The Sufi Orders in Islam

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THE SUFI ORDERS IN ISLAM BY .

J. SPENCER TRIMINGHAM

OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. I GIJ.SCow NIlW YORK TORONTO /IlEUlOIIRNI! WELLI NGTON CAn TOWN .ALISBURY IBADAN NAIBQBI PAR fOl SALAAM LUIIAKA ADPI. AIABA IIOMBAV CALCUTTA MAIlRAS KAIlACHI LAnOIl� PAcrA JruAU. LUMPUR SINGAI'ORE

nONG KONG TOKYO

© OXFORD UNIVERSiTY PRESS 1971

•

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE Islamic mysticism has exercised a compelling attrac­ tion upon many Western scholars, its organizational aspect, the mystical orders, has been neglected. Yet a misleading impression of Islamic mysticism is conveyed if it is based exclu­ sively upon the writings of its poets and theosophists, for mysticism is essentially a practical discipline based upon the insights of these illuminated seekers. No modern study of the orders exists; the pioneer work of Louis Rinn. Marabouts et KhQfUln, published in Algiers in 1884. though concerned primarily with Algeria, still forms a valuable introduction, whilst its range was extended with the publication of A. le Chatelier's us Conjrbie$ musulmanu du Hedjaz (Paris, 1887). Studies have appeared of particular orders or areas, especially north Africa, but nothing concerning their development through the centuries. The way in which my own views have changed since commencing this study has confirmed the need for a reassess­ ment. This study is primarily concerned with the historical develop­ ment of the orders and seeks to trace the successive phases through which the practice of the Sufi spirit passed. This process took place within the Arabic and Persian spheres upon which the main emphasis is naturally placed. Other cultural spheres took over this development which continued to dominate, even though regional cu1tures made their own contributions and formed their distinctive practices. The intellectual aspect is not ignored, hut concern is restricted to the spiritual and intellectual movement which lay behind the practical working of the orders, their methods of organization and ritual. In terms of the wider setting within the Islamic culture we are concerned with a vast movement of the spirit which spread throughout the Islamic world, influencing tbe ordinary person no less than a mystical elite (which cannot be said of the mystical movement in Christendom), and which today faces a grave crisis through erosion by modern life and thought. I wish to acknowledge the help given me by the Carnegie Trust for the Univecsities of Scotland, when I was a member HI LST

1

PREFACE

of the staff of Glasgow University, through a grant which enabled me to make a study tour in north Africa in 1960. My thanks are also due to my colleague, Professor Nicola Ziadeh, for his help in reading my draft and calling my attention to mistakes and to matters which needed clarification.

J. S T. Beirut

September IrJ69

CONTENTS •

ABBREVIATIONS

I.

11.

OX

The Formation of Schools of Mysticism The Chief

,

Tariqa Lines

3'

Ill. The Formation of Tjj'ifas IV.

Nineteenth-Century Revival Movements

v. The Mysticism and Theosophy of the Orders VI.

VII.

'33

The Organization of the Orders Ritual and Ceremonial

'94

VIII.

Role of the Orders in the Life of Islamic Society

IX.

The Orders in the Contemporary Islamic World

,

APPENDICES A.

Relatmg to Early Silsi!as

.6,

B.

$nIIS,

.64

c.

Suhrawardi

D.

Qa:dm Groups

'7'

F..

fndependent Orders of the Badawiyya and Burhiniyya

274-

F.

Shadhili Groups in the Maghrib deriving from alJaziili

276

G.

Madyaru and Shiidhili Groups in Egypt and Syria

278

H.

Rira'i Tii'ifas in the Arab World

280

Malamatis, and Qalandaris

Silsilas

facing page 270

V11l

CONTENTS

282

BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEXES

Glossary of Arabic General Index

Tenus

300 3'5

ABBREVIATlONS Annale.s tk l'btltitut d'/tuths orientales d'Alga. Archw. maroc. Arcmw.s marocttine.s. A.1.E.a.

b.

ibn - son of.

S.I.F.A.a.

Bulletin

Cdire.

tk

de

l'Uni,,;eniti

l'Institut jranfaU d'Archiologie orientale du

D. Ill. E.I.'. E.!! E.R.E. G.A.L. G.A.L.S. G.M.S. J. Asiat. '.R.A.S.

JOfJrnal asiatique, Paris. Journal oj tM Royal Asiatic Sodety,

M.

