On the eve of the year 2000, at the seminar “Sufism and the Third Millennium” organised by the Tariqa Qâdiriya Boutchichiya in Casablanca, Dr Larbi Rahim gave a paper entitled “Sufism and Modernism”. Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb reported it at the end of December 1999. We reproduce it in full, as part of our press archives devoted to the Sidi Hamza era (may Allah sanctify his Secret).
“Here we are, then, on the eve of a new century,” he said, “but also on the eve of a new millennium, which we approach with a certain apprehension but also with hope!
The century that has passed has bequeathed to us an immense scientific and technological heritage and a considerable body of knowledge, but also a veritable arsenal of destruction and perdition of barely imaginable proportions.
Our era strangely reminds us of this Qur’anic pronouncement: ‘By the declining day, man is [deep] in loss, except for those who believe, do good deeds, urge one another to the truth, and urge one another to steadfastness’ (Qur’an 103:1-3, tr. Abdel Haleem).
What, then, are this faith, these useful works, this truth and this perseverance alluded to in these verses, which are able to save humanity?
The extreme technical development that the civilised world has reached can only survive if it is integrated into a macrocosm of spirituality. If Sufism has always been the major expression of spirituality in the Muslim world, we may ask the following questions today:
- What contribution can Sufism make to the modern world? Can it help the man of the 21st century to live his modernity harmoniously?
- Is there a modernity in Sufism? A renewal capable of adapting Sufism to the present structures of our society?
The Man of the Third Millennium, Deprived of Bearings
To be able to answer the 1st question, let us first try to sketch the profile of the man of the 3rd millennium and to listen to his true aspirations.
The present gigantic technological wave has swept over the whole world and has spilled into the most remote corners of our planet. This globalisation, or rather this universalisation, is pushing us irreversibly towards a gradual, sometimes even brutal, homogenisation of our daily life and of the setting of our existence. We are witnessing a standardisation of our homes, our streets and our cities, a standardisation of our clothing and our food. Humankind is being reduced to a single model with an almost identical morphotype, whatever its origins and its living environment.
We are drifting inevitably towards denaturation, towards the erasure of the great civilisations and the creation of a uniform society, without any character. This prevailing monotony insidiously creeps into the very inwardness of the human being. He finds himself stripped of a fundamental right: the right to bearings. He needs to have an identity, to see an intimate face again, to find his true face once more! He seeks a mirror of truth that he finds nowhere around him.
Because in reality this mirror of truth lies in the depths of man, clear and luminous, but hidden by countless veils: the veil of our endlessly multiplied needs, the veil of our overexcited desires, the veil of every kind of information that harasses our brains each day.
Whereas our most ardent aspiration is this inner peace, this serenity, so that the Ocean of our being may grow calm and we may see clearly into it, to perceive a beginning of the truth towards which our mind and our soul tend.
But we are far too proud! For the modern men that we are, feelings are considered weaknesses, in a world where above all one must always appear strong and unfeeling. We clothe our personality in a veritable shell that isolates us, but that also weighs on us!
Yet so little would be needed for us to flourish: it would be enough for us sincerely to admit our weakness as human beings, to listen within ourselves to that faint voice calling us! So that we would find ourselves, as if by enchantment, at the entrance to the path: the way of salvation. The way of truth, the spiritual way!
How Can We Be Sure That Sufism Is the Way of Salvation?
Well, first by looking at what it has represented throughout the history of Islam, and then by observing how it is lived in the contemporary world. Historically, which works have been the most published, the most consulted, and are still current, if not the writings bequeathed by the great Sufi masters? Who are the men who codified the different modes of reading the Qur’an, who established the ‘Madahib’ in Islam, who collected the Hadiths of the Prophet, if not the Sufi Imams and Shouyoukhs?
