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As-Salamu ʿalaykum:
These are some notes on the psychology of the early Muslims. Recently a contributor pointed out that advances in psychology bear on our interpretation of the texts. This is true, just as as advances in our use of electricity and technology bear on our psychology. For example, the ancients knew darkness and silence at night, we don't. Conversely, they appreciated natural light - the sun, the moon, candles, a fire - as well as heard and felt sound and noise, and, by extension, music and poetry, in ways we could not possibly fathom. Their dreams were probably far more legible than ours - some of those reported dreams carried entire conversations - because they didn't compete for their attention with the clutter of modern distractions - Their bellies also, like their minds and senses, were not overstuffed so they walked lightly upon the earth. Imam Malik reportedly went to stool only once every three days, and he "felt shame before my Lord" if or when this frequency increased.
The Salaf were also far more impressionable than we. They laughed, wept, shook and trembled, and fainted more than we do. It is related that ʿUmar had dark streaks on his face caused by excessive weeping. They used simple and childlike images to express their emotional states. For example: "I wish I were a little bird in the sky" (Abu Bakr and Ibn Masʿud); "I wish I were this straw on the ground" (ʿUmar). Those states were described in simple but striking terms: "When Ibn Masʿud prayed, he looked like a discarded rag" (Abu Wa'il); "They [the Companions] used to rise in the morning disheveled, dust-covered, pale, with something between their eyes like a goat's knee [from prostration on gravel], having spent the night chanting the Book of Allah, turning and returning from their feet to their foreheads. When Allah was mentioned they swayed the way trees sway on a windy day, then their eyes poured out tears until - by Allah! - they soaked their clothes. By Allah! Folks today are asleep and heedless" (ʿAli). Al-Awzaʿi's contemporaries compared him to a blind man due to his humility.
Ibn Qunfudh in Wasilat al-Islam (p. 145-146) wrote: "Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq - Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn al-Husayn ibn ʿAli ibn Abi Talib - would turn pale whenever he heard the Prophet ﷺ mentioned while ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Siddiq would turn red and stammer and, as for ʿAmir ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwamm, he would weep until his eyes had no tears left in them."
The Sufis pursued those states and cherished them because they recognized them as avenues of spiritual advancement and in line with the Prophetic command to "weep often and laugh little if you knew what I know." They knew, also, that the servant's extreme contrition is a sign of his Lord's acceptance. It is also said that a sign of the Divine acceptance of one's Hajj is the feeling of sorrow at not having performed Hajj correctly as it deserves to be performed.
Ibn Taymiyya in his essay "Sufis and Fakeers" (Majmuʿ al-Fatawa 11:5-7 epistle entitled al-Sufiyya wa al-Fuqara') purported to correct and reform what he perceived as wrongful Sufi practices and went so far as to claim that the Companions and Successors were never so affected as the Sufis of his time claimed to be. The evidence shows otherwise:
- Al-Hasan al-Basri and Hisham ibn al-Hasan narrated that ʿUmar sometimes lost consciousness after reciting a verse from the Qur'an, whereupon he would be taken ill and visited for days. Narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf (13:269); Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliya' ("Adornment of the Saints" 1:88 #133); Ibn al-Jawzi, Manaqib ʿUmar ("Immense Merits of ʿUmar" p. 168); Ibn Qudama, al-Riqqa wa al-Buka' ("Softness of Heart and Weeping" p. 166); al-Dhahabi in the Siyar, etc.
- Imam Ahmad in his Kitab al-Zuhd ("The Simple Life" p. 248 #880) narrates from Abu Hayyan that when Ibn Masʿud passed by the furnace of a blacksmith as they were fanning the fire, he fell unconscious.
- The same is reported from the Tabiʿis Malik ibn Dinar by Ibn Qudama in al-Riqqa wa al-Buka' (p. 331) and al-Rabiʿ ibn Khuthaym - in front of Ibn Masʿud - by Abu ʿUbayd in Fada'il al-Qur'an (p. 65) and Ibn Qudama in al-Riqqa wa al-Buka' (p. 293).
- Certain Tabiʿin of Basra such as the qadi Zurara ibn Abi Awfa (in Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd 7:150) and Abu Juhayr upon hearing a certain verse of Qur'an were reported to die on the spot.
- Among those known to faint at the recitation of certain verses were Ahmad's two teachers: Imam al-Shafiʿi and the Master of the Hadith Masters Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan as related from Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal; also the son of the great Saint Fudayl ibn ʿIyad, ʿAli ibn al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyad (in al-Bayhaqi's Shuʿab al-Iman 5:25, the Hilya 8:297; the Siyar [al-Arna'ut ed.] 8:442; and al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal 21:960).
- Al-Dhahabi in the Siyar (al-Arna'ut ed. 8:47) relates that a number of people died upon hearing the Qur'anic recitation of Salih al-Murri the Basran admonisher.
- Al-Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad, Ibn al-Jawzi in Manaqib Ahmad, al-Dhahabi in the Siyar and the Mizan and others related that Imam Ahmad wept to the point that he passed out upon hearing the discourse of the Sufi Shaykh, al-Harith al-Muhasibi for the first time. Al-Dhahabi comments: "The chain of this report is sound, and yet I can't believe this on the part of Imam Ahmad!"
Ibn Taymiyya also said that several of the Companions reportedly disapproved of those who fainted at the sound of Qur'an. This is true. Disapproval of those who fainted upon hearing Qur'an is narrated from Ibn ʿUmar, ʿA'isha, Anas, Asma', ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, and the Tabiʿi Qatada. This confirms beyond doubt that the phenomenon existed in their time - a time and a people extolled by the Best of creation, Allah bless and greet him and his Family and Companions. And Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril ©
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