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Journal of

the American
Academy of Religion
LXIII/3
E ating
and
F as ting
for G od
in S ufi Tradition
Valerie
J.
Hoffman
E ATING AND DRINKING IN THE
QUR'AN
AND HADITH
ALTHOUG H
THE
QUR'AN
contains few food laws and
prohibi-
tions , eating
and
drinking
are mentioned with remarkable fre-
quency
in the Mus lims ' s acred
s cripture.
A
prominent
theme of
the
Qur'an
is that G od's
goodnes s
is evident
through
His
provis ion
for
humanity,
that the various
ways
that G od
provides
s us tenance
for
people
and animals are
"s igns "
of His exis tence that s hould
caus e the
thoughtful pers on
to believe in Him and be
grateful.
Peo-
ple
are
repeatedly urged
in the
Qur'an
to cons ider how G od has
provided
them with animals
(5:4, 16:5, 22:28, 22:36, 23:21,
36:72-
3,
40:79),
fruits
(23:19, 36:34-5), grains (10:24,
32:27, 36:33),
and
even
mas tery
over the s eas
(16:14, 35:12)
and
encourages
them
repeatedly
to eat and drink of the
good things
G od has
provided
for them
(2:168,
2:172, 5:88, 16:114, 20:81). Although
a few of the
food
prohibitions
of the
Jews
are retained in Is lam-the
eating
of
pork,
carrion, blood,
or
any
animal not
s laughtered
in the name of
G od
(5:3, 3:173, 6:121)-the Jews
are criticized for
impos ing
exces -
s ive res trictions on thems elves even before the revelation of Mos aic
law
(3:93),
a
pos s ible
reference to the cus tom of not
eating thigh
meat around the
hip
s ocket
(G en. 32:32).
The
Qur'an
s ays
all the
food of the
Jews
and Chris tians is lawful to the
Mus lims ,
as is the
food of the Mus lims lawful to them
(5:5).
G ratitude
(s hukr)
to G od
for His
provis ion
is one of the main characteris tics of the
faithful,
while unbelievers are
characterized,
in the
typical Qur'anic literary
s tyle
of as s onance and antithetic
parallelis m, by ingratitude (kufr).
Nonetheles s ,
this
encouragement
to eat s hould not be taken to
exces s
(7:31),
and
during
the month of Ramadan a fas t from
food,
drink and s exual intercours e was commanded
during
the
daylight
Valerie
J.
Hoffman is As s ociate Profes s or of
Religious
S tudies at the
Univers ity
of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana,
IL 61801.
465
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466
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
hours .
By
cus tom,
this fas t is broken at s uns et with
nightly
feas t-
ing
and ritual food
offerings
to the
poor; mos ques
become
places
of
charity, feeding,
and
eating.
The wanton
purs uit
of the
pleas ures
of
eating
is one of the marks of the heedles s
unbelievers ,
who "eat like cattle"
(15:3,
47:12,
77:46)
and will be s hocked when
the
judgment
of G od
s uddenly
breaks out
upon
them.
Thos e who believe in G od are als o des cribed as thos e who feed
the
poor
and
encourage
others to do s o as well
(22:28, 22:36, 76:8,
89:18),
while thos e whos e end is hellfire are thos e who fail to do
this
(69:33-4, 107:3). E choing
Luke
12:16-21,
the
Qur'an
tells s to-
ries of the
folly
of owners of
vineyards
who take
pride
in their
wealth,
have no cons ideration of
G od,
and
cons pire
to
keep
their
goods
for thems elves and not s hare them with the
poor (18:32-44,
68:17-33).
Modern advocates of "Is lamic economics " have con-
cluded that the
Qur'an
forbids the
"hoarding"
of
wealth,
and
requires
that
any s urplus
be s hared.
According
to the
Qur'an,
wrongdoers
not
only indulge
in
gluttony,
but are s aid to
"eat"
(i.e.,
cons ume)
wealth in a
wrongful
manner
(2:188,
3:130, 4:2, 4:29,
9:34, 89:19).
An
integral part
of the
mes s age
of all the
prophets
in
the
Qur'an
is an exhortation to be
grateful
for G od's
provis ion
of
s us tenance,
and to s hare a
portion
of it with the
needy.
Thos e who
ques tion why they
s hould feed the
poor
when G od would have
pro-
vided them s us tenance if He had s o des ired are
cas tigated
as devi-
ating
from the
s traight path (36:47). F eeding
a
poor pers on
is s o
meritorious that it can be us ed as
expiation
for failure to obs erve
the fas t of Ramadan or for
breaking
the taboo on
hunting during
the
pilgrimage (2:184, 5:95).
Watt has
s peculated
that the
heavy emphas is
of the
Qur'anic
mes s age
on the
neces s ity
of
feeding
the
poor
derived from Muham-
mad's concern with the breakdown of nomadic
values ,
which
impos ed corporate res pons ibility
for the care of the
poor,
weak and
defens eles s ,
in the new and
pros perous
mercantile center in which
he lived. If Watt is
right,
Muhammad was
preaching
a s ocialis t
mes s age
in a
newly capitalis tic
environment,
but far from
being
a
revolutionary,
he was
trying
to revive traditional values of
corpo-
rate
res pons ibility
and
hos pitality
that were s till
recognized
but
often
neglected.
Undoubtedly
another cons ideration
lay
in the
prominence
given
to G od as
provider.
Humans fail to
recognize
G od's s over-
eignty
over their
affairs ,
according
to the
Qur'an.
They congratu-
late thems elves when
things go
well,
failing
to realize that their
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 467
s us tenance is G od's
provis ion.
The
requirement
to be
generous
with that s us tenance is
undoubtedly
at leas t
partly
to force
people
to
recognize
G od's
s overeignty
and
generos ity;
human
gratitude
entails human
generos ity
in turn.
The
Qur'anic
preoccupation
with food and
feeding goes beyond
dis cus s ions of human s us tenance and
charity. Images
of food and
drink
appear prominently
in
Qur'anic
des criptions
of the G arden
of Paradis e and of Hellfire. The believers who are rewarded in the
G arden eat abundant fruit and are s erved
non-intoxicating
drinks
(43:73). They
drink from rivers of
water,
rivers of milk that does
not
go
s our,
delicious
wine,
and clarified
honey (47:15).
On the
other
hand,
thos e who conceal G od's revealed truth or treat it
lightly, trying
to derive s ome 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
Zaqqum,
which
grows
in the
bottom of hell and
produces
fruit like the heads of demons
(37:62-
66).
They
drink
boiling
water,
which tears
apart
their bowels
(37:67, 47:15).
