A Worthy Adversary Part 14: The Perplexity of Single-Mindedness

I was reading and I came across this passage:

“But why, Ramsay would ask, do we confine our study to great political and military figures to whom the generality of mankind has attributed extraordinary, almost superhuman qualities, and leave out the whole world of saints, to whom mankind has attributed phenomenal virtue? It is trivial to say that power, or even vice, are more interesting than virtue, and people say so only when they have not troubled to take a look at virtue and see how amazing, and sometimes inhuman and unlikeable, it really is. The saints also belong among the heroes, and the spirit of Ignatius Loyola is not so far from the spirit of Napoleon as uniformed people suppose.” P  358 The Manticore by Roberston Davies.

What struck me about it was characterizing virtue, which we always think of as a good thing, as “inhuman and unlikeable”. If we look carefully at the lives of saints, or political leaders, or political leaders who are considered saints, we often find less than savory sacrifices which are made in the name of the Cause. It isn’t the sacrifices which necessarily bother me, but what I find more unsettling is the single-mindedness of purpose, the unshakable conviction that what they are doing is absolutely right. While I admire focus and concentration and deplore multi-tasking, and I understand that attention to detail and strength of purpose can produce amazing results, I also find the lack of doubt to be very alien to me. I am confused by people who don’t question their own motivations and beliefs. This confusion on my part has led me to today’s khutbah which is called ‘Perplexity of Single-Mindedness”.

My model for single-mindedness of purpose is Iblis. Iblis’ declared purpose is to drive humans off the path to God, to test them and only the ones who are not tempted by Iblis have the possibility of closeness to God. In my previous khutbahs, we have discussed Iblis, his mythic biography as documented in Qur’an, tafsir, hadith, qisas and historical texts in the Islamic tradition as well as the use of the Iblis motif in the Sufi tradition. All Sufis agree that Iblis is a negative force within the spiritual life. However, this didn’t stop Sufis from using the stories of Iblis to engage in discussions of difficult theological topics, such as how one deals with God’s will (irada) and God’s command (amr), particularly when the irada seems at odds with amr; Iblis’ failure to bow before Adam is the classic example of this conundrum. Sufis, such as Rumi, Ibn Ghanim and al-Junayd, who saw Iblis’ primary motivation as unabashed evil (arrogance, power, ignorance, etc) did not see any rehabilitation possibilities and considered Iblis condemned to Hell forever. Iblis as evil and condemned is a primary track of Sufi thought. However, there is a parallel track of thought which sees Iblis in a very different light. This line of reasoning goes back very far, to Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj (850-922 CE).

Al-Hallaj explored the Iblis motif in his book Kitab al-Tawasin.  This book has been preserved in its entirety in the original Arabic and there is also a Persian translation with extensive commentary by the famous Sufi Ruzbihan Al-Baqli (1123-1230 CE). The Arabic is difficult and often obscure, so the Persian translation is helpful that way, but it is also interesting because al-Baqli has a more traditional Sufi outlook and he really struggles with some of al-Hallaj’s paradoxical and unorthodox views of Iblis.

Al-Hallaj teachings use opposites to pull the reader to considering new possibilities. He uses the Zen “shock and awe” method. The 20^th century Sufi Idris Shah explained it this way,

“If you clap your hands and observe only the movement of the hands, they appear to oppose one another. You have not seen what is happening. The purpose of the ‘opposition’ of the palms was…to produce the handclap.” P 100 The Magic Monastery

Al-Hallaj’s first ‘shocker’ is to mention Iblis and Prophet Muhammad together when he writes, “The only ones whose preaching was sound are Iblis and Ahmad- may God bless him and grant him peace!” In the heavens Iblis preached to the angels about obedience and the Path to God, while on earth he taught mankind the ways of Evil. However, the opposite poles are complementary if you look at their ultimate purpose:

“Because things are known through their opposites, fine white silk is woven with a backing of coarse black wool. The angel can point out good deeds to someone and say to him as an abstract statement, ‘if you perform these deeds you will be rewarded’. But he who does not know evil in the concrete, cannot know good.” Al-Hallaj, Tawasin #19

Al-Hallaj sees both Iblis and Muhammad as essential characters in the unfolding of God’s divine plan. They carry out God’s will unswervingly, despite the pain each much suffer.

“Iblis was told, “Bow!” and Ahmad was told, “Look!”. But this fellow did not bow and Ahmad did not look. He turned his face neither right nor left.’ Tawasin #2

Al-Hallaj backs up this assertion from a verse from Quran “His Eye turned not aside nor did it wander from its orbit.” (Quran 53:17)

In dealing with God’s amr, Iblis relied on his majestic power and spiritual perfection of centuries of obedient worship, while Muhammad was overcome by his own frail humanity and God’s overwhelming power. Al-Hallaj does not ascribe moral significance to this difference, but his translator Al-Baqli repeats the traditional condemnation of Iblis’ preoccupation with power and his underestimation of Adam’s true nature (since Iblis misjudged Adam’s worth, all that prior obedience and preaching is nullified). But Al-Hallaj is going to create even more problems for his translator.

Al-Hallaj singles out Iblis for two estimable qualities: preaching and single-minded obedience. Al-Hallaj even goes on to say that Iblis is a spiritual model for all Muslims because he, more perfectly than any other created being, witnessed the Unity and Oneness of God even at the expense of self destruction.

“There was no monotheist like Iblis among the inhabitants of the heavens. When the essence revealed itself to him in stunning glory, he renounced even a glance at it and worshipped God in ascetic isolation…God said to him “Bow!” He replied, “To no other!” He said to him “Even if My curse be upon you?” He cried out “To no other!” My refusal is the cry, “Holy are you!” my reason is madness, madness for You. What is Adam, other than You? And who is Iblis to set apart one from the other?” Tawasin #6-7

Iblis as the perfect monotheist? Al-Hallaj takes it even further, he uses Iblis and Pharaoh for models of spiritual life because they share the virtue of futuwa, noble and chivalrous qualities of a Muslim knight since both Iblis and Pharaoh demonstrate fidelity and dedication to duty. In the words of Richard Roeper in the TV series “The Night Manager”, “You make a decision. And then you commit.”  Iblis and Pharaoh are fully committed to the decisions they make.

Most people, then and now, are not willing to accept these two anti-heroes as spiritual guides. Al-Baqli took Al-Hallaj’s futuwa designation and reduced by acknowledging their extraordinary but misguided courage. Al-Baqli says any act of bravery is a laudable deed but the morality of the deeds must also be taken into account. He blames Iblis and Pharaoh’s perverted futuwa on going overboard in the ecstatic religious experience, the sin of “I”.  This was Al-Hallaj’s problem when he said “I am the Divine Truth’ “Ana al-Haqq”- he failed to differentiate between himself and God. He saw only the “I” when he should have seen that he only reflects traces of the divine, creative spirit. God’s breathing into Adam did not make Adam divine but allows him to shine forth the spirit of God.

Muslims who idolize reason have a hard time dealing with the paradoxical teaching of Al-Hallaj because instead of ascribing moral blame to Iblis (his pride, arrogance, love of power), Al-Hallaj portrays Iblis as a tragic, martyr figure who, despite his dedicated preaching, perfect monotheism, and eternal loyalty, suffers destruction by the God he lovingly worships. In Al-Hallaj’s Tawasin, Iblis is an example of the power of the mystic contemplation to carry the soul beyond the paradoxes and logical contradictions that permeate everyday experience of materiality and individuality. Perfection of this single-minded mystic contemplation leads to an experience of annihilation in the Beloved.

PAUSE

From the Qur’an, we know that Prophet Moses had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai. The exchange is recorded as;

“And when Moses came to Our appointed tryst and his Lord had spoken unto him, he said: My Lord! Show me (Thy Self), that I may gaze upon Thee. He said: Thou wilt not see Me, but gaze upon the mountain! If it stand still in its place, then thou wilt see Me. And when his Lord revealed (His) glory to the mountain He sent it crashing down. And Moses fell down senseless. And when he woke he said: Glory unto Thee! I turn unto Thee repentant, and I am the first of (true) believers.” Qur’an 7:143

A common Sufi teaching story is Moses encountering Iblis on his way down from Mount Sinai after the crumbling mountain incident. We find this story in Ibn Ghanim, in Ahmad Al-Ghazali (brother of Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali), Farid ud-Din Attar (contemporary of Al-Baqli), and in al-Hallaj’s Tawasin. 

