Sufi Talks (A review)

[Rene Waflow]

Robert Frager

Sufi Talks:Teachings of an American Sufi Sheikh

(Wheaton, IL:  Quest Books, 2012 )

 

         “Sufism focuses on the inner effects of our practice.  The Sufi path, or tariqa, means in Arabic, an unmarked path, through the desert, where the sands shift, and there are no clear markers.  Following the tariqa requires judgement and sophistication.  It also requires a guide who knows the way…Sufism is practice.  It is not theory or philosophy.  It is practical…A sheikh can help with fundamental change and transformation.  We can do many things for ourselves, but there are certain levels of inner transformation we just can’t attain by ourselves.”

 

         Although throughout Muslim history, there have been fakirs, wandering dervishes who have no possessions, living on alms and not part of a Sufi order, most Sufis are structured into orders with at its head a sheikh. There is generally a sheikh who is head of the whole order, and local sheikhs who are head of a local community and who have a role as teacher and model for the dervishes, the members of the local community.

 

         Robert Frager is the sheikh of a Sufi community in California, a local unit of the Halveti-Jerrahi Sufi Order which is of Turkish origin and whose headquarters are in Istanbul.  Sufi orders have a silsilah, a recognized chain going back to the founder and more symbolically back to the Prophet Muhammad.  Thus Frager often cites the examples of his own teachers in the order, examples from the founder Pri Nureddin al-Jerrahi in the 18^th century and also hadiths which are said to be sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

 

         These collected talks are what are called sohhets,talks given to the local dervishes.   They are not really “sermons” of the type delivered by the imam of a mosque.  Rather they are talks offering guidance, discernment, and inspiration, addressed to both the heart and mind, but with a greater emphasis on the heart. “A real dervish listens with the heart.  A tremendous amount of information lies beyond the spoken words.  If we listen sincerely and compassionately, our conversations will become far deeper and more meaningful…We can become better instruments of God if we slow down and become more heart-centered.  If we slow down, our words will come from our hearts.  Our words usually come straight from our brains.  It takes more patience and greater awareness to speak from the heart…When our hearts begin to open, we have greater access to the wisdom of the heart.  Then it is essential to act on our inner wisdom and insight.  It is important that our outer actions are in harmony with the inner process of heart opening and to achieve such harmony is often a struggle.  Even though we know how we should behave, our old habits and tendencies still affect us at times.”

 

         Frager is a social psychologist and a professor in the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, and some of the guidance and replies to questions could also be those of a non-religious psychotherapist with a humanist or transpersonal orientation. Nevertheless, many of the talks are Muslim oriented and seek to explain Islamic teaching to people who are probably not Turkish-Americans and for whom much of the practices, the forms of politeness, initiation, and the respect to be offered to the sheikh are foreign.

 

         The emphasis is on the deeper side of external rituals.  This deeper side is not esoteric but rather a deeper meaning given to common external practices.  Thus the book is largely structured around three themes: the deeper meaning of prayer, of fasting during the month of Ramadan, and the recitation of verses from the Qur’an.

 

         In Islam, there are set communal prayers and also more individual prayers, especially dua, a form of invocation in which requests are made of God, for forgiveness, healing, or for a change of situation for themselves or others.

 

         Likewise, there is an important chapter on the lessons of Ramadan, a lunar month of fasting during the day. “Ramadan is a month of retreat.  Our energies are more limited during the day, so we waste less energy on trivia.  Our daily rhythm revolves around prayer and fasting. Although we still work and carry out our worldly duties, they seem far less important this month.  It is good to do less and spend more time reading Qur’an and the writings of the Sufi saints and poets…The outer form is no guarantee of inner results.  But it all begins with outer practice… We can feel deeply grateful that we can exert our individual wills toward doing what we believe God wishes us to do.  Every time we feel hunger or thirst, we should be grateful that we have a chance to worship God by actively submitting ourselves to something other than the desires of our bodies or egos. This month is a gift to us. We need to reflect on why we are fasting, how we are fasting, what part of us is fasting.”

 

         What is most difficult to understand for those of us who are not Muslims is the role that the Qur’an plays in Islam.  It has some of the characteristics of the Logos in the Gospel of John: the Word which is incarnated in Jesus.  In Islam, the Word is incarnated in the Qur’an.  The Qur’an pre-exists its revelation to Muhammad.  Thus Muhammad is not the author of the Qur’an, and the Qur’an as we have it today was only compiled into a single book after the death of Muhammad by the first Caliph on the basis of the length of the chapters (114 suras) and not on the basis of the chronology of their revelation.  For those like myself who do not understand the concept of revelation, the whole process is difficult to grasp.  Yet the Qur’an is at the heart of Islam, and Frager makes an effort to explain its relevance.  The most sacred day of the Islamic year, the Night of Power, falls toward the end of Ramadam.

 

         “This night is the night the Holy Qur’an was sent down from God to the lowest heaven — that is, to the place of interface between heaven and earth. On this night the first revelation of the Qur’an was given to the Prophet Muhammad…On this night, the Qur’an descended from the eternal Tablet, on which all things are written, to the lowest of the heavens, from there it flowed down to this world for twenty-three years, to enhance Islam, teach the new Muslims, and guide Muhammad.  The Prophet was the guide for the community of Islam, but he was also guided himself.  He could not have been a guide unless he had been guided…What descended on this night is far greater than we can imagine.  We are blessed to celebrate the anniversary of this event.  It is an event infinite in meaning and blessings, touching all time and space. It contains everything.”

 

         Sufi Talks is not really a book of Islamic theology, but rather talks for the faithful. Sufi orders take on the character of the culture in which they are found, although there are some common traits, in particular the key role of the sheikh. It is important that there be American voices in Sufi orders, but one should also look at orders in other cultures to understand this non-legalist current of Islam.

 

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens