Healing Power of Faith & Prayer: Religious & Scientific Perspectives

Author: Prof. Abdul Majid

 
We turn to God and He Renews our Strength so that we can run and not grow weary, so that we can walk and not feel faint.  The man or woman who turns to God is like a tree planted by a stream. What they share with the world replenished by a source beyond themselves so that they never run dry. (Kushner) (1)

Healing is defined as the diagnosis of the cause of evil and mental and physical sickness, and the development of techniques for its cure. (2)

Psychotherapy is a systematic effort to restore the disordered personality to the general pattern of normalcy (3). In Jung’s words psychotherapy is a domain of healing. (4)  Psychotherapy has a long and very old history. It is actually man’s fight against spiritual/mental sickness, diseases, maladjustment or any other disorder of this kind.

According to Dr. Ali Rizvi,
“Its foundation was actually laid with the appearance of man on this globe. The man who suffered a pain that could not be located in the body, was somewhere in the non-body region and thus resorted to a treatment which was considered appropriate to this kind of malaise” (5)

Different methods and techniques have been (and are being) used (in psychotherapy) to cure such disorders and mental ailments but the demon of melancholy seems to be devouring the substance of serenity and satisfaction. It is estimated that more than 500 million people worldwide suffer from the ill effects of depression. By 2020 it is expected to be the 2nd most debilitating disease after heart attack. (6)

A variety of anti-depressants are suggested as a course of therapy, but there is no recovery. More and more people in the modern societies are attempting to seek pleasure through carnal and corporeal modes of satisfaction. The sacred sources are denied the blessings which they deserved, while the unsanctified avenues are unfolded for immediate gratification, but their dissatisfaction is increasing. Neurosis, depression and suicide are increasing day by day.

Now people are realizing that real peace of mind and tranquility can not be gained without turning to God.

Within the past few years it has become generally known in the West that religious beliefs and practices have an important impact on physical and mental health.
Religion is commonly relied upon to cope with the stress caused by health problems. Now the medical effects of faith are considered a matter not just of faith but also of science.
More than three hundred scientific studies demonstrate the medical value of religious commitment (including worship attendance, prayer, scripture study, and an active participation in a spiritual community). These benefits include enhanced prevention and treatment of mental disorders (e.g. depression, suicide, and anxiety), medical and surgical illness (e.g; heart disease, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases), and addiction, reduced pain and disability; and prolonged survival.(7) In addition, spiritual treatment (e.g; prayer, religiously based psychotherapy) enhances recovery. (8)

For the faithful, religious commitment offers many health advantages. A cohesive, comforting set of beliefs and participation in sacred rituals may endow a sense of meaning, purpose, & hope. Faith offers a “peace that passeth understanding” in times of pain, grief and disability. Healthy life style choice (e.g. exercise, proper diet) are more common and unhealthy behaviors (e.g. nicotine, alcohol, & drug use, suicide attempts; high risk sexual activity) are less common among religious persons. Persons of faith usually cope effectively with stress and have strong social support and a high quality of life. (9)

Dr. Frankle, who developed a  system of psychotherapy, which in his own words, “not only recognizes man’s spirit, but actually starts from it”  quotes research findings which indicate that about 20 percent of neurosis result from inability of the patients to find any purpose in life. He further says that it may be the task of the therapist to direct them to a meaning in life by the realization of some value. This realization may be achieved, not only by accomplishing worthwhile tasks, but also sometimes by the adoption of an attitude of acceptance of inevitable sufferings. (10)

It is not surprising, then, that three major studies (recently published in the American Journal of Public Health and Journal of Gerontology performed in different parts of United States by different research teams have found religiously active people living considerably longer than non-religious. The lack of religious involvement has an effect on mortality that is equivalent to forty years of smoking one pack of cigarettes per day (11)

Several studies have now discovered a connection between religious involvement and immune system function. For example, in a study of 1718 subjects( age sixty five  or over) conducted by Duke University researchers, low level of church attendance were associated with higher levels of interleukin – 6 (IL-6), a blood protein indicative  of immune system dysfunction. Higher levels of religious attendance in 1986, 1989 and 1992 all predicted lower IL-6 levels. Higher levels of IL-6 (< 5ng/ml) are found in persons with AIDS, osteoporosis, Al- zheimer’s disease, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer. Frequent church attendees were only half as likely as non-attendees to have high levels of IL-6 in their blood, suggesting that they have strong immune system. (12)

Likewise, studies of patients with AIDS indicate stronger immune system functioning among those who are more religiously involved. (13)

In an another extensive study of healing by Dr. Dale Matthews and associates, personal prayers caused an overall 20 percent decrease in the amount of pain experienced by patients with arthritis. Patients also reported less swelling in their joints, greater mobility, and a heightened sense of spiritual peace. Dr. Matthews describes the reason of comfort,
“It raises the possibility that perhaps the effect of prayer is not going through the inflammatory mechanism, but instead is happening at a man cerebral level.”
Dr. Mathews also identified the act of physically putting one’s hand on the patient as more interactive, identifying the patient-healer interaction as a possible mechanism. (14)

Many modern psychologists like Jung, Brill, Link, Borgin, Loewanthal, Worthington, etc; acknowledge the fact that a person having a strong belief and practicing religion can better cope with psychological disorders than the one who does not practice religion. (16)
Recently an interesting study was conducted in Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, on the effect of ‘Tahajjid Salat’ (late night prayer) in curbing depression. In this study, one experimental group was advised to recite the Holy Quran, offer prayer and be busy in invocation (dhikr). The other group was advised to remain busy in home tasks, etc. Then the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was used to measure results. Astonishingly, 25 out of 32 patients of experimental group showed remarkable recovery from depression. The other group’s majority showed no change. (15)

Dr. Charles T. Kaelber reported in his article LINK BETWEEN DEPRESSION and SPIRITUALITY that depression is less common in people who are actively involved in religious activities. (17)

Kate Loewenthal also concludes in his book “The Psychology of Religion” religion can affect patterns of stress, and this can affect patterns of distress and of minor psychiatric disorders. We could suggest that minor anxiety is a disorder associated with the religious life, while major depression is a disorder associated with secularization.

Religious Activity --> Belief that God is in control, supporting all for the best --> positive mood --> Lower distress (18)

Why religion supports people and why faith in God is so helpful to people in distress, Dr. Pargament, the author of “The Psychology of Religion and Coping” speaks:
“I believe religion offers a response to the problem of human insufficiency. Try as we might to maximize significance through our own insights and experiences or through those of others, we remain human, finite and limited. At any time we may be pushed beyond our immediate resources, exposing our basic vulnerability to ourselves and the world. To this most basic of existential crises, religion holds solutions. The solutions may come in the form of spiritual support when other forms of social support are lacking, explanations when no other explanations seem convincing, and a sense of ultimate control through the sacred when life seems out of control or new objects of significance when old ones are no longer compelling.” (19)

Johnson sums it up more eloquently:
“It is because man is finite with infinite possibilities that he ventures upon the religious quest. He is naturally finite, yet he learns infinite possibilities which he cannot reach alone. Thus, he will never be content to endure the finite loneliness of self – sufficient isolation …. Religious learning is the discovery of ultimate resources to meet infinite longings of the finite spirit. (20)

Mark Su, a physician at the Tufts University Family Residency Program in Boston, Massachusetts, examined 212 studies from the past 20 years that examined the relationship between spirituality & health… most from the Judeo – Christian Perspective. Su found that 75 percent of these studies reported a positive benefit, 17 percent showed mix or no effect, and 7 percent found a negative impact on health.

Su found religion had the most positive impact on health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and hypertension. Presenting the findings at the annual scientific assembly of the America Academy of Family Physicians in Atlanta – October 2001, Su said asking patients about their religious backgrounds practices and community is a relationship builder: “it leads to meaningful discussions: it creates a bond.” (21)

The Holy Quran also describes in its various verses that the real peace of mind and tranquility lies in faith in Almighty Allah and in His remembrance. Quran declares:
Those who believe, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah, do the hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. Those who believe and do right, joy (Tuba) and true happiness is for them and a beautiful plea of find return. (22)

Abdullah Yousaf Ali comments on the word ‘Tuba’
‘Tuba’ an internal state of Satisfaction, an inward joy which is difficult to describe in words but which reflects itself in the life of the good man through good and ill fortune, through good report and evil. And then there is the final goal to which his eyes are turned, the beautiful Home of rest in the Hereafter, after his life’s struggles are over. That goal is God Himself. (23)

On the other hand, in another verse God said:
One who turns away from the remembrance and admonition of Allah, for his is a life narrowed down and he shall be raised blind on the Day of Judgment. (24)

So the true happiness in fact comes from the true belief in almighty Creator and from the values one cherishes and the virtues one nourishes. While all pleasures stemming from carnal desires and material phenomena disappear soon after their satisfaction, the bliss surrounding moral and spiritual consummation always remains alive and fresh in human mind and soul.

When we acquire complete satisfaction by advancing from doubt to faith, ignorance to knowledge, negligence to remembrance, sin to repentance, hypocrisy to sincerity, falsehood to truth, pride to humility, lethargy to action, haughtiness to lowliness, the soul is pacified. The delight, joy and comfort of soul are with the remembrance of Allah, from Him it comes and to Him it will return.

So we can say that real satisfaction is due to closeness to God and remoteness from God results in mental diseases.

