Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradi

Journal of the American Academy of Religion Religion LXIII/3

Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradition Valerie J. Hoffma Hof fman n

EATING AND DRINKING IN THE QUR'AN AND HADITH ALTHOUGH THE QUR'AN contains few food laws and prohibi tions, eating and drinking are mentioned with remarkable fre quency in the Muslims' sacred scripture. A promine pro minent nt theme the me of of the Qur'an is that God's goodness is evident through His provision for humanity, that the various ways that God provides sustenance for people and animals are "signs" of His existence that should cause caus e the thoughtful thought ful pers pe rson on to believe believe in Him and an d be grateful. grateful. Peo Peo ple are repeatedly urged in the Qur'an to consider how God has provided them with animals (5:4, 16:5, 22:28, 22:36, 23:21, 36:723, 40:79), fruits (23:19, 36:34-5), grains (10:24, 32:27, 36:33), and even mastery over the seas (16:14, 35:12) and encourages them repeatedly to eat and drink of the good things God has provided for for them the m (2:168 (2: 168,, 2:172, 2:172 , 5:88, 16:114, 20:81). 20:81) . Although Altho ugh a few few of of the food prohibitions of the Jews are retained in Islam—the eating of pork, carrion, blood, or any animal not slaughtered in the name of God (5:3, 3:173, 6:121)-the Jews are criticized for imposing exces sive restrictions on themselves even before the revelation of Mosaic law (3:93), a possible reference to the custom of not eating thigh meat mea t aroun aro undd the hip hi p socket (Gen. 32:32). The Qur'a n says says all the food of the Jews and Christians is lawful to the Muslims, as is the food of of the Muslims Muslim s lawful lawful to them th em (5:5). Grati Gr atitud tudee (shukr) to God for for His provision provi sion is one of of the main mai n characte char acteris ristics tics of the th e faithfu faithful, l, while unbelievers are characterized, in the typical Qur'anic literary style of assonance and antithetic parallelism, by ingratitude (kufr). Nonetheless, this encouragement to eat should not be taken to excess (7:31), and du ring ri ng the month mon th of Ramadan Ramada n a fast fast from from food, food, drink and sexual intercourse was commanded during the daylight

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hours. By custom, cust om, this thi s fast fast is brok br oken en at sunset sun set with nightly night ly feast feast ing and ritual food offerings to the poor; mosques become places of charity, feeding, feeding, and eating. The wanton want on pursu pur suit it of the pleasures of eating is one of the marks of the heedless unbelievers, who "eat like cattle" (15:3, 47:12, 77:46) and will be shocked when the judgment of God suddenly breaks out upon them. Those who believe in God are also described as those who feed the poor and encourage others to do so as well (22:28, 22:36, 76:8, 89:18), while those whose end is hellfire are those who fail to do this (69:33-4, 107:3). Echoing Luke 12:16-21, the Qur'an tells sto ries of the folly of owners of vineyards who take pride in their wealth, have no consideration of God, and conspire to keep their goods for themselves and not share them with the poor (18:32-44, 68:17-33). 68:17 -33). Modern Mod ern advocates of of "Islamic econom eco nomics ics"" have con cluded that the Qur'an forbids the "hoarding" of wealth, and requires requ ires that any surplus surp lus be shared. According to the Qur' Q ur'an, an, wrongdoers not only indulge in gluttony, but are said to "eat" (i.e., consume) wealth in a wrongful manner (2:188, 3:130, 4:2, 4:29, 9:34, 89:19). An integral part par t of of the message of of all all the prop pr ophe hets ts in the Qur'an is an exhortation to be grateful for God's provision of sustenanc sust enance, e, and to share a portion port ion of it with the needy. Those wh o question why they should feed the poor when God would have pro vided them sustenance if He had so desired are castigated as devi ating from from the straight path pa th (36:47). (36: 47). Feeding a poor poo r person pers on is so meritorious that it can be used as expiation for failure to observe the fast of Ramadan or for breaking the taboo on hunting during the pilgrimage (2:184, 5:95). Watt has speculated that the heavy emphasis of the Qur'anic message on the necessity of feeding the poor derived from Muham mad's concern with the breakdown of nomadic values, which imposed corporate responsibility for the care of the poor, weak and defenseless, in the new and prosperous mercantile center in which he live lived. d. If Watt Wat t is right, Muhammad Muha mmad was preaching preach ing a socialist message in a newly capitalistic environment, but far from being a revolutionary, he was trying to revive traditional values of corpo rate responsibility and hospitality that were still recognized but often neglected. Undoubtedly another consideration lay in the prominence

