives and what their rights ownthen being not blameworthy
(but who-ever seeks more than thatthose are the transgressors)and who preserve their trusts
and their covenantand who observe prayers.those are the inheritors,who shall inherit Paradisetherein dwelling forever.
(23 1- 12 A.J.)
In A.J Arberry’s interpretation of the Quran, the source of these ayas, also
provides us within another example of a similar re-orientation in his use of the word
“wage”. In many places the word “wage” is used in reference to the good judgment an
individual will receive on the Day of Judgment as opposed to a material wage or a
paycheck. The Quran says:
Those who believe and do deeds of righteousness,And perform the prayer and pay the alms-their wage awaits them with their Lord,and no fear shall be on them, neither shall theysorrow.(2: 275-280 A.J.)
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The Ummah
In the socio-religious complex of Islam the ummah, the community of the faithful,
is a defining element because it brings together the social and religious dimensions of the
complex, bridging the illusive gap between individual and societal development.
The ummah is the time and space where God’s Will is realized, and where the
jihad, or striving, takes place.39 The ummah provides a community where Muslims
experience and fulfill their representation and servitude to God. As John L. Esposito says,
“the ummah serves as a dynamic vehicle for the realization of the divine mandate in
society.”40 The personal devotion to moral responsibility, through submission and faith in
God is asserted and experienced by individual and communal acts within the ummah.
Complete sincerity in faith and submission implies a purification of the body, the mind,
and the heart of each of the individual. Every single thing an individual acts, thinks and
intends within the ummah had moral and spiritual significance.
The Quran says, “We have created the best society known to man, enjoining the
right and forbidding the wrong”(3, 10). God demands that society and the individual had
to be put into a social harmony so that the environment was ideal for the realization of
God’s Will, for fulfilling the role of servant and representative of God and for the proper
`39 The word ummah, has been used to refer to several different things. It is always
a reference to the unified body of Muslims, or the ummah al muminin, the community ofthe faithful. However it is also used to refer specifically to the first Islamic polity,Medinat-al-nabi, the City of the Prophet, or more simply Medina, the city. This isbecause Medina was separated from Meccan and Qurayshy society, and was able tobecome subject to its own rules, regulations, practices and rituals. It was in Medina thatthe ummah was solidified into a coherent social complex, and Islam into a cohesivesocio-religious complex. In fact the Jahilliya ends with the migration of Muhammad andhis followers to the area of Yathrib where he founded Medina.
40 Voices of Resurgent Islam, ed. By John L. Esposito, (United States: OxfordUniversity Press, 1983), 4.
33
development of a perfect society. In reality the ummah has never been the utopia that
Muslims and scholars wish it could be. The ummah is increasingly divided and has been
that way since shortly after Muhammad’s death. As Islam expanded the ummah began to
become more institutional, political and more hierarchical becoming guilty of its own
initial critiques of greed, self-sufficiency and idolatry. But its basic foundations of the
first Islamic polity, Medina, were based on ideas of social and economic justice and
egalitarianism that emphasized mercy and compassion. These were values that were held
by tribes before the transition to commericialization, therefore the first ummah was in
many ways much more like a traditional Bedouin tribe, but with a reformed
understanding of social and economic justice and egalitarianism within a new socio-
religious framework. Although this discussion looks at the ummah, in a theoretical and
idealized manner, it does so in order to reveal the intrinsic love, mercy, compassion and
generosity within it.
The ummah as a community serves as the collective embodiment of the rejection
of self-sufficiency and idolatry. These individual and collective rituals is based on the
rejection of shirk. Shirk is the worst sin as it implies putting others in the place of God.
The Meccan predicament was one where people not only placed pagan deities above
God, but also themselves. This predicament tended to make the individual interested only
in his personal issues at the moment. Shirk divorces one from realizing tawhid, and the
humility of individual significance. In the ummah, shirk is destroyed by a social and
religious piety. Piety is not an act of pride or caprice, but an act of humility towards God
and others. Individual piety without a service to the community led to greed, egotism and
34
a false sense of independence and self-sufficiency that corresponded to evil. A Qur’anic
passage indicates that:
It is not piety, that turn your faces to the East and to the West. Truepiety is this: to believe in God, and the Last Day, the angles, theBook, and the Prophets, to give of one’s substance, howevercherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy the traveler, beggarsand to ransom slaves, to perform the prayer to pay the alms. Andthey who fulfill their covenant and endure with fortitude,misfortune, hardship and peril, these are they who are true in theirfaith, these are the truly god-fearing. (2:177 A.J.)
In the ummah Muslims are not only dependent on God, but they are dependent on
other Muslims. Within the ummah the intrinsic mercy and compassion of Islam become
manifest in a society based on justice and social and economic egalitarianism. The early
ummah acted as an alternative to the social and economic problems of the Jahiliyya. In
this way it reoriented the course of human development on a societal level.
Unlike the tribal societies of the Jahiliyya and pre-Jahiliyya, the ummah is not
based on tribal ties, but religious solidarity. Society is no longer governed by tribal law,
but by God’s Law, the Sharia, revealed through Muhammad. Justice was no longer
administered by man-made judgment, but by the judgment of God. The ummah functions
with the idea the earth belonged to God, and people were its stewards and caretakers, and
God’s servants and representatives. In the early ummah tribal vengeance and retaliation
were subordinated to a belief in an all merciful and all compassionate God.41
Muhammad, as the most perfect representative of God, became the chief (Skaykh), the
military commander (Qaid), the lawgiver (Hakam), and the settler of all disputes in the
first Islamic polity in Medina.
35
In the Jahiliyya society became increasingly divided between the haves and the
have-nots as tribal values of social and economic egalitarianism were replaced by
capitalism and individualism. The poor, weak and disenfranchised had little hope to lead
a good life as they were pushed to the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy and
for many, their religious beliefs did not provide them with the spiritual sustenance they
needed to transcend their poverty.
Theoretically, in the community of the faithful, all people, as Muslims, are equal,
belong to the same identity group, are subject to the same laws and rules and share the
same individual and communal rituals. According to the Qu’ran people are the same
under God and differ only in terms of virtue and goodness. So, perhaps in this situation
equity is a better word than equality. Specific social and economic rituals such as prayer,
alms tax and fasting and pilgrimage are demanded in the ummah for the specific purpose
of placing all humans on the same level before God, as a way of unifying them in their
roles as servants and representatives of God. These rituals are used to turn humans away
from their individual selves in order to realize that they were not self-sufficient entities,
but are dependent on both each other and on a greater unifying reality, God. In this way,
the ummah has a high level of conformity to build social and spiritual cohesion and to
enhance a feeling of unity and dependence.
The early Muslim community provided socio-economic reforms that benefited the
poor, the weak, orphans, slaves, widows and women. One of the most characteristic
elements of the Jahiliyya was the social and economic inequality. This inequality was
rectified in the early ummah through various social and economic reforms in the form of
prohibitions and community obligations. These reforms become defining elements of the
36
ummah. Usury, or money lending with interest is outlawed along with gambling,
intoxication, bribery, the abuse of women, false contracts, and individual hording of
wealth. The creation of individual wealth is not forbidden, hard work is seen as God’s
pleasure and is good, but it is limited by other demands that had more importance.