HEALING POWER OF PRAYER
An important study is published in 1988, which was conducted by Cardiologist Dr. Randolph Byrd. A computer assigned 393 patients at a coronary care unit either to a group that was prayed for by prayer groups or to a group that was not remembered in prayer. No one knew which group the patients were in. The prayer groups were simply given the patients first names, along with brief descriptions of their medical problems. They ware asked to pray each day until the patients were discharged from the hospital – but were given no instructions on how to do it or what to say. When the study was completed ten months later, the prayed - for patients benefited in several significant areas:
They required 20% less antibiotics than unremembered group
They were 2.5 times less likely to suffer congestive heart failure
They were less likely to suffer cardiac arrest and left the hospital earlier (25)

Similarly a study published in the November 2001, American Heart Journal showed a positive relationship between spirituality and health among cardiac patients. Duke University researchers studied 150 heart patients at a medical center in North Carolina. All received cardiac stents – device to keep their arteries open – and 120 received a noetic therapy, such as guided imagery, stress relaxation, healing touch or intercessory prayer. Buddhists, Catholic, Moravians, Jews, Fundamental Christians, Baptists and others prayed for the patients from around the world.

Patients who received the additional therapies had a 25 to 30 percent reduction in adverse outcomes – from additional surgery to death. (26)

It may be concluded on the basis of the above and many other studies that prayer for another person suffering from disease might have a beneficial effect if the sufferer knew that others cared enough for him or her to pray. In this case the knowledge of existence of the prayer might help to restore patient’s own faith in an ultimate restoration to health. There are also evidences (as described above) to affirm the efficiency of secret prayer when the person for whom prayer is made, does not know about the prayer. And in the words of Douglas Steere:
“No more and no less than that intercessory prayer seems able to touch the life of another at the core of his or her being and that in the extremity of disease we can be supported and even healed by the help of the prayers of other when we outwardly know nothing (27).
As poet Alfred Tennyson wrote, “Many things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of” (28)

These are the recent studies which strongly support the Islamic teachings about prayers. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said, “Prayer (Duaa) is the kernel of worship”. In another saying it is described that the most favorite thing to God is to pray to him.
Similarly the Prophet Mohammad said:
Prayer is the weapon of a believer, the pillar of religion Islam and is the light (Noor) of heavens and earth (29)

Almighty Allah instructed his beloved Prophet,
Pray for the believers because that is a source of security, serenity and tranquility for them. (30)

The prayers of great sages and saints have had special impact on those for whom they prayed. Modern research testifies this, as Dr. Iqbal said:  
                              
Similarly, according to a hadith (saying of the Prophet) there are some people whose prayer (Duaa) is not rejected;
 
The fasting person until he breaks the fast; the just ruler, and the oppressed person, whose prayer Allah Lifts above the clouds and opens unto it the doors of heavens and Allah says: I swear by My honor, verily, I shall assist you, even though it may be after some time. (31)
Before describing further the healing power of prayer, a very brief note about the healing power of the Holy Quran is given which is also perfect admonition, remembrance (Zikr) and prayer.

THE HEALING POWER OF THE HOLY QURAN
About the Holy Quran, God said:
We send down (stage by stage) in the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe. (32)
Abdullah Yousaf Ali comments on this verse as:
In God’s revelation there is a healing for our broken spirits, hope for our spiritual future, and a joy in the forgiveness of our sins. All who work in faith will share in these privileges. It is only the rebels against God’s law who will suffer loss. (33)

Dr. Ahmed E. Qazi and associates examined the effect of recitation of the Holy Scripture (The Quran).As a result of their studies they concluded that high blood pressure was decreased due to listening to the Quran, the heart beat was normalized and the muscles of the body relaxed. These effects of recitation were not only on Muslims but also on non-Muslims (34)

The First Sûrah (chapter) of the Quran is also called Sûrah (Fâtiha) Shifa (Healing and Cure) for all the ailments and this is the Sûrah recited necessarily in all the formal prayers of Muslims.

Dr. Rashid told Hakim Tariq Mehmood that the Patients who were suffering from insomnia were cured by the prayers of Dawn (Fajr) and night (Isha) and the recitation of the Quran and they slept without taking any sleeping pills. (35)

Almightly Allah advised all believers to seek strength in patience and prayer, Allah is with those who are patient. (36)  
                                
When the period of suffering seems to be too long, strength seems to be sapping, patience may soon be exhausted unless strength is renewed. Hence, prayer is coupled with patience in the Quranic directive. Prayer is the ever – flowing spring which renews the believers’ energy and gives them new strength. Prayers also add to that perseverance, contentment, confidence and reassurance and make them feel that they are not alone.

Sayyid Qutb adds:
The value of prayer is great indeed; prayer is the direct link between man who is certain to die and the Power which is everlasting. It is the appointed time for the confined nature of man to come to the ever - flowing spring. It holds the key to the endless treasure which has more than anyone needs. It is the gate through which man escapes from his limited confines on earth to the limitless expanse of the Universe. It is the source of spiritual strength and tender compassion. It provides the gentle touch which comforts the tired heart. 
For this reason, whenever the Prophet (PBUH), experienced some hardship, or whenever he had to make a momentous decision he prayed much in order to make his contact with Allah more prolonged. (37)

Abu Hurairah, a companion of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was suffering from intestinal pain. The prophet (PBUH) advised him,
“Stand up and pray because healing (shifa) is in prayer.” (38)

Dr. C. Callender, Chair of the Surgery Department at Howard University, Washington D.C. rightly said:
“The miracles of spiritual healing should be accepted as the newest medical technology” (39)

I conclude my paper with Biblical and Quranic verses which are better suited here.

A sufferer prays to God:
Unto thee will I Cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me, if though be silent to me, I become like them that go down unto the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands towards thy Holy sanctuary…….
Blessed be the Lord, because he had heard the voice of my supplications.
The Lord is my Strength and my Shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with song will I praise him. (Psalms 28:2-3,6-7) (40)

In the Holy Quran God assures:
When my servants (bondmen) ask thee concerning me (tell them) I am indeed close to them, I listen to the prayer of every supplicant when he calleth on Me: Let them also with a will, listen to My call, and believe in Me, that they may be rightly directed. (Al-Quran: 2:186)


REFERENCES AND END NOTES
1.      Quoted in Kenneth I. Pargament: The Psychology of Religion & Coping (New York: The Guilford Press, 19987) p.208
2.      Enclyclopaedia Britannica(Chicago: William Bentom Publishers, 1975) vol. 8,p.685
3.      Dr. Syed Azhar Ali Rizvi: Muslim Tradition in Psychotherapy and Modern Trends (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, Club Road, 1989) p. 1
4.      Ibid.
5.      Ibid, p. 203
6.      Iqbal S. Hussain: The Quran and Modernism Beyond Science and Philosophy (Lahore: Adabistan, 43, Rattigan Road, 2000) p. 308 .  The World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored a project titled ‘The Global Burning of Disease’, which estimated that in the year 2000, depression was the fourth leading cause of disability in the world and would be the second – leading cause by the year 2020 . A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in which  it is estimated that the proportion of persons receiving treatment for depression increased more than three – fold from 1987 to 1997. (See for further details Charles Kaelber article Research Indicates Link Between Depression and Spirituality in Research News and opportunities (Durham: North Carolina www.researchnewaonline.org June 2002), p. 5
7.       Dale Matthews: Is Religion Good for Your Health in Russell Stannard (ed) God for the 21st Century (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2000) p. 103 and also see the summary of 85 studies published by Dr. Kenneth I. Pargament in his book “The Psychology of Religion and Coping” (pp. 407 – 422), which proves that religion and religious activities are very effective in coping(Varios definitions of coping are given by the famous psychologist  Pargament in the aforesaid book at page 85, one of them is: Any response to external life strains that serves to prevent, avoid, or control emotional distress.
8.      Ibid
9.      Ibid, p. 104
10.  Dr. Robert H. Thouless: An Introduction to the Psychology of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971) p. 78
11.  Harold Koenig: The Healing Power of Faith in Stannard Russell (ed) God for 21st Century p. 108
12.  Ibid, p. 109
13.  Ibid
14.  Tara Yeoman: Prayer Study Returns Positive Results: Matthews work shows measured decrease in arthritis pain in Research News and Opportunities, May 2001, p. 3
15.  Dr. Usman Najati: Al Quran and Ilmun-nafs (Lahore: Al-Faisal Publishers, Urdu Bazaar) pp. 362 – 363) and Kate M. Loewenthal: The Psychology of Religion: A short introduction. (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 185 Bonbury Road, 2000) p. 124 – 125
16.  Hakim Tariq Mehmood Chughtai: Sunnat Nabvi (The way of the Prophet and Modern Science) Bahawlpur (Hasil Pur); Darul Mutaliah in front of Mosque Bazaar Wali, 1996) pp. 53 – 55
17.  Dr. Charles T. Kaelber, op. cit.
18.  Kate M. Loewenthal, op. cit. p. 128
19.  Kenneth Pargament, op. cit. p. 310
20.  Ibid.
21.  Mike Fillon: Medical Wonders from Religiosity in Science and Spirit (IL: 115 Campbell Street Suit L-4, www.science-spirit.org) May, June 2002, p.36
22.  Al-Quran, 13: 28-29
23.  Abdullah Yusuf Ali: The Meaning of the Glorious Quran, Translation and Commentary (Cairo: Darul Kitab Al-Masri) Volume 1, p. 612
24.  Al-Quran, 20: 124
25.  Dr. Larry Dossey: Does Prayer Heal? In  Readers, Digest, June 1996, p. 118
26.  Mike Fillon, op. cit.
27.  Douglas V. Steer: Dimensions of Prayer ( TN: Upper Room Books, 1997 ), p. 77
28.  Ibid
29.  Hakim Tariq Mehmud: The Teachings of the Prophet and Modern Sciences (Lahore: Ilmourfan Publishers, Urdu Bazaar, 2000) pp. 210 – 211
30.  Al-Quran: 9: 103.
31.  Maulana Mohammad Zakaryya: Blessings and Rewards of Keeping Fast (Lahore: Kutab Khana Faizi), p. 27
32.  Al-Quran: 17:82
33.  Abdullah Yousaf Ali, op. cit; Vol. 1, p. 718
34.  Hakim Tariq Mehmood, op. cit;  212
35.  Ibid
36.  Al-Quran: 2: 153
37.  Adil Salahi (ed): Our Dialogue (KSA Jeddah: Arab News, 6th Edition) Vol. 2, pp. 665 – 666
38.  Usman Najjati: Hadith & Ilm-un-Nafs (Lahore: Al-Faisal Publishers, Urdu Bazaar, 1988) p. 344
39.  Mike Fillon: Science and Spirit, op. cit. p. 37 Quoted in Kenneth Pargament: the Psychology of Religion and Coping. P. 210


About the author:
Assistant Professor of Zoology & Chairperson of HSSRD & winner of CTNS 2001 Science- Religion International award.
Department of Zoology,
Government Postgraduate College,
Mansehra, Pakistan

Source:  with permission
http://www.hssrd.org/journal/spring2003/healing.htm
JOURNAL OF HSSRD SCIENCE - RELIGION DIALOGUE
Hazara Society for Science-Religion Dialogue, Pakistan
(The Hazara Society is for the constructive engagement of Religion & Science)

Fear in the Islamic Tradition

Author: Akbar Muhammad, Ph.D.
 
