Way of Itlak and Sufism

[Mike MacLeod]

The first book about Sufism I read was the groundbreaking - perhaps icebreaking is a better word - The Sufis from Shaykh Idries Shah. After digesting it, I headed to my local (but extensive) New Age book store to see what I could find to dine on next.

Then as now I preferred primary texts from the "big names" rather than modern recensions, though I read both with pleasure, so I read, in no particular order, On the Duties of Brotherhood by Imam Al Ghazali; The Book of Sufi Chivalry, by Ibn Husayn Sulaymi; Journey to the Lord of Power by Shaykh-ul-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi; and Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia, translated from Arabic to Turkish by Shaykh Hasan Shushud, then from Turkish into English by Muhtar Holland.

The last of these books was a find. It is now out of print, except through the website I will mention presently. Muhtar Holland has gone on to do a longer and more complete translation of the source manuscript for this book, Beads of Dew from the Source of Life (Rashahat Ain al-Hayat) by Mawlana Ali ibn Husain Safi and Muhtar Holland. The publisher has this to say about it:

Translated from Turkish by Muhtar Holland. 'Ali ibn Husain Safi , the author of the Rashahat, lived in the beginning of the 10th Century AH. He was brother-in-law of the famous mystic and poet Jami who gave him the name 'Safi'. In the Rashahat 'Ain al-Hayat, Safi gives an account of the lives and teachings of a group of Sufi mystics known as the Khwajagan - the Masters of Wisdom. The Khwajagan lived in Central Asia between the 4th and the 9th centuries Hijri. The ranks of the Khwajagan include the great sufis 'Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani and Baha' al-Din Naqshband, who gave his name to the Naqshbandi order, though he did not found it. The many branches of the Naqshbandiyya survive to this day. This book is the first translation of the Rashahat into English and provides the present generation with clear and precise biographies of the great and genuine sufis who emerged in Turkestan at a most significant period.

Shaykh Hasan was a Naqshbandi shaykh from Turkey who offered the text as a history of his own tradition. Apart from the translation, he provided a preface, an afterword, and a glossary. The moment I read his collateral material I felt like I had grabbed onto a live electrical wire.

He distinguished the origins of his tariqat from others by comparing the Northern Sufis, which included his own Naqshbandi tariqat, with the Southern Sufis. In his opinion, the Northern group had a deeper focus in their approach to annihilation and "as if it never was", rather than the "consolations" of love, unity, and "existential monism" of the Southern group.

I searched for other material by or about Shaykh Hasan and found very little, but recently I discovered that a distinguished Rumi scholar and translator, Dr. Nevit Ergin, was a student of Shaykh Hasan.

He has a website where his translations and copies of Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia are for sale. There is also about 10 minutes of a lecture concerning Shaykh Hasan's introduction to the Way of Itlak, as he calls it. I recommend it to you.

Way of Itlak and Sufism