Reflecting the important tribal values of social and economic egalitarianism the Qur’an
forbids individual hoarding of wealth. It says:
Consume not your goods between youin vanity; neither proffer it,to the judges, that you may sinfullyconsume a portion of other men’s goods,
and that unwittingly. (A.J. 2:184)
The true reward for hard work is not material prosperity but social responsibility
toward the community as an expression of mercy, compassion and generosity. The most
important socio-economic reform in the creation of the first Islamic society was the
institution of zakat, an alms tax distributed to the poor and disenfranchised, and the act of
voluntary charity (sadaqa). The Qur’an says, “The free will offerings are for the poor and
needy. Those who work to collect them, those whose hearts are brought together, the
ransoming of slaves, debtors, in God’s Way and the travelers; So God ordains; God is
All-knowing All-wise” (A.J. 9:60.)
The importance of zakat is revealed in the Qur’an. But, as a cultural practice,
zakat was adopted from earlier practices conducted by tribal Shaykhs involving the equal
distribution of resources among tribes and clans. Zakat is one of the characteristic
elements of social and economic egalitarianism within the ummah. However, in Islamic
society zakat, which means purity, was not only an socially and economically egalitarian
action, but one that prevents man from evil and forced him to re-evaluate his ultimate
37
becoming and significance. This action purifies the will of individual and gave them
sincerity by parting with something that they held dear. It is an assertion of compassion,
generosity and mercy toward other people, as well as humility and sincerity. In the act of
giving up something, individuals learn the importance of self-sacrifice for the greater
good of humanity, while at the same time ensuring a place in Paradise for themselves by
following God’s demands. Zakat, provides the perfect example of the social and
economically egalitarian foundation of the ummah. It maintains the intrinsic compassion
and mercy of the socio-religious complex of Islam. It also shows the extent to which the
reorientation of human development occurred.
Within the ummah prayer is among the most emphasized acts. Prayer is a method
of integrating the faculties of body, mind and heart into a single gesture towards God and
Muhammad. Prayer is conducted by prostrations followed by various praises to God.
Prayer is done both individually and communally. The unified prostrations of communal
prayer provide a great example of the equality of the human being under God. During the
act of prayer man is prevented from evil. Prayer clarified man’s dependence on God and
goodness. It provides the human being with a way to worship something of greater
significance than themselves, while others were doing the same.
Among the other most emphasized acts are the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, and
fasting during the month of Ramadan and. During these rituals Muslims experience
individual sacrifice, and individual spiritual growth in, as well as collective harmony. The
Hajj provides an excellent example of the ritual equality of the ummah. During the Hajj
people adorn traditional Muslims dress to create a visible uniformity. Looking at pictures
of millions of Muslims prostrating before the Ka’ba all at once, creates an image of
38
universal humility, as people of all races, colors, ethnicities, and financial status’ are
blended into a sacred ocean of prayer.
The practice Fasting forces one to experience what it is like to not have food and
sustenance, placing one in a state of both physical and metaphorical poverty. The act of
fasting forces all Muslims to empathize with the disenfranchised, the weak, and the poor.
As well, a full stomach gives people a sense of self-satisfaction and indifference, and
hunger is an acute reminder of one’s dependency on God. 42
The socio-religious complex of Islam brought forth a new system of values based
on faith and submission to One God, and a commitment to social and economic justice
and egalitarianism within the ummah. In the ummah, the intrinsic love, mercy,
compassion and generosity of Islam is understood as central to the development of the
human being and the development of society.
SECTION 3
SUFISM
Sufism As A Critique And A Road Map Of Human Development In Islam
William Chittick in Sufism: A Short Introduction, explains, “The early Sufi
masters held that they spoke for the animating spirit of the Islamic tradition. From their
point of view, where this spirit flourishes, Islam is alive to its own spiritual and moral
ideals, but to the extent that it languishes, Islam becomes desiccated and sterile, if it
42 Carl Ernst. The Shambala Guide To Sufism, (Boston: Shambala,
1997), 99.
39
survives as all,”43 According to Chittick, Sufism refers to a reality that stems from the
heart of the Islamic tradition, so there are those who may not call themselves Sufis, but
are alive to the spiritual and moral ideals of Islam. Although Sufism refers to an esoteric
reality at the heart of Islam, that transcends history, Sufism is a cultural phenomenon
linked to a cumulative tradition that came to prominence in the 8th century, and became
institutionalized in the 12th century. As Chittick points out, “On the first level – which is
the primary concern of the Sufis – Sufism has no history, because it is an animating
presence within the community of the faithful. On the second level – which concerns
both Muslim observers and modern historians – Sufism’s presence makes itself known
through certain characteristics of people and society or certain specific norms.”44
Sufism, both as an inner reality and a cumulative tradition are grounded in
important critiques of the ways humans develop within Islamic society, and the world at
large. After Muhammad’s death, the ummah soon became increasingly divided, as did the
socio-religious complex of Islam itself. The unification of politics and religion in the
ummah ultimately proved to be one of its most problematic elements. People consistently
used God’s Will as an excuse for self-centered and egotistical aims. The personal and
sectarian motivations within Islamic society fragmented the initial religious solidarity and
social and economic justice and egalitarianism of the ummah. Throughout history, Sufis
have claimed that Islamic ideals have not been upheld with enough sincerity, as they
observed the ethical bankruptcy of Islamic society.
43William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 21.
44 Ibid, 4.
40
If we accept Chittick’s explanation that Sufism lives up to the spiritual and moral
ideals of Islam, than the Sufi critique of human development within Islamic society and
the world at large, is that human beings have failed to live up to their potential as servants
and representatives of God, failed to reflect the ultimate knowledge, goodness and beauty
of their original disposition, failed to allow God’s attributes of mercy, compassion,
gentleness, generosity and love to shine through their hearts, and that the ummah has
failed in its mission to create a perfect and harmonic society. The evolution of Sufism,
both as an inner reality of Islam, and a multifaceted cumulative tradition, has through
various means tried to revitalize and re-establish the reality of God’s mercy, compassion,
generosity, and love in Islam, and the importance of gaining nearness to God through an
assumption of these attributes. Sufis have consistently been accused by other Muslims as
being, unorthodox, blasphemous, and even heretical, because they practiced various
forms of worship that were not dictated in the mandatory Shariite laws and practices of
the ummah. The great theoretical Sufis were grounded in the sciences of Islam such as
jurisprudence (the study of law) and dogmatic theology, or kalam, as they held rationality
and intellect to be a God given gift, however Sufis were critical of a purely rational
approach to understanding and obeying God, because it tended to stress tanzih, God’s
transcendence, distance, incomparability, wrath, and majesty.45 For the Sufis, God had to
be experienced through other forms of knowledge such as the faculty of imagination, and
through methods of creative expression, that stressed God’s imminence, nearness,
similarity, mercy and beauty, tashbih.46
45 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
46 Ibid, 25.
41
In trying to transform human development on individual and societal levels, the
tradition of Sufism is somewhat analogous to the rise of Islam as a means to endow the
human being and society with a higher moral tone and a deeper sense of faith and
submission to God. Sufism attempts to live up to the moral and spiritual ideas of the
Islamic tradition, as well as to dispel, reject and unveil the evil, oppressive and limiting
forms of its external manifestations within society and the world at large. Sufism attempts
to return and deliver Islamic society, and the Muslim from the clutches of God’s wrath, to
the embrace of His mercy.
Sufism As The Path To Human Perfection
Introduction
The tradition of Sufism is vast and diverse, and can be explained, understood and
experienced in various ways. However at the heart of every description of Sufism, and
every Sufi teaching, is a deep concern with the proper development of the human being,
and the betterment of humanity as a whole. Within the context of the Islamic tradition,
Sufism provides the most complete example of human development, as it concerns itself
with the attainment of human perfection. In order to explain Sufism as the path to human
development I explore various themes. I begin with the most important principle of
Islam, tawhid. Tawhid suggests that God is one, but he manifests himself in various
ways. The human being defines his relationship to God based on his struggle between
tanzih, God’s incomparability, mercy, wrath, severity, and majesty and tashbih, God’s
mercy, beauty and generosity and gentleness.47 The Sufis tend to stress tashbih.48
47 Ibid, 25.
42
This struggle is clarified in the next section by an explanation of man’s original
disposition, his innate duality between incomparability and similarity to God, and his
unique role as the servant and representative of man. This section also emphasizes the
sincerity with which the Sufis take the role of servant-hood and representation. For the
Sufis servant-hood and representation is not only a way of fulfilling the will of God, but
actualizing His divine image and form through an assumption of His attributes.
The next section emphasizes the fulfillment of man’s dual role as a servant and
representative on the Sufi path. Servant-hood is associated requires the acknowledgment
of man’s imperfection and associated with tanzih.49 This section also discusses the
poverty, humility and fear that commonly appear at the beginning of the path.
Representation is associated with tashbih and is a way to explain man’s nearness,
similarity and love of God.50 Together servant-hood and representation provide the basis
for manifesting God’s mercy and generosity, as they are the forces of creation and reality.
A brief explanation of the system of masters and disciples follows to give a sense of how
this relationship is reflected in Sufi orders.
Following the discussion of the fulfilment of servant-hood and representation, I
discuss the important of iman, faith, islam, submission and ihsan.51 These three
dimensions help clarify the importance of the perfections of action, thoughts and
intentions. This section plays particular attention to ihsan as a reflection of Sufism
48 Ibid, 25
49 Ibid, 25
50 Ibid, 25
51 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 4.
43
because it cultivates awareness of God through the heart. After this I discuss the
importance of perfecting the human faculties of reason or rationality, imagination, and
sensuality, or creative expression. I speak to the importance of all these faculties, but
emphasize the superiority of imagination in gaining a direct knowledge of God’s names
and the benefits of the faculty imagination in experiencing God’s self disclosure.
A discussion of sincerity, ikhlas and bewilderment follows in order to
demonstrate the various states, stages and stations on the Sufi path, as the heart opens up
to God’s self-disclosure.52 It also clarifies the Sufi’s struggle between nearness and
distance, fear and love. To emphasize the tension of the paradox between tanzih and
tashbih, I remind the reader of the misleading linearity that occurs as a result various
explanations of the Sufi path and of human development in the Islamic context. The Sufi
path is really a pendulum that swings back and forth to and from God.53
Then, I discuss the various ways Sufis remember and invocate God through Dhikr
in order to emphasize the importance of remembering God in order to attain total
awareness of God’s love, mercy, compassion towards God and others.
I end with an explanation of assuming the character traits of God in order to paint
a picture of perfect man as manifesting the mercy, compassion, love and generosity of
God above all other attributes. Through manifesting God’s names in their proper order
man experiences a state of complete unity and harmony with God, society and the
universe. I provide quotes from different Sufis, classical and contemporary, in order to
suggest the diversity of the expression of these attributes within Sufism. I clarify that
52 Ibid, 6.
53 Ibid, 6.
44
unifying message of human development in Islam, that mercy, compassion, love and
generosity are the most important characteristics of God, of man, in society and in the
universe.
Important Themes on the Sufi Path to Human Perfection
Tawhid And The Path To Human Perfection
The path to human perfection in Islam is rooted in the principle of tawhid, the
oneness of God. Tawhid asserts that God is one, but He manifests Himself in many
different ways. Although all things in the cosmos are other than God, they all derive their
reality from Him. The human being’s relationship to God is defined by the way he
experiences God’s attributes in the self, and in the world. The Qur’an describes God as
distant and incomparable and therefore wrathful, severe and majestic, tanzih, as well as
near and similar and therefore merciful, and, beautiful and generous, tashbih.54 On the
Sufi path, human development is defined by a struggle to create a balance between the
various ways in which God reveals his attributes in the soul and in the world. This is
rooted in the importance of developing an awareness of God that is so central to the
religion of Islam. The Sufis tend to stress God’s nearness and similarity, and his mercy
and generosity, as these are the more personal and positive characteristics - the ones that
live up to the intrinsic mercy and compassion of the socio-religious complex of Islam.
The Sufi’s adhere to a saying that clarifies this: “God’s mercy predominates His wrath”
and believe that all things are a result of God’s ultimate mercy, even His wrath.
54 Ibid, 25
45
Within the Islamic tradition there are various different paths of human
development and of attaining human perfection. Each path, as a result of its particular
methodology and approach, tends to focus on specific attributes of God. For example, the
kalam experts who study dogmatic theology use rationality to understand the relationship
between the human and God, and as a result of the differentiating and discernment
involved in rationality, they inevitably stress God’s distance and incomparability, and his
wrath, majesty and severity. Sufism, although equally as diverse in methodology and
approach provides a more holistic approach to the path towards human perfection that
requires using each human faculty to both understand and experience the totality of
God’s attributes. However, Sufis believe that the heart is the center of consciousness, and
that knowing and experiencing God’s attributes through the heart is the ultimate human
experience, as it is through the heart that the human will is purified and replaced with the
Will of God. With a purified heart, the human being becomes a true servant and
representative of God. Various Sufis disagree as to the final outcome of living with
God’s Will. Some theories seek more of a balance than others, but as a whole Sufism
presents the predominance of mercy and generosity that shines forth in infinite splendor
through perfect man.55
The Original Disposition Of Man And His Innate Duality
Sufi’s take the role of servant-hood and representation with the utmost sincerity.
In Sufi theory, it is made explicit that man was the most important of creations, and the
most unique. The fundamentals of human development in Sufism are based in the Islamic
55 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics
of Imagination. (New York: State University of New York Press, 1989), 28.
46
description of man’s important and unique position in relation to God and the world. In
the Qu’ranic understanding of the origins of humankind, (insan) man (Adam) was created
out of clay, like the other animals that appeared on earth. However, God also blew into
him of His Spirit, the angelic quality, thereby giving them a unique potential that no other
creature had been endowed with.56 The spirit, since it came from God, gave man an
inherent nearness and similarity to Him, however at the same time the quality of clay
denoted a distance, and incomparability to God. This composition gave man the capacity
to sink lower than the level of animals, characterized by self-serving instinct and
primitive sensuality, or higher than the angels, characterized by pure goodness, beauty
and intellect.57 According to Ibn al Arabi,, this composition also defined the struggle
between God’s simultaneous incomparability, and similarity. He said, “So it was these
two relationships- the relationship of incomparability and that of similarity-which turned
their attentiveness toward the creation of man.”58
The Qur’an also explains that, “He taught Adam the names, all of them.” (AJ.2,
31). Sufis interpret this to mean that Adam was given the knowledge of everything in
created existence. God made the angels bow to Adam as a result of his unique position of
spiritual exaltation and his knowledge of the names. All of the angels bowed to Adam,
except Iblis who thought he was better, and had too much pride. Iblis was sent to earth as
56 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi,(New York: State University of New York Press, 1983), 61-73.
57 Ibid, 61-73.
58 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysicsof Imagination, 277.
47
a result of this sin and became Shaytan, (the devil) the evil force that influenced pride,
egotism and envy.59
The Adamic story clarifies the self-centered desires and heedlessness of man.
Adam fell to earth, because Iblis tempted him and he became forgetful and unaware of
God as well as the angelic spirit within him. He lost his originally good and beautiful
disposition and his initial knowledge of all the names. Man’s angelic intellect had fallen
victim to his self-serving animal instincts, and he became egotistical in his desires and
prone to the impulses of sensuality, and evil and devilish deeds. However beneath the
ugly coat of man’s egotistical disposition, still lay an inner spiritual garment with the
potential to transcend his very predicament. It is this inner spiritual garment that the Sufis
wish to actualize by a purification of the will through the opening of the heart.
Although Adam and Eve did disobey God, God made them do it because he
wanted to place a servant and representative on earth. The Qur’an says, “ I am setting in
the earth a viceroy.”(A.J. 2:28) According to a Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad,
commonly quoted by Sufis, originally, man (Adam) was also created in the form or
image of God. In the Sufi context servant-hood and representation is more than a mere
stewardship, or a dominion over the various creatures, and the earth itself, but a
realization of God Himself in the soul and the world, and actualization of the divine
image and form.
For Sufis, true servant-hood and representation means becoming, “his hearing, his
sight, and his hand.”60 Thus, true servant-hood and representation occurs by embodying
59 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi,
82-95.
48
the Will of God, through manifesting His attributes in the soul and the world. Man’s
position of servant-hood and representation is known as the Trust. Man accepted the
Trust at a meeting between man and God called the Covenant of Alast. However, man’s
heedless nature often leads him to forget this primordial agreement with God. The
famous Sufi, Jallaludin Rumi reminds us of the importance of remembering our role and
position on earth, as a servant and representative of God and as the basis for human
development, and the basis of the Sufi path to human perfection:
There is one thing in this world which must never be forgotten. If youforget everything else but not that one thing, than have no fear. But if youperform, remember and do not forget all things, but you forget that, youhave done nothing…We have offered the Trust to the heavens and theearth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it;and man carried. Surely he is sinful, very foolish… (XXXIII 72).61
Fulfilling the Roles of Servant and Representative of God
Fulfilling the roles of servant and representative of God requires
cultivating an awareness of God’s various attributes. The roles of man as both a
servant and representative of God embody an inherent duality that provides a
preliminary example of what is required on the path to human perfection in the
Sufi context. The relationship between servant-hood and representation is laid out
clearly in this passage by William Chittick.
60 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics
of Imagination, 176.
61 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi,63.
49
Human beings in function of their dual relationship with God havetwo main roles: to be God’s servant and to be his vicegerent. Inorder to become a vicegerent, which implies nearness to God, theymust first accept their servant-hood - their distance from God - andact in accordance with it. God in his mercy desires that humanbeings not remain distant but rather gain nearness, but they have tochoose nearness of their own accord. The Sharia is the straight paththat leads to the waters of life.62
The acknowledgement of servant-hood in Sufi theory is rooted in the conception
that the human being is imperfect in relation to God’s Absolute perfection. In a similar
fashion, human reality and existence, is in fact un-real and non-existent in relation to
God’s Absolute existence and His absolute reality. With the realization of the
imperfection of the human being comes a feeling of humility, poverty and fear on behalf
of the Sufi. A Sufi on the path is often given a name that denotes poverty and humility
such as the Persian darvish, or Turkish dervish, and the Arabic, faqir, or as adapted into
English, fakir, both of which mean “poor man.”63 A position of fear is commonly an
initial stage on the Sufi path usually defined or followed by an escape from society, or a
denunciation of various outward norms, and intense ascetic practices. The role of man as
God’s servant asserts and reflects God’s, distance, incomparability and His wrath,
severity and majesty.
The role of man as God’s representative presents a closer relationship with God,
and reflects His more personal characteristics. As a representative of God man has to
choose to gain nearness to God on his own. Through a systematic process of embodying
62 William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, The Vision of Islam, (New York:Paragon, 1994), 128.
63 Carl Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (United States: Shambhala, 1997),3
50
the attributes of God, man reflects these attributes, and represents them in their proper
times and places. Representation asserts God’s nearness, similarity, and His mercy,
compassion and gentleness, beauty and generosity. Sufis towards the end of the path are
often given the title of lover, or lover of God, to denote a position of representation, and
emphasize their nearness and similarity to God. In all Sufi paths to human perfection total
love for God is the ultimate aim.
As servants and representatives of God, and as the vessel for the manifestation of
his attributes, the aim of the individual on the Sufi path is, as Ibn al Arabi states, “To
manifest the fullness of His generosity and mercy,” within the soul and the world.64 Sufis
often quote the hadiths that say, “I loved to be known so I created the world,” and “I was
a Hidden Treasure and I longed to be known.”65 From the perspective of the human being
creation itself was an act of His ultimate love, mercy, compassion and generosity. The
Qur’an states many times the God’s Mercy dominates His wrath, and every chapter but
one beings with Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim, which means “In the Name of God, the
All Merciful and Compassionate.
Ultimately, in the Islamic context the end of a human being’s life, is defined by a
return to God. Based on how well he has fulfilled his role as servant and representative,
and how sincere he was in faith and submission, he goes either to Paradise or Gehenna.
However the Sufis seek to “die before they die”, and be near to God at all times. For
Sufis a return to God is not the end of life, but the beginning of human perfection.
64 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics
of Imagination. (New York: SUNY Press, 1989), 21.
51
Masters and Disciples
Sufism, despite its claim to creating a direct relationship with the divine, have
fostered a master and disciple relationship. Dervishes were and still are, distinguished
from, Prophets, Shaykhs and saints (wali ’Allah, or friends of God) and placed on a
cosmological hierarchy that transcends space and time, traced back by Sufi genealogies
to the Prophet Muhammad. Masters act as mediators between Sufis and their goal. The
master and disciple relationship within Sufism perpetuates the importance of servant-
hood, and the qualities of humility, poverty, imperfection and fear that create a
foundation for a long and difficult path to human perfection and love of God. It also
perpetuates the importance of servant-hood and representation, as the dervish is under
pressure to be obedient and to reflect the qualities of his master, and gain nearness to him,
through love and devotion, and to Him through love and devotion. Worship however, is
reserved solely for God. The master and disciple relationship creates a simulacrum of the
relationship between God and man, as well as between Muhammad and his disciples as a
reflection of the hierarchy of perfection.
Islam, Iman, And Ihsan
The great theoretical Sufis stressed the importance of a systematic approach to
human development and a path to human perfection that was grounded in an adherence to
the Islamic laws and practices and modes of understanding. This systematic path was
needed in order for the human being to recognize his position in relationship to God as a
servant and representative and to create a deepened sense of awareness of Him.
52
William Chittick, a scholar of Islam and Sufism, using as a model the Hadith of
Gabriel, provides a clear and insightful explanation of Sufism within the Islamic context
through a discussion of islam or submission, iman or faith and ihsan or doing what is
good and beautiful. 66 These dimensions also correspond to the various faculties that
require perfecting. These three faculties were perfected by the prophet Muhammad, thus
the perfection of these faculties are strengthened by following his model of behavior, the
Sunnah, as he is the ultimate guide and messenger.
The first dimension Islam, or submission corresponds to the perfection of right
action and the realm of the body.67 Islam, which means submission, teaches people what
to do and what not to do as a Muslim. 68Islam requires fulfilling the laws of the Sharia,
and the Five Pillars and acting in accordance with God’s moral and social demands
within the ummah. According the classical Sufi theoreticians, the acceptance of the
Sharia and the Five Pillars: the recitation of the shahadah (the witnessing of God’s
oneness), zakat (paying of alms tax), the five daily prayers, fasting during Ramadan, and
making the pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj) emphasize right actions and are essential to
the attainment of human perfection. The dimension of islam stresses the importance of
servant-hood and obedience to God. It also reaffirms man’s imperfection in relation to
God and creates the necessary conditions for humility, and servant-hood and
representation.
66 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 4.
67 Ibid, 4.
68 Ibid, 5.
53
The second dimension, Iman, or faith, corresponds to the perfection of right
understanding and speech and the realm of the mind. This dimension teaches people how
to understand themselves and the world around them through knowledge of the objects of
faith.69 Belief in tawhid, His Prophets, His Book and the Day of Judgment and
emphasizing right thought, and as assertion them through speech, are all essential to
attaining a balance because God has commanded that individual realize His Will.
The third dimension ihsan, or doing what is good and beautiful, corresponds to
the perfection of right intention and the realm of the heart.70 According to the Sufis, the
heart, not the body or the mind, is the center of true consciousness and intelligence as it is
the vessel through which the human embodies God’s names, and achieves true
representation of God. This is the most important dimension to the Sufis. Ihsan asserts
that “blind faith” and “blind submission” are not sufficient in cultivating an awareness of
God. According to the theoretical Sufis, those who simply follow the Sharia without
internalizing and interiorizing the external forms of worship, or who acknowledge God
without experiencing Him in themselves and the world, are not engaged with the reality
of God, and are not alive to the spiritual and moral ideals of Islam. Simply put, according
to Sufi theorists, they are not good Muslims - they are hypocrites.
The dimension of ihsan, “teaches people how to transform themselves so that
they may come into harmony with the ground of all being,” and refers to “an inner
awareness of the reality of things that is inseparable from our mode of being in the
69 Ibid, 5.
70 Ibid, 4.
54
world.” 71 Ihsan refers to the processes of creating a harmony between inner and outer
realities. Ihsan is what actualizes the human potential that was given to Adam. Doing
what is good and beautiful, or ihsan returns the human being to his original state of
goodness and beauty, and allows him to truly serve and represent God.72 Ihsan is also
often understood as the expression of love, both love for God and love for fellow human
beings.
Doing what is good and beautiful means that one needs “To worship God as if
you see Him because even if you don’t see Him, He sees you.”73 The assertion that God
can always see you, places an intense pressure on any human action, thought or intention.
This is because beyond the external reality of God’s law, in which God judges and
measures man’s external actions, the Sufis were aware of an internal reality of God that
judges and measures man’s intentions, and inner instincts and emotional impulses, at the
level of the heart.
An acknowledgment of God’s omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience
forces the individual to dig deep into his soul, to the realm of the heart and realize the
true intentions behind all of his actions. Islam and iman do cultivate an awareness of
God, and involve the body, the mind and the heart. Within society islam and iman, create
an awareness of both tanzih and tashbih as they connect the human being to God, but also
emphasize his difference and distance.74
71 Ibid, 5.
72 Ibid, 5.
73 William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, Vision of Islam (New York: Paragon,1994), 296.
74 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
55
However, this awareness is limited if it is not experience directly through the
heart, before any physical, or psychical activity. The purification of intentions at the level
of the heart will purify the actions and thoughts of the human being, opening his heart to
the mercy, compassion and generosity and beauty of God. If the human being is
concerned with good and beautiful activities and filled with love for God, He will love
them back, and show them his merciful and compassionate nature. The unawareness,
heedlessness, ignorance and idolatry or the human being cannot only be replaced through
an awareness of God based on individual and social obligations, but by an awareness of
God on all levels, and in all realms of self and society. God must be understood, and
experienced in all the ways he manifests himself in the world, but ultimately for the Sufis
tashbih is the most important. 75
According to the Sufi perspective ihsan verifies and vivifies islam and iman.76 In
this context the symbiotic relationship between islam and iman become part of the
animated organism of ihsan which becomes the path of attaining an awareness of God,
through an experience of his internal and external reality, and cultivates a heartfelt
sincerity, that is essential to both servant-hood and representation of God, and the
manifestation of His names.
Knowing, Finding And Experiencing God: Reason, Imagination and Love
Sufis often describe the process of becoming an “al-insan al-kamil” to use Ibn al-
Arabi’s term, as knowing, or finding God. Various Sufis also describe the path to human
75 Ibid, 25.
76 Ibid, 21.
56
perfection as self-knowledge. Ultimately, however the process of knowing and finding
God, and therefore the path to human perfection, is a process of annihilating the self, or
replacing it with the Will of God. Therefore knowledge of the self, and knowledge of
God are part of the same process.
In the Sufi context, the discussion of islam, iman and ihsan clarified that
knowing, finding and experiencing God must be attained by a perfection of activities,
thoughts and intentions.77 The Sufis question the place of rationality and abstraction in
the realization of God’s Will and in the achievement of human perfection. They question
whether adherence to the law, the performance of ritual duties, and the studying of
religious texts can leave one with the satisfaction of having reached God. Knowing,
experiencing and finding God, through a blind adherence to Shariite norms, and through
the use of pure rationality is insufficient. Imagination and creative expression are needed
to bring the Sufi closer to God.
Influenced by Greek philosophical methodologies, the purely rational and
intellectual approach to understanding and experiencing God, will, as a result of its nature
to abstract, discern and differentiate, emphasize the dominance of tanzih - God’s
distance, incomparability, wrath, majesty and severity.78 According to those who held
rationalism over other modes of experience, and understanding, God is defined by His
ultimate separation from humanity, and his transcendent power that is beyond perceptive
detection. Within this context God cannot be found within the self, or in the most extreme
cases, in the world. The Kalam experts and the theologians who took this approach
77 Ibid, 4.
78 Ibid, 25.
57
focused on islam, and iman, but ignored, ihsan.79 There approach to human perfection
was thus, limited to a biased experience of God.
In Sufism there is an underlying rationality to the Sufi path. For Sufis attaining
nearness to God is also a rational and reasonable choice rooted in their Qur’anic exegesis.
The interpretation of the Qur’anic verse “where-ever you turn, there is the Face of God”
(2:115) provides us with a good example of these differing interpretations. Those who
use reason and rationality would attempt to explain that the Qur’an does not really mean
what it is implying. According to reason, God cannot be seen, nor have a face because he
is distant and different from humans. A Sufi exegesis may explain that indeed God, is
incomparable to some extent, but He can be seen and even experienced everywhere, and
that God’s face is an expression of this truth.
Rationality, intellect and discernment are very important to the Sufis, they are
gifts from God that gave humans their angelic spirits, giving the human being the ability
to understand the objects of faith. This is why the most famous Sufi theoreticians have
been grounded in the rational Islamic sciences such as jurisprudence, Islamic philosophy
and dogmatic theology, but have not stopped there. Sufis have had to rationalize their
divergence from Shariite norms, and their extension and interiorization of various forms
of worship, as they have often been considered heretical.
In the Sufi context rationality and intellect are used to understand both tanzih and
tashbih.80 The intellect is needed to destroy the ego, through discerning the true nature of
reality, and of man as a dichotomous duality. Rationality, and intellect are also needed to
79 Ibid, 4.
80 Ibid, 25.
58
distill the various inspirational experiences of the divine attributes in order that they
become manifested and active in a proper manner, and order.
For the Sufis, however God must be known, found and experienced in and
through the heart, through the use of imagination, khayal, and forms of creative
expression, that involve sensual perception. The use of imagination, and various forms of
creative expression are of particular importance to the Sufis because they see a purely
rational approach to God, as a limit to understanding, finding and experiencing the inner
reality that exists in the realm of the heart.
According to Ibn al Arabi’s hierarchy of reality, the world of imagination exists
on a plane of existence that is closer to God’s Reality and is therefore more real.81
Imagination brings the Sufi closer to the internal reality of divine presence, and
emphasizes the importance of tashbih, God’s nearness and similarity, and His mercy,
compassion and generosity, love, beauty and gentleness.82 Imagination and creative
expression are needed to become aware of God’s divine reality that lies hidden beyond
the world of forms. Imagination and creative expression provide a more vivid and
visceral experience of the unified reality of God, as they create hybrid realities that are
not easily perceived in the external world. The ineffable feeling of being near to God, and
the indescribable feeling of love, can be expressed and felt through the imagination and
acts of creative expression.
81 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysicsof Imagination. (New York: SUNY Press, 1989), 15.
82 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
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In addition the bewilderment of being simultaneously near to God, and far from
Him are more easily expressed through processes of imagination and creative expression.
Imagination and creative expression are central to Sufism as an alternative mode of
human development within the larger socio-religious complex of Islam, as well as the
heart of the tradition, that challenged the validity of orthodoxy in attaining human
perfection. Sufism as it both affirms and challenges the validity of orthodoxy is a
beautiful paradox united by a common quest for unity, and love.
However, all forms of Sufism contextualize the use of imagination, creative
expression, giving them specific places and purposes in the path towards God, and Love,
and limit those forms, that are deemed evil and wrong. Some Sufi groups are more open
then others in terms of the freedom of creative human expression in the experience of
divine love, and unity. The use of the imagery of love and the use of the metaphor of the
relationship between the lover and the beloved as a symbol of that between the seeker
and God, in some Sufi music and literature has also made some of the more abstract
concepts more accessible to the public. In some cultural settings this has drawn many
non Muslims to respect and acknowledge Sufi masters.
Too much creative expression however, is thought to allow self-indulgence, and
impulsive sensuality. Sensuality is to be curbed by the intellect and creative expression
used in its proper manner through balancing it with rationality and intellect. In the end
rationality and intellect, action and sensuality, and imagination and creative expression
are all essential to the Sufi path of human perfection.
However, in many cases imagination and creative expression are more rewarding
as a vessel for an intimate experience of the divine, as they bring the Sufi closer to God.
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The Sufi path is concerned with creating a unity between the abstract and the concrete,
the physical and the metaphysical. It is important for Sufis to explore the various ways
God manifests Himself within the soul and the world, in order to come into harmony with
them all.
Within the vast tradition of Sufism, although most Sufis emphasize imagination
and creative expression, more than rationality, they still disagree as to the level of its
importance. This disagreement has given rise to a general categorization of Sufis as either
sober or intoxicated. Sober Sufi’s like Ibn al Arabi stress the importance of maintaining a
cold sobriety in the experience of God’s self-disclosure. Intoxicated Sufis, such as Rumi
are willing to express their experience of God’s self-disclosure through periods of
emotionally expressive and ecstatic rapture.
The type of deeper knowledge, experience and finding developed at high stations
and stages of the path, is often called wisdom, or gnosis and is achieved through
processes of unveiling. Unveiling often occurs through imagination and acts of creative
expression and is the process through which the Sufi gains nearness to God, and is able to
receive revelations of God’s Will, like the prophet Muhammad. Unveiling is a process of
removing the illusions of external reality, and tapping into the truth of divine revelation.
Through unveiling, God discloses Himself through manifestation of his attributes within
the soul, and through warnings and demands that guide the Sufi on the path. Through
unveiling the soul becomes connected to the divine presence. Although the Sufi hold
unveiling, and imagination to be a superior mode of knowledge than reason, in processes
of unveiling and revelation reason is needed to make sure these things are given their
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proper due, so that the Sufi is sure that these revelations are coming from God, and not
from the ego, or the devil.
It is the emphasis on imagination and creative expression that separates various
types of Sufism from orthodox Islam. It is important that on the one hand Sufism is
presented as the heart of Islam, as a force that is alive to the spiritual and moral ideals of
the religion, and its intrinsic mercy and compassion. On the other hand it is important to
acknowledge that various forms of Sufism, and models of human development are a
response to the limits imposed on specific forms of human expression and creativity, as a
result of the strictness, rigidity and conformity of the Sharia, and various prohibitions
within society derived from the Qur’an. The power, popularity and efficacy of Sufism,
regardless of its position in terms of Shariite laws are derived from the human experience
of the divine presence, and the ultimate mercy that pervades the universe.
Sincerity And Bewilderment
Sufi literature often speaks of a specific stage or station that allows the
dervish to become more aware of God. It is at this point where the individual is
able to act inwardly and outwardly for God’s sake alone. It is a state that denotes
that God’s will has entered the human being and has become an active reality, and
that the servant has exhibited an adequate level of purity. Chittick uses the
Qur’anic word ikhlas, or sincerity, to denote such a status.83 This is perhaps the
stage or station, that allows the Sufi to begin ihsan, doing what is good and
83 Ibid, 6.
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beautiful, and opens his heart to a clearer realization of God’s omnipresence, the
reality of His mercy, and the mercy of His reality.84
What Chittick calls sincerity, marks a very important change in the life of
the Sufi as he becomes more aware of the inner reality of God within the soul and
the world. However, this moment, regardless of how tantamount it may be to the
Sufi path, is often characterized by a feeling of complete confusion and
bewilderment. This growing awareness may not necessarily be a moment of
complete clarity as the inspiration of divine knowledge and will that the Sufi may
receive simultaneously negates and affirms his imperfection, his non-existence
and un-reality. Thus the Sufi at this moment of realization is caught, between fear
and love, God’s mercy, and wrath and most importantly between his nearness and
distance to God. At this stage the bewilderment may not necessarily be a sense
of being lost, but rather the bewilderment of both understanding, knowing and
experiencing God, and not understanding, knowing or experiencing God, at the
same time. In fact the Sufi path itself can be seen as a path of progressive
bewilderment, and even the perfect human is often described as bewildered. Ibn al
Arabi states that, “The perfect human is he whose bewilderment has intensified
and his regret is continuous- he does not reach his goal because of that which is
his Object of worship, for he strives to achieve that which cannot be achieved and
