Real...?
Is God real?
Real eyes see
Those were actually the graffiti written wildly on a BBC advertisement board and on a lamp post on my way from my hall to my department. They were undeniably simple but like winzip & winrar, they store larger amounts of meaningful things than their appearance. But what is the real meaning of the word real?
posted by Anang Adiwarni at 1:09 am
14 Comments:
Real eyes never saw gravity.
Is gravity real?
on in brief.. do you believe in gravity?
if I dun believe in God, does that make God un-real?
by the way, I dun see you... are you real? =>
faith is belief. action doesn't normally prevails our faith. the heart does. is this true? or.. faith and belief must be shown in form of action? do comment bout this. i'm not into interrogating or other evil agenda FYI.. just plain poser who wants to know everything...but lack of patience.. but knowledge make the heart grows maturely.. and.. still confused.. wut is mature exactly?
SUFISM :ITS ORIGINS
The word Sufi is most likely to be derived from the Arabic word "soof", meaning wool. This is because of the Sufi habit of wearing woolen coats, a designation of their initiation into the Sufi order. The early Sufi orders considered the wearing of this coat as an imitation of Isa bin Maryam (Jesus). In reply to this, Ibn Taymiyyah said: "There are a people who have chosen and preferred the wearing of woolen clothes, claiming that they want to resemble al-Maseeh ibn Maryam. But the way of our Prophet is more beloved to us, and the Prophet (s.a.w.s) used to wear cotton and other garments."1
Sufism is known as "Islamic Mysticism," in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God2. Mysticism is defined as the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality, and the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight)3
Both the terms Sufi and Sufism and Sufi beliefs have no basis from the traditional Islamic sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah, a fact even admitted by themselves. Rather, Sufism is in essence a conglomerate consisting of extracts from a multitude of other religions with which Sufi's interacted.
During the primary stages of Sufism, Sufis were characterised by their particular attachment to zikr (remembrance of Allah) and asceticism (seclusion), as well as the beginning of innovated practices to 'aid' in the religious practices. Yet even at the early stage of Sufism, before their involvement in innovated rituals and structured orders, the scholars warned the masses of the extremity of Sufi practices. Imam Al-Shafi' had the opinion that "If a person exercised Sufism (Tasawafa) at the beginning of the day, he doesn't come at Zuhur except an idiot". Imam Malik and Ahmad bin Hanbal also shared similar ideas on this new movement which emanated from Basrah, Iraq.
Although it began as a move towards excessive Ibaadah, such practices were doomed to lead to corruption, since their basis did not come from authentic religious doctrines, but rather from exaggerated human emotions.
Sufism as an organised movement arose among pious Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (AD 661-750)4. The Sufis exploited the chaotic state of affairs that existed during the fifth and sixth centuries A.H. and invited people to follow their way, alleging that the remedy to this chaos was conformity to the guidance of their order's Sheikhs. Dar al-Majnoon was established during the reign of Khalifah Ma'moon, where he invited the scholars of the Romans and Greeks to meet with the Muslims and 'discuss' their respective positions. This provided the perfect breeding ground for the synthesis between Islam and Pagan theology, to produce the Sufism of the like of Ibn Arabi.
The Mixing Pot
With the demise of the Companions and their successors, the door became open for the distortion of Islamic Principles. The enemies of Islam had already burrowed deep into the ranks of Muslims and rapidly caused Fitnah through their spreading of forged hadith and subsequently created new sects such as the Khawaarij and Mu'tazilah.
Sufism gained its breeding ground during this period, whereby it gained its support from the Dynastic Rulers, who had deviated from Islam to the extent whereby magic was used as entertainment in their courts, even though magic is considered as Kufr in Islam.5 During this period, Sufism developed its Shi'a flavour, indeed the roots of contemporary Sufism have been traced back to Shi'a origins (see later).