Introduction
I will attempt to outline broadly some of the fundamental Islamic beliefs and salient aspects of Muslim views on fear.  I will present some of their ideas verbatim, with a view to giving the authors a direct voice in the elucidation of this aspect of the Islamic tradition.  Although most of them died centuries ago, their opinions are still representative of millions of Muslims' attitudes towards fear.

Islam has its origins in the seventh-century predominantly polytheistic Arabian Peninsula.  Its inhabitants depended largely on healers, supplications to their deities, spirits, and the flora and fauna for physical and mental cures.  This general type of dependency was also typical of numerous peoples who converted to Islam from the Middle Ages (according to Western periodization) well into the modern period.  Apart from access to modern health specialists and medicines, in the present context, perhaps the most important difference between pre-modern and modern Muslims is the replacement of the deities with Allah.  In the Muslim tradition, Allah is Ash-Shafi, the Curer/Healer.

Many poor and rural Muslims, like other peoples in the developing world, have little access to modern medical care; therefore millions still rely on old remedies for a wide range of ailments, emotional and otherwise.  And in view of the fact that numerous immigrants in the United States come from underprivileged backgrounds or have had limited access to modern health care, one would expect to find a considerable number of them still reliant on some form of traditional medicine, or, most likely, on a combination of Allah and modern medical treatment.  Of course the extent of one's dependence on either of the pair is probably not measurable.

The primary source of Islam is the sacred Qur’an (Koran), which Muslims believe is the literal and unaltered word of Allah, as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) during the seventh century CE.  The second and much larger source of Islam is the Sunna, which is widely known as the Hadith.  The latter consists of various collections of sayings, deeds and decisions attributed to Muhammad.  The Sunna/Hadith exists in various compilations which differ to some extent in content and wording.

The Qur’an and the Hadith are replete with descriptions of the relationship between the believer and the Creator, a brief mention of which will contribute to our understanding of fear in the Muslim tradition.  Not only is Allah the Creator, He is also the source of life and indirectly of sickness.  There is a covenant (‛ahd), a kind of binding agreement, so to speak, between Allah and Adam's descendants to the effect that they must obey Him.   

Furthermore, by Allah's command, they must also obey the Prophet Muhammad.  Allah orders Muslims to accept Him as the final authority in worldly matters, and to depend on and trust in Him.  A Muslim's lifespan is a period in which Allah will test her or his 'loyalty' to Him in various ways, perhaps with such misfortunes as ill health or the death of a loved one.  The believer is commanded to meet adversity with steadfastness, perseverance and patience, being faithful and diligent in the performance of prayer (salat) and supplication (du‛a’).

Prayer to Allah, Islam's fundamental institution, is performed by different bodily movements and postures.  Prayer is incumbent on the healthy and the sick, a humbling action involving Qur’anic recitation and repetition of specific formulae.  A person who is unable to pray in a normal fashion is permitted to do so in almost any position that is comfortable, even sitting or lying on one's back.  Supplication can also be made in any posture.  Allah commands both prayer and supplication; they symbolize submission to and dependence on Him in all circumstances.  Allah commands Muslims to remember Him in almost all of their activities.

Meanings of Fear
Perhaps the most frequently used (Arabic) terms for fear in Islamic texts are khawf and khashya, although khashya has the additional meanings of apprehension and anxiety, especially about a person's expectation of punishment for offenses or crimes.[i]  Both terms are frequently used to mean fear of Allah, that is, His displeasure and punishment. 
Among other terms related to fear are
(1) huzn, grief and anxiety;
(2) faza‘, fear and consternation; and
(3) hamm, anxiety, worry and distress. 
The first and second terms are used in various contexts in the Qur’an, the third in the Sunna.  Thus fear is thought to be a regulator of Muslim behavior and thoughts; it keeps the believer's behavior in accord with the commands and recommendations of Allah and the Prophet.  Since Muslims believe in the afterlife, following the moral directives of the Qur’an and the Sunna is accompanied by a sense of pleasing Allah, Whose pleasure Muslims hope to attain; therefore the way to salvation is adherence to His and the Prophet's commands.

There are about 134 Qur’anic verses about khawf (fear) and its related terms, and about 48 verses on khashya (fear, apprehension and anxiety).[ii] 

Allow me to mention a few verses.[iii]
It is only Satan that suggests to you the fear of his votaries: Be not afraid of them, but fear Me, if you have faith (3 [Âl ‛Imran]:175, where a derivative of khawf is used).

… fear not men, but fear Me (5 [Al-Ma’ida]:44, where a derivative of khashya is used).

Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere—who say when afflicted with calamity: 'To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return'—they are those on whom (descend) blessings from their Lord, and mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance (2 [Al-Baqara]:155-7, where a derivative of khawf is used).

Allah sets forth a parable:  A city enjoying security and quiet, abundantly supplied with sustenance from every place; yet it was ungrateful for the favours of Allah; so Allah made it taste hunger and fear ([khawf,] closing in on it) like a garment, because of the (evil) which (its people) wrought (16 [An-Nahl]:112).

Say: 'I would, if I disobeyed my Lord, indeed have fear of the Penalty of a Mighty Day.  On that Day, if the Penalty is averted from any, it is due to Allah's Mercy; and that would be salvation, the obvious fulfillment of all desire (6 [Al-An‛am]:15-6, where a derivative of khawf is used).

The related concepts of fear and hope are expressed in innumerable Islamic texts, perhaps none more succinctly than in the slim volume Al-Khawf wa'r-raja’ (Fear and Hope), written by one of Islam's most influential philosophers, Sufis and theologians, Abu-Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111).[iv]  Muslim scholars have mentioned repeatedly that the believer lives between hope for salvation and fear of Allah's punishment.  Al-Ghazali and other Muslim thinkers hold that fear is caused by anxiety (hamm), and that hope, the twin of fear, so to speak, should accompany or decrease the intensity of fear.[v]  Al-Ghazali describes fear (khawf) as an expression for the suffering of the heart and its conflagration by means of the anticipation of what is abhorred as a future contingency. … And whoever is intimate with God, whose heart is ruled by truth and who lives in the present through his seeing the majesty of truth perpetually no longer turns to the future and is possessed of neither fear nor hope. More, his state has become higher than fear or hope, for both of these are reins which preclude the soul from its excursions into laxness.  [A]l-Wasiti[vi] has pointed to this in saying:  Fear is a veil between God and the creature.  Again he said:  When the truth makes plain the things which are secret, there remains in them no residue for hope and fear.  ... Fear may ... issue in sickness ... weakness ... depression ... bewilderment ... intellectual atrophy ... [and] disease; it may even issue in death.

The aim of fear is the same as the aim of the whip which is to incite to action.  If it is otherwise, fear is imperfect, because it is deficient in its essence, since its product is ignorance and impotence.  Ignorance, because one does not know the sequel of his affair; and, if he 'knew' he would not be afraid, since the thing which is feared is that about which there is doubt.  Impotence, because he is exposed to a forbidden thing which he is unable to repel.  Therefore it (fear) is commendable in connection with human deficiencies ... The profit of fear is caution ... abstinence ... piety ... spiritual combat ... worship ... reflection ... recollection, and all the means that bring about union with God.  And all of that requires life along with health of body and wholeness of intellect, and whatever impairs these means is reprehensible.  … [T]he most valued of blessings is prolongation of life in obedience to God, and everything which annuls life or mind or health ... is a loss and deprivation ...[vii]

Remedies for Fear and Death
Muslims belong to a text-based, faith-healing or spiritual medicine tradition.[viii]  There are numerous texts containing supplications which are said to have healing qualities.  The sick, the apprehensive and the troubled are encouraged to repeat certain Qur’anic verses, Hadiths and other sanctioned "magical" formulae (ruqya) once or several times in order to regain health and well-being, or to remove or alleviate fear.  Many of the most widely recognized Muslim philosophical, medical and theological works contain such healing texts.
Reading or recitation of the Qur’an is widely believed to cure numerous illnesses, especially when the sick person is pious and combines Qur’anic verses with other formulae.[ix]  Chapter (sura) 17 [Al-Isra’], verse 82 reads in part:  "We send down in the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe."  The Opening Chapter of the Qur’an, "Al-Fatiha", which is the most frequently recited part of the book, is believed to have healing qualities:
Praise be to Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Master of the Day of Judgement.  It is You whom we worship, and from You we seek aid.  Show us the right way, the way of those whom you have blessed, those whose portion is not wrath, and who go not astray.

