“Tasawwuf ek mutawazi deen hai.” – Javed Ahmad Ghamidi.1,2,3,4
Translated as: “Mysticism is a parallel religion (method/approach to Truth, separate from Islam)”.
This saying of Ghamidi sahib ruffles a lot of feathers! The millions of diehard fans of Sufism aren’t able to digest this opinion of his. Isn’t he wrong?
Doesn’t mysticism, along with philosophy, history, politics, constitute the core of the religion of Islam (Deen-al-Islam)?
Not really!
Mysticism, philosophy, history, politics, are all independent streams of knowledge, like science, with their own separate domains, methods, and discourses.
The domain of science is the physical world. And its method of knowing the truth is naturalistic empiricism.
The domain of mysticism is the human soul and its way to truth is spiritual, to gain direct experience of the Divine!
Philosophy has the rational abilities of the human mind as its means to the truth. Thinking/thought/ rationality/logic is its primary domain.
The domain of politics-law-history is the social-economic-organizational sphere of human existence and its connection to power and legislation. It’s a socialistic lens for viewing the world and its truths.
Whereas, the Deen-al-Islam has Scripture as its base and the afterlife as its primary domain!
Nonetheless, some of the elements/components of mysticism, philosophy, science, politics, history, are compatible with and hence form parts of al-Islam.
Just like democracy, capitalism, and communism are separate discourses but they have some of their elements as parts of Islam since they are either compatible with Islam or because permissible (halaal, mubah) elements of these streams could be utilized to achieve some of the directives or objectives of Islam.
Like social justice (adl) could be achieved through socialism.
Purity of heart (tazkiya), through mysticism.
Observing and reflecting over Nature through science!
These streams can thus be taken as useful tools to help in our understanding and application of the Deen, like science can be used to observe and understand the physical world and the knowledge derived from it could be used in fiqh; for example, a better scientific (medical) understanding of the harmful effects of tobacco chewing and smoking on human health prompted many scholars of Islamic law (fiqh) to declare it as forbidden/haraam.
So then do we take medical science as a core branch of Islam? Definitely not!
Islam has only two core branches, namely the Quran and the Sunnah (the Sunnah being different from the ahadith). And the understanding and application of the Quran and the Sunnah is fiqh which too is not a primary part of the Deen but forms its secondary layer/branch.
Like fiqh, other streams too, namely Sufism (Islamic mysticism), kalam (Islamic philosophical theology), siyasat-al-Islam (Islamic politics), also emerged as secondary branches/layers that grow out from the primary core/base/roots that is the Quran and the Sunnah!
Many elements of mysticism have been successfully incorporated/integrated into traditionalist Islam as Tasawwuf or Sufism.
Elements of Greek philosophy have been integrated into Islamic philosophical theology or kalam.
Elements of politics integrated into political Islam of Jamaat-e-Islami and Ikhwaanul Muslimeen.
Historical reports/ahadith/akhbaar-e-ahaad were integrated into Islamic theology and law by the ahlul-hadith strand of Muslim scholars.
I’ve written about these at length in my previous article that enumerates the different strands of Islam based upon their inclinations towards one or more of history, politics, philosophy, mysticism, etc.
Ghamidi sahib is partially correct thus: in his saying that mysticism as a methodology of knowing the Truth is separate from Islam that is based only upon Scripture and Practices of the Prophet(s).
But after some elements of mysticism that are compatible with Islam have been integrated into the broader Islamic framework as Sufism, it doesn’t remain totally separate from the Deen but forms a secondary branch/layer of it.
Just like Ghamidi sahib says that democracy and universal human rights are compatible with Islam.5 But that obviously doesn’t make democracy as a system of governance to be hundred percent in tune with Islam, since the legislative methods of democracy that allow us to declare the haraam to be halaal, cannot be considered to be acceptable in Islamic nations! Simply because something that has been declared to be haraam by Allah cannot be made halaal by humans! So what’s Islamic in democracy is its method of appointment of rulers/leaders through public elections. Not the entirety of it.
But the question that remains is why do we at all need to integrate mysticism or philosophy into Islam in the first place? Let’s discuss this below.
Why and how do these separate streams become parts of the secondary layer of Islam?
Challenges posed by the ever evolving landscape of knowledge and ideas makes it indispensable for Muslim scholars to critically engage with the various streams of knowledge and adopt/adapt them to meet the needs of the hour!
Whenever new data, ideas, trends emerge, Islam adapts to these challenges to stay a dynamic and relevant contemporary force! Adaptation is necessary, whether as a response to external social pressures, or purely out of a quest for the truth in every age! Because, if you don’t adapt, you will perish!
Now, what’s considered orthodox/traditional today were novel attempts at adaptation a millennium ago!
Examples being kalam and Sufism/tasawwuf. Both were systematized and eventually traditionalized after attempts at dealing with and adapting to the challenges posed by the parallel streams of the then prevailing foreign philosophy (Greek) and mysticism (Persian and Indian).
So, what’s novel/adaptive today might become a part of the orthodoxy tomorrow!
For example, today’s attempts to reconcile the theory of evolution with Islamic theology might end up being the orthodox theological positions for the Muslims of tomorrow!
Note that ‘adaptive’ here means Islam integrating into itself other systems/philosophies/ways of life, as is clear from the examples I cited above, viz., integrating the theory of evolution into Islamic theology (the work of Shoaib Ahmed Malik for example).
Integrating mysticism into Islam (the works of Ibn Arabi for example).
Integrating Greek philosophy into Islam (the works of Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd for example).
Integrating modernism (Sir Syed Ahmed Khan for example).
That is, the Islamic framework acts as a giant elastic sponge that absorbs other systems into it, without its core layer being compromised, with minimal adjustments to its superficial/secondary layers. And this is a hallmark of a robust framework, and this robustness is one of the evidence in favor of Islam’s claim to the truth!
But the broader trend within the world of Islam has been to be defensive at first, then adaptive attempts set in, then after adaptation the elements of adaptation become concretized/orthodoxified, ultimately ending up stagnating and becoming defensive again until the next pressures come to shove, and the cycle continues!