What is Sufi Music? (The Sound of Islamic Mysticism)

if you've ever been into the thing that is often called world music or especially if you were around in the late 80s or early 90s you would have undoubtedly been exposed to people like the famous kawali singer nusrat fatherly khan he is a very good example of what is often termed sufi music and while many have heard this kind of music before few are aware of its history development and its use in mystical practices we have arrived at one of my main fields of study and interest so let's talk about the music of the sufis [Music] [Applause] [Music] we've already explored the general history and development of music in the islamic world in previous episodes a deep and highly developed tradition of diverse forms and expressions and one of the most important and central factors in the development and maintenance of islamic music have been the sufis the muslims who have heavily emphasized practices of inner purification known as tasawolf to reach intimacy with god what is often termed islamic mysticism through their frequent use of music as an important part of these practices sufis have both legitimized and helped carry forward music in the islamic world in ways that still inspire today many of us have of course seen and perhaps even experienced the famous whirling dervishes of the mev levy order which is a particular form of expression of the music-infused sufi rituals that have been so central to its history when we talk about sufi music as such we are usually talking specifically about the devotional practice called sama an arabic word that literally means audition or listening and in which sufis in history and today have engaged in listening to poetry or music as an essential spiritual practice sometimes often involving movements of the body or dance broadly defined in this episode we'll be defining sufi music a little more broadly the practice and ritual oriented music will be the bulk of the discussion of course but we will also include more contemporary art music that includes sufi themes as part of this wider category of sufi music in any case sufism or tasawolf in arabic is a word that is used broadly to refer to all kinds of islamic mysticism today even if it was originally used to denote a specific group of renuncians in 9th and 10th century baghdad and this more broad use of the word is what we will be employing in this episode as well we'll leave a more complex discussion about the varieties of early islamic mysticism for a future episode but from the very earliest period of sufism and islam generally music was being used as an important practice for spiritual development aside from the regular practices and rituals that all muslims performed like the daily prayers etc sufis developed further ways to deepen their relationship to the quranic message the sunnah of the prophet muhammad and with god the most universal of these practices is that one will gather for hadra or literally gathering and perform vikr or remembrance in viktor sufis will often chant the islamic proclamation of faith or the different names of god in a repeated fashion and often for long periods of time this chanting can sometimes be accompanied by percussion instruments so those you can see that the lines between this vikar and that other kind of ritual sama aren't always crystal clear what is clear is that sama or audition the act of listening as an important spiritual practice was present from the earliest days of sufism in the circle of baghdad the original sufis so to say that by important figures like junaid and abul hussain and nuri we know that these ecstatic musical gatherings took place as well as in other places around the islamic world also even earlier in history in the 8th century the very earliest periods this kind of practice seems to have been very common sama as opposed to regular zikr was based around the power of auditory experience it has almost always revolved primarily around the melodic recitation of devotional poetry but has often been accompanied by musical instruments of various sorts in sessions of sama the practitioners will also sometimes induce movements of the body to increase its effects now important to remember here is that while sama has been a important and widespread practice in the history of sufism not all sufi has partaken it there have been many sufis in history that have been very critical of sama or listening to music in various forms criticizing it as a corruption that has no place in the religion while others have seen it as an essential part of spiritual practices in later periods when sufism developed into the different orders there were some orders that placed a major emphasis on sama and music like the mev levy order or the chishtia while other orders are much more reluctant to use it like the nakshpandiya for example we'll return to this topic a little bit later but we should remember that sufism just like islam generally is diverse and there is a multitude and diversity of opinions and attitudes towards the devotional listening to music but from the earliest days of its developments and until today sama in its various forms have been a very popular and important part of sufi practices and there are two different ways in which one can view the power and meaning of this ritual number one the practical side that is how sama is performed and what effect it has on the practitioner and number two the theoretical side that is how do the sufis imagine that music and sound and its effects can be placed within a metaphysical and cosmological framework we will explore both of these perspectives to fully understand the vast topic of sufi music some of you may be thinking hold on philip doesn't islam forbid music it is true that many muslims in history and today have considered music forbidden that you know something that cannot be denied of course but what is also true is that many others have considered completely permissible and in various circumstances now for a more full discussion about the legal status of music in the islamic world and the islamic religion i suggest you watch some of my earlier episodes about music in the islamic world because i cover that topic more deeply there but many of the sufis certainly didn't consider it forbidden especially not when it was used for religious purposes and in order to help the practitioners strengthen his relationship to god this is why we see some of the most important early sufi writers like saraj abu tala belmeki and kushayri defending the practice of listening to music in sufi gatherings and this also gives us a good look into the way that sama was practiced and conceptualized in early sufism in his very significant research the epistle of kosairi on the science of sufism the scholar