Prophet Muhammad is credited with the saying, "For every illness there is a cure."  According some authorities, this Hadith encourages the sick to seek medical treatment,[x] and the physician to treat the sick.  This, of course, is in accord with the so-called Hippocratic Oath, which Muslims have known since the ninth century.[xi]

Natural and spiritual cures for various illnesses, including fear, are attributed to Muhammad in well-known collections, some of which are called "Prophetic medicine";[xii] internal evidence, however, indicates that many alleged cures are from the post-Muhammad era.  Glorification of Allah (tasbih) by exclaiming subhana'l-lah, "Glory to Allah", a number of times is said to be have been used by the prophets in times of grief and distress.   

Glorification of Allah frequently involves repetition of some or all of His "Beautiful Names" or attributes (20 [Tâhâ]:8, commonly reckoned as 99), often using a rosary consisting of 33 or 99 beads.  Muhammad reportedly said that repetition of the well-known expression la-hawla wa-la quwwata illa bi'l-lah al-‘aliyy al-‘azim, "There is no power and strength except in Allah, the Exalted, the Majestic", cures 99 ailments, "anxiety (hamm) being the easiest to cure" in this manner.[xiii]

The modern scholar Hassan as-Saffar suggests that intense fear must be fought with determination.  However, he admits the possibility that supplications and remembrances (adhkar) may strengthen a person's determination, as they are a kind of autosuggestion.  It is commendable to repeat several times, 'This is the condition (maqam) of the one who seeks refuge in You against the fire of hell', and to repeat seventy times …, 'I ask my Lord Allah's forgiveness, and I repent to Him'."  Also the supplications of well-known and esteemed Muslim persons may be used by the fearful. [xiv]

An instructive verse about death reads, "Say:  'The death from which you flee will truly overtake you:  then you will be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open, and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that you did' " (62 [Al-Jumu‛a]:8).  Apart from its obvious meaning that death is inescapable, this verse, taken together with others, urges the believer to live such a moral life that when death arrives, there will be hope for his or her entrance into the Garden (al-janna), that is, Paradise.  Yet another verse reads, "But to no soul will Allah grant respite when the time appointed (for it) has come; and Allah is well acquainted with (all) that you do" (63 [Al-Munafiqun]:11).  After mentioning this verse, as-Saffar relates the following poem anonymously:  "The physician has medicine and knowledge/As long as there is some time left in the person's [divinely predetermined] lifespan/When the patient's days come to an end/The physician is helpless, his drugs having failed him."[xv]

How does a Muslim prepare to die?  Preparation for death begins in life with, as the Imam and Caliph ‛Ali ibn-al-Khattab (d. 660) reportedly said, "Performance of the Islamic obligations, avoidance of the forbidden, and being virtuous.  Then the person does not care whether death falls upon him or he falls upon death."[xvi]

The celebrated ethicist Miskawayh (d. ca. 1030) lists various persons who fear death and offers remedies.

Fear of death befalls only the person who does not know what death really is; ... or who thinks that death involves a great pain …; or who is puzzled, not knowing what he will face after he dies ... .

... To the one who is ignorant about death and does not know what it really is, we explain that death is nothing more than the soul's abandonment of the use of one's tools, namely the organs ..., just as an artisan abandons the use of his own tools.  …

As for the one who believes that death involves a great pain other than the pain of the diseases which may have preceded and caused it, the remedy is to demonstrate to him that this is a false belief since pain belongs to the living being only, and a living being is one that is subject to the effect of the soul.  A body which is not subject to this effect does not suffer or feel. …

To the one who is afraid of death because of the punishment with which he feels threatened after it, we must explain that he is not, in fact, afraid of death but of the punishment [for his transgressions].  If one fears punishments for an offense, his duty is to guard against it and to avoid it.  …

[Finally,] he who claims that he does not fear death but is grieved because of the relatives, descendants, wealth, and property which he will leave behind, and who regrets the delights and desires of this world which he will miss—such a person must be told clearly by us that grief is the anticipation of a pain or an evil and that such grief brings no benefit whatsoever.  …
… [D]eath is not an evil, as the mass of the people suppose, but … the evil, indeed, is the fear of death and … whoever is afraid of death is ignorant of it and of his own self.
Miskawayh ends his discourse with the following supplication:  "We solicit God's good help in what will bring us nigh unto Him.  Generous is He indeed, munificent, compassionate, and merciful!"[xvii]

In sum, although the Islamic tradition views fear as inherent in human nature, fear of anything other than Allah's displeasure is discouraged on religious and moral grounds.  Upon reaching puberty—at which time a person becomes legally and morally responsible in Islam—a Muslim must be cautious about what is Islamically forbidden, and to a large extent about what is reprehensible.  Since accountability for one's acts and thoughts on the Day of Judgment is certain, fear regulates a Muslim's behavior, and in that context, it is a positive instinct or impulse.  And because life and health are 'gifts' from Allah, a Muslim must be mindful to preserve them.  Similarly, since death is preordained for every living creature, and knowing that some illnesses are incurable, death must be faced without fear of it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] ‘Ali ibn-Muhammad al-Jurjani, At-Ta‘rifat (Cairo:  Dar al-Kitab al-Misri; Beirut:  Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani, 1411/1991), 111, 114; Ahmad Muhammad Kan‘an, Al-Mawsu‘at at-tibbiyya al-fiqhiyya (Beirut:  Dar an-Nafa’is, 1420 AH/2000 CE), 451.
[ii] Hasan as-Saffar, Kayfa naqhar al-khawf (Beirut:  Mu’assasat al-Wafa’, 1404/1984), 18-9.
[iii] Translations of Qur’anic verses are based on, but may differ slightly from, ‘Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali's The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an (Brentwood, Maryland:  Amana Corporation, 1411/1991).
[iv] Al-Khawf wa'r-raja’, ed. Zuhayr Shafiq al-Kalbi (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-‛Arabi, Silsilat Ihya’ ‛Ulum ad-Din 7, 1991); for an English translation, see William McKane below, note 6.
[v] See, for example, al-Azraq, Tashil al-manafi‛ fi't-tibb wa'l-hikma (Cairo:  Maktabat wa-Matba‛at al-Mashhad al-Husayni, n.d.), 76.
[vi] He is probably Abu-Bakr Muhammad al-Wasiti, the Sufi scholar, who died in 930 or later.  See Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina Press, 1975, reprint 1978), 490; Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition (Leiden:  Brill, 2000), X, 314, col. b, 377, col. b.  The end of al-Ghazali's quoting of al-Wasiti is unclear in the Arabic and English editions of al-Ghazali's book.
[vii] William McKane, Al-Ghazali's Book of Fear and Hope (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965), 25, 30, 31; Arabic edition, 33-4, 38, 39. 
[viii] On spiritual medicine and Islamic spirituality, see Fazlur Rahman, Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition:  Change and Identity (New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987), 84-90; Abu-Bakr ar-Razi (d. ca. 925), At-Tibb ar-Ruhani, ed. ‘Abdul-Latif Muhammad al-‘Abd  (Cairo:  Maktabat an-Nahda al-Misriyya, 1978), English translation by A.J. Arberry, The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes (London:  John Murray, 1950, in the Wisdom of the East series); Majdi Muhammad ash-Shahawi, Al-‘Ilaj ar-rabbani li's-sihr wa'l-mass ash-shaytani (Beirut:  ‘Âlam al-Kutub, 1417/1997); Brian M. du Toit and Ismail H. Abdalla, eds., African Healing Strategies (Owerri [Nigeria], New York and London:  Trado-Medic Books, 1985), especially chapters 1-4; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed., Islamic Spirituality.  Volume I:  Foundations; Volume II:  Manifestations (New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987 and 1991 respectively, in World Spirituality:  An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest series, volumes 19 and 20). 
[ix] See ash-Shahawi, passim.
 [x] See Adh-Dhahabi, At-Tibb an-nabawi (Riyadh:  Maktabat Nizar Mustafa al-Baz, 1417/1996), 227.
[xi] Franz Rosenthal, Science and Medicine in Islam (Aldershot:  Variorum, 1991), III, 52-87, V, 226-45.
[xii] The most famous collections are Shams ad-Din adh-Dhahabi's At-Tibb an-nabawi (see note 10 above) and Ibn-Qayyim al-Jawziyya's work of the same title (Cairo:  Dar at-Turath, 1398/1978).
[xiii] Al-Azraq, 76.
[xiv] As-Saffar, 146-7, 151-2, 170.
[xv] As-Saffar, 128. 
[xvi] Quoted in as-Saffar, 133.
[xvii] The Refinement of Character:  A translation from the Arabic of Ahmad ibn-Muhammad Miskawayh's Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, by Constantine K. Zurayk (Beirut:  The American University of Beirut, 1968), 185, 188-89, 190, 191,192; Ar. Tahdhib al-akhlaq (Beirut:  Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, 1961), 183, 186, 187, 189.
 
