Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Table of Contents
Professor Biography ....................................................................................i
0] Course Scope 1
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Judaism1]
Lecture One A Way into the Mystic Ways of the West 4
Lecture Two Family Resemblances and Differences 9
Lecture Three The Biblical Roots of Western Mysticism 14
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Judaism2]
Lecture Four Mysticism in Early Judaism 18
Lecture Five Merkabah Mysticism 22
Lecture Six The Hasidim of Medieval Germany 26
Lecture Seven The Beginnings of Kabbalah 30
Lecture Eight Mature Kabbalah—Zohar 34
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Judaism3]
Lecture Nine Isaac Luria and Safed Spirituality 38
Lecture Ten Sabbatai Zevi and Messianic Mysticism 42
Lecture Eleven The Ba’al Shem Tov and the New Hasidism 46
Lecture Twelve Mysticism in Contemporary Judaism 50
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Christian4]
Lecture Thirteen Mystical Elements in the New Testament 54
Lecture Fourteen Gnostic Christianity 58
Lecture Fifteen The Spirituality of the Desert 62
Lecture Sixteen Shaping Christian Mysticism in the East 66
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Christian5]
Lecture Seventeen Eastern Monks and the Hesychastic Tradition 70
Lecture Eighteen The Mysticism of Western Monasticism 74
Lecture Nineteen Medieval Female Mystics 78
Lecture Twenty Mendicants as Mystics 82
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Christian6]
Lecture Twenty-One English Mystics of the 14th Century 86
Lecture Twenty-Two 15th- and 16th- Century Spanish Mystics 89
Lecture Twenty-Three Mysticism among Protestant Reformers 93
Lecture Twenty-Four Mystical Expressions in Protestantism 96
Lecture Twenty-Five 20th-Century Mystics 100
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Islam7]
Lecture Twenty-Six Muhammad the Prophet as Mystic................. 104
Lecture Twenty-Seven The House of Islam........................................ 108
Lecture Twenty-Eight The Mystical Sect—Shi’a.............................. 112
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Islam8]
Lecture Twenty-Nine The Appearance of Sufism............................. 116
Lecture Thirty Early Sufi Masters.......................................... 120
Lecture Thirty-One The Limits of Mysticism—Al-Ghazzali ........ 123
Lecture Thirty-Two Two Masters, Two Streams............................ 127
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Islam9]
Lecture Thirty-Three Sufism in 12th–14th Century North Africa...... 131
Lecture Thirty-Four Sufi Saints of Persia and India....................... 134
Lecture Thirty-Five The Continuing Sufi Tradition....................... 137
Lecture Thirty-Six Mysticism in the West Today ........................ 141
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Timeline ................................................................................................... 145
Glossary ................................................................................................... 154
Bibliography............................................................................................ 163
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Lecture Thirty-Three Sufism in 12th–14th
Century North Africa
Scope: Sufism was one of the chief
instruments of Islam’s spread throughout the territories conquered by Arab
troops in the period 641–725. This lecture takes up the lives and diverse
writings of three Sufi teachers in North Africa. The Egyptian Sufi ‘Umar ibn al-Farid
is venerated as one of the greatest poets in Arabic; even in translation, it is
possible to appreciate his bold rendering of the Sufi way. A century later,
another Egyptian Sufi, Ibn ‘Ata’illah, composed The Book of Wisdom, whose aphorisms offer pithy advice to the
mystic. Later in the 14th century, Ibn ‘Abbad of Ronda, a Sufi born
in Spain who flourished in Morocco, offered advice in the form of Letters on the Sufi Path.
Outline
I.
A long historical
perspective on any phenomenon, including Islamic Mysticism, inevitably distorts
reality by simplifying it.
A.
The expansion of Islam
throughout North Africa was astonishing.
1.
Arab troops conquered Egypt
(641), Tunisia (643), Cyprus
(649), Carthage (697),
Algiers (700), Spain (711), Portugal (716), and southern France (725) before
Charles Martel finally stopped Islam’s westward expansion at Tours (732).
