Three Key Frequently Asked Questions about Sufism

"You are a Sufi when your heart is as soft and as warm as wool."
Traditional Sufi saying

I.  What is Sufism?

Sufism is notoriously difficult to define.  It has been veiled in secrecy and profundity for centuries.  Yet it is practiced around the world by millions of Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and China.  The recent phenomenon of the popularity of the most famous Sufi in the West, Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi, means that more books and a film such as ours are being offered in response to this question. 

Simply, Sufism is the mystical path of Islam perhaps best transmitted through presence and practice.  Its purpose is to convey direct knowledge of the eternal.  Kabir Helminski, a Shaikh or master in the Mevlevi Order Rumi inspired, says in his book Living Presence:   “Sufism is a way of life in which a deeper identity is discovered and lived. . .It is less a doctrine or a belief system than an experience and way of life.”    

To learn more about the depth and diversity of Sufism, see the websites entitled "Sufism and Its Many Paths" by Dr. Alan Godlas, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, University of Georgia. Dr. Godlas' websites are considered the most extensive and perhaps the best websites on Sufism in the world.  

“RUMI RETURNING” tells the story of one of the greats who followed this spiritual path, whose life was transfigured through the presence and practice of his great teacher, Shams, and whose life continues to  transfigure the lives of others.  Through HD images of Rumi’s home and environs, especially Konya in spring, and dramatic tableaus of dervishes in traditional dress, married to traditional Sufi music and of course, Rumi’s luminous lines, we recreate his experience of “naked wonder” at all of Creation and lifelong yearning for union with the divine.  We show and explain the symbolism of the transcendent prayer ritual of the Whirling Dervishes he inspired by his yearning and turning.  Thus, Rumi’s life becomes the perfect example of the verse of the Qur’an Sufis claim sums up the whole of Sufism:  “Verily we are for God and verily unto Him we are returning.”     

In “RUMI RETURNING” we provide the presence of one who today walks this path just around the corner from where Rumi lived, taught, and “turned”.  Those who have seen our film have exclaimed about our Turkish Sufi friend Üzeyir Özyurt:  “He glows!”  One viewer remarked further about his joyful presence:  “He doesn’t even have to say anything.”   Üzeyir embodies the practice of Sufic unity with the divine, expressing it less through words than through his heart, eyes, smile, and glow.  Perhaps the greatest poet the world has known, Rumi often writes about the importance of silence and the nonverbal communication that transmits truth.  In one poem that we present in our film, he proclaims:

“Since we are all one, let us Call out to each other from our hearts Without mouths or lips. . .Let us give up conversation made with our tongues and vibrate our hearts.”                            (translated by Coleman Barks)

Many believe that Rumi comes the closest to expressing the entire Sufi  mystical experience in all of its gradations, transformations, and stages better than anyone else.  For this reason mystical scholar Andrew Harvey (“RUMI RETURNING”) dubs him “the Shakespeare of the soul.”

In his book entitled What is Sufism?, Martin Lings answers his own question with metaphor:  “Sufism is nothing other than Islamic mysticism, which means that it is the central and most powerful current of that tidal wave which constitutes the Revelation of Islam.”  He provides other useful definitions through metaphor:  a dervish is “a door held open for the Divinity,” and Sufism is a path of “spiritual poverty” (faqr) that demands to be filled.  This is the “spiritual poverty” that Jesus referred to when he said, “Blessed are the poor”.    

As Rumi defines it in one of his poems,   “A sufi opens his hands to the universe and gives away each instant, free. Like someone who begs on the street for money to survive, a dervish begs to give you his life.”                            (translated by Coleman Barks)

A man was chased off a cliff by a tiger. He fell, and just managed to hold onto a branch. Six feet above him stood the tiger, snarling. A hundred feet below, a violent sea lashed fierce-looking rocks. To his horror, he noticed the branch he was clutching was being gnawed at its root by two rats. Seeing he was doomed, he cried out, "O Lord, save me!" He heard a Voice reply, "Of course, I will save you. But first, let go of the branch!"
Traditional Sufi story

II.   What is the relationship of Sufism with Islam?  Isn’t there such a thing as a Sufi universalist, who is not a Muslim?

Like many, we believe Sufism is inextricably connected to Islam.  It is often described as the heart of the body of Islam.  Historians usually say Sufism is the “mystical core of Islam” and date its origin at about the ninth century A.D.  “According to many Sufis, however, the essential Truths of Sufism exist in all religions. . .The roots of the tree of religion are founded in religious practices and principles, which focus on outer behavior.  The branches of the tree are mysticism, the spiritual disciplines that extend the individual upward, toward the Infinite.  The fruit of the tree is the Truth, or God” (from Essential Sufism, Introduction by Sheikh Ragip Robert Frager al Jerrahi). 

Rumi’s particular roots are in Islamic ground.  He is rooted in its practices and principles, unquestionably committed to the Qur’an and completely devoted to the Prophet Muhammad.  In “RUMI RETURNING,” Rumi expert Andrew Harvey tells us that the sage “crystallized the nature of Muhammad, became in a way what they say and chant and sing on the marriage day of Rumi (Dec. 17) by his tomb that he is the light in the Eye of the Prophet.”

Yet, as with all mystical branches whose practitioners live in two worlds at once, that of the earth and that of the spirit, Rumi’s tree flowered to become a universal one of love and compassion, tolerance and respect for all.  "RUMI RETURNING" shows how Rumi was both practitioner of Islam par excellence and at the same time one who embraced and respected all paths. These two traits—his particularity and his universality—are not mutually exclusive. 

Rumi has many beautiful poems in which he dances in both worlds, including this one (an excerpt): “I have put duality away, I have seen      That the two worlds are one;      One I seek, one I know.  One I see,      One I call.  He is the outward,      he is the inward;      I am intoxicated with love’s cup,      The two worlds have passed out      of my ken;      I will trample on both worlds.       I will dance in triumph forever.”                              (translated by Reynold A. Nicholson)

"Whoever has the outer law without the inner reality
Has abandonned the True Way.
Whoever has the inner reality without the outer law
Is nothing but a heretic.
Unite the two and you will be realized."
Traditional Sufi saying

III.   Is a Sufi Sunni or Shia?

A Sufi mystic can be a member of either one of the two major sects of Islam:  Sunni or Shia.  About them, Dr. Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, says this:  “On a theological level, the two sects show virtually no differences—both believe in the same God, Prophet, Qur’an, and the values that are inherent in Islam.  There are distinct differences on a political and sociological level, however, and they date back to the death of the Prophet in 632 C. E.”

See Dr. Ahmed’s book entitled Journey Into Islam:  The Crisis of Globalization (Brookings Institution Press, 2007), especially pages 44-46, from which this quotation is taken.  Here he describes the two major sects and how they relate to what he describes as the three models of Islam:  mysticism (Sufism), modernism, and orthodoxy.

In one of the inspirational highlights near the end of “RUMI RETURNING,” Dr. Ahmed underscores a key theme of our film by saying Rumi’s loving way of tolerance and compassion is crucial for us to understand and follow today:  “We do not have a choice.  We must rediscover the spirit of the universal mystics.”