Finally, in our own day, we must look for the one who has been able to continue on this way of authenticity, who works all his life to teach us how to keep only the best of ourselves, and who is himself steeped in the noblest qualities, to understand what a Sufi master really is. Sometimes it is enough to meet him, or to meet his gaze…
When the Prophet was asked who the ‘Aouliaes’ are, he replied: ‘They are those who make us remember Allah as soon as we see them…’
Finally, one can judge a Cheïkh by his action… by listening to the testimony of all those around him, and thus truly assess the full extent of his spiritual power. But the best way to realise it and to be entirely convinced is to try! One must attempt the experience!
In our present consumer-oriented society, modern man has adopted a principle that has become sacred: to believe in only two things, what he has experienced and what he has tasted and consumed. Now Sufism is precisely a practice, an experience lived at the individual level, in the deepest intimacy of our being… But also an experience that brings a savour! It is this savour that inclines us to commit ourselves and to go further on the way.
This enlightened journey, if one invests oneself in it sincerely, can open horizons of extraordinary richness… in the domain of knowledge as much as in that of well-being, in every compartment of our individuality. And one becomes increasingly aware that this journey is being accomplished towards the divine principle! A supreme delight! The ultimate destiny to which every follower of Sufism aspires through his annihilation, at the summit of his invocations!
‘As for those who say, “Our Lord is God,” and take the straight path towards Him, the angels come down to them and say, “Have no fear or grief, but rejoice in the good news of Paradise, which you have been promised. We are your allies in this world and in the world to come”’.
This miraculous transformation of human nature brought about by Sufism can take place even if, at the outset, the disciple had a reduced religious dimension, or one that was apparently non-existent. Provided the thirst of our soul is sufficiently expressed, and our listening sufficiently attentive. Yet the fluid must also be sufficiently energising and abundant to make permeable once again these hearts dried out by the extreme materiality of modern times.
‘Even after that, your hearts became as hard as rocks, or even harder, for there are rocks from which streams spring out, and some from which water comes when they split open, and others which fall down in awe of God: He is not unaware of what you do’.
Thus it is that in our day, thanks to Sufism, men have been able to taste the fruits of spirituality and then those of a nascent faith, a faith which, skilfully irrigated by Dikr, grows stronger and cultivates in us unsuspected virtues. The disciple gradually detaches himself, as if by repulsion, from what is forbidden, and conforms with attraction and delight to all that is prescribed.
The disciple will then develop like a chrysalis which, in its cocoon, turns into a butterfly and will soon be able to emerge and fly towards the light. For the disciple, it will be the light of Islam!
‘Is a dead person brought back to life by Us, and given light with which to walk among people, comparable to someone trapped in deep darkness who cannot escape?’
This spontaneous evolution of a previously closed mind towards piety and worship, by means of Sufism, is the best proof of its authenticity, and of the role it can play in modern times.
But perhaps it may be objected that in today’s world there are not only those who have gone astray, not only elements living outside any religious context. Whole sections of modern populations live at one and the same time in technological modernity and in the intimacy of a religious life whose every norm they scrupulously observe. Can we then claim that they have little need of Sufism, since they conscientiously fulfil all their religious duties?
For the fulfilment of the precepts constitutes only the foundation of the system of worship! The minimum required to claim to belong to the Islamic Oumma. Is it not said in the Qur’an: ‘prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behaviour. Remembering God is greater’?
And as is stated in the famous prophetic Hadith of Jibril, worship is graded on three levels: ‘Maqam El Islam’, ‘Maqam El Imane’ and ‘Maqam El Ihssane’. In other words:
- A 1st level corresponding to conformity with the dogmas of Islam.
- The 2nd level is that of authenticated faith, that intimate and deep conviction whose intensity we feel varying according to the days and circumstances. It is this flame that must always be fed and strengthened.
- The 3rd level is that of the fulfilment of Man, that of the growing perfectibility of his being and of the excellence of his works.