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sustenance is God's provision. The requirement to be generous with that sustenance is undoubtedly at least partly to force people to recognize God's sovereignty and generosity; human gratitude entails human generosity in turn. The Qur'anic preoccupation with food and feeding goes beyond discussions of human sustenance and charity. Images of food and drink appear prominently in Qur'anic descriptions of the Garden of Paradise and of Hellfire. The believers who are rewarded in the Garden eat abundant fruit and are served non-intoxicating drinks (43:73). They drink from rivers of water, rivers of milk that does not go sour, delicious wine, and clarified honey (47:15). On the other hand, those who conceal God's revealed truth or treat it lightly, trying to derive some financial gain from it, "eat nothing but fire into their bellies" (2:174). The wrongdoers in Hellfire have only filth (69:36) and thorns (88:6) and food that chokes (73:13). They fill their bellies from the tree of Zaqqüm, which grows in the bottom of hell and produces fruit like the heads of demons (37:6266). They drink boiling water, which tears apart their bowels (37:67, 47:15). Hadïth literature, which records reports concerning all that Muhammad said and did, in implausibly minute detail, records what various Companions of the Prophet saw him eat on various occasions, and what his favorite dish was. The overall attitude of Hadïth is that the Muslims should be neither too worldly nor too other-worldly: they should take, in the words of one hadïth, from both this world and the next. To a group of three men who were unimpressed with Muhammad's spiritual observances—one abstained from sleep in order to pray, the second fasted continu ously, and the third remained celibate—Muhammad issued this rebuke: "I dread God more than you and revere him more, but I fast and I break the fast; I pray and I sleep too, and I marry women. Whosoever turns away from my practice [sunna] is none of mine" (Williams: 61-62). In another hadïth, Muhammad says that the best fast is one that is regularly broken, so that the body would neither suffer ill-health nor become so accustomed to fasting that it no longer feels hunger. Other traditions depict Muhammad as enduring such hunger, even at the height of his success as a commander, that he tied a

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More spectacular feats were apparently expected of someone mak ing a prophetic claim: perhaps eating special heavenly foods, flying through the air, or having an angel accompany him (23:33, 25:7). The Qur'an assures its listeners that other prophets also ate ordi nary food (25:20). It is ironic, therefore, that other traditions developed depicting Muhammad as engaging in continuous fasts, fasts that his Companions were unable to imitate. When they spoke of their impotence to Muhammad, he replied, "I am not like one of you. I spend the night with my Lord, and He gives me food and drink." Sufi tradition interpreted this to mean that he was given the food and drink of the people of Paradise. The legends of Muhammad's Ascension through the seven heavens to an audience before the Throne of God include his being offered a choice of wine, milk, or honey (Jeffery: 38). His choice of milk is com mended by the angel Gabriel, who tells him that this milk symbol izes the disposition (fitra) of his community, who are described in the Qur'an as "in the middle," or "well-balanced" (2:143). Islam is described in the Qur'an as the religion of innate human nature (30:30), which is somehow symbolized in this story by milk. There is one other legend about the Prophet with interesting food imagery. According to Ibn Sa'd, author of an early biographi cal dictionary, the Angel Gabriel gave the Prophet a heavenly mor sel which granted him the sexual potency of forty men, enabling him to satisfy all of his wives (perhaps as many as twelve women) in a single night (VIII: 139). While contemporary Muslims are usu ally embarrassed by such stories, and dismiss them as foolish fabrications of a superstitious community that wrongly regarded Muhammad as "superlative in everything, including the lusts of this world" (Haykal: 289), some Sufis see this story as evidence of Muhammad's superior spiritual strength, for the truly spiritual per son is able to have complete mastery over the body, and can either prolong sexual arousal at will or entirely eliminate it. But as we will see, in Sufi tradition it is not only heavenly morsels that arouse sexual desire, for the consumption of any food to the point of satia tion is linked to the arousal of passions. Perhaps what distin guishes this heavenly morsel from ordinary food is not only that it produced an ability to sustain arousal for a superhuman duration, but that it was able to do so when consumed in such minute


