Hidden Treasure

“From the earliest days onward, women have played an important role in the development of Sufism, which is classically understood to have begun with the Prophet Muhammad… At a time when the goddess-worshiping Arabian tribes were still quite barbaric, even burying infant girls alive because male offspring were preferred, this new voice of the Abrahamic tradition attempted to reestablish the recognition of the Unity of Being. It tried to address the imbalances that had arisen, advising respect and honor for the feminine as well as for the graciousness and harmony of nature… Muhammad’s beloved wife Khadija filled a role of great importance. It was she who sustained, strengthened, and supported him against his own doubt and bewilderment. She stood beside him in the midst of extreme difficulty and anguish and helped carry the light of the new faith. It was to their daughter, Fatima, that the deeper mystical understanding of Islam was first conveyed, and indeed she is often recognized as the first Muslim mystic. Her marriage with the close friend and cousin of Muhammad, ‘Ali, bound this new manifestation of mysticism into this world, and the seeds of their union began to blossom.

As the mystical side of Islam developed, it was a woman, Rabi‘a al-’Adawiyya (717–801 C.E.), who first clearly expressed the relationship with the Divine by referring to God as the Beloved. Rabi‘a was the first human being to speak of the realities of Sufism with a clear language that anyone could understand. Though she experienced many difficulties in her early years, Rabi‘a’s starting point was neither fear of hell, nor desire for paradise, but only love. Her method was love for God because “God is God; for this I love God . . . not because of any gifts, but for Itself.” Her aim was to melt her being in God. According to her, one could find God by turning within oneself…

Ibn ‘Arabi, the great Islamic metaphysician (1165–1240 C.E.), tells of time spent with two elderly women mystics who had a profound influence on him: Shams of Marchena, one of the “sighing ones,” and Fatima of Cordova. About Fatima, he says: I served as a disciple one of the lovers of God, a gnostic, a lady of Seville called Fatimah bint Ibn al-Muthanna of Cordova. I served her for several years, she being over ninety-five years of age. . . . She used to play on the tambourine and show great pleasure in it. When I spoke to her about it she answered, “I take joy in Him Who has turned to me and made me one of His Friends (Saints), using me for His own purposes. Who am I that He should choose me among mankind? He is jealous of me for, whenever I turn to something other than He in heedlessness [ghaflah, the opposite of remembrance, dhikr, and thus a lapse from true awareness into illusion], He sends me some affliction concerning that thing.” . . . With my own hands I built for her a hut of reeds as high as she, in which she lived until she died. She used to say to me, “I am your spiritual mother and the light of your earthly mother.” When my mother came to visit her, Fatimah said to her, “O light, this is my son and he is your father, so treat him filially and dislike him not…”

Within Islamic society as well as within our own, difficult treatment of women has occurred, in some cases insidious. Though local cultural overlays and male-dominated jurisprudence may have increased restrictions on women in various areas, the Qur’an basically enjoins mutual respect and valuation of the human being regardless of sex or social situation. Within Sufism, this more essential Qur’anic attitude has prevailed. The cultures in which Sufism was practiced, there were women who wrote of their mystical experience in songs, in journals, and in critical exposition…

In the Middle East, women continue to mature in many Sufi orders. In Turkey in particular, the teachings are transmitted through women as well as men—perhaps even more so now than in the past. One luminous lady, Samiha Ayverdi, carried the Rifa‘i tradition in Istanbul until her recent death; Zeynep Hatun of Ankara continues to inspire people in Turkey and abroad with her poems and songs. In central Turkey, the mother of a friend of ours one day heard someone knocking and answered her door. A man stood at her threshold with a message. He had come to ask her to lead a Naqshbandi women’s circle. He explained that his shaykh, who lived quite a distance away, had seen her in a dream, and had sent him to the place that had been indicated. When our friend’s mother protested that she did not know his shaykh and felt inadequate for such a responsibility, the man replied, “Do not worry. Our shaykh has seen your purity. He says that whenever you have a question, you should hold that question in your heart, and in your dreams he will bring you the answer.” Thus began her apprenticeship. Sufi schools spread from the Middle East to Europe long ago, and new waves continue to arrive.

Irina Tweedie, the author of the memoir Daughter of Fire, recently conveyed an Indian branch of the Naqshbandi line back to her native England. Her work is being continued through the Golden Sufi Center in California. This is one of the many branches of Sufism that are beginning to take root in America. A popular strain of Sufism that has been very welcoming of women in the United States is the Chishti order, which was first brought to America by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Of the many women involved, Murshida Vera Corda is perhaps the most well-known spokesperson. Her work with children in particular has been a great inspiration to many parents.

One branch of Sufism that has become better known in the West in recent years is the Mevlevi. Within this tradition founded upon the example of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273), women have always been deeply respected, honored, and invited to participate in all aspects of the spiritual path. There have often been Mevlevi shaykhas who have guided both women and men. Mevlana himself had many female disciples, and women were also encouraged to participate in sema, the musical whirling ceremony of the Mevlevis. (Women usually had their own semas, but sometimes performed semas together with men.) One of Mevlana’s chief disciples was Fakhr an-Nisa, known as the Rabi‘a of her age. In recent years, for various reasons of renovation and road rerouting, it was decided to reconstruct her tomb. As Shaykh Suleyman Hayati Dede was then the acting spiritual head of the Mevlevi order, he was asked to be present when she was exhumed. He told of how, when her body was uncovered, it was totally intact and emitted a fragrance of roses.

As women, we come from the womb and carry the womb. We give birth from the womb and can find ourselves born into the womb of Being. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is very much revered in Sufism and Islam as an example of one who continually took refuge with the Divine and opened to receive divine inspiration within the womb of her being. Women have a great capacity for patience, for nurturing, for love. A contemporary male Sufi teacher once described an ideal guide as one who is like a mother—who is always there for her child, not demanding, though willing to instruct and set limits, but also ready to stay up all night or rise at any hour to nurse a suffering child. Sufism recognizes that committed relationship and family are not contrary to the flowering of spirituality, but rather wonderful vessels for spiritual ripening. Committed partnership, children, and wider family are great blessings, containing the inspiration, the breathing in, of the Divine.

As we deepen our capacity for relationship and fidelity, we also increase our capacity for relationship with the Divine. Women and men need to stand together in the Light. Especially in our own time, the way is opening for greater recognition of equal partnership. We have much to learn from each other, and male and female need to recognize each other so that we can come to balance within ourselves as well as create balance outwardly in the world. The masculine attributes of strength and determination also belong to women; the feminine attributes of receptivity and beauty also belong to men. As we look to see the Divine in each other, encouraging each other to rise to the fullness of his or her own divine nature, we push against our own limitations until those limits dissolve and a gift unfolds.

As we learn to witness the miracle of creation, a time comes when Wheresoever you look, there is the Face of God; everything is perishing except the One Face (Surah Baqarah 2:115). Whether we choose celibacy or committed partnership, whether we are female or male, the same work remains of polishing the mirror of the heart, of being in remembrance moment by moment, breath by breath. Each moment, we reaffirm the inner marriage until there is no longer lover or Beloved but only Unity of Being. Little by little, we die to that which we thought we were. We are dissolved into Love, and we become love, God willing. As Rabi‘a says, In love, nothing exists between breast and Breast. Speech is born out of longing, true description from the real taste. The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies. How can you describe the true form of Something in whose Presence you are blotted out? And in whose Being you still exist? And Who lives as a sign for your journey?”

~ Camille Adams Helminski is cofounder and codirector of the Threshold Society in Aptos, California, an educational foundation in the Mevlevi tradition based on the teachings of Rumi. She was the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur’an into English, in her book The Light of Dawn. She has been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for over thirty years and has helped to increase awareness of the integral contribution of women to the spiritual path of Islam with her book, Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Stories and Writings of Mystic Poets, Scholars, and Saints.

Camille and Kabir Helminski are closely associated with Sufi teachers from other tariqahs in Turkey, India, Iran, and Syria, all of whom are committed to integrating the classical methods with modern needs.