In al-Hallaj’s version, Iblis scolds Moses for gazing on the mountain instead of focusing on God alone. Then Moses asks Iblis if he remembers God. Iblis answers,

“O Moses! His remembrance is my remembrance, and my remembrance is His remembrance: can it be that those who are remembering be anything but united together? My service is now purer, my moments freer, and my dhikr clearer. For I used to serve Him for the sake of my own prosperity; now I serve Him for His. …. He refused me access to others because of my jealous ardor. He deformed me because of my bewilderment; He bewildered me because of my exile. He exiled me because of my service; He made me a pariah because of my companionship; He reviled me because of my praise…He separated me because of my unveiling of Him; He unveiled me because of my attainment of union. He brought me to union because of my being cut off. …If He should torment me with His fire for eternities on end, I would not bow to anyone. Nor would I grovel before any person or physical body, for I know of no adversary to Him, nor any child begotten of Him. My preaching is the preaching of truthful men, and I am a sincere lover.”- Al-Hallaj Tawasin #14-17

We have two distinct, parallel tracks of the Iblis narrative in the Muslim tradition

1) All visions of Iblis are the products of his power of evil deception, despite the emotional quality of his words and the tragedy of his separation

2)  Iblis is a complex and tragic personality who serves as an exemplar of loving self-sacrifice and unquestioning faith to the point where he defies God to serve God.

But both narratives of Iblis have one notion in common: Iblis’ downfall was due to his single-mindedness and blind conviction. In the narrative of Iblis as purely “evil”, he is convinced that he knows man’s fate and man’s flaws and that this gives him the right to not bow down to Adam. In the Sufi narrative of Iblis as a complex and tragic personality, he again is convinced that defying God is the best way to worship and serve God.

What can we learn from this? We are often told by scripture and tradition that we should not follow in the footsteps of Iblis. The PG interpretation of this commandment which our Sunday Schools provide to our children is that Muslims should always obey God. Here is a different – TV-MA rated -interpretation: Avoid the trap of blind zeal. We may think we have it all figured out and we may want to pursue our goals unquestioningly because we are convinced we are righteous. But this was Iblis’ downfall. He forgot to doubt himself. Let us pray that we never forget to doubt ourselves.

References:

The Manticore from The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Penguin Books) 1983 p 358

The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah (Octagon Press: London) 1981 p 100

The Night Manager  by John Le Carre and David Farr (BBC miniseries) 2016

Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an translation by Marmaduke Pickthall 1930

Kitab at-tawasin by Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj, edited by Louis Massignon (Paris: Paul Geuthner) 1913

Power of Divine Gifts

 The title of my khutbah today is “The Power of Divine Gifts“, this is a continuation of the exploration of the problem of evil and role of sin, suing the Iblis story in the Quran, hadith and Sufi literature i.e. Part 13 of The Worthy Adversary series.

In Quran, there are numerous passages which tell us that a true believer is protected from doing evil acts which might be commissioned by Satan.

“Truly as for My servants, you (Iblis) will have no authority over them, but ones who are in error followed you.” 15:42

“Truly My servants, over them there is no authority for you (Iblis). You your Lord has sufficed as a Trustee.” 17:65

“And certainly established as true about them was the opion of Iblis and they followed him, but a group of people of the ones you believe. There had not been for him any authority over them but that We might know these who believe in the world to come from theose who are in certainty of it.” 34: 20-21

“And remember Our servant Job when he cried out to his Lord: Truly Saatan has afflicted me with fatigue and punishment! (It was said) Stomp your foot. This is a place of washing that is cool and from which to drink. And We bestowed on him his people and the like of them along with them as a mercy from us, a reminder for those imbued with intuition.” 38:41-43

From hadith, we know that consistent spiritual practice, such as saying Allah’s name before eating, invoking du’a before important acts, and even the act of ablution and prayer- particularly prostration- banish Iblis and his satanic minions- at least for a bit.

From these primary sources, theological interpretations arouse about the “impeccability” or freedom from sin “mahsum” that all prophets were endowed with by the nature of their prophethood. Sufis extended this argument to say that any spiritually perfected person, particularly their shaykhs, had a partial impeccability or protection, called mahfuz. This doctrine of partial perfection or near perfection was also appropriated by political leaders, first the calipha rashideen and then later governments, which resulted in a culture of low tolerance for political criticism. I remember hearing a khutbah that civil disobedience, even peaceful protest, was considered ‘haram’ by some Muslims because they had been taught that their leaders were ‘impeccable’ and beyond criticism and judgment.

To our modern, Western sensibilities, this idea of ‘impeccability” clashes with our cultural understanding of political accountability, transparency, and what it means to be human. Everyone makes mistakes. Furthermore, given the tremendous social and technological changes we have seen in the modern era, we tend to look back at the actions of our ancestors and judge them negatively.  However, I would argue that our ancestors could do the same with us. For example, nowadays in our society, slavery is considered evil- particularly in the United States where Americans still wrestle with the repercussions of slavery and concubinage in the form of racism and misogyny. Slaveholders of the past are often considered of having questionable moral judgment or being hypocrites. When we hear of ISIS fighters making Christian women concubines, Muslims all over the world are horrified. Sexual trafficking, by world and Muslim majority consensus, is a crime. So when we look at the sirah of the Prophet and see that he owned at least two concubines- gifts from Egypt- what does this say about the impeccability doctrine? Just to be fair, what would our Muslim ancestors think of our modern attitude toward ‘collateral damage’- the killing of non-combatants during warfare? In pre-modern times, it was pretty clear who was a combatant when you were fighting one-on-one. But our arsenal of modern weapons does not discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Perhaps to make ourselves feel better we expand our definition of combatant to include villagers who “aid and abet” or citizens who “pay taxes”- but how many of these people have a real choice in this matter? In our time, armies and governments refuse to count the number of dead human beings that are considered “collateral damage”.

  What I’m trying to convey is that our modern notion of impeccability is at odds with the entrenched Muslim Tradition concept of “impeccability”. However, when I bring this up, that “impeccability” has a historical and cultural context, I am inevitably ‘mansplained’ by a traditional Muslim that I am a ‘post-modern relativist” and values in the Quran are Good For All Time. These arguments propel the Muslim Mansplainer into a corner, because he will soon find himself forced to defend the keeping of concubines, ethnic cleansing and the assassination of cartoonists. I do not know how to reconcile the traditional doctrine of impeccability with modern ethics, maybe you can solve that in the discussion afterwards.

Getting back to the main topic, let’s assume for the sake of argument that there are people who are highly resistant to the temptations of Satan. They have this resistance because of their disciplined spiritual practice, gifted it by God, or a mutation in their DNA. Whatever it is, they are immune to Iblis. What is interesting in the Muslim tradition is that even though these individuals have power over Iblis, making him tell how he leads people astray for example, there are a number of Sufi stories which relate that spiritual superiority is a gift and feelings of smugness or superiority are not tolerated. Iblis has been sunk to a very low station, but remember his former stature and, more importantly, but for the grace of God, there got I.  Rumi warns of this in his poetry:

“One day Adam looked on the wretched Iblis with contempt and disdain.

He mainftested arrogance and conceit; he laughed at the predicament of the accursed Iblis.

The jealousy of God thundered aloud, ‘O upright fellow,

Are you not aware  of the hidden secret?

Were He to turn the fur inside out,

He would rip the mountain from its root and base.

At that moment He would tear the veil off a hundred Adams

And bring forth a hundred Iblises newly converted to Islam.’

Adam cried, ‘I beg forgiveness for this look!

I will never again think such presumptuous thoughts.’ “ –Mathnawi Book1 3893-3898

Making fun of Iblis or showing contempt must be tempered with the knowledge that this is the kind of arrogance that led to Iblis’ downfall! Attar wrote, “Iblis is the sacrificed one of God. It is not manliness to hurl a stone at God’s sacrifice.”

The sirah of Ibn Khafif tells the story of the Sufi mystic Abu’d-Dahhak who had a discussion with Iblis during which Iblis recited an ayah. Abu’d-Dahhak was so angry at Iblis’ impudence that he beat him up. Some time later, Abu’d-Dahhak was returning from Mecca when he came to a fast flowing river. He stood on the bank, unsure of whether it was safe to cross. An old man came by and walked into the river and crossed it easily. Abu’d-Dahhak thought he could manage it if the old guy could, so he started across the river and when he got to the middle the water overcame him. God intervened and Abu’d-Dahhak was able to struggle safely to the other side. There he saw the old man waiting for him. “Have you repented” he asked the shaykh, “so that hereafter you never pass judgment against me?”

PAUSE

What is the final verdict on Iblis? Is his sentence irrevocable? There are different opinions in the Sufi tradition.

Most of the authors I have discussed thus far, Al-Makki, Rumi, Junayd and others, all agree that while Iblis had a novle character and place of stature before his fall, he has become so corrupted by his power on earth that he only plots to destroy man by any means possible (including good!). Iblis should be avoided at all cost. He must be constantly and unrelentingly repelled.

