Bayazid Bastami
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bayazid Bastami | |
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| Full name | Bayazid Bastami |
| Born | 804 |
| Died | 874 |
| Region | West Asia |
| School | Sufism |
| Main interests | mysticism, philosophy, panentheism |
| Notable ideas | wahdat al-wujud |
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Influenced by
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Bayazid Bastami (Persian بايزيد بسطامى ), also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, (804-874 CE) was a Persian[1] Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.
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[edit] Background
The name Bastami means "from the city of Bastam". Hazrat Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian who converted to Islam[2]. His Grandfather had three sons, Adam, Tayfur and 'Ali. All of them were ascetics. Abayazid was born to Tayfur. Not much was known of his childhood, but Bayazid spent most of his time in isolation in his house and the mosque. Although he remained in isolation he did not isolate him self from the sufi realm. He welcomed people into his house to have discussion about sufism. Bayazid also led a life of asceticism and renounced all worldly pleasures in order to be one with God. Ultimately, this led Bayazid to a state of "self anhiliation", which is the only state a person could be in order to be closest with God. Bayazid became known as the first intoxicated sufi because of his openness of his expressions he felt towards God. Bayazid is regarded as being one of the most influential mystics due to the fact of how controversial he was at the time.
[edit] Influence
Bastami's predecessor Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri (d. CE 859) had formulated the doctrine of ma'rifa (gnosis), presenting a system which helped the murid (initiate) and the shaykh (guide) to communicate. Bayazid Bastami took this another step and emphasized the importance of ecstasy, referred to in his words as drunkenness (sukr or wajd), a means of annihilation in the Divine Presence. Before him, Sufism was mainly based on piety and obedience and he played a major role in placing the concept of divine love at the core of Sufism.
Bastami was truly the first to speak openly of "annihilation of the self in God" (fana fi 'Allah') and "subsistence through God" (baqa' bi 'Allah). The "annihilation of the self" (fana fi 'Allah') refers to disregarding everything in this world because of one's love towards God. When a person enters the state of fana it is believed that one is closest to God. His paradoxical sayings gained a wide circulation and soon exerted a captivating influence over the minds of students who aspired to understand the meaning of the wahdat al-wujud, Unity of Being.
When Bayazid died, he was over seventy years old. Before he died, someone asked him his age. He said: I am four years old. For seventy years I was veiled. I got rid of my veils only four years ago.”
He died in 874CE and is buried either in the city of Bistam in north central Iran, or in Semnan, Iran. Bayazid lived a century before Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar Neishapouri has mentioned in his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya that Bayazid had spoken about the personality and state of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani with his disciples while passing from the village of Kharaqan, almost 100 years before the birth of Shaikh Abul Hassan. Bayazid Bastami had great influence on Sufi mysticism and is considered to be one of the important early teachers of Sufi Islam.
[edit] Intoxicated Sufi
An intoxicated Sufi is one that expresses their feelings openly without disregarding the social consequences in doing so. Bayazid was most famous for openly expressing himself. Unlike the sufi Junayd who was a sober sufi, meaning that he reserved his feelings within himself and not allowing for such expressions to be observed to the outside world. This was the acceptable comportment of a Sufi, however when Bayazid began to express himself openly many shunned him. The people opposed to his openness accused Bayazid of being a heretic due to his bizarre sayings. Not only his sayings are controversial, but Bayazid also claimed to have traveled through the 7 heavens in his dream. This journey proclaimed by Bayazid is similar to the Mi'raj of the Prophet Muhammad (Sells, pg 213). Under Islamic belief a person to transcend into the 7 heavens is impossible because only prophets can do this like Muhammad. Obviously many Muslim conservatives at the time did not approve of such statements made by Bayazid like the previous one.
These sayings are some of Bayazid's famous sayings that caused him to be labeled as an intoxicated Sufi.
- "Glory be to me! How great is My majesty!"
- "Thy obedience to me is greater than my obedience to Thee"
- "I am the throne and the footstool"
- "By my life, my grasp is firmer than His"
- "I saw the Kaba walking round me"
- "Moses desired to see God; I do not desire to see God;He desires to see me"
- "I am I; there is no God but I; so worship me!"
His followers understood his sayings because they comprehended something that most sufis at the time did not. They understood that Bayazid, "has reached a stage of mystical self consciousness so thoroughly infused with the divine that there is no room neither fo the human self nor for God but only for the ultimate and absolute "I," called God as the object of faith but "I" as the subject of mystical experience (Ritter, pg.2).
[edit] The Mystery About Shrine of Bayazid Bostami in Bangladesh
Interestingly enough, there is a shrine in Chittagong, Bangladesh that local people believe to be Bastami's tomb as well. This seems unlikely to be true, as Bastami was never known to have visited Bangladesh. However, Sufi teachers were greatly influential in the spread of Islam in Bengal and this might explain the belief. The Islamic scholars of Bangladesh usually regard the tomb at Chittagong attributed to him as a jawab, or imitation.
One explanation is the local legend that Bayazid did indeed visit Chattagong. At the time of his return, he found that his local followers did not want to leave. Overwhelmed by the love of his local followers, he pierced his finger and dropped a few drops of his blood on the ground and allowed his followers to build a shrine in his name where his blood drops fell.
This also explained by the traditional Sufi masters as a mash-had, or site of witnessing, where the spiritual presence of the saint has been witnessed, and is known to appear. This is explained through the Sufi concept of the power of the saint's soul to travel and in its spiritual form, even after death, to appear to the living. The Quran mentions that some of those who have proven their sincerity have achieved a life beyond the grave (سَبِيلِ اللّهِ أَمْوَاتًا بَلْ أَحْيَاء عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ; Wala tahsabanna allatheena qutiloo fee sabeeli Allahi amwatan bal ahyaon AAinda rabbihim yurzaqoona; Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord; 3:169
[edit] Sayings
Some of his words quoted from Tadhkiratul Awliya تذکره الاولیا by Farid al-Din Attar:
- I never saw any lamp shining more brilliantly than the lamp of silence.
- I went to a wilderness, love had rained and had covered earth, as feet penetrate snow, I found my feet covered with love.
- I stood with the pious and I didn’t find any progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause and I didn’t find a single step of progress with them. Then I said, ‘O Allah, what is the way to You?’ and Allah said, ‘Leave yourself and come.’
[edit] Notes
- ^ Walbridge, John. "Suhrawardi and Illumination" in "The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy " edited by Peter Adamson, Richard C. Taylor, Cambridge University Press, 2005. pg 206.
- ^ Abu 'l-Qasim Al-Qushayri, "Al-qushayri's Epistle on Sufism: Al-risala Al-qushayriyya Fi 'ilm Al-tasawwuf", Translated by Alexander D. Knysh, Garnet & Ithaca Press, 2007. pg 32
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ritter, H. "Abū Yazīd (Bāyazīd) Tayfūr B. Īsā B. Surūshān al- Bistāmī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online. Augustana. 28 September 2009 http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_SIM-0275
- Quasem, Muhammad Abul. "Al-Ghazali's evaluation of Abu Yazid al-Bistami and his disapproval of the mystical concepts of..." Asian Philosophy 3.2 (Oct. 1993): 143. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Augustana College, Rock Island, IL. 28 Sep. 2009 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9706053117&site=ehost-live>.
- Majaddedi, Jawid A. "Getting Drunk with Abu Yazid or Staying Sober with Junayd: The Creation of Popular Typology of Sufism" bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (Nov. 2003): pg 1-13.
- Sells, Michael A., ed. Early Islamic Mysticism. New Jersey: Paulist, 1996. Print.
- Böwering,Gerhard. BESṬĀMĪ BĀYAZĪD. "Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, 2005, available at www.iranica.com.
[edit] External links
- Biography of Bayazid al-Bistami in Urdu
- Biography of Bayazid al-Bistami
- Bayazid's Tomb in Iran
- Banglapedia article of Bastami
- Bayazidian Sufism: Annihilation without Ritual - Article by Alireza Nurbakhsh in SUFI: a journal of Sufism
- The Naqshbandiya Khalidiya Haqqaniya Tariqa in Italy
