Published online 27 August 2011 Journal of Islamic Studies 22:3 (2011) pp.

313338

doi:10.1093/jis/etr075

THE EVERLASTING SUFI: ACHIEVING THE FINAL DESTINATION OF THE PATH (INTIH28) IN THE SUFI TEACHINGS OF 6UMAR AL-SUHRAWARDI (d. 632/1234)
AR I N S H AWK AT SA L A M A H - Q U D S I 1 University of Haifa
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INTRODUCTION
Denition of technical usages in Su discourse has been an important concern of authors from the earliest times of the Su movement. The works of al-Sulam (d. 412/1021), al-Sarr:j (d. 378/988), al-Kal:b:dh (d. 380/990), Ab< F:lib al-Makk (d. 386/996), al-Qushayr (d. 465/ 1072), and Ibn 6Arab (d. 638/1240) are just some of the better known.2
Authors note: In loving memory of my father, Shawkat Salamah. See: Ab< 6Abd al-RaAm:n al-Sulam, al-Muqaddima f l-taBawwuf wa Aaqqati-hi (ed. Y<suf Zayd:n; Cairo: Maktabat al-Kulliy:t al-Azhariyya, 1987), 2559; Ab< NaBr al-Sarr:j al-F<s, K. al-Luma6 f l-taBawwuf, (ed. Reynold A. Nicholson; Leiden: Brill, 1914), 33374; Ab< Bakr MuAammad al-Kal:b:dh, al-Ta6arruf li-madhhab ahl al-taBawwuf (ed. MaAm<d Amn al-Naw:w; Cairo: n.p., 1969), 11171; MuAammad b. 6Al Ab< F:lib al-Makk, Q<t al-qul<b (ed. B:sil 6Uy<n al-S<d; Beirut: D:r al-Kutub al-6Ilmiyya, 2nd edn., 1997), e.g. i. 152 252; ii. 59136; Ab< l-Q:sim 6Abd al-Karm al-Qushayr, al-Ris:la al-Qushayriyya (ed. Ma6r<f Zurayq and 6Al Bal3aj; Beirut: D:r al-Jl, 1990), 53333though this edition (cited hereafter as Ris:la [Beirut edn.]) purports to be a scholarly edition, it contains errors and its editors have re-arranged the chapters of the original; I have nevertheless referred to this edition (that of 6Abd al-Ealm MaAm<d [1972] being inaccessible), and to the 1940 Cairo edition published by Ealab (cited hereafter as Ris:la [Cairo edn.]), even though it is relatively difcult to get hold of; MuAy l-Dn Ibn 6Arab, IB3il:A:t al-B<yya (Cairo: Maktabat Madb<l, 1999), 525. These early dictionaries serve primarily as instruments of authority and memory, looking back to the paragons of the past for both authoritative patterns of behaviour as well as for a way to describe the actual experiences generated through such behaviour (Erik Ohlander, Susm
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Given the challenges of Su terminology generally, understanding intih:8, the term used to designate the end-point, the nal destination, of the Su route of ascent (mi6r:j), is a particularly challenging task.3 Understanding this destination actually involves many complicated doctrines and theories produced by Su theoreticians from the early third/ninth century. Though subjected to serious systematizing efforts by authors from the fourth/tenth century and onwards, the Su path could hardly correspond to the three-stage schema (beginning, intermediate, nal) known in the sphere of religious learning, albeit this schema was in theory accepted by Su authors.4 In his discussion of the Su description of the various levels of the aspirant, Erik Ohlander appears to adopt the schema presented by George Makdisi for the three levels of madrasa student: mubtadi8 (beginner); mutawassi3 (intermediate); and muntah (nal).5 Though this scholarly structure was used by Su authors, it remains difcult to determine the actual meaning of the nal intih:8. Moreover, its meaning should not be sought only in the descriptions of what Su authors considered the highest ranks of the path, not restricted to concepts like, for example, absolute extinction in God (fan:8), unity (tawAd; waAda) and manifestation of God (tajall). Rather, it should be sought, also, through all stages of travelling the Su path.6
in an Age of Transition: 6Umar al-Suhraward and the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods [Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008], 49). Nonetheless, it is important to note that amidst the detailed denitions of terms, a systemized treatment of the goals of the path as well as a consistent description of its highest ranks are, for the most part, still lacking. 3 References to early Su texts wherein the term intih:8 appears will be mentioned in the next section. 4 See e.g. al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 299 ll. 37, on the three stages of unity (tawAd); ibid, 205 ll. 1719, on steadfastness (istiq:ma) and its three stages. Al-Qushayr says: A mark of the steadfastness of those beginning the path is that their outer deeds are not marred by lassitude. For those at the middle stage, a mark of their steadfastness is that there should be no pause in their wayfaring. A mark of the steadfastness of those in the nal stage is that no veils come between them and their continuance on the path. The translation here is based on that of B. R. Von Schlegells translation of al-Qushayr, Principles of Susm (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1990, 183); al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 54 ll. 410: the people of contentment (ahl al-ri@:) are of three categories [. . .]. 5 See Ohlander, Susm, 38. 6 In the Ris:la, in the chapter on satisfaction (ri@:), al-Qushayr voices this dilemma of separating what is acquired through human effort, i.e. station/ maq:m, from what is totally attained by virtue of divine giving and grace, i.e. state/A:l. By way of a theoretical resolution, al-Qushayr suggests that a synthesis of the views is possible and that it would be stated, thus, that the

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This paper attempts to look into intih:8 in the theoretical system of the Su theorist Ab< EafB 6Umar al-Suhraward (d. 632/1234), and the place it holds in his teaching, both in reference to ideas and doctrines, and in its practical application to the actual life of the Su communities of sixth/ twelfth-century Baghdad. The reexive Arabic verb intah: and its cognates in the Qur8:n indicate abstention from unbelief, ingratitude and all forms of behaviour prohibited in Islam.7 In three verses, however, the root nah: appears as signifying quite different meanings: Q. 53. 14 has the phrase sidrat al-muntah:, the lote-tree of the furthest boundary, which, according to Muslim belief, designates the absolute limit of the created world beyond which none except the Prophet was allowed to pass.8 Throughout its later development this Qur8:nic term acquired various cosmological interpretations. Since the word muntah: originally indicates end, goal, boundary, or limit as designated in religious prohibitions, Su theoreticians incorporated it within their technical lexicon.9 In Q. 53. 42 muntah: refers to the fate of all creatures as being to go towards God, while in Q. 79. 44 it refers to Gods absolute knowledge of the day hereafter.10
beginning of satisfaction is attained by the servant and is a station, although in the end [it] is a state and not something to be attained (al-Qushayr, Principles of Susm, 163). Cf. the treatment of ri@: in Sarr:js Luma6, 534; in that work (p. 53, l. 12), the author cites Q. 5. 119 to demonstrate the combination of divine grace and human effort. Commonly in Su writings of this period, each state or station is described as containing some elements attained by divine grace, some acquired. Cf. e.g. Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 121 ll. 79; 128 ll. 1517. 7 See, for example, Q. 2. 275; 9. 67; 19. 46; 26. 116; 26. 167. See also 4aAA al-Bukh:r (Beirut: D:r al-6Arabiyya, 3rd edn., 1985), e.g. viii. 324 (k.: al-Riq:q, b.: al-intih:8 6an al-ma6:B). 8 See e.g. Edward Lane, An ArabicEnglish Lexicon (Beirut, 1968), 3039; David Waines, art. Tree(s), Encyclopaedia of the Qur8:n (ed. Jane McAuliffe; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), v. 361; Michael Sells, art. Ascension, ibid, i. 177. Al-Fabar, commenting on Q. 53. 14 connects muntah: with intih:8 and explains intih:8 as the furthest degree of knowledge humans can attain, as the place that only the followers of the Prophet are allowed to see. See MuAammad b. Jarr al-Fabar, Tafsr al-Fabar (Beirut: D:r al-Kutub al-6Ilmiyya, 1992), xi. 515. 9 An example of the Su interpretation of the Qur8:nic lote-tree is the early commentary of Sahl b. 6Abd All:h al-Tustar, Tafsr al-Qur8:n al-6aCm (ed. MaAm<d Jrat All:h; Cairo: al-D:r al-Thaq:yya, 2002), 224 (wa-hiya shajara yantah ilay-h: 6ilmu kulli aAad). Cf. MuAy al-Dn Ibn 6Arab, Tafsr al-Qur8:n al-karm (ed. MuB3af: Gh:lib; Beirut: D:r al-Andalus, 2nd edn., 1978), ii. 556. 10 See e.g. al-Qushayrs commentary on Q. 53. 42 in al-Qushayr, La3:8if al-ish:r:t (ed. 6Abd al-La3f Easan 6Abd al-RaAm:n; Beirut: D:r al-Kutub