abu qasim al-quri writes that quote know that listening to music is permissible when it means the perception of beautiful sounds and pleasant melodies when the listener does not intend anything that is prohibited when he does not listen to anything that is condemned by the divine law when he allows no free reign to his passions and is not seduced by the amusement that resides in it and that quote they the soupies say listening to music is a delicious nourishment for the spirits of divine gnostics abu nasser saraj argues in his kitab lumaf the subwoof that quote the prophet said wisdom is sometimes to be found in poetry since poetry may be recited there is no objection to reciting it with musical notes and melodies and with an agreeable intonation various divines and lawyers have pronounced in favor of audition for example malik and anas it is well known that malik and the people of medina did not dislike audition shafi was of the same opinion and we find similar arguments in other formative works of sufism like apothemaki's kuttalkulub and the works of assolami what these sufi writers were trying to do was not only to argue for its total compatibility with islam and its law by showing through hadith reports how the prophet and his companions approved of sama or that most of the founders of the law schools didn't consider music prohibited as such but also to show in what way the sama was an essential sometimes even necessary parts of mystical practice and the path to spiritual realization as well as what rules were required for it to be considered legitimate from these writers as well as other sources we get an idea of the power and purpose of sama sessions we hear stories of various sufis like abdul nun mistri abu suleiman adarani and others and how they would fall into bouts of ecstasy faint and other very dramatic things as a result of hearing beautiful sounds and melodies quote a group of sufis used to gather at the house of al-hasan al-qasas they were accompanied by singers whose singing made them ecstatic or even more dramatically quote related entered baghdad local sufis gathered around him among them was a singer the sufis asked dul nunn's permission to have him the singer perform something for them he gave them his permission and the singer began to recite he recites some lines of poetry and on hearing this velnun stood up and fell on his face blood streaming from his forehead onto the ground then one of the sufis also stood up and displayed ecstatic behavior as already mentioned and as the name suggests sama revolves around listening in these sessions one would listen to beautiful words or melodies it could be as simple as the recitation of the quran but more often it involved devotional sufi poetry poetry praising the prophet muhammad or talking about one's love or intimacy with god this experience of listening was further enhanced by the accompaniment of musical instruments of varying sorts as well as different forms of dancing jean during defined it as such quote sama which literally means audition denotes in the sufi tradition spiritual listening and more particularly listening to music with the aim of reaching a state of grace or ecstasy or more simply with the aim of meditating or plunging into oneself or as the sufi say to nourish the soul it thus operates in a mystical concert of spiritual listening to music and songs in a more or less ritualized form this act of listening is thought to help the practitioner evolve spiritually and in the most exalted situations help him or her enter a state of spiritual ecstasy or perhaps even union with god i think we've all experienced the incredible power that music can have on our emotions we've heard music that can make us sad music that makes us happy that makes us contemplative some of us maybe have even experienced music that can take us completely out of our regular awareness or consciousness and take us to some other sometimes even ecstatic state this power of music was not lost on people in in the ancient times or in medieval times including of course the muslims this is why the sufis saw it as such a important and useful tool for spiritual development and of course also why the enemies of music saw it as such a danger to society and to people it was a very good tool for helping the practitioner enter the state of wajd or ecstasy to help orient the heart towards god consciousness and to some even induce the highest form of spiritual experience and union again in the epistle of khoshairi quote someone inquired of abu yakub and about listening to music he answered this is a state that brings about the return to the divine mysteries through the burning of one's self beautiful music and possibly the words of poetry that accompanies it can move you towards and induce the state of self-annihilation or fana so sought after by sufis a state when the ego becomes effaced in the reality of god who is realized to be the only thing existing in the earliest period the practice of sama does not seem to have been as structured or ritualized as it would become in later periods we do know that gatherings took place as i just described but not so much about what they would have been like as mentioned we know that the early soupies would gather formally and take part in musical auditions and many sources suggest that both men and women were involved and that sometimes even women could lead these sessions and sama as such could also be a very spontaneous thing it didn't have to be in a ritualized setting to have effects there are many stories of sufis who are just walking along the street and suddenly hear a beautiful sound maybe someone singing or reciting verses of poetry and immediately just following into an ecstatic state sometimes fainting and very dramatic such things kenneth s avery writes quote a chance hearing of words song or poetry in a crowded place the cry of a street vendor or a misheard sound or utterance could also act as a powerful trigger for altered state experiences these ecstatic states or outhaul of ecstasy watched was also often associated with certain behaviors as you can tell the stories about sufis ripping their clothes yelling and fainting showcase how powerful these altered states could be this was another controversial point and there were often variations of opinions about how one should approach them sometimes scholars have talked about a sober kind of sufism associated with figures like junaid and later al-qazali and a quantum quote intoxicated form of sufism more associated with figures like abu yazid al-bistami while this dichotomy is somewhat simplifying it does hint at the different attitudes to some the extreme altered states and experiences should be accompanied by an outer sobriety where one controls one's actions in