The practice of Sufism, by stirring the flame of faith through Dikr, enables believers to deepen the performance of their rituals and to give them a dimension of inwardness… Sufism unites substance and form! Religious practice is then no longer reduced to a mere duty but becomes a succession of blessings experienced, a fullness!
During his rituals the believer finds himself in the serenity of a particular aura that radiates through him and warms his heart. He perceives ever more intimately the greatness and the glory of his Lord, whose nearness he feels.
In these moments of paroxysm, when faith becomes dazzling, the three spiritual levels (‘El Islam’, ‘El Imane’ and ‘El Ihsane’) combine and interpenetrate to tend and melt towards a single goal! An ideal of oneness! Oneness with the Creator and with his creation! Just as the shadow rejoins its light! Or perhaps even like a light through The Light.
It is this Islam, with its powerful and intoxicating fluid, that the Prophet spread around him, rapidly winning over the brotherly and rebellious peoples of his time. It is this same fluid, this same ‘Madad’, that has been carried from generation to generation through the companions of the Prophet and then through the ‘Aouliae’ down to our own day, giving Islam all its vitality. It is this Islam that, in the centuries and millennia to come, will enable Man to remain in harmony with himself and with his universe.
Modern Man, shaped in this dynamic and enlightened Islam, like the one initiated through Sufism, can therefore remain fully active in the created world and at the same time continually renew himself and turn towards his creator.
Does Sufism Contain a Parameter of Modernity?
We can now answer the second question we asked at the outset: does Sufism contain a parameter of modernity? Does it evolve with time, or does it remain an unchanging ancestral discipline imposing a way of life with strict and constant rules?
But first of all, what image can we have of Sufism today through all the means of information around us? How is it conceived by the mind of modern man?
Some regard Sufism as a philosophy or a form of culture that marked the first centuries of Islam. Others regard it as legendary epics, attested by those beautiful ancient lyrical poems or those kinds of dance that have become somewhat folkloric. In any case, most often people are almost certain that it is a current that no longer exists, or should no longer exist, but whose famous names, such as El Jounnaïd, Jalaleddine Roumi or Ibn Arabi, are respected.
Sometimes one may imagine Sufis as marginal figures who abandon possessions and families to go and live an ascetic life in isolation at the top of a mountain or wandering through the deserts. Yet Tassaouf is still here! Very much alive, giving Islam its full spiritual dimension. It evolves and modernises constantly, bringing remedies specific to each era.
‘The Sufi is the son of his time’. In other words, ‘The Sufi lives in contemporaneity’. Tassaouf is the only element capable of bringing to religion parameters of variability able to adapt it to every era.
Certainly, Sufism did have its time of obligatory spiritual retreats. El Ghazzali, learned and dignitary as he was, spent more than ten years in spiritual retreat. That was the time when Sufis withdrew entirely from their surroundings to live in the most basic conditions, and sometimes even in the most complete destitution. Such was the case of Rabia El Adaouia, whom we all know, who had reduced her life to its simplest expression in order to devote herself entirely to worship.
Moreover, the early Sufi ways based their teaching on rules of great rigour and sometimes imposed very harsh trials on disciples to test their perseverance and their humility. Thus it was that the great names of Sufism were required by their master, at the very beginning of their initiation, to go and beg for alms at the entrance to the markets as a trial.
The Era of Simplicity Inaugurated by the Tariqa Boutchichiya
But in our day, in this world of speed and haste, man in his bewilderment is so impatient, so demanding! So God, in his infinite mercy, has made the conditions of this spiritual teaching extremely easy. There is no longer any need to search desperately for a guide, to run after the way: it is the way that comes right to our doors. Provided we are able to recognise it!
It was the Tariqa Qadiria Boutchichia that inaugurated this era of simplicity in Sufism: first with Cheikh Hadj Abbès and then with Sidi Hamza, our present guide. We have moved from a Tassaouf based on rigour to a Tassaouf based on gentleness and subtlety. This is in no way an approximate or second-rate Sufism, but quite simply a change of methodology inspired by the Almighty in his ‘Awliya’ to initiate an even greater Tassaouf! For it operates in exceptionally dark human conditions.