2.
Such conquests swallowed
vast territories and culturally complex populations.
B.
The speed of the conquest
made the task of assimilation even more difficult, although our distance in
space and time obscures the specific local problems.
1.
Throughout the next
centuries, North African Islam faced external threats from the Persian Empire,
the Byzantine Empire, and Crusaders from Europe.
2.
Internal conflicts included
rival caliphates (the Fatimid Caliphate was founded in 909 and governed much of
North Africa from the city of Cairo), as well as competing schools of Shari’ah
and different forms of mysticism.
C.
The three Sufi teachers
from North Africa we consider in this presentation date from 1181–1390, 500–700
years after the first Islamic expansion in the area.
1.
They show different ways of
participating in the social and cultural life of the region.
2.
They demonstrate, as well,
a diversity of literary forms put in the service of the Sufi way.
II.
‘Umar ibn al-Farid
(1181–1235) represents for Sufi Arabic poetry the position held in the Persian
language by the great Rumi.
A.
His life was relatively
uneventful; he was born in Cairo, traveled to Mecca as a young man, and later
made a pilgrimage there.
1.
Early traditions make him a
member of the Shafi’i legal school and a teacher of Hadith, mysticism, and
poetry.
2.
Rejecting honors from the
sultan, he taught at a mosque in Cairo. He avoided both social and political
involvement and did not even belong to a specific order.
B.
He is best known for two
poems: “The Wine Ode” and the “Poem of the Sufi Way.”
1.
“The Wine Ode” continues
the tradition of the pre-Islamic qasida and uses the image of wine to express
the mystical relationship with Allah.
2.
The “Poem of the Sufi Way”
begins in the form of a traditional love song (ghazal) before becoming a more explicit reflection on the path to
unity with “the real.”
III. Two other Sufi masters thrived in North Africa, which had become a
center for Islamic culture after the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258.
A.
Both were members of the
Shadhiliyyah order that had been founded by Ibn al-Hasan (d. 1258) in the
village of Shadhilah. This order exemplified a sober Sufism that avoided
behavioral extremes.
1.
Members of the school
tended to be aligned with specific legal schools and operated explicitly within
the Shari’ah.
2.
They avoided distinctive
garb and occupied themselves in normal social engagements.
3.
The tradition favored a
strongly didactic style of exposition with an emphasis on right thinking and
practice.
B.
Ibn’ Ata’illah (1250–1309)
was the third shaykh in the Shadhiliyyah leadership succession.
1.
His Book of Wisdom (Kitab
al-Hikam) consists of 262 sayings, 4 short treatises, and 34 “intimate
discourses” directed to Allah.
2.
The work gave rise to many
commentaries and is one of the best-loved and best-known Sufi compositions.
C.
Ibn ‘Abbad of Ronda
(1332–1390) combines the sober and didactic tradition of the Shadhiliyyah
order.
1.
He wrote a commentary on
the Book of Wisdom of Ibn ‘Ata’illah.
2.
He also wrote two
collections of Letters on the Sufi Path
to individual students, in which he fills the role of spiritual director,
taking up specific problems from the mundane to the exalted.
Recommended Reading:
Renard, J., trans. Ibn Abbad of Ronda (Classics of Western Spirituality.)
Questions to Consider:
1.
Can one see an analogy
between the sublimation of the erotic in celibate Christian mystics and the
sublimation of the language concerning drink among Muslim mystics?
2.
How do the instructions of
Ibn ‘Abbad of Ronda reveal the struggles that Sufis experienced to stay within
the framework of the Shari’ah?
Lecture Thirty-Four Sufi Saints of Persia and India
Scope: Sufism is truly an international
movement, and its literature is as rich in Persian as in Arabic. This lecture
begins with the Intimate Conversations
of the learned Sufi from the Hanbali school, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, and the Divine Flashes by Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi, a
Sufi deeply influenced by Ibn ‘Arabi. We then turn to two saints who wrote in
Persian and lived in what is now India. Nizam
ad-Din Awliya spent more than 50 years in Delhi, and his Morals for the Heart reports his
teachings as recorded by a follower. Sharafuddin Ahmad ibn Yahya Maneri was
born in Bengal and taught in Bahir. His Hundred
Letters offer extensive advice to those on the Sufi path.
