Relation Between Islamic Spirituality And Sufism Beyond Ordinary Understanding

Islam, meaning submission or submitting oneself fully to God, is one of the world’s largely practiced religions. Those that participate and practice the Islamic religion

Islam is one of the major world religions that quickly proliferated across the world. The spread of Islam started when Prophet Muhammad began to address the public a new revelation that he received from God in 632 CE. It was later written in the Quran, which is the Islamic sacred text. The religion united everyone under one rule and appealed to all because there was no hierarchy. It particularly diffused during the Middle Ages, when Islam had a great desire in exploring new information, developing extensive trade and creating a powerful military system in the Middle East and North Africa, which helped the Islamic World dominate politically and religiously.

The Islamic religion is a Middle Eastern, Arabic Peninsula, based religion that originated right around the 7th c. and is based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. The definition of the word Islam means "submission" in Arabic, and connotes the notion of a total surrender of oneself to God, Allah in the Arabic language. Individuals who practice Islam are known as Muslims, which, again in Arabic, means "one who submits to God"

The spread of Islam throughout the world was among the most significant worldwide movements in history. Beginning as the faith of a small community of believers in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam rapidly became one of the major world religions. The core beliefs and culture of this faith is the belief that Muhammad (570-632), a respected businessman in Mecca, a commercial and religious center in western Arabia, received revelations from God that have been preserved in the Qur'an. The core of Islam remains the same today after 1396 years. Islam still translates to “submission” and Muslims still live by the Qur’an and follow the 5 Pillars of Islam. However, throughout the Pre-Islamic, Umayyad, and Abbasid

There are few different branches of Islam but the two most prominent branches are Sharia law and Sufism. Sharia law and Sufism both seem to contradict each other. Sharia laws are the Qur’anic rules for the tangible world. The law includes predetermined punishment and rewards for actions, clearly defined by the Qur’an. It also has a spectrum of the lawfulness of actions, ranging from required to forbidden. Sufism, however, takes a more mystical approach to the practice of Islam. Sufism focuses on rejecting the material world and becoming one with God through self-annihilation. Despite the difference, I argue Sharia law and Sufism can be reconciled because although one person cannot practice both at the same time, but both versions of Islam

Animals and plants are not shown because Muslims think that only God can create animals and plants in his image.

In 500 CE, the Arabian Peninsula converted to Islam, and slowly and gradually small communities developed and over time, the religion grew prominent. It reached to Delhi, when a ruthless Turk leader, Mahmud of Ghazi, established an Islamic state known as the Sultanate of Delhi. Like South Asia, the conversion to Islam was a gradual process. By the tenth century did the religion grow prominent as well as Hinduism and Buddhism was establishing a basis on southeastern Asian regions. Sufi missionaries attracted those who were willing to convert for its promise of a salvation and its sanctity. These missionaries allowed followers to observe over old rituals and venerate old spirits and emphasized piety and devotions. Thus in 1500, a quarter of Indian Muslims called themselves as Islam

Qutb’s teachings and commentary of Islamic teachings are seen to hold considerable authority and significance to adherents of Islam. His main and most revered teachings included: the belief in Tawhid (the oneness of God), the concept of Jahiliyya (pagan ignorance), jihad (struggle) and the need to revive Islam.

The prophet Muhammad founded the religion known as Islam during the postclassical period. He claimed to hear voices while meditating alone and believed this voice to be that of a higher being. He declared himself the last prophet and formed the Islamic religion on the belief that at the end of time, on Judgment Day, everyone would be resurrected and either have eternal punishment in hellfire or eternal joy in paradise. Islam grew in popularity around the world when Muslim merchants spread across the Indian Ocean in search of commercial opportunity. It gained a huge following in Africa, India and China and significantly affected the attitudes, beliefs and customs of the people that lived there.

The development of Islam – 7th century C.E. – This religion began when the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad and told him to spread the word of God. At this time, many people worshipped many gods/idols. Muhammad was thought of as the “one true prophet” by his followers. There are five pillars of Islam: the shahada – profession of faith, salat – ritual prayer, sawm – fasting, zakat – giving alms, and hajj – pilgrimage to mecca. Muhammad’s preaching about there only being one god got him kicked out of Mecca in 622 C.E. where he and his followers ended up in Medina. In Medina, the Islamic community grew into a small emoire-like group. In 630, the Muslims took back Mecca. After Muhammad’s death, the religion continued to grow with many disputes

The region of the Middle East and its inhabitants have always been a wonder to the Europeans, dating back to the years before the advent of Islam and the years following the Arab conquest. Today, the Islamic world spreads from the corners of the Philippines to the far edges of Spain and Central Africa. Various cultures have adopted the Islamic faith, and this blending of many different cultures has strengthened the universal Islamic culture. The religion of Islam has provided a new meaning to the lives of many people around the world. In the Islamic world, the religion defines and enriches culture and as a result the culture gives meaning to the individual. Islam is not only a religion, it is in its own way a culture. It may be this very

Within Sufism, Al-Ghazali defined the difference between Ilham (inspiration) and Ta’allum (reasoning or learning). He believes that inspiration and revelation in union with religion hold a superior position than reasoning that originates from philosophy. Rational knowledge, according to Al-Ghazali, is always relative to the senses. The knowledge of the senses, however, cannot be trusted as valid. True knowledge, known as the Truth, only comes through inspiration and revelation (McCarthy 378). Al-Ghazali introduces the aspect of God, or Allah, in the acquisition of perfect knowledge. “Inspiration can bring one closer to Allah than philosophical learning alone” (Inglis). Ultimately, this idea of Ilham brings with it the Supreme Reality which is equivalent to Truth (McCarthy 378). In practical terms, Al-Ghazali believes that the necessary Truths of the intellect begin from “a light which God most high cast into my breast. That light is the key to the greater part of knowledge” (Al-Ghazali 25). An individual can only experience this light of God if he or she has reached the “state.”

     A Sufi tries to change the state in a person, to bring him closer to God.

According to the sayings of Imam Ali in “Path of Eloquence”, a man who submits to the will of God had made a wise choice. Since this amazing creature called human being was created by God, he should use his senses in a good way that pleases his God. Imam Ali’s words say that a man should practice his life in such a manner that other people will love him during his life, remember him, and say good things about him after he dies. This supports the fact that Islamic spirituality and faith can be practiced outside of the religion and amongst people.

Sufism has influenced many Muslims, and is, especially in the West, portrayed and regarded as a valuable and legitimate part of the Islamic faith. Fazlur Rahman, in his work Islam, says that “considerable ink has been spent by modern scholarship on the ‘origins’ of Sufism in Islam, as to how far it is ‘genuinely’ Islamic and how far a product, in the face of Islam, of outside influences, particularly Christian and Gnostic.”4 Rahman seems to hint that some of this ink has been wasted, as he concludes that “outside influences must have played an accessory role and these no one may deny, but they must have supervened upon an initial native tendency.” However, aside from a vague