Rumi wrote Iblis’ sin is an innate part of his being, so there is no hope of forgiveness for him. Sari As-Sagari reaffirms this opinion and posits that ordinary sins of passion are readily forgiven but perhaps the sin of pride is different and not forgivable.

Not even the intervention of a perfected Sufi mystic can help Iblis. Al-Bistami asked God to show mercy to Iblis and was told,

“You have spoken arrogantly; be silent! For he is of fire and a fiery being deserves something fiery hot. Take care that you do not bring yourself to this end. For you become deserving of fire when you are disobedient!” – from Attar’s Tadhkirat al-awliya” p 187

Al-Junayd asserts that Iblis never attained true contemplation when he was at the peak of his obedience and guardian of the heavens. Adam did have this contemplation, and retained it even when he sinned. Therefore, Iblis’ worship was never the real thing- dross instead of gold. Al-Junayd then goes on to list all of Iblis’ victims, where no one is excluded, and from the fact that Iblis hated Adam just on the basis of his existence. Adam did nothing to antagonize Iblis. Al Junayd does not think Iblis has acquired the necessary traits in his life as minister of the Divine Throne that would allow for his rehabilitation.

There are clearly Sufi writers who do not think Iblis will ever be forgiven via his personal repentance or by his getting ‘divine credit’ for his former position. However, in my subsequent khutbahs we will discover other Sufis who had a different theological perspective.

It is important to remember that in the “no forgiveness” camp, there is usually an emphasis on the randomness of God’s benevolence: He bestows His love on whomever He pleases, be he good or evil, saint or devil. Rumi asserts that there is tremendous power in the divine gifts of faith, mercy, and love. Their power is so strong that they have the power to transform even an Iblis. The emphasis here is on the power of the gift, not on Iblis’ transformation.

Rumi wrote, “Iblis does not despair of Your benevolence/ every moment another ray of hope shines on him from You” (from Kulliyat i-Shamis-I Tabrizi #1028)

Rumi compares God’s mercy to a cypress tree: “When the cypress of mercy waves proudly in the garden, yes, Iblis the accursed one, discovers faith” (from Kulliyat i-Shamis-I Tabrizi #2896).

Let us thank Allah for the divine gifts He has chosen to grace us with in our lives. Let us thank Him for His mercy to us and to the power of hope.

Mixed Signals

“And mention when We said to the angels:Prostrate to Adam! So they prostrated but Iblis. He had been among the jinn and he disobeyed the command of His Lord. Will you then take him to yourselves and his offspring to be protectors other than Me while they are an enemy to you? Miserable it is to give in place of Him ones who are unjust!” Quran18:50

And

“And certainly We have diversified in this, the Quran, every kind of example for humanity. And the human being has been more than anything argumentative. Nothing prevented humanity from believing when the guidance drew near to them or from asking forgiveness of their Lord but that approaches them customs of the ancient ones or approaches upon them the punishment face to face. We send not the ones who are sent bus as ones who give good tidings and as ones who warn. And those who are ungrateful dispute with falsehood in order to refute the Truth by it and they take My signs to themselves and what they were warned of – in mockery. And who does greater wrong than he who was reminded of the signs of his Lord, turns aside from them and forgets what his hands have put forward? Truly We have laid sheaths over their hearts so that they should not understand it and heaviness in their ears and if you call them to the guidance, yet they will not be truly guided ever.” Quran 18:54-57

Last month, my discussion of Iblis led us to the question of free will and destiny. Today, we will be undertaking a similarly thorny theological question, that of God’s command (amr) versus God’s will (irāda). The title of my khutbah is ‘Mixed Signals’.

In the ayahs I just read from the Quran, if you keep reading on, at ayat 18:60 , you come to the start of a journey. Prophet Musa, peace be upon him, is trying to find a spiritual teacher.  That’s right, this is the prophet known as the "Law-Giver" who is looking for someone to teach HIM something new. “Moses said to him; May I follow you so that you be teaching me something of what you have been taught of right judgment?” Quran 18:66. The person he finds embodies this paradox of God’s rule versus God’s will. To briefly recap, this teacher acts in ways that are against common law (destruction of property, murder) as well as common sense (going out of his way to be helpful to people who are jerks to him). Musa is not happy about any of this, and in the end he can no longer continue as a student because of, what he perceives to be, irrational behavior. Before the teacher dismisses him, he tells Musa that he was acting in accordance with God’s will, and the teacher’s actions do make sense in this context. Before we get into Iblis and God’s will, I want to point out that this topic is not a theoretical theological question. When the Taliban attempted to kill Malala Yusefzai (a girl who blogged about the importance of educating girls), their justification for this murderous act was to cite the murder of a youth who, “…should constrain them (his parents) with defiance and ingratitude so we wanted their Lord to cause for them in exchange one better than he in purity and nearer in sympathy.” 18:80-81

To backtrack with respect to Iblis: last time we examined Iblis’ excuse that he was “set up “ by God, that God knew Iblis wouldn’t bow to Adam and therefore Iblis is just a victim of destiny. God needed a fall guy. Rumi effectively quashes this by saying that humans do have free will, we do have a choice to be bad or good, we must take responsibility for our choices, and humbly ask for forgiveness when we make poor choices.

A different tactic Iblis uses to justify his behavior is that while God commanded the angels to bow (an example of amr), God’s will (irāda) is that only God Himself is worthy of prostration. Since God’s command was clearly in contradiction to His will, Iblis insists that God intended for the command to be ignored. The command to bow to Adam was a test for the angels and jinn, and Iblis was the only one who passed the test! Iblis’ reasoning  is similar to dealing with south Asian extended family. If these family members arrive at your doorstep and you offer to make them tea and they will most likely say, “No no, don’t bother. We’re not thirsty.” If you believe them and don’t make the tea, you fail the test.  They want that tea. They just don’t want to have to tell you to bring it to them. They want you to identify their deepest desire, their will, without being told. And believe me, if you don’t pass the tea test, you will be hearing it that for, what will seem like, an eternity. This kind of “following the irāda” rationale does not only play out at home, we see it as a national/political philosophy of a “pre-emptive strike”. Our politicians believe they know the deepest desire of our enemies, and so they act in a way that they feel is consistent with protecting national interests.

Getting back to Iblis, there is a manifest conflict between God’s will (irāda) and His command (amr).  However, what is up for debate is what line of action should one take in the face of this kind of paradox.  How do you obey a command that contradicts the will of God? This was a big concern to Sufis very early on. Al-Makki, in Qut al-qulub, goes through a long series of arguments, and in the end asserted that God orders one thing and wills the coming into existence of its opposite. Hasan Al-Basri answers that God does not punish because of the unfolding of His will, but He punishes individuals for going against His commands.

The bottom line for these scholars is that no one, and no jinn such as Iblis, has the right to try and figure out the difference between His will and His command. The challenge in such a paradox is to accept both in humble submission, even when the circumstances seem completely beyond human reason. Believers are enjoined to conform to God’s command while, at the same time, recognizing the mysteriousness of His will. Furthermore, by accepting both, the believer must take on the responsibility for which these consequences entail. The best you can do in such potential lose-lose situations, is hope that God in His mercy will look upon you with compassion.

For some Sufis, the paradox between amr and irāda Iblis encounters when he is ordered to bow down before Adam is a major element in his tragedy.  They see Iblis’ inflexible monotheism as a sign of his strength of character, nobility, and victimhood.

In the 13th century, the spiritual writer Ibn Ghanim Al-Maqdisi explored further the irāda-amr conflict in Taflis Iblis (The Bankruptcy of Iblis). Al-Maqdisi tells the reader that human life is like a circle whose circumference is God’s command, amr, and at the center is God’s will, irāda. A crisis arises when you have a situation where amr says “Do!” and irāda says “Do not!”.  Choosing only one (irada at the expense of amr or vice versa), which is what most of us tend to do when confronted with this kind of paradox, leads to destruction. The very few in number right-guided people understand how to navigate both. How do you navigate both? Let’s look first at what happens when you choose one and ignore the other.

People who cling to amr (command) and ignore God’s irāda ascribe the creation of actions to their own selves. God created the individual self, but God has no part in its evil deeds. The self (nafs) alone are the source of evil actions. The theological problem with this argument is that it makes man the creator of evil actions. If you believe that God does not create, decree, or will sin and evil, and if you believe that you- all by yourself- will it, then it logically follows that you have brought something into existence apart from God’s will. In fact, your will is stronger than God’s will and judgment  (because look at how successfully sinful we are!) while God’s will is weak and easily overcome. This is a huge theological no-no! All that Omnipotent stuff whisked out the door with your sinful little will.