Mul;lammad.

ME.]. M.I.DE.a. M.S.a.S.

Middle Emt Journal, Washingkm, D.e. Mila",mIe l'butilut dominkoin d'Snu/aarimt.Jlet, Cairo. MitUilungen det Stmu/uz" jar arimtalische Sprachm,

DIJI' Islam, Berlin. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1St edition, 2nd edition. Hastings' Encytlopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Broekelmann, Carl, Getchithu der orabischerr Literatur. Supplement to G.A.L. E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Seriell. London.

Berlin.

M.W. R.E.I. R.M.M. R.S.a. Z.D.M.G.

Muslim World, Hartford. Revue des /tudu islamiquu, Paris. � du Mrmde mumiman, Paris. RifJista dqli snuii �tali, Rome. Zt:itschrijr tkr Dmfi£hm MorgenliindiKhtlft TIu

Wiesbaden.

GeselJuMjt,

I The Formation of Schools of Mysticism term Pifi was first applied to Muslim ascetics who clothed themselves in coarse garments of wool (fif l ). the form tlliawwuf fOf 'mysticism'. There are excellent guides to Islamic mysticism and all that is necessary by way of introduc­ tion is to give some idea of how I am using the terms !Ufi and Sufism in the context of this study on the mystical Ways and their expression in orders. I define the word fiiJi in wide terms by applying it to anyone who believes that it is possible to have direct experience of God and who is prepared to go out of his way to put himself in a state whereby he may be enabled to do this. Many will not be happy about this definition, but I find it the only possible way to embrace all the varieties of people involved in the orders. The term Sufism as used in this book is equally comprehensive. It embraces those tendencies in Islam which aim at direct com­ munion between God and man. It is a sphere of spiritual experience which runs parallel to the main stream of Islamic consciousness deriving from prophetic revelation and comprehended within the Sharta and theology. This contrast is the reason for the enmity legalists have always borne towards Sufism, for it means that the mystics are claiming a knowledge of the Real (al-lfaqq, their HE

tenn for God) that could not be gained through revealed religion which in Islam became codified religion. Mysticism is a particular method of approach to Reality

(/Jcupqa, another special Sufi term), making use of intuitive and emotional spiritual faculties which are generally dormant and latent unless called into play through training under guidance. This training, thought of as 'travelling the Path' (salak at-tariq), aims at dispersing the veils which hide the self from the Real and thereby become transformed or absorbed into undifferentiated Unity. It is not primarily an intellectual process, though the experience of the mystic led to the fonnulation of various types of mystical philosophy, but rather a reaction against the external

2

THE FORMATION OF SCHOOLS OF MYSTICISM

rationalization of Islam in law and systematic theology, aiming at spiritual freedom whereby man's intrinsic intuitive spiritual senses could be allowed full scope. The various Ways (!uruq, sing.

lariqa)

are concerned with this process, and it is with the historical develop­ ment, practical organization, and modes of worship of these Ways that this book is concerned. Early Sufism was a natural expression of personal religion in relation to the expression of religion as a communal matter. It was an assertion of a person's right to pursue a life of contempla­ tion, seeking contact with the source of being and reality, over against institutionalized religion based on authority, a one-way Master-slave relationship, with its emphasis upon ritual obser­ vance and a legalistic morality. The spirit of Qur'attic piety had flowed into the lives and modes of expression, as in the form of 'recollection'

(dlu'kr),

of the early devotees

(zuhhad)

and ascetics

(nutsiik). Sufism was a natural development out of these tendencies manifest in early Islam, and it continued to stress them as an

essential aspect of the Way. These seekers after direct experience of communion with God ensured that Islam was not confined within a legalistic directive. Their aim was to attain ethical per­ ception (we shall see how this was to recur in later developments) and this was redirected or transfonned to the aim of the Sufis t o attain mystical perception. Sufism was a natural development within Islam, owing little to non-Muslim sources, though receiving radiations from the ascetical-mystical life and thought of eastern Christianity. The outcome was an Islamic mysticism following distinctive Islamic lines of development. Subsequently, a vast and elaborate mystical system was formed which, whatever it may owe to neo-Platonism, gnosticism, Christian mysticism, or other systems, we may truly regard, as did the Sufis themselves, as 'the inner doctrine of Islam, the underlying mystery of the Qur'an'. Sufism has received much attention from Western scholars, yet the study of the development, writings, beliefs, and practices of the orders which are its objective expression has scarcely been attempted. Sufism in practice is primarily contemplative and emotional mysticism. As the organized cultivation of religious experience it is not a philosophical system, though it developed such a system, but it is a 'Way', the Way of purification. This practical aspect is our main concern. Sufi teaching and practice