Outline
I.
Islamic Mysticism was truly
international in character, displaying a rich diversity of expression within a
unity of vision.
A.
We have seen important
teachers in various regions: early teachers in Arabia and Syria, as well as
prominent masters in Turkey, Spain, and North Africa.
B.
We have seen how both
diversity and unity involve the complex interweaving of factors related to the
intellect, practice, community, and politics.
1.
Intellectual factors
include the shared reading of texts of the Qur’an and the authoritative Hadith
of the Prophet and the transmission of traditions in other languages.
2.
We find practice in the
shared embrace of Shari’ah diversely interpreted by rival legal schools.
3.
Community is revealed in
the common framework of the Sufi Order (taqiyah) with variations introduced by
the character of individual charismatic shaykhs.
4.
Political factors are
represented in the privileged position of all Muslims in the Islamic Empire,
combined with the diverse social locations and practices of specific Sufis.
C.
The same mix of elements is
evident in the four saints considered in this lecture: They share the Persian
language and a location in Persia and India but otherwise are remarkably
diverse.
II.
Two teachers of enduring
significance illustrate the intellectual and stylistic range to be found among
Sufis writing in Persian.
A.
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1089)
was conservative in both his style of life and his intellectual commitments.
1.
He lived his whole life
with great simplicity in the same place (Herat) in a region straddling
present-day Iran and Afghanistan.
2.
He was a member of the 9th-century
conservative legal school known as the Hanbali, which recognized only the
Qur’an and Hadith as sources for establishing the Sunna of the Prophet.
3.
He wrote polemically
against theological reasoning and was himself imprisoned for a time because of
his insistence on retaining anthropomorphisms concerning Allah.
4.
His Intimate Conversations (Manajat)
are directed to God and express a deep and nonspeculative piety.
B.
Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi
(1213–1289), in contrast, draws from the daring traditions of Ibn al-‘Arabi and
Rumi.
1.
A child prodigy (he
memorized the Qur’an at age five), ‘Iraqi abandoned his studies and, like
al-‘Arabi, traveled widely. He spent 25 years in India and, in Konya, met both
Rumi and Sadruddin Qunawi (d. 1274).
2.
Intellectually, he had the
same interest in esoteric gnosis—the perfect man—as al-‘Arabi; Qunawi declared
that his writings were “the pith of [‘Arabi’s] Fusus,” The Bezels of Wisdom.
3.
He also had the ecstatic
fervor and poetic intensity of Rumi, composing verse in states of ecstasy.
4.
His Divine Flashes (28 chapters in imitation of al-‘Arabi) combines
esoteric knowledge and gorgeous poetry.
III. The pedagogical practices of Sufi schools are shown in distinct
literary expressions by two important masters living in India.
A.
Nizam ad-Din Awliya
(1242–1325) grew up in intense poverty and taught students as a shaykh of the Chisti order for 50 years in the
city of Delhi.
1.
Consistent with the Chisti
style, he downplayed the miraculous and took a humanitarian approach to
religion that emphasized peaceful human relations and tolerance.
2.
He expressed this in a form
of quasi-public teaching that made the Sufi path accessible to all—the mighty
and the lowly— who sought his wisdom in daily audiences, held despite the
suspicions of political leaders.
3.
His Morals for the Heart consisted of 188 oral discussions held over a
period of 15 years and touching on a wide variety of issues. These were
recorded and published by his disciples, among whom was Amir Hazan Sijzi.
4.
Noteworthy in such
discussions is the repeated emphasis on other-directed service and the sharing
of material possessions.
B.
Sharafuddin Ahmad Ibn Yahya
Maneri (1263–1381) earned the title “The Spiritual Teacher of the Realm” from
the people of Bihar in northern India.
