A Student's Notes and Comments on
The Fragrance of Sufism
Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha ("Pir Oveyssi")
University Press of America, 1996

Caveat

These are notes taken (and comments occasionally added) by a student (albeit an aging one). I am not a scholar of this complex subject. But if you find these notes of use, feel free to browse.

Contents

• My Preliminary Commentary
• Background on the Author
• Digression on Gnosticism (not in this book)
• The Treasure on God's Path
  • Irfan
  • Oneness of Existence (Monism)
  • Seyr-va-Solouk - The Horizons of Awareness
• The Approaching Promise
• The Secret Word

My Preliminary Commentary

• This is an interesting book but will take quite a bit of re-reading (particularly the 'The Approaching Promise' and 'The Secret Word' poems) to get much out of it
• By its very anti-rationalist stance it makes it difficult to talk about what it is because most talking about is (for shame) the sort of thing that philosophers do and that the author doesn't like
• I find the endless attacks on the philosophical and scientific mindsets a little tedious -- surely there should be a place for these in the infinite scheme of things (as long as they did not purport to be a theory of EVERYTHING)
• Still the basic concept of revelation seems a healthy anti-dote to rule-following fundamentalism
• I'm looking forward to reading more books on Sufism by various authors

Background on the Author

• Hazrat Pir, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha ("Pir Oveyssi") is the 42nd Spiritual Leader (Pir) of the MTO School of Islamic Sufism (Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi) -- the line of succession goes back 1400 years to the time of Mohammad -- actually to the seventh Imam of the Shi'a, a direct descendent of Muhammad, as well as to the Safavid Dynasty of Iran
• born in Tehran, Iran in 1945 he received the leadership of MTO from his father in 1970 (when he was only 25)
• note that "Pir" in Persian is the traditional title of the head of a Sufi order (tarighat)
• his great-grandfather (Molana Jalaheddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha -- known as the Glorious One) "began the current Renaissance of Sufism, introducing Sufism from a scientific perspective and became known as the king of the gnostics"
• Sufism has various orders -- the great-grandfather was not only the leader of the Oveyssi Order but also was given the succession of the Maroufi, Nematollahi, and Zahabieh Orders
• the author took degrees in both physics and mathematics in the U.S. before returning to Iran
• worked at the Atomic Energy Commission in Iran and then returned to the U.S. with his father in 1978
• since then has been training "people from all walks of life and religious backgrounds in the reality of religion -- his students include professors, researchers, and scientists in the various fields of the arts, humanities, and sciences"
• it is his "conviction that unless each person's inherent goodness, talents, and abilities are excavated, he or she will not know the true meaning of stability, security, freedom, and human dignity"
• "internationally recognized as the eminent Sufi Master" -- "the global network of centers which he directs serve some 400,000 students"
• author of 50 books of poetry and prose "focusing on the knowledge embedded in the discipline of Sufism" -- only a few have been translated into English

Digression on Gnosticism (not in this book)

• RJA note: first a brief digresson on Gnosticism (mostly taken from www.gnosis.org) -- I don't pretend yet to know the connections, if any, between Gnosticism and Sufism but hopefully this will eventually become more clear -- there are various web references comparing Gnosticism and Sufism but I have not explored them as yet
• gnosis, from the Greek, connotes knowledge or the act of knowing -- but more specifically refers to knowledge gained from experience, from an interior spark of comprehension, rather than rational, propositional knowledge
• Gnosticism was one of the early streams of Christianity and insisted on not simply a belief in Christ and his message but a revelatory experience of the divine (gnosis)
• an early teacher was Valentinus, born in Alexandria and later moving to Rome -- but by late 2nd century he had been branded a heretic -- later many of the books on Gnositicsm were destroyed
• but in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egupt an Arab peasant discovered a jar containing 13 papyrus books (the long lost "Gnostic Gospels")
• four essential characteristics of Gnosticism are:
  1. direct, personal and absolute knowledge of the authentic truths of existence is accessible by revelation to human beings
  2. primary among all the revelatory perceptions a Gnostic might reach was the profound awakening that came with knowledge that something within him was uncreated -- an "uncreated self" the divine seed, the spark of knowing -- and this seed of intellect is the self-same substance of God -- [RJA comment: one might compare this to some of the perceptions in Douglas Harding's book 'On Having No Head'] -- man's authentic reality -- humankind coming to gnosis of this spark understands itself to be truly free: not contingent, but the stuff of God - Elaine Pagels says: "to know oneself at the deepest level is simultaneously to know God: this is the secret of gnosis -- self-knowledge is knowledge of god; the self and the divine are identical" -- in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (ultimately condemned by the orthodox church) Jesus says: "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stread which I have measured out . . . He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him' -- consequently the gnostics called the 'creator god, the one who claimed in evolving orthodox dogma to have made man, and to own him, the god who would have man contingent upon him ... was a lying demon and not God at all'
  3. reverence for texts and scriptures unaccepted by the orthodox fold - the Gnostic experience was mythopoetic -- in story and allegory, and perhaps also in ritual enactments, Gnosticism sought expression of subtle, visionary insights inexpressible by rational proposition or dogmatic affirmation
  4. image of God as a diad or duality -- while affirming the ultimate unity and integrity of the Divine, Gnosticism notes in its experiential encounter with the numinous, dualistic, contrasting manifestations and qualities -- e.g., the Gnostic affirmation that man, in some essential reality, is also God -- a statement tinged with duality: Man, though not God -- the Manichaean gnostic Faustus argued that both matter and the divine spirit are uncreated and coeternal (a view violently attacked by Augustine) -- and also viewed God as combining male and female elements (Divine Father and Divine Mother simultaneously)
• classical Christian Gnosticism vanished from the Western world during the 4th & 5th centuries -- but the Gnostic world view has continued and modern Gnostic thought and organizations exist today