THE FORMATION OF SCHOOLS OF MYSTICISM

3

were diffused throughout the Islamic world through the growth of particular Ways which were disseminated among the people through the medium of religious orders, and as a religious move­ ment displayed many aspects. The foundation of the orders is the system and relationship of master and disciple, in Arabic murshid (director) and murid (aspirant). It was natural to accept the authority and guidance of those who had traversed the stages (tIUlqamiit) of the Sufi Path. Masters of the Way say that every man has inherent within him the possibility for release from self and union with God, but this is latent and dormant and cannot be released. except with certain illuminates gifted by God, without guidance from a leader. The early masters were more concerned with experiencing than with theosophical theorizing. They sought to guide rather than teach, directing the aspirant in ways of meditation whereby he. himself acquired insight into spiritual truth and was shielded against the dangers of illusions. Sufism in practice consists of feeling and unveiling, since ma'nfa (gnosis) is reached by passage through ecstatic states. Consequently teaching succeeds rather tban precedes experience. Abu l;Iamid al-GhazaJi, a theorist of ethical mysticism, writes of his own realization that what is most peculiar to Sufis 'cannot be learned but only attained by direct experience, ecstasy, and inward transfonnation'. The drunken man knows nothinS about the definition. causes, and conditions of drunkenness, yet he is drunk. whilst the sober man acquainted with the theory is not drunk.' A1-Ghaziili's own inteUectual back­ ground. his inability to submit himself unreservedly to guidance. imposed too great a barrier for him to attain direct Sufi experience. Teaching about the state of !anii' (transmutation of self) wiu not help anyone to attain it, only guidance under an experienced director. Hence the great importance the guides attached to per­ mis.sion to recite adhkar (mystical exercises) and undertake re­ treats, for thereby the burden is adjusted to the capacity of the individual.

A tmiqa was a practical method (other terms were madhhab. ri'aya, and sulilk) to guide a seeker by tracing a way of thought, feeling, and action, leading , Al-GhllZili,

1*4-S·

through

a succession of 'stages'

aI-Munqidla mj" a4-t!a1tIl, Damascus edn., 13S8{1939, pp.

THE FORMATION OF SCHOOLS OF MYSTICISM

4

(maqiimiit, in integral association with psychological experiences called 'states', al;wiil) to experience of divine Reality (l;aqiqa). At first a {ariqa meant simply this gradual method of contempla­ tive and soul-releasing mysticism. Circles of disciples began to gather around an acknowledged master of the Way, seeking train­ ing through association or companionship, I but not linked to him by any initiatory tie or vow of allegiance. Two contrasting tendencies came to be distinguished as Junaidi and Bislami, or 'Iraqi and Khurasarn (but must not be taken too seriously or called schools of thought) after two men, Abu'l­ Qiisim al-Junaid (d. 298/910) and Abu Yazid Taifur al-Bisliimi (d. 260/874), who captured the imaginations more than any other of their contemporaries. These two are held to embody the con­ trasts between the way based on tawakkul (trust) and that on maliima (blame),L between intoxicated and sober, safe and sus­ pect, illuminate and conformist, solitude and companionship, theist and monist, guidance under a this-world director (with a chain of transmitters to regularize in conformity with standard Islamic practice) and guidance under a spirit-shaikh. 'Ali al-Hujwiri refers3 to Bisliimi's teaching, which he calls Tai­ furi, as characterized by ghalaba (rapture, ecstasy) and mkT (intoxication); whereas that derived from al-Junaid 'is based on sobriety (fal;W) and is opposed to that of the TayfiirIs , , , It is the best-known and most celebrated of all doctrines, and all the Shaykhs have adopted it, notwithstanding that there is much difference in their sayings on the ethics of �iifiism.'4 Because he won the approval of orthodoxy as relatively 'safe', al-Junaid comes to be regarded as 'the Shaikh of the Way', the common ancestor of most subsequent mystical congregations, even though many followed heterodox teaching; his inclusion. in their genealogies I Li

