| At first glance, Islam and Tantrism might seem an unlikely
pair for comparison: the former known for its austere simplicity and
uncompromising monotheism, the latter presenting a plethora of rituals, mantras,
and deities. But looking beneath the surface at the underlying philosophical
principles will reveal that the two share much in common.
Both Islam and Tantrism are spiritual paths that arose at the same point
in history to allow access to the Divine Reality for ordinary people in the
latter age of the world. Both are world-affirming, life-affirming, in contrast
to world-denying and life-denying creeds. They see creation and the body
not as illusion or evil, but as a positive revelation of the Divine that
assists in spiritual realization. Both are socially egalitarian and accord
high status to women and the Feminine, in contrast to the milieus they arose
in.
Both are paths that lead to the Divine not by shunning or negating this body,
but by working through it. The body and the world, when approached in the
right way, can become not obstacles, but the very vehicle to the Divine.
Life in the world can be sacralized by the divine presence: one needn't be
a monk, or a highly spiritually perfected ascetic saint or anchorite, to
experience the divine presence. Women are sacred, sex is sacred, eating is
sacred, the earth is sacred, the whole world can be transfigured: "and
the earth shines with the glory of its Lord (wa-ashraqat al-ardu bi-nûri
rabbihâ)," as the Qur’ân ecstatically proclaims (39:69). |
Salvation for fallen humanity in the Kali
Yuga
|
| Islam arose in the seventh century after Christ, and the early
texts of Tantrism date from approximately the same time (6th-8th centuries).
While Islam is a continuation of the revelations of earlier prophets, its
practical approach to worldly and spiritual life contrasts with that of earlier
dispensations; for example, the complex Halakhic laws governing Jewish life
are very much simplified in Islam. The spiritual life has been made much
easier to follow, as the Qur’ân promises: "We make easy for
you the way to ease," and Prophet Muhammad said that this way of ours
is meant to be easy. No priesthood is required to fulfill any rites, for
each individual Muslim man and woman is his or her own priest. The heroic
spiritual qualities required of earlier peoples are not required for salvation
in Islam, as Allah allowed for the fallen condition of humanity in this late
stage of the world and opened access to the highest spiritual realization
for all peoples.
Similarly, Tantra is understood as a divine concession to the conditions
of the Kali Yuga. In contrast to Brahminism where access to the Divine was
controlled by a priestly élite, Tantrism is a way open to anyone of
any caste, any station in life. Whereas in the early ages, great rigor and
austerities were imposed on spiritual seekers, and superhuman efforts were
required, Tantrism like Islam does not demand of people more than they can
bear, but takes people as they are and shows them the way to ascend spiritually. |
World-affirmation and life-affirmation
|
| Islam has a totally different orientation from the Manichean
type of attitude that the world is evil. Rather, the Qur’ân emphasizes
that all of creation holds signs for people with hearts, for those who
contemplate, signs that show the truth of the Creator and inspire us spiritually.
All of virgin Nature becomes transparent, showing the glory of Allah shining
through in every stone, every leaf, every creature. The world is not a barrier
to the Spirit when understood by people whose hearts are clean and virtuous.
Thus Muslims are not to flee the world and withdraw to monasteries and nunneries;
they are encouraged to engage fully in life, to marry and earn a living,
to work for good in society. In this way spiritual values are infused throughout
the entire civilization. The Muslim esoteric orders, the Sufis, although
committed to a holy life, are just as engaged in the life of this world as
other Muslims, and through their prayers and remembrance of Allah in the
midst of it alchemically transmute earthly life into something sacred.
The Tantric attitude toward the world or phenomenal existence also values
it as a vehicle for the spiritual life. Tantra presented an alternative to
the life-denying Hindu doctrine that negated the world as mere illusion.
As the classical Tantric dictum says, "What is here is elsewhere. What is
not here is nowhere." Mâyâ itself, often translated as
"illusion," is in fact the creative, feminine power of the Divine and is
related eytmologically to the root mâ, meaning to measure. Far
from being mere illusion, it is the power that through cosmological measurement
generates this world and constitutes its substance. Far from being unreal,
it is in a sense consciousness veiling itself. Spirit, Mind, and Matter are
ultimately one, the two latter being the twin aspects of the Fundamental
Substance or Brahman and Its power or Shakti.
The ancient Dravidian tradition was always life-affirming, as the ancient
Tamil book of wisdom, the tirukkuraL, demonstrates.