Today the ‘Mourid’ can now have a normal family life, a normal professional activity, enjoy his life and his possessions normally, while of course remaining within the limits of lawfulness established by the Sharia. On the other hand, it is the principle of relativity that plays an essential role in this new type of Sufi teaching. A readjustment of our general scale of values. Relationships, material possessions, professional careers lose their primordial significance, their hypertrophied share among our priorities. They are no longer held sacred. They are given a very relative place in relation to what now concerns us more than anything: our soul!
One can indeed be rich but also very simple, full of humility, ‘Faqir’ in one’s heart, just as one can be materially limited but domineering, entirely galvanised by money. One can live in a desert and have a completely scattered mind, be prone to the most Machiavellian dreams and fantasies, just as one can live amid the multitude and in the anonymity of the crowd while remaining in detachment and serenity of mind.
And the greatest merit (if any merit at all can be attributed to a Sufi) is precisely to be able to face daily life and all its material vicissitudes while remaining within a healthy and clean individual system, well sheltered in that invisible bubble which is spirituality. Hadj Abbès used to say: ‘The spiritual retreat of the Mourid is in his heart!’
Furthermore, in earlier centuries, access to the Sufi way was extremely selective; for years disciples travelled the world with great hardship in the hope of meeting a spiritual master, sometimes in vain. Shadili went as far as Egypt before an enlightened mind told him that the Cheikh he was seeking was in his country of origin, Morocco, where he had left him. This was, in this case, Moulay Abdeslam Ben Machich, of whom he had moreover been the only disciple.
Moreover, Sufi teaching was extremely precious; it could only be given to accomplished believers with a very solid grounding in the Islamic sciences. They also had to be of very high morality, coupled with extreme humility. For at that time the Cheikh, too, was constantly searching for a Mourid worthy of the name, to whom he could pass on his teaching, and also, perhaps, his succession!
And when the disciple finally succeeded in finding a guide, he could no longer leave him! His first duty was to take constant care of the person of the Cheikh, down to the smallest detail of his daily life. Today, what also characterises our Way is its abundance: disciples number in the thousands, spread across every continent. Some knew nothing of Sufism and did not even suspect its existence. They found themselves on the Way by the happiest of chances: quite simply because they were in sincere search of the truth. God then guided them towards the way best suited for them to discover it.
In addition, in our day the relationship between the Cheikh and the Mourid no longer involves any rigour, any particular protocol. One sometimes even has the impression that he spoils his disciples and pampers them. He knows that their trials are the very ones they endure in their daily life, with all its constraints and temptations. And the guide has the art of creating almost virtual situations which in fact constitute almost imperceptible trials, trials that take place in subtlety and yet have an incisive impact on the ego and on the development of the Mourid.
The teaching itself is simple: it requires no precondition and is centred on techniques of invocation that are easy to apply and that are a true therapy for the soul.
We can therefore conclude by saying that Sufi teaching has evolved towards simplicity and modernity, that it is perfectly suited to our time since it is open and tolerant. It is a practical teaching, one of individual experimentation, giving rise to a subtle and stimulating savour, a true cure of well-being that frees us from every artificial attachment and transcends us. This beneficial transformation, taking place in the individual as an element, can radiate by contiguity and reach those around him and then the various tissues of society.
‘God does not change the condition of a people [for the worse] unless they change what is in themselves’.
But the ultimate aim lies elsewhere: it is orientation towards the divine principle and the quest for closeness to Allah, glory be to Him.”
Dr Larbi Rahim
Source: “Le soufisme et le 3ème millénaire”, Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb (31 December 1999, No. 10.571), by Dr Larbi Rahim. Reproduced as part of the boutchichiya.fr press archives, the Sidi Hamza era.