'I-Iufiha wa 'd-dan u!a 'r_riWmad al-At'anl (d. fl07/ t4 05) in M. Raghib al_Tabbiikh, J'/,im an-lIubalu' fi ta'rikh f:Jalah, AJeppo, These may

som

19:3-0, v. 144-7. ,

7'

THE FORMATION OF TA'lFAS

shaikh ceased to teach directly but delegated authority both to teach and initiate to representatives (khulafii', sing. khal ifa) . A special cult surrounded the shaikh's person, associated with the power emanating from the founder�saint of the l(i'jia; he becomes an intennediary between God and man. If we characterize the first stage, as affecting the individual, as surrender to God, and the second as surrender to a rule, then this stage may be described as surrender to a person possessing baraka, though of course em­ bracing the other stages. The difficulties of reconciling these ideas with the dogma and law of Islam had long been evident; the orders had been bitterly attacked by zealots like Ibn Taimiya, but now a parallel developed in practice. The founder and his spiritual heirs affirmed their loyalty to the sunna of the Prophet as a necessary first stage in their code of discipline. But this is regarded as only the minimum stage for the vulgar. The orders linked their daily 'tasks' (dhikr al.awqiit) with ritual prayer by requiring their recitation immedi­ ately following the completion of the ritual, though in fact regular ritual prescriptions had less power and binding force than those of the orders. To justify their teaching and practices, the leaders derived it from the Prophet himself or his immediate companions to whom their chains are traced back. In addition, the founders of all orders from the fifteenth century, when they acquired their definitive form, claim to have been commanded by the Prophet in a dream to found a new Way, an actual tariqa. Such a tariqa acknowledges its dependence upon the parent silsi/a and is dis­ tinguished from it in only minor aspects, a different way of carry· ing out the dhikr, and, more important, a new wird delivered to the founder by the Prophet. Beginning as a single organized group, a lli',!a, it might or might not expand into a wider system of dependent centres. The Prophet himself being their supernatural authority, tbe historical revelation is in practice relegated to a secondary place however much they use it in their a{lziih. The shaikhs of each la'ifa claim to be depositaries of divine power (haraka) which enables them to discern truth supernaturally, as well as work miracles-the function which is most prominent, but not necessarily the most important. Whilst inheritance of the bartlka of the founder by son, brother. or nephew began with some groups even as early as the fourteenth century it did not become widespread until the sixteenth, and has .

THE FORMATION OF rA'/FAS

73

never become universal. In the Maghrib it became associated with a peculiar reverence for hereditary holiness, so that groups acquire a new genealogical point of departure from a saint or sayyid eponym. The Maghribis in a sense reorientatcd their past, 3. transformation in many instances also associated with Arabization. Su ccession in the Mawlawiyya has normally been hereditary. The YGnusiyya became an hereditary Id'l/a in Damascus from about 1250.! Another hereditary Damascene fii'/fa is the Sa'diyya or Jibawiyya2 which still exists. The Qadiriyya began as a localized ta'iJa in Baghdad with family branches in DamasCllS and �Iama. In Hadramav.-t leadership of the 'Alawiyya and of its family offshoots was hereditary in the Ba 'Alawi family from its foundation by Mul,1ammad ibn 'Ali ibn Mul,1arnmad (d. A.D. 1255); such a group can only be regarded as an expanded family tariqa. Another derivative of the 'Alawi line is the 'Aidarusiyya laVa of Tarim, founded by Abu Bakr ibn 'AbdaIHih al-'Aidan1s (d, in Aden 914!1509), who acquired a Kubrawi rilsila, and whose order spread through the movement of members of the family into India, Indonesia, and the cast African coast, but always remained a restricted lineal lariqa with little influence.} Throughout the sphere of the Ottoman Empire hereditary succession was becoming widespread in the eighteenth century, but it was still nota universal practice, ,