1.
The son of a Sufi master,
he left his wife and child to pursue a life of celibacy and seek a spiritual
guide.
2.
In Delhi, he met a number
of shaykhs, including Nizam adDin Awliya, but followed as his teacher
Najibuddin Firdausi. He escaped into the woods, as many Hindu saints had done,
and was persuaded after many years to become a teacher.
3.
The sultan of Delhi built
him a center where he continued to teach until his death.
4.
His Hundred Letters are written to the governor of Chausa in western
Bahir. Qazi Shamsuddin, who requested them because business prevented him from
attending lessons in person.
5.
Written in clear and
attractive prose, using many examples, the letters contain a masterful exposition
of the Sufi path.
Recommended Reading:
Jackson, P. trans. Sharfuddin Maneri (Classics of Western Spirituality.)
Questions to Consider:
1.
Discuss the ways in which
‘Iraqi can be said to inherit the mantle of both al-‘Arabi and Rumi.
2.
Comment on the following
statement: The shaykh plays the role in the Sufi order not of the abbot but of
the spiritual director.
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Lecture Thirty-Five The Continuing Sufi Tradition
Scope: Mysticism continues to thrive
within Islam, and Sufism has become an appealing spiritual option even for
non-Muslims. In this lecture, we look at several more recent Sufi figures who
bear witness to the vibrancy of the mystical tradition within Islam and, in
some cases, have attempted to communicate the riches of Sufism beyond the
explicit framework of Islam—with, not surprisingly—controversial results. The
lecture closes by offering some idea of the extensive network of Sufi
fellowships around the world and the manner in which they continue the
traditions stemming from the esoteric understanding of the Qur’an.
Outline
I.
Despite its key role in the
survival of Islam and its own endurance in an identifiable form over the
centuries, Sufism in the 20th century had to find its way through
competing tensions within Islam itself.
A.
Islamic Modernism advocated
a conversation between Islam and the philosophy and science of the West. The
modernist version of Islam had social and political dimensions but was most
threatening in the use of historical-critical methods of investigation applied
to the sacred sources.
1.
For rationalists, Sufism
represented everything “backward” about Islam: esotericism, miracles,
traditional garb, the embrace of poverty, and the authority of leaders rather
than free thought.
2.
Modernists, such as
Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), argued in favor of the Islamic way of life but from
a Western philosophical perspective. Iqbal, however, found himself marginalized
because his views were counter to the more powerful reform movements in Islam.
3.
At the same time, elements
within Sufism were strongly attractive to those in the technological West.
B.
Sufism was equally a target
for the powerful revival movements, such as those associated with Muhammad ibn
‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) and Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Sanusi (1787–1859), that
have shaped the contemporary Islamic world.
1.
A former Sufi, al-Wahhab
wrote a treatise attacking the Pantheism of Sufism and its veneration of the
saints. He called for a return to the Qur’an and the Sunna of the Prophet and
the strengthening of the umma.
2.
Al-Sanusi was less hostile
to Sufism, but he emphasized the moral reform of Islam in its exoteric form.
C.
Although in many ways
Sufism thrives today, the debate about its relationship to Islam remains
lively.
II.
Two Sufi saints of the 20th
century bear eloquent witness to the vibrancy of the mystical tradition within
Islam.
A.
Ahmad al-Alawi (1869–1934)
was a shaykh of the Shadhiliyyah order in Algeria.
1.
Born in poverty, he worked
as a cobbler but was so drawn to the Sufi path that he was ultimately granted a
divorce. He joined an order of dervishes before finding his own master,
Muhammad al-Buzidi.
2.
Taking over from his
master, al-Alawi drew so many disciples that he founded his own version of the
Shadhiliyyah order, known as Shadhiliyyah-‘Alawiyyah. The order is distinctive
for its repetition of the name Allah in dhikr.
3.