Its author tiruvaLLuvar was a member of the lowest caste, the
Paraiyans, and his Dravidian vision of the virtuous life is
in sharp contrast with that of Vedic Brahminism in its affirmation of worldly
life as sacred for everyone. The lowest castes of the ancient Dravidians
were essential to the sacred functions that upheld the state and the social
order; they fulfilled the roles of sacred drumming and communication, and
tiruvaLLuvar continues this perspective in his writing. This
world-affirming Dravidian tradition is at the source of Tantra as well, and
as such both are congruent with Islam. |
| Islam does not condemn the body as a hindrance to the spiritual
life, but on the contrary ennobles it as a vehicle to ultimate realization.
In Islamic the pleasures of the body are not denied or repressed but integrated
into a wholesome way of life. As the Prophet said, your body has its rights
over you. The spiritual significance of the body in Islam is shown through
the bodily postures used in praying salât: each of them is potent
with cosmic symbolism, so that the body itself is transfigured into a spiritual
expression. Thus Islamic prayer is congruent with hatha yoga, which is a
branch of Tantric yoga. Islam's unitary, holistic view of the body and spirit
is evident in the alchemical saying of the Shi‘ite Imams,
"arwâhunâ ajsâdunâ wa-ajsâdunâ
arwâhunâ" (our spirits are our bodies and our bodies are
our spirits). In Islamic spirituality, God-consciousness effects an alchemical
transmutation on matter so that the body and its pleasures are seen as a
sacred divine gift.
An early Islamic classic, Rasâ’il Ikhwân
al-Safâ’ (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), discusses
the metaphysical significance of the human body as a microcosm corresponding
to the macrocosm of the whole of creation. Our inner understanding of our
bodies is therefore a key for the understanding of the world of nature, as
is our comprehension of the rapport between the soul and the body, their
complementarity and integration into a whole. The great Sufi sage Muhyî
al-Dîn Ibn al-‘Arabî developed many such themes dealing
with the body, including sexuality, on the deepest level of their significance
in his writings. He says that the body is the seat of the highest reality
created by Allah in the whole universe, the rûh or the Spirit
of Allah Himself which He blew into Adam's body. Altogether the Islamic teachings
about the body emphasize its Divine Origin—that is, being created by
Allah and possessing the greatest significance for the understanding of the
human state.
The Tantric body is considered to be the manifestation of the Divine. The
basic tenet of Tantrism is that matter, and therefore the body, is also a
manifestation of shakti power, that is, the power emanating from the feminine
aspect of Divine Reality. Hence, the body must not be opposed or despised.
The body itself is a form of consciousness so veiled that we get the appearance
of insensibility, inertia, and mere mechanical energy. But this is only an
appearance. One can contemplate even in the gross body the consciousness
that underlies its reality. The practice of kuNDalini yoga unites
the creating and sustaining shakti of the whole body with the Lord Consciousness.
The yogi makes Her introduce him to Her Lord, and enjoys the bliss of union
through her. In kuNDalini through the very pulse of life in the body
we realize Universal Life. Therefore, the body is to be respected and revered.
To deny it is to deny the Divine Life that flows through it; it is to deny
the unity of spirit, soul, and body and to forget that it is the manifestation
of the Divine Feminine power, Shakti. From the perspective of Tantrism, because
the physical, spiritual, and mental cannot be separated, all being aspects
of the one all-pervading consciousness, the body must also be considered
in spiritual realization and therefore has profound religious significance.
One striking congruence between Islam and Tantra is in the symbolism of the
Prophet's night journey to Heaven (al-mi‘râj). He mounted
on a female riding beast with the head of a woman and ascended through the
seven heavens to the Divine Presence. The kuNDalini is a feminine
force (shakti) that ascends through the seven cakras to divine
realization. |
Egalitarianism and social leveling
|
| Both Islam and Tantra came into their respective cultures
as a breath of fresh air, opening up a closed social hierarchy in which the
powerful classes dominated the lower classes. Both offered a spiritual
brotherhood and sisterhood in which all members shared equal status. In Islamic
society, according to a hadith, all are "as equal as the teeth on a comb."
The new Islamic order allowed the poor and the slaves to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the highborn, with no distinction of class or position. Bilal,
the freed African slave, was addressed by the Caliph ‘Umar as
"sayyidnâ" (our master), which is the highest term of respect
in Arabic; he was accorded that respect for the spiritual nobility of his
heart, which is the only distinction recognized in Islam. The Prophet ordered
the Muslims to follow leaders who are black slaves. In Tantric circles, this
social leveling went even further: not only did tântrika assemblies
bring together people of all castes, there was even a preference for members
of the lowest castes, for the greater spiritual power they brought to the
working. This is from the ancient Dravidian heritage of Tantra, in which
the lowest castes, the holders of the sacred drums, were essential to the
sacred functions of the whole civilization. |
| Islam was the first thoroughgoing feminist restructuring of
the Middle Eastern society that had been dominated by patriarchy for millennia.