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The recent (2008) book on al-Suhraward by Erik Ohlander, based on his Ph.D. dissertation (2004), and drawing on a large body of al-Suhrawards works, gives a comprehensive analysis of the man and his work with special emphasis on his systematization of the distinctive identity and praxis of Susm. Prior to Ohlanders research, the issue of intih:8 had been not referred toeither in 628isha al-Man:8s book, based on her M.A. dissertation on al-Suhraward (1991), nor in Qamar-ul Hudas book on the spiritual exercises of the Suhrawardi Sus (2003).11 Ohlander devotes a number of pages in the third chapter of his book to the interior dimension of the Su path.12 He outlines the theoretical construction of the path, its stations (maq:m:t) and states (aAw:l), and the ultimate goal of travelling it, in an attempt to show that the theoretical provides the framework and direction for the practical, while the practical embodies and gives denition to the theoretical.13 In other words, he presents al-Suhrawards writings not as documents of
al-6Ilmiyya, 2000), iii. 2523; and Ibn 6Arab, Tafsr, ii. 55960. See also al-Qushayrs commentary on Q. 79. 44 in La3:8if, iii. 391 (here, the word muntah: designates Gods absolute knowledge); and Ibn 6Arab, Tafsr, ii. 766. The word muntah: is found also in the Prophetic traditionThe Muslim believer will not become satised by the worthy science he listens to until his fate leads him to paradise ([. . .] Aatt: yak<na muntah:-hu al-janna)and designates the believers fate in the hereafter: see e.g. Ab< 6Is: MuAammad al-Tirmidh, al-J:mi6 al-kabr (ed. Bashsh:r 6Aww:d Ma6r<f; Beirut: D:r al-Gharb al-Isl:m, 2nd edn., 1998), iv. 417, no. 2686. In another tradition the word appears in a question addressed to the Prophet: Is there a muntah: to Islam? (See e.g. Musnad al-Im:m AAmad Ibn Eanbal [Beirut: al-Maktab al-Isl:m, 1969], iii. 477). Notwithstanding the common interpretation given to the word muntah: in reference to the time when Islam reaches its furthest limit of adherents, this word, most probably, indicates the time when Islam draws to an end. In the same context in the Musnad of Ibn Eanbal, the Prophet is quoted as saying that after Islam succeeds in spreading among many peoples, a day will come in which many civil disorders (tan) will threaten its adherents and thereby contribute to its weakening. 11 See 628isha Y<suf al-Man:6, Ab< EafB 6Umar al-Suhraward: Eay:tu-hu wa-taBawwufu-hu (al-DawAa: D:r al-Thaq:fa, 1991). Qamar-ul Huda, Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhraward S<fs (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003; based on the authors PhD dissertation (UCLA, 1998), The Su Order of Sheikh Ab< EafB 6Umar al-Suhraward and the Transfer of Suhrawardiyya Religious Ideology to Multan. For some critical observations on Qamar-ul Hudas work, see Ohlander, Susm, 910. 12 See Ohlander, Susm, 15485. 13 Ibid, 156.

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abstract ideas but more as a part of the latters project of consolidating (what Ohlander calls) a rib:3-based Su system. This phrase refers to al-Suhrawards vision of an institutionalized system of Su religiosity based on a hierarchically arranged and rule-governed collective life inside the Su cloisters (rib:3s).14 This paper does not claim to challenge al-Suhrawards concern to apply the theoretical components of his teachings to the practical standards of living within the Su rib:3. Rather, it attempts to shed more light on the focal point of the theoretical teaching, the intih:8, and on how al-Suhraward transposes this intih:8 into his centralizing system, which dened the distinctive boundaries and identity of the Su communities of his times. The paper attempts also to analyse the system of relationships between the muntah (one who has attained the intih:8, according to al-Suhraward) and master status (mashyakha). Other facets of the intih:8, such as the issue of jadhb (lit. attraction) and the position of majdh<b (one who is effortlessly attracted to God) will also be examined.

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INTIH28 IN EARLY SUFI LITERATURE

In the late sixth/twelfth century, the famous Persian Su, R<zbih:n al-Baql (d. 606/1209), in his spiritual autobiography Kashf al-asr:r, did not exclude the use of terms that imply incarnation while describing divine beauty and its manifestations. When describing the beautiful faces and bodies of pretty women and beardless youths as incarnations of the divine, he often uses tanzh expressions, i.e. expressions that indicate that Gods essence is incomparable.15 Indeed, this is just an extreme example of the dilemma in which the Su authors found themselvesthe fundamental contradiction between the mystic ideal of an absolute unity between subject and object, and the Islamic religious principle that the human is absolutely distinct from the divine. The early authors of the classical period16 tried to solve this dilemma by setting aside the ideas of
Ibid, 155. See R<zbih:n al-Baql, The Unveiling of Secrets Kashf al-Asr:r: The Visionary Autobiography of R<zbih:n al-Baql (11281209 ad) (ed. Firoozeh Papan-Matin in collaboration with Michael Fishbein; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), Arabic text, e.g., 46, 56. 16 The word classical here indicates the period that extends from the third/ ninth century up to the fth/eleventh century according to Fritz Meiers classicationpre-classical Susm, classical Susm, and post-classical SusmThe Mystic Path in Bernard Lewis (ed.), The World of Islam: Faith, People, Culture (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), 11820.
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unity and proximity and emphasizing that fan:8 and its synonyms are nothing but an absolute renunciation of the world and the material desires of the body.17 From another perspective, this concern to establish a moderate interpretation implies that other less moderate approaches were known among the Sus of the time. Apart from such approaches, there were theories of Gods incarnation in man (Aul<l) and the idea of torturing the body in order to attain the purest degree of unity with the divine (fan:8 al-bashariyya).18 Al-Sarr:j devoted two chapters of the last part of his Luma6 to controvert some of his contemporaries theories of fan:8 that essentially contradicted the moderate, more orthodox, interpretations of the term.19 The discourse of the manuals produced between the fourth/tenth and sixth/twelfth centuries reected in a unique manner both the moderate notions and expressions accommodative to orthodox Islam, and other notions and expressions that can be understood as being very radical.20 Whether as a result of individual authors or of the exibility of Su discourse of that period in general, there is no doubt that combining moderateorthodox and radicalmystical notions contributed to the inuential role of those manuals.21 In contrast to the detailed treatment
17 See e.g. al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 678; (Cairo edn.), 3940; al-Kal:b:dh, Ta6arruf, 14751. 18 On fan:8 al-bashariyya see e.g. al-Kal:b:dh, Ta6arruf, 151. 19 al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 427, 433. 20 See e.g. al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.) 286 ll. 224, in the chapter on correct behaviour, adab: God, may He be exalted, says: I have made correct behavior binding on the one I have brought to take on My names and attributes. I have made perdition binding on the one barred from the inner reality of My essence. (English translation in al-Qushayr, Principles of Susm, 313.) See also al-Qushayrs method of quoting two controversial statements consecutively in Ris:la (Beirut edn.) 287 l. 9, Junayds statement, idh: BaAAat al-maAabba saqa3at shur<3 al-adab (if ones love is sound, the stipulations of correct behaviour lapse), immediately followed (ll. 1011) by the contradictory statement of Ab< 6Uthm:n al-Eayr, When ones love is sound, adhering to correct behavior is an urgent requirement for the lover (see the translation in Principles of Susm, 313, 314). However, this was not always the method. Sometimes, radical sayings were neutralized by a general moderate discourse and not by contradictory sayings. For an example, see Sar al-Saqa3s denition of love quoted by al-Qushayr (Beirut edn., 324 ll. 56): l: taBluA< al-maAabba bayn ithnayn Aatt: yaq<la al-w:Aid li-l-:khar y: an: (love between two is not complete until one can say to the other: Oh I). 21 Al-Qushayr for example, when he is quoting radical sayings that could be marked as heretical if taken in isolation, appears to surround them with sayings that are moderate enough to neutralize criticism of the radical ones. See Reuven Snir, B:b al-MaAabbaThe Chapter on Lovein al-Ris:la

