Sufism: What Is It Exactly? Article Critique

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For instance, saints serve as intermediaries between the individual practitioner and God and can carry prayers to God. The saint is not endowed with any divine features, for such a view would most certainly conflict with the central tenet of Islam that only God is transcendent and that human beings cannot be endowed with divine qualities. Yet on a social level, the saint serves as a reminder of the power of the human being -- even the responsibility -- to develop a working relationship with God. Given that not all Muslims are Sufis, the saints fulfill a special role in daily life. The devotee does not worship the saint, even though it may seem so, notes Heck. When the devoted visit a saint's shrine it is not to worship the saint but to receive intercession on saint's behalf. The saint's body cannot be rendered asunder as Christian saints can be, because Sufism ascribes to Muslim law dictating the need to keep the body intact. This underscores the notion that Sufi saints have attained what Heck describes as "human perfection" (155). Sufi saints are essentially akin to the Buddhist concept of the Boddhisattva. A saint is the "divine agent" in the world without violating Muslim theological tenets.

Yet, Heck does admit that it is not just Wahabism that protests Sufism on the grounds that it violates the purity of Islam. Most of Sufism's enemies are internal. The "reformist currents within Islam, notably in the eighteenth century, calling for a return to the original sources of revelation" have caused Sufism to go underground (148). "Aspects of Sufism were judged to be unwholesome accretions to the pristine beliefs of the first Muslims," (148). Part of what Heck sets out to do is to disprove these claims and re-establish the centrality of Sufism in Islam. A vehement apologist for Sufism, Heck claims that Sufis actually preserve the purity of Islam.

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Heck points out the ways in which Sufism has reacted to changes within the Muslim world. Most recently, Sufism has been re-appropriated by the West to the point where Sufism can be detached from Islam. Heck does not make it fully clear whether the New Age Sufism betrays the path. On the one hand, the author argues that the separation of Sufism from Islam is false and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the faith. The core thesis of Heck's article is that Sufism and Islam are inseparable. Yet on the other hand, Heck notes that Westernization has saved Sufism from total decay at the hands of Muslims who would deny its relevance. Heck claims with a certain degree of neutrality that modern trends including the New Age embrace of Sufism represent "de-Islamization," especially in Europe and North America (150). "Here, finally, is a Sufism without Islam, which -- its own complex history notwithstanding -- represents itself as a perennial philosophy (i.e., spirituality without religious particularity)," (150). How Heck feels about the de-Islamization of Sufism is not entirely clear. However, Heck does make it clear that detaching Sufism from Islam is a dilution.

The most revelatory passages in "Sufism: What is it exactly?" are those that deal with the historical role of Sufism in the social and political contexts. Sufism as a "very effective agent for religious renewal of Muslim society," is, as Heck notes, "a topic still to be fully considered," (150). Heck also claims that Sufism has been crucial in helping "predominantly illiterate societies" acquire and retain faith "where the work of reacquainting the faithful with the ways of God cannot be achieved through the dissemination of texts," (150). For this reason and for the sheer beauty of the path, Sufism deserves the deep respect that Heck gives it.

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