Although in subsequent eras, down to the present day, patriarchy was
re-established in Muslim lands due to the inevitable decline of spiritual
values in the human world, the fact remains that the Qur’ân and
Prophet Muhammad uplifted women to be the full and equal spiritual partners
of men and established their civil rights and liberties. This has been well
documented in the six-volume Arabic book Tahrîr al-mar’ah fî
‘asr al-risâlah (Women's Liberation in the Era of the Prophet)
by ‘Abd al-Halîm Muhammad Abû Shuqqah. The new Islamic social
order upholding women's liberation was a reflection of the Prophet's love
for women, the Islamic recognition of the Divine Feminine aspect of Allah,
and the power of the female. Allah commanded reverence for the female
reproductive organs, the Yoni (al-arhâm) in the Qur’ân
(4:1), for its name in Arabic is derived from the divine name al-Rahmân,
the All-Merciful. Prophet Muhammad said that woman is the greatest treasure
in the world. Through the centuries it has been the Sufi orders who were
attuned to the Feminine and kept alive Islam's reverence for the sacredness
of women, through the veneration of Mary and of women saints like
Râbi‘ah. The present spiritual resurgence of Islamic feminism
is also being birthed through the Sufi orders that have kept it alive.
Tantrism has been the comparable tradition that has upheld the sacredness
of the Feminine in India. Closely interconnected with Shaktism, the Tantric
veneration of Woman is central to its spiritual working. The Shaktisangama
Tantra says:
Woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form; woman is
the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body. Whatever form
she takes, whether the form of a man or a woman, is the superior form. In
woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world.
There is no jewel rarer than woman, no condition superior to that of woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be any destiny to equal that of woman;
there is no kingdom, no wealth, to be compared with a woman; there is not,
nor has been, nor will be any holy place like unto a woman. There is no prayer
to equal a woman. There is not, nor has been, nor will be any yoga to compare
with a woman, no mystical formula nor asceticism to match a woman. There
are not, nor have been, nor will be any riches more valuable than woman.
This passage is reminiscent of Rumi's poetic lines saying "Woman is a ray
of God ... she is Creator, not created." To take another example, the
Kaulâvalî Tantra says:
One should bow to any female, be she a young girl, flushed with youth, or
be she old, be she beautiful or ugly, good or wicked. One should never deceive,
speak ill of, or do ill to, a woman and one should never strike her. All
such acts prevent the attainment of siddhi (success in religious
exercise)."
The Kaula Tantriks regarded female gurus very highly and there were many
examples of yoginis or female tantriks. In the Yoni Tantra, Patala
7, we find: "Women are divinity, women are life, women are truly jewels."
This sentiment is echoed in many other tantras such as the Shakti Sangama
Tantra, Devirahasya, and elsewhere. A woman is the Goddess: "Worship
carefully a woman or a maiden as she is Shakti, sheltered by the Kulas. One
should never speak harshly to maidens or women." (Kaula Jñana Nirnaya
Tantra, Patala 23)
In both Islam and Tantrism, there is a consistent pattern: high regard for
women and empowerment of women are concomitants of veneration for virgin
nature, the earth, the body, and sacred sexuality. |
| In India, many have seen an opposition between Vedanta and
Tantra. The former is centered on transcendence, the negation of everything
other than the One Real; the latter is centered on immanence, the experience
of the Real within the phenomenal manifestations of this life. One well-known
example of the opposition between the two is in the life of Sri Ramakrishna.
He began as a devotee of Kali Ma, and was a Shakta Tantric initiate. Later
he was initiated into Vedanta by a guru who tried to expunge his Tantric
tendencies. The tension between the two produced immense suffering in
Ramakrishna's soul. His lineage was carried on by Vivekananda who founded
the Vedanta Society and downplayed the Tantric side of Ramakrishna.
In Sufism, the polar opposition of transcendence and immanence was not a
problem, for both are integrated into a holistic spiritual path, just as
Sufism combines both bhakti and jñâna, love-devotion
and intellective gnosis. The Sufi, when invoking the Divine Name of Allah,
meditates alternately on the discernment of the unreality of the world and
the self and everything besides Allah; and on the fact that one's own being is
nothing other than Allah's Being, immediately present. In this way one realizes
the complementarity of the two, how they are the two faces of one and the
same ultimate Reality. This esoteric insight is how Sufism was able to overcome
the conundrum of divine transcendence (tanzîh) and immanence
(tashbîh) that so perplexed rationalist Islamic theologians
and philosophers. Indeed, negation (nafy) followed by affirmation
(ithbât) is the essential structure of the entire doctrine of
Islam: No reality but the Reality.