Sufi ideology and thinking flourished during the times of the likes of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, Jalal Ad Din Rumi, and Imam Ghazali. Their translation of Greek philosophical works into Arabic during the third Islamic century left an indelible mark on many aspects of Sufism, resulting in Greek pantheism becoming an integral part of Sufi doctrine. Pagan practices such as Saint worshipping, the use of magic and holding venerance towards their Sheikh overtook the Orthodox practices of Islam and had little resemblance to the Islam left by our Prophet (s.a.w).
By examining the mystic doctrines of Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism and other religions, it becomes clear how closer Sufism is to these religions than to Islam. In fact, Sufism is never characterised under "Islam" in any system of catalogue, but rather under 'Mysticism'.
Sharda highlights these unsurprising similarities by stating that: "After the fall of Muslim orthodoxy from power at the centre of India for about a century, due to the invasion of Timur, the Sufi became free from the control of the Muslim orthodoxy and consorted with Hindu saints, who influenced them to an amazing extent. The Sufi adopted Monism and wifely devotion from the Vaishnava Vedantic school and Bhakti and Yogic practices from the Vaishnava Vedantic school. By that time, the popularity of the Vedantic pantheism among the Sufis had reached its zenith."6
Well, what does the word 'real' mean? Most people will judge the existance of God based on their understandings of the meaning of the word 'real'. Taking all of them, even I could say the God is both real & unreal, but the 'real'ity is, He does exist...
Regarding the article about sufism, please state the sources where you have quoted or taken a fragment of their articles and contents.
Anyway, I strongly believe that the definition given in that article -which has been written in a proper scholarly manner- came from an outsider of sufism, and hence shows the bias against sufism.
'Real' eyes do see gravity, Muthanna...
hmmm... when descartes said he thought therefore he was... mayb this was what he meant? and on a more personal level, the existence of god (or God. or the gods. or whatever) is purely that, is it not? im not so sure myself, but it's a known fact even that leap of faith can be interpreted as god. as for feasability of 'substance' or 'idea' questioning existence and existability is an age old dilemma... settling it on that personal level seems more important (if not also more meaningful) than trying to generalise and convince all, right? imho =)
-amir <--- not sure if this even makes sense-
I beg to differ...."Real" eyes dun see gravity...what we DO see is the effect of the gravitational force....
the etymological derivation of the word "Sufi"- from the Arabic word,"Soof" i.e wool is the most acceptable and correct by the "analogy" -Qiyas of Arabic language.
Other opinions regarding the derivation of "Sufi" such as the Greek word,"Sophos",the ahli "Suffah" during the time of the Prophet or the name of an Arab tribe by the analogical deductional tool of Arabic does not conform with the nature of the word"Sufi"
However,that's to say linguistically. Some scholars may define it in other ways as we know it today.
The original reality of Sufism itself is actually nothing more than soul purification"tazkiyyah annafs" or as Prophet terms it"Ihsaan". However, the inflatration of foreign concepts of Greek paganism,Hindu polytheism and etc have diluted the purity and originality of Sufism. Thus, the similarities we migh find in the Sufism as we see it nowadays.
The defination of Ibn Taymiyyah does by no means signify bias-If you read his original writing...I thin k it's in Majmu' Fatawa.You can also refer to Tasawwuf wa Ibn Taymiyyah...He had weighed all the possible derivations objectively as in a proper scholarly manner.
One thing,some of Ibn Taymiyyah's opponents may say he's against Sufism etc. The truth is he wasn't. In fact, he gave good words for the Sufis like Junaid,Yazid AlBustami,Ibrahim ibn Adham,Yahya ibn Muadz etc.He said that they are the ppl on the true path.
What he was against is the Sufism that is being remodelled by the innovated and deviated foreign concepts in the likes of the Sufism of Ibn Arabi and alHallaj.
Wallahu'alam
So it's just the matter of how each of us define 'real'.. Now we're back to my first question: what is 'real' actually?
For me, real eyes do see gravity, as the physical eyes do see the effects. You may argue does real=physical incorrect? Is it real? Do we need real eyes to see the answer? Well, I guess so...
Thank you very much for that concise elaboration.
My first comment was not relevant....says Orion. So, it depends on what you believe doesn't it?
For me, yes. Please read my next post. Thanks =)
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