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ATTITUDES TOWARD FOOD IN SUFI TRADITION Sufism began as a pious reaction against the growing worldliness of Muslims in the second half of the seventh century C.E., accompanied by an avoidance of government officials and rich people, who were likely to be corrupted by their power and wealth. It had its antecedents in people like Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari and Salman al-Fàrisï in the days of the Prophet, who belonged to a group known as ahi al-suffa, "people of the bench," for their habit of remaining in the mosque and spending their days and nights in pious devotions. They embraced a lifestyle of poverty and absti nence from fleshly pleasures, and Abu Dharr was banned from Medina during the Caliphate of 'Uthmän (644-56) for his advocacy of a doctrine that denied the sincerity of the faith of any Muslim who possessed houses, fields, or gold. Sufism developed into a full-fledged mysticism in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, but the asceticism of the early Sufis remained an integral part of Sufi life. After the initial confession of sin and repentance from all deeds that would compromise the journey to God, the Sufi's major preoc cupation is with crushing one's passions, fighting, as the Sufis say, against one's own soul. According to Hadïth, the Prophet said, "We have returned from the lesser jihad (warfare) to the greater jihad." This "greater jihad" is the struggle to purify the soul of all forms of evil and negligence, for, in the words of one modern Sufi, "it is the soul that veils us from the vision of the truth and incites us to acts of disobedience and attachment to lust and material things. By such things we become heavy and cannot enter the world of the spirit to see the beauty and light of the Truth" (Mâhir: 23). Sufis believe that the spirit's origin is divine, and by its very nature yearns to return to its heavenly home; but the soul is of earthly origin, and pulls the spirit back to earth. A time-honored method of training the soul is to resist its desires through fasting and other forms of asceticism. The earliest Sufis practiced almost incredible feats of self-denial, shunning all forms of luxury, eating the barest minimum necessary to keep alive, avoiding sleep (a mark of "heedlessness"), and spending their nights in devotion and self-examination. Hasan al-Basrï (d. 728), one of the most famous of the stern early ascetics, likened the

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hardship, self-abasement, strenuous effort, sleeplessness, and pov erty, ever anticipating death and judgment, in order to attain right eousness (Qushayrï n.d.:13). Early Sufis embraced poverty to such an extent that "the poor man" (faqìr in Arabic, darwïsh in Persian) became synonomous with the Sufi, and the term remains in use today. When Abu Yazïd al-Bistâmï (d. 874), famous for traveling the heights of mystical knowledge, was asked how he had reached such heights, he replied, "With a hungry stomach and a naked body" (Qushayrï n.d.: 23). Abu Hamid al-Ghazâlï (d. 1111), who advocated moderation and practicality in religious practices and helped to bring Sufism into the mainstream of Islamic spirituality, nonetheless insisted that the way to travel on the path of God is through fasting, night vigils, sleeplessness, and renunciation of wealth (Smith: 93-4). The spiritual benefits of fasting are numer ous. One is the hum bling effect of hunger. In one anecdote of Abu Yazïd al-Bistâmï, he was asked why he praised hunger so highly. He replied, "Because if Pharaoh (the epitome of arrogant pride in the Qur'an) had been hungry, he would not have said, Ί am your Supreme Lord' (Qur'an 79:24), and if Korah (Qur'an 28:76�82) had been hungry, he would not have been rebellious" (Hujwïrï: 347-8). Fasting is described as the major tool believers have against Satan, for, according to a hadïth, "Satan runs in the veins of the children of Adam; narrow his passage by hunger." One early Sufi said, "Satan is terrified of the shadow of one who conquers the passions of the world" (Qushayrï 1990: 82). Ghazâlï clarifies th at it is when we eat that Satan enters our bloodstream—a perspective that is given more credibility when we consider the fact that it was by persuading Adam and Eve to eat that Satan caused their expul sion from Paradise. Fasting, therefore, is "a fortress and a para dise" for the "friends of God," who has granted them this method to repel the guile and trickery of Satan (1:303-4). Abu Ί�Najïb alSuhrawardï (d. 1168), author of a popular handbook on Sufi eti quette, reports that "the Prophet rebuked a man who burped in his presence, saying: Those of you who are the most sated in this world will be the most hungry on the day of resurrection" (Suhrawardï: 59). Hujwïrï (d. ca. 1071), author of the first Persian manual on Sufism, says that Sahl al-Tustari (d. 896) regarded eat


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explain his statement, he replied, "When a man's belly is filled with wine, his intellect is stupefied and the flame of lust is quenched, and people are secure from his hand and tongue; but when his belly is filled with lawful food he desires foolishness, and his lust waxes great and his lower soul rises to seek her pleasures." The connection between eating and sexual desire is such that in a hadïth the Prophet recommends fasting for those who are unable to marry, for "fasting is a form of castration" (Ghazâlï, 11:28). Hujwïrï comments, "Nothing is more hurtful to a novice in Sufism than eating too much" (Hujwïrï: 347-8). Sahl al-Tustari is also quoted as saying, "When God most High created the world, He placed sin and ignorance within satisfaction of the appetite and knowledge and wisdom within hunger." Qushayrï (d. 1072), author of one of the most widely-used manuals on Sufism in Arabic, comments, "When Sahl b. 'Abdallah hungered, he was pow erful, and whenever he ate, he became weak" (Qushayrï 1990: 8081). Qushayrï also quotes Yahyä b. Mu'ädh as saying, "Hunger is a light, and filling one's stomach is a fire. Passion is like firewood from which fire arises, never to subside until it consumes its owner" (Qushayrï 1990: 81). We get a glimpse of the severity of fasting practiced by early Sufis in a saying of Abu 'Uthmän al-Maghribï: "The one devoted to the Lord eats only every forty days, and the one devoted to the Eternal eats only every eighty days." Another Sufi commented, "If the Sufi says after five days (of fasting), Ί am hungry,' then send him to the marketplace to earn something" (Qushayrï 1990: 81-2)— that is, he is unworthy to live the Sufi life. Sahl al-Tustarï was asked, "What do you say of the man who eats once a day?" He replied, "It is the eating of the believers"—that is, of the average faithful but non-Sufi Muslim. "And three times a day?" He retorted, "Tell your people to build you a trough!" (Qushayrï 1990:

81). One benefit of fasting is tha t it produces patience. Ghazäh pieces together two hadïths, one that says fasting is half of patience, and the other that patience is half of faith, to conclude that one-quarter of the practice of faith in God is fasting (1:303). Eventually, however, the mystic who has succeeded in annihilating his soul in God may reach a point where, like the Prophet, his

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from the word Ί stay with my Lord who feeds me and gives me to drink' (Qur'an 26:79)" (Schimmel: 116). Another aspect of the preference for fasting among early Sufis was the cultivation of an attitude of absolute dependence on God to provide for all one's needs (fawafefeu/), avoiding asking for provision from others or working for a living or worrying about where one's food would come from. This attitude is reflected in the word s of Hujwïrï's shaykh: "I am astonished at the imposter who declares that he has renounced the world, and is anxious about a morsel of food" (Hujwïrï: 348). Connected with this depende nce on God alone to provide for one's needs is a deep suspicion that food given by other people could be "doubtful," that is, obtained through possibly illicit means or paid for with money earned in a du bious fashion. Suhrawardï wrote, "Sufis eat only food whose source they know" (58). In this connection there is an interesting story told by the Persian Sufi writer Farïd al-Dïn 'Attär (d. 1220) about the famous early woman Sufi, Räbi'a al-'Adawiyya (d. 801). One day Räbi'a's servant girl was making an onion stew; for it was some days since they had cooked any food. Finding that she needed some onions, she said, "I will ask of next door." "Forty years now," Räbi'a replied, "I have had a covenant with Almighty God not to ask for aught of any but He. Never mind the onions." Immediately a bird swooped down from the air with peeled onions in its beak and dropped them into the pan. "I am not sure this is not a trick," Räbi'a commented. And she left the onion pulp alone, and ate nothing but bread (Attar: 44). This story suggests the extraordinary wariness of early Sufis regarding the provenance of their food. Hujwïrï and Ghazâlï cau tioned that a Sufi should never accept the food of a rich man (Hujwïrï: 349; Ghazâlï, 11:16-17, 18-19). A twentieth-century Sufi in Egypt, Muhammad Ahmad Radwän, reflected this early attitude wh en he refused to go to the homes of government officials an d declined to accept invitations to eat, cautioning that "most food these days is doubtful" (Radwän: 104). It is not just the quantity of food, but the type of food that affects spiritual well-being. One of the expected charismata of the saint, or friend of God, was the ability to tame wild animals and be


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2:30). In one of 'Attar's several anecdotes depicting Räbi'a al'Adawiyya besting Hasan al-Basrï in sanctity, wisdom, and mira cles, Hasan is frustrated that as Räbi'a walks in the mountains she is surrounded by flocks of deer, mountain goats, ibexes and wild asses, but when he approaches they flee. Räbi'a asks what he has eaten that day. On hearing that he had eaten "a little onion pulp," she retorts, "You eat their fat. Why then should they not flee from you?" (Attar: 44-5). Presumably it is not the onion that is problem atic, but the fat in which it is fried. The Sufi master Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240), in a manual on Sufi retreat, cautions, "Be careful of your diet. It is better if your food be nourishing but devoid of animal fat." 'Abd al-Karïm al-Jïlï (d. 1423), in his commentary, explains that "animal fat strengthens animality, and its principles will dominate the spiritual principles" (Ibn al-'Arabi: 31, 81). Ghazâlï, however, cites Muhammad's pref erence for tharïd, a meat stew sopped with bread, and suggests that the ideal meal to offer to guests should include meat (11:20). Although Goldziher persuasively argued that much of the worldly pragmatism of Hadïth literature was a direct reaction against the popular appeal of Sufi asceticism in the late eighth cen tury, this same Hadïth literature came to serve as the foundation of Islamic law, and is fundamental to Sufi life because Sufis, more than any other Muslims, wish to follow the model of the Prophet. Ghazâlï's multi-volume Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihyâ* 'ulüm al-dïn), a guide to the average Sufi on how to live a pious life, is very heavily based on Hadïth. Every detail of Muhammad's eating habits is discussed, and its application to the life of people in Ghazali's day is analyzed. Manners are described in the graphic detail typical of Islamic law books. Meals are begun and ended with prayers and pious recitations, transforming the taking of a meal into a religious ritual when it is observed with proper eti quette. His description of proper manners in drinking is indicative of the general tone of the book: The correct way to drink is to take the cup with the right hand and say, "In the name of God," and to sip, not gulp. The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, said, "Sip water and do not gulp it, for gulping hurts the liver." One should not drink standing up or lying down, for the Messenger of God said, "It is prohibited to