Hadith
literature, which records
reports concerning
all that
Muhammad
s aid and
did,
in
implaus ibly
minute
detail,
records
what various
Companions
of the
Prophet
s aw him eat on various
occas ions ,
and what his favorite dis h was . The overall attitude of
Hadith
is that the Mus lims s hould be neither too
worldly
nor too
other-worldly: they
s hould
take,
in the words of one
hadith,
from
both this world and the next. To a
group
of three men who were
unimpres s ed
with Muhammad's
s piritual
obs ervances -one
abs tained from
s leep
in order to
pray,
the s econd fas ted continu-
ous ly,
and the third remained celibate-Muhammad is s ued this
rebuke: "I dread G od more than
you
and revere him
more,
but I
fas t and I break the
fas t;
I
pray
and I
s leep
too,
and I
marry
women.
Whos oever turns
away
from
my practice
[s unna]
is none of mine"
(Williams : 61-62).
In another
hadith,
Muhammad
s ays
that the
bes t fas t is one that is
regularly
broken,
s o that the
body
would
neither s uffer ill-health nor become s o accus tomed to
fas ting
that it
no
longer
feels
hunger.
Other traditions
depict
Muhammad as
enduring
s uch
hunger,
even at the
height
of his s ucces s as a
commander,
that he tied a
s tone
agains t
his s tomach. In the
Qur'an
its elf there are indica-
tions that Muhammad was criticized
by
his
contemporaries
for eat-
ing, drinking,
and
walking
in the markets like an
ordinary pers on.
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468
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
More
s pectacular
feats were
apparently expected
of s omeone mak-
ing
a
prophetic
claim:
perhaps eating s pecial heavenly
foods ,
flying
through
the
air,
or
having
an
angel accompany
him
(23:33, 25:7).
The
Qur'an
as s ures its lis teners that other
prophets
als o ate ordi-
nary
food
(25:20).
It is
ironic, therefore,
that other traditions
developed depicting
Muhammad as
engaging
in continuous
fas ts ,
fas ts that his
Companions
were unable to imitate. When
they
s poke
of their
impotence
to
Muhammad,
he
replied,
"I am not like
one of
you.
I
s pend
the
night
with
my
Lord,
and He
gives
me food
and drink." S ufi tradition
interpreted
this to mean that he was
given
the food and drink of the
people
of Paradis e. The
legends
of
Muhammad's As cens ion
through
the s even heavens to an audience
before the Throne of G od include his
being
offered a choice of
wine, milk,
or
honey (Jeffery: 38).
His choice of milk is com-
mended
by
the
angel
G abriel,
who tells him that this milk
s ymbol-
izes the
dis pos ition (fitra)
of his
community,
who are des cribed in
the
Qur'an
as "in the
middle,"
or "well-balanced"
(2:143).
Is lam is
des cribed in the
Qur'an
as the
religion
of innate human nature
(30:30),
which is s omehow
s ymbolized
in
this 's tory by
milk.
There is one other
legend
about the
Prophet
with
interes ting
food
imagery. According
to Ibn
S a'd,
author of an
early biographi-
cal
dictionary,
the
Angel
G abriel
gave
the
Prophet
a
heavenly
mor-
s el which
granted
him the s exual
potency
of
forty
men,
enabling
him to
s atis fy
all of his wives
(perhaps
as
many
as twelve
women)
in a
s ingle night (VIII:139).
While
contemporary
Mus lims are us u-
ally
embarras s ed
by
s uch
s tories ,
and dis mis s them as foolis h
fabrications of a
s upers titious community
that
wrongly regarded
Muhammad as
"s uperlative
in
everything, including
the lus ts of
this world"
(Haykal: 289),
s ome S ufis s ee this
s tory
as evidence of
Muhammad's
s uperior s piritual s trength,
for the
truly s piritual per-
s on is able to have
complete mas tery
over the
body,
and can either
prolong
s exual arous al at will or
entirely
eliminate it. But as we
will
s ee,
in S ufi tradition it is not
only heavenly
mors els that arous e
s exual
des ire,
for the
cons umption
of
any
food to the
point
of s atia-
tion is linked to the arous al of
pas s ions . Perhaps
what dis tin-
guis hes
this
heavenly
mors el from
ordinary
food is not
only
that it
produced
an
ability
to s us tain arous al for a
s uperhuman
duration,
but that it was able to do s o when cons umed in s uch minute
quantity.
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 469
ATTITUDE S TOWARD F OOD IN S UF I TRADITION
S ufis m
began
as a
pious
reaction
agains t
the
growing
worldli-
nes s of Mus lims in the s econd half of the s eventh
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-G hiffari and
S almAn
al-F Aris i
in the
days
of the
Prophet,
who
belonged
to a
group
known as
ahl al-s uffa, "people
of the
bench,"
for their habit
of
remaining
in the
mos que
and
s pending
their
days
and
nights
in
pious
devotions .
They
embraced a
lifes tyle
of
poverty
and abs ti-
nence from
fles hly pleas ures ,
and Abfi Dharr was banned from
Medina
during
the
Caliphate
of 'Uthman
(644-56)
for his
advocacy
of a doctrine that denied the
s incerity
of the faith of
any
Mus lim
who
pos s es s ed
hous es , fields ,
or
gold.
S ufis m
developed
into a
full-fledged mys ticis m
in the late
eighth
and
early
ninth
centuries ,
but the as ceticis m of the
early
S ufis remained an
integral part
of
S ufi life.
After the initial confes s ion of s in and
repentance
from all deeds
that would
compromis e
the
journey
to
G od,
the S ufi's
major preoc-
cupation
is with
crus hing
one's
pas s ions , fighting,
as the S ufis
s ay,
agains t
one's own s oul.
According
to
Hadith,
the
Prophet
s aid,
"We have returned from the les s er
jihad (warfare)
to the
greater
jihad."
This
"greater jihad"
is the
s truggle
to
purify
the s oul of all
forms of evil and
negligence,
for,
in the words of one modern
S ufi,
"it is the s oul that veils us from the vis ion of the truth and incites
us to acts of dis obedience and attachment to lus t and material
things . By
s uch
things
we become
heavy
and cannot enter the
world of the
s pirit
to s ee the
beauty
and
light
of the Truth"
(Mahir:
23).
S ufis believe that the
s pirit's origin
is
divine,
and
by
its
very
nature
yearns
to return to its
heavenly
home;
but the s oul is of
earthly origin,
and
pulls
the
s pirit
back to earth.