What about those who only focus on irāda and toss out God’s amr? In this case, all actions, even creaturely ones, are assigned to the creative will of God. They claim to be compelled to act, powerless in the wake of God’s will. External commands, prohibitions, Holy Books, prophets, law, common sense, and so on are all considered valueless because these force one to make a choice. People who focus on irāda are not fond of the ‘personal choice’ concept. They tend to quote Quran ayah that focus on God saves whomever He wills and condemns who He wills and if He wanted, He could have made all humans believers. The theological problem with this argument is that God does not condemn or save all men randomly. God has permitted people to participate in the journey of their own salvation or condemnation through His amr, His external command. God’s commands are made more explicit via revelations to the prophets, Quran, sunna, etc and through it all man has the power to accept or reject freely.

Al-Maqdisi uses a metaphor to describe the relationship between man’s freedom and God’s creative will. Two men are carrying a heavy load, one man is able to carry it alone while the other is too weak to manage it by himself. Both men pick up the burden and help each other carry it, although the first is the one who has the power and expertise. The weak individual participates as a kind of partner because he is transporting the load. In the same way, God is the ultimate source of power for anything to emerge, He uses His amr  as a way of presenting man with orders and prohibitions that he can accept or reject using the willpower God grants him. This is how Al-Maqdisi sees man participating in the process of his own salvation.

PAUSE

Iblis could not navigate the paradox of God’s will versus his command. In fact, when the whole thing blew up in his face, Iblis subsequently flip-flopped between the two extremes. First, he claimed irada with the “You have led me astray. I was just doing Your will.” excuse, thereby excluding choice and personal freedom. Then, when he got punished he pushed the amr label with “I will lead them astray.”, an example of radical freedom because he ascribes his acts to himself alone. Iblis didn’t pay attention to the angels who were trying to navigate the straight path of irada and amr, he was the first to despair at the mercy of God, the first to deceive others, and the first to sin. Al-Maqdisi believes that if Iblis had been able to discern the true nature of Adam, he would not have rejected the amr of God. However, Al-Maqdisi does not equate Iblis’ behavior with Adam’s- when Adam saw he had done wrong, he ascribed guilt to himself and asked for forgiveness. This is the correct action for a servant in the presence of a divinity. Iblis never asked for forgiveness, he blamed God for being the cause of his sin, and he never accepts the blame himself.

Finally, Al-Maqdisi asserts that Iblis’ failure to obey God’s command is worse that his pride because it implies that Iblis understands perfectly God’s will. In fact, he doesn’t. God’s will goes beyond the understanding of mere creatures. When God wants to reveal His will, He does it, no more. Iblis’ refusal to bow springs from his aberrant faith in his own foreknowledge, and jealousy sparked by pride.

While the power of Iblis may be localized in man’s bloodstream, God’s power cannot be encompassed by the heavens or the earth- yet the paradox of God is that He can be right there with a human’s soul. If a person thinks on God for a moment, God will shower her with blessings, if she moves toward God the distance of a cubit, God will move a fathom; and if she comes to God walking, God will come to her running. 

“Because He is the absolute being in His sovereignty, neither is His doctrine changed in His presence, nor is His judgment contested against Him. His speech is truth; His promise, sincerity, whether He has promised redemption or threatened obliteration. To Him belongs the volition to menace, and to Him belongs the will to promise and to threaten. To Him belongs the power to punish without reason, and to be angry at the best of achievements. He, in everything, is just. To Him belong created beings and the command; in His hand is advantage and harm. He is not questioned about what He does, but they (the creatures) are questioned.”                   -‘Izz Ad-Din ‘Abd As-Salam Ibn Ahmad Ibn Ghanim Al-Maqdisi, Taflis Iblis (Cairo, 1860)

I’d like to end with a du’a from Quran 28:88, “There is no god but He! Everything is passing to destruction but His face. To Him is the judgment and to Him is your return.” Amen

Choice and the Chessboard

The title of my khutbah today is, “Choice and the Chessboard”. It is part 11 of the Iblis series.

In the last khutbah, we discussed Iblis’ spiritual blindness. Rumi calls him the “one eyed” because Iblis was unable to see the connection between God and human beings. If this were a court case, the Sufi scholar Al-Muhasibi, sums up the prosecution’s argument:

“Do you not consider Iblis? When he had learned Almighty God’s command and had testified to His divinity, he then stubbornly resisted His command after knowledge, proof, and testimony. And so Almighty God cursed him until the Day of Reckoning. He became the evil one among created beings. All hope of repentance for him was cut, forever.” –Al Muhasibi, Kitab ar-ri’aya

But to be fair, we have to consider Iblis’ defense of himself. Iblis says in the Qur’an,

“Because You (God) have led me astray, I will definitely waylay them along Your Straight Path.” Quran 7:16

Iblis claims that he is simply an instrument of God, used by God to test humans. Iblis says he is a powerless tool, subservient to God, and God controls everything, God is the source of movement, change, permanence, and no creature can resist temptation or has the strength to obey without the help of God. God orders his creature to do whatever He wills, in the same way He created them when He willed. Al-Ghazali tells a story of God creating two servants, one handsome and highly favored named Jibril, and the other ugly and hated named Iblis. Jibril is assigned the transmission of revelation, while Iblis is responsible for the seduction of mankind into evil. It’s like the king having assigned one servant the job of pouring wine into the cup, while the other servant is responsible for shoveling out the stables. The king gives the one he likes the cushier, cup-bearing job. Al-Ghazali’s moral is we are mistaken if we attribute acts to ourselves. God attributes the acts to individuals, be the action good or evil. As humans are of limited understanding, we cannot comprehend the power of God as manifested in His will (irada) and his command (amr).

This debate, the tension between God’s omnipotence and man’s free will, was a hot topic throughout the Islamic world for many centuries. A human being’s ability to act freely seemed pretty negligible next to God’s omnipotent will as shown through destiny. God will “…lead astray whomever He wills and he guides whomever He wills.” Quran 16:93. In the course of this debate, I will delve into some Islamic philosophical history.

The Mu’tazilites (circa 8th century) believed in human responsibility as an important aspect of God’s justice- they reasoned that justice requires people to be punished or rewarded for deeds performed as a result of a free moral choice. The Mu’tazilites also insisted that God is not Himself involved in the evil which He punishes people for doing. Evil is the side effect of man’s ability to choose.

 A more extreme sect of the Mu’tazilites were called the Qadarites. They went even further and demanded man’s absolute moral responsibility for his actions. They had an idea of radical freedom of will, kind of like Muslim Libertarians.  However, the Qadarite ideology never really caught on, perhaps because this kind of absolute accountability has a few traps. For example, if man through his own power determines his salvation, then this, in effect, makes man an associate of God in determining events. The event of one’s destiny, in this particular example. Putting man on the shelf with God is and was too shirk-like for the average Muslim.

By the middle of the ninth century, the Muslim intelligentsia preferred emphasizing God’s omnipotence over man’s free will. It is important to remember that there were at least two degrees of the predestination doctrine

1.   God determines the circumstances which a human is subjected to but not a person’s reactions to the given set of circumstances.

2. God determines both circumstances and the person’s reaction to the circumstances.

Most Muslim thinkers had no problem with the first doctrine, but the second one, God determines everything, was up for a lot more debate. Religious thinkers wanted to give some freedom to humans.

Al-Ash’ari and his school, were defenders of God’s absolute power and limitless freedom. He rejected all the Qadarite arguments, and even went so far was to reject causality because Al-Ash’ari didn’t like the idea that creation possesses an on-going order of its own. It should be noted that, from the historical perspective, Al-Ash’ari and his school were the 'winners' and the Mu’tazilite doctrines became unfashionable.

So how did Al-Ash’ari deal with the question of God’s involvement in humans’ sinful action? His argument sounds nearly like something we would call relativistic “post-modernism” or a nightcast of Fox News. Al-Ash’ari asserts that there is no intrinsic good or evil to actions. Something is good because God commands it, it is evil because God forbids it. For example, lying is evil because God says it is. If God someday declared that lying was good and ordered believers to lie, then humans would be expected to follow the order. By this train of thought, believing men and women learn what is good and evil by paying attention to God’s command, not by using reason to evaluate the intrinsic moral worth of a given action. This line of reasoning really troubled the Sufis. They used the Iblis story as a way to examine the effect of God’s omnipotence on spiritual life and the conflict this could bring about.

If we accept that God has complete control over the actions of man, then we soon need to accept that God’s actions cannot be understood by human laws of logic, consistency, or clarity. God’s involvement in actions which are unexpected, illogical, or baffling are known in the Islamic tradition as God’s makr, His wiliness.

“When Iblis was overwhelmed by the way he was, Gabriel and Michael, may peace be upon them!- shed tears of grief for a long time. God Most High asked them, “What is wrong with you that you shed all these tears?” They cried out in unison, “’O Lord, we are not safe from Your wiliness!”- Al-Qushayri, Ar-Risalat al-qushayriya.