speech while being completely transformed on the inside others were more allowing of outer expressions of ecstasy very famously sufis have been attributed with ecstatic utterances known as shot while in altered states as a result of sama perhaps most famously is the story about al-halaj who is said to have uttered the phrase or i am the truth and bastami who is quoted as exclaiming subhani glory be to me when we read contemporary and later writings about these utterances we often see the sufis having an apologetic tone these are utterances of ineffable secrets and the person cannot be judged based on their actions when in a heightened state many were concerned about such utterances at the same time though not so much because what was said by these mystics was wrong per se but because they divulged publicly secrets that should only be kept within a confined setting of mystical company as we get into the later middle ages and as sufism becomes increasingly widespread and popular as well as more institutionalized we get more writings to which we can study and understand how sama was practiced and the different attitudes towards it and one conclusion we have to draw based on those sources is that sama continued to be a very widespread and popular practice among the various sufis in different regions of the islamic world we have more references to music from this time both in some of the great examples of sufi poetry but also in more scholastic works with the writings of the monumental scholar of muhammad al-qazali in particular his deen the revival of the religious sciences as well as other developments at the time sufism became more widely accepted as part of a normative mainstream islam in the ihe alum razali not only creates a kind of theoretical synthesis of sufism theology and islamic law which became paradigmatic he also presents us with a passionate and comprehensive defense of music and sama in particular he presents arguments similar to his predecessors that we have already talked about but he is even more systematic and presents theological arguments of his own to support his claims for example he famously gives us the phrase quote whoever says that all music is prohibited let him also claim that the songs of birds are prohibited beautiful sounds and melodies are not a problem in themselves if so then all beauty should be as he indicates here instead it is about the context in which it is experienced grazali limits the kinds of instruments that are allowed to be used in sama sessions only including those that are not associated with things like alcohol drinking and taverns but in general he is a great defender of sama and music as beneficial to the muslims who travel on the spiritual path but not everyone agreed with him perhaps surprising to some of you the great andalusian sufi master ibn adabi was not a fan of sama at all and he condemns the practice in his great work al-futuhat al-makiya he says quote they practice sama as if it was an exercise in devotion and piety but in fact they are just people who take religion as a joke in a game taking advantages of beardless youths to further their perverse intentions and villainy the practice really only serves to satisfy the appetite of the senses in spite of the fact that from a legal point of view it is a perfectly acceptable activity pretty harsh words to ibn arabi this was not proper behavior for agnostic even though he seems to indicate that music in itself isn't necessarily a problem according to islamic law he sees it as completely inappropriate as a religious sufi practice and this is just to show you that there's a diversity of opinions within sufism as well even a great and one of the most famous super personalities and thinkers of all time even arabi was very critical and strongly against this practice but he was probably not in the majority at the time as we see how samar remains a very popular practice being praised in most sufi poetry and writings at the time one of the greatest arabic sufi poets of all time ibn farid is said to have been a frequent participant in mystical gatherings of music and dance but one story also tells of how he spontaneously entered an ecstatic state while in a marketplace quote a group of guards passed by abner farted while they were beating clappers and singing upon hearing these verses ibn farid shouted out and danced in the marketplace this attracted a large crowd of people many of whom fell to the ground in ecstasy as the guards continued to sing another writer's recalls how a spiritual session of sama wasn't considered complete unless ibn farid attended and in his own poetry he offers many praises and descriptions of the beauty and transformative experiences that are had while in sama in perhaps his most famous poem the huge attai al kubra the old rhyming in the letter ta also known as nazma soluk the poem of the sufi way he offers an absolutely beautiful description of the power of spiritual audition where he compares it to a mother singing lullabies to her infant quote when the infant moans from the tired swaddling wrap and restlessly yearns for relief from distress he is soothed by lullabies and lays a sigh of the burden that covered him he listens silently to one who soothes him the sweet speech makes him forget his bitter state and remember a secret whisper of ancient ages his state makes clear the conditions of audition sama and confirms the dance to be free from error for when he burns with desire from lullabies anxious to fly to his first abodes he is calm by his rocking cradle as the hands of the nurse gently sway it i have found in gripping rapture when she is recalled in the chanters tones and the singer's tunes what a suffering man feels when he gives up his soul when the messengers of death come to take him one finding pain in being driven asunder is like one pained in rapture yearning for friends the soul pitied the body where it first appeared and my spirit rose to its high beginnings my spirit soared past the gates opening to beyond my union where there is no veil of communion ibn farid alludes to the spirit's longing to return to his source in god the lullaby representing the beauty of the music that reminds the soul of his origins and increases his desire for reunion as the nurse gently sways him that is as the sufi sways his body to the music and the singers chant the name of god the mystic experiences a spiritual death where the spirit can soar to a state beyond all duality even as he says beyond union of lover and beloved mystic and god similarly the andalusian arabic sufi poet abu hassan ashushtari gave major importance to music and songs in his mystical practice many of his poems in the form of zajal were songs meant to be sung stories tell of how shushtari would go to the markets with his companions and sing his songs possibly with instrumental accompaniment to the regular people in ecstatic sessions quote when i went towards my objects and listened to the music my misery became glory and my poverty riches or quotes oh fakhri if you would but taste it and listen to the melodies in the sufi gatherings you would give up this world and everything in it and live love crazed until the day you die indeed echoing the point made by rozali earlier shushtari explains in his resalat al-baghdadia how all forms of listening can be a devotional act whether it is in the music of sufi gatherings or in the singing of birds quotes listening sama is veneration speech is veneration as long as what is said is good sensory experience is veneration all five senses to study god can be experienced everywhere at all times and the perfect devotee is the person who turns every act and sensory experience into an act of devotion or prayer in all beautiful sounds one can experience the presence of god the ritualized practice of sufi sama in this context becomes like a supercharged way of audition an audition that can happen at any time at any place at around this time in the 12th and 13th centuries we see the significant development of the sufi orders a further institutionalization of sufism into various tariqas or tarikat in plural centered often around the teachings of a singular founder as we will see some of these orders would implement sama and music as central parts of their identity while others would exclude it completely and these characteristic forms and expressions of sufi music that developed in these orders in particular often survives until today perhaps none is more famous in this regard than the persian sufi poet jalaladin rumi and the mev levia or mevlivi order that was founded based on him not only is his most famous poem the song of the read a direct reference to sama and we'll return to this poem a little bit later but it is also said that rumi was a rabb player himself and his life involves various stories that showcase his great love for music and sama in one it is said that when his spiritual master shams at tabrizi suddenly disappeared rumi would start to whirl in an ecstatic dance in another story it is told quote once our master jalaladin said this music is the creaking of the gates of paradise whereupon one of the stupid idiots remarked i do not like the sound of creaking gates and mavlana that is rumi answered you hear the doors when they are being closed but i i hear them when they are opening many anecdotes and stories like this show how greatly rumi loved music and its powerful effects quote sama was an activity for the true men of god which liberated rumi from the all stairways of self-renunciation and gave him a joyous vehicle for expressing his mystical rapture rumi's close connection to music can be seen in the characteristic practices of the mev levy order that he founded or was founded based on him it is this order that later developed the very recognizable form of sama where the practitioners world in a similar fashion to stories about the master himself this has become known as the whirling dervishes and is a complex and developed ritual involving musical suites of several parts and compositions this whirling is another example of the kind of dancing movements that often accompany musical sessions from the earliest periods and is thought to help the dervish enter a state of transcendence and a loss of self to be united with god today one will often explain how the whirling is the most natural movement of the universe the galaxies revolve and spinning motions the atoms do the same as to the planets around the sun of course rumi wouldn't have known these scientific facts himself at the time but whirling was seen as important on a symbolic level as such a later writer describes the meanings of the particular sama practiced by rumi and the mevlavis at the time quote all the movements emanating from mystics during the sama symbolize a point or a truth for instance whirling is a sign of unity and this is a station of saints who stand in that station see the beloved and the desired everywhere and in all directions and they attain divine grace wherever they turn to jump and to stamp the foot denote two things the first one denotes the joy of connecting with the spiritual world to stamp the foot denotes that the sufi in that position subordinates his self and with that strength he treads upon everything except god opening the arms denotes several things the first is related to the joy of the honor of attainment and to the conferral of the degree of perfection secondly it is a victory of the army of inordinate appetites of the self and the greatest holy war jihad consists of defeating these and that's one of the fascinating things about sufi music we can see how it is practiced in all parts of the islamic world by sufis in all these different regions but depending on the region sometimes even depending on the very order these musical rituals can take very different forms so the whirling dervishes is very characteristically from the mev levy order and the music employed often takes on a very you can say ottoman turkish tone because it developed in that kind of region [Music] as another example if we move further to the east to places like india or the indian subcontinent generally we see sufi music and sufi rituals that develop in a very characteristic style different from other regions as well in the chishti order which has been one of the most popular in this region sama and music came to play a major role some of the most significant masters of this order like nizamuddin auliya were great advocates of sama and frequently practiced it one of his own students the sufi poet and musical composer amir khuzro is one of the most significant in this regard he and others like him developed forms of sufi music that was unique to this region and had very strong flavors of indian music culture genres like kawali came about in this context which today has been made so famous by figures like nusrat fatherly khan [Music] in north africa we also see how the music has a characteristic flavor often being a combination of arabic and amazing berber traditions of music here there is usually a predominance of percussion instruments and group chanting but of course there's diversity too even in instrumentation we can see differences in the regions of course because in different regions different different instruments were used so in india we see instruments like the harmonium today being used and the you know tabla drums and the tampura perhaps in in the mev levy order we see instruments like the woods and instruments that are very prominent in turkish and anatolian music in north africa we have other instruments that are used that are more frequently used in that particular region and the music of that region too so as we can see sufi music developed in different ways and took different expressions but the purpose and theory behind it always remain the same to be an aid and important practice for mystical initiates to advance on the spiritual path and eventually reach the state of full god remembrance and self-annihilation through ecstasy discussions have continued about the permissibility and appropriateness of this ritual this practice as well as in what context and what forms it should be allowed if at all some of the earliest writers like junaid for example in baghdad is said to have counted three requirements for a sama sessions to be legitimate the right place the right time and the right company but we can also see a diversity in attitudes about these various rules and what is required for it to be permissible by thinkers across history having different opinions it's all very diverse and there's always differing opinions and people from different sides arguing about all of these different questions to some like the very significant north african sufi abu madyan sama was a restricted practice he approved of it but only behind closed doors and in the company of advanced sufis in the vidayatan murid he writes that quote as for the session of audition or sama it constitutes correct behavior a point which no one doubts except the ignorant it is the method of the saints and the pious audition is a private thing no one but its folk should know about it when sufis are present for ecstatic sessions they should lock the doors of their homes and when the food is brought they should open them again one also sometimes argued that sama was only something that was performed as a step on the way to the higher station of mystical development but once one had reached those higher stations one no longer needed it and it could be discarded basically quote sama relates to the spiritual progress of a muslim mystic or sufi adept in one of three ways one it may be totally excluded as inappropriate to islamic teaching mystical or non-mystical as the mughal sheikh ahmed sir hindi and his sub-order the mujadi diya nachspandiya believed two it may be accepted as a penultimate stage on the mystical ladder leading to ontological unity i.e perfection or three it may be viewed as the top rung of the ladder itself the ultimate mystical experience when properly pursued some had a much more open attitude to when and how it could be performed the chishti order is again a very good example here sama sessions here were and are often held in public and around the shrines of important masters anyone can basically partake and take advantage of the music and the devotional poetry of the ritual and guide them at least a little bit towards god similarly it was argued that sama or music was not just a step on the way but could actually be the catalyst and main parts of the highest forms of mystical development the very purpose and goal of the path of union with god for them music was both the ontological and the epistemological sin qua non of islamic mysticism it not only helped the lover to attain a state of ecstasy in the presence of the beloved but it itself was integral to the ecstatic moment if you go to india or pakistan sufi music can easily be heard in the form of khawali singing near the shrines of different masters from the chishti order for example like nizamuddin aliyah chishti or amir the latter of which you know his poetry is so popular that the the words that you're hearing these sufi sing is most likely his own words from his poetry the world of sufi music and its diversity is a fascinating thing wherever you travel in the islamic world you can find different variants and expressions of this deep tradition whether you are in morocco in turkey in iran in india or in sudan all these different regions and cultures have their own spin on this practice but as we said earlier it always has the same function of being an aid on the spiritual path towards intimacy with god and this very deep tradition of sufi music has been very significant not only for the development of musuvi music in itself and for the practices of the sufis but also for the development of music in general in the islamic world especially from the later middle ages when sufism became mainstream and into the modern period sufi composers were integral to the development of various strands of arabic persian turkish and indian music in the ottoman empire for example the mev levy order of rumi received great supports from the sultans and were often close with the courts the masters and composers of the mev levy order were often also composers of secular court music and the two genres greatly influenced each other some of the most noteworthy and form-giving compositions of the ottoman and turkish repertoire come from sufi composers from the mev levy and genvity orders similarly in places like north africa we see how sufi music becomes very important for this scene music that was composed and performed were often based on poems by great sufi personalities and the situation today is quite fascinating as well as you might know sufism is not as widespread or popular as it was earlier in history and this means also that sama practices aren't as prevalent as they used to be but sufi music still is of course very strong in many ways and it has developed into new forms and taken new avenues of expression remember what we said in the beginning we are defining sufi music more broadly here is not just including the more ritualized practice oriented forms of this tradition the more traditional forms of sufi sama sessions exist today still of course the chishti sufis will still still sing hawali music at the shrines of the great masters the mev levy order still has their whirling dervishes both as a legitimate spiritual practice but also even as a kind of terrorist attraction as i'm sure many of you have seen if you visit a place like morocco you can still find sufi groups who gather for sessions of both vicar and sama some in private but others also in public like for example in the very characteristic and colorful performances of the isawaya sufi order in sudan followers of the qatari order can be seen performing a unique kind of vicar or you could argue a kind of sama involving dancing and in egypt there are huge gatherings for different maulid celebrations where sufi saints are celebrated great traditions like the molead of the egyptian sufi saint ahmed al-badawi will involve huge gatherings of people engaged in ecstatic audition to poems being sung with complex musical accompaniments with modern equipment so clearly sama in its more traditional form is still alive and well and continues to develop and evolve but sufi music is more broad than this as well and in the last few decades especially we have seen an increase in what we could call a more commercialized form of sufi music i have already mentioned nusrat fatih khan who did figure in a traditional koali environment most of the time but also record those traditional songs on albums and at musical festivals sort of straddling the line between the modern and the traditional he made kowali thus central asian sufi music popular to a worldwide audience and this is still carried forward by artists like abita praveen but others are seemingly completely divorced from its ritualized aspects performing what we could call art music but which still figures within a sufi framework because of the themes involved the senegalese singer yosondur who is from a country where sufism is especially widespread released an album called santa yala in 2004 which was released as egypt internationally that is essentially traditionally infused pop music but with lyrical themes exclusively about sufism and the important figures of the muradia and tijania sufi orders this is quite a common thing in the pop music scene in west africa with artists like baba mal also incorporating sufi themes in his lyrics and in west africa there is a strong tradition of griot singers which are singers who will sing devotional songs to various sufi sheikhs and marabouts or just important leaders or figures generally a tradition that i've had the privilege of experiencing first hand [Music] hey [Music] in iran one is really and understandably proud of the great tradition of persian sufi poets and there is a flourishing musical scene there which often explicitly references this tradition singers like shahada naziri and the recently passed muhammad reza shajarian have become celebrated artists around the world while singing songs based on the poetry of rumi hafez and many others and with music that is heavily rooted in the traditions of sufism even more recently the british based artist and composer sami yusuf has done some really amazing work to gather interpret and perform classic sufi poetry and music from different cultures and regions in an accessible way through ambitious concerts and recordings add to this the many experimentations and the appearance of genres like sufi rock and sufi trans which while perhaps staying true to their traditional connection with ecstatic states does not feature things like sufi poetry a lot of time and more kind of figures within a general vibe a sufi vibe or featuring sufi associated instrumentation for example as you can tell then sufi music in a general sense has spread into various different contexts genres and regions of the world and people really love this stuff there are festivals arranged like the fez festival of world sacred music which is often heavily focused on the sufi tradition in particular and other such developments which show that whether in its traditional ritualized form or not sufi music is certainly here to stay the incredibly colorful stories about the effects of music and sama on its practitioners indicate the incredible power that it has to affect the human being but why did it have this effect how did and do the sufi's view music and its role in a more from from a metaphysical and perhaps psychological perspective this is another treasure trove of fascinating stuff to explore the power of music was realized basically universally both by its supporters and the tractors we see how many of the early islamic philosophers wrote many works on music and often connected it to various cosmological and metaphysical ideas thinkers like al-kindi al-farabi and ibn cena loved music they realized the medical and therapeutic use of music and often employed it as treatment for various physical and mental ailments a point often pointed out by the sufi writers to argue for its permissibility and use music is harmony and is strongly connected to mathematics and the spheres of the heavens according to these philosophers there's a great section in the epistle of the echuana safa the brethren of purity who write that quote you should know dear brother may god age you and us with a spirit of his that in every manual craft the matter or hyula dealt with consists of naturally occurring material and that all its products are physical forms the exception is music for the matter it deals with consists entirely of spiritual substances namely the souls of those who listen to it the musician is he or she who shapes and works with the souls of other human beings and animals they also write quotes the tones produced by the movements of the musician reminds the individual souls that are in the world of generation and corruption of the joy of the world of the celestial spheres just as the tones produced by the movements of the celestial spheres and the heavenly bodies remind the souls that are there of the joy of the world of spirits in other words the harmony and beauty of music reminds the soul of the harmony and beauty of the celestial world and the divine realm that many sufis would echo similar sentiments in the salah of khoshairi which we have already quoted previously he retells a story quote i heard al-junaid say when someone asked him why is a man usually quiet but becomes agitated when he hears music he junaid answered god most high addressed disembodied human souls during the primordial act saying am i not your lord they answered yes we testify and the spirits of human beings fully absorb the sound of these words so whenever they listen to music the remembrance of that original act of hearing agitates them here junaid is connecting the listening to and effects of music with quranic principles the primordial covenant when god creates the world and asks am i not your lord becomes the original music of our spiritual origin and anytime we hear beautiful music in the sensible world we are reminded of this original foundation this idea of music as remembrance a form of vikr becomes a recurring theme in rumi's masterwork of poetry the mas navi he opens the entire thing with the poem that has become known as the song of the reed listen to the reed and the tale it tells how it sings of separation ever since they cut me from the weed bed my whale has caused men and women to weep i want a heart that is torn open with longing so that i might share the pain of this love whoever has been parted from his source longs to return to that state of union these are just the opening lines but it already indicates the meaning rumi is talking about the wailing or sound of the reed flute the nay which has been an important instrument and symbol in sufi music and how this sad yet beautiful sound is a metaphor for the longing of the human soul to return to its source in god when the person hears the melodies of the nay that melody mirrors the longing of the soul and pushes it towards its desire for union there is also a great story involving ali ibn abi talib this story tells of how the prophet muhammad once told ali the most exalted and deepest secrets of reality in confidence and made ali promise to never tell another person the secret ali was true to his word but this secret was so amazing that he could not contain himself he just couldn't keep it inside so he went in secret to a little lake and whispered the secret into the reed bed which absorbed it into its own being so when we hear the beautiful music of the nay the read flute we are in some way hearing that secret that the prophet told ali i just love this story and the sound of the instrument also becomes a metaphor for another aspect of the human condition and the relationship between god and creation just as the nay requires the player to blow into it to give it life and the drum requires a hand that caresses it or a loot needs fingers that pluck it so human beings or anything in creation is constantly given life by the breath of god we are the sounds and instruments played by god if we want to find poetic goddesses about sama and music and its symbolic metaphysical function there is a lot of stuff to draw from we already saw the earlier examples from ibn farid and study and rumi is an especially great point of reference in another poem he writes quote the wise men tell us that we take these tunes from the turning of celestial spheres these sounds are revolutions of the skies that man composes with his liar and throat we all were parts of adam at one time in paradise we all have heard these tunes though clay and water fill us up with doubts we still remember something of those songs and so like food sama sustains god's lovers within its harmonies the mind's composed imagination draws its inspiration takes its shape within this hue and cry the huge importance and love rumi shows towards sama is apparent not only in the poetry itself but in the practice of sama as it developed in the medley order characterized by the whirling motion that he was taught by shamsa tabrizi and the above poem mentions how the music and movement of the whirling dervish mirrors the turning of the heavens and the spheres in many of these poems and descriptions music becomes an essential component of reality and creation rumi again here provides one of the most beautiful visions of reality and creation i can think of much like junaid he views the originating moment when god asked allah become am i not your lord as essentially a musical one these words are a musical sound a melody to which non-being responds by beginning to dance to whirl and from this dance is created all of the universe every atom every galaxy every flower and animal all of them come to be and move in a constant dance to the melody of the divine creative music it's absolutely breathtaking imagery and here the earthly sama or music becomes a micro version of the most essential movements of the universe itself a mirroring of the divine order in the greatest sheikh the andalusian ibn arabi we get a similar idea he conceives of the creation and continues maintaining of the world as a relationship of speaking and hearing or listening the originating command or be is a kind of sound or speech a non-sensible one of course to which creation responds by listening he refers to this as a sama al-mutlaq absolute sama and he sees it as an essential part of how reality works this sama isn't musical as in the case of rumi but sensible music can be seen as a part or mode of this wider absolute listening and ibn arabi in general is very important for our next point or perspective on these spiritual and metaphysical aspects of music as we saw earlier he himself was very much hostile to the practice but his wider ideas provide us and other mystics with a perfect mystical foundation to build on the main philosophical or theological position that ibn arabi and his followers are associated with is the doctrine of or the unity or oneness of being ibn arabi himself never used this term but it became a very influential theoretical expression of sufi metaphysics around the world after him in the so-called unity of being ibn arabi essentially argues that there is only one reality reality itself or al-haq which is god god or the one is all there is and everything quote other than god is simply non-being based on the hadith kudzi that states i was a hidden treasure and i loved to be known so i created the world that i might be known he sees all of creation as the continuous self-disclosure or manifestation of god's infinite attributes like in a mirror everything we see everything we experience is a mirror showing a particular reflection of god's attributes like the colors of the rainbow being an illusory diversity hiding the inner unity of the white light thus there is nothing but god according to bin adabi but god is also utterly transcendent and different from the world the world is god and not god all existence in itself is god because god is being itself and there is only one being and all multiplicity is a refraction or projection of his infinite oneness into a multiplicity that reflects him back at himself in a limited form this is a very simplified explanation and if you want to know more about eben adams and his doctrine i suggest you watch my full video on that topic what is important for us here is the idea that all things are reflections of god's attributes so that there is quote nothing which is not an aspect of god or in which god can be contemplated or experienced in an indirect form when god is experienced the mystic realizes that there is only one experiencer experiencing himself in a mirror and duality then falls apart as the christian mystic master eckhart said the i with which i see god is the same eye with which god sees me or in ibn arabi's own words quote he is a mirror for your vision of yourself and you are his mirror for his vision of the names or attributes which are none other than himself and the manifestation of their determinations but what does this have to do with music well music is a thing that you experience after all and so i think you can kind of see where i'm going with this but let's go even deeper than that when the very famous philosopher ibn cena or avicenna wrote about beauty what beauty itself is he followed in the line of aristotle in history the treatise on love he essentially defines beauty as that which is harmonious quote both the rational and the animal soul the latter by reason of its proximity to the former invariably love what has beauty of order composition and harmony as for example harmonious sounds harmoniously blended tastes of well-prepared dishes and such like it recognizes that the closer thing is to the first object of love the more steadfast it is in its order and the more beautiful in its harmony and what follows it results there from vis-a-vis harmony and agreement whereas on the contrary the more remote a thing is from it the near is it to multiplicity and such characteristics as follow it contrast and disharmony beauty results from harmony and harmony is associated with oneness thus closer to god whereas disharmony is multiplicity and what is music if not harmony thus we have found a theoretical foundation for why music is beautiful music is harmony and thus music is beauty but to thinkers like eben arabi there is only one beauty god is the beautiful not just in the sense that he has that quality but in the sense that he is beauty essentially there is no beauty but him just as there is no reality but him all beauty or harmony that we experience in the world is but a tiny reflection of beauty itself god so now we have taken this as far as it can possibly go based on the ideas of an arabi and music is no longer just a reminder of higher realities or the human soul's origin in the divine womb no longer is it just a beautiful metaphor for the creation of the world now to experience the beauty of music in an act of sama is to experience god himself it is to experience the absolute in itself not fully of course but a glimpse of the divine reality and thus a glimpse into one's own most inner essence and identity try thinking of that next time you hear a good song to finish off it would be a disservice if we didn't also discuss the 20th century sufi figure in nayat khan a master of the chishti order from india and an accomplished musician himself inayat khan was one of the first and most important sufis to travel to the west and introduce the tradition here he did so through lectures and musical concerts and in those lectures he would often talk about the importance of an exalted nature of music and sound there is even a book based on those lectures and writings called the mysticism of sound and music which deals exclusively with this topic in this book khan picks up on many of the ideas that have already been discussed by earlier sufis but also expanded the theoretical and cosmological significance of music he also wasn't afraid to incorporate teachings on music from other religious traditions like hinduism universalist in scope as he was he mirrors the theory based on the unity of being by saying quote music is nothing less than the picture of the beloved and based on earlier president as well as more up-to-date scientific theories of his time he argues that the whole world is essentially music quote music is the beginning and end of the universe all actions and movements made in the visible and invisible world are musical that is they are made up of vibrations creation begins with the activity of consciousness which may be called vibration and every vibration starting its original source is the same differing only in its tone and rhythm caused by a greater or lesser degree of force behind it inayat khan argues that at its deepest level the universe is made up of vibration and music and sound is after all just that vibrations so the universe is just a large elaborate musical composition with harmony in the movements of the heavens and the way everything is intricately structured rhythm in the way that we move for example we can't walk without rhythm and in the workings of things music is all around us we can find rhythm in basically anything and we can see harmony in every corner of the universe today the scientific theory known as string theory is one of the most popular for explaining the most inner workings of the universe in which everything is thought of as vibrating strings like on a guitar the ideas being put forth by an ayat khan are not that far off from this quote when we pay attention to nature's music we find that everything on the earth contributes to its harmony the trees joyously wave their branches and rhythm with the wind the sound of the sea the murmuring of the breeze the whistling of the wind through the rocks hills and mountains the flash of the lightning and the crash of the thunder the harmony of the sun and the moon the movements of the stars and planets the blossoming of the flower the fading of the leaf the regular alternation of morning noon and night all revealed to the seer the music of nature so clearly there are many ways that one can view music from a theoretical perspective and i've only gone through a few examples here but important to remember is that the use of music and the sama sessions of the sufis have historically primarily been a practical thing right so the purpose of these practices were to help the sufi adept on the path towards intimacy with god help him on the spiritual path essentially theorizing about the metaphysics or cosmological role of music in reality or in the world was only of interest to a few select very philosophically minded sufis in history but they can still inform and they do inform the more practically oriented sufis and the way that they conceive of these practices from a more metaphysical perspective and can also of course inspire a lot of us today who have a similar kind of relationship to music perhaps this has obviously been a very long episode but i hope you find this topic as interesting as i do there is so much to cover and as is always the case but really there is so much else to go through as well so many things that i had to leave out and that just wouldn't fit into this video i would go on for hours and hours but hopefully now you can see how deep of a tradition sufi music is both in its traditional ritualized forms but also in the more contemporary ways that it expresses itself in in art music and in different genres and ways across the globe it has not only been an important part of sufism or tasawaf historically but also a very valuable factor in the development of music in the islamic world more generally as well as in the artistic heritage of the world i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

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Keywords: What is Sufi music, Sufi music, Music of Sufism, Islamic mysticism, Sufism, What is Sufism, Sufism documentary, Sufism explained, is Sufism Islamic, is music haram, Music in Islam, Islam and music, spiritual music, religious music, mystical music, music of mysticism, philosophy of music, Inayat Khan, tasawwuf music, sama, audition, sufi sama, sufi audition, sufi rituals, dhikr, zikr, ibn arabi, Rumi, Rumi music, whirling dervishes, qawwali, Nusrat Fateh ali khan

Id: nMaPYccAzfw

Length: 58min 5sec (3485 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 25 2022