A time-honored method of
training
the s oul is to res is t its
des ires
through fas ting
and other forms of as ceticis m. The earlies t
S ufis
practiced
almos t incredible feats of
s elf-denial,
s hunning
all
forms of
luxury, eating
the bares t minimum
neces s ary
to
keep
alive,
avoiding s leep (a
mark of
"heedles s nes s "),
and
s pending
their
nights
in devotion and s elf-examination.
Has an
al-Bas ri
(d. 728),
one of the mos t famous of the s tern
early
as cetics ,
likened the
world to a
s nake,
"s mooth to the
touch,
but its venom kills "
(Wil-
liams :
111).
Another famous
repres entative
of
early
S ufis m,
Ibrahim ibn Adham
(d.
776 or
790),
s aid that one mus t embrace
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470
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
hards hip,
s elf-abas ement,
s trenuous
effort,
s leeples s nes s ,
and
pov-
erty,
ever
anticipating
death and
judgment,
in order to attain
right-
eous nes s
(Qus hayri
n.d.:13). E arly
S ufis embraced
poverty
to s uch
an extent that "the
poor
man"
(faqir
in
Arabic,
darwfs h in
Pers ian)
became
s ynonomous
with the
S ufi,
and the term remains in us e
today.
When
Abu
Yazid
al-Bis tami (d. 874),
famous for
traveling
the
heights
of
mys tical knowledge,
was as ked how he had reached
s uch
heights ,
he
replied,
"With a
hungry
s tomach and a naked
body"
(Qus hayri
n.d.:
23).
Abi
.Hamid
al-G hazali
(d. 1111),
who
advocated moderation and
practicality
in
religious practices
and
helped
to
bring
S ufis m into the mains tream of Is lamic
s pirituality,
nonetheles s ins is ted that the
way
to travel on the
path
of G od is
through fas ting, night vigils , s leeples s nes s ,
and renunciation of
wealth
(S mith: 93-4).
The
s piritual
benefits of
fas ting
are numerous . One is the hum-
bling
effect of
hunger.
In one anecdote of Abi Yazid
al-Bis tdmi,
he
was as ked
why
he
prais ed hunger
s o
highly.
He
replied,
"Becaus e
if Pharaoh
(the
epitome
of
arrogant pride
in the
Qur'an)
had been
hungry,
he would not have
s aid,
'I am
your S upreme
Lord'
(Qur'an
79:24),
and if Korah
(Qur'an 28:76-82)
had been
hungry,
he would
not have been rebellious "
(Hujwiri: 347-8).
F as ting
is des cribed as the
major
tool believers have
agains t
S atan, for,
according
to a
hadith,
"S atan runs in the veins of the
children of
Adam;
narrow his
pas s age by hunger."
One
early
S ufi
s aid,
"S atan is terrified of the s hadow of one who
conquers
the
pas s ions
of the world"
(Qus hayri
1990:
82). G hazali
clarifies that
it is when we eat that S atan enters our bloods tream-a
pers pective
that is
given
more
credibility
when we cons ider the fact that it was
by pers uading
Adam and E ve to eat that S atan caus ed their
expul-
s ion from Paradis e.
F as ting,
therefore,
is "a fortres s and a
para-
dis e" for the "friends of
G od,"
who has
granted
them this method
to
repel
the
guile
and
trickery
of S atan
(1:303-4).
Abi
'l-Najib
al-
S uhrawardi
(d. 1168),
author of a
popular
handbook on S ufi eti-
quette, reports
that "the
Prophet
rebuked a man who
burped
in his
pres ence, s aying:
'Thos e of
you
who are the mos t s ated in this
world will be the mos t
hungry
on the
day
of res urrection"
(S uhrawardi: 59).
Hujwiri
(d.
ca.
1071),
author of the firs t Pers ian
manual on
S ufis m, s ays
that S ahl al-Tus tarl
(d. 896)
regarded
eat-
ing
to the
point
of s atiation as s o
dangerous
that he
s aid,
"In
my
judgment,
a
belly
full of wine
[which
is
categorically prohibited
in
Is lam]
is better than one full of lawful food." When as ked to
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 471
explain
his
s tatement,
he
replied,
"When a man's
belly
is filled
with
wine,
his intellect is
s tupefied
and the flame of lus t is
quenched,
and
people
are s ecure from his hand and
tongue;
but
when his
belly
is filled with lawful food he des ires
foolis hnes s ,
and
his lus t waxes
great
and his lower s oul ris es to s eek her
pleas ures ."
The connection between
eating
and s exual des ire is s uch that
in a
hadith
the
Prophet
recommends
fas ting
for thos e who are
unable to
marry,
for
"fas ting
is a form of cas tration"
(G hazall,
11:28). Hujwiri
comments ,
"Nothing
is more
hurtful
to a novice in
S ufis m than
eating
too much"
(Hujwiri: 347-8).
S ahl al-Tus tari is
als o
quoted
as
s aying,
"When G od mos t
High
created the
world,
He
placed
s in and
ignorance
within s atis faction of the
appetite
and
knowledge
and wis dom within
hunger." Qus hayri (d. 1072),
author of one of the mos t
widely-us ed
manuals on S ufis m in
Arabic, comments ,
"When
S ahl
b. 'Abdallah
hungered,
he was
pow-
erful,
and whenever he
ate,
he became weak"
(Qus hayri
1990: 80-
81). Qus hayri
als o
quotes Yahya
b. Mu'adh as
s aying, "Hunger
is a
light,
and
filling
one's s tomach is a fire. Pas s ion is like firewood
from which fire
aris es ,
never to s ubs ide until it cons umes its
owner"
(Qus hayri
1990:
81).
We
get
a
glimps e
of the
s everity
of
fas ting practiced by early
S ufis in a
s aying
of Abu 'Uthman
al-Maghribi:
"The one devoted to
the Lord eats
only every forty days ,
and the one devoted to the
E ternal eats
only every eighty days ."
Another S ufi
commented,
"If
the S ufi
s ays
after five
days (of
fas ting),
'I am
hungry,'
then s end
him to the
marketplace
to earn
s omething" (Qus hayri
1990:
81-2)-
that
is ,
he is
unworthy
to live the S ufi life.
S ahl
al-Tus tari
was
as ked,
"What do
you s ay
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-S ufi Mus lim. "And three times a
day?"
He
retorted,
"Tell
your people
to build
you
a
trough!" (Qus hayri
1990:
81).
One benefit of
fas ting
is that it
produces patience.
G hazal!
pieces together
two
hadiths ,
one that
s ays fas ting
is half of
patience,
and the other that
patience
is half of
faith,
to conclude
that
one-quarter
of the
practice
of faith in G od is
fas ting (I:303).