See abovc, p. 15. o The Sa'diyya is a family ,a'ija claiming Sa'd ad-din al-Jibiiwl ibn YOnUII ash-Shaibini (d. n"ar Jiba a fcw mi l es north of Damascus 736/'335) a, illl fO\lllder. who took the lariqa from the YUnisi aJ'ld Rifi'; lines. It is menlloned around "'.0. 13�0 as Ihe Khirqa Sa'diyya by al·Wisi\; (Tiryiq, p. 49)' It came intO promin"nce with Mu1).ammad ibn Sa'd ad.dIn (d. 1020/1611) who, �fter miraculoUllly convened at Mecca, retumed 10 Damascus to exploit his baraka so successfully that h" became very rich. He became shaikh in 986/1578 (Al-Mu\:libbl, Khu/d,at ai-A/har, iv. 160-1). He was succeeded by his son Sa'd ad-din (d. 1036/(626), during whos" tenur" of the Jajjadll Syria wu convulsed by a notorious scandal concerning the lln-est in a hrothel of his Mali/a' in Al"ppo Abu '1-W,ri' ibn M. (A. le Ch,telicr, C07J/rbi�J, pp. 213-1 s ; al-Mubibbi, i. '5.l1--4• .lI98"'9). A.llhough Ihe orde, did not spread widely il was �eli\'e in Turkey and wl& inlroduced into Egypl by YCinus ibn Sa'd ad-din (nol to be confused with the Egyptian, Yfrnu.s ash-Shaibani) whe� it acquired notoriety through the celebrated biannual dafliJO (d6Ja) ce�mony in Cairo, when the shaikh rode on horseback o\'cr the pnutrate dervishes (fl'l!:quently duC!'ibed, see E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptiam, chap. x), suppressed in 1881 in the time of Kh"di"e Tawfiq. J For an account of the leaden sce O. LOfaren, art. "Aydarii..!', in E./.' i. ,80-2.

n i

�ing

,

.

THE F O R M A T I O N OF TA'IFAS

74

In Turkey proper the most important orders were the Khal­ watiyya, Bektashiyya, Mawlawiyya, and the Naqshabandiyya, though, since ' "the ways to God are as manifold as the souls", there arc many thousand ways and religious orders'.' The Maw­ lawiyya was an aristocratic, intellectual, and cultural fraternity, finding its follow-ing and patronage in the classes correspond­ ing to these terms. We have said earlier that it was a centralized order and did not spread outside Asia Minor. The Qaraman-oglu dynasty which succeeded that of the Seljuqs (c. 1300) tended to favour the biibiis, but with the success of the Ottomans the Maw­ lawiyya came into its own. The Khalwatiyya was a popular order, based on reverence for the leader with power, a reputation for strictness in training its dervishes, and at the same time its encouragement of individual­ ism. Consequently, it was characterized by a continual process of splitting and re-splitting. It is regarded as one of the original silsilas, or source-schools. Its origins are obscure, for it had no original teaching personality behind it like the other Ways, but rather an ascetic association in the Malamati tradition. It traces its origin to semi-mythical Persian, Kurdish, or Turkish ascetics, in succession Ibriihim az-Zahid (al-Gilani), MuJ:tammad Nur al-Khalwati,2 and (�ahir ad-din) 'Vmar aJ-Khalwati.J If the first was the pir of �afiyyaddin (d. 1334), founder of the �afawiyya, the history of the order provides a little information. His real name was Ibrahim ibn Rushan as-Sanjani and he died between A.H. 690 and 700 (A.D. 1291 and 1300). He was a wandering dervish connected with the Suhrawardi silsila and it took �afiyyaddin, who had been directed to seek his guidance, four years before he finally tracked him down among the hills of Cilan. However, the last named, 'Vmar (said to have died about 800/1397 at Caesarea in Syria), is regarded as the founder, in the sense of one who for­ mulated rules for Sufis who carried this designation,S There is also reference to one YaJ:tya-i Shirwani (d. c. 1460, author of the Evliya Chelebi, N tic't', Ir. von Hammer, Ill46--so, I. ii. 29. arTll

r

• Karim ad-din M. al-Khwarizmi, known as Akhi Mel;tmed ibn Nur al­

Halveti. 1 See the silsi/a of al-Bakri a�-�iddiqi given by al_Jaharti, Aja'ib Cairo edn.• ii. � Hagiography of $afiyyaddin called Sa/feal e lsma 'il b. l\'i, Sa'id. Fuyiil,ltll, A,H. I 353, pp. 6-4--5·

The aU51erilics required of Khah'wtis were more stringent than in other orders ..