he threads the path of Him whose path is not known.”85
84 Ibid, 4.
85. William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysicsof Imagination, 349.
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It becomes very hard to speak generally of stages, stations and states, of
this sort, because there are so many Sufi paths, but sincerity and bewilderment are
essential episodes on the path towards perfection. Sufis go into detail about
specific stages and stations, often differentiating between the terms, stages,
stations and states, but a general explanation of the stations or stages of sincerity
and bewilderment provides a sense of what happens between an acknowledgment
of servant-hood and of representation and between tanzih and tashbih. 86
Sufism, A Cyclical and Oscillating Path
The experience of tawhid, is a confusing and paradoxical one that occurs
through continual oscillations between tanzih and tashbih.87 In an explanation of
the process of human perfection a misleading linearity occurs as a result of having
to describe things in a logical and sequential manner. The paths between, fear and
lover, wrath and mercy, servant-hood and representation are more like a
pendulum swinging from tanzih to tashbih, than a straight line from one to the
other. Sufism reveals that there are infinite veils separating us from complete
nearness to God, the Sufi path progresses but does so in cyclical processes that
continue to place the human being nearer to and more distance from God, as the
manifestation of his names and attributes are expressed.
Some Sufis see God’s wrath, majesty and severity as unimportant and
concentrate solely on His mercy, compassion and gentleness. For them it is not about
86 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
87 Ibid, 25.
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balance particularly, but actualizing the attributes that allow for nearness and love of
God. For example many Sufis feel that fear of God’s wrath is not a necessary part of life.
Rabia, the most famous woman Sufi, and Attar, as well as many other Sufis rejected or
devalued the pressures brought out in concepts such as Paradise and Gehenna, as they
deterred individuals from loving God, and gaining nearness to his pervasive reality in the
soul and the world. Love of God, after all is associated with the nearness and similarity
implied by representation of God and is therefore the ultimate aim of the path.
Dhikr
The Sufi path to human perfection requires discipline and rigor. Sufis interiorize
and internalize external expressions of faith and submission through the remembrance of
God, or dhikr (in Arabic) or zhikr (in Turkish). The etymological roots of the word dhikr
in the Qur’an show that the word also means to mention or to invoke. This process of
remembrance, mentioning and invocation is part of the process of manifesting God’s
names within the soul and the world, in order to gain nearness to God, and to become
alive to His mercy. Through the expression of God’s attributes the names of God can be
felt and experienced viscerally and vividly. Dhikr involves the mind, the body and the
heart, placing them into a harmonic resonance of divine remembrance.
On the Sufi path every action, thought and intention, whether it is calligraphy,
poetry or singing, it is a form of Dhikr and should remind the Sufi of God’s
omnipresence and invoke Him within the soul. Even such seemingly mundane practices
such as sleeping were considered essential acts of prayer and remembrance of God.
Dhikr, as a form of continuous prayer, and the processes of manifesting and experiencing
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the names of God within the soul, legitimized, for the Sufis creative forms of human
expression, not demanded by the Sharia. Practices such as poetry, music and dancing
developed within Sufism as a reaction to the rigidity of religious expression that seemed
to hamper the capacity for an inner experience of the divine, as opposed to enhancing it.
In fact the most globally popular symbols of Sufism are associated with intoxicating love
poetry, qawwali music venerating Muhammad and Sufi saints and the whirling dance of
dervishes. The Qur’an speaks against the use of music and poetry, however Sufis believe
that all human capacities must be used to foster awareness and remembrance of God.
These emotive forms are ultimately directed away from the self and toward God,
Muhammad and Sufi saints.
For Sufis it is not enough to distance one’s self from the world, but to attempt to
remove the self in its entirety and become a part of the reality of God’s unity and mercy,
love, compassion and generosity. Practices of dhikr such as renunciation, solitude,
meditation, intense fasting, continual travel and even self mutilation are meant push the
limits of the body, and the mind, and the heart in order to transcend the ego, the self and
reality in an attempt to be in union with the divine Reality, and to cultivate a sense of
love for and unity with God and other people. The practice of dhikr is often a group
activity involving a collective prayer involving the repetition of prayers and praises to
God and Muhammad, and a focus on the use of breathing techniques and physical
movements to create an ecstatic feeling of love and unity.
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Assuming The Character Traits Of God
Sufis teach that the achievement of true servant-hood representation of God
occurs through the sacrifice of human will for divine Will, through an embodiment of the
divine names within the soul, and an external manifestation of these attributes in the
world. God cannot be known in His Essence. However he can be known through the
manifestation of his names, which exists on a lower level, and can be experienced
through His acts, which constitutes the level of everyday human experience. For all Sufis
the end of the path is defined by a manifestation and expression of God’s, love, mercy,
compassion and generosity, often characterized by an overwhelming feeling of love and
harmony with everyone and everything in existence, and a terminal nearness to God. This
harmony allows them to transcend everyday human experience and attain a higher level
of reality while continuing to live in society and among fellow human beings.
The highest level of servant-hood and representation is “to manifest the fullness
of his mercy and generosity”, as Ibn al Arabi puts it.88 This is a result of the notion that
God’s mercy precedes his wrath, derived from the Qur’an and the Hadith. In Ibn al
Arabi’s understanding, God’s mercy and generosity, is beyond human mercy and
generosity. It is not a form of agape love. God’s mercy is like that of a father to his son.
God’s mercy may demand that people be punished sometimes, if it is for the better.
Therefore an the embodiment of God’s mercy by perfect man, may not always seem
merciful to the human being, who is imperfect in his knowledge and experience of God’s
88 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path Of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics ofImagination, 21.
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attributes. However, other Sufis may envision the assumption of God’s mercy and
generosity in different terms, in some cases, preferring the names, love and compassion.
Still, even those questionable Sufis or groups, who may use the term Sufi but
reject various Qur’anic conceptions and Shariite norms, the idea of an all-merciful, all
compassionate, all loving and all generous Creator is maintained, emphasized and
illuminated. It therefore follows that all Sufis agree that the names associated with
tashbih, God’s similarity and nearness hold a higher place in the hierarchy of names, and
are more prominent and important than the others.89 This reflects an understanding that
the most powerful forces in the universe are mercy, compassion, generosity and love,
because it was out of these qualities that God gave rise to human beings and all of
creation.
According to classical Sufi theorists, and scholars such as William Chittick and
Ibn al Arabi, the achievement of representation of God, and therefore human perfection
requires a complete balance or equilibrium of all the names and attributes of God, both
tanzih and tashbih, as the self has been completely annihilated and replaced by the Will
of God. Equilibrium does not mean that everything is the same, equilibrium is a state of
harmonic balance between opposing forces. Complete harmony of all human faculties
means that the Will of God has replaced all the actions, thoughts and intentions of man.
As Chittick points out in the Sufi Path of Knowledge, Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics of
Imagination:
“….. assuming the character traits of God, which precisely is the Sufi path-equilibrium is everything. The divine names must be actualized in proper
89 William C. Chittick, Sufism A Short Introduction, 25.
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relationships, the names of beauty preceding those of wrath, generositydominating over justice, humility preceding over magnificence and so on.The perfect equilibrium of the names is actualized by the assumption ofevery trait in the form of which human beings were created. In a wordperfect equilibirium is to be the outward form of the word “Allah,” theDivine Presence. The person who achieves such a realization is known asperfect man (al-insan al kamil).”90
According to Ibn al Arabi’s model, human perfection, a state of complete
harmony between thoughts, actions, and intentions between the inner dimensions and the
outward dimensions, as a result of a creating a balance of God’s names does not in the
end manifest itself as an external difference.