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given them in al-Suhrawards 6Aw:rif,22 the words nih:ya, muntah, and muntah:, although they did appear in the early Su manuals, were not given a separate and detailed treatment. The word nih:ya, denoting the third and last stage of the three-stage schema mentioned above, is very often adopted in the Su writings, and muntah set in contradistinction to mubtadi8 (lit. beginner).23 Ab< F:lib al-Makk, for instance, empha sizes that in Q. 53. 42 muntah: does not mean the end or limit, but, rather, the place at which a particular state of grace establishes itself.24 The idea that the boundaries of divine knowledge have no limits, and that they are inaccessible is very common in the manuals of, for example, al-Sarr:j, al-Makk, and al-Qushayr.25 There is no endpoint for the overabundances of yaqn [lit. certainty], says al-Sarr:j in dening the highest state he presents, i.e. yaqn.26 Tellingly, he follows up this denition with another sentence in which the interpretations of unity are removed.27 In the fth/eleventh century, al-Qushayr places shawq (yearning) at the highest rank of his route of ascent.28 In another occurrence in his Ris:la, he remarks that there is a unique spiritual state that follows both talwn (lit. coloration, the variability of spiritual conditions) and tamkn
al-Qusayriyya: Rhetorical and Thematic Structure, Israel Oriental Studies, 19 (1999), 1556; 1589. 22 See Ab< EafB al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif al-ma6:rif (published as a supplement) in Ab< E:mid al-Ghaz:l, IAy:8 6ul<m al-dn (Cairo: Mu8assasat al-Ealab, 1967), v. 35766. 23 See e.g. al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), ch. on istiq:ma (steadfastness), 205 ll. 1619; (Cairo edn.), 103 ll. 1214. See also ch. on khalwa wa-6uzla (solitude and seclusion) in ibid, (Beirut edn.) 101 l. 18; (Cairo edn.), 54 l. 34, 55 l. 1. In other occurrences, however, the word nih:ya denotes goal or the furthest rank of (see e.g. al-Makk, Q<t, ii. 117: that is the furthest effort and the goal of asceticismgh:yat al-juhd wa-nih:yat al-zuhd). See also Hujvr Jull:b, Kashf al-mahj<b (transl. R. A. Nicholson; London: Luzac, new edn., 1976), 408. 24 See al-Makk, Q<t, ii. 125. 25 See e.g. al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 71 ll. 1213; 74 ll. 78. See also al-Kal:b:dh, Ta6arruf, 83 (a quotation from Sahl al-Tustar: lam yudrik al-6ib:d min ma6rifati-hi ill: 6ajzan 6an ma6rifati-hi). 26 al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 71 l. 12. 27 See ibid, 71, ll. 1516: the goal of yaqn is the pure belief in the unseen the ghayb[. . .] and the joyful observance of God. 28 See al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 32933; (Cairo edn.), 1624. The suggestion that al-Qushayr intentionally located shawq after love (maAabba) in the section devoted to the stations (maq:m:t) and states (aAw:l) nds its justication in his own words in Ris:la (Cairo edn.), 44 ll. 46 (no equivalent in the Beirut edition).

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(spiritual stability), and involves the Sus passing away from his own human existence.29 When in this state, neglecting religious duties is an indulgence that is permitted (fa-l: tashrf wa-l: taklf).30 In reference to the term baq:8, Fard al-Dn 6A33:r (d. ca. 616/1220) declares that no-one among the Su authors prior to the sixth/twelfth century has been able to describe baq:8 or give information about it.31 Dealing with the highest rank (nih:ya) in a systematic and detailed manner was, interestingly, one of the main innovative features of Ab< EafB al-Suhrawards work.
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THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF INTIH28 IN THE WORK OF ABU EAF4 AL-SUHRAWARDI

The treatment of Su terminology, embodied in a detailed survey of the stations and states, occupies the last part of al-Suhrawards 6Aw:rif al-ma6:rif.32 The major parts of the book are devoted to the practical life of the Su rib:3 communities, their hierarchical organization, unique codes of behaviour, and rituals. By giving precedence to the ritual praxis of Su aspirants over abstract ideas, al-Suhraward is attempting to be pragmatic. The main concern of the early manuals is Su morality and manners (:d:b) alongside close denition of Su terms.33 Al-Suhrawards detailed attention to the aspirants daily routine with his ikhw:n (brothers) in the rib:3, might lay his 6Aw:rif open to the
See al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.) 80 ll. 710; (Cairo edn.), 45 l. 14. Ibid; (Beirut edn.), 80 ll. 11. 31 See Hellmut Ritter, The Ocean of the Soul: Man, the World and God in the Stories of Fard al-Dn 6A33:r (transl. John OKane with editorial assistance of Bernd Radtke; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003), 652. Yaqn, based on Qur8:nic occurrences, is divided in Su literature into three successive types: 6ilm al-yaqn (the science of certainty), 6ayn al-yaqn (the eye of certainty), and Aaqq al-yaqn (the truth of certainty). See e.g., al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 85; (Cairo edn.), 47; Hujvr Jull:b, Kashf al-mahj<b, 3812. It is interesting to note that al-Qushayr locates yaqn among the stations (maq:m:t) that are to be acquired by the Sus own faculties, perhaps in order to avoid dealing with problematic ideas of revelation and unity (Ris:la [Beirut edn.], ch. on yaqn, 17882; [Cairo edn.], 902; cf. al-Qushayr, La3:8if al-ish:r:t, ii. 147. 32 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 30466. 33 On the term adab in early Su literature see, e.g., Fritz Meier, A Book of Etiquette for Sus, Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism (transl. John OKane; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 4954.
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charge of giving priority to the outward appearance and forms, frequently (and negatively) termed rus<m in early Su literature.34 In my view, al-Suhrawards main contribution to sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth-century Susm goes beyond the advocacy of a practical system centred upon the fully organized ritual life of the Su community to afrm that total renunciation of family and other social ties is no longer a condition of joining the Su community. Al-Suhrawards treatment of the Su inner journey along the path of stations and states, is adapted to the practical system in that it parallels the ascent through the hierarchical organization of the rib:3. In the master status (mashyakha) the path that culminates in the intih:8 joins the practical framework of Su communal life, since to be a shaykh, one should be a muntah. Master status, an inuential position in al-Suhrawards time, enjoys a high degree of freedom and authority, as indicated in his maxim, si6a/sa6a muj:za li-l-muntah (all deeds and luxuries permitted to the muntah). The master status illustrates how the theoretical, in al-Suhrawards teachings, guides and directs the practical, and how the practical dictates and guides the theoretical. According to al-Suhraward, those who have attained the intih:8 state are allowed to do what was forbidden to them at the start of their spiritual journey. In his words, they can behave as they wish without waiting for a divine command.35 While this idea was marginal in early manuals,36 it became a major element of al-Suhrawards theoretical system. Intih:8 is manifested also in his theory of the third type of asceticism, al-zuhd al-th:lith. Early Sus were concerned with renunciation of the world (zuhd) and renunciation of renunciation (al-zuhd f
34 On the denition of rasm see e.g. al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 350 ll. 21, 351 l. 5. The negative implication of the plural form rus<m can be found in, for example, al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 390 l. 18; (Cairo edn.), 22, ll. 1920. 35 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 1578. 36 See the reference to Ibn 6A3:8 (d. 309/921) who seems to have dressed in silk and carried a rosary made of pearls: Louis Massignon, Recueil de textes inedits (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1929), 57. Cf. the anecdote of Ab< Sa6d Fa@l All:h b. Ab l-Khayr (d. 440/1049) in Hujvr Jull:b, Kashf al-maAj<b, 165. However, we should keep in mind that such anecdotes do not reect the mainstream approach of the early manuals that were especially composed to negate indulgences that could lead the mystic to neglect his religious duties. See the famous reply of Ab< 6Al al-R<dhb:r (d. 322/933) when he was asked about those who justied their addiction to entertainments (mal:h) by saying that they had reached the state of spiritual stability: Yes, they reached, but, actually, they reached to the hell! (waBala il: saqar!): al-Sulam, Fabaq:t al-B<yya (ed. Johannes Pedersen; Leiden: Brill, 1960), 364; al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 416 ll. 1213; (Cairo edn.), 28 ll. 1516.