Srîvidyâ is a Dravidian Tantric school of South India, tracing
its lineage back to the founder of Advaita Vedanta, Adi Sankaracarya. It
is interesting for having united Vedanta and Tantra together in a single
spiritual path of devotion to Shakti as Sri Vidya, 'Auspicious Wisdom'. As
such it has a striking congruence with Sufism, which should make for an
interesting comparative study of the two.
The Nath Siddhas are an alchemical Tantric tradition that was widespread
in medieval India, studied extensively in David Gordon White's fascinating
book The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Their
activity flowed into many spheres of esoteric activity including hatha yoga,
alchemical working, and sacred sex. One major branch of this school was the
Tamil cittar (Siddhas). The Tamil Tantric master
tirumûlar, author of the classic tirumantiram,
is considered the first in the line of eighteen Saiva cittars and
is still influential in the present day. The Nath Siddhas were, according
to White, more amenable than any other Hindu sect to interaction with Islam.
This can be explained through the congruence of the metaphysical principles
of Islam and Tantrism. Many are the Nath Siddhas who are known as "Guru"
or "Nâth" by their Hindu disciples and "Pîr" by Muslims. The
Bauls of Bengal are a prime example of this interaction of Tantrism with
Islam; many of them are Muslims who revere Gorakh and other Nath Siddhas,
and their songs resemble those of the Buddhist Mahasiddha Tantrists. There
is also a prominent place occupied by "Jogis" (Tantric alchemical yogis)
in Indian Sufi hagiography. There were prominent Tamil Muslims among the
cittar such as kuNankuTi mastân sâhib, a
Sufi poet. The earliest Tamil Muslim author whose works have survived was
Yakopu Cittar, also called Yuki Munivar (c. 13th century?),
a Siddha physician, originally named Iramatevar, who coverted to Islam and
wrote a book of verses on alchemy and medicine titled Vaittiya
cintâmani, poems in which he integrated Tantric and Islamic
wisdom, describing his Hajj and paying homage to the Tamil Tantric tradition
he emerged from.
These exchanges went both ways. According to the
Kalaikkalañciyam (Tamil Encyclopaedia), Islam made its own
contribution to Tamil Siddha tradition: "The Arabians joining hands with
the Tamils sailed ships and fought the Portuguese. The Arab contact gave
a further impetus to the Siddha system of [Tantric-alchemical] medicine here.
The Tamil Muslims of Kayalpattinam were poets who made use of books expounding
the Siddha system of medicine. The influence of Islamic Sufis like Rumi found
its way into the poetical works of Tamil Siddhars. "Gnanarathina Kuravanji,"
composed by Pir Muhammad Sahib, was included in the collection of Siddhar
devotional songs entitled Periyagnanakovai." (Tamil Encyclopaedia,
vol. 4, p. 643. Quoted by S. M. Sulaiman in Islam, Indian Religions, and
Tamil Culture, p. 15-16.)
An eighteenth-century Gujarati text of the Satpanth Nizari Isma‘ilis
tells of a renowned Isma‘ili and Sufi master imparting Tantric spiritual
instruction to a Nath Siddha Jogi master. It includes both Islamic and Tantric
terms, and demonstrates the intersection of these two traditions. A portion
of this document has been published with a study by Dominique Sila Khan as
"Conversation between Guru Hasan Kabiruddin and Jogi Kanipha: Tantra Revisited
by the Isma‘ili Preachers" in Tantra in Practice, edited by David
Gordon White, Princeton Readings in Religions. |
Conclusion: a meeting of two spiritual
oceans
|
| There is something providential about the meeting of the world's
oldest religion, Hinduism, and the youngest, Islam, in India. The congruence
between the two is aided by the Tantric philosophical tendencies shared by
both the ancient Dravidian world (which extended into the Middle East in
prehistory) and Islam.
Vedic Brahmanism allowed only the males of the upper castes any spiritual
validity. Tantra spiritually empowered women and men of any caste or no-caste
whatsoever. Tantra's egalitarian spirituality and upliftment of women, so
similar to that of Islam, arose from the primal Dravidian world where women
were revered for their female sacred power, and the low castