Reading the “Poem of the Sufi Way” as the final work this
semester, seems the most fitting way to end a course that captured the varied
life experiences of these ancient mystics.
From Rabi’a to Ansari, the philosophies and practices of numerous Sufis
came to life in al-Farid’s prose. From
this poem al-Farid connects all Sufi fraternities into one great whole; there
is no separation of belief, just separate methods of expression. Perhaps the most compelling stanza in his
poem is found on page 141. Stanza 237
reads:
For
after I fought, I witnessed
that he who made me see,
my
guide to me, was me—
me, my
own example.
The
first line implies a struggle against some force. The opposing force is not defined as each
Sufi will encounter their own struggle in their own time. Whether that struggle comes in the form of
power, wealth, fame, hunger, abuse, or even a lack of faith, each person on the
Sufi path will only have a witness after they struggle. It would appear that the victory over the
struggle is not the important part, for there is no mention of a win, but the
glory is found through the tribulation and not around it. This means that the seeker must come to
accept what is placed before them and not try to avoid it or become something
that they are not. The Sufi must not
only accept the world in which they live, but they ought to also forge through
the obstacles that stand in their way.
The line “that he who made me see,” implies
the existence of a force outside of oneself that has significant power over the
individual. To force one into seeing
something that was not already known reveals that the revealer comes from
beyond the realms of the known world.
When the seeker acquires the knowledge that can only come from beyond
the known realms, they have transcended into a new sphere of existence. This transcendence is a true religious
experience as they are now left to interpret the unknown witness into the known
language of those that surround them.
Al-Farid reveals the revealer in the
next line: “my guide to me, was me—“. This
captures the Sufi principle of union between the Creator and the
creations. When one moves beyond their
profane knowledge into the realm of the sacred, they have joined with the
source of all knowing. This line also
shows the importance of the individual along the path to attain union with the
divine. While there may be many fraternities
to join and masters to learn from, the most important teacher to be found along
the path is the student who wants to learn.
This is reinforced with the final line “me, my own example.” No matter what a person may want to learn
from another further along the Sufi path, there is no greater teacher than the
very student in learning the correct way to travel, for there are many
different ways to get to a single destination.
The reason this stanza resonated
with me more than any other in the poem is because this captures my own personal
and religious philosophies more than any other.
It is important to learn from others, but they can never be a suitable
substitute for what I have to teach myself.
The union that one seeks to find with the Divine will not be found in
following the path of others, for the Divine speaks to each in their own
way. The masters who have gone on before
are great to use as a general template for life’s path, but they ought not to
be used as the only source of knowledge.
Why should the Divine communicate to and elevate a person who cannot
communicate to and elevate themselves?
The struggle that each of us face is unique therefore the path we choose
must be unique also. The emphasis on the
individual found in al-Farid’s poem truly embodies the many varied works of the
Sufi masters who preceded him.