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l-zuhd). Zuhd implies the replacement of worldly goals with higher goals for whose sake the aspirant renounces all others. By contrast, al-zuhd f l-zuhd presupposes that the ascetic may be renouncing the world from (partly) hidden motives like a desire for approval or attention and/or from self-conceit. Through al-zuhd f l-zuhd, the Su defeats such motives and indeed so far loses his own free will that he is no longer conscious of being an ascetic.37 To these two stages of zuhd, al-Suhraward adds a third in which the Su recovers his free will after having lost it entirely at the second level. However, his will is now no longer controlled by his human desires since it has become totally divine. The practical effect of this theory is that the muntah may own money without being condemned for violating an important condition of zuhd. Thus, third stage zuhd should not be understood in the sense of renouncing the world;38 rather, it should be seen as linked to achieving the nal destination of the path and the luxuries permitted to the muntah, and linked also to the description of the Su shaykh and the lawful bounds of behaviour. Al-Suhraward was himself a muntah.

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MAN IN AL-SUHRAWARDI S COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

According to al-Suhraward, the aspirant ascends towards God by purifying both his wuj<d 6ayn, i.e. physical and concrete human being responsible for sensory realization of the world, and wuj<d dhihn (lit. mental being) which is responsible for realizing the invisible.39 Unlike his contemporary Najm al-Dn al-Kubr: (d. 618/1221), al-Suhraward did not use terms of descent to express divine revelation when referring to the relationship between man and God.40 Rather, his emphasis on mans
37 A well-known principle in early Su literature that the true state of grace is conditional on total unconsciousness of the specic state in which one is engaged. True love is possible only when you become unconscious of your love. See e.g., al-Qushayr, (Beirut edn.), 324 ll. 1213, 224 ll.89; (Cairo edn.), 160 l. 14, 112 ll. 89. 38 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 332. 39 See e.g., al-Suhraward, Id:lat al-6iy:n 6al: l-burh:n, MS. Eamdiyye 1447 (Sulemaniyye, Istanbul), fo. 143a: the objects of realization of the sensory essence are denite while the consequences of the cognitive essence are indenite; id., untitled treatise, MS. Jagiellonska (Jagiellonian Library, University of Krakow) Spr. 769. 3691, fos. 22a23a. 40 See e.g., Najm al-Dn al-Kubr:, K. Faw:8iA al-jam:l wa-faw:tiA al-jal:l (ed. Fritz Meier; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1957), 30, xx 62, 64.

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imitation of divine attributes, of both might (qahr) and grace (lu3f), which indeed represents a semantic extension of one early statement: takhalluq bi-akhl:q All:h (lit. adopting Gods attributes), goes beyond the Qur8:nic verses in which the principle of Gods absolute transcendence is frequently afrmed.41 In one occurrence in 6Aw:rif, for instance, the author quotes a saying of Ab< l-Q:sim al-Jurj:n: The ninety-nine names of God are transformed into the wayfarers attributes while the latter is still travelling along the path.42 This saying, as I see it, could be understood as being very radical if we keep in mind divine attributes like al-qayy<m (the ever-living, who watches over all creatures), al-muAy (who gives life), al-mumt (who causes death) and al-aAad (the eternally One).43 Al-Suhraward, who follows al-Jurj:ns saying with his own neutralizing interpretation, most probably found that it ts in with the nal goal of the path as he presents it. Mans adoption of Gods attributeswhether understood guratively as the human form of such attributes as mercy and generosity, or understood as part of the Neoplatonic emanation of the universe from the Absolute Oneserves to introduce the highest rank in which the Sus own will and action become totally divine. One may also assume that by quoting sayings such as those of al-Jurj:n and of al-Eall:j (d. 309/922) elsewhere in his writings, al-Suhraward sought to portray such achievers of the intih:8 as individuals whose attributes and utterances are merely the adoption of Gods attributes and utterances.44
On the statement takhallaq< . . . in early Su literature, see e.g. ibid, Meiers introduction, 77; al-Tustar, Tafsr, 248. Gods transcendence is frequently afrmed in the Qur8:nic discourse: see e.g. Q. 42. 11; 13. 9; 79. 24; 17. 43; 20. 114; 23. 116. However, verses that imply the idea that God is immanent could also be found, e.g. Q. 50. 16; 5. 54. 42 al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, p. 189. 43 On the divine names just mentioned, see e.g. AAmad b. al-Eusayn al-Bayhaq, K. al-Asm:8 wa-l-Bif:t (ed. MuAammad Z:hid al-Kawthar; Beirut: D:r IAy:8 al-Tur:th al-6Arab, n.d.), 48, 312; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Asm:8 All:h al-Ausn: wa-Bif:tu-hu al-6uly: (ed. 6Im:d al-B:r<d; Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tawfqiyya, n.d.), e.g. 1835, 3989. 44 One of al-Eall:js sayings appears in: al-Suhraward, Ris:lat al-raAq al-makht<m li-dhaw l-6uq<l wa-l-fuh<m, MS. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Spr. 851. 3303, fo. 1b. On al-Suhrawards quoting from al-Eall:j, see also: A. Salamah Qudsi, The Sealed Nectar: An Overview of a Su Treatise of 6Umar al-Suhraward, Arabica, 57/1 (2010), 389 and notes. In his 6Aw:rif, al-Suhraward accepts the ecstatic utterances of both al-Eall:j and Ab< Yazd al-Bis3:m (d. 261/874) as a kind of Aik:ya 6an All:h (lit. telling about God). See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 102.
41

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Like al-Ghaz:l, whose use of Neoplatonic terms in his works including the IAy:8 appears to be authentically traced back to him and is not the result of later interference by copyists,45 al-Suhraward does not refrain from applying terms like if:@at al-Bif:t (emanation of divine attributes) in the book he devoted to refute philosophical theories on divinity, Kashf al-fa@:8iA al-Y<n:niyya.46 This book, as the author himself declares in the introduction, was composed in 621/1224, i.e. during the last ten years of his life.47 The composition of 6Aw:rif, for the most part, seems to have been dated in 607/121011.48 By focusing on philosophy and mans relation with God and the universe, the discourse of Kashf is more freighted than 6Aw:rif with theories on mans authority over the world and the spiritual faculties which enable him to carry this authority. Some ideas appearing in Kashf have their origins in 6Aw:rif.49 However, the comprehensive structure of the latter, and the focus it sought to put on the practical codes of living in the Su community, prompt us to integrate the relevant elements in 6Aw:rif with their particular equivalents in Kashf. Although al-Suhraward criticized philosophical descriptions of cre ation as a process of emanation from the Absolute One, he established his alternative theory on a similar basis. That replaces the philosophical notion of 6illat al-6ilal (cause of the causes) with r<A quds (the Holy Spirit), which is, according to al-Suhraward, a created being considered to be the cause of all creatures.50

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See e.g., Binyamin Abrahamov, Al-Ghaz:ls Supreme Way to Know God, Studia Islamica, 77 (1993), 15960. On the arguments in modern scholarship concerning al-Ghaz:ls use of Neoplatonic esoteric doctrines, see e.g. the translators introduction in al-Ghaz:l, The Niche of Lights (transl. David Buchman; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1998), xxviixxx. 46 See e.g. al-Suhraward, Kashf al-fa@:8iA al-Y<n:niyya wa-rashf al-naB:8iA al-m:niyya (ed. 628isha Y<suf al-Man:6; Cairo: D:r al-Sal:m, 1999), 234. 47 See ibid, 2278. 48 See Erik Ohlander, A New Terminus ad Quem for 6Umar al-Suhrawards Magnum Opus, Journal of the American Oriental Society 128/2 (2008), 293. 49 An example is the theory of primordial intercourse discussed below. 50 Inuenced by the idea that Gods essence is incomparable (tanzh), Muslim philosophers rejected multiple emanations (kathra) from the Absolute One all at one time. They therefore crystallized their theory of 6illat al-6ilal (lit. cause of the causes), the rst emanation from the One, and the medium between the One and the world of plurality. See e.g. Ibn Sn:, al-Naj:t (ed. 6Abd al-RaAm:n 6Umayra; Beirut: D:r al-Jl, 1992), ii. 1337. On Hellenistic and Neoplatonic inuence on medieval Muslim philosophy, see e.g. Henry Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy (transl. Liadain Sherrard; London and New York: Kegan Paul

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To avoid unnecessary details of al-Suhrawards cosmic hierarchy, I shall to refer here only to what is useful for the purpose of this paper. Al-Suhraward turned to the theory of primordial intercourse/passion (taz:wuj ta6:shuq aBl) between the r<A quds (conceived as masculine), and the spiritual soul (nafs r<A:niyya) emanated from the masculine soul (conceived as feminine). The r<A quds is a father who, after bestowing part of his being on the animal soul, which is thus transformed into the spiritual soul, became attracted to that soul. From that passion, the heart (qalb) is born.51 This spiritual intercourse is partially transmitted from 6:lam al-amr (the invisible worldmalak<t) to the 6:lam al-khalq (the material, phenomenal worldmulk), and becomes part of every human being. Mans share of good and evil is determined by his dominant tendency towards the mother (evil and defective) or the father (good and perfection), and that is why man is a microcosm of the macrocosmic world.52 Although al-Suhrawards gendered cosmological statements are the outcome of combining various theories of different origins in one heterogeneous mixture, they serve to illuminate another part of his discussion of intih:8. In his teachings, the knower of God, the one whose soul is totally controlled by his supreme human spirit (r<A ins:n 6ulw), is capable of a quasi-divine status that the muntah is also qualied to attain.53 It would appear that, for al-Suhraward, the perfect Holy Spirit in man is nothing but a kind of a cosmic analogue for the achievement of the intih:8 state. By acquiring the perfection of the Holy Spirit, the muntah gains a quasi-divine attribute, becomes Gods caliph and a facsimile in miniature of the cosmos (nuskhat al-kawn).54 Among the early
International, 1993), 15386; MuAammad al-Bah, al-J:nib al-Il:h min al-tafkr al-Isl:m (Beirut: D:r al-Fikr, 1972), e.g. 193215; 22148. 51 al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 3089; 165; Kashf, 2356. On the spiritual faculties (soul, spirit, heart, and intellect) in al-Suhrawards work, see A. Hartmann, Kosmogonie und Seelenlehre bei 6Umar as-Suhraward in Dieter Bellmann (ed.), Gedenkschrift Wolfgang Reuschel (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994), 13556. 52 See e.g. al-Suhraward, Kashf, 11819. On microcosms and macrocosms in Muslim philosophy see e.g. George Conger, The Theories of Macrocosmos and Microcosmos in the History of Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1922), 4652; Rudolf Allers, Microcosmus from Anaximandros to Paracelsus, Traditio, 2 (1944), 319407. 53 Al-Suhraward uses the term r<A ins:n 6ulw only once in his 6Aw:rif (308 9). In his treatise al-Law:mi6 al-ghaybiyya he uses the term without the word ins:n: MS. Jagiellonska, Spr. 769. 3994, fo. 40a. 54 See e.g. al-Suhraward, Kashf, 235.

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statements in which the idea of the transmission of Gods attributes or the essence of His deity is explicitly mentioned, is that of Ab< Yazd Bis3:m (d. 261/874) who stated that the lowest description of the 6:rif [the knower of God] is that the divine attributes and the nature of being lord (jins al-rub<biyya) are transmitted to him.55 As for al-Suhraward, he deals with the idea of mans coming to resemble Gods attributes (muA:k:t al-Bif:t) in various places in his writings.56 Although he does not refrain from using the Neoplatonic term if:@a (lit. emanation) in the rst concluding section of his Kashf in order to dene mans imitation of the divine attributes, he usually appears very eager to preserve the transcendental essence of God, at least on the explicit level.57

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TRAVELLING ALONG THE PATH: STATIONS AND STATES

The process of perfection of the soul, the mystics long journey to consolidate the power of his supreme human spirit, is an arduous ascent through stations and states. The Su doctrine of stations and states can be seen as a comprehensive theoretical framework of principles and rules for this journey of the two partners, i.e. the feminine soul/the masculine spirit or the human power and will/the divine grace and absolute control. This framework is relevant to an understanding of intih:8 in al-Suhrawards teaching because, achieving the intih:8 entails an ascent through stages of self-purication. The nal destination, according to the most established Su doctrine, is attained after traversing the long road of austerity. However, intih:8 as well as being attainable in that way may also be granted through direct and sudden divine attraction (jadhb). In the next section, I examine al-Suhrawards teaching on jadhb, and the theoretical framework he established to combine this doctrine with the deep-rooted and long-standing system of
al-Sahlaj, al-N<r min kalim:t Ab Fayf<r in 6Abd al-RaAm:n Badaw, Sha3aA:t al-B<yya (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nah@a al-MiBriyya, 1949), 144. The term jins al-rub<biyya, probably, refers to giving commands (permitting and prohibiting) and giving sustenance (provision). Cf. an anonymous author of the early fourth/tenth century, K. Adab al-mul<k f bay:n Aaq:8iq al-taBawwuf (ed. Bernd Radtke; Beirut: al-Ma6had al-Alm:n li-l-AbA:th al-Sharqiyya, 1991), 46: adopting the attributes of God is conditioned upon keeping them away from any attempt to compare them with human attributes. 56 See, for example, al-Suhraward, Id:lat al-6iy:n, fos. 142a; 140b. 57 See al-Suhraward, Kashf, 232 (muA:k:t); 234 (if:@a). On his exclusion of the divine essence from his theory of muA:k:t, see e.g. Id:lat al-6iy:n, fo. 140b.
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stations and states. Notably, the Su manuals from the fourth/tenth century do not offer a harmonious or a consistent terminological framework for the stations and states. In order to understand the treatment of intih:8 in the teachings of a particular author, we have to understand his system of stations and states and especially his understanding of what he considers as the highest states. It seems most likely that prior to the fourth/tenth century, the terms maq:m and A:l were used somewhat interchangeably.58 Later, Su theoreticians distinguished what is impermanent and unstable from what is stable among the inner states, a distinction that suits the semantic origin of the two words.59 When they dealt in detail with the instability and stability of inner states, they linked them with the role attributed to the aspirant himself, eventually concluding that instability is an aspect of inner states that come by divine grace, while stability distinguishes states acquired by the Sus personal effort.60 Al-Suhraward argues that both stations and states have two aspects: apparent and hidden, acquired and granted. Instead of dividing the path into maq:m:t from the outset and introducing aAw:l later, every stage consists of both parts: a particular rank is entered as an impermanent and unstable state, but this state shifts into a stable maq:m when graced by divine support. That is why in al-Suhrawards denition of maq:m, acquisition is apparent and grace is hidden, while in A:l, grace is apparent and acquisition is hidden.61 The aspirant moves through stations and states until he reaches the high state of contemplation (mush:hada) and its maq:m. Thereafter, he nds himself in several states of grace that are in their essence not stable: fan:8, 6ayn al-yaqn, and Aaqq al-yaqn.62 As for love, it follows mush:hada and is unstable, and therefore it is the basis for all states.63 In one treatise al-Suhraward uses the term 6ishq il:h (divine passion) and quotes what was said to be
58 For al-Qushayrs famous classication of maq:m:t as acquired halting-stations (mak:sib) and of aAw:l as mere states of divine grace (maw:hib), see Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 57 l. 11; (Cairo edn.), 34 l. 32. This usage is contradicted by a saying of the early Ab< Sa6d al-Kharr:z (d. 277/890), in which the word maq:m connotes a state of grace. See, for example, Ab< Sa6d AAmad b. 6Is: al-Kharr:z, Ris:lat al-Baf:8 in Ras:8il al-Kharr:z (ed. Q:sim al-S:marr:8; Baghdad: al-Majma6 al-6Ilm al-6Ir:q, 1967), 22. 59 See Ibn ManC<r, Lis:n al-6arab (Beirut: D:r 4:dir, 3rd edn., 1994), under A-w-l (xi. 187) and q-w-m (xii. 498). 60 See e.g. al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 42 ll. 512. 61 al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 320. 62 See ibid, 31922. Cf. Ohlander, Susm, 16671. 63 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 3412.

