Sufi Wisdom of the Week: Let Love Rule --- The Sufis Ain't Wahhabi

Winds of Change.net ^ | 1/18/2003 | Joe Katzman

[ex-Texan]

Know for a fact that Joe Katzman speaks the truth. In fact, I have known several Sufi Muslim's over the last dozen years. They were always among the most loving and peaceful folks I have ever met. In fact, a relative who once was on the road to enter a convent surprised me and those around her and knew her best by taking up the study of Sufi Philosophy. It was all quite consistent with her love for and study of the Great Christian Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

I think that the essential problem with Islam is the Wahhabi-Taliban-Fanatic-Cult or 'The Dark Side' .... which has lured so many like a gigantic black hole.

[Redcloak]

WAHHABI DON'T SURF!

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[RightWhale]

They were always among the most loving and peaceful folks I have ever met.

You may meet sufis in any line of work. They will often be very good at what they do. Even war.

[JohnnyZ]

Sufism is not necessarily peaceful Islam. It's just mystic Islam. Books like Coleman Barks' The Essential Rumi downplay (read: edit out) Rumi's Islamicism in order to sucker folks into thinking his is a universalist, peace-and-love message.

[DJtex]

I studied Sufism with a small group for several years. Sufism may actually pre-date Islam, but has become the mystical branch of Islam from ages of sharing the same culture. If we are to be spared the scourge of militant Wahabi (Saudi) Islam, it will only come by the influence of Sufism.

[jdege]

If you've been on the Internet long, you've seen some of the Nasrudin stories. You may not have known that they were an attempt to portray Sufi teaching in a modern light.

Look for "The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin" by Idries Shah.

Some quotes:

HOW TO GET OUT OF TROUBLE

A man had fallen between the rails in an Underground station when Nasrudin came along one afternoon. People were crowding around, all trying to get him out before a train ran him over.

They were shouting, 'Give me your hand!' But the man would not reach up.

The Mulla elbowed his way through the crowd and leant over to the man. 'Friend,' he said, 'what is your profession?'

'I am an income-tax inspector,' gasped the man.

'In that case,' said Nasrudin, 'take my hand!' The man immediately grasped the Mulla's hand and was hauled to safety.

Nasrudin turned to the open-mouthed audience. 'Never ask a tax man to give you anything, you fools,' he said, and walked away.

THAT'S WHY THEY APPRECIATE IT

'Never give people anything they ask for until at least a day has passed!' said the Mulla.

'Why not, Nasrudin?'

'Experience shows that they only appreciate something when they have had the opportunity of doubting whether they will get it or not.'

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE

A practical joker challenged Nasrudin in the teahouse:

'People say you are very clever. But I bet you a hundred gold pieces you can't fool me!'

'I can, just wait for me,' said Nasrudin, and walked out.

Three hours later, the man was still waiting for Nasrudin and his trick. Finally he conceded that he had been fooled. He went to the Mulla's house and put a bag of gold as his forfeit through the window. Nasrudin was lying on his bed, planning his trick. He heard the chink of coins, found the bag and counted the gold.

'Good,' he said to his wife, 'kind destiny has sent me something to pay my bet with if I lose. Now all I have to do is to think out some stratagem to fool the joker who is, no doubt impatiently, awaiting me in the teahouse.'

COSTLY

Nasrudin opened a booth with a sign above it:

TWO QUESTIONS ON ANY SUBJECT ANSWERED FOR £5.

A man who had two very urgent questions handed over his money, saying:

'Five Pounds is rather expensive for two questions, isn't it?'

'Yes,' said Nasrudin, 'and the next question, please?'

[ex-Texan]

Oops! My bad:

I posted a typo, and 'the Hatif'swords' is a typo error which became a huge context error and because it implies a a militant stance by Hatif. That is totally incorrect. The correction is as follows: * 'the Hatif's words ...'*

The link is to a Christian Philosophy site.

[secretagent]

Sufis may represent such a small percentage of Muslims as to merit no attention - tell us their percentage worldwide.

[JohnnyZ]

The percentage of Sufis is very small and often looked down upon by establishment Islam, but people generally wouldn't distinguish between being a follower of one and not the other, as one is part of the other; a significant number probably experience some Sufi teaching, perhaps particularly in rural areas?

[RightWhale]

What do Bush-bots do on FR?

--Swap Mulla Nasrudin stories.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[secretagent]

Sufis predominated in Chechnya, I think. Don't know about now - the Wahabbis have made inroads.

[RightWhale]

tell us their percentage worldwide

Lots of dervishes.

[secretagent]

Sorry, that went by me. A pun?

[genefromjersey]

In a book I read recently : TALIBAN by Ahmed Rashid, the author stated, prior to the coming of the Taliban, about 70% of the Sunni Moslems were of the Sufi faith.

The Taliban, who were Wahabbi inspired ( and supported ),forced their version of Islam on the populace.

[Publius]

You're confusing "Sufi" with "Sunni".

Talk to a Sufi in the presence of a mullah (Sunni, Shia or Wahhabi), and he'll tell you that Sufism is one with Islam.

Take that same Sufi out of the mullah's earshot, and he'll tell you that Sufism has its roots in Hellenistic antiquity, and it simply made its peace with Islam when that religion came to dominate that corner of the earth.

[lds23]

You may even find some Gurdjieff fans right here on Free Republic. You never know.......

[genefromjersey]

You know: re-reading Rashid's book, I do b'leve you're right ! About 20 % of Afghanistan was Shiite, with close ties ( religious and liguistic ) to Iran; about 70% was Sufi;and the largest % of the remainder was Sunni, with close ties to the Wahabbi cells in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Most of them were Pushtans ( sp?), and there were huge numbers of Pushtu-speaking refugees in Pakistan, along the Afghanistan border. The single largest contributor to the Taliban was Saudi Arabia, via its intelligence chief, Prince Turki (sp?).