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ing and not burp or breathe into it. One should remove it from his mouth with praise to God and return it to its place invoking God's name. The Messenger of God used to say after drinking, "Praise be to God who made it sweet and fresh by His mercy and not salty and hot by our sins" . . . . One should drink in three breaths, prais ing God at the end and invoking God's name at the beginning. At the end of the first breath one should say, "Praise be to God;" at the end of the second, one should add, "Lord of all being;" at the end of the third, one should add, "The Compassionate, the Merciful." There are about twenty rules of etiqette concerning eat ing and drinking indicated by the anecdotes of the pious early Muslims (11:7-8). Hadïth literature encapsulates an attitude toward eating and hospitality that reflects ancient Arabian values. Ghazâlï devotes far more space to the virtues of offering food, and the manner to offer and receive it, than he does to the virtues of fasting. Typical among the many hadïths he cites are these: "There is no good in one who does not offer hospitality." "Among the things which expiate sins and increase in rank are offering food and praying at night while people are sleeping." When Muhammad was asked to define faith, he replied, "To offer food and give the greeting of peace." Feeding people and speaking a good word are equated in another hadïth with an acceptable pilgrimage. As Ghazâlï says, there are countless anecdotes of the early pious Muslims on the virtues of offering hos pitality and feeding the poor (Ghazâlï, 11:16). Nonetheless, Suhrawardï instructed Sufis not to feed each other, or to urge each other to eat, "except the shaykh, who may say so to those below his rank in order to cheer them up and encourage them to overcome their shyness" (Suhrawardï: 57). One saying gives instructions on the appropriate way to deal with different types of people: "If the poor (fuqarä') come to you, give them food. If scholars of the Law come to you, ask them a question. If Qur'an reciters come to you, lead them to the niche pointing the way to Mecca" (Ghazâlï, 11:15). While feeding the poor is naturally meritorious, the Qur'anic term for the destitute is miskxn, whereas faqïr (pi. fuqarä') typically means not a person who is destitute, but one who embraces a lifestyle of poverty—a Sufi If this is what is meant in this saying—and given the context


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brothers in a manner distinct from the common run of Muslims, and both Hujwïrï and Ghazâlï speak of the blessings to be obtained from eating with one's Sufi brethren. Furthermore, Ghazali says, "feeding a pious man strengthens him for obedience, but feeding a depraved man strengthens him for depravity" (17). Although Sufis of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and later continue to caution against the dangers of excessive eating, they seem to be equally concerned with the dangers of excessive fasting and sleeplessness. Ibn al-'Arabi cautions disciples against both satiation and excessive hunger. "Keep your constitution in bal ance, for if dryness is excessive, it leads to corrupt imaginings and long, delirious ravings" (31). Hujwïrï says that Abu Dharr al-Ghiffarï's wife complained to Salman al-Fârisï that her husband neither ate by day nor slept by night. Salman told her to fetch some food and told Abu Dharr to eat, "since this fasting is not incumbent on you." Abú Dharr complied. At night Salman begged him to sleep, saying, "your body and your wife have a claim upon you, as well as your Lord." When Abú Dharr consulted the Prophet on the matter, he agreed with Salman. Hujwïrï comments, "Inasmuch as Abü Dharr had renounced his selfish pleasures, Salman persuaded him to gratify them." This, he says, is a sound principle: "So long as anyone perseveres in a selfish demand, his friend ought to resist it, but when he renounces it, then his friend ought to satisfy it" (344). What is dangerous to a novice in the Sufi path does not hold the same danger for the adept. Despite the virtues of fasting, Ghazâlï says that one should not refuse an invitation to eat because one is fasting. "If it makes your brother happy for you to break your fast, you should break it, and your reward is greater than the reward of your fast, if your inten tion is to make your brother happy." He quotes the Prophet's younger cousin, Ibn 'Abbäs, as saying, "One of the best good deeds is to honor those with whom you are sitting by breaking the fast. Breaking the fast with this intention is an act of worship and good etiquette, and its reward is greater than the reward of fasting." A guest who refuses to break a fast should be offered perfume, incense, and good conversation (18). Qushayrï tells the story of a young man who was fasting and

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tual superiors caused him to fall out of God's favor, become a thief, and lose his hand, the legal punishment for theft (Qushayrï n.d.: 259). This anecdote is intended to warn disciples of the dangers of disobedience to their shaykh or other spiritual superiors, but it also reflects the notion that food offered by a saint carries the saint's baraka—a spiritual force generally perceived as beneficial, though it may harm a person who fails to give a saint due respect. In Sufi ethics, no act is of neutral value, though it may be neu tral in strictly legal terms. The Sufi should consider not only whether a particular act is permissible, but whether it is helpful. As Hujwïrï wrote, "The seeker of God, as he walks, should know at each step he makes whether that step is against God or of God" (349-50). Ever since Räbi'a walked through the streets of Basra with a bucket of water and a torch, saying she wished to extinguish the fires of Hell and burn the Garden of Paradise so the true lovers of God would be revealed, Sufis have insisted that what matters is not the act but the intention with which it is done. Whether eating or fasting, all must be done for the sake of God alone—to use a Qur'anic phrase, desiring nothing but the face of God. It is not eating that harms, but eating with the goal of satisfying one's own desires. Suhrawardï wrote that there is a special dispensation (rukhsa) for a Sufi to eat tasty food, but only between per iods of hunger and exertion (77). He even wrote that there is a special dispensation to "plunder the food which is scattered at banquets. One should, however, do so without gluttony and with the inten tion of delighting the host. A Hadïth quotes the Prophet as saying: Ί only forbade you to plunder armies but I did not forbid you to plunder banquets' " (81).

The Shâdhiliyya, a Sufi Order that follows the teachings of the North African Sufi, Abu Ί�Hasan al-Shâdhilï (d. 1258), was origi nally a middle-class Order that departed from earlier tradition by encouraging its followers to work for a living and dress well rather than (at times hypocritically) advertising their poverty. Shâdhilï intepreted poverty in a spiritual sense, allowing a person to be "poor toward God," i.e., recognizing his need for God, without renunciation of all material things. Later Sufis in the eastern part of the Muslim world likewise often felt that "the soul-dog is better

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SUFISM AND FOOD IN MODERN EGYPT Sufism developed gradually from a movement of extreme ascet icism to a movement of broad social appeal with an increasingly pragmatic attitude toward the practice of basic Sufi disciplines and devotions within the context of everyday life. Very few studies have been done of modern Sufism, which is generally regarded as a deg radation of the earlier, "pure" Sufism of the eighth through twelfth centuries. However, my fieldwork among Sufis in contemporary Egypt 1 reveals some very interesting aspects of the role that food plays in Sufi life in that country today. Any equation of modern Egyptian Sufism with asceticism is likely to prompt cynical laughter from anyone acquainted with the social reality of today's Sufis. Today the majority of Sufis work, and although Sufism continues to draw primarily from the lower classes, many Sufis have prominent positions in society and are quite wealthy. Most contemporary Egyptian Sufi Orders follow the philosophy of the Shädhiliyya and permit, even encourage, the pur suit of a livelihood in the job market. As one well-known writer said, "This world is an opportunity for worship. . . The Sufi works only that he may worship in everything he does, including working for a living" (Nawfal: 73). Another Sufi emphasizes that renuncia tion of the world occurs in the heart, not "with the hand," and that physical renunciation of the world is useless if love for the things of the world remains in the heart (Mähir: 21). One modern Sufi Order in Egypt insists that seclusion should be "of the heart, not the body," and their charter says, "Much fasting and hunger and much sleeplessness and dhikr 2 will lead to dullness of the brain and will create mental illness or disturbance in mind" (Gilsenan: 120). Sufis who dress in colorful rags, shun regular employment, and live off the charity of others, may still be seen at the celebrations of saints' days (mouïids), but their lifestyle is not highly regarded even in most Sufi circles. They epitomize the "dervishism" that many l

l conducted my fieldwork among the Sufis of Egypt from October 1987 through April 1989 The first year of fieldwork was funded by a grant from Fulbnght's Islamic Civilization M book, Sufism, Mystics and Saints in Modern Egypt, is forthcoming with the

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Sufis feel has given Sufism a bad name with today's educated mid dle class. Many Sufi shaykhs, however, neither live off the charity of others nor work for a living. As Ahmad Radwän of Luxor (d. 1967) said, "Some people have cut off all means of subsistence and their Lord has been their guarantor and has not left them to anyone else. I am among these" (238). Sufis insist that self-denial and crushing the passions are an integral part of the Sufi path, even today. But rather than grieving over their sins and denying themselves all pleasures, as the early Sufis did, Sufis today in Egypt appear to delight in the assurance of their relationship with God, and enjoy this relationship while func tioning quite normally in the world. Rather than embracing hun ger, Egyptian Sufis make the serving of food central to their devotional life. Hospitality has long been a prominent feature of Sufi life since the founding of Sufi retreat centers—at least as early as the eleventh century—that regularly welcomed traveling Sufis. This custom continues in Egypt today, where Sufi shaykhs or other individuals establish what in Egypt are called sähas, centers for Sufi devotion, spiritual retreats, and hospitality. The importance of hospitality is evident in the size of the tables built in concrete into the courtyard of some söhas, sometimes able to accommodate a hundred diners at one sitting. In Egypt today, Sufi hospitality and devotion often revolve around the attendance of moulids—saint's day celebrations. Moulids celebrate the anniversary of the death of a saint, who can be any man, woman or child thought to be particularly close to God. The tombs of saints become shrines where pilgrims implore the intercession of the saint or, more Islamically proper, implore God by virtue of the baraka of the saint, for healing, the redress of wrongs, help with exams, or simply for favor with God. There are thousands of saints' tombs in Egypt, and moulids are celebrated once a year at many of them. Not all saints are of equal impor tance, however, and the largest and most important moulids are those celebrated in honor of members of the Prophet's family who are buried in Egypt, as well as the great founders of major Sufi Orders. The major moulids, like those of Husayn, the Prophet's grandson, Sayyida Zaynab, the Prophet's granddaughter, 'Ali Zayn


479

teenth-century saint, and other great saints, are massive popular nocturnal carnivals attracting as many as a million or more visi tors, many of them traveling long distances. The celebration may last as long as two or three weeks, with ever more activity building to a fever pitch on the last, "great night." People come to the mou lids to visit the tomb of the saint, partake of the baraka of the moulid, and perhaps to enjoy the many pleasures set up by merchants for the moulids: booths selling special toys, mini amusement parks, shooting games, roasted chick-peas, and the like. Some of the moulids, like that of Ahmad al-Badawi in the town of Tanta in the Delta, have become such economic affairs that their religious significance becomes obscured by the secular pursuits. For the Sufis, who consider themselves distinct from other Mus lims by their devotion to the Prophet and his family, honoring the major saints or lesser saints with whom one has a spiritual rela tionship by attending their moulids is both a spiritual duty and vital to their spiritual life. Many of them set up hospitality stations (khidma, pi. khidamät) in large canopied tents or simply on a cloth spread out on the sidewalk, or in rented rooms in schools or other public buildings. Even if they live in town, they may camp out as close to the shrine as they are able, sleeping on the pavement for a week or more, in order to honor the saint, perform the Sufi ritual of dhikr, and offer hospitality to passers-by. Visitors are invited to receive at least a drink, and often a meal as well. Such gifts, called nafha, a term which means both "gift" and "fragrance," convey the baraka of the saint to the one who receives them, and may not be refused. Many poor people gravitate to the moulids to take advantage of the abundance of charity, and the eager rush of the crowd to a large table where dinner had just been prepared at one khidma led the shaykh whom I accompanied to joke, "The essence of Sufism is food." But those who are wealthy likewise are eager to eat at the moulids, because it is not the quality of the food that makes it desirable, but the fact that it is offered at the moulid and bears the baraka of the saint. Moulids are a time of great sociability for the Sufis, who often wander from one khidma to the next, greeting their "brethren" and oft kin f food with them. Sin the moulids are typically

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pensation for their gifts, which are all given "for the face of God" or "out of love for the ahi aVbayt (the family of the Prophet)." The offering of hospitality, especially food and drink, which is so fun damental to traditional Arab culture, has been elevated to the sta tus of a sacred act. It is an act of piety that has come to define the Sufi lifestyle for many. Ahmad Radwän of Luxor (d. 1967), a charismatic mystic who is one of the most intriguing figures in twentieth-century Sufism, is said to have cared nothing for his own sustenance, and happily went without food for days at a time. Hundreds came to his säha to eat, drink, sleep, and bask in the aura of holiness. "The people knew no one equal to him in generosity in his day, and they found no one equal to him in this. . . . He turned no beggar away. He gave like one who has no fear of poverty, from all the wealth, food or clothing that God gave him, so that visitors left dazed by meeting him and by his generosity" (Radwan: 12). This description is simi lar to an account from the life of the Prophet, who, it is said, gave so generously even to the most rude and demanding of people, that one recipient of his generosity urged his countrymen to become Muslims, "for Muhammad gives like one who has no fear of pov erty" (Jeffery: 29). Nonetheless, the norms of Egyptian hospitality may conflict at times with the dictates of the Prophet, as one anecdote about Radwän illustrates. It is said that on one occasion he sent away large numbers of visitors from his säha without feeding them, because, looking into their hearts with the insight of mystical knowledge, he saw that they did not meet the stipulations set by the Prophet, who said, "Do not befriend any one except a believer, and do not let any one eat your food except a pious person." One Sufi, writing of this incident said, "This caused some people to oppose him and say that Ahmad Radwan throws people out of his assembly and is harsh with some of those who come to him. If those opponents had looked into the Book of God and understood what is in it, they would know that this is a Muhammadan ethic, and is the practical application of the Book of God and Sunna of His Apostle" (Mähir: 174). Another version of this story indicates an interesting struggle between his spiritual state (which can over


