2.1. Islam and Sufi Islam

2.1.1. Classical Islamic Thought

           For Muslims, God is the sovereign ruler over the universe and consequently the focal point of their belief system. Traditionally, a Muslim’s duty is obedience and submission to the will of God, not only to accept dogmas or rituals, but also to strive to realize God’s will in history, namely to see that all men are obedient to Islamic rule under God’s law. However, God cannot rule directly. It is therefore man’s task, as God’s vicegerent, to implement his rule on earth. This rule affects every part of life, from prayer and fasting to politics and law. [1] Thus, Islam is a universal and holistic religion, an inclusive, immutable, final, and imperative guide to human life on earth.

           The Islamic religion has its roots in the Arabian Peninsula where it originated in the seventh century. Its central figure and founder was the Prophet Muhammad, born in 570. History tells us that Muhammad received revelations about the true will of God from the angel Gabriel, beginning in 610. Shortly after, Muhammad started to preach his new belief in the town of Mecca, but was not successfully received there. The inhabitants persecuted him and he therefore migrated to Medina in 622. There he established the first Islamic community, the umma, and in the next ten years, he managed to create a durable political and religious community, which after his death in 632, quickly expanded throughout the region. His flight from Mecca to Medina, the hijra, and the establishment of the umma, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

           Within a hundred years, Muhammad’s followers and their religious leaders, the caliphs, established an empire from Spain to India. [2] In the centuries that followed, the Islamic empire developed strong political, social, and legal institutions. Hence, it is argued that Islam may be perceived as a civilization because it has given rise to societies with shared cultural heritage in a large part of Asia and Africa, and has institutions that are specifically Islamic. [3]

           Since the early period of Islam, Muslim communities have experienced many changes and struggles, particularly in their organization and leadership. Nevertheless, the core of classical (Sunni) Islamic thought has remained relatively stable and unchanging. In practice, Islamic religious life is centered around five pillars: the belief that there is no god except God and that Muhammad is His Messenger; the prescribed acts of worship; the alms tax; the fast during the month of Ramadan; and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Theologically, Islam consists of a community of believers, the umma, traditionally protected by a khalifa or imama. God is considered sovereign, and the sharia, Islamic religious law, is the legal authority. Sharia is the entire body of divinely revealed law; it regulates the path to Allah, orders the Muslim believer’s entire life from birth to death, and ensures his happiness in this world and the hereafter. Its authority and validity have never been significantly challenged, either by Sunni Islam or by the majority of sects. [4] Earthly rulers or caliphs are only temporal, but they have the right and duty to implement the sharia and to defend the faith against heresy. As a consequence of the importance of Islamic law, Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh) has a significant and central position in Islamic religion. [5] This jurisprudence, the traditional Islamic doctrine, is based upon four fundamental principles in its classical theory. The first source is the Quran, which is Arabic for reading or recitation. Muslims regard the book as the Word of God, delivered to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. It consists of both ethical and spiritual teachings and social legislation, in addition to politico-moral principles of community. The second source is the Sunna, which complements the Quran and consists of collections of Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet and accounts of his deeds. The Sunna helps to explain the Quran, but it may not be interpreted or applied in any way that is inconsistent with the Quran. The third source is the ijma, or the agreement of qualified legal scholars in a given generation. Simply put, it is the collective expression of a common religious conviction. The Quran, the Sunna and the ijma are relative easy to identify and grasp, but the fourth principle in Islamic law is disputed and has been identified by various terms with disparate meanings, like qiyas, ray, ijtihad – independent interpretation or judgment by analogy. [6]

2.1.2. Sufi Islam – Mysticism and Spirituality

           The conventional description of Islam outlined above is simplified and short, and to some degree unsatisfactory because of its generality. In fact, Islam has also been dominated by other traditions, especially on the fringe of the Muslim world. One such tradition is Sufism, systematized by Sufi brotherhoods in the thirteenth century. [7] Some scholars argue that Sufism grew out of eastern Christianity, Christian spirituality, Jewish-Christian traditions, and Gnosticism as people converted to the new religion of Islam. The word sufi itself may indeed be derived from the Arabic word for wool ( suf), which was the characteristic clothing material of eastern Christian monks. [8]   However, it is also argued that the word sufi may come from the Greek sophos, ‘wise’. Regardless, it is clear that Sufism emerged out of religiously pluralistic societies. Theologically, Sufi Islam differs from classical Islam in its emphasis of ‘mystical’ religious life and its concepts of ‘secrecy’ and ‘higher, privileged knowledge’. Sufis stress the love of God, and teach that they have a special relationship with God that goes back to a primordial covenant. The Sufis regard themselves as God’s ‘friends’ engaged in remembrance of him. Their tradition builds upon classical Islam, but emphasizes a mystical ‘path’ to God. This path begins with repentance and continues through a number of ‘stations’ that ultimately lead to a higher series of ‘states’. This all culminates in the ‘passing away’ and the subsequent ‘survival’ of the personality. [9]

           Why is this interesting? It is interesting because Sudan was never a part of the Arab or Islamic Empire (622-1258) or the Ottoman Empire (1400-1924). [10] Immigrants and indigenous men brought Islam to Sudan in the fifteenth century, and the Islam that was introduced to the Sudanese was Sufism, which later developed into widespread Sufi sects and orders. [11] The two major Sufi orders in Sudan have been the Mahdiyya (or Ansar) and the Khatmiyya, which until today have had sizeable followings in the country, [12] and their leaders have traditionally constituted the bearers of religious authority in Sudan. [13] The Islamic movement in Sudan has therefore been strongly influenced by this tradition, but significantly, it is not considered a Sufi movement. The Islamic movement in Sudan rejects mysticism, because Sufism, according to them, was not part of the Prophet’s teaching in the early period of Islam. [14] Nevertheless, the Sufi influence of personal and emotional faith has made the Islamic movement in Sudan more open, pragmatic, and moderate in its handling of religious and political issues, relative to other Muslim Brotherhood movements in the region. [15] Its members had modern education and an appreciation for, and a commitment to, economic and social development. [16]