E ventually,
however,
the
mys tic
who has s ucceeded in
annihilating
his s oul in G od
may
reach a
point
where,
like the
Prophet,
his
wors hip
becomes his food and drink
(Hujwiri: 303),
or,
as
Rfizbihdn
Baqli
(d. 1209)
s aid
concerning
a s aint who fas ted in
contemplation
for
s eventy days ,
"In this s tate food comes to him
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472
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
from the word 'I
s tay
with
my
Lord who feeds me and
gives
me to
drink'
(Qur'an 26:79)" (S chimmel: 116).
Another
as pect
of the
preference
for
fas ting among early
S ufis
was the cultivation of an attitude of abs olute
dependence
on G od
to
provide
for all one's needs
(tawakkul), avoiding as king
for
provi-
s ion from others or
working
for a
living
or
worrying
about where
one's food would come from. This attitude is reflected in the
words of
Hujwiri's s haykh:
"I am as tonis hed at the
impos ter
who
declares that he has renounced the
world,
and is anxious about a
mors el of food"
(Hujwiri:
348).
Connected with this
dependence
on G od alone to
provide
for one's needs is a
deep s us picion
that
food
given by
other
people
could be
"doubtful,"
that
is ,
obtained
through pos s ibly
illicit means or
paid
for with
money
earned in a
dubious fas hion.
S uhrawardi wrote,
"S ufis eat
only
food whos e
s ource
they
know"
(58).
In this connection there is an
interes ting
s tory
told
by
the Pers ian S ufi writer F arid al-Din
'Attar
(d. 1220)
about the famous
early
woman
S ufi,
Rabi'a
al-'Adawiyya (d. 801).
One
day
RAbi'a's s ervant
girl
was
making
an onion
s tew;
for it
was s ome
days
s ince
they
had cooked
any
food.
F inding
that s he
needed s ome
onions ,
s he
s aid,
"I will as k of next door."
"F orty years
now,"
Rabi'a
replied,
"I have had a covenant with
Almighty
G od not to as k for
aught
of
any
but He. Never mind the
onions ."
Immediately
a bird
s wooped
down from the air with
peeled
onions in its beak and
dropped
them into the
pan.
"I am not s ure this is not a
trick,"
Rabi'a commented. And s he
left the onion
pulp
alone, and ate
nothing
but bread
(Attar: 44).
This
s tory s ugges ts
the
extraordinary
warines s of
early
S ufis
regarding
the
provenance
of their food.
Hujwiri
and
G hazali
cau-
tioned that a S ufi s hould never
accept
the food of a rich man
(Hujwiri:
349;
G hazali,
11:16-17,
18-19).
A
twentieth-century
S ufi
in
E gypt,
Muhammad Ahmad
Radwan,
reflected this
early
attitude
when he refus ed to
go
to the homes of
government
officials and
declined to
accept
invitations to
eat,
cautioning
that "mos t food
thes e
days
is doubtful"
(Radwan: 104).
It is not
jus t
the
quantity
of
food,
but the
type
of food that
affects
s piritual well-being.
One of the
expected
charis mata of the
s aint,
or friend of
G od,
was the
ability
to tame wild animals and be
on
friendly
terms with them. In
effect,
the friend of G od
regains
the dominion over the animal
kingdom
for which
humanity
was
created when G od made Adam His
"viceroy"
on earth
(Qur'an
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 473
2:30).
In one of
'AttAr's
s everal anecdotes
depicting
Rabi'a al-
'Adawiyya bes ting
.Has an
al-Bas ri
in
s anctity,
wis dom,
and mira-
cles , Has an
is frus trated that as Rdbi'a walks in the mountains s he
is s urrounded
by
flocks of
deer,
mountain
goats ,
ibexes and wild
as s es ,
but when he
approaches they
flee. Rdbi'a as ks what he has
eaten that
day.
On
hearing
that he had eaten "a little onion
pulp,"
s he
retorts ,
"You eat their fat.
Why
then s hould
they
not flee from
you?" (Attar: 44-5). Pres umably
it is not the onion that is
problem-
atic,
but
the
fat in which it is fried.
The S ufi mas ter Ibn al-'Arabi
(d. 1240),
in a manual on S ufi
retreat,
cautions ,
"Be careful of
your
diet. It is better if
your
food
be
nouris hing
but devoid of animal fat." 'Abd al-Karim
al-Jill (d.
1423),
in his
commentary, explains
that
"animal
fat
s trengthens
animality,
and its
principles
will dominate the
s piritual principles "
(Ibn
al-'Arabi:
31, 81). G hazali, however,
cites Muhammad's
pref-
erence for
tharid,
a meat s tew
s opped
with
bread,
and
s ugges ts
that
the ideal meal to offer to
gues ts
s hould include meat
(II:20).
Although
G oldziher
pers uas ively argued
that much of the
worldly pragmatis m
of
Hadith
literature was a direct reaction
agains t
the
popular appeal
of S ufi as ceticis m in the late
eighth
cen-
tury,
this s ame
Hadith
literature came to s erve as the foundation of
Is lamic
law,
and is fundamental to S ufi life becaus e
S ufis ,
more
than
any
other
Mus lims ,
wis h to follow the model of the
Prophet.
G hazali's
multi-volume Revival
of
the
Religious
S ciences
(Ihyd' 'ulfim
al-din),
a
guide
to the
average
S ufi on how to live a
pious
life,
is
very heavily
bas ed on
Hadith.
E very
detail of Muhammad's
eating
habits is
dis cus s ed,
and its
application
to the life of
people
in
G hazali's
day
is
analyzed.
Manners are des cribed in the
graphic
detail
typical
of Is lamic law books . Meals are
begun
and ended
with
prayers
and
pious
recitations ,
trans forming
the
taking
of a
meal into a
religious
ritual when it is obs erved with
proper
eti-
quette.
His
des cription
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
s ay,
"In the name of
G od,"
and to
s ip,
not
gulp.
The
Mes s enger
of
G od,
peace
be
upon
him, s aid,
"S ip
water and do not
gulp
it,
for
gulping
hurts the liver." One s hould not drink
s tanding up
or
lying
down,
for the
Mes s enger
of G od
s aid, "It
is
prohibited
to
drink
s tanding up."
It
is als o s aid that
[on
one
occas ion]
the Mes -
s enger
of G od drank
s tanding up,
but
perhaps
he had an excus e.
One s hould be careful of the bottom of the
cup
s o as not to let
anything drip
out,
and one s hould look into the
cup
before drink-
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474
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
ing
and not
burp
or breathe into it. One s hould remove it from his
mouth with
prais e
to G od and return it to its
place invoking
G od's
name. The
Mes s enger
of G od us ed to
s ay
after
drinking,
"Prais e be
to G od who made it s weet and fres h
by
His
mercy
and not
s alty
and hot
by
our s ins " .... One s hould drink in three
breaths ,
prais -
ing
G od at the end and
invoking
G od's name at the
beginning.
At
the end of the firs t breath one s hould
s ay,
"Prais e be to
G od;"
at
the end of the
s econd,
one s hould
add,
"Lord of all
being;"
at the
end of the
third,
one s hould
add,
"The
Compas s ionate,
the
Merciful." There are about
twenty
rules of
etiqette concerning
eat-
ing
and
drinking
indicated
by
the anecdotes of the
pious early
Mus lims
(11:7-8).
Hadith
literature
encaps ulates
an attitude toward
eating
and
hos pitality
that reflects ancient Arabian values .
G hazali
devotes far
more
s pace
to the virtues of
offering
food,
and the manner to offer
and receive
it,
than he does to the virtues of
fas ting. Typical among
the
many
hadiths
he cites are thes e: "There is no
good
in one who
does not offer
hos pitality." "Among
the
things
which
expiate
s ins
and increas e in rank are
offering
food and
praying
at
night
while
people
are
s leeping."
When Muhammad was as ked to define
faith,
he
replied,
"To offer food and
give
the
greeting
of
peace." F eeding
people
and
s peaking
a
good
word are
equated
in another
hadith
with an
acceptable pilgrimage.
As
G hazali
s ays ,
there are countles s
anecdotes of the
early pious
Mus lims on the virtues of
offering
hos -
pitality
and
feeding
the
poor (G hazali, 11:16). Nonetheles s ,
S uhrawardi ins tructed S ufis not to feed each
other,
or to
urge
each
other to
eat,
"except
the
s haykh,
who
may s ay
s o to thos e below his
rank in order to cheer them
up
and
encourage
them to overcome
their
s hynes s " (S uhrawardi: 57).
One
s aying gives
ins tructions on the
appropriate way
to deal
with different
types
of
people:
"If the
poor (fuqard')
come to
you,
give
them food. If s cholars of the Law come to
you,
as k them a
ques tion.
If
Qur'an
reciters come to
you,
lead them to the niche
pointing
the
way
to Mecca"
(G hazali,
11:15).
While
feeding
the
poor
is
naturally
meritorious ,
the
Qur'anic
term for the des titute is
mis kin,
whereas
faqfr (pl. fuqard') typically
means not a
pers on
who is
des titute,
but one who embraces a
lifes tyle
of
poverty-a
S ufi. If this is what is meant in this
s aying-and given
the context
of various
categories
of
religious
functionaries ,
this is
plaus ible-
then there is an actual connection between S ufis and the
offering
of
food,
which
appears
s omewhat ironic in view of the as cetic ori-
gins
of the movement.
However,
S ufis
regarded
each others as
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 475
brothers in a manner dis tinct from the common run of
Mus lims ,
and both
Hujwiri
and
G hazali
s peak
of the
bles s ings
to be obtained
from
eating
with one's S ufi brethren.
F urthermore,
G hazali
s ays ,
"feeding
a
pious
man
s trengthens
him for
obedience,
but
feeding
a
depraved
man
s trengthens
him for
depravity" (17).
Although
S ufis of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and later
continue to caution
agains t
the
dangers
of exces s ive
eating, they
s eem to be
equally
concerned with the
dangers
of exces s ive
fas ting
and
s leeples s nes s .
Ibn al-'Arabi cautions
dis ciples agains t
both
s atiation and exces s ive
hunger. "Keep your
cons titution in bal-
ance,
for if
drynes s
is
exces s ive,
it leads to
corrupt imaginings
and
long,
delirious
ravings "
(31).
Hujwiri s ays
that
Abuf
Dharr al-G hif-
fari's
wife
complained
to S alman al-F aris i that her hus band neither
ate
by day
nor
s lept by night.
S alman told her to fetch s ome food
and told Abi Dharr to
eat, "s ince
this
fas ting
is not incumbent on
you."
Abi Dharr
complied.
At
night
S alman
begged
him to
s leep,
s aying, "your body
and
your
wife have a claim
upon you,
as well as
your
Lord." When Abi Dharr cons ulted the
Prophet
on the
matter,
he
agreed
with S alman.
Hujwiri
comments ,
"Inas much as Abi
Dharr had renounced his s elfis h
pleas ures ,
S alman
pers uaded
him
to
gratify
them."
This ,
he
s ays ,
is a s ound
principle:
"S o
long
as
anyone pers everes
in a s elfis h
demand,
his friend
ought
to res is t
it,
but when he renounces
it,
then his friend
ought
to
s atis fy
it"
(344).
What is
dangerous
to a novice in the S ufi
path
does not hold the
s ame
danger
for the
adept.
Des pite
the virtues of
fas ting,
G hazali
s ays
that one s hould not
refus e an invitation to eat becaus e one is
fas ting.
"If it makes
your
brother
happy
for
you
to break
your
fas t,
you
s hould break
it,
and
your
reward is
greater
than the reward of
your
fas t,
if
your
inten-
tion is to make
your
brother
happy."
He
quotes
the
Prophet's
younger
cous in,
Ibn
'Abbas ,
as
s aying,
"One of the bes t
good
deeds
is to honor thos e with whom
you
are
s itting by breaking
the fas t.
Breaking
the fas t with this intention is an act of
wors hip
and
good
etiquette,
and its reward is
greater
than the reward of
fas ting."
A
gues t
who refus es to break a fas t s hould be offered
perfume,
incens e,
and
good
convers ation
(18).
Qus hayri
tells the
s tory
of a
young
man who was
fas ting
and
refus ed to break his fas t to eat with Abii Yazid
al-Bis tami
and two
other
s haykhs , although they promis ed
him the
s piritual
reward of
a month's or a
year's fas ting
for the
bles s ing
of
s haring
this meal
with him. The
young
man's failure to
obey
the des ires of his
s piri-
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476
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
tual
s uperiors
caus ed him to fall out of G od's
favor,
become a
thief,
and los e his
hand,
the
legal punis hment
for theft
(Qus hayri
n.d.:
259).
This anecdote is intended to
warn
dis ciples
of the
dangers
of
dis obedience to their
s haykh
or other
s piritual s uperiors ,
but it
als o reflects the notion that food offered
by
a s aint carries the
s aint's baraka-a
s piritual
force
generally perceived
as
beneficial,
though
it
may
harm a
pers on
who fails to
give
a s aint due
res pect.