Al-Alawi was expansive in
his learning and contacts but remained firmly within the framework of
traditional Islam. A French physician who became a close friend of al-Alawi
observed him in the last 30 years of his life and left us a memorable portrait
of the shaykh (see Martin Lings, A Sufi
Saint of the Twentieth Century).
4.
Al-Alawi was truly holy in
the utter simplicity of his life; he devoted himself especially to the esoteric
interpretation of Muslim rituals.
B.
Fatima al-Yashrutiyya
(1891–1978) was also a member of the Shadhiliyyah order in Palestine and
Lebanon; her writing provides a unique testimony to the traditional ways from a
female perspective.
1.
Her autobiographical
statements pay touching tribute to her father and the vibrant intellectual and
spiritual life of the zawiah.
2.
Orphaned at age eight,
Fatima dedicated herself completely to the Sufi path and, despite the upheavals
in Palestine,
maintained an observance
that drew attention even from nonMuslim scholars.
III. More controversial were the efforts of some to make Sufism
universally available by minimizing its specifically Islamic character.
A.
Two figures in particular
represent an effort to universalize and de-Islamicize Sufism.
1.
Idries Shah (1924–1996) who
was born in India and traveled worldwide as a “Sufi Master” (see Journeys with a Sufi Master by H. M. B.
Dervish), wrote bestselling books and founded several institutes. He argued
that Sufism predated and transcended Islam and represented it primarily in
terms of cognitive mastery.
2.
Inayat Kahn (1882–1927) was
also born in India and popularized the openness of the Chisti order, with its
emphasis on love, harmony, and beauty, to the point that Sufism seemed to
transcend all specific religious traditions. He was the founder of Universal
Sufism and the Sufi Order International.
B.
Those in the West who were
sympathetic to Sufism—Thomas Merton, Frithjof Schuon, Huston Smith—saw it as a
key to a more universal philosophia
perennis, “perennial philosophy,” that privileged spirituality over
religion.
IV.
The ambiguous consequence
of Sufism’s popularity is that it is now possible to choose among many options.
In North America, for example, we find traditional, quasi-, and non-Islamic
Sufi orders and organizations.
A.
Among the Islamic Sufi
orders that maintain traditional practices within the Shari’ah are the
Shadhiliyyah, Naqshbandi-Haqqani, Chisti, Tijani, Jerrahi, Nimatullahi, Uwaysi,
and Muridiyah.
B.
Quasi-Islamic Sufi
organizations and orders include the Bawa Muhayiadden Fellowship, Threshold
Society, and Mevlevi order.
C.
Non-Islamic Sufi
organizations and schools include the Sufi Order
International,
International Sufi Movement, Sufi Ruhaniat International, and Sufi Foundation
of America.
D.
The International
Association of Sufism and the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education
are organizations with some loose relations to Sufism.
E.
Of Sufism’s deep appeal to
those who seek something more real behind the veil of appearances, there is
little doubt. The real question is whether it remains Sufism at all or a
variant of a universal gnosis.
Recommended Reading:
Cadavid, L. Two Who Attained: Twentieth-Century Sufi
Saints.
Questions to Consider:
1.
Discuss the differences in
the meaning of “Sufi” when applied to Ahmad al-Alawi and Idries Shah.
2.
What accounts for the wide
appeal of the Sufi way outside the specific symbolism of Islam?
Lecture Thirty-Six Mysticism in the West Today
Scope: This final lecture pulls together
the lines of continuity and discontinuity in the mystical traditions of the
great Western religions. The course concludes with a series of reflections on
mysticism today: What are we to make of the truth claims of mystics? What are
the possibilities for mysticism in a supersecularized West? What should be said
about the popular forms of mysticism offered on every side?
Outline
I.
This is the final formal
lecture in The Teaching Company course on mysticism in Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam, but it should not be the end of your study.
A.
The readings connected to
each lecture and the extensive bibliography offer an exciting body of
literature for further investigation.
B.
We close the course with
the somewhat troubled topic of mysticism in the West today.
II.
A survey of mystical
traditions in the religions of the West—however superficial—enables some
synthetic observations.