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Platos denition of 6ishq known in Arabic translation as passion is a divine madness (al-6ishq jun<n il:h).64

INTIH28 IN TWO CONTESTED TEXTS

The terminology used by al-Suhraward to designate the highest ranks of the path in the last part of his 6Aw:rif differs from those ranks presented in his Ris:lat al-RaAq al-makht<m (The Treatise of the Sealed Nectar). Mush:hada, and what follows it in 6Aw:rif (see above) is subtended, in the short epistle, by vivid descriptions of the states experienced by the soul and the heart. When the soul is settled at the level of ri@:8 (satisfaction) the heart reaches the rank of hayam:n (rapture in love); while the soul ceases to move on from this point, the heart goes on up and eventually attains the high rank of unication (tawAd).65 It is not only the terminological framework that differs in the two texts, but also, and more important, the theoretical basis of the discourse describing the uppermost ranks of the Su path. The discourse in RaAq appears more audacious and less restrictive in its technical language than that of 6Aw:rif. A careful comparison between the two texts leaves the impression that the description of intih:8 in the last sections of 6Aw:rif grants an active role to the person who attains this rank, the muntah. In the RaAq, however, the focus is centred, at least outwardly, upon human loss, destruction, and absence. In the following lines from RaAq, al-Suhraward describes the ultimate state of tawAd shuh<d (witnessing unication), which is the highest among the four levels of tawAd, as follows:
wa-l-muwaAAid al-mush:hid qad inkhara3a f silk al-niC:m wa-inghamasa f baAr al-in@im:m, fa-6alay-hi al-taAiyya wa-l-sal:m, r:ma fa-h:ma wa-k:na fa-b:na.66 al-Suhraward, Jadhdh:b al-qul<b il: muw:Balat al-maAb<b, MS. D:r al-Kutub al-MiBriyya, Cairo, TaBawwuf Fal6at, 1064, fo. 24. 65 See al-Suhraward, RaAq, MS. Berlin, 3303, fos. 5b7a; id., RaAq al-makht<m, MS. Jagiellonska, Spr. 769. 3302, fos. 11b15a. Cf. Salamah Qudsi, Sealed Nectar, 43. 66 al-Suhraward, RaAq, MS. Berlin (3303), fo. 7a; RaAq MS. Jagiellonska, (3302), fos. 141b15a. Cf. the detailed treatment of tawAd and its four levels in the Persian translation of 6Aw:rif made by 6Izz al-Dn MaAm<d al-K:sh:n (d. after 735/13345) in the eighth/fourteenth century. Al-K:sh:ns translation goes beyond merely translating al-Suhrawards manual to include additional inter pretations and Su theories which plainly demonstrate the Su reality and
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When the one witnessing unication has joined the order in the sea of annexation, then upon him greetings and peace; he craved, then he strove and he was, then he became separate.

The features of absence and the absolute extinction of the human will in the Deity, in the nal section of RaAq, might be differentiated from the descriptions of the active role of the muntah in the text of 6Aw:rif. In a very interesting paragraph of 6Aw:rif, for instance, al-Suhraward writes:
fa-l-muntah malaka n:Biyata al-ikhtiy:r f l-akhdh wa-l-tark . . . wa-l-muntah shamila al-3arafayn fa-8inna-hu 6al: gh:yat al-i6tid:l w:qif 6al: l-Bir:3 bayna l-ifr:3 wa-l-tafr3 . . . wa-idh: istaqarrat al-nih:ya l: yataqayyadu bi-l-akhdh wa-l: bi-l-tark bal yatruk waqtan wa-ikhtiy:ru-hu min ikhtiy:r All:h wa-ya8khudh waqtan wa-ikhtiy:ru-hu min ikhtiy:r All:h.67 Then the muntah has mastery of the choice in accepting and leaving . . . the muntah combines the two situations because he perfectly preserves the very attitude of moderateness: he stands between excessiveness and negligence . . . and when the end is rmly secured he is not bound to accept or to reject but he leaves, at times, while the choice he makes is done through divine choice, and accepts, at other times, while the choice he makes is done through divine choice.

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At rst sight it seems that the description of the muntah in 6Aw:rif refers to those who are qualied for mashyakha, the status of shaykh free will and choice are indeed basic attributes of the one granted absolute authority over Su disciples. By contrast, the discourse in the RaAq addresses wayfarers and not those who have reached the utmost practical goal of the Su path, mashyakha. The negative associations of hayam:n (rapture, disorientation), and talaf (annihilation) may t with the intermediate level of mutawassi3, located by Su theoreticians above the level of the beginner and below that of the muntah.68 However, further considerations of the two texts as well as other writings of al-Suhraward lead to the following, more persuasive conclusions: Receiving, with intih:8, free will does not negate the state of absence and extinction in the divine will. In other words, the mystic who achieves
theoretical systems of al-K:sh:ns time. See 6Izz al-Dn K:sh:n, MiBb:A al-hid:ya va-mift:A al-kif:ya (ed. Jal:l al-Dn Hum:y; Tehran: Mu8assasat-i Nashr-i Hum:, 1381 sh/2002), 1923. See also Gramlich, Derwischorden, ii. 712. 67 al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, p. 364. 68 See e.g. Ab< l-Najb al-Suhraward, K. 2d:b al-murdn (ed. Menahem Milson; Jerusalem: Ma6had al-Dir:s:t al-2siyawiyya wa-l-Ifrqiyya, 1977), 16; Kubr:, Faw:8iA, 87.

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intih:8, which is the most celebrated description of the mashyakha in 6Aw:rif, does not cease to practice ascetic self-discipline or to experience tawAd shuh<d as described in the passage cited from RaAq. He rather becomes all of this together. The muntah has a free choice and will, and he sometimes experiences those ecstatic states of hayam:n and talaf. In Ris:lat al-Sayr wa-l-3ayr (lit. The Epistle of Walking and Flying, also unpublished), al-Suhraward distinguishes between four ascending degrees in spiritual progress: diligence and endeavour (ijtih:d); wayfaring (sul<k), walking (sayr), and ying (3ayr). He describes the highest degree of 3ayr by saying:
fa-B:ra lahum 3ayar:n f jawwi fa@:8 al-qurb f muttasa6in ghayr maAd<d li-muttaBilin azalu-hu bi-abadi-hi wa-abadu-hu bi-azali-hi. fa-iAtaraqat awz:ruhum wa-Bafat asr:ru-hum wa-tak:malat anw:ru-hum fa-3ayar:nu-hum waBfu al-b:3in wa-sayru-hum waBfu al-C:hir [. . .] fa-l-3:6ir s:6ir wa-s:lik wamujtahid.69 They began to y in the air of closeness in a vast and unlimited space towards an everlasting creator whose eternity is attached with His perpetuity and His perpetuity is attached with His eternity. Their burdens had been burned and their secrets had become pure, and their lights had integrated, so that their ight is a quality of the inner world and their walking in the road is a quality of the outward [. . .] the yer is, therefore, a walker and a wayfarer and a diligent one.
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This means that by achieving the degree of 3ayr (the equivalent of intih:8), the mystic combines all the features of the Su wayfarers in the previous and lower states. This understanding of the text provides for a logical reason why the muntah, who is the 3:8ir and the muwaAAid shuh<d (lit. the mystic in the rank of witnessing unication), becomes qualied for the master status and is therefore consensually allowed to guide and direct others through the arduous Su path.

BYPASSING THE PATH: JADHB AND INTIH28

The term jadhb plays a pivotal role in al-Suhrawards discourse on intih:8 and the practical qualications for mashyakha. The effortless attraction of man by God is one form of achieving the highest rank on the path without being a seeker of rank. According to al-Suhraward, if this effortless attraction is followed by arduous spiritual training, the Su will then become a muntah and the ideal type of master whose words
69 al-Suhraward, Ris:lat al-sayr wa-l-3ayr, MS. Jagiellonska, Spr. 769. 3304, fols. 61a61b.

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and training are more useful for the disciple than many religious rituals.70 However, this leaves a number of questions unanswered, such as: Is jadhb alone adequate for being a muntah and thus qualied for mashyakha? What is the position of the majdh<b whose attraction was not followed up by travelling the path of stations and states on the way to the intih:8? Modern scholarship in Susm lacks sufcient research on the problematic and complicated concepts of jadhb and majdh<b.71 To begin with, al-Suhraward does not exclude from his institutiona lized Su community someone suddenly and intensively attracted by God who is not a wayfarer (s:lik) and has not travelled the path of hardships and self-discipline. This mere majdh<b (majdh<b mujarrad) is accepted, although he cannot be qualied for the master status.72 Jadhb may be understood as that which has bypassed the normative Su path of training, as a spontaneous and effortless achievement of intih:8. In several biographies of Shadd al-iz:r by Junayd Shr:z of the late eighth/ fourteenth century, statements like, [. . .] later on, he was attracted by jadhba which is more valuable than the religious rituals of all human beings and jinn, are common.73 Al-Suhrawards understanding of jadhb goes beyond the early idea of God inspiring the individual to become penitent and consequently to adopt the Su way of life.74 In al-Suhrawards theoretical system jadhb carries a deeper meaning that entails achievement of intih:8 as the outcome of hard training or, more valuably, the outcome of Gods own choice. If the latter is the case, the majdh<b can later choose to comply with the whole system of
70 71

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Suhraward, untitled text, MS. Jagiellonska, 3200, fo. 62a. Richard Gramlich devoted several pages of his Die Schiitischen Derwischorden Persiens (1976) to the saintly characteristics of the Su shaykh. In these pages, Gramlich makes a thorough study of the well-known dichotomy of sul<k (treading the path) and jadhb (effortless attraction) as an essential part of the treatment of what qualies wayfarers for the shaykh status. It was also Gramlich who wrote the short entry Madjdh<b in the Encyclopedia of Islam, where he refers readers to his Derwischorden along with other references to Arabic and Persian sources: art. Madjdh<b, EI2, v. 1029. 72 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 106. 73 Mu6n al-Dn Junayd al-Shr:z, Shadd al-iz:r f Ea33 al-awz:r 6an zaww:r al-maz:r (ed. MuAammad Qazvn; Tehran: Ch:pkh:na-yi Majlis, 1328 sh/ 1949), 75; Cf. al-Sulam, Fabaq:t al-B<yya, 514 ll. 1112. 74 See, for example, one statement of the famous R:bi6a al-6Adawiyya that conditions mans repentance (tawba) on the divine will that instructs him to repent: al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.), 96 ll. 1920; Principles of Susm, 10 (If He forgives you then you will repent); see also id., Ris:la (Cairo edn.), 52 ll. 34. This early idea, actually, differs from what al-Suhraward means by jadhb.

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self-discipline or be content with the alternate experiences of jadhb that come to him by grace. If a majdh<b chooses to undergo arduous spiritual training after his experience of jadhb, what makes his experience different from that of the wayfarer who is granted Gods attraction after long training? And how is jadhb a bypassing of the normative Su path if, after all, spiritual training is necessary? The answer lies in the timing and precedence of jadhb and spiritual training. To begin ones spiritual progress after an experience of jadhb is considered better and more exalted than to begin it as a wayfarer. The difference is between a divine starting-point and a human starting-point, or, in al-Suhrawards own words, between the state of the beloved (maAb<b)the majdh<band that of the loving one (muAibb)the wayfarer.75 The experience of jadhb as the major aspect of intih:8, regardless of what might follow it later, involves an ecstatic state that could often be expressed in various forms of abnormal behaviour. Over the course of the sixth/twelfth century, madness became a distinctive feature of the Su jadhb, and the concept of 6uqal:8 al-maj:nn (the wits of madmen) frequently appears in the Su theoretical system of that period.76 With the increasing popularity of Susm, the abnormal behaviour of such madmen became familiar in Muslim societies.77 It would be fair, then, to say that the inclusion of jadhb in such a comprehensive manual as 6Aw:rif al-ma6:rif, effectively consolidated the status of majdh<b. The high dignity that such majdh<bs attained in Muslim societies of the sixth/ twelfth and seventh/thirteenth centuries is well documented in several sources of that period. Along with the warnings against falling under their inuence, there is also the recognized evidence that some of those majdh<bs were, in fact, renowned Su masters.78
See e.g. al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 1067. See e.g. the description of the famous majdh<b of Damascus, 6Al al-Kurd by 6Abd All:h al-Y:6 as one who had a dominant inuence, similar to an absolute ruler, over the people of Damascus. This man frequently displayed abnormal behaviour, as happened when Ab< EafB al-Suhraward came to meet him at his home. According to al-Y:6, when al-Kurd saw al-Suhraward he revealed his private parts. Al-Suhraward did not retreat and insisted on meeting him in spite of this strange display. See 6Abd All:h b. As6ad al-Y:6, Raw@ al-ray:hn f Aik:y:t al-B:liAn (ed. MuAammad Adb al-J:dir and 6Adn:n 6Abd Rabbih; Damascus: D:r al-Bash:8ir, 1995), 481. 77 See Michael W. Dols, Majn<n: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 376, 379. 78 On the strong inuence of majdh<bs, see e.g. the biography of Qa@b al-B:n al-MawBil in 6Abd al-RaAm:n J:m, NafaA:t al-uns min Aa@ar:t al-quds (ed. Mahd P<r; Tehran: Kit:bfur<sh MaAm<d, 1337 [1958]), 5245; and in La
76 75

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As previously mentioned, Suhraward included jadhb within his systematic theory of mashyakha. If the majdh<b returns to Su training, he is then considered as majdh<b mutad:rak bi-l-sul<k (one who is effortlessly attracted to God and his attraction is followed by treading the path), the preferable type of Sus who are qualied for master status.79 Ascetic training, in al-Suhrawards view, offers something which mere jadhb is not able to offer: the opportunity to obtain continual and unlimited states of grace following the ascending ranks of mu6:mala (spiritual self-training). This means that mere jadhb keeps the Su from proceeding towards higher states and even imprisons him within his particular granted state. The following diagram claries the dynamics of jadhb followed by spiritual training, which is al-Suhrawards preferred mode of attaining the intih:8:

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Ris:la de 4af al-Dn ibn Ab l-ManB<r ibn c:r: Biographies des matres spirituels connus par un cheikh egyptien du VIIe/XIIIe siecle (transl., ed. and ` introd. Denis Gril; Cairo: Institut francais darcheologie orientale du Caire, 1986), see the biography of 4af al-Dn b. Ab l-ManB<r, 301; of 6Al al-Kurd, 34; and others, 79, 85. See also in J:ms NafaA:t (p. 296) the indication of his account of Luqm:n Sarakhs that Sus are not allowed to follow Luqm:ns example because there is no 6ilm at his disposal. And compare other biographies in which being majdh<b went side by side with being a master, e.g. ibid, 397; 266 (on Ab< 6Abd All:h D<n: my master lived as a drunkard and died as a drunkard), ibid, 4967. 79 See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, 1067.

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The diagram displays an internal progress conditioned by continual regression to ascetic rituals in a circular pattern. What makes this circular pattern vital and necessary for al-Suhraward? The idea that jadhb and the states of grace are unlimited is the basic element of the circularity of Suhrawards doctrines of intih:8. At the end of the last chapter of 6Aw:rif, the author quotes the reply of al-Junayd (d. 298/910) when he was asked What is nih:ya (lit. end)?: Nih:ya is returning back to the beginning.80 Though this is once again an attempt to evade a clear denition of the state of intih:8, it can be correlated with al-Suhrawards above-mentioned doctrine on the third stage of asceticism (see above, p. 10) as well as his references to the muntahs re-acquiring of his free will and the permission given to him to enjoy luxuries prohibited to beginner wayfarers. In one passage of 6Aw:rif, Suhraward claries in great detail the freedom attained by the muntah: he is totally free to choose poverty or riches, to obey his earthy soul or disobey it, to perform ascetic exercises or be content with basic religious duties.81 If absolute compliance with the strict prescriptions of asceticism (6azma, pl. 6az:8im) is favoured for the beginner Su, the contrary situation is that in which ease and relaxation in accepting concessions (rukhaB) is eventually offered to those who attain the endpoint of the Su journey.82 Al-Suhraward states that such rukhaB are not provisionally permitted for those Sus, such as relaxation or ease, but are rather an integrated description of their Su spiritual state. For al-Suhraward, rukhaB in having many wives, good food, expensive clothes and possessing property, becomes a facet of the divine states of grace at the end of the path.83 The last allowed luxury, i.e. possessing property became, in the course of time, a major characteristic of the Su shaykhs of the Suhrawardi order, the most outspoken of whom is Bah:8 al-Dn Zakariyy: Mult:n (d. 661/1262), the direct successor of Ab< EafB al-Suhraward himself.84 By not excluding the muntah from mu6:mala
Ibid, 365. Ibid, 364. 82 On the negative meaning of rukhBa (concession) in the Su literature see e.g. Anonymous, Adab al-mul<k, 3, 5, 29. On considering rukhBa as a permitted relaxation for the muntah see also Ab< l-Najb al-Suhraward, 2d:b al-murdn, 801. However, those true Sus, according to Ab< l-Najbs view, should leave the lower degree of concession as soon as they can. Unlike his uncle and master, 6Umar al-Suhraward allows the muntah to adopt concessions as an integral part of his exalted state. 83 See e.g. early anti-Sus claims on the basis of such exaggerations of the Su shaykhs in marriage in al-Makk, Q<t, ii. 403. 84 On the critical attitude of Zakariyy:s contemporaries among the followers of the Chish3iyya order in India against the wealth of the Suhrawardi centres, see
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and continuing austerities, al-Suhraward sought to consolidate sul<k as an indisputable basis of intih:8, and the instrument by which the experiences of jadhb are preserved and protected from antinomianism and heresy. Al-Suhrawards doctrine of intih:8, indeed, reinstates the ideal of living in and for the community with no need for self-seclusion and social isolation for the sake of inner spiritual progress. Living with God does not contradict the Sus own life with his family, disciples, and society in general. This ideal seems to correspond in general to one of the earliest principles of the Mal:matiyya of Nishapur and other early Sus as well.85 However, while for the early mal:mat the need to purify his sincere relationship with God from self-conceit and social dissimulation motivates him to keep his social ties and conceal his inward spirituality, in al-Suhrawards teachings social activeness is in itself a basic outcome or symptom of being muntah. In other words, living and acting in the community, according to him, is a privilege granted to the muntah rather than an obligation to keep the Sus inner life pure and sincere. It might be worthwhile to compare this active role of the muntah in his spiritual progress as well as in his social circles with some approaches known in the early Su manuals and frequently expressed by terms such as ghayba (absolute absence of the human will),86 maAw (lit. obliteration),87 gharaq / istighr:q (lit. sinking),88 and other similar words by which mans passivity in his relationship with God is essentially emphasized.89 In two of his works, Suhraward does not seem to refrain
for example: Simon Digby, The Su Shaikh as a Source of Authority in Mediaeval India in Marc Gaborieau (ed.), Islam et societe en Asie du sud (Paris: Editions de lEcole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1986), 64. 85 Generally the term mal:mat indicates one Su tradition, which at least on the level of the technical term, may have originally been founded in Khurasan. According to this tradition, self-censure leads to the avoidance of demonstrative acts of piety considered boastful. As a result, regular social activities were allowed and were even preferable. Besides, the ideal of concealing the act (isr:r bi-l-6amal), which indicates sincerity in keeping ones acts hidden from the public eye, was very common in al-E:rith al-MuA:sibs (d. 243/857) early works. See, e.g. al-E:rith al-MuA:sib, al-Mas:8l f a6m:l al-qul<b wa-l-jaw:riA (ed. Khall 6Umr:n ManB<r; Beirut: D:r al-Kutub al-6Ilmiyya, 2000), 52, 54. On mal:matiyya, see e.g. F. De Jong, art. Mal:matiyya, EI2, vi. 2234. 86 See e.g. al-Qushayr, Ris:la (Beirut edn.) 6970; (Cairo edn.), 401. 87 See e.g. ibid, (Cairo edn.), 42 ll. 1427; (Beirut edn.), 73. 88 See e.g. ibid, 63 l. 5; (Cairo edn.), 37 l. 25. 89 See also al-Sarr:j, Luma6, 358 ll. 111 (on the terms 3ams, rams and dams all of which indicate death, absence and disappearance); and 355 ll. 1119 (on maAw, 3ams and maAq, all of which impy abolition).

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from making a clear opposition between the muntah and God: ya8thi nid:8 min al-Aayy al-ladh l: yam<tu il: l-Aayy al-ladh l: yam<tu ([On Judgment Day] the call of the Everlasting Who does not die comes to the everlasting who does not die).90 The editor of Kashf al-fa@:8iA, perhaps inuenced by her value judgments, omits the negative formulation in the second part of the statement even though she herself declares that the negation is actually found in all the available manuscripts of the text.91 Based on al-Suhrawards theoretical system, part of which has been investigated above, I understood this statement as follows: in the exalted state of intih:8 the Su does not lose his human existence; he does not become totally extinct in God, but rather attains an everlasting life with a new existence parallel to that of God. All his will and attributes are not abolished but resuscitated in the human manifestation of the divine will and attributes. While Ohlander does not make any reference to Suhrawards noteworthy epistle Ris:lat al-RaAq al-makht<m, I have shown in another paper that Suhrawards discourse in this short epistle, contrary to his 6Aw:rif, is addressed to the wayfarers and not those who are most likely qualied for master status.92 This epistle is focused on the passive aspects of human behaviour and thought, i.e. on descriptions such as ghayba and talaf (lit. destruction) for example, and that is why the ultimate rank in RaAq appears to be witnessing unication (tawAd shuh<d) within which the absolute annihilation of the human in God is the furthest goal.93

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CONCLUDING REMARKS
Al-Suhraward himself was aware of the problematic consequences of his institutionalized system of si6a muj:za li-l-muntah, previously put forward as the basic argument in his treatment of intih:8. On several occasions in his writings, he declares that the freedom granted to the

al-Suhraward, Kashf, p. 202; id., Id:la, MS. Eamdiyye, 1447, fo. 145a. See al-Suhraward, Kashf, 202, editors n. 6. 92 See Salamah Qudsi, Sealed Nectar, 52. 93 Suhraward, RaAq, MS. Berlin (3303), fo. 7a; id., RaAq, MS. Jagiellonska (3302), fos. 14b15a. This degree was termed by the Persian translator of 6Aw:rif as tawAd-i il:h (al-K:sh:n, MiBb:A al-hid:ya, 1923). See also, with the analysis by Gramlich, the relevant occurrence in the Persian book, in his Derwischorden, ii. 712.
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muntah is, in fact, a dangerous slippery place (mazalla) for the beginners of the Su path.94 Among the means he proposes to soften this doctrine was his detailed treatment of the idea of the divine makr (Gods lulling man into false states of security) of those who achieve the nal destination of the Su path.95 In his unpublished treatise Ghurar al-khalq wa-istidr:ju-hum (lit. The Seductions of the Human Beings and Gods Lulling Them into False States of Security), al-Suhraward indicates that the divine makr of the muntah is stronger and much more dangerous than that of other Sus.96 We denitely agree, then, with Erik Ohlanders main contention that al-Suhraward delineated a universalizing vision of theory and praxis which attempted to systematically re-centre the totality of Islamic revelatory, cosmologic, and soteriological doctrines at the centre of the particular Junayd-Su tradition.97 However, within al-Suhrawards own theoretical system including that of the intih:8 teachings, the original Junayd-Su core-tradition evolved into something that became part of a wider multi-origin system of thought. The intrinsic meaning of intih:8 in al-Suhrawards view is closely linked with the practical qualication for master status, a crucial institution of the Su movement during his time. This link, in addition to Suhrawards subordination of the inner progress to self-discipline (mu6:mala), puts the onus upon the Su in his relationship with God. Being a muntah means to be a free Su and then an educating master. It is essentially a rediscovery of mans human soul and its spiritual powers by achieving a type of reconciliation with his family, community, and even the whole universe. Alongside Ohlanders replacement of al-Suhrawards thematic model of the ultimate of the Su path within the familiar Neoplatonic and Gnostic model of originreturn,98 I suggest that intih:8, as the technical term used for that destination, involves an active and sober return to ones own soul and reconciliation with its earthy values at the highest level. Returning to the discourse on intih:8 in 6Aw:rf, the above-mentioned idea of si6a muj:za is the furthest point that the Su wayfarer can attain. This state is, in fact, the theoretical framework and description of the
See al-Suhraward, 6Aw:rif, p. 89. The word makr appears in more than 15 Qur8:nic occurrences as attributed to God Himself (e.g. Q. 3. 54, and 13. 42). On this term in Prophetic traditions see W. Montgomery Watt, Free Will and Predestination in Early Islam (London: Luzac and Co., 1948), 1819. 96 See al-Suhraward, Ghurar al-khalq wa-istidr:ju-hum, MS. Jagiellonska, Spr. 769. 3168, fo. 91a. 97 Ohlander, Susm, 13. 98 See ibid, 1589.
95 94

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master status. While attempting to consolidate the master status and combine it with the sublime state of intih:8, the concept of jadhb gained a much more positive position within Suhrawards Su system. Although the actual basis for such a positive conception of jadhb cannot be authoritatively asserted, I suggest that this approach left its mark on the ritual practices of the later Su communities.

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