In S ufi
ethics ,
no act is of neutral
value,
though
it
may
be neu-
tral in
s trictly legal
terms . The S ufi s hould cons ider not
only
whether a
particular
act is
permis s ible,
but whether it is
helpful.
As
Hujwiri
wrote,
"The s eeker of
G od,
as he
walks ,
s hould know at
each
s tep
he makes whether that
s tep
is
agains t
G od or of G od"
(349-50).
E ver s ince
Rabi'a
walked
through
the s treets of Bas ra
with a bucket of water and a
torch, s aying
s he wis hed to
extinguis h
the fires of Hell and burn the G arden of Paradis e s o the true lovers
of G od would be
revealed,
S ufis have ins is ted that what matters is
not the act but the intention with which it is done. Whether
eating
or
fas ting,
all mus t be done for the s ake of G od alone-to us e a
Qur'anic
phras e, des iring nothing
but the face of G od. It is not
eating
that
harms ,
but
eating
with the
goal
of
s atis fying
one's own
des ires . S uhrawardi wrote that there is a
s pecial dis pens ation
(rukhs a)
for a S ufi to eat
tas ty
food,
but
only
between
periods
of
hunger
and exertion
(77).
He even wrote that there is a
s pecial
dis pens ation
to
"plunder
the food which is s cattered at
banquets .
One
s hould, however,
do s o without
gluttony
and with the inten-
tion of
delighting
the hos t. A
Hadith
quotes
the
Prophet
as
s aying:
'I
only
forbade
you
to
plunder
armies but I did not forbid
you
to
plunder banquets '
"
(81).
The
S hadhiliyya,
a S ufi Order that follows the
teachings
of the
North African
S ufi,
Abfi
'l-Has an
al-S hadhili
(d. 1258),
was
origi-
nally
a middle-clas s Order
that
departed
from earlier tradition
by
encouraging
its followers to work for a
living
and dres s well rather
than
(at
times
hypocritically) advertis ing
their
poverty.
S hadhili
intepreted poverty
in a
s piritual
s ens e,
allowing
a
pers on
to be
"poor
toward
G od," i.e.,
recognizing
his need for
G od,
without
renunciation of all material
things .
Later S ufis in the eas tern
part
of the Mus lim world likewis e often felt that "the
s oul-dog
is better
when its mouth is s hut
by throwing
a mors el into it"
(S chimmel:
117).
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 477
S UF IS M AND F OOD IN MODE RN E G YPT
S ufis m
developed gradually
from a movement of extreme as cet-
icis m to a movement of broad s ocial
appeal
with an
increas ingly
pragmatic
attitude toward the
practice
of bas ic S ufi
dis ciplines
and
devotions within the context of
everyday
life.
Very
few s tudies have
been done of modem
S ufis m,
which is
generally regarded
as a
deg-
radation of the
earlier,
"pure"
S ufis m of the
eighth through
twelfth
centuries .
However,
my
fieldwork
among
S ufis in
contemporary
E gypt'
reveals s ome
very interes ting as pects
of the role that food
plays
in S ufi life in that
country today.
Any equation
of modem
E gyptian
S ufis m with as ceticis m is
likely
to
prompt cynical laughter
from
anyone acquainted
with the
s ocial
reality
of
today's
S ufis .
Today
the
majority
of S ufis
work,
and
although
S ufis m continues to draw
primarily
from the lower
clas s es , many
S ufis have
prominent pos itions
in
s ociety
and are
quite wealthy.
Mos t
contemporary E gyptian
S ufi Orders follow the
philos ophy
of the
S hadhiliyya
and
permit,
even
encourage,
the
pur-
s uit of a livelihood in the
job
market. As one well-known writer
s aid,
"This world is an
opportunity
for
wors hip.
.. The S ufi works
only
that he
may wors hip
in
everything
he
does ,
including working
for a
living" (Nawfal: 73).
Another S ufi
emphas izes
that renuncia-
tion of the world occurs in the
heart,
not "with the
hand,"
and that
phys ical
renunciation of the world is us eles s if love for the
things
of
the world remains in the heart
(Mahir: 21).
One
modern
S ufi
Order in
E gypt
ins is ts that s eclus ion s hould be
"of
the
heart,
not
the
body,"
and their charter
s ays ,
"Much
fas ting
and
hunger
and
much
s leeples s nes s
and
dhikr2
will lead to dullnes s of the brain
and will create mental illnes s or dis turbance in mind"
(G ils enan:
120).
S ufis who dres s in colorful
rags ,
s hun
regular employment,
and
live off the
charity
of
others ,
may
s till be s een at the celebrations of
s aints '
days
(moulids ),
but their
lifes tyle
is not
highly regarded
even
in mos t S ufi circles .
They epitomize
the
"dervis his m"
that
many
11
conducted
my
fieldwork
among
the S ufis of
E gypt
from October 1987
through April
1989. The firs t
year
of fieldwork was funded
by
a
grant
from
F ulbright's
Is lamic Civilization
program. My
book,
S ufis m, Mys tics
and S aints in Modern
E gypt,
is
forthcoming
with the
Univers ity
of S outh Carolina Pres s . It is
being publis hed
in October 1995.
2Dhikr
literally
means "remembrance" or "recollection." It is a ritual of recollection of
s ome of the Mos t Beautiful Names of
G od,
accompanied by
movements ,
and
pos s ibly
breath
control
techniques
and
mus ic,
in order to
heighten
concentration. Dhikr is the mos t
impor-
tant devotional tool us ed
by
the
S ufis .
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478
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
S ufis feel has
given
S ufis m a bad name with
today's
educated mid-
dle clas s .
Many
S ufi
s haykhs ,
however,
neither live off the
charity
of others nor work for a
living.
As Ahmad
Radwan
of Luxor
(d.
1967) s aid,
"S ome
people
have cut off all means of s ubs is tence and
their Lord has been their
guarantor
and has not left them to
anyone
els e. I am
among
thes e"
(238).
S ufis ins is t that s elf-denial and
crus hing
the
pas s ions
are an
integral part
of the S ufi
path,
even
today.
But rather than
grieving
over their s ins and
denying
thems elves all
pleas ures ,
as the
early
S ufis
did,
S ufis
today
in
E gypt appear
to
delight
in the as s urance of
their
relations hip
with
G od,
and
enjoy
this
relations hip
while func-
tioning quite normally
in the world. Rather than
embracing
hun-
ger, E gyptian
S ufis make the
s erving
of food central to their
devotional life.
Hos pitality
has
long
been a
prominent
feature of
S ufi life s ince the
founding
of S ufi retreat centers -at leas t as
early
as the eleventh
century-that regularly
welcomed
traveling
S ufis .