The Treasure on God's Path

Introduction

• "most people, upon encountering the principles set forth by the arif (gnostic = one who has attained irfan) ask with curiosity and uncertainty: What is the message of irfan (gnosis) and what lies with the message of the arif?"
• talks about the dedicated salik (truth seeker) of irfan
• man has an innate urge to know the reason for his existence -- to know the cause of his existence, his present and future life, and ultimately his death through a vaster sphere
• "those who take this essential need lightly, or ignore it, are trapped and remain beholden to the course of natural events -- those, on the other hand, who use their endowed abilities and natural powers to discover essential truths will find the ultimate answer through devotion and practive of the principles of irfan
• talks of 4 different levels of knowledge assimilation:
  1. the mysterious inner level -- central point of stability of his true character and identity
  2. the developmental level -- "locus for development and interrelationship of the magnetic bodies and for mental, sensory, and psychic powers"
  3. the dependent, indigent, and impressed cellular level, "which in fact is the mechanical level of man"
  4. nature -- "which is the locus for material manifestation and exchange -- the laboratory for the examination and experience of man's aptitudes and the place to satisfy his needs"
• "living through any of these four levels gives different experiential and scientific results, each with distinct aspects, characteristics, and dimensions
• can only research properly if recognize the level at which man is being researched -- [RJA comment: compare to some of Ken Wilbur's writings on levels -- also compare to Max Delbruck's concepts of 'heterarchies' (e.g., temperature is a higher level of conceiving of things than simply molecular motion)]
• each level influences and is influenced by the others
• says the aim of scientific experiments ... "is to know the properties, effects, and dimensions of objects so that, through their control and manipulation, the environment for living may be improved and ultimately ways and means found to live the present natural life to its end with more tranquility -- RJA comment: while this is a noble goal (which includes survival of the planet, better knowledge of 'abrupt climate change' and so on) this is surely not the sole goal of science -- I like to quote the French mathematician Henri Poincaré, who said: "The Scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it; and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing and life would not be worth living." -- and also, I would think, one hopes that, whether in the weirder realms of quantum mechanics or string theory, one is pressing against the awe-inspiring secrets of existence (or maybe that's the same thing in different words)
• having dispensed with the scientists, the author now moves on to a second group who may be called the speculative thinkers who seek "to provide logical answers to the definition of man in relation to the congregational environment of his vast world -- they are the theologians, the materialistic philosophers, the mathematical scholars, the naturalists, and the sociologists" -- but the author argues that these are bound to fail because they "do not have access to man's central level of stability and identity" -- "this method of induction and deduction, because it is not based on true knowledge, consists of nothing but images and illusions" -- explaining only a limited aspect -- says for this reason experimental and analytical psychology and psychotherapy have been unsuccessful -- for the same reason, he says, most analytical theories and philosophical ideologies have become outdated with later thinkers
• goes on to argue that "those who execute the principles set forth in social theories often use force, coercion, and influence -- therefore, such general theories do not meet the requirements of man's true identity, since laws must be dominated by man, and not man by laws"
• says "although the results of such research [working on the lower 3 levels] based on nature indicate a partical discovery of the laws of nature, cognition of the true character and identity of man, which is his authentic and sublime aspect, remains unknown"
• now he turns to a third group: the Prophets -- says their message "invites man to an unchanging reality in which time and space cannot interfere -- says they invite man to irfan -- "cognition of the true realms -- so that he may experience the inherent truth of existence through his own true level" -- quotes Mohammad as saying (where?) "Whosoever cognizes his true self has cognized God."

