Striving for Divine Union

Spiritual Exercises for Suhraward Sufis

Qamar-ul Huda

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN: 9781135788421
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

This book examines the theological, philosophical and Islamic mystical dimensions of the Suhrawardî sufi order from the 13th to 15th centuries. The Suhrawardîs were a legally grounded and intellectually vibrant sufi order whose mystical path was based on exchanges and debates on the Qur'an and on the Prophet's customs. The book analyses their interpretation of sacred texts: the Qur'an, hadiths, sunna, and malfuzat. This created a unique self-understanding, which developed specific sufi spiritual exercises. The book discusses new important ways of thinking about the sufi hermeneutics of the Qur'an and its contribution to Islamic intellectual and spiritual life.

1 THE LIFE OF SHAIKH

ABŪ HAFS

UMAR AL-SUHRAWARDĪ

The original figure who established the Suhrawardī sūfī ṭarīqa was Shaikh Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardī, the uncle of ‘Abū Hafs

Umar al-Suhrawardī. Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardī was born in 1097 in the town of Suhraward, which is west of Sultaniyya, in the province of al-Jibal, Iran. Shaikh Abū’n-Najīb (d. 1168) became involved with the sūfī tradition with his association with Shaikh Ahmad al-Ghazalī, the brother of the well-known Abū Ḥamid al-Ghazalī , educator and scholar at the Nizāmīyya madrasa in Baghdad. It was Shaikh Ahmad al-Ghazalī who invited Shaikh Abū Najīb to become his disciple and advance in his studies of taṣawwuf. No sooner had he become proficient in sūfī spirituality, than Shaikh Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardī built a khānaqāh on the banks of the Tigris river, and wrote the popular sūfīmanual Ådāb al-Murīdīn, that describes the importance of disciplined sūfī behavior. Shaikh Ahmad al-Ghazalī, Shaikh Abū Najīb and their contemporary

Ainu’l-Quzāt, all belonged to the Junaydī school of taṣawwuf. But contrary to Junāyd’s mystical tradition of sobriety (sahw) they were all more inclined toward mystical intoxication or sukr.¹ Preachings and writings by Shaikh

Ainu’l-Quzāt infuriated the sharī

ā-minded scholars and he was imprisoned in Baghdad.

Ainu’l-Quzāt’s Tamhidāt treatise argued that his doctrine of fanā’ was neither pantheism nor introducing the contingent being into God’s Being.²

Ainu’l-Quzāt asserted that he was not different from earlier sūfīs but firmly agreed in many of areas of taṣawwuf with the great scholar Abū Ḥamid al-Ghazalī (d. 1111). In 1131

Ainu’l-Quzāt was murdered at the age of thirty-three and never had the opportunity to defend his sūfī ideas on taṣawwuf in a public trial setting.

The nephew of Shaikh Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardīwas

AbūHafs

Umar al-Suhrawardī who was born in the month of Rajab, 523 Hijri, or January 1145. Under his uncle’s direction, he studied theology with one of the prominent theologians of the time, Shaikh

Abdu’l-Qādir Jilānī After a systematic study of taṣawwuf and legal studies the young al-Suhrawardī was initiated into taṣawwuf by his uncle, Shaikh Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardī. It was not long before the budding scholar of taṣawwuf would encounter criticism from senior theologians and legalists. In his late teenage years, al-Suhrawardī came across vigorous opposition from the greatest Hanbalī theologian in Baghdad, Abdu’r Rahmān ibn al-Jawzī (1126–1200),³ who was also a master interpreter of jurisprudence (fiqh) and ḥādīths (muḥadīth). Abdu’r Rahmān ibn al-Jawzī was a prolific author and preacher, and held a considerable amount of religious and political influence with the

Abbāsid Caliphs as the designated Shaikh al-Islām. Aside from the religious differences between Ibn al-Jawzī’s legalist thought and Jilanī’s taṣawwuf understanding of Islām, Shaikh ibn al-Jawzī accused al-Suhra-wardī’s teachings of furthering the cause of philosophical heresy in Islamic intellectual circles. Criticisms against al-Suhrawardī were not isolated events, but according to Ibn al-Jawzī’s Naqd al­

Ilm wa’l-

ulamā and Talbīs Iblīs he went so far as to condemn non-Sunnī sects and even attacked a large number of Sunnī jurisconsults, sharī

ā-minded folks and leading sūfīs including Abū Ṭālib al-Malikī, Qushāirī and Abū Ḥamid al-Ghazalī.⁴ The turning point to Ibn-al-Jawzī’s public service came when caliph al-Nāsir (1179–1225) reversed the policy of blind support for Ibn al-Jawzī , and instituted more of a “middle-of-the-road” and centrist policy outlined by Shaikh Abū Hafs

Umar al-Suhrawardī. Like Ibn al-Jawzī, Shaikh

Umar al-Suhrawardī served as political–religious advisor in the capacity of Shaikh al-Islām, as which he assisted the

Abbāsid administration’s goal of consolidating power in global Islamic politics. Under the fiercely political caliph al-Nāsir, Shaikh

Umar al-Suhrawardī was sent abroad to the courts of the

Ayyubid al-Mālik al-

Ādil I Saifu’al-dīn (1200–1218) in Egypt, of the Khwarazm-Shāh,

Alā’ al-dīn Muhammad (1200–1220) and of the Seljuk ruler of Konya

Alā’ al-dīn Kay-Qubaz I (1219–1237). In return caliph al-Nāsir built an extensive khānaqāh for Shaikh al-Suhrawardī and his family with a number of additions such as a bathhouse and a garden.

Islamic education: a Hanbalī scholar and sūfī

The sūfī writings of caliph al-Nāsir’s personal advisor

Abū Hafs

Umar al-Suhrawardī are important in understanding the ideological side to al-Nāsir’s policies. Shaikh al-Suhrawardī was the founder of a sūfī ṭarīqa that had easily attracted a substantial number of followers and become a distinguished order.⁵ As an author of a widely popular sūfī manual, al-Suhrawardī became the leading au...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Plates
• Acknowledgments
• Transliteration Notes
• Introduction: Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhrawardī Sūfīs
• 1. The Life of Shaikh ʿAbū Hafs ʿUmar al-SuhrawardĪ
• 2. ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif: The Sūfī Manual of Shaikh ʿAbū Hafs ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī
• 3. Sacred Identities In the Suhrawardīyya Order
• 4. The Suhrawardīyya silsilā In Multan and Ucch
• 5. Multanī Suhrawardī taṣawwuf Spiritual Exercises
• Appendix A: Praises for God; Remembrance of Prayers
• Appendix B: Prayer for Enlightenment; Prayer for shab-e barāt
• Notes