This cus tom continues in
E gypt today,
where S ufi
s haykhs
or other
individuals es tablis h what in
E gypt
are called
s ahias ,
centers for
S ufi
devotion, s piritual
retreats ,
and
hos pitality.
The
importance
of
hos pitality
is evident in the s ize of the tables built in concrete
into the
courtyard
of s ome
s dhas ,
s ometimes able to accommodate
a hundred diners at one
s itting.
In
E gypt today,
S ufi
hos pitality
and devotion often revolve
around the attendance of moulids -s aint's
day
celebrations . Mou-
lids celebrate the
annivers ary
of the death of a
s aint,
who can be
any
man,
woman or child
thought
to be
particularly
clos e to G od.
The tombs of s aints become s hrines where
pilgrims implore
the
interces s ion of the s aint
or,
more
Is lamically proper, implore
G od
by
virtue of the baraka of the
s aint,
for
healing,
the redres s of
wrongs , help
with
exams ,
or
s imply
for favor with G od. There are
thous ands of s aints ' tombs in
E gypt,
and moulids are celebrated
once a
year
at
many
of them. Not all s aints are of
equal impor-
tance, however,
and the
larges t
and mos t
important
moulids are
thos e celebrated in honor of members of the
Prophet's family
who
are buried in
E gypt,
as well as the
great
founders of
major
S ufi
Orders . The
major
moulids ,
like thos e of
IHus ayn,
the
Prophet's
grands on, S ayyida Zaynab,
the
Prophet's granddaughter,
'All
Zayn
al-'Abidin,
the
Prophet's great grands on, S ayyida
Nafis a,
a
great-
great-great-great granddaughter
of the
Prophet,
Ahmad
al-Badawi
(d. 1276),
founder of the
Almadiyya
Order,
Ahmad
al-Rifd'i
(d.
1171),
founder of the
Rifa'iyya,
'Abd
al-Rahman al-Qinawi,
a thir-
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 479
teenth-century
s aint,
and other
great
s aints ,
are mas s ive
popular
nocturnal carnivals
attracting
as
many
as a million or more vis i-
tors , many
of them
traveling long
dis tances . The celebration
may
las t as
long
as two or three
weeks ,
with ever more
activity building
to
a fever
pitch
on the
las t,
"great night." People
come to the mou-
lids to vis it the tomb of the
s aint,
partake
of the baraka of the mou-
lid,
and
perhaps
to
enjoy
the
many pleas ures
s et
up by
merchants
for the moulids : booths
s elling s pecial toys ,
mini amus ement
parks , s hooting games ,
roas ted
chick-peas ,
and the like. S ome of
the
moulids ,
like that of Ahmad al-Badawi
in the town of Tanta in
the
Delta,
have become
s uch
economic affairs that their
religious
s ignificance
becomes obs cured
by
the s ecular
purs uits .
F or the
S ufis ,
who cons ider thems elves dis tinct from other Mus -
lims
by
their devotion to the
Prophet
and his
family, honoring
the
major
s aints or les s er s aints with whom one has a
s piritual
rela-
tions hip by attending
their moulids is both a
s piritual duty
and
vital to their
s piritual
life.
Many
of them s et
up hos pitality
s tations
(khidma, pl. khidamdt)
in
large canopied
tents or
s imply
on a cloth
s pread
out on the
s idewalk,
or in rented rooms in s chools or other
public buildings .
E ven if
they
live in
town,
they may camp
out as
clos e
to the s hrine as
they
are
able,
s leeping
on the
pavement
for a
week or
more,
in order to honor the
s aint,
perform
the S ufi ritual of
dhikr,
and offer
hos pitality
to
pas s ers -by.
Vis itors are invited to
receive at leas t a
drink,
and often a meal as well. S uch
gifts ,
called
nafha,
a term which means both
"gift"
and
"fragrance," convey
the
baraka of the s aint to the one who receives
them,
and
may
not be
refus ed.
Many poor people gravitate
to the moulids to take
advantage
of
the abundance of
charity,
and the
eager
rus h of the crowd to a
large
table where dinner had
jus t
been
prepared
at one khidma led
the
s haykh
whom I
accompanied
to
joke,
"The es s ence of S ufis m is
food." But thos e who are
wealthy
likewis e are
eager
to eat at the
moulids ,
becaus e it is not the
quality
of the food that makes it
des irable,
but the fact that it is offered at the moulid and bears the
baraka of the s aint.
Moulids are a time of
great s ociability
for the
S ufis ,
who often
wander from one khidma to the
next,
greeting
their "brethren" and
often
partaking
of food with them. S ince the moulids are
typically
all-night
celebrations ,
they
are
phys ically demanding
on thos e who
live a
lifes tyle
of
following
the circuit of the
major
moulids . The
people
who
s pend
their lives in this
way
receive no
monetary
com-
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480
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
pens ation
for their
gifts ,
which are all
given
"for the face of G od" or
"out
of love for the
ahl al-bayt (the family
of the
Prophet)."
The
offering
of
hos pitality, es pecially
food and
drink,
which is s o fun-
damental to traditional Arab
culture,
has been elevated to the s ta-
tus of a s acred act. It is an act of
piety
that has come to define the
S ufi
lifes tyle
for
many.
Ahmad
Radwan
of Luxor
(d. 1967),
a charis matic
mys tic
who is
one of the mos t
intriguing figures
in
twentieth-century S ufis m,
is
s aid to have cared
nothing
for his own
s us tenance,
and
happily
went without food for
days
at a time. Hundreds came to his
s aha
to
eat, drink,
s leep,
and bas k in the aura of holines s . "The
people
knew no one
equal
to him in
generos ity
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 G od
gave
him,
s o that vis itors left dazed
by meeting
him and
by
his
generos ity" (Ratdwan:
12).
This
des cription
is s imi-
lar to an account from the life of the
Prophet,
who,
it is
s aid,
gave
s o
generous ly
even to the mos t rude and
demanding
of
people,
that
one
recipient
of his
generos ity urged
his
countrymen
to become
Mus lims ,
"for Muhammad
gives
like one who has no fear of
pov-
erty" (Jeffery: 29).
Nonetheles s ,
the norms of
E gyptian hos pitality may
conflict at
times with the dictates of the
Prophet,
as one anecdote about
Radwan
illus trates . It is s aid that on one occas ion he s ent
away
large
numbers of vis itors from his s dha without
feeding
them,
becaus e,
looking
into their hearts
with
the
ins ight
of
mys tical
knowledge,
he s aw that
they
did not meet the
s tipulations
s et
by
the
Prophet,
who
s aid,
"Do not befriend
any
one
except
a
believer,
and do not let
any
one eat
your
food
except
a
pious pers on."
