foofighter said:
I am currently quite confused by an apparent contradiction that I can't resolve myself, and am hoping that anyone can shed some light on it. It started by me trying to read the "Sufi path of Knowledge", by Chittick/Ibn al Arabi. But then it made so many references to the Qu'ran, saying that it was great, that I figured that I should read it first. Since I'm now staying in a Muslim community it would also make sense to try and see what it was all about.
Here's some more interesting information that tends to show that the depth of Sufi knowledge goes below religion, therefore, can exist in an environment with Islam and Qu'ran adherents. (at least, I think):
If the believer understood the meaning of the saying 'the colour of the water is the colour of the receptacle', he would admit the validity of all beliefs and he would recognise God in every form and every object of faith.
Ibn 'Arabi, from the work: Fusûs al-Hikam (an exposition of the inner meaning of the wisdom of the prophets in the Judaic/ Christian/ Islamic line)
Source: _http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/ibnarabi.html
Inayat Khan expands on that a bit:
If one took six or seven different glasses, each one of a different colour, and poured water in each glass, the water would appear red in one glass, blue in another, green in a third, and so on, although it were the same water in each. In the same way, all religions are in their origin of divine inspiration, but, like the image of water poured into different coloured glasses, as soon as divine inspiration is crystallized in human thought, it acquires the colour of that thinking. We then call the one colour Hinduism, another colour Buddhism, another Islam and still other colours are called Judaism, Christianity, or by any other religious denomination.
Therefore, since the origin of all religions is of divine nature, these can only be understood inasmuch as one is prepared to recognize the unity of all religious ideals, at which level all religions are so many derivations of one and the same impulse, the cry of the heart, the longing of the soul for God.
_http://lovetiana.blogspot.com/2009/08/sufism.html
By Hazrat Inayat Khan
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inayat_Khan
Who is Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan?
"Hazrat" is an honorific; "Pir-o-Murshid" is an esoteric title, signifying the head of the Inner School of the Sufi Movement.
On July 5th, 1882, in Baroda, India, a child named Inayat was born into one of the most musical families in the country. Inayat's grandfather, Maula Bakhsh, known as the 'Beethoven of India,' had become a master of the music of both North and South India, a feat hitherto considered impossible, and had then, at the invitation of the Maharaja Khanda Rao, settled in Baroda where he founded 'Gayanshala,' the first musical academy of its kind in India. Maula Bakhsh drew about him many people of culture and refinement. Among his students and associates was Rahmat Khan, who came from a family of musicians, poets and mystics. Rahmat married Khatidja, the second daughter of Maula Bakhsh, and their first child was Inayat.
Inayat quickly showed great musical talent, and before he was twenty he was singing and playing the vina in the courts of royalty all over the subcontinent. Indeed, from a set of recordings Inayat made at the age of 27, modern musicologists are able to say that his vocal skill and musical understanding remain unequalled to this day. Called to something beyond worldly success, however, he at last met his Murshid, Abu Haimages/shim Sayed Madani and entered the Sufi path.
On September 13th, 1910, destiny brought Inayat "from the world of lyric and poetry to the world of industry and commerce," sailing from Bombay first to America, and travelling thence to Europe. In this he was fulfilling the last words of his Murshid, "Fare forth into the world, my child, and harmonize the East and West with the harmony of thy music. Spread the wisdom of Sufism abroad, for to this end art thou gifted by Allah, the most Merciful and Compassionate." Companions on that journey were his brothers Maheboob Khan and Ali Khan, who left auspicious careers in India to share his hardships and his work. Within a year they were joined by Inayat's youngest brother, Musharaff Khan.
During the next sixteen years, Inayat founded the International Sufi Movement and travelled widely, inspiring many and teaching the Sufi Message from California to Moscow. In America, he met the woman destined to become his wife and companion, Ora Ray Baker. Their first child was born in Russia, and the remaining three in England, where they sheltered during the First World War.
In the early 1920's, the family settled in Suresnes, a quiet suburb of Paris, and here Summer Schools were held for the growing number of students. The lectures given here and elsewhere have subsequently been published under such titles as "The Unity of Religious Ideals," "In an Eastern Rose Garden," "The Mysticism of Sound," "Love, Human and Divine," and "Health, Mental Purification and the Mind World."
In 1926, Inayat returned for a visit to India, leaving his family in the West. After a brief illness, he passed away in Tilak Lodge, New Delhi on February 5th, 1927, at the age of 44. His Dargah or tomb, located near that of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, is now a place of pilgrimage for Sufis from all over the world.
_http://www.sufimovement.org/khan.htm
Khan on Breath Music and Sufism:
To me, architecture is music, gardening is music, farming is music, painting is music, poetry is music. In all the occupations of life where beauty has inspired, where the divine wine has been poured out, there is music.
...
Breath manifests as voice, as word, as sound. And the sound is continually audible, the sound without and the sound within oneself, and that is music. This shows that there is music outside, and music within ourselves. Music inspires not only the soul of the great musician, but every infant the instant he comes into the world begins to move his little arms and legs with the rhythm of music. Therefore it is no exaggeration to say that music is the language of beauty, of the One Whom every living soul has loved. And one can understand that if one realizes and recognizes the perfection of all this beauty as God, our Beloved, it is natural that this music that we see in art and in the whole universe should be called the divine art.
Really, before its incarnation the soul is sound. It is for this reason that we love sound. The breath, the speech, the step, all have rhythm. Religions have all made music part of their worship. The Sufi especially loves music, calling it Ghiza-i-ruh, food of the soul.
_http://www.sufimovement.org/sufimusic.htm
Khan On Islam:
Many think Sufism to be a mystical side of Islam, and the thought was supported by the encyclopaedias, which speak of Sufism as having sprung from Islam, and they were confirmed in this by knowing that I am Muslim by birth. Naturally I could not tell them that it [Sufism] is a Universal Message of the time, for every one is not ready to understand this.
...
I have always refrained from taking the side of any particular nation in my work, and have tried to keep my Movement free from any political shadows. Vast fields of political activity were laid before me, during and after the war, and if I hesitated to take interest in such activities, it was only that my heart was all taken by the need of a universal brotherhood in the world.
_http://www.sufimovement.org/special_message.htm