Irfan

• for the arif, irfan is the way to cognize the attributes and essence of God through the discovery of the heavenly kingdom and secrets of man's heart through vision and revelation
• draws a distinction between the arif, who cognizes the truth through certainty, heart-visions, and stability in the reality of identity of his true personality, and the philosopher, who cognizes based upon reasoning, analogy, and logic, deduced from the mental faculties, from sensory inputs, and from observation of natural phenomena
• classifies philosophers into two camps:
  1. Skeptics and Sophists believe that cognizing reality is beyond man's capacity
  2. Peripatetics, Deductionists, Platonists, and neo-Platonists say that cognizing the truth is possible only by logical reasoning or self-discipline and purification
     • Aristotle and the Peripatetics believe that cognizing reality and truth is possible only through reasoning -- and matters proven by logical reasoning are truths even if not accpeted by religious laws
     • Deductionists agree that cognizing reality is only possible through logical reasoning but that nevertheless only those truths approved by religious laws are acceptable
     • Platonists and new-Platonists do not consider the mind as the ultimate means for understanding because it is a function of the sensory faculties -- thus cognition of truth is possible only when transitory inclinations and natural qualities do not influence -- so achieve through self-discipline and purification -- in which case don't need reasoning -- by self-discipline and purification one can cognize the truth through one's heart -- and then accepts whether or not accepted by religious laws
• the arif's method of cognition of truth is through self-discipline, purification, concentration, and heart-meditation -- but only those inward discoveries approved and emphasized by religious laws are the true ones (otherwise are visual and auditory deviations -- being misled by the senses)
• quotes various Sufi works (including Rumi) containing "precise points of inward revelations that cannot be considered as individual opinions and illusions"
• RJA comment: there is some discussion of philosophy's shortcomings here that I do not find very clear
• "The arif says: What exists and is constant, is truth. The philosophers search for the truth in the changeable; thus their views have no constancy nor stability, and they are not disposed to the reception of truth."
• "the arif attains his goal through reliance and ascent, which is the way of the guiding Imams (heavenly teachers), and with certainty journey's to the summit of cognition." -- "meanwhile, the philosopher is adrift in analyses of introductory definitions, theoretical assumptions, and examinations of nature and its manifestations"
• quotes Qur'an 51:21 saying "As also in your own selves: will you not then see?" [RJA comment: my Dawood translation reads "On earth, and in yourselves, there are signs for firm believers. Can you not see?" -- I take it that the Sufi emphasis is on "in yourselves"]
• arif ultimately reaches the state of annihilation in truth -- he then quotes the Qur'an 55:26 "All individuality will perish and the Face of thy Lord will abide for ever" -- [RJA comment: But my Dawood translations reads: "All who live on earth are doomed to die. But the face of your Lord will abide for ever" -- which sounds less like the annihilation of individuality in gnosis -- and if indeed, individuality is to be extinguished (which does not seem unreasonable to me, but what do I know?) then what are all the virgins in Paradise for (referred to so often in the Qur'an -- e.g., 55:56 -- as the reward for the faithful)?]
• then dismisses the philosopher who "depending on the support of his inconstant mind and unfounded theories, is proud and arrogant of that which he has not"
• [RJA comment: I'm getting the feeling here that (reacting a bit to the author's dismissal of all alternatives) that we should all really be more compassionate for the searchings of other members of humanity even if we feel their particular searching methods to be less perfect than our own]

Oneness of Existence (Monism)

