The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Sufism (2022-02-23) ​

0:00:00 in this video i want to look at muhammad
0:00:03 upon hinbi peace and the mystical quest
0:00:06 otherwise known as sufism
0:00:14 and for our guide i want to read a few
0:00:16 words from this excellent little book
0:00:19 called muhammad a very short
0:00:21 introduction by professor jonathan a.c
0:00:24 brown who had the immense privilege of
0:00:26 talking to just a few days ago on
0:00:28 blogging theology and as i'm sure you
0:00:30 know he's a professor of islamic studies
0:00:33 at georgetown university in washington
0:00:36 dc and now bowie this book published by
0:00:39 oxford university press is a great
0:00:41 present a great gift to non-muslims who
0:00:44 might want to know more about the
0:00:45 religion of islam its history how it's
0:00:48 understood by muslims and by western
0:00:50 scholars very fair-minded objective
0:00:53 account i think of the whole subject so
0:00:55 i do recommend it for that too
0:00:57 now i want to look at a brief section
0:00:59 that he has written called muhammad and
0:01:01 the mystical quest which is very very
0:01:04 interesting and also just a few
0:01:05 paragraphs encountering muhammad in
0:01:08 dreams which i think is very interesting
0:01:11 so um professor jonathan brown writes
0:01:15 islam has always possessed a strong
0:01:18 mystical dimension that underscores the
0:01:21 absolute contrast between the ultimate
0:01:24 reality of god and the transients of his
0:01:29 creation
0:01:30 as the quran says
0:01:32 all things perish except the face of god
0:01:37 that's quran 28 68.
0:01:40 sufism the islamic mystic mystical
0:01:43 tradition
0:01:44 has affirmed that creation is nothing
0:01:46 more than an ephemeral reflection of
0:01:50 god's magnificence ephemeral meaning
0:01:53 it's just passing just a shadow just a
0:01:55 reflection of god's magnificence his
0:01:58 glory
0:01:59 man's greatest accomplishment is to
0:02:02 penetrate the veil of this world and
0:02:05 become annihilated in god in this life
0:02:09 as sufis often say to die before you die
0:02:15 for muslim mystics true piety and god
0:02:19 consciousness taqwa means seeing god's
0:02:22 beauty revealed in every object in this
0:02:26 world
0:02:27 the pinnacle of human awareness is to
0:02:30 know god more and more intimately
0:02:33 through his signs and perfectly reflect
0:02:36 his attributes
0:02:38 to achieve this profound understanding
0:02:40 is to be is to completely reconnect with
0:02:44 the source of all existence and fulfill
0:02:47 the deepest yearnings of the soul
0:02:50 so brown here is talking about superzoom
0:02:53 this is the motivation and the
0:02:55 trajectory of sufism moving towards god
0:02:58 and the annihilation of the soul
0:03:01 he continues this mystical worldview was
0:03:04 first organized into a systematic
0:03:07 cosmology or view of the universe by the
0:03:10 seminal sufi ibn arabi very famous
0:03:14 muslim
0:03:15 writer and intellectual he died in 1240
0:03:18 of the christian era
0:03:20 who devised the conception of creation
0:03:23 as a reflection of god's attributes now
0:03:26 by the way i've read i tried to read
0:03:28 around this subject in other books and
0:03:30 this summary by brown is actually some
0:03:33 of the best and clearest
0:03:35 uh summaries i've read of ib and
0:03:37 arabie's thought which i found
0:03:38 particularly difficult to grasp so
0:03:41 all credit to brown here for giving a
0:03:44 quite a lucid summary i think although
0:03:46 very brief of araby's thought
0:03:49 and arabic cites he says a hadith in
0:03:52 which the prophet supposedly quoted
0:03:55 himself i think brown said supposedly
0:03:57 because i know from another book that
0:03:59 brown wrote on hadith that this hadith
0:04:02 is actually unreliable anyway
0:04:04 arabi ibn arabi quotes this hadith i was
0:04:08 a hidden treasure and i wanted to be
0:04:11 known
0:04:12 so i created the world and it knew me
0:04:18 brown continues every component of the
0:04:20 cosmos and the natural world mirrors
0:04:23 god's endless beauty order and creative
0:04:26 capacity
0:04:28 the capstone of creation is mankind
0:04:32 which alone is capable of reflecting
0:04:34 god's most essential attribute
0:04:37 his unity
0:04:39 the human soul embodies the multiplicity
0:04:42 of the cosmos but can also bring them
0:04:45 into balance and proper proportion
0:04:48 a person who has achieved this state is
0:04:51 the consummate reflection of god's
0:04:54 perfection
0:04:55 this is the perfect human
0:04:58 uh the ultimate knower of god
0:05:01 for who for which god created the
0:05:04 universe itself
0:05:06 so brown here is summarizing ibn arabi's
0:05:08 philosophy
0:05:10 similarly each of the great prophets
0:05:13 sent throughout history reflected one of
0:05:16 god's attributes such as his power
0:05:19 creativity or mercy
0:05:22 they culminated in muhammad whom the
0:05:25 quran calls the seal of the prophets
0:05:29 he was the perfect human par excellence
0:05:32 in other words exceedingly so the
0:05:34 greatest the most excellent human the
0:05:37 flawless reflection of god who
0:05:40 represented the goal sought by all
0:05:43 mystical seekers of truth
