REL 137g 1st Edition Lecture 16 Current Lecture Sufism continued Sufi from woolen cloak Safa purity Suffah poor Asceticism Hasan al Basari A way to avoid distractions by surviving on the absolute minimum of what is needed To transcend all the obligations of society by withdrawing from attachment to the material Withdrawing from attachment to social recognition and therefore ego self validation No mysticism Renounce worldly pleasures But to be married and have a family did not at all negate asceticism Sexual pleasure okay A clear Gnostic element Physicality is a problem because that is where many passions lie that can come between us and God Notion of transcending the flesh Doing away with the self both in passions and the ego One is humble not filled with pride no drive for revenge or wealth Early pracitioners called Faqir poor impoverished Becomes an elitist endeavor Because the people who were able to give up these things and be humble were the ones who had it all in the first place Those that were humble and already had nothing were just being themselves Critics of the early asctics Said that it was bid ah innovation that goes against the ways taught by the prophet An internal obsession in Islam The biggest potential enemy of a religion are the followers themselves can do more damage than outside enemies Hermits who completely withdraw from society even those who were once royal Love tradition Rabi ah al Adawiyah Sold into slavery and then freed A major figure enormous degree of charisma and a lot of influence Extreme in her asceticism regardless of her universally recognized beauty Celibate never married Her commitment was to worship God out of pure love The obsession with heaven and hell undermines religion People should not worship based on fear in hell or hope in heaven but in pure love of God Religion entails not simple worship of God but also enjoyment of God The actual satisfaction of an actually loving relationship with God here and now Mysticism Al Muhasibi Introduced a kind of religious psychology Became the bridge between asceticism love and mysticism Holding to account We can only enhance our religious life by holding the soul accountable By annihilating the self one becomes closer with God
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