• argues that "when research is conducted in isolation by different thinkers, the results are generally unfavorable because the discovery of the reality of existence and objects is possible only when, both theoretically and experimentally, no aspect remains unknown. . . . the knowledge gained by man through sensory inputs to the mind will not lead to the discovery and cognition of truth. Cognition and true knowledge depend solely on the Infinite Identity. The arif cognizes and the philosopher investigates to know." -- [RJA comment: but I have to believe that humankind's capacity for philosophical investigation has a purpose in the universe and is not a mere temptation of some Devil]
• the arif believes in the Oneness of Existence.... all conditions manifested before man are bestowed by His boundless grace and His Essence. This is not in the sense of separation or duality between Him and man, but of the Oneness of Existence incarnate in man in the full horizon of his awareness. ... absolute cognition for man is beholding the Absolute Truth in the Journey of 'self' to 'I'."
• the metaphor of mirrors:"objects are reflected images in the mirrors of Existence.... If you place mirrors ... in your six spatial directions, and place a luminous object or a being in the center, the reflection of the luminous object or a being will have an infinite number of images in these mirrors which, in fact, are the reflections of the countless dimensions of a single entity. Investigating the different shapes and reflections originating in the truth will not solve man's problem; on the contrary, the truth of reflections is in the reality of their centrality."
• "The true reality of any object lies in the core of its existence. Therefore, those who investigate the various images and shapes reflected in the mirrors discover only the reflected images and different qualities and have no knowledge concerning the truth itself....the reflections of the Eternal Reality are numerous and Oneness is the Eternal Truth."
• [RJA comment: this is a pretty clear metaphor -- and one should remember that the author did scientific research as a physicist (I'm not sure exactly in what area or how deep but his knowledge of science is not through hearsay)]
• quotes Mohammad: "The physical world is the prison of the believer."
• argues that "the atom, the sun, the galaxies, and the universe, are surely but names, images, and forms. One they are in reality, and only one." [RJA comment: this reminds me of an incident when some physicist (I think John Wheeler) suggested that all electrons might be one electron that simply moved back and forth in time at the speed of light -- it made Einstein stop in the middle of crossing the street -- more than that, think of the range of simplification if we go from over a hundred elements to dozens of particles to six constituent quarks and then ...? -- or think of matter as being 'crystallized' energy (E=Mc2) and energy perhaps being crystallized consciousness -- anyway, you see the direction this takes one]
• "He is absolute freedom ... and is not bound to any restrictions and is subject to no limitations." [RJA comment: this raises an interesting question -- can the Creator be one with a universe that contains logical inconsistencies and, if not, is the prohibition of logical inconsistencies a limitation in the Creator's freedom? Einstein mused at one time (I don't have the quote quite right) something like 'I wonder how much freedom the Old Man really had' (i.e., could he have created a functioning universe in some other way -- we know that the seemingly arbitrary ratios among the four fundamental forces have to be precisely what they are to an incredible precision or else stable atoms would not form and hence no stars, no galaxies, no planets, no life)]
• "Cognizing Him is only possible through your complete annihilation, which gives you a vital awareness. O, my god, increase my ecstasy in Thee!'" (the last phrase quoting his grandfather)

Seyr-va-Solouk - The Horizons of Awareness

• talking about the seeker of truth: salik
• "cognition of the heavenly reality ... and a burning love are both the way and the goal for the salik. So guided, the devout salik refrains from all redundancies, superficial and unnecessary attachments, and truthfully turns his face and all concerns to the one and only Truth."
• "One of the major principles of irfan is that man never attains knowledge of something which he does not have within himself. This means that the perceiver and the perceived must have an intuitive harmony of existence, so that the ability of cognition may be accomplished." [RJA comment: think of Eliot's "how shall we tell the dancer from the dance?"] -- "To stabilize in such a reality, the salik endevors continually to forego sleep and illusions, until such time that he is endowed with the attributes of He, the Ever Alive, the Omnipresent"
• the salik acts under the guidance of his teacher (Pir)
• says the steps in the horizons of awareness are:
  • Zikr (to remember) -- Remembering God at all times
  • Fikr (to think, meditate) -- Persisting on the truth of meditation to attain the state of annihilation
  • Sahar (to awaken) -- Awakening of soul and body through the teachings of the Pir
  • Jui'i (to hunger) -- Anxiously eager to receive the truth, and keeping the heart and mind constantly ready for the disclosure of the secrets of the heart and revelations.
  • Suamt (to observe silence -- Ceasing to think and talk about worthless things, purification of the heart from desires
  • Saum (to fast) -- Fasting of body, mind and heart; refraining from involvement in exterior delusions and imagination; and inwardly abstaining from desires, wishes, and duality
  • Khalvat (to observe solitude) -- Praying in solitude, externally and internally, being free of all attachments and impurities
  • Khidmat (to serve) -- Dissolving in the truth of the Pir and finally dissolving in the truth of Existence, God
• to reach the point where the seeker sees nothing but God, there are seven stages in which the salik must be stabilized and balanced:
  1. the state of natural strength and pleasure -- eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. -- the salik must pass this stage, be content and moderate in his natural appetites, for he must separate his identity from those of animals and plants [RJA comment; I don't know about animals -- dogs and cats seem to me to have a higher nobility than humans -- THEY weren't thrown out of Eden -- I find it hard to imagine a paradise that didn't permit dogs and cats to enter]
  2. the state of self -- must sever all dependence and start a quiet and solitary life -- begin with prayers, obey religious laws, and, through repentance and endeavor, reach the point where one can step outside one's illusive and imaginary world
  3. the state of heart -- the heart is the gateway to the hidden world of the truthful salik
  4. the state of soul -- the heart is the connection between soul and self. The salik in this state, is free from earthly attachments and sentiments, and enters the realm of spirituality.
  5. the state of secret -- here the salik cognizes the Truth and thenceforth everywhere he looks he sees nothing but God
  6. the state of hidden -- the salik is dissolved in God: the salik and the sought are one. In this state there is no ignorance at all and the truth of life is revealed
  7. the state of more hidden -- through this stage where the salik has ended the circle of eternity, he is no longer aware of his annihilation. This is the stage for the Kingdom of the Supreme Being [RJA comment: I don't entirely understand this last stage]
• says "'A Sufi is ashamed in both worlds' which means that he sees and desires none other but God, for he has nothing to present in either world. -- 'He who ever a trace of awareness of himself has, Is not in the least aware of God.'"
• [RJA comment: but one wonders what the purpose of the illusions of self and this world are if the goal is to negate them and seek annihilation in God -- then why bother to be born? -- just asking]

The Approaching Promise

• Introduction by Grace Cavalieri (a teacher and poet in Washington DC)
  • this poem is a vessel of spiritual and religious thought -- yet it is that of a poet as well as a prophet
  • its four elements are written in terms of "the axis of Four, Five, Seven, Nine, and Six" [RJA comment: I'm not really sure what this axis means]
  • "We are told that the document was a revelation to Hazrat Pir [the author]"
  • "The text is a blueprint in which the forces -- water, wind, earth, fire -- are our guides. Each section can be described as a prayer, a chant, a prophecy"
  • questions at the end of each section are simply, 'What happened to That? What became of It?' -- asking us to evaluate what we have, what we have lost, what we have not used, what we have foregone
  • each of the 4 stanzas are in eleven lines
  • "There is no way we can imagine the exact transference from the Persian language, but the imagery in this translation speaks for the probably beauty of the original"
  • "Caught within the strivings of the world, we are told not to mistake activity for spiritual motion"
  • "As modern individuals, if we take one message from its content, it may be a simple one -- that unenlightened worldly activity will lose the soul."
• [RJA comments on structure:
  • the 1st three stanzas seem to go together (each headed with "He, The Exalted Lord God" -- and at the end of the third we first have the questions: 'What happened to That? What became of It?' (counting the headings, the first two are five lines; the third is four lines (or five if one counts the questions)
  • next come four 2-page verses each ending with the 2 questions (each of these is 11 lines, excluding the concluding questions)
  • finally there is a 2-page concluding verse without the 2 questions (this is eleven lines as well)
• [RJA comment: this will take more re-reading and contemplation to get a real sense out of]

The Secret Word

• Introduction again by Grace Cavalieri
  • author told Cavalieri that "the words had visited this master through the night and that he wrote the language as it moved through him"
  • Cavalieri says "this is not the writing of formulation and form, but of a sense far deeper -- a vibration one receives but cannont demand or will" -- "this is not the sort of poem that could be brought to life through effort. It is the form of writing that is divinely inspired."
  • intro ends with "The Secret Word" is a meditation for those who believe and practice Sufi mysticism. It is also a poem that can satisfy others who love and appreciate a vision beautifully told."
  • [RJA comment: this introduction also bears re-reading several times, I think]
• [RJA comment: this is a poem of short lines, each of which seems to stand on its own like a prayer bead]
• first stanza is key: "Our share of everything granted through eternity, Through our efforts cannot be greatened one bit" [i.e., it's not through our efforts but through grace]
• a small selection of some of the lines that seem comprehensible to me
  • "Ever arising Love grants life" (first line following after the first stanza)
  • "The tree of cogitation bears no fruit" [RJA comment; take that, Descartes! again what the author thinks of philosophers]
  • "Goodness is the seed of truth and purity"
  • "And reflections and vibrations assail and storm the senses" [the illusion of the real world]
  • "Nature is deceived by the mantle of nature"
  • "The child of light departs for the land of shadows"
  • "True knowledge is replaced by acquisitions"
  • "Pursuit of desire is obstinance in ignorance"
  • "Outward attractions conceal the reality"
  • "And the alluring masks of illusion prompt the intelligence to fabricate the outer world" [this is the scientists, I suppose]
  • "Definitions by the senses do not speak of life's true essence" [another attack on rationalism]
  • "The lost are preys of desire and move along the wrong path of life"
  • "And will is superior to thought" [RJA question: but why did Allah give humans reasoning power (which flourished during the Andalusian Golden Age) if rationality is all pointless?]
  • "And love is the foundation of virtue"
  • "Eternity is the Face of God"
  • "Sing out my Love, declare my Call of Love" (the last line)