The Principles of Sufism

Introduction

xiii Introduction ʿĀʾishah al-Bāʿūniyyah (d. 923/1517) was an exceptional Muslim scholar. She was a mystic, and a prolific poet and writer, composing more works in Arabic than any other woman prior to the twentieth century. In her writings, ʿĀʾishah often speaksofherabidingloveforGodandHisprophetMuḥammad,andherquestfor mystical union. These concerns are central to The Principles of Sufism, a mystical guide book that ʿĀʾishah compiled to help others on this spiritual path. Drawing lessons and readings from a centuries-old Sufi tradition, ʿĀʾishah advises the seeker to repent of selfishness and turn to a sincere life of love. Fundamental to this transformation is the recollection of both human limitations and God’s limitless love. In The Principles of Sufism, ʿĀʾishah recounts important stages and states on the path toward mystical union, as she urges her readers to surrender themselves to God and willingly accept His loving grace. Life ʿĀʾishah al-Bāʿūniyyah was born in Damascus in the second half of the fifteenth century ad. She came from a long line of religious scholars and poets, originally from the small village of Bāʿūn in southern Syria. In search of education and employment, members of the Bāʿūnī family eventually made their way to Damascus, and for several generations, they served the Mamlūk sultans of Egypt and Syria. ʿĀʾishah’s father Yūsuf (d. 880/1475) was a scholar of Shāfiʿī jurisprudence and rose to prominence as the chief judge in Damascus. He made sure that all of his children received a fine education, and so ʿĀʾishah, together with her five brothers, studied the Qurʾān, the traditions of the prophet Muḥammad, jurisprudence, and poetry.1 ʿĀʾishah mentions that she had memorized the entire Qurʾān by the age of eight, and that, as a teen or young woman, she went with her family on the Hajj pilgrimage, during which she had a vision of the prophet Muḥammad: God, may He be praised, granted me a vision of the Messenger when I was residing in holy Mecca. By the will of God the Exalted, an anxiety had overcome me, and so I resolved to visit the holy sanctuary. It was Friday night, and I reclined on a couch on an enclosed veranda overlooking the holy Kaaba and the sacred precinct. It so happened xiv Introduction that a man there was reading a poem on the life of God’s Messenger , and voices rose with blessings upon the Prophet. Then, I could not believe my eyes—it was as if I was standing among a group of women. Someone said, “Kiss the Prophet!” and a dread came over me that made me swoon until the Prophet passed before me. So I sought his intercession and, with a stammering tongue, I said to God’s Messenger, “O my master, I ask you for intercession!” Then I heard him say calmly and deliberately, “I am the intercessor on the Judgment Day.”2 As part of her education, ʿĀʾishah also studied Sufism, which was the general practice of the Bāʿūnī family. One of her great uncles had been a Sufi ascetic, while another uncle had been the director of a Sufi chantry in Damascus. Moreover , members of the Bāʿūnī family, including ʿĀʾishah’s father, were buried in a family plot near the lodge of the Sufi master Abū Bakr ibn Dāwūd (d. 806/1403). This shaykh was affiliated with the ʿUrmawī branch of the Qādiriyyah Sufi order to which the Bāʿūnī family belonged, and in a number of her writings, ʿĀʾishah specifically praised her two Qādirī masters, Jamāl al-Dīn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥawwārī (d. 900/1495), and his successor, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyā al-ʿUrmawī (fl. eleventh century/sixteenth century): My education and development, my spiritual effacement and purification , occurred by the helping hand of the sultan of the saints of his time, the crown of the pure friends of his age, the beauty of truth and religion, the venerable master, father of the spiritual axes, the axis of existence, Ismāʿīl al-Ḥawwārī, may God sanctify his heart and be pleased with him, and, then, by the helping hand of his successor in spiritual states and stations, and in spiritual proximity and union, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyā al-ʿUrmawī, may God continue to spread his ever-growing spiritual blessings throughout his lifetime, and join us every moment to his blessings...