,

THE ORGANI ZATION OF THE ORDERS

188

The Bektishis, we have shown, fall into two main categories: the village communities (q;:;il-bQsh) and the dedicated dervishes attached to a lodge. The natural communities had something like an age-grade system involving initiation by the hereditary village priest, whereas the dervish association was voluntary. The initia­ tion ceremony was called ikrdr ayilli,' ceremony of confession of faith (iqriir), or aynicem (the name for the central ritual, directed according to occasion) by which one becomes a mU/lip (tnll!tibh) and is qualified to take part in the ceremonies of the order. When he had progressed sufficiently to make his profession the dervish goes through a further oath ceremony (vakfi VI/CUI) and b«omes entitled to wear the tuj or headgear of the order. The celibate dervish went through still another ceremony, mujerret ayini. Evliya Chelebi visited the famous Bektashi convent at 'Uthmanjiq built by Bayazid II in consequence of a dream on the site of the grave of Qoyun Bilba, alleged successor of I:Iiijji Bektiish. There, after his cure from an eye infection, he was admitted into the Bek­ tashiyya (presumably a nominal associate membership) and wrote: 'I have ever since kept the symbols of Dervishship which I re­ ceived at the Convent, viz. the habit (khirka); the carpet (Sejdde), the standard (A'alem); the drum ( Tabl Kudumi); the halter (Pdlehmk),2 the stick (Asta), and the head-dress or crown ( Tdj)." A Shiidhili manual describes four grades of affiliation: Know

that

affiliation4 10 the SM.dhili and other lines

is effected master (hi '/-akhdhi 'an/mm). My master,

through training under a Jbrilhim al-Mawahibi, said, 'Know that there are four grades to sueh training. The first is by the handclasp (mUfiifal . IO), the allocation of graduated dhikr task, (at­ talqin li 'dh-dhikr), investment with the frock (khirqa) and with the ·ere eIpe,;ry, TratJds in Central Asia, New York, 1865, p. 222). >

,

RITUAL AND CEREMONIAL

rather than 'secret') by losing oneself in it. 1 The Sufi used the method of picturing the Prophet or a saint or his murshid, the last tending to become the commonest. In addition, there are other forms of muriiqaba as on a verse of the Qur'an. The normal relationship of novice and director has often been described as spiritual sonship

(al·wiliidat al-ma'nawiyya),

but

the relationship described by these tenns is entirely different.

Muriiqaha

is a technique, participation in that which is being

contemplated. One method seeks to attain 'union' with the shaikh as lalal ad-din Rumi was mystically one with Shams ad-din at­ Tabnzi and after his death with l:Iusam ad-din. When the shaikh was dead it was frequently done at the tomb. The Sufi, of course, does not suppose that the spirit of the saint is in the tomb but finds this course an aid to contemplation.1 The term

riibiJa

does not in itself express the true aim of the

process; even to translate it 'the Bond or Link' with the shaikh is quite inadequate. As-Sanusi writes : This is hardly practicable except to one whose soul is so refined by nature (or in whom the tendenc), is innate). In order to attain this he must visualize interiorly the image of his shaikh. He imagines his image as though on his right shoulder. Then picturing from the right shoulder to his heart a line which can act as a passage whereby the spirit of the shaikh can take possession of that organ. This proceS8 maintained , These methods have rdatiolUhip with the platonic regard ('udhri_love), 'the contemplation of adolescents' (M;or il6 'I-mUTt/) Or a beautiful face or fonn (al-a.-ajlr al-Qman) of an earlier age of Sufism. The aim wu to attain per­ ceptivity (ll:ujUd) through absorption in beauty, perceil'ing the reality within phenomena. A notable exponent of this method was AI:IIJ\ad al-Ghu;;li, about whom Ibn al-Jawzi tells the following aneedote : '1\ group of Sulls went to lIU Abrnad al Ghu.u.lI and found him alone with a young boy with flowers in between them. and he WU gazing at the flowers then at the boy alternately. When they had leated themselves one of them said. "Maybe we hAve disturbed youl" and he replied, "You certainly have !" And the company argued with one another concerning the method employed to induce ecst8$Y (tawtijud)' -

(Talbis !btis, Cairo, 19z8, p. 167). The coming of the Suru had broken Al;unad's contemplation. Sufis found or invented a /.taditl! upon which to hang this po;actiee, 'I saw my l.ord n i the fonn of a youth (a",rod)" but there were oh,';oul ndal• • and masters perm..itted the practice only dangers there were manr sca to the most ad,·.nced adepts. In the third stage it was prohibited altogether in the Arab world, the