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chagrined to learn that they had not been offered any hospitality. But when food was again set before them, his former state returned to him and the food was ordered removed before the visitors could eat it. Although food may be offered either by a spiritual superior or by a person of lower spiritual rank to a spiritual superior, the meaning of the offering of food is interpreted according to the larger context. Any food offered at a moulid carries the baraka of the saint in whose name it is offered. Wh en a shaykh offers food, he is offering his own baraka, and blessing is conveyed to the per son who eats. A devoted follower of a shaykh may even wish to eat the shaykh's leftovers, or drink from the shaykh's cup . Wh en a shaykh accepts an invitation to eat at somebody's home, he brings baraka to the house when he enters, and he honors the host by partaking of his food. Hierarchy and submission are expressed not by the mere act of offering food, but by the dispensation and receiving of blessing. The symbolism of drinking, especially of milk, is evident in the language of the Sufis itself. The spiritual lineage or source of teaching that one follows is popularly called one's mashrab— liter ally, the place where one drink s. Picturing one's shaykh as a mother from whom one nurses and derives spiritual nourishment is a traditional image that continues to be occasionally employed, as when Shaykh Ahmad Abü'l-Hasan (d. 1994) described his discipleship with Ahmad Radwän: "I stayed with the shaykh, drawing nourishment from his milk and being illuminated by his lights, until he met the Highest Companion. . . . After the shaykh's pass ing, I felt as if I were an orphan. . . . " Images of food and drink likewise figure in the visionary exper iences that play such an important role in the lives of modern Egyptian Sufis. Shaykh Ίζζ al-Hawäri, a living shaykh, considers himself the direct disciple of Abu Ί�Hasan al-Shädhili, who died in 1258, because, in a vision when he was still young, Shädhili took him on his lap and gave him a glass of milk, which signified spiri tual adoption, and Shädhili has continued to instruct him through visions. Ahmad Radwän also one time had a vision of the Prophet in which he was given a glass of milk, indicating perhaps the trans fer of spiritual knowledge and power, and when he woke up, the

482


an enormous following in Egypt. In this vision, Muhammad 'Uthmän receives his coronation as ghawth—or, the term more typi cally used in Sufi tradition, the qutb—"Axis" of the Age, the top saint in the Sufi saintly hierarchy, the agent through whom all blessings and spiritual gifts are bestowed on the earth. In this vision, he was invited to a great banquet attended by all the prophets and saints throughout the ages, as well as all his future disciples, an immense crowd of millions. There he was com manded to eat all of the food on the table. It was a great table filled with vegetables stuffed with the seven minerals. The meaning of this, explains his lieutenant in Egypt, Shaykh Gamäl al-Sanhüri, "is that the head must comprehend all that is in his kingdom." Despite the very moderate attitude of many modern Sufis toward fasting, there are a few who practice it in an extreme fash ion. Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib (d. 1988), an old Sufi who lived in Qurna, across the Nile from Luxor, was widely regarded in the region as the ghawth of his day. His daily diet was restricted to a few tablespoons of milk a day, and his body weakened to the point that he could no longer support himself, and his skin was so deli cate that he covered it with his sleeve before shaking the hands of visitors. His poor diet undoubtedly directly contributed to his death, but some Sufis considered his lifestyle appropriate for a man of his age and spiritual seniority. They spoke with admira tion of the fact that his bowel movements were so minimal as to be almost non-existent. This indicated that the material dimension of his body was diminishing, and he was becoming more "luminous," a metaphor for spirituality. His severe fasts, then, were a prepara tion for death. A body that is virtually immaterial and luminous cannot decay, for light is incorruptible—and the incorruptibility of the body is one of the characteristics of saints, whose exhumations after many years often bring testimony that they are not really dead but merely "sleeping" in their tombs. In Sufi tradition, then, eating and drinking are never neutral acts. Eating to satisfy one's appetites leaves one open to Satanic insinuation, but eating for the sake of God can strengthen one for worship. Fasting is a tool for training and subduing the soul, open ing the spirit to God, and even, in modern Egypt, for reducing the


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Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradi

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