Sufism The Soul Of Islam

[Serafin Sonnier]

Sufismhas been loosely defined as the mystical tradition within Islam (in the sensethat, for example, Yoga is a mystical tradition within Hinduism). Actually, there areendless debates about how to define Sufism, as some teachers present themselves as firmlywithin the framework of Islam, while others regard themselves as teaching a sort oftranscendent mysticism that underlies and gives meaning to all religions. (Those with ageneral interest in Sufism should refer to the links at the end of this article.)

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was a Sufi master from Sri Lanka who came to America and taught herefor about a decade and a half before his death in 1986. I encountered his work recentlyfor the first time and have been struck by both the divine atmosphere that suffuses hisphotos and writings, and by the unusual perspective his teachings give on the coreexperience of mysticism. One of the surprises was that his teaching on the afterlifeinitially appeared to embrace a limited doctrine of rebirth that I have never heard associated with Islam; andthis despite the fact that Bawa seems to have operated firmly within traditional Islamicbelief and practice. (For example, the recent book The Illuminated Prayer: The Five-Times Prayer of the Sufis byMichael Green and Coleman Barks relates that Bawa taught the five-times-daily prayerdiscipline of Islam to his Western students; though his primary teaching was that weshould practice dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, at all times and not just whilepraying or meditating formally.)

A resume of Bawa's teachings on the afterlife might shed some light on what isessential or universal among mystics, and what is incidental and perhaps not so universal.I am going to present a number of quotations, primarily from a book by Bawa Muhaiyaddeencalled To Die Before Death: The Sufi Way of Life. Nevertheless, I can't claim tohave fully captured or understood his teachings on the subject. The book is a collectionof short speeches and question and answer sessions, and while certain ideas are repeatedthroughout, there is never a systematic presentation. Bawa spoke more like a poet than ascientist, with the end of making people experience the truth rather than justunderstanding it intellectually. Sometimes he answered questions in indirect ways, andsometimes he appeared to evade the question altogether. Some of his beliefs strike me asquite frightening, but he presented his understanding of the truth with a sweetness that Ihave rarely encountered.

Note: Since this article was originally written several years ago, a couple of correspondents have sent me additional information that has greatly changed my understanding of Bawa's teachings on the soul and the afterlife. It now appears likely that Bawa was speaking of successive stages that a soul may evolve through within a single physical human lifetime. This is a distinctly different position from other religions that teach of literal, physical rebirths. I would like to thank Barbaros Sert for this insight, though he is not to blame for any other mistakes that this article may still contain.

In other discourses, Bawa spoke of how a person who fails to realize God is "reborn" with various animal qualities. After each "rebirth," one loses some of the potential for the highest level of realization, and becomes capable of only a lower level of realization.

I originally interpreted these passages as a doctrine of reincarnation, involving physical death followed by physical rebirth in the body of a lower animal. I was forced to rethink this view after receiving the following correspondence:

When a person looses his humanness in his life time and gets the qualities of the animals or acts like an animal everytime e.g. violent or angry like a tiger or bites the people like a snake and hurts them with his words, his unseen inner form or astral body (Batin) takes the qualities of the animal related to his state. There are hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) stating that such and such person will be resurrected in the day of resurrection in the form of such and such animal. If one analyses the hadiths in islam, he will find the hadiths referring these issues.

This may happen to the person a lot of times during his life time (one life not many). Person's state keeps changing. A person becomes violent and angry at one moment, and next minute he behaves in another way. So person's state keeps changing during his life time. So everytime his state changes, his previous state dies, but that state is born again on another minute, because the person behaves in the same manner again. So each changes happening is like a death and birth of that person in different states. And this state becomes visible to the eyes of the saints, they can see this person's inner form and understand what qualities one have. These are mentioned as deaths and rebirths by Shaikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (K.S).

This should not be confused with the common understanding of Reincarnation. This is not like someone dies physically and his soul comes back in some other person's body or in an animal's body. The shaikh rejects the common reincarnation as we come to life once, and We are given only one life. That is why He keeps repeating "we need to tackle this in this lifetime." Because there is no other chance.

I will not enter in to the subject of common reincarnation and why islam rejects common reincarnation, here as this subject takes pages of explanations. My aim was to explain what the Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (K.S) was trying to explain to people by the term "Rebirth." I would not want people to take a credit from the shaikh's words to justify common understanding of Reincarnation . . . This may cause misunderstandings and wrong criticisms about the Shaikh by Muslim people in the world.

You can quote my comments in the website but please make sure that this is my comment and if there is any mistakes it belongs to me. If there is any good in it, it comes from Allah. I do not have the authority to talk on behalf of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship or Shaikh MR. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (K.S) himself so any criticism should be notified to me not to BMF or Bawa.

Aside from general questions of Islamic theology, there are some specific reasons to think that this view of Bawa's teachings may be correct. In the first place, this interpretation tends to harmonize Bawa's statements about rebirth in lower forms with his statement previously quoted under "Rebirths in This Very Life." Also, when discussing these lower rebirths, Bawa repeatedly stresses the difference between one's inner state and one's outer appearance. Thus he says "only your face will be of human form." Bawa can see your animal nature by looking inside you, not by looking at your outward appearance:

I did see hell with my own eyes. When I was flying over, I could see each one of the seven hells. Finally, I saw the fire of hell. I also saw the different beings who had fallen into hell. They no longer looked like human beings, but had the appearance of dogs and various other animals, with their tongues and noses either missing or crushed . . . Even now, when I think of it, I shudder with fear.

Other things he can confirm from his own experience. For example, he relates meetingvisiting graves and talking to the people there who are awaiting the day of judgment (Ibid, pp.158-159). He also recounts meeting ghosts:

Bawa had a vision of hell, discussed previously. He also relates a vision of the Angelof Death ('Izra'il) who has four faces, and of a tree with lights representing each lifeon earth (Ibid, pp. 99-101).

Although Bawa was against the use of mantras, this practice greatly resembles the Yogicpractice of ajapa japa, or So'ham mantra. Following is a teaching on So'ham mantra fromSwami Muktananda, in the book I Am That:

This is known as ajapa-japa, the unrepeated mantra repetition. One who simply watches the breath, being aware that it is coming in and going out with the sounds ham and sa, is doing ajapa-japa, and this is the true way of practicing mantra. (p. 28)

Many of Bawa's books are available through Amazon.com, including the book from which most of the quotations in this article were taken. Click here for further information on this book at Amazon.com. The Illuminated Prayer, by Coleman Barks and Michael Green. A beautifully illustrated introduction to the five-times-daily prayer of Islam, in the light of the teachings of Jellaludin Rumi and Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. Click here for further information on this book at Amazon.com. Or, for much more information, visit the BawaMuhaiyaddeen Fellowship Website.Return to Karma & Reincarnation Contents Page

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