One
S ufi,
writing
of this incident
s aid,
"This caus ed s ome
people
to
oppos e
him and
s ay
that
Almad
Radwan throws
people
out of his
as s embly
and is hars h
with
s ome of thos e who come to him. If
thos e
opponents
had looked into the Book of G od and unders tood
what is in
it,
they
would know that this is a Muhammadan
ethic,
and is the
practical application
of the Book of G od and S unna of
His
Apos tle" (Mahir: 174).
Another vers ion of this
s tory
indicates
an
interes ting s truggle
between his
s piritual
s tate
(which
can over-
come rational
thought)
and the s tandards of
hos pitality
dictated
by E gyptian
culture:
Radwan
ordered his s ons not to feed s ome
vis itors , s aying, "Away
from me! You come
only
to eat!" Later he
as ked his s ons whether the vis itors had been
fed,
and was
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 481
chagrined
to learn that
they
had not been offered
any hos pitality.
But when food was
again
s et before
them,
his former s tate returned
to him and the food was ordered removed before the vis itors could
eat it.
Although
food
may
be offered either
by
a
s piritual s uperior
or
by
a
pers on
of lower
s piritual
rank to a
s piritual s uperior,
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 s aint in whos e name it is offered. When a
s haykh
offers
food,
he is
offering
his own
baraka,
and
bles s ing
is
conveyed
to the
per-
s on who eats . A devoted follower of a
s haykh may
even wis h to eat
the
s haykh's
leftovers ,
or drink from the
s haykh's cup.
When a
s haykh accepts
an invitation to eat at
s omebody's
home,
he
brings
baraka to the hous e when he
enters ,
and he honors the hos t
by
partaking
of his food.
Hierarchy
and s ubmis s ion are
expres s ed
not
by
the mere act of
offering
food,
but
by
the
dis pens ation
and
receiving
of
bles s ing.
The
s ymbolis m
of
drinking, es pecially
of
milk,
is evident in the
language
of the S ufis its elf. The
s piritual lineage
or s ource of
teaching
that one follows is
popularly
called one's mas hrab-liter-
ally,
the
place
where one drinks .
Picturing
one's
s haykh
as a
mother from whom one nurs es and derives
s piritual
nouris hment
is a traditional
image
that continues to be
occas ionally employed,
as when
S haykh
Ahmad
Abfi'l-Has an
(d. 1994)
des cribed his dis ci-
ples hip
with Ahmad
Radwan:
"I
s tayed
with the
s haykh, drawing
nouris hment
from
his milk and
being
illuminated
by
his
lights ,
until he met the
Highes t Companion....
After the
s haykh's pas s -
ing,
I felt as if I were an
orphan...."
Images
of food and drink likewis e
figure
in the
vis ionary exper-
iences that
play
s uch an
important
role in the lives of modern
E gyptian
S ufis .
S haykh
'Izz
al-HawAri,
a
living s haykh,
cons iders
hims elf the direct
dis ciple
of Abti
'l-Has an al-S hadhili,
who died in
1258, becaus e,
in a vis ion when he was s till
young, S hadhili
took
him on his
lap
and
gave
him a
glas s
of
milk,
which
s ignified s piri-
tual
adoption,
and
S hadhili
has continued to ins truct him
through
vis ions . Ahmad
Radwan
als o one time had a vis ion of the
Prophet
in which he was
given
a
glas s
of
milk,
indicating perhaps
the trans -
fer of
s piritual knowledge
and
power,
and when he woke
up,
the
glas s
of milk was s till in his hand.
E ven more
extraordinary
is an elaborate vis ion of
S haykh
Muhammad
'Uthman
al-Burhlni
of S udan
(d. 1983),
who attained
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482
Journal of
the American
Academy of Religion
an enormous
following
in
E gypt.
In this
vis ion, Muhammad
'Uthman receives his coronation as
ghawth-or,
the term more
typi-
cally
us ed in S ufi
tradition,
the
qutb-"Axis "
of the
Age,
the
top
s aint in the S ufi
s aintly hierarchy,
the
agent through
whom all
bles s ings
and
s piritual gifts
are bes towed on the earth. In this
vis ion,
he was invited to a
great banquet
attended
by
all the
prophets
and s aints
throughout
the
ages ,
as well as all his future
dis ciples ,
an immens e 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
s tuffed with the s even minerals . The
meaning
of
this ,
explains
his lieutenant in
E gypt, S haykh
G amal al-S anhiri, "is
that the head mus t
comprehend
all that is in his
kingdom."
Des pite
the
very
moderate attitude of
many
modern S ufis
toward
fas ting,
there are a few who
practice
it in an extreme fas h-
ion.
S haykh
Muhammad
al-Tayyib (d. 1988),
an old S ufi who lived
in
Qurna,
acros s the Nile from
Luxor,
was
widely regarded
in the
region
as the
ghawth
of his
day.
His
daily
diet was res tricted to a
few
tables poons
of milk a
day,
and his
body
weakened to the
point
that he could no
longer s upport
hims elf,
and his s kin was s o deli-
cate that he covered it with his s leeve before
s haking
the hands of
vis itors . His
poor
diet
undoubtedly directly
contributed to his
death,
but s ome S ufis cons idered his
lifes tyle appropriate
for a
man of his
age
and
s piritual s eniority. They s poke
with admira-
tion of the fact that his bowel movements were s o minimal as to be
almos t non-exis tent. This indicated that the material dimens ion of
his
body
was
diminis hing,
and he was
becoming
more
"luminous ,"
a
metaphor
for
s pirituality.
His s evere
fas ts , 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 characteris tics of
s aints ,
whos e exhumations
after
many years
often
bring tes timony
that
they
are not
really
dead
but
merely "s leeping"
in their tombs .
In S ufi
tradition,
then, eating
and
drinking
are never neutral
acts .
E ating
to
s atis fy
one's
appetites
leaves one
open
to S atanic
ins inuation,
but
eating
for the s ake of G od can
s trengthen
one for
wors hip. F as ting
is a tool for
training
and
s ubduing
the
s oul,
open-
ing
the
s pirit
to
G od,
and
even,
in modern
E gypt,
for
reducing
the
materiality
of the
body.
But
eating
and
drinking
can als o be s acred
acts ,
conveying s piritual power
and
bles s ing,
or
s ymbolizing s piri-
tual
adoption
and
dis ciples hip,
and the
offering
of food is elevated
to the s tatus of a central act of S ufi devotion.
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Hoffman: E ating
and
F as ting for
G od in
S ufi
Tradition 483
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