God alone decides whether an action will lead the way to Him, or whether the same action will be an obstacle that bars the way to Him. Al-Hujwiri cites the example of Jesus. For some, Jesus was a guide to ma’rifa (gnosis), for others, he was a veil (in Kashf al-mahjub). But following this train of thought, Abd Allah Ansari had some pretty pointed questions for God. It is God who chose Adam to be one of the elect, and transformed Iblis into the rebellious sinner. Out of respect, like Adam, we ascribe sinful faults to ourselves, “…but, in truth, You instigated the crime.”- (from Munajat). The logical end to this question is ....was Iblis set up? Can Iblis be exonerated? Should we stop considering Iblis as the sly deceiver and instead look at him as the tragic victim in a carefully crafted shell game? The broader question is perhaps even more troubling- there may be little to no free will involved in the actions of human beings. Perhaps people are no more than pieces moving around a chessboard where the game has already been determined.

Rumi is the most outspoken critic of this fatalistic view of human destiny. He uses the Iblis story to confront these philosophical arguments head on.  From the Mathnawi:

“Learn from father Adam, O clear-browed fellow;

     Aforetime ‘O Lord,’ he said, and ‘we have sinned!’

He neither made excuse nor did he paint any lie,

     The flag of neither trickery nor pretense did he raise.

Contrary to this, Iblis raised his voice in debate:

     'I used to be red-cheeked with honor;

You have made me jaundiced.

     The color is Yours, You are my dyer;

You are the source of my crime, my misery, my scar!’

     Take care! Recite the verse: ‘O Lord, because You have led me astray!’

So you do not become a necessitarian, and weave cheap lies.

     For how long will you leap into the tree of compulsion,

And lay aside your free will,

     Embroiled in battle and controversy with God

Like that Iblis and his offspring?”

Rumi points out that people feel quite free when it becomes a question of choosing to follow their passions, particularly passions which have benefits in the near term and not so much the future, particularly, the afterlife.  21st century economists call this “hyperbolic discounting”.  As a result, people take pleasure in potentially harmful things because they enhance their lives at the moment more than what they judge to be their eventual costs or risks.

Rumi shows us the observable reality of human’s vacillating between two options. The conflict between our impulses, pulling us one way then the other, is indicative of choice. Our choices may not be infinite, they may be constrained by factors of time, place, ability, and information, but more to the point, one can choose to do wrong or not. We cannot blame others, Destiny, the government, or our own past actions, but we must be accountable to ourselves and accept the outcome. To plead “I was just following orders” or “everyone else is doing it”- the hallmarks of the banality of evil, implies there is no responsibility. And if there is no responsibility, then religious and moral imperatives do not exist. 

Even under a totalitarian regime, we can choose to do wrong or right. I’d like to illustrate this with two examples. During WW2, many governments that were invaded by the Nazis willingly cooperated with the invaders. They thought that by cooperating with the Third Reich they would be treated better. In Denmark, the people refused to go along with the Final Solution for their Jewish citizens. Of the 7800 Jews in Denmark, 7220 of them we able to escape to Sweden with the help of their non-Jewish friends. 99% were saved. In Albania even when the Nazis invaded, the Muslim Albanians protected Jews with their Besa, ancient hospitality rules which translate as "keeping a promise". Although there were only 200 Jews in Albania, by the end of the war there were over 2000 as news of Muslim protection spread.

Rumi wrote, “If in God’s opinion, both good and evil were of equal value in the test, then Iblis would possess the same countenance as the moon-faced Gabriel” (Kulliyat-i-Shams-I Tabrizi).

To conclude, if we fail to accept responsibility, if we fail to choose to do good, then we become robots following orders and seeking only our own comfort.  In this robot world, good and evil have no significance, we will no longer be human, and we will have no place of significance in the afterlife.

“O those who have believed! Be the ones who are staunch as witnesses in equity for God and let not that you detest a folk move you that you deal not justly. Be just. That is nearer to God consciousness. And be Godfearing of God. Truly God is Aware of what you do. And God has promised those who have believed and the ones who have acted in accord with morality that for them is forgiveness and a sublime compensation. And those who were ungrateful and denied Our signs, those will be the companions of Hellfire!” 5:8-10 

Ameen

Good and Blind

The title of my khutbah today is “Good and Blind“.  This is part 10 of my series on Iblis, the Muslim devil. I talk about the devil because I think the question of evil (What is it? Where does it come from? How can we avoid it?) is central to religious discussion.

The past khutbahs have been about the roots of the Iblis story from the traditions and stories found in hadith and tafsir (Quranic commentary). Today I will delve into Sufi literature which adds a new layer of subtlety and complexity to Iblis as the devil figure. The Sufis, Muslim mystics committed to improving their spiritual character and communing with God, are very concerned with evil because they need to purify their souls from evil and Satan’s influence.

From the tafsir and related tales, we know that Iblis is a corrupt spiritual teacher. Prior to his fall, Iblis was one of the most spiritually adept of the jinn and was afforded a place of honor near God in Heaven. For the Sufis, the idea of a corrupt spiritual teacher who would lead novices astray is a powerful reminder of betrayal along the spiritual path. This is coupled with the underlying insight that like seduces like. In other words, to use a popular Sufi metaphor, the hunter traps sparrows using decoy sparrows, not decoy crows! Hopefully, the novice will be able to see through the façade before it is too late.

Another popular motif in the Sufi literature was the devil would encourage the believer to do the lesser good. Now, Al-Muhasibi rejected this concept, it bothered him that the devil could get anyone to do good, and then the whole question of intention would get muddied up. But despite his objections, many Sufis were quick to run with this ‘performing the lesser good’. Two examples: in one, a group of people are performing dhikr. The devil tries to prevent them from their prayers, but to no avail. Then, a group of people show up outside the building and they start to fight among themselves. The people performing dhikr rush out to break up the fight. They stop the fight, but they also stopped their prayers. Score for the devil. In a second tale, a shaykh wants to chop down a tree that the local people have been worshipping. Iblis offers to make a donation to the Muslim community if the shaykh leaves the tree alone, and the shaykh agrees to this arrangement- wrong, worship one God should come before community coffers. The last popular cautionary tale is of the monk, Barsisa, who reluctantly agrees to help a sick girl and then ends up getting her pregnant. Cures the girl, but then breaks his vow of chastity, etc.

The bottom line for the Sufis is there is no guarantee that even the most spiritually adept will be able to navigate ambiguous situations. They might feel paralyzed to make choices when faced with these circumstances. However, in the end, one must make a choice and accept the consequences. The awareness of examining one’s subconscious motivations, trying to predict long range consequences of seemingly good actions, and never really being certain you are doing the most right thing, serve to give one a profound sense of humility. Nothing like the feeling of being on the brink of spiritual disaster to bring one down a few pegs!

Although Iblis is the master of suggestion and persuasion, there are some Sufi stories where Iblis himself actually does a good deed. Again, this is done so the believer is prevented from achieving a greater good. For example, there is a holy man who curses Iblis a thousand times every morning. One morning, he is woken up and pulled out of his house before it collapses. Iblis pulled him out, as he explains, so the man would not be a martyr. Probably the most famous example is from Rumi’s Mathnawi, where Iblis wakes up Mu’awiya so he can perform fajr. This is a long dialog where Mu’awiya questions Iblis’ motivation (whichi is basically that Mu’awiya will feel so guilty for having missed fajr that his laments will reach God), but in the course of this discussion, Iblis says that he is God’s tool. Iblis tests man and this test is required by God. Men fail because of their own choices, and Iblis is simply the scapegoat.

“How can I make a good man bad? I am not God.

I am one who invites, I am not their Creator.

Me, make what is good, obscene? I am not Lord!

I am but the mirror of the beautiful and the ugly”- Rumi, Mathnawi, Book 2, 2686-2687

Rumi does consider Iblis to be a force for evil, but at the same time, he sees a tragic paradox in the core of Iblis’ character. Iblis has a passionate love for God which contrasts with his cold, sadistic attitude for humans. From the Sufi world view, we have an Iblis who suggests (lesser) good deeds, can do good deeds, and says these good deed spring from his love and obedience to God.

From this view of Iblis’ character, there are a series of didactic Sufi stories which council the novice on what pitfalls to avoid along the spiritual path- using Iblis as the teacher. The theological shift in these stories is huge, because now Iblis is revealing his most potent strategies with the intention of moving the Sufi murid along his spiritual path. In these stories, it is even possible to substitute the name ‘Muhammad’ or a Sufi master for that of Iblis without doing any damage to the structure of the story! Some examples are of Iblis being questioned by saints in Al-Ghazali’s Ihya. They ask him “What is the best method of conquering man? His reply: violent rage and passion. Iblis also warns Moses about anger, Noah about greed and envy, and I’ll end here with Iblis’ warning to Jesus:

“The story is told of Jesus-may peace be upon him!- that he placed a stone beneath his head. It was as though when he elevated his head off the ground by that means he was able to rest. Iblis raised objections to him and said, “O son of Mary, do you not claim that you have renounced the world?” He replied, “Yes.” Iblis asked, “That thing you have put under your head, where does that come from?” Jesus, may peace be upon him!-threw the stone away and said, “Take that! Together with what I have abandoned, and anything else like it.” -Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Ihya, vol 3 book 2.

PAUSE

The Sufis have invested in an Iblis character who loves God, seeks spiritual perfection, is capable of doing good (the lesser good), but who unreservedly hates humanity. I would argue that the Iblis character hits close to home for many Sufis- the seeks who wishes to be close to God, who labors for spiritual perfection, and who hats the sins man is prone to doing. What is Iblis' fatal flaw that pushes him over the edge to eternal damnation? Why is Iblis such a hater? The Sufis looked for the answer in the Quran.

“After that We said to the angels: Prostrate before Adam! Then they prostrated but not Iblis. He would not be of the ones who prostrated. God said: What prevented you prostrating when I commanded you? Satan said: I am better than he. You have created me of fire and You have created him of clay. He said: So get down from this! It is not for you to increase in pride in it. Then go forth. Truly you are of the ones who are disgraced.” 7:11-13

For the Sufis, Iblis fatal flaw is his pride. Iblis’ pride makes him unable to see the true nature of new Adam. The Sufis referred to Iblis as “The One-Eyed”, and I’ll reference here from Rumi’s Mathnawi

“See in everyone’s face a wondrous moon.

When you have seen the beginning, see the end

So that you do not become like Iblis, one-eyed.

Half he sees, half not, like some defective.

He saw Adam’s clay, but his faith he saw not.

He saw this world in him, but his other-worldly eye he saw not.” Mathnawi  Book 4, 1615-1617

Rumi uses many different metaphors to describe Adam’s zahir, the exterior which Iblis can assess, and Adam’s batin, the interior connection to God that Iblis cannot see. Some examples:

1)      “In an Adam who possessed neither like nor equal,

The eye of Iblis saw nothing but a clay figure.” Mathnawi Book 3, 2759

2)      “Since Adam’s treasure was buried in a ruin,

His clay became a blindfold for the accursed one.

He kept looking at the clay with scornful contempt;

Adam’s spirit kept saying, ‘My clay is a barrier to you!’. Mathnawi Book 5, 3452-3453

3)      “Bowing to Adam is manifest proof of his superiority;

The husk continually bows to the kernel.” Mathnawi Book 6, 2077

There are more metaphors; Iblis as a cow, or a short-sighted Mr Magoo type person, and so on. Regardless of the imagery used, what is being conveyed is man’s hidden spirit which links humans to God in an intimate way never before permitted other creatures.

“Gaze upon that life-breath; do not see Adam,

That we might ravish your soul with grace.

Iblis possessed a gaze that separates;

He imagined that we are separated from God.”    -Rumi, Kuliyat-I Shams-I Tabrizi , #1576

The mystical relationship between man and God stems from God’s creative gift of His own spirit in Adam. Iblis cannot see the spirit, therefore, he rejects the relationship. Iblis’ intensive worship practice does not give him insight, he lacks divine grace. Not only Iblis’ pride of worship, Iblis’ faith in analogical reasoning, qiya, condemns him. Iblis says that he is superior to Adam because he is made of fire, and fire better than clay.”I am better than he!” Ana khayrun minhu!  Iblis’ intellectual self-reliance, his confidence in qiyas, is an offshoot of pride. But before we begin an assault on intellectuals and the use of reason, Rumi ads an important insertion between pride and intellectual blindness. Rumi says that narcissism, a side effect of pride, directs all one’s love towards oneself, thereby negating the possibility of reaching out towards God. Intellectual blindness is the consequence of Iblis’ inability to recognize what is beyond himself, primarily God’s love at work in the creation of Adam. Iblis is only able to see empty shells bereft of love.

“He possessed intellect, but since he possessed not the passionate yearning of faith,

he saw in Adam only a clay form.

Even if you possess the fine points of knowledge, O worthy fellow,

That will not open your two eyes to pierce the unseen.”     -Rumi, Mathnawi Book 6, 260-261.

Just to reiterate this point, the metaphor of “the one-eyed” is particularly apt. From a biological standpoint, each of our eyes sees objects from two slightly different perspectives. Most of the time we are unaware of this incongruity because our brain integrates the two images harmoniously to produce one image. When someone loses sight in one eye, not only does their peripheral vision field decrease, but they also have difficulty with spatial relations and their place in the environment because they can only see from one perspective. We need two perspectives to anchor ourselves safely in this world. Narcissism narrows our moral field and reduces us to one point of view, and this limiting perspective is dangerous to ourselves and to those around us.

In closing, we ask God to help us see His divine spirit in every human being, to keep us humble, and to make us mindful and grateful of the many blessing He has given us. Amen.

A Worthy Adversary Part 9, Putting Down Roots In this World

 Ramadan, at the very least, was a break from Iblis. But now that we have all returned to our normal schedules, guess who’s back? That’s right, you-know-who. In my previous khutbah, I discussed how the Suif world view envisioned Iblis’ involvement of mankind in both the physical (“Inna  ‘sh-Shayṭān yajrī min al-insān majrā ‘d-dam.”) as well as the psychological realms (nafs, and impulses-katir). For the Sufis, Shaytan was also clearly identifiable in the physical domain, and the title of my khutbah today is: Putting Down Roots in This World.

Ad-dunya, the world, is the term used to describe the exterior plane of Iblis. This is where Iblis operates. The connection between Iblis and the world is so closely intertwined that the Sufis often identify Iblis and ad-dunya as the same thing, as Al-Makki describes in his Qut al-qulub:

“The equivalent of the world is Iblis. God created him to set him apart and curse him, that He(God) might afflict him, and that he (Iblis) might afflict others, that He (God) might destroy him, and that he (Iblis) might destroy others.”

Because of this close identification of the world with Iblis, in Sufi literature you will find the world described as rotting carrion, a dead corpse with a dog (Iblis = dog) perched on top. God allows anyone who shows interest in this dead meat to become the minion of Iblis. Rumi borrows the dog motif, but compares Iblis to a vicious guard dog lying at the entrance of a Bedouin tent (the tent symbolizing God’s threshold), and this dog is waiting permission to pounce on a luckless stranger.

“O devil-dog, put (them) to the test, so that

   (you find out) how these people proceed along this Path.

Charge them , obstruct them, be watchful,

So (you will find out) who plays the woman with regard to uprightness and who the man.” –Mathnawi , Book 5 I. 2951-2952

The dog image may come from Quran 7:16-17, where Iblis asks God’s permission:

“Satan said: Because You have led me into error, certainly I will sit  in ambush for them (mankind) on Your straight path. After that I shall approach them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, and You will not find many of them ones who are thankful. 7: 16-17.

Iblis leads humans away from the path of thankfulness and repentance. He prevents non-Muslims from finding their way to Islam by asking them, “How can you discard the faith of your fathers?” Iblis hinders the progress of people who would emigrate or engage in jihad by instilling doubt in their hearts, “How can you abandon the lands you know so well, or leave your women and property unprotected, vulnerable, ripe for rape and pillage?” – this according to both Al-Makki and Al-Ghazali.

In addition to the dog metaphor, Sufi literature is replete with the image of the hunter to signify Iblis, particularly a hunter who uses a net to trap his prey.  From Rumi,

“O distinguished fellow, commit no sin let you acquire a bad name,

If you are exalted and you sin, you become lowly,

Iblis has placed a snare on the road you travel;

Become not an evildoer lest you end up in the snare.”

-Rumi, Kulliyat-I Shams-I Tabrizi, ruba’i #1722

The hunter is sly, cunning, and stalks his victim such that the prey never sees the danger coming. Iblis is always present, patiently awaiting one careless misstep on the part of his victim. Once Iblis takes advantage of his prey’s mistake, Iblis drags him off to hell and everlasting torment.

For the Sufis, Iblis is constantly asking God for more deadly traps to ensnare men. His cry is “Grant me more!” (This may be derived from Quran 50:30 “On a Day when We will say to hell: are you full? And it will say: Are there more?”) Man’s desires, al-ahwa, provide copious material for creating new worldly idols to bind men in blind devotion to this world and block their path to God.

From Al-Makki:

“There are some people who are in love with their passions, or with Iblis, the enemy of God, who urges them to greater ignorance and continued heedlessness of the love of God Most High.

Some of our learned men related that Abu Muhammad was chided for addressing everyone as “O Lover!” And I said to him, “this fellow is not a lover as you say.’ He whispered secretly in my ear, ‘This is no empty saying, whether the man be a believer or hypocrite. For if he is a believer, he is a lover of Almighty God, if he is a hypocrite, he is a lover of Iblis.’

External religious obligations are very important to Sufis, and this primacy is derived from their loyalty to the hadith traditions. The Sufis are concerned that Iblis will make people forgetful, hasty, confused or distracted in such a way that they perform religious or social actions that are not in keeping with hadith. The actions range from personal hygiene (ex. clean fingernails) to elaborate ritual prescriptions and du’a to proceed prayer, eating, drinking, sex, and other important activities. Iblis’ actions to undermine the act of prayer itself also worry Sufi theologians. They reiterate injunctions to guard against prayer interrupters (spirits or humans).

When it comes to sleep, Sufis are somewhat doubleminded about this process. On the one hand they are enthusiastic about all night prayers, vigils,etc, but on the other hand, they feel that dreams are important visionary experiences.  So while you have the hadith concerning the knotted cords and Iblis urinating in the ear of the man who sleeps all night which are found in many Sufi compilations, you have Sufis such as Al-Hujwiri who pointed out that deep sleep is a state of moral suspension where a Sufi performs neither good nor evil (his free will is temporarily non-functional). Therefore, some shaykhs do not consider sleep to be a time of heightened satanic activity. They believe that sleep has the potential for visionary activity and Iblis must wait for the waking state to resume his snaring activities.

Ibn Abbas said, “There is nothing more annoying to Iblis than the sleep of a sinner. Whenever the sinner falls asleep he says, “When will he be awake and get up so that he may defy God?”

Another Sufi concern based on hadith literature is the localization of discord (fitna) and sectarian disputes in the East, where the sun rises. Al-Makki asserts that innovation (bid’a) and divisiveness are the most destructive of sins because they harden the hearts of those who succumb to them, rendering them incapable of repentance, which then allows Iblis to manipulate them.

The final hadith theme which Sufis emphasize is honesty and uprightness in commercial transactions as well as warnings against greed. Merchants are warned to be vigilant against the corrupt bargains of Iblis. The merchant should neither be the first in the bazaar nor the last to leave because Satan was born and grew up in the bazaar, so please do not emulate Iblis’ childhood.

Discussions of commerce are used as an introduction to the more important topic of the effects of greed on mankind. Sufis firmly believe that the desire to acquire money, honor, and power lead to the oppression of the weak and helpless. Al-Makki warns that greed arises from love of the world, and love of the world is the pinnacle of sinfulness- remember the dog Iblis sitting on that pile of dead meat?

Al-Makki has a story, which if this seems familiar to you, it might be because you have read something similar in your British Literature class. Geoffrey Chaucer modified it in his “Canterbury Tales”, and there is it referred to as “The Pardoner’s Tale”. The theme of “Radix marlorum est cupiditas” or The Root of Evil is Greed, holds true for each version.

And We related one of the stories of Jesus- may peace be upon him!- that he was journeying with a group of his disciples and they came upon some gold strewn on the ground. He stopped before it and said, ‘This is deadly, beware of it.’ Then he and his companions continued on their way. However, three stayed behind on account of the gold. Two of them decided to hand over some of it to the third that he might go buy some delicacies for them from the nearest city. Then the enemy whispered to them, ‘Are you content that the money be split three ways? Kill this fellow and you can split the money in halves.’ So they resolved to kill him on his return. Satan, in the meantime, came to the third fellow and whispered to him, ‘Are you really content within yourself to take a third of the money? Kill the other two and all the money will be yours.’ Thereupon the fellow bought poison and put it in the food. When he returned to them, the two of them fell on him and killed him. Then they sat down to eat the food. When they finished, they dropped dead.

  Jesus returned from his journey and he saw them lying on the ground around the gold. The gold was still as it was. His companions were astonished and said, ‘What happened to these men?’ And he related to them this tale.

Sufis saw the desire for material goods and worldly power as blinding people to the spiritually protective value of poverty and asceticism. If humans agree to Satan’s demands as long as their appetites are fed, this satanic food will lodge in their throats and choke them to death.

“His straw will stick in your throat for many a year.

  What is this straw? Love of honor and wealth.

Wealth becomes a straw, O fickle one, when it bars

  The way of the water of life into your throat.”

-Rumi Mathnawi Book 2, I 132-133

 Furthermore, lusting after wealth and power can soon degenerate into a lusting after blood, for one can feed one’s greed only at the expense of others. Oppression becomes a way of life.If we examine our own country we might ask ourselves how can we continue to support and finance a military-industrial complex if there is no one left to fight? In such a system, we must always find an enemy.

“Devour no one out of anger

Lest God’s anger devour you;

Rise above this desire for creatures’ blood,

Lest it come down upon your own head.

Then judgment will turn away from you,

Because that satanic whisper comes not into your heart.”

-Rumi, Kulliyat-I Shami-I Tabrizi #717

Love of excess is the essence of the world’s attractions. Iblis can take even innocent pleasures and transform what was a passing fancy into a compulsive addiction. Al-Muhasibi warns that even a simple glance can bring down the most pious Sufi.

“I heard Abu Sa’id Al-Kharraz say, ‘I saw Iblis in a dream and he was walking away from me. I said to him, ‘Come here!’ He answered, ‘What will I do with all of you? You have purified yourselves from the very thing I use to deceive people!’ I said, ‘What is it?’ He replied, ‘The world.’ As he moved away from me, he wheeled around and said, ‘Except that I still have one subtle allurement in store for you.’ I asked, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘The companionship of youths.’ And Abu Sa’id said, ‘There are few Sufis untainted by this.’

Despite all these pitfalls, Sufi writings do offer remedies to escape Iblis’ snares, typically linked with the sacred word. The four basic protections from Iblis are masjids, reading the Qur’an reflectively, prayer, and an ascetical perspective. The formula “I seek refuge in God from Satan the Stoned” is especially potent: God destroys 360 devils lodged in the heart of the believer. Iblis becomes so frustrated when he hears this that he begs holy men not to teach others this prayer. Even though Iblis offers not to oppose them in their way to perfection, few accept.

A Worthy Adversar, Part 8 The Heart is a Battlefield

The title of my khutbah today is “The Heart is a Battlefield”, it is part 8 in the Worthy Adversary series on Iblis.

In the previous khutbah, I spoke on how Sufis believe that while God is closer to us than our jugular vein (Qur’an  50:16), Iblis runs through our veins, as described in the hadith “Inna ‘sh-Shayṭān yajrī min al-insān majrā ‘d-dam.”

Furthermore, based on hadith references, every human is assigned their own personal shaytan. Even the Prophet Muhammad had a shaytan, but his shaytan converted to Islam and only urged the prophet to do good deeds. While we may not be able to get our personal shaytan to convert to Islam like the Prophet, the Sufis believed that these shaytans could be tamed, trained or at least given a wide berth. An essential part of the Sufi education program was to find methods whereby the personal shaytan would have limited or restricted influence over the seeker of truth.

For the Sufis, the arena in which a battle of good versus evil occurs is man’s heart (qalb). The two warring armies consist of God, typically represented by his angel (malak), and Iblis, represented as the enemy (‘adu). Each side tries to win over the individual through reasoned argument, cajoling, desire, perception, and so on. Al-Ghazali stated that neither faction (good vs. evil) has an advantage at the beginning. However, if an individual leans towards the temptations of the enemy, his heart becomes a breeding ground for Iblis. If the individual adheres to the good, the angels will polish his heart. If all of this sounds a bit like a Donald Duck cartoon with a mini good angel on one of Donald’s right shoulders and a little devil on the left shoulder, that is actually a pretty useful mental model. Donald Duck, with his willful behavior and his short fuse when he doesn’t get things to go exactly his way, also points to a reality that extends beyond the realm of waterfowl.

In the Sufi literature, the heart is a malleable instrument, easily disturbed and transformed. In Sufi writings, you will often see the imagery of a fluttering bird, a boiling pot, or a feather lying on the desert floor and tossed about aimlessly by the winds—all of which signify the condition of the human heart. Al-Ghazali lumped hearts into four categories: 1) a heart with a lamp shining brightly within it- the heart of a true believer, 2) a black, inverted heart- that of the unbeliever, 3) an uncircumcised heart attached to its covering- the heart of the hypocrite, and 4) the heart containing many layers of both faith and hypocrisy. Reminds me of an onion, but Al-Ghazali had a different take on it. He believed the layers of faith are like green herbs that would be nourished and made to grow and multiply, whereas the layers of hypocrisy are infected with sores that fester and spread via pus.