A.
Most impressive is the
breadth, length, and depth of the evidence concerning mysticism in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
1.
Even while recognizing the
selective character of the evidence, we note that it comes from virtually every
land and language.
2.
The evidence comes from the
earliest to the latest stages of each religious tradition.
3.
It includes some of the
most powerful and beautiful religious literature produced by each religion.
B.
We can identify genuine
differences in the respective mystical traditions.
1.
There is diversity within
each tradition: ecstatic or
non-ecstatic, visionary or non-visionary, emphasizing knowledge or love.
2.
There are emphases
distinctive to each tradition or found in two traditions and not in the third:
dance and song in Judaism and Islam, Eucharistic piety among Christians.
3.
Certain lines of dependence
or mutual influence can be discerned: recollection and the repetition of the
divine name and the rosary.
C.
We can also find common
structural elements in each tradition.
1.
Mysticism thrives within a
community that transmits tradition, enables modeling and imitation, and
provides common rituals.
2.
Mysticism exists in
creative tension with exoteric traditions— needing them for definition, while
seeking their deepest meaning.
3.
Mysticism in the West
involves remarkably close interpretation of sacred texts.
D.
The most important common
element is the construal of reality that makes sense of mystical experience.
1.
The empirical world is not
self-sufficient or self-explanatory but points to a transcendent world of
spirit accessible through knowledge and love.
2.
This world is not enough;
the spiritual realm is more real, more true, and more valuable than the
transient realm of ordinary existence.
3.
The sole significant human
ambition is to reach that which is most real, most true, most good through
sanctification.
III. The question that most demands consideration concerns the truth
claims of mystics.
A.
Despisers regard mysticism
as, at best, self-deception or delusion and, at worst, a form of charlatanism.
1.
It is impossible to deny
that some manifestations of mysticism and some forms of neurosis have
coincided.
2.
It is equally impossible to
deny that some “mystics” have been deceivers of others.
B.
Advocates regard mystics as
scouts who report on realities that are real but camouflaged by everyday
distractions.
1.
Some forms of psychic
distress, such as the migraines that Hildegard of Bingen may have suffered, may
open up insight into reality. At the same time, we should note that many of the
mystics we have studied were robustly healthy by any metric.
2.
Mystics may serve as
prophetic witnesses of a reality that, because it is ultimate and most urgent,
is also most denied by the activities of ordinary life.
IV.
A further pertinent
question concerns the possibilities for a genuine mystical life in the
contemporary world.
A.
Modern philosophy has
tended to reject the Platonic/biblical cosmology and epistemology of
traditional mysticism in favor of a radical Empiricism.
B.
Technology, commerce, and
communication have conspired to create a view of the world that is profoundly
materialistic, competitive, and commodified and claims exclusive rights to
being “real.”
C.
Contemporary culture
privileges youth over age, novelty over tradition, independence over authority,
the individual over community and, perhaps, text-messaging over sacred texts.
D.
Even reform movements in
Western religions have moved away from a piety that rejects materiality toward
one that celebrates it. These same movements regard true religion as
transforming the world rather than transcending it.
V.
Exposure to the classical
forms of mysticism demands a critical posture toward much of what passes for
mysticism in the contemporary world.
A.
There is a great deal of
mysticism offered within and outside every religious tradition. In the modern
world, spirituality seems to trump religion.
B.
The encouraging element is
the hunger for something more than the values and practices of a commodified
existence, the desire for something more real than what is available on TV or
the Internet.
C.
The discouraging element is
the superficiality and the degree of co-optation by the very same cultural
forces; the sense of the other is lost in a preoccupation with the self.
Recommended Reading:
Cupitt, D. Mysticism after Modernity: Religion and
Spirituality in the Modern World.
Questions to Consider:
1.
Consider the mystic’s claim
that contemplative prayer (recollection) is truly a way of knowing reality.
2.
Assess contemporary
versions of spirituality in light of the traditions of mysticism discussed in
this course.
