VI. The Sufi Doctrine

PART TWO: RABI’A’S TEACHING AND WRITINGS

Rabi’a’s teaching on mysticism and her contribution to the development of Sufism are of considerable importance, and in dealing with her teaching we stand on surer ground than was possible in collecting material for her biography. As a teacher and guide along the mystic Way, Rabi’a was greatly revered by the Sufis and practically all the great Sufi writers speak of her teaching, and quote her sayings, as being of the highest authority. Abū Talib al-Makki, one of the first to write a systematic treatise on Sufi doctrine, al-Qushayri, in his Risala on the subject, the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazālī, of whose works frequent editions have been brought out during the last century, and whose teaching is widely accepted by Muslims up to the present day, and al-Suhrawardi, also a well-known writer on Sufism, all refer to Rabi’a’s teaching on the main doctrines of Sufism. These writers are chiefly concerned with expositions, doctrinal and theological, but Rabi’a’s biographers also make it plain that teaching to others, what she herself had learned of the Way, played an important part in her life. It is to be noted that we do not hear of Rabi’a herself learning from any great shaykh or teacher. ‘Attār says of her, “Rabi’a was unique, because in her relations (with God) and her knowledge (of things Divine) she had no equal; she was highly respected by all the great (mystics) of her time and she was a decisive proof, i.e. an unquestioned authority, to her contemporaries “. A later writer, ‘Abd al-Rā’ūf alMunāwī, gives her equally high commendation when he says that Rabi’a was in the rank referred to by ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, when he said that there were two classes of true believers. First, those who seek a master in the Way that leads to the majesty of God, who may act as an intermediary between them and God, people who persuade themselves that there is no way for them to God except by the Prophet, who was the” chamberlain “(i.e. the one who admitted them into the presence of God), so they do not accept as evidence of the right way, anything in which they do not see the footsteps of the Prophet before them. The second class are those who, when they seek to follow the right Path, do not see before them the footprint of any of God’s creatures, for they have removed all thought (of what He has created) from their hearts and concern themselves solely with God. It is in this latter class that Rabi’a is placed. As al-Munāwī writes:” This state is the state of ‘Abd al-Qādir and Abū Sa’ūd b. Shibli and Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya and whoso follows where they lead, will attain his desire “. Before continuing further, it is necessary to give here a very brief outline of the Sufi doctrine, in order to understand the extent and value of Rabi’a’s contribution to its development. The Sufi view was that man’s business is to eliminate, so far as may be, the element of Not-Being, and to attain to that union with God, that absorption into the Divine, which though to be fully achieved only after the death of the body, is possible in a certain measure even in this present life. But how is one to overcome the element of Not-Being? By conquering self… And how is self to be conquered? By Love. By Love and Love alone can the dark shadow of Not¹^,² Being be done away; by Love and by Love alone, can the soul of man win back to its Divine source and find its ultimate goal in re-union with the Truth. The preparation, then, for those who sought to follow the mystic Way of the Sufis, was the life of Purgation, that is, a life of asceticism, through which the carnal soul, the nafs, might be purified from its sins, which ultimately had their source in the desires of self, the shahawat. When cleansed from these lusts of the flesh, the soul could enter on the Path which was destined to lead it to Union with the Divine. The Sufis often held that such asceticism was necessary only at the beginning of the quest, as a preparatory stage, and some, such as the famous Sufi Shaykh Abū Sa’id b. Abi al-Khayr, felt no need of continuing their ascetic practices when they had attained to a higher degree of the spiritual life. Others, like Rabi’a, as we have seen in the foregoing pages, practised asceticism to the end of their lives, and so came nearer to the fulfilment of the Christian idea of sainthood. The Way, upon which the soul, cleansed from its sins, now entered, was made up of a number of stages, in its passage through which the soul acquired certain qualities, which enabled it to rise higher and higher,³^,⁴^,⁵ and to attain to more exalted stations, until at last, partly through its own striving, partly through the grace of God, it reached the heavenly gnosis (ma’rifa). Through this knowledge, based upon intuitions of the truth (Khawatir al-yaqin) the mystic proceeded to the final goal, the contemplation of God Himself, and the abiding in union with Him for ever. As Abū Tālib writes in the Qût al-Qulub, to the mystic who has attained, it is said, “Thou shalt worship God as if thou sawest Him”, and the same writer, dealing with the derivation of this intuitive knowledge of God, says: The Gnostic is not one who commits to memory passages from the Qur’an, who if he forgets what he has learned, becomes ignorant. He only is the Gnostic who takes his knowledge from his Lord at all times, without having to learn it, and without studying, and this (knowledge) lasts throughout his life-time, he does not forget his knowledge, but he remembers it for ever. He has no need of a book, and he is the (true) spiritual Gnostic. Abū Tālib states that there are indeed myriad ways to God and quotes a gnostic who said, “The ways to God are as many as the believers”, and another who held that “the ways to God are as many as created things, that is, that to the contemplative there is a way to be found through every creature”, and this is in accordance with the later Sufi view that the whole world is the book of God Most High and that beneath the veil of each atom is hidden the soul-ravishing beauty of the Face of the Beloved. But in spite of these more pantheistic views, the serious exponents of Sufism held that the mystic must expect to pass through certain stages, as stated above,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰ and in Abū Tālib’s Qut al-Qulub, al-Qushayrī‘s Risala and al-Ghazālī‘s Ihya Ulum al-Din, whole chapters are devoted to these stages on the Way and the qualities to be acquired by the mystic as he traverses them. These degrees to be attained are given by the Sufi writers, in varying order, as Penitence (tawba), Patience (sabr), Gratitude (shukr), Hope (rajā ’), Holy Fear (khawf), voluntary Poverty (faqr), Asceticism (zuhd) -here considered as applied to the adept, involving renunciation of all save God, not the mere purification from sensual desires needed for the novice -abnegation of the personal will in the Will of God (tawhid), complete Dependence upon God (tawakkul), and finally Love (mahabba), including in this last, passionate longing for God (shawq), intimacy with Him (uns) and Satisfaction (rida ’) considered both objectively and subjectively, i.e. God’s satisfaction in His servant’s obedience and the servant’s satisfaction in God’s service when he casts aside all that belongs to this world and its desires and is content to “glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever”. Other stages mentioned by Sufi writers are Sincerity, Contemplation, Self-examination and Meditation on death, but the stage of Love includes so much that in practice it is the final stage. These stages passed, the Sufi attains to the true Gnosis and the Beatific Vision, through which, becoming one with the Divine, he abides with and in Him for ever.¹¹^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁴

¹ ‘Attār, op. cit. I, p. 59. ↩

² Munāwī, op. cit. fol. 51 b. ↩

³ E. J. W. Gibb, History of Ottoman Poetry, I, p. 20. ↩

⁴ Died at Mayhana, Khurāsān, A.D. 1049. For a full account of his life and writings cf. R. A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Chapter 1. ↩

⁵ Cf. Francis Thompson: “Sanctity is genius in religion: the saint lives for and in religion, as the man of genius lives for and in his peculiar attainment. Nay, it might be said that sanctity is the supreme form of genius. Both are the outcome of a man’s inner and individual love and are characterised by an eminent fervour, which is the note of love in action… In like manner does the Saint receive into himself and become one with divine law, whereafter he no longer needs to follow where the flocks have trodden, to keep the beaten track of rule, his will has undergone the heavenly magnetization by which it points always and unalterably towards God”(Health and Holiness, Works, III, p. 260). ↩

⁶ Abū Tālib, Qūt al-Qulüb, I, p. 120. ↩

⁷ Abū Tālib, op. cit. I, p. 121. ↩

⁸ Abū Tālib, op. cit. I, p. 83. ↩

⁹ Mahmūd Shabistari, Gulshan-i Rāz, p. 13, 1. 201. ↩

¹⁰ Shabistari, op. cit. p. 11, 1. 165. Cf. also Jalal al-Din Rūmī, Mathnawī, II, l. 191. ↩

¹¹ Cf. Rabi’a’s verses quoted above, p. 28 last two lines. ↩

¹² Cf. R. A. Nicholson, arts. on “Sufis” and “Asceticism (Muslim)” in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. ↩

¹³ See above, pp. 48, 49. ↩

¹⁴ Compare the Christian mystic: “The Soul that would be perfect begins to mortify its passions; and when ‘tis advanced in that exercise, it denies itself; then with the Divine Aid, it passes to the state of Nothing… from hence springs the dying in itself and in its senses… insomuch that when the Soul is once dead to its will and understanding, ‘tis properly said to be arrived at the perfect and happy state of Annihilation, which is the last disposition for Transformation and Union… this Annihilation, to make it perfect in the Soul, must be in a man’s Judgment, in his Will, in his Works, Inclinations, Desires, Thoughts and in itself; so that the Soul must find itself dead to its Will, Desire, Endeavour, Understanding and Thought; willing, as if it did not will; desiring as if it did not desire; understanding, as if it did not understand; thinking, as if it did not think… O what a happy Soul is this, which is thus dead and annihilated! It lives no longer in itself, because God lives in it and now it may most truly be said of it, that… ‘tis changed, spiritualised, transformed and deified “(Molinos, The Spiritual Guide, pp. 179 ff.). ↩

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