0:05:47 his timeless essence this is muhammad's
0:05:50 timeless essence which iban arabi called
0:05:53 the muhammadan reality and this phrase
0:05:56 muhammadan reality is a a key term in
0:05:59 ibn arabi's thought
0:06:02 this timeless essence was the eternal
0:06:05 reality of the perfect human
0:06:08 in the world and the whole purpose of
0:06:11 creation
0:06:12 see very exalted status here given to
0:06:15 muhammad upon him be peace in sufism
0:06:18 then brown writes mohammed ceases to be
0:06:21 a mere mortal it's worth repeating
0:06:25 according to professor jonathan brown in
0:06:27 sufism then muhammad ceases to be a mere
0:06:31 mortal
0:06:32 behind and above muhammad the man
0:06:36 is muhammad the cosmic reality the
0:06:39 cosmic reality
0:06:41 practitioners of sufism phrased this
0:06:43 belief in several hadith attributed
0:06:47 falsely says professor brown to muhammad
0:06:51 such as the prophet's words to his
0:06:53 companion jabir
0:06:56 the first thing that god created was the
0:06:58 light of your prophet o jabir
0:07:02 another admittedly unreliable hadith
0:07:05 quotes the prophet as telling that he
0:07:08 existed as light 2 000 years before adam
0:07:12 was even
0:07:14 created the timelessness of the
0:07:17 muhammadan reality that phrase again
0:07:20 is demonstrated as the prophet explains
0:07:23 that another quote
0:07:25 god sent me down to the earth in the
0:07:28 loins of adam and made me of the lines
0:07:31 of lot of noah placing me in the loins
0:07:34 of abraham and god did not cease moving
0:07:38 me through the noble and pure wombs
0:07:41 until he brought me forth from my
0:07:44 parents
0:07:46 so muhammad himself his this muhammadan
0:07:48 reality went through all of the prophets
0:07:51 um sent down to earth and through adam
0:07:54 until he
0:07:56 came forth from the loins of his parents
0:08:01 the prophet's ascension to heaven has
0:08:03 provided a compelling model for sufi
0:08:06 mystical experiences
0:08:08 reflecting the prophetic example
0:08:11 several prominent muslim mystics
0:08:13 experienced ascensions to heaven in a
0:08:16 dream state
0:08:18 the famous iranian mystic al bistarmi
0:08:22 died
0:08:23 874 of the christian era dreamt that he
0:08:26 was elevated up through the seven
0:08:29 heavens encountering the temptations of
0:08:31 bliss in paradise at every stage
0:08:36 like the earthly challenge of
0:08:38 continually purifying one's behavior and
0:08:41 spirit as one progresses along the sufi
0:08:44 path
0:08:45 however al-bistami realized that he must
0:08:48 forgo these luxuries to move closer to
0:08:51 god
0:08:52 eventually al-bist army arrives at the
0:08:55 highest heaven and encounters the spirit
0:08:58 of muhammad
0:09:00 and the mystical presence of god
0:09:03 so that ends the section in this book on
0:09:08 uh sufism basically muhammad and the
0:09:10 mystical quest this is a very short
0:09:13 further section
0:09:14 entitled encountering muhammad in dreams
0:09:18 which is fascinating
0:09:20 and professor jonathan baum writes in a
0:09:23 famous hadith muhammad is reported to
0:09:26 have said
0:09:27 whoever sees me in a dream it is as if
0:09:31 they had seen me while awake
0:09:35 based on this report muslim scholars
0:09:38 acknowledge the reality of dream
0:09:40 encounters with the prophet
0:09:43 visions of him in dreams of muslim
0:09:45 scholars and laymen alike remain common
0:09:48 today
0:09:50 as we saw with al-bistami for mystics
0:09:54 encountering muhammad in a dream is a
0:09:56 means for gaining mystical understanding
0:10:00 it could also influence muslim scholars
0:10:03 in their writings and legal rulings
0:10:06 in the 18th century a muslim scholar
0:10:09 ruled and this is very interesting that
0:10:11 smoking tobacco should be discouraged
0:10:14 after the prophet appeared to him in a
0:10:16 dream
0:10:17 and told him that he did not like how
0:10:20 aisha was one of the wise of the prophet
0:10:22 smelled when she smoked
0:10:25 and brown riley comments of course
0:10:28 tobacco did not appear in the near east
0:10:30 until nine centuries after the prophet's
0:10:33 death
0:10:35 during the crusade a muslim prisoner who
0:10:38 had escaped from his frankish captors
0:10:40 that's the region in france
0:10:43 told how his chains have been loosened
0:10:45 by the prophet in a dream
0:10:48 some muslim scholars believe that one
0:10:50 can even see the prophet during waking
0:10:53 hours
0:10:54 although as the great egyptian scholar
0:10:56 ibn al-hajj died 1336 said
0:11:00 this is a narrow door
0:11:04 strict laws of obligation or prohibition
0:11:07 however cannot be based on dreams
0:11:10 according to islamic legal theory that's
0:11:14 the end of that quote now there is a
0:11:17 further fascinating section uh called
0:11:20 muhammad in popular islamic religion
0:11:23 which is actually worth looking at and
0:11:25 also a section on mao maulid celebrating
0:11:28 muhammad's birthday now perhaps i'll
0:11:31 leave that till another time but uh i do
0:11:33 recommend this book as i say as a as a
0:11:36 gift or present to non-muslims seeking
0:11:38 to have a really good academic scholarly
0:11:41 understanding of islam and the prophet
0:11:44 of islam muhammad upon whom be peace
0:11:48 until next time