 
Author contact: muhamma@binghamton.edu
Source: The Yale Journal on Humanities in Medicine
http://info.med.yale.edu/intmed/hummed/yjhm/spirit2004/fear/amuhammad.htm
Copyright continues a murky question, most advisers holding that copyright flows from the “pen.” We claim no copyright on anything published in this journal. You can re-publish it anywhere you want, but we would appreciate a link to this endeavor.
Published: September 17, 2004

Malâmiyyah Psycho-Spiritual Therapy

Author: Patrick Laude

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't"
-Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act II, sc. II, 223)

Let us begin with the harmless premise that medicine is a response to sickness and that the definition of sickness presupposes an understanding of what is meant by health. No doubt, health may be considered on a variety of levels, beginning with the two distinct planes of the soul and the body that are, in the Islamic Weltanschauung, the respective domains of spiritual psychology and medicine. In the context of this present essay, we will focus on the former, specifically on the relationship between the soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh) that lies at the core of Islamic mystical understanding of the innermost reality. However, it should be noted at the outset that physical sickness is, according to Ibn Sina, following Empedocles and Hippocrates, the result of a rupture of equilibrium between the various 'humors' of the body. (1) Thus, sickness (or health) cannot be set apart from a fuller cosmological understanding of the correlation between the anima and the physical organism that, in many ways, suggests a certain correspondence between the inner states and bodily afflictions. In Islamic traditional medicine, the four 'humors' of the body correspond to the four cosmological 'elements': black bile to earth, phlegm to water, blood to air and yellow bile to fire. (2) These correspondences emphasize the 'natural' foundation of health as an orderly set of relationships. Disease is, therefore, fundamentally linked, either directly or indirectly, to a loss of balance that bears witness to a separation from a primordial norm of being.

The Koran itself refers to the "hypocrites" (munafiqun) as those who are "sick in their hearts" (fi quiubihim maradun) (XXXIII, 60). This is in itself a clear indication that sickness is a condition that originates in the spiritual and animistic strata of being. Bodily health is, in this view, inseparable from that of the health of the soul. (3) In the Koran 'health' refers more specifically to a state of integrity or totality (4) that can be identified in a very general sense with the fitra, the primordial norm or the original state of mankind. From a Koranic standpoint, the loss of the fitra amounts to a straying away from the shahada, the Islamic testimony of faith, that reads in Arabic la ilaha illa Llah, literally, "There is no divinity but the Divinity." In other words, what could be called 'ontological sickness' is akin to shirk, that is, 'association' of other realities to God with all the spiritual and moral consequences that this association entails. In this context, it is important to bear in mind that for Sufi gnostics the shahada does not simply mean the affirmation of one God as opposed to a plurality of gods which would be, as Henry Corbin has pointed out, as much of an idolatry as any other (Corbin 1980). Above all, it stands as a testimony that there is only one Reality and that all realities 'are' only in so far as they 'participate' in the only Reality like drops of water in a vast ocean. Consequently, any fault, vice or transgression fundamentally amounts to an existential shirk, or association, that envisages creatures independently from the Reality that begets them.

From an epistemological standpoint, the shahada is considered by many Muslim mystics as an expression of intelligence as such, or as a ray of divine light. It is ultimately linked ('aql) or identified with the Spirit (ruh) since only that which 'is' in some way the One may affirm the metaphysical unicity of the One without contradiction or hypocrisy. As for the central agency of denial of truth, it is the tenebrous soul (nafs al-ammara), divorced from the spirit or disconnected from intelligence, that 'absolutises' the individual status of man and the passions that ensue from it, thereby severing him from his Creator by claiming an illusory metaphysical independence. All disorders, imbalances and forms of degeneracy result from this existential error and, furthermore, all sicknesses are manifestations or symbols of it.
The 'sick' soul must be restored to spiritual health. In general terms, Sufi mystics have two main prescriptions for the cure, two complementary remedies that are most often referred to as faqr and dhikr. Some emphasize the latter, others stress the former, but no mutasaiwif (Sufi traveler) would consider any one of the two as a mere accessory to the restoration of health. Dhikr can be best defined as a sustained, and ultimately permanent, awareness of God through the methodical invocation of one or several of His Names. As such, dhikr is sometimes referred to as a remedy. (5) Since the Name Allah flows from the verbal and textual substance of the Koran, and since the primary message of the Koran is God, or the primacy of God, many Sufi mystics tend to consider this Name (al-ism al-a'zani) as the very essence of the Koran and, therefore, as the heart of the whole Islamic tradition that flows from it. In point of fact, it is important to understand that most Sufis consider the Divine Name not only as a means of reference to God, or a way of remembering Him, but as a vehicle for His grace. This allows us to understand dhikr as the 'divine side' of the spiritual way. Although the repetition of the Name of God is obviously contingent, at least initially, upon the efforts of the mystic, it remains nevertheless true that, from the highest point of view, the Divine Name, repeated by the mystic with the right intention in a suitable religious and moral context, derives its spiritual effectiveness from its divine 'content', in the same way that the ritual and transformational efficacy of the words of the Koran issues not only from their meaning and their utterance but also, and above all, from their origin and their divine prototype (umm al-kitab).

There is in the Koran itself an element of divine presence without which the religious insistence on the benefits of its recitation would not be fully intelligible. If one were to define the respective modes of effectiveness of the Divine Name and the Koran in terms of spiritual therapeutics, one could assert that the Name Allah, by virtue of its unicity and coherent simplicity, must be primarily understood as a cure by means of 'centering' and 'unifying'. It constitutes a kind of negation of the negation-a piercing through the mist of the phenomenal universe, a rending of the existential veil (hijab) that hides the Divine. Clearly, the Koranic recitation, inasmuch as it consists of numerous verses and words, should be discerned as a means of re-integration, in the sense that the plurality of its form and content addresses the multiplicity of the soul, thereby reintegrating this multiplicity into the unity from which it proceeds.

As for faqr, it can be defined as a state of perfect awareness of one's dependence upon God's will. Faqr is the state of the one who "has made himself independent of everything but God and who refuses anything that leads him astray from God" (Jean-Louis Michon 1973, p. 263). The spiritual content of faqr can also be approached through reference to the state of mudtarr or being in spiritual 'need' or 'constraint'. Mudtarr could be best defined as the state of being on an existential edge-this extremity precipitating an awareness of one's powerlessness or loss of control over one's own reality. As Sara Sviri has suggestively put it: "when the seeker gives up all hope of being in control, and yet 'knows'- consciously or in his heart of hearts-that he is vertically aligned with a higher source of power, he knows surrender" (Sviri 1997, p. 34). In some respects, the station of faqr corresponds to the human side of the spiritual work, since all that a man can do is acknowledge his own nothingness. However, faqr would be unthinkable without dhikr, at least in the sense in while an independence from everything but God implies a perfect remembrance of Him. As for dhikr, its perfection is evidently incompatible with placing any reality on the same level of awareness as that of God, which is another way of saying that it requires faqr as its precondition. So, in a certain sense, Sufi psychology presents us with the two sides of the same spiritual reality. At its most elementary level of manifestation, 'outer' faqr could be defined as a socially-bound religious practice that is exclusively defined in terms of conformity to the shari'a- the individual submitting himself to God's Law, which means, literally, islam, whereas the 'outer' dhikr could be defined as the performance of the various obligatory and supererogatory devotional prescriptions. However, faqr and dhikr, relatively external manifestations of devotion, do not take us beyond the realm of the individual self since they are perfectly compatible with a lack of awareness of one's immediate and constant dependence upon God's kun, or act of origination. Of course, these practices and attitudes take for granted a mode of subservience to God and a rational and emotional recognition of His awesome power. They do not, however, delve into the deepest spiritual meaning of human existence, such as Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya expressed in the oft-quoted Sufi koan: "Thine existence is a sin wherewith no other sin can be compared"(Lings 1993, p. 97). It is this seemingly absurd predicament that malamiyyah spirituality addresses in a most radical and uncompromising way.

One generally associates malamiyyah (6) spirituality without referring to any particular tariqah with a systematic disdain for social norms, including a transgressive tendency with respect to customs and conventions, and with the cultivation of disruptive attitudes aimed at attracting upon oneself the blame of others. Now, although such a vision is undoubtedly founded upon psychological and social realities, it does not do full justice to the profound meaning and the vocational principles of this methodical course of action.

The term malâmiyyah refers to a variety of movements and individuals. Strictly speaking, the malâmiyyah originated with Hamdun al-Qassar and his disciples, the Qassaris. (7) Hamdun is also referred to as one of the abdal, or 'hidden saints', the apotropean figures that are referred to by Massignon as being the pillars of light of the world. These saints that the Sufi tradition considers to be in the number of forty are the invisible and pure witnesses of God in the world, unknown to the world and sometimes to themselves. As it will appear more clearly in the following pages, this principle of unknowing is one of the keys of malâmiyyah spirituality.

The malâmiyyah inspiration, one of the main trends of the mystical milieu of Nishapur in the third and fourth century of the hegira, constitutes a path that is predicated upon the distinction between levels of human subjectivity. It emphasizes the discontinuity among the various levels of the soul, the deepest layer being the spirit (ruh). In his Risalat on the malami, Sulami (d.1021) enumerates four levels of consciousness that he defines as nafs (soul), qalb (heart), sirr (secret) and ruh (spirit) (Deladriere n.d., p. 10). These four levels of consciousness are to be understood as forming a hierarchic chain ranging from the lowest to the highest. Although the unity of the human subject is not substantially altered by this quadripartition, the spiritual psychology of the malamati tends to emphasize the discontinuity that permits a differentiation of the various levels of the soul. This discontinuity allows one to understand that a lower level cannot identify with the higher level, for in so doing it reduces the higher level to its own limitations. In other words, the continuity between the various levels of the soul a continuity owithout which the very idea of a subjective identity would be unthinkable can only be envisaged from the standpoint of the highest or the deepest level of consciousness, and not the other way about. The spiritual goal of malamati psychology consists in preventing any appropriation of a higher spiritual state of consciousness by a lower one. (8) Strictly speaking, a spiritual mode of consciousness cannot be experienced by the lower soul: any appropriation by the soul amounts to a vanishing of spiritual gleams. Spiritual consciousness pertains to the three highest dimensions: the heart, the secret and the spirit. These refer to numerous central states of consciousness that are, so to speak, increasingly universal and 'divine' and less and less individual and human.

The science of unknowing that is at the core of malamiyyah spirituality, can be defined as a way to place each reality on its own level. Thus, spiritual health consists in preventing confusion of the various levels. Such a confusion would be deadly since it would amount to a 'deification' of the human individual as such, or of one of his deeper layers of being. Now, this type of confusion is intrinsically connected, according to Sulami, to the very notion of inner 'consideration' or 'vision' of oneself (nazar). For the soul to 'see' is, in a certain sense, to 'appropriate' and therefore to 'bring down'. Spiritual progress presupposes a measure of 'unknowing', and any attempt at monitoring this progress amounts to individualizing what pertains, by definition, to the universal. Malamati identify this individualized appropriation to the Koranic "dispersed dust" Habd'an manthuran (XXV, 23)

To 'blame', whether it be inner or outer, is the superior way to make such a perfidious identification difficult, if not impossible. This is attained by breaking in upon and discontinuing the complacent 'gaze' upon one's self, keeping in mind that the malamati's work is focused on the lower realms of the soul and does not impinge upon the Intellect. Their attitude is also coupled to a vigilant distrust towards any kind of self-satisfaction or pleasure that would arise from acts of devotion or virtuous behavior. In his Usul al- Maldmatiyydt wa-gbiltat al-sufiyah, Sulami emphasizes this ascetic principle of malamiyyah spirituality in a most radical manner:

They [(the malami)] believe that their submission is not in their hands but belongs to destiny, and that they have no choice in performing their actions. They went so far as to say that they were forbidden to find any sweetness in worship and submission because when a man likes something and finds pleasure in it while looking at it with satisfaction this is the sign that he is not in a lofty position. One of them said: "Far from you the pleasure of submission, for it is indeed a deadly poison." (9)

Such an ascetic determination illustrates most clearly, once again, that the malamiyyah perspective is, in a certain sense, centered on the lowest levels of human subjectivity, inasmuch as its starting point, or principle, is the congenital limitations of the concupiscent, individualistic soul (nafs). In this respect, malamiyyah spirituality tends to embody a perspective that may be considered to be at odds with the general religious climate of Islam. The Koran centers its reminder on the use of intelligence as a means to reconnect with God and it repeatedly appeals to this intelligence in man. Although the deceptiveness of the lower soul is also a major Koranic theme, man is far from being defined by the Koran in terms of his identification with his nafs. The malamiyyah inspiration, by contrast, appears to be less intellectual in its approach since, as we have seen, it builds on the opacity and distorting power of the soul.

Two fundamental methodical practices unfold from this perspective: 1) the need to hide the 'good' and, 2) the benefits of manifesting the 'bad.' Commenting upon the man of blame in his Mi'raj, the XIXth century shadhili Ibn 'Ajiba, defines him as "one who does not manifest anything good outwardly and does not hide anything bad" (Michon 1973, p. 57). As we will see, these two tendencies may give rise to seemingly contradictory types of behavior that are respectively 'conformist' and 'aberrant.' Concerning the first of these tendencies, Sara Sviri defines malamiyyah as follows: "The main aim of the Malamatiyya is to reach a stage in which all one's psychological and spiritual attainments become totally introverted" (Lewisohn 1999, p. 599) This utter occultation finds its spiritual models in the ascetic climate of early Islamic mysticism.

The figure of Uways Qarani (10) is most representative in this respect. Farid al-Din 'Attar tells us about him: "during his life in this world, he (Uways) was hiding from all in order to devote himself to acts of worship and obedience" ('Attar 1976, p. 2). 'Attar also relates that the Prophet had declared at the time of his death that his robe should be given to Uways, a man he had never met in this life. When 'Umar looked for Uways during his stay in Kufa, he asked a native of Qarn (the home town of Uways) and was answered "there was one such man, but he was a madman, a senseless person who because of his madness does not live among his fellow countrymen (...) He does not mingle with anybody and does not eat nor drink anything that others drink and eat. He does not know sadness nor joy; when others laugh, he weeps, and when they weep, he laughs" (ibid., p. 29). We can already perceive here, in the case of an early mystic like Uways, the dual, and seemingly contradictory, spiritual vocation of 'obscurity' and 'eccentricity.' The unassuming figure of Uways (11) is, at the same time, blatantly discordant in the social context. This discordant status that is often referred to as 'madness' is the mark of the irruption of a transcendent, vertical perspective within the world of terrestrial horizontality. It is akin to a negation of the negation: the Spirit 'negates' the distorted notions of the soul, the biases and comforts. (12) When Uways finally meets with 'Umar, he tells him that it would be better for him that "nobody (but God) would know him and had knowledge of who he was." To remain incognito can be considered as the leaven of malamiyyah spirituality. (13) However, malamiyyah will tend to apply this principle in a way that amounts to opting for the spiritual 'desert of solitude' among men rather than choosing a flight toward the physical 'desert' of nature. In this sense, the malamiyyah orientation manifests itself as an apparent involvement in exoteric sciences, in the shari'a, and in adab. (14) As Ibn 'Arabi has expressed it: "God has imprisoned their outer states (the malamiyyah's) in the tents of habits and worships of outer actions." (Futuhat, I, 141) In this respect, malami practice will appear primarily in the forms of rigor and separation. Their outer manifestations are a testimony to the divine Majesty (jalal) that finds a human receptacle in an extreme mode of 'ubudiyya or servitude. Thus, we read in Sulami's Usul:
When they (the malumi) attained a high degree and were confirmed as the people of proximity, connectedness and gathering, the Truth was jealous of their being unveiled to other people so that He showed to human beings only their exterior aspect, which carries the meaning of separation, so that their state of proximity to the Truth be preserved (Sulami 1985, p. 141).

It is important to point out that the malamiyyah, as presented by Sulami, stand for a unique spiritual calling-God being the conscription 'agent' of the malamat orientation-that precludes any kind of experimental alternative or personal whim.

The original inclination to hide their states (talbis al-hal) may be converted, by the same token, into an open manifestation of states. The 'folly' of the malamiyyah is not to be understood as a calculated method since it professes an element of inspiration, 'disposition' or 'state' (hal). (15) The mystic is led to behave in a manner that may make no sense to him or to others, as if to portray the unintelligible kernel of relativity alive in the world. As a consequence, Ibn 'Ajiba defines the malamati as one who "hides his taste of sanctity and displays states that make people flee his company" (Sulami 1985, p. 263). This type of display will tend to situate the mystic in an apparently offensive position toward the shari'a, and in a disruptive situation vis-a-vis traditional societal practices (adab).

Forms, whether psychological, moral or social, are viewed as inadequate vis-a-vis spiritual realities. The world of forms, even though conventional, is a 'scandal" that must be scandalized in order to suggest 'real' normality. Malamati ordinariness can actually result in a bad reputation. According to Muhammad Parsa, a Naqshbandi figure from the 9-10th century, the fact that the Prophet was called a liar, a madman and a poet was a kind of veil with which God hid him from the eyes of the world. (16) Along the same lines, the malamati bases his perspective on the idea that sanctity can only be 'abnormal' and 'shocking' in a world that is defined by the law of spiritual gravity. In other words, in a sick world, health can only appear in the guise of illness. Moreover, on a microcosmic level the Spirit appears in all its 'poverty' and 'sickness' from the haughty perspective of the soul. Titus Burckhardt illustrates this in terms of the recurring mythological theme of the "royal hero who comes back to his kingdom under the guise of a poor stranger, or even of a mountebank or a mendicant" (Burckhardt 1980, p. 39). In a similar vein, Sulami quotes Abu-l-Hasan al Husri's comment that "if it were possible that there be a prophet (after Muhammad) in our days, he would be one of them (the malamatiyyah)" (Deladrière n.d. p. 13). A prophet could only be hidden or scandalous in a time when the world has become a spiritual wasteland. He would be totally inconspicuous or else so 'different' and 'marginal' that he would disconcert and unsettle even those - particularly those - who claim to be religious.

The malamiyyah are fundamentally saints 'in the world', not to say, 'worldly saints'. As Ibn 'Arabi (Futuhat, III, 53) describes them:
The Malamiyyah do not distinguish themselves in anything from any of the creatures of God, they are those whom one ignores. Their state is the state of ordinary people (al-'awam), and it is for this reason that they have chosen this name for themselves and their disciples: they do not cease to blame their soul on the side of God, and they do not accomplish any action in such a way that their soul would rejoice for it, and they do so in order to be forgiven by God.