Ibn al-Arabi states that when the perfected human reaches the “station of no
station” he appears to be completely ordinary.91 He is able to act as a Muslim in the
ummah without being noticed as a superior being because he has attained complete
harmony with everything and everybody inside of him and around him.
Ibn al-Arabi and many other Sufis assert that this harmony is not only a personal
and social harmony, but also a multidimensional, cosmological and universal harmony, a
complete reflection of God’s oneness, tawhid. Ibn al Arabi, and many other classical
Sufis characterize the path to human perfection, as a reflection of the hierarchy of the
universe. Just as God has given everything its proper due (haq), so to, by nature of having
been made in the image of God, the perfect human gives all names and attributes their
haq, with mercy, and generosity dominating over all others. He attains the primordial
knowledge, goodness and beauty that belonged to Adam the archetypical man, and
fulfills the role proposed in the Trust, as a servant and representative of God.
90 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics
of Imagination, 28.
91 Ibid, 28.
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In this context, the perfect human is completely transparent, as his duty is to be
the servant and representative of God. “As an existent thing who lives at once on every
level of the cosmos, perfect man embraces in himself every hierarchy. But as a human
individual who must come into existence and then return to his creator, he has tied
together the origin and the return.”92 This is what Chittick is referring to when he
mentions that on its deepest level Islam is a religion that “transforms the individual so
that he may be in harmony with all being.”93 It is a true expression of ihsan, and a
position of overwhelming love for God and from God.
Sufi M.R. Bawa Muhaiyadeen eloquently expresses the social and universal
implications of human perfection through assuming the character traits of God:
“When these ninety-nine powers of Allah, His three thousand divineattributes, and the qualities of His Messenger begin to resonate within theheart of man, he will not have any enemies…and when his heart sings outin supplication for God’s blessings upon the prophets and upon allmankind, he will see all lives as his own life. When patience, contentment,trust in God, praise of God, and the affirmation that God is great shinefrom within him, his innermost heart will resplend with unity, humility,and harmony. He will have no prejudices or differences. When theconstant remembrance of and contemplation on God begins to resonate inhis heart, that resonance will give forth millions and millions ofexplanations that will bring peace to millions of hearts. Such a person willcare for his neighbor as himself. He will have the ability to hold everyonein an embrace which makes them all one. He will never see anyone as anenemy. Allah has no enemies.”94
92 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al Arabi’s Metaphysics
of Imagination,
93 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 5.
94 M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Islam and World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi,“foreword by Annemarie Shimmel” (Pennsylvania: THE FELLLOWSHIP PRESS,1987), 127-128.
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Ultimately the Sufi path, attempts to lead human beings from a state of
imperfection, to a state of human perfection, defined by servant-hood and representation
of God, achieved through gaining nearness to him by the embodiment of attributes, and
the manifestation of His ultimate mercy and generosity, resulting in a complete harmony
with the true nature of the human being, God, society and the universe, and a feeling of
complete and total love going both out of him and into him. Very few humans attain a
level of perfection, but the Sufi path to human perfection exists as way to try and urge
people to be better human beings. Is there a better ultimate goal for human development?
As the great Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi says, in his poem titled, “The Inner Garment of Love”:
A soul which is not clothed,with the inner garment of Love
should be ashamed of its existence,
Be drunk with Love,for Love is all that exists,Where is intimacy found
if not in the give and take of Love,
If they ask what Love is,say: the sacrifice of will,
If you have not left your will behind,you have no will at all.95
CONCLUSION
The socio-religious complex of Islam provides a holistic vision of human
development on both individual and societal levels. On a societal level the socio-religious
complex of Islam seeks to create a society based on faith and submission to one God and
95 The Rumi Collection, ed. Kabir Helminski, (United States: Shambala, 1998),40.
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a commitment to the ummah, a community based on social and economic justice and
egalitarianism. The emergence of the ummah reformed the idolatry, religious stagnation,
self-sufficiency and social and economic divisions of the Jahiliyya through social and
economic reforms and religious solidarity, by re-orienting individual and collective
actions toward God. Within the socio-religious complex of Islam, human development is
defined by man’s role as servant and representative of God. As a servant and
representative of God, the human being is demanded to practice good deeds through
individual and collective rituals, and to cultivate the qualities of mercy, generosity,
humility, sincerity, and patience in order to create an increased sense of dependence on
and unity with God and the ummah.
On an individual level Sufism provides the most complete example of human
development in the Islamic context as it seeks to perfect the human being. Sufism
addresses the role of the human being as a servant and representative of God with great
depth and commitment. It is a path that seeks to actualize the full potential of man, as he
was made in the image and form of God. The path to human perfection requires a tedious
balancing act between God’s distance, incomparability, wrath majesty and severity -
tanzih and his, nearness, similarity, mercy, compassion, love, beauty and gentleness -
tashbih.96 This balancing act requires a perfection of the actions, thoughts and most
importantly intentions. The perfection of intentions occurs at the level of the heart, and
purifies actions and thoughts, creates a heightened awareness of God’s inner and outer
reality This allows the human being to do what is good and beautiful, as actualize his
innate goodness and beauty. Sufis extend beyond mandatory Muslim practices through
96 William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction, 25.
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dhikr, remembrance, and invocation of God, to deepen this awareness. The achievement
of human perfection also requires a balance of rationality, sensuality and imagination in
order to discern, experience, and know the manifestation of God’s attributes within the
soul and the world. Eventually, if the human being experiences total balance, he
manifests God’s total mercy and generosity and achieves harmony and unity with God,
society, and the universe.
From its origins as a response and alternative to the Jahiliyya, through the
revelations and recitation of the Qu’ran, through its efforts to understand the complexity
of God and to establish a proper relationship with Him and other human beings, the
socio-religious complex of Islam has laid out a holistic paradigm of human development
based on the importance of mercy, compassion, love, generosity, gentleness, unity and
dependence.
Through the extraordinarily evolved understandings of Sufism, from deep within
the heart of Islam, the development of the inner human is taken to an ultimate level of
meaning, filled with humility, wonder, bewilderment and love. The translation of the
realization of God’s Will through the twin roles of servant-hood and representation, are
marked by heart felt intentions, placing a paramount emphasis on assuming and
cultivating the merciful, compassionate, loving, generous and gentle attributes of God.
In the contemporary world, Islam has been stigmatized by various violent and
intolerant manifestations in the form of radical fundamentalisms. This paper is a humble
effort to explain a vision of human development in Islam that is rooted in the qualities of
love, mercy, compassion, gentleness and generosity. And is fortified by a commitment to
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social and economic justice and egalitarianism and enhanced by a deep sense of unity,
dependence, and harmony on individual and social, and universal levels.
Surely we all, non-Muslims and Muslims alike have much to learn from the
human development paradigms of this great socio-religious complex, Islam. And there
seems no better time to begin manifesting these lessons if we are to resolve great
conflicts of growing individualism, selfishness, and “I” oriented societies, and the various
other tensions that are threatening peaceful co-existence and love between neighbors on
earth.
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