Study this picture from The Central Islamic Lands carefully and answe...
Painting of whirling dervishes, Iranian
manuscript 1490. Of
the four men dancing,
only one is shown
with his hands in the
‘correct’ position.
Some have succumbed
to vertigo and are
being led away.
A group of religious-minded people in medieval Islam, known
as Sufis, sought a deeper and more personal knowledge of God
through asceticism (rahbaniya) and mysticism. The more society
gave itself up to material pursuits and pleasures, the more the
Sufis sought to renounce the world (zuhd) and rely on God alone
(tawakkul). In the eighth and ninth centuries, ascetic inclinations
were elevated to the higher stage of mysticism (tasawwuf) by the
ideas of pantheism and love. Pantheism is the idea of oneness of
God and His creation which implies that
the human soul must be united with
its Maker. Unity with God can be
achieved through an intense love for
God (ishq), which the woman-saint
Rabia of Basra (d. 891) preached in her
poems. Bayazid Bistami (d. 874), an
Iranian Sufi, was the first to teach the
importance of submerging the self
(fana) in God. Sufis used musical
concerts (sama) to induce ecstasy and
stimulate emotions of love and passion.
Sufism is open to all regardless of
religious affiliation, status and gender.
Dhulnun Misri (d. 861), whose grave
can still be seen near the Pyramids in
Egypt, declared before the Abbasid
caliph, al-Mutawakkil, that he ‘learnt
true Islam from an old woman, and true
chivalry from a water carrier’. By
making religion more personal and less
institutional, Sufism gained popularity
and posed a challenge to orthodox Islam.
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