The malamati does not escape the world but works within it as a hidden warrior in the 'greater jihad.' He may have an inclination to solitude and retreat, but his destiny consists in being a spiritual presence in the world. Actually, by contrast with the usual Sufi practices, the malamiyyah way tends to de-emphasize the role of communal structures, organizations and collective practices, including majalis and sama' in spiritual life. It could even be said that malamiyyah spirituality is akin to the Sufism 'without a name' present in the early days of Islam, before Sufism became 'recognizable' as a set of institutions and specific collective practices. The Naqshbandi and Shadhili orders are the most representative examples of this orientation in the world of Sufism, since they tend to place the emphasis on inner dhikr and social 'inconspicuousness'. (17) In this sense, the malamiyyah embodies one of the most fundamental tenets of Islamic spirituality, a spirituality that radiates through an ordinary presence in the world. The splendor of the malamiyyah is purely inward and does not reveal itself outwardly in a spectacular fashion. The mystic is like the Prophet who "talks to people and goes to the markets." This way of being goes along with a staunch distrust of the most representative methodical supports of Sufism: spiritual retreat (khalwa) and spiritual concert (sama'). These practices are held in suspicion by most malami. It is important to understand, in this respect, that malamiyyah objections to khalwa and sama' have nothing to do with the intrinsic value and goals of these methodical elements. They are merely directed at the dangers and abuses of these practices, but the very fact that the malami would focus on these dangers and abuses is indicative of their pessimistic approach to the human soul. In his Usul, Sulami criticizes the Sufi disciples "who made the error of living in isolation":

They delude themselves in thinking that isolation and living in caves, mountains and deserts would secure them from the evil of their nafs and that this retreat could allow them to reach the degree of sanctity, because they do not know that the reason for Masters' retreat and isolation was their knowledge and the strength of their states. It is the divine attraction that attached them to Him and made them rich and independent from all that is not Him, so he who cannot be compared to them in terms of inner strength and depth of worship can only simulate isolation, thereby being unfair to himself and harming himself. (Sulami 1985, p. 182)

And in the same vein, sama' presupposes spiritual requirements that are not met by most Sufi practitioners:
(They think) that tasawwufis chanting, dancing, music, poetry and attending meetings because they saw sincere souls enjoying sama'; but they erred again because they do not know that every heart that is polluted by worldly things and every soul that carries some laziness and lack of intelligence does not have a right to sama' and should not attend sama'. Junayd said: "If you see that a disciple likes sama' you can be sure that there is laziness in his soul." (Ibid., p.184)

The dangers of khalwa and sama' are envisaged from the standpoint of faqr or lack thereof. In other words, the malamiyyah assessment is once again predicated upon the distance that separates the soul from the Spirit, man from God. The self-deceptive nature of the soul may reveal itself both in the realm of rigor and in that of beauty and mercy. An ascetic isolation that is neither firmly rooted in faqr nor the result of a Divine attraction can only foster presumptuousness or self-glorification. Participation in sama' may also encourage spiritual passivity and over-reliance on external and communal supports when it is not solidly grounded on spiritual vigilance.
* * *
 
In the Sufi tradition, several questions, or objections, have been raised concerning the legitimacy of the malamiyyah path from a mystical point of view. First, the malamiyyah concern with blame seems to imply a focus on the individual in his gloomiest mood, al-nafs al-ammarah, which may be deemed to confine the individual to a kind of egocentric exercise. Why concentrate on the soul when spirituality pertains to concentrating on God? This 'soul-centered' examination testifies to a path that appears to be much more based on will rather than intelligence, since intelligence would presumably be sufficient to dispel the illusions of the nafs. It can even be argued that the malamiyyah focus on the corruption of the soul leads, paradoxically, to shirk by the painstaking attention paid to it rather than focusing exclusively upon God. In his Kashfal-Mahjub, al-Hujwiri has proposed a critique of the malamiyyah that is based upon this very line of reasoning:
In my opinion, to seek blame is mere ostentation, and ostentation is mere hypocrisy. The ostentatious man purposely acts in such a way as to win popularity, while the Malumati purposely acts in such a way that the people reject him. Both have their thoughts fixed on mankind and do not pass beyond that sphere. (Hujwiri n.d. p. 67).

In other words, the malamiyyah way is deemed to be incompatible with a genuine metaphysics of essential unity, wahdat al-wujud, since it de facto 'absolutizes' the negative singularity of the complacent soul, instead of focusing on the essential unity of wujud. We find parallel reservations concerning the malamiyyah in Jami's (d. 898/1492) Nafahat al-Uns.

"However worthy of esteem and commendable the state of malamatibe, it is nevertheless certain that the veil of the existence of creatures has not been completely lifted for them, and that, for this very reason, they are unable to see clearly the beauty of the doctrine of unity, and to envisage in all its purity the nature of the only Reality. For to hide one's actions and supernatural states from men is to make manifest that one still sees the existence of creatures and one's own existence; something that is irreconcilable with what is meant by the doctrine of unity". (Jami 1977, pp. 102-3)

The very notion of hiding presupposes the reality of a separation of the veil and the veiled when such a duality is excluded by wahdat al-wujud. Along more strictly theological lines, such a view may be considered incompatible with the theomorphic nature of man as khalifatullah by suggesting a fundamental corruption of the human soul that is closer to the Christian concept of original sin than to the Islamic notion of a loss of the fitrah. An extreme mystical depreciation of the self would seem to run counter to the overall Islamic ideal of inner and outer balance. Secondly, the malamiyyah way appears to place the mystical 'interest' of the spiritual traveler above the collective demands of the religious community, thus setting a bad example by shocking ordinary people to the point of troubling them in their faith. In other words, it places subjective spiritual benefits above objective collective balance, (18) thereby manifesting a very un-islamic emphasis on the mystical element at the expense of the overall religious health of the umma.

These objections can be, at least, partially addressed by considering two fundamental dimensions of malamiyyah spirituality: first, the emphasis on inner dhikr and its intimate connection with malamiyyah behavior; second, the spiritual and collective benefits of the malamiyyah function of "balancing through imbalance."

To define malamiyyah spirituality as an ascetic concentration on the self that loses sight of the real Divine Self amounts to separating the exterior manifestations of malamiyyah spirituality from the inner cultivation of the remembrance of God as concentration on the One. In other words, the emphasis on the combat against the nafs al-ammarah cannot be disassociated from dhikr. From this point of view, one could say that dhikr is an act of intelligence, or that dhikr is identification with the Intellect. Since malamiyyah ascesis functions on the level of the soul, it could also be said that dhikr is a means of union, and that malamiyyah practice is a means of distinction on the basis of this union. In other words, dhikr is a way to unveil the 'divine' nature of man while malamiyyah practices aim at preventing confusion between this 'divine' nature and human accidents. (19) Accordingly, in malamiyyah spirituality, dhikr is strongly identified with inwardness, or the deepest zones of the soul, the sirr (the secret), or even the ruh (the spirit). As opposed to other Sufi orders, such as the Mevlevi, which exteriorize dhikr through sama' dance and the vocal repetition or singing of the Name and sacred litanies, the malamiyyah dhikr is purely silent and hidden. In this perspective, silent dhikr is in fact less likely to be 'appropriated' by the lower soul since it only minimally involves, if at all, its lower level.

It is a fact that malamiyyah spirituality cannot be considered to be a fundamentally intellectual way, as it is also true that it presupposes some sense of duality. In most instances, it cannot be identified with the state of the majdhub, the 'holy fool' who is enraptured by the love of God. Still, it cannot be designated as a mere path of action, in the sense of a way of observant and attentive conformity to the shari'a. In fact, whatever might be the level one wishes to assign the path of blame, the malamiyyah perspective raises the important question of knowing to what extent man qua man, or the individual self, can identify with pure intelligence. To the extent that one may assume that some areas of the soul remain relatively unenlightened by the Spirit, one may then conclude that their integration will have to take place in a way that the pure path of intellectual discernment and unity might not be generally able to achieve in and of itself. For certain individuals or in some circumstances, malamiyyah spirituality, one among other paths and methods, tends to address these lower levels of the soul without necessarily being unaware of the intellectual perspective of essential unity, nor being incompatible with it; and it does so in a way that may have a particular appeal to some spiritual temperaments, without being universally normative.

From a collective standpoint, malamiyyah spirituality postulates a distance between worldly values and practices - even those religiously cast - and spiritual authenticity or sincerity (ikhlas). As Shakespeare's Hamlet, malamiyyah spirituality tends to voice a 'pessimistic' anthropology, and malami mystics would no doubt agree with the prince of Elsinore that "the time is out of joint" and that it is indeed "a cursed spite" to be "born to set it right" (Act I, sc. V, v.215-6), if only in a spiritual sense. Like Hamlet, a typical malami would have no qualms in confessing: "I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me." (Act III, sc. I, v. 130-4.) The oscillation between 'invisible conformity' and 'shocking madness' is an expression of this keen awareness of the lowest possibilities of man, an intimation of the gravity of his sickness. As such, it constitutes a two-pronged strategy of 'humiliation' of the nafs. Moreover, this heightened sensibility to human defects and failures is closely related to an intense mystical awareness of God's perfection and presence. The medieval diagnosis of holy madness as the state of one whose body is in this world while his soul is already in heaven bears witness to this. (20) The tension that results from this dichotomy seems to be mystically crystallized in madness, real or feigned. As with Hamlet's feigned madness, there is both an aspect of 'sadness' and one of 'occultation' in the foolish, scandalizing ways of the malami.

In addition, this psycho-spiritual point of view conforms to a 'negative' assessment of mankind in society. In a mad world that claims to be sane, there is wisdom in madness and madness in wisdom ("Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, sc. II 223). Any formal system represents a subtle equilibrium that points to a higher degree of balanced Reality that transcends it, and, thus, it must be disrupted in some instances so as not to allow it to close upon itself or become petrified to the point of obstructing access to its spiritual referent. In this regard, the most discordant and shocking aspects of malamiyyah spirituality are intended to provoke an alchemical dissolution that can be the prelude to a higher crystallization. On a spiritual level, this is the practice that consists in 'breaking habits' by forcing the soul, thereby, to bring to the fore what has, heretofore, remained unconscious. To behave in a malamiyyah way is not simply a ploy for drawing moral and social blames to oneself that will guard one from self-indulgence and self-overestimation, it is also a way to destroy the false equilibrium of the soul, thereby leading it into a state of uncomfortable helplessness that will result in a clearer transparency of the inner knots that help objectify its latent contents. This is clearly the goal of a Sufi Master like the Shaykh 'All al-Jamal who, according to his disciple al-'Arabi ad-Darqawi, seems to have taught his disciples how to break their soul's habits through the discomforting means of social and psychological exposure and humiliation. (21) In one of Shaykh al-'Arabi ad-Darqawi's letters, we read about the application of these tactics. 'All al- Jamal orders his young disciple to go through town carrying two baskets of prunes on his back. In another instance, we read:
He (the Shaykh 'All al-Jamal) took hold of my haik with his noble hands, put it off my head and twisted it several times around my neck. (Darqawi 1987, p. 33)

