Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)

413 Pages·1995·15.251 MB·English

by  Michael A. Sells

E I M
arly slamic ysticism
f SUFI, QUR'AN, Ml'RAJ, POETIC AND THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS
TRANSLATED, EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MICHAEL A. SELLS
PREFACE BY
CARL W. ERNST
PAULIST PRESS
NEW YORK • MAHWAH
Cover art: AIDA MUSANOVIC, a graphic artist, was born in Bosnia and earned her B.F.A.
degree at the Academy of Fine Arts at Sarajevo University. A survivor of the aggression in
Bosnia, she came to the United States, where she co-organized the internationally shown proj­
ect Sarajevo '92, the art/print portfolio created in the besieged Bosnian capital under war con­
ditions. The image on the cover of this volume depicts the prayer niche (mibrab) from the
“Colored Mosque" in Foca (pronounced Fo-cha), in southeast Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
mosque, one of the masterworks of South Slavic architecture, was constructed in 1551 C.E. It
was called the Colored Mosque (AlaJza diamtya) because of its stunning colors both on the
interior and exterior. The artwork shows the section of the rnihrab known as muqarnas, the
“stalactite” forms that connect the square to the curved areas of the mosque and are symbolic
of the connections between heaven and earth. The mosque was destroyed by Serbian national­
ists during the “ethnic cleansing” of Foca in the spring of 199}. It is to all such destroyed
Bosnian monuments that the artist pays homage in her artwork.
Copyright © 1996 by Michael A. Sells
All rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced ot transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa­
tion storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Early Islamic mysticism: Sufi, Qur’an, Mi'raj, poetic and theological writings/translated,
edited, and with an introduction by Michael A. Sells.
p. cm.—(The classics of Western spirituality; #86)
Includes bibliographical references ( ) and index.
ISBN 0-8091-0477-6 (cloth: alk. paper).—ISBN 0-8091-3619-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Sufism—Early works to 1800. I. Sells, Michael Anthony. II. Scries.
BPI88.9.E2 1996
297'.4—dc20
95-52973
C1P
Published by Paulist Press
997 Macarthur Boulevard
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Contents
Preface..................................................................................................................1
Note to the Reader on Translation and Familiarization.................................5
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................11
Spirituality and Embodiment in Islam....................................................11
Four Phases of Islamic Spirituality........................................................17
EARLY ISLAMIC MYSTICISM
CHAPTER 1. SOURCES OF ISLAMIC MYSTICISM.......................29
THE QUR’AN.........................................................................................29
THE MI‘RAJ (Sacred Cosmology and Mystical Orientation)..........47
THE BELOVED (Poetic Dimensions of Islamic Spirituality)..........56
CHAPTER 2. EARLY SUFI QUR’AN INTERPRETATION.............75
The Qur'anic Commentary Attributed to JA‘FAR AS-SADIQ
(The Sixth Imam)....................................................................................75
SAHL AT-TUSTARI (from The Interpretation of the
Majestic Qur’an).......................................................................................89
CHAPTER 3. QUSHAYR1.........................................................................97
Interpreting Mystical Expressions from the T rcatise
CHAPTER 4. RABI‘A.................................................................................151
Her Words and Life in 'Attar’s Memorial of the Friends of God
CHAPTER 5. MUHASIBI.........................................................................171
Moral Psychology
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 6. SARRAJ...............................................................................196
The Seven Stations from The Book of Flashes (Kitab al~Luma‘)
CHAPTER 7. BISTAMI...........................................................................212
SARRAJ on Bistami’s Mystical Utterances from The Book of
Flashes {Kitab al-Luma').......................................... 212
The Other Bistami: The Biographies of SULAMI
andQUSHAYRI...................................................................................232
The M i‘raj of Bistami.............................................................................242
CHAPTER 8. JUNAYD.......................................... 251
On the Affirmation of Unity (Tcrwhid)....................................................251
On Annihilation (Faria')........................................................... 257
CHAPTER 9. HALLAJ.............................................................................266
Iblis as Tragic Lover (The TaSln of Before-Time and Ambiguity)
CHAPTER 10. NIFFARI...................................... 281
Who Are You and Who Am U from the Book of Standings
(Kitab al-Mawaqif)
EPILOGUE............................................................................................ 302
“If They Only Knew” from the Diwan Attributed to al-Hallaj
APPENDIX. SHAHRASTANI.................................................................304
Scholastic Theology (Kalam) on Unity and Justice
CHRONOLOGY OF SOME IMPORTANT FIGURES IN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUFISM..................................................321
NOTES............................................................................................................322
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................. 375
INDEX OF TOPICS..................................................................................386
INDEX OF NAMES..................................................................................394
vm
Editor and Translator of this Volume
MICHAEL A. SELLS is Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest
Professor of Comparative Religions at Haverford College and Chairperson
of the Haverford Department of Religion. He served in the Peace Corps in
Tunisia and studied Arabic language and literature in Egypt. He received
his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1982. His research interests
are Arabic poetry, the Qur’an, Islamic spirituality and Western mysticism.
Among his published writings are Mystical Languages of Unsaying
(University of Chicago Press, 1994), a study of the mystical language of
Plotinus, Eriugena, Ibn ‘Arabi, Meister Eckhan and Marguerite Porete;
Desert Tracings; Six Classic Arabian Odes (Wesleyan University Press,
1989); “Sound and Meaning in Surat al-Qari‘a” (Arabica 40.3, 1993);
“Bewildered Tongue: the Semantics of Mystical Union in Islam,” in Moshe
Idel and Bernard McGinn, eds., Mystical Union and Monotheistic Faith
(1989) and numerous articles on Arabic poetry, Qur’anic language, and the
mystical writings of Ibn ‘Arabi, Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhan:. He
is co-editor and contributor to the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature,
Andalusia Volume.
Dr. Sells is a founder and president of the Community of Bosnia
Foundation, dedicated to supporting a multireligious Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Author of the Preface
CARL W. ERNST, born in 1950 in Los Angeles, is Professor and Chair of
the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill. He has also taught in the Department of Religion at Pomona
College in Claremont, California. He received his A.B. degree in
Humanities and Religious Studies from Stanford University in 197 3, and his
Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from Harvard University in 1981, having
specialized in Islamic studies and Greek philosophy. Dr. Ernst has been on
research tours in India, Pakistan and Turkey with support from the
Fulbright program (1978-79, 1986), the American Institute of Indian
Studies (1981) and the American Research Institute in Turkey (1990). He
has also received translation and research grants from the National
Endowment for the Humanities (1989-90,1993). His research has focused
on early Islamic mystical texts, the development of Islamic culture in South
Asia and the social and institutional history of Sufism.
His publications include Words of Ecstasy in SufismEternal Garden:
Mysticism, History, and Politics in a South Asian Sufi Center; Manifestations
of Sainthood in Islam (edited with Grace Martin Smith) and Ruzbihan BaqlT:
Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism.
IX