The Psycho-spiritual Dimension of Islam

Feb 26, 2005, 12.00am IST
Hazrat Abu Babaji.

The word "sufi" literally means woollen, although the wearing of wool does not appear to have ever been current among the mystics of Islam. It was, however, first used when referring to a small group of mystics who did wear wool. In Arabic, 'sufi' comes from 'safi' which means "pure", and Sufis are the "pure at heart".



A Sufi can be distinguished from others through his detachment from mate-rial life and his ecstatic devotion to "The Divine Life", free from pain and sorrow. The Sufis are people who prefer God to everything else and God prefers them to everything else.Sufism or tasawwuf, in Arabic, is the inner mystical or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, how-ever, many believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. Despite its many variations and expressions, the essence of Sufi practice is that the Sufi surrenders to God in love, over and over; which involves embracing with love at each moment the content of one's consciousness as gifts of God or, as manifestations of God.

Allah uses many different ways of awakening people from slumber and attracting them to Him. Once awake, people become seekers and travel on the path or salek. As they start their journey Divine, their thoughts and feelings shift, and they begin to behave and live differently in varying deg-rees. Why the change?

Because it helps them distinguish between the 'reality' that they have always known and the reality that truly is. They begin to realise that the purpose of this life's journey has far greater depth and meaning than they had ever imagined. The innermost part of their self responds strongly to this realisation and the outer mechanics of the person therefore shifts.

There are various spiri-tual paths that attract people but, sooner or later, all these little roads lead to that one main road and unless one travels the distance of this grand highway, one will not get far. To travel on this highway, one must disable and break down the self or nafs, dethroning it from its position of King and ruler, making it the slave. While the terms used may differ, all the mystical paths are in agreement on this fundamental aspect. In Buddhism, they speak of suffering and killing the ego; in Sufism, they speak of servanthood of the nafs to Allah. This also marks the separation between the real traveller and the pseudo traveller. The vast treasury of Sufi teaching and writings points out this fundamental and uncompromising stage of spiritual unfoldment. This road is marked with many teachers and once one surrenders himself to be taught and becomes a salek, he is well on the road to God discovery.

Guided by his teacher or murshid, the salek follows and obeys the murshid, whose job is to prevent the salek from falling into the trap of self. The self uses every ploy to get the traveller off the road that will ultimately lead to the self's demise. Its tool include man's mind, emotions and belief systems — a dange-rous and powerful array of weaponry. One must be most aware and equipped to defy the attempts of the nafs. The irony is that man is in the grip of his demanding self and is a slave to the material world, but he is not aware of it. Modern society promotes 'individuality', which in reality is 'slavery' to materiality, yet it ignores and/or shuns servanthood to God, which is the true purpose of Creation. It is only through servanthood to God that man can actually be freed from servanthood to material life. One cannot be a servant of God and a servant to oneself at the same time.

(Excerpted from 'Sufi Saint of Ooty' by Ramu Baba.)