This "test of what is good" makes the disciple feel "oppressed to the point of death": going about town with two baskets of prunes on one's nape or with one's haik twisted around one's neck is likely to attract the mockeries of social peers for, as Titus Burckhardt notes in his commentary of this episode, the real intentions and feelings of most people only appear "under pressure" and once conventional masks have fallen. In other words, this strategy is a way to "raise hell" in others and in oneself, so as to reach a full measure of awareness of unconscious layers and knots in one's soul. This psycho-spiritual treatment is quite like homeopathic medicine, insofar as it cures the inner sickness through an initial exacerbation of its symptoms, "bringing out" the poison of the soul by subjecting it to its own 'venom.' In this case, being singled out as an "odd number" by passers-by and acquaintances in a society where eccentricities are not the norm, is likely to bring much discomfort to the soul, providing the person with a golden, if bitter, opportunity for self-knowledge and self-transcendence. The conclusion of the Shaykh ad-Darqawi's counsel is: "Woe to the faqir (...) who sees the form of his own soul (...) as it is and does not strangle it until it dies." Such counsel allows us to catch a glimpse of malamiyyah strategy. Mortification serves as an excellent catalyst for the ego's undoing and, consequently, the means of an alchemical transmutation. The disciple is taught how to 'see' his soul, which means that he becomes uncomfortably aware of it with a view to objectifying its nature. But this 'objectivization' is also a way to 'kill' the soul. To the question of knowing how this 'strangulation' of the soul may be attained, one must assume that the answer lies in the ability of the practitioner to resist his soul, on the one hand, and rely on God's power through the dhikr, on the other, for none can put to death but He who gives life. Only the Spirit can 'kill' the soul, but this 'killing' is also an act of 'love': mors and amor are the two faces of the same mystery, and the 'objectivization' which we mentioned above is the other side of an 'identification' (22) or 'union' in which the Name of God, through the dhikr, 'annihilates' the soul within its 'embrace,' thereby 'reviving' it to a truer, deeper and more abundant life.

Notes
 1. As indicated by Michael W. Dols (1992) and S. H. Nasr (1968), chapter VII.
 2. "The Hippocratic doctors borrowed the concept of the four elements of nature-air, earth, fire, and water-and considered them to be the essential elements of the human body. These elements corresponded, in theory, to the four humours that were believed to be produced in various organs of the body: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. (...) The doctor, in various ways, was suppose to manipulate these humours by their qualities in order to maintain a humoral equilibrium, which was the meaning of health, or rectify their disequilibrium, which was illness." Michael W. Dols, (1992), p. 18.
 3. "(...) The Koran could not have embraced a notion of the soul as being healthy and the body being sick or vice versa. Hence it is said of Saul, for example, 'We gave him amplitude in body and in knowledge" (2,246) ." Fazlur Rahman (1987), p.21.
 4. Let us recall that the English 'health' derives from the Old English "hal" that connotes wholeness.
 5. "The heart is healed by the permanent remembrance of God." Sviri (1997),p.124.
 6. We use the term malamiyya as opposed to maldmatia in accordance with Ibn 'Arabi's preference for the first of these denominations. (Futubat, 16/2)
 7. "The importance of the malamati trend in Khurasanian Sufism, constituting an evolutionary development of the pure asceticism of the earlier generation, goes back to the precedence of Hamdun Qassar (d. 271/884), a master of Nishapur, who put his stamp on the Sufi practice of the region, and stressed the importance of sincerity, declaring, 'God's knowledge of you is better than people's.'" Terry Graham (1999), p.128.
 8. Islamic mysticism presents a variety of classifications of the various levels of consciousness, not all of them being in agreement with Sulami's. According to Ibn 'Ajiba, al-rub is the place where the epiphanies of the Kingship (al-malakut) occur, whereas al-sirr refers on a higher plane to the level of All-Power (al-jabarut.) The latter refers to the Divine infinity whereas the former pertains to the realm of intelligible archetypes (asrar al-ma'ani). Let us remember, in this respect, that Shi'ite gnosis equates malakut with the intermediary or animic realm, whereas j'abarut refers to the angelic and archetypical level of reality. Cf. H.Corbin(1986) p.192.
 9. Sulami (1985), p. 106, the English version that I quote is an unpublished translation by Amira El-Zein and Patrick Laude.
 10. In his Kitub 'Uqala' al-majanin, an-Naysaburi ranks Uways among four of the best-known "wise fools" with Majnun, Sa'dun and Buhlul. Cf. Dols, p.355.
 11. Uways is also, and quite tellingly, the 'patron' of Sufis who do not have a living master: "The Sufi tradition has distinguished a special group of seekers: those whose sole link with the teaching is through Khidr himself. There are those rare Sufis who do not have a teacher in the flesh. (...) They have been given a special name: uwaysiyyun." Sara Sviri (1997) p.98.
 12. This 'madness' is also related to the function of the American Indian 'contrary', Sioux heyokao or Hopi kochare, or the "grey one" of the Apaches, who embodies the apparently senseless reversal of terrestrial and social norms of behavior.
 13. It is interesting to note that Uways Qarani is both a norm and a shocking exception in the world of early Islam. He is a shocking exception in so far as his asocial perspective and ascetic disposition took him away from the communal establishment of the ummah that is, in a sense, the very identity of Islam. Still, at the same time, Uways al-Qarani is referred to in at least two ahadith that make of him the spiritual pole of the community. Two interesting facts must be commented upon in this context: first, the Prophet declared that on the Day of Judgment and later in Paradise, God will give the form of Uways to 70,000 angels so that nobody could know, even in the thereafter, who is the actual Uways. This hyperbolic and symbolic manifestation of anonymity is quite suggestive of the principle of 'invisibility' that presides over the malamiyyah way. Secondly, when referring to Uways in connection with 'Umar, 'Attar carefully avoids any expression that would seem to give precedence to Uways over 'Umar: "You should know that Uways al- Qarani was not superior to 'Umar, but that he was a man of detachment vis-a-vis things of this world. 'Umar, as for him, was an accomplished perfection in all his works." (op.cit. p.31) 'Umar's perfection is defined in terms of presence and action in the world of men, whereas Uways' perfection is understood in terms of separation from the world. Given its emphasis on equilibrium between the two worlds, Islam cannot extol Uways' virtues to the point of "otherworldliness." Moreover, the Prophet's robe is no doubt a different kind of investiture than the line of succession in the khilafat: it points to a spiritual authority like the khirka (cloak) of the Sufi Shaykh; but this type of investiture and eminence must remain hidden.
 14. This apparent involvement can also be a way to attract upon oneself the blame of the religious 'elite' of Sufis who may consider themselves of a different stuff than the common faithful.
 15. We read, for example, in the letters of Shaykh ad-DarqawI, that he was wearing three prayer caps on his head, for "such was my disposition" at the time. Darqawi (1987), see No. 53.
 16. Such an association of prophecy and madness has nothing extraordinary about it. In the Koran, for instance, Pharaoh accuses Moses of being struck with madness. (LI, 39).
 17. "Other features of early Naqshbandi practice were also linked to the concern for sobriety and anonymity implied by the choice of silent dhikr. (...) As with the Shadhiliyya, all these features are highly reminiscent of the Malamati movement of Nishapur, and it may be suggested that Baha' al-Din Naqshband was an heir to the traditions of the Malamatiyya although not in a formal, initiatic sense." Alexander Knysh (2000), p.221.
 18. This point of view has been expressed by Frithjof Schuon in his chapter "Sincerity: What it Is and what it Is Not" in Schuon (1981), pp.123-7.
 19. The purely gnostic way of knowledge would simply consider these accidents to be 'unreal'. As Ghazali puts it: "Each thing hath two faces, a face of its own and a face of its Lord; in respect of its face it is nothingness, and in respect of the Face of God it is Being." Mishkat al-Anwar, quoted in Martin Lings (1993), p.l69. The Malamiyyah applies this discernment on the level of the will and the soul.
 20. " (In the Middle Ages) (...) madness might be explained by the fact that the weakened body of the medically insane allowed the soul partially to escape." Dols, p.369.
 21. This does not necessarily point to the prideful nature of the disciple, for it may also function on a more impersonal level as the morally neutral shock of the Zen "warning stick."
 22. This is effected through the alchemical 'blending' of the psychic 'matter' and the spiritual 'form,' the 'emotions' and the dhikr.
References
'Atfar. 1976.18. Cf. Le memorial des saints, translated by Pavetde Courteille, Paris.
Burckhardt, T. 1980. "Le retour d'Ulysse" in Symboles, Milano. Corbin, H. 1980. Leparadoxe du monotheisme, Paris. Corbin, H. 1986. Temple and contemplation, London.
Darqawi, Shaykh al-'Arabi. 1987. Letters of a Sufi Master, second edition, Perennial Books.
Deladriere, R. n.d. "Les premiers malamatiyya" inMelamis-Bayrd-mis: Etudes sur trois mouvements mystiques musulmans, edit. Nathalie Clayer, Alexandre Popovic and Thierry Zarcone, Les Editions Isis; Istanbul.
Dols, M. W. 1992. Majnun: the Madman in Medieval Islamic Society, Oxford.
FazlurRahman. 1987. Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition, New York: Crossroad.
Graham, T. 1999. "Abu Sa'id ibn Abu'l-Khayr and the School of Khurasan" in Tbe Heritage of Suftsm, volume I, edit. Leonard Lewisohn, Boston.
Hujwiri, 'All bin 'Uthman. n.d. The Kashfal-Mahjub, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson.
Jami, 'Abd-ar Rahman. 1977. Nafahat al-uns, Paris. Knysh, A. 2000. Islamic Mysticism, A Short History.
 
ISSUE NUMBER 54 / SUMMER 2002
http://www.sufism.ru/eng/txts/malamati.ht