Thursday, July 8, 2010

Rabbeinu Aḅraham ben Rambam on the Jewish Origins of Sufi Practice

You are aware of the ways of the ancient saints of Israel, which are not of but little practise among our contemporaries, that have now become the practice of the Ṣūfīs of Islām, on account of the iniquities of Israel...
Aḅraham ben Maimonides, Kifāyat al-`Abidīn, Volume II, translated by Samuel Rosenblatt, (Baltimore, 1938), 266
Do not regard as unseemly our comparison of that to the behaviour of the Ṣūfīs, for the latter imitate the prophets and walk in their footsteps, not the prophets in theirs...
Ibid, 320
Observer then these wondrous traditions and sigh with regret over how they have been transferred from us and appeared amongst a nation other than ours whereas they have disappeared in our midst. My soul shall weep... because of the pride of Israel that was taken from them and bestowed upon the nations of the world...
Ibid, 322