When a person sins, according to the Sufis the sin leaves a scar, or black mark, on the surface of heart. Only repentance can polish the heart, remove the sin, and return the heart to its original luster. In this case, it might be helpful to think of the heart as an old fashioned kerosene lamp protected by a big glass chimney or globe. If the glass becomes smudged, less light is available. Al-Ghazali wrote, “These sinful vestiges rise like black smoke to the mirror of the heart, continually accumulating there, time and time again, until the heart is blackened, obscured, and completely veiled from God Most High…” In our current age of electricity, this metaphor of the dirtiness of smoke may lose its power because most of us do not clean smoky glass chimneys or soot stained walls. But try to imagine the air pollution that results from the burning of coal and you may get close to what Al-Ghazali was talking about.

In the Sufi architecture of the heart, there is an outer cover, which is sensitive to sin, and within the heart there is a satanic force which the Sufis closely link to the nafs, or the lower soul as they refer to it. The term nafs is a rather ambiguous term, subject to many interpretations within the greater Muslim tradition and I have spoken about this in a previous sermon (Methodical Soul Imaging).  Even within the mystical Islamic tradition, Sufi writers were not consistent in their definition of nafs. Some ascribed total identity to the nafs with Iblis (ex. Rumi, “The nafs and Satan have been one from the very beginning, and have been envious and hostile to Adam.”).  Others declared the nafs to be Satan’s instrument. Al-Muhasibi wrote, “…for it (the nafs) is a greater enemy to you than Iblis himself, and Iblis gains power over you only by means of it and your consent to it.” The Sufis never offer a precise, universally accepted definition of nafs but that is ok and may not matter too much for their training purposes. Both positions reflect the characteristics of immanence (permeating through the heart) and independence as manifested by Iblis.

The overwhelming Sufi approach to the nafs is to see nafs as the origin of all blameworthy impulses. However, some Quranic scholars have placed the nafs into three different categories:
1. An-nafs al ammara (12:53) “And I declare my soul not innocent. Truly the soul is that which incites to evil except when my Lord has mercy.”
2. Nafs al-lawwama (75:2) “And I swear an oath by the reproachful soul”
3. An-nafs al-mutma’inna (89:27-28) “O soul, one that is at peace! Return to your Lord,…”

The Sufis see nafs in a predominately negative light, an-nafs al-ammara. Al-Ghazali posits the lower soul has four dominant characteristics: 1) propensity to arrogant self-inflation / megalomania 2) a leaning towards deception, ruse, envy, and suspicion 3) gratification of bestial instincts (i.e. food, drink, and sex),  3) claims to being a devoted servant of God.

Rumi compares the Iblis-nafs to an innocent hedgehog who rarely sticks his head out of the burrow for fear of predators. But, when the right opportunity presents itself, the hedgehog rushes out of his burrow, spines erect, and not even the snake can stop him.

In the arena of the heart, the combat between the Iblis-nafs-mini devil and God-malak-angel uses weapons called khawatir or khatarat. Khawatir or khatarat are impulses, ideas, or notions. These impulses do not arise out of any free choice on the part of the individual and are therefore not spiritually beneficial or blameworthy. What is blameworthy is one’s subsequent actions- how you act or do not act on these khawatir. If khawatir do not come from free choice, it sounds like the Sufis are describing, what we would call in the 21st century, the subconscious mind. Or maybe not. In any case, I get the visual image of little arrows- khawatir- that the angel and devil are firing out at each other across the heart battlefield.

Many Sufis believe it is possible to trace a khatir (singular of khatarat) back to a particular source based on the nature of the act suggested, but they concede that there are often situations so ambiguous that it is impossible to decide whether the khatir traces back to Iblis, the nafs, God, the malak or a combination of all four. Al-Kalabadhi offered an introduction to a systematic analysis:

“Some shaykhs claim that there are four types of impulses; an impulse from God, an impulse from the angel, an impulse from the lower soul, and an impulse from the enemy. The one from God is a warning, the one from the angel urges obedience, the one from the lower soul is the call to passion, and the one from the enemy is the embellishment of sin.”

The intensity of the khatir may differ depending on the good or evil source. Al-Junayd remarked
“the difference between it (i.e. the impulse arising from Satan) and the one arising from the lower soul is that the urging of the lower soul continues to plague the individual and does not go away, while the one from Satan goes for a while and then returns to attack…This satanic impulse takes the shape and descends unexpectedly upon a man’s intellect while the impulse of the lower soul is continuous, moving naturally towards passion or ease.”

Al-Junayd points out that one should not assume the impulses of the lower soul are more dangerous because of their chronic quality; it is the acute attack from Satan that man suffers the greatest spiritual harm. Al-Junayd does not distinguish between the spiritual forces of God and the angel, but instead states that there are two characteristics common to all desires which come from the good: they are always in accordance with the Law, and they are embraced with great reluctance.

PAUSE

The Sufis worked out a complete psychological process by which the initial khatir (impulse) is brought into an actualized concrete act. The khatir, arising from a good or evil source, induced the mayl = inclination to a particular act. The mayl culminates in the formation of an intention or action plan,  called al-hamm. Al-Ghazali embellished a bit using slightly different jargon: khatir (impulse), sets desire = raghba, desire prompts firm intention and resolve (‘azm), ‘azm steers the will (niya) towards the movement of the body (a’ḍa).

Although the Sufis developed this causal model of behavior, most shaykhs did not share these philosophical discussions with their followers, or murids. They thought it would distract their novices from the personal concerns that sparked the original inquiry. Instead, Sufi masters would link abstract terms with traditional, concrete concepts.  Al-Ghazali linked negative khawatir with the Quranic waswasa (Iblis’ whispered temptations):

“The messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace!- mentioned the meaning of waswasa. It comprises the notions (khawatir) that come to the mind of the struggling wayfarer…And every notion has a cause which requires a name. The name of the cause of this notion is Satan, and it is not conceivable that a man can be separated from him.”

The Sufi novice, or murid, must be able to recognize and identify the cacophony of confused desires, feelings and suggestions that are felt within oneself. The most important criteria is to be able distinguish the whisperings of the devil versus the impulses of the angel: higher spirit pitted against lower soul. Al-Makki offers a few guidelines: suggestions which urge one to do good are worthy of notice. Impulses that preoccupy and upset the heart, particularly on account of past deeds and future concerns- are most likely to be satanic waswasa, intended only to obscure one’s devotion and trust in God. The more subtle assaults of Iblis consist of worrying about the where, when, or why of beneficial spiritual states. Worrying just makes these spiritual states slip away. If one fights against the bad enemy, God will reward the seeker with intimacy and hostility to Iblis. Al-Ghazali offers a more direct approach to dealing with obsessive waswasa, namely by cultivating an ascetic attitude to subdue the desires and impulses from which the khawatir are derived. Al-Ghazali urges seekers to keep family, earthly goods, and intense fantasy life at an arm’s length and instead rely on God.

New tools to deal with discerning the inner workings on the heart battlefield continue through one’s spiritual journey. Al-Muhasibi described it this way:

“It is like someone who is in great darkness going along the road…His eye are of no use to him without a lamp, nor is the lamp of any use to him without healthy vision. Neither sight nor the lamp are of any use to him if he does not throw up his gaze to where he puts his foot, and proceed with caution. And if he looks up into the sky or turns around, even if his sight is sound and his lamp is shining brightly, he will be like someone with neither sight nor lamp. And if he casts a glance towards the ground without his lamp with him, he will be like someone without sight. Healthy vision is much like the intellect, and the lamp like knowledge. And looking with caution is much like careful procedure in the intellect, seeking to obtain insight through knowledge, and turning attention to what comes to mind in accord with the Qur’an and sunna.” Al-Muhasibi, Kitab ar-ri’aya

The Sufis felt the human heart was a battlefield arising from the mists of impulses and ideas, with constant skirmishes between the forces of good and evil to determine human behavior. It is a confusing place, best described by Shaykha Benetar,

“You're begging me to go
Then making me stay
Why do you hurt me so bad?
It would help me to know
Do I stand in your way
Or am I the best thing you've had?”

My closing du’a is from Quran 18:10 “Our Lord! Give us mercy from Your presence and shape for us right mindedness in our affair.” Ameen
Rabbana atina min ladunka rahmatan wa hayyi’ lana min amrina rashada.

References:
The Sublime Quran, English translation by Laleh Bakhtiar
“Satan’s Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology” by Peter Awn in Studies in the History of Religions (supplement to NUMEN) Vol XLIV, edited by M. Heerma van Voss, EJ Sharpe and RJZ Weblowsky, (Leiden: EJ Brill Publishers) 1983
“Love is a Battlefield”, song lyrics by Pat Benetar