A Student's Notes and Comments (in progress) on
Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure
Camille Adams Helminski. Shambhala, Boston 2003

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. Actually, I've just started this book so the notes are very preliminary.

Introduction

I stumbled across this in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto -- there are many good books on Sufism -- this certainly seems to be one of them.

Contents

• Introduction: Women and Sufism
• In the Heart of the Prophet (not done yet)

Introduction: Women and Sufism

• says it was to Muhammad's and Khadija's daughter Fatima "that the deeper mystical understanding of Islam was first conveyed, and, indeed she is often recognized as the first Muslim mystic"
• "it was a woman, Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya (717-801), who first clearly expressed the relationship with the Divine in the language we have come to recognize as ... Sufic"
  • point of acting out of love of God not desire for paradise or fear of hell
  • "according to her, one could find God by turning within oneself"
  • "The door of Sufism will finally open only with Love, because - though knowledge may be important ... and may help us to reach the threshold - it is ultimately through Love that we are brought into unity of Being."
• refers to Shams of Marchena and Fatima of Cordova
• refers to Fatima of Nishapur -- and many others
• "Though local cultural overlays and male-dominated jurisprudence may have increased restrictions on women in various areas, the Qur'an basically enjoins mutual respect and valuation of the human being regardless of sex or social situation. Within Sufism, this more essential Qur'anic attitude has prevailed."
• many Sufi orders
• in 1925 under Attaturk the Sufi orders were banned in Turkey and Sufi practice was driven into private homes
• Sufi shcools spread from the Middle East to Europe, then to England, then to America (e.g., the Golden Sufi Center in California)
• "a poplular strain of Sufism that has been very welcoming of women in the United States is the Chishti order, which was first brought to America by Hazrat Inayat Khan"
• one branch of Sufism well known in West recently is the Mevlevi (founded by Mevlana Jalluddin Rumi [1207-1273])

In the Heart of the Prophet

• NOT DONE YET