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A Study of the Term Sirr (Secret) in Sufi Lata'if Theories

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A STUDY OF THE TERM SIRR (SECRET) IN SUFI LATA'IF THEORIES SHIGERU KAMADA* (I) Introduction Mystics are, in general, those who seek the Supreme Being and find their spiritual satisfaction in the personal experience of union with It. Sufis are not an exception to this rule. They do not find their spiritual satisfaction in merely following the Divine Law (Shari'ah) in a formal way; they further their aim to acquire a personal experience with God, the verbal expressions of which differ very widely from an ecstatic utterance of Hallaj: 'Ana al-Haqq' to Muhammad al-Ghazali's moderate treatises. Since they attach importance to a personal and interior experience of God, they examine closely their own interior as the organ through which they reach the presence of God. As a result of their self-examination, they have produced a kind of psychology, a science of inner subtleties (lata'if). According to their understanding, the human interior has a multistratal structure, each level of which may be said to correspond to one of the experiences brought forth by their spiritual encounter with God. The ways and principles of division of this interior being are diversified among Sufis, while the technical terms marking the levels are also different. The same term in the works of different Sufis does not always refer to one and the same experience. Some of the key terms are based on the Qur'anic terminology and others on various sources.(1) The following are the most popular Sufi technical terms concerning the lata'if which appear in mystical treatises: soul (nafs), reason ('aql), heart (qalb, P. dil), spirit (ruh, P. jan), secret (sirr), hidden (khafi), most hidden (akhfa), and secret of the secret (sirr al-sirr). Before starting my examination of some Sufi texts I would like to attempt a rapid survey(2) of the above mentioned key terms, though it is difficult to understand them in a general way because each individual Sufi uses them in, * Research Assistant, Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo. Vol. XIX 1983 7 more or less, different connotations. In the Sufi world view man consists of two dimensions: gross matter (kathif) and subtle matter (latif). The former is expressed by the term 'nature' (tab' or tabi'ah) meaning the material or corporeal dimension. The latter, expressed by the various terms mentioned above, refers to the human interior or the spiritual organs, whose analysis is the main theme of the present paper. The word nafs in Sufi usage has a variety of meanings. First, it means 'ego' or 'self', that is to say, the reality (haqiqah) or the substance (dhat) of man. From its comprehensiveness the idea of nafs often includes heart, spirit and body. However, in most cases nafs is 'ego' as the seat of instinctive drive, that of the force which drives a Sufi to evil, the origin of evil and the foundation of his pleasure-seeking tendency. Therefore in a spiritual meaning a Sufi must fight against his soul (nafs) or himself, namely, his worst enemy until he destroys it. Sufis have developed their notion of nafs by conceiving the several stages of the nafs, starting from that of the lowest nafs as the enemy opposing to their spiritual perfection, passing through intermediate stages and ending with spiritual perfection immune from any impu- rity or evil. In many cases to classify several stages of nafs, Sufis use the Qur'anic phrases: 'the soul inciting to evil' (al-nafs al-ammarah), 'the censorious soul' (al-nafs al-lawwamah) and 'the tranquil soul' (al-nafs al-mutma'innah) as well as others such as 'the seducing soul' (al-nafs al-musawwilah) and 'the satisfied soul' (al-nafs al- mardiyah).(3) Heart (qalb, P. dil) is explained by Sufis in such an etymological way that it is so named because of its changeableness (taqallub). It inclines sometimes to good and sometimes to evil. Another traditional explanation is that the heart is a 'centre', 'medium' (qalb) or the medium of the physical and the spiritual in man. Since the heart is a mirror in which God reveals himself to mystics, it is an important task for them to purify and keep it clean. Further we find the idea that the heart is an abode of God and that the inner part of the heart is a divine sanctuary. After the heart comes the spirit in most cases. The spirit (ruh) is classi- fied by Ghazali into two: the material spirit in a form of vapour which directs the whole body, and the subtle spirit which is the locus of knowledge and in- spiration. Many Sufis think that the spirit is the essence of man, and again that it belongs to God, because the Qur'an says: "The spirit is of the order of my Lord" (al-ruh min amr rabbi) (17: 85). 8 ORIENT A STUDY OF THE TERM SIRR (SECRET) IN SUFI LATA'IF THEORIES Although there are different opinions concerning the place of sirr, as will be shown in the following pages, it comes after the spirit in many cases. Many Sufis see in sirr the organ of contemplation (mushahadah), while they see in the heart and the spirit respectively the organs of gnosis (ma'rifah) and of love (mahabbah)(4). In addition to the basic lata'if such as nafs, qalb, ruh, and sirr which I have mentioned, some Sufis mention other lata'if which they think are more subtle than the sirr. Under this category come the hidden (khafi), the most hidden (akhfa) and the secret of the secret (sirr al-sirr). By combining the above mentioned technical terms, Sufis form their theories of lata'if. One of the earliest lata'if theories was formed by a Baghdadi Sufi 'Amr b. 'Uthman al-Makki (d. 291/903-4).(5) His theory of interiorization consists of four levels: body (tan), heart (dil), spirit (jan) and secret (sirr), in the order from grosser to more subtle. His scheme of lata'if may be influenced by a kind of emanatist philosophy,(6) since he mentions that God created hearts seven thousand years before bodies; He created spirits seven thousand years before hearts; and He created secrets seven thousand years before spirits. The order of interiorization corresponds to that of creation. Each organ has its own faculty such as prayer (namaz) of the body, love (mahabbat) of the heart, nearness (qurbat) of the spirit and union (wuslat) of the secret. In this scheme the secret points out the deepest place in the human interior where a mystic enjoys the union with God. A post-classical Sufi Simnani (d. 736/1336) gives a different scheme,(7) which divides the lata'if into five: soul (nafs), heart (dil), secret (sirr), spirit (ruh) and the hidden (khafi). He locates the secret at an intermediate stage in the process of interiorization, where a mystic realizes the absolute difference between 'I' as totally ignorant and 'Thou' as the omniscient.(8) As the above two examples show, different Sufis give different impli- cations to the secret (sirr). Therefore taking into account the system of lata'if given by each Sufi, I would like to examine the significances of the term sirr or the secret, in the texts of Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 412/1062), al-Qushayri (d. 465/1074), al-Hujwiri (d. 465-9/1072-77) and Abu Hafs al- Suhrawardi (d. 632/1234). (II) Sulami Sulami discusses the lata'if in two sections of his Risalat al-malamatiyah.(9) Vol. XIX 1983 9 Besides nature (tab') he divides the lata'if into four: soul (nafs), heart (qalb), secret (sirr), and spirit (ruh) in the order from grosser to subtler. Each of them has its own particular area of experience; for instance, if a mystical state cor- responding to the state of spirit comes down to the state of secret, it will be hypocrisy (riya') in relation to secret. Again, if man is raised up to the state of spirit from that of secret, the heart cannot recognize this experience. In this way each of the lata'if has its own particular area of experience distinct from its both higher and lower lata'if. He writes as follows: When a mystic receives illumination (mukashaf ), he sees with his eye ('ayn) anything which he wants, that is, he witnesses (yushahid) it as it really is, and he sees in his heart (qalb) and knows throughly the situa- tions of the Unseen (mawadi' al-ghayb). The spirit (ruh) and the secret (sirr) are there in contemplation (mushahadah), and both never depend on the heart and the soul at all. As this shows, the physical eyes refer to the real existent world [physical world]; the heart refers to the situations of the Unseen [probably such as the vision of Paradise and Hell]; and both spirit and secret refer to contemplation in which a mystic may contemplate God. Since Sulami does not discuss here difference between sirr and ruh, we cannot distinguish the contemplation in sirr and that in ruh, though ruh occupies a higher status than sirr. All we can under- stand from his exposition is that both sirr and ruh are very subtle and indepen- dent from the lower lata'if such as qalb and nafs and equally refer to contem- plation of God (mushahadah). In another section(10) of the treatise, he again discusses the lata'if in terms of dhikr. He mentions four kinds of dhikr: dhikr of spirit (ruh), of secret (sirr), of heart (qalb), and of tongue (lisan).(11) The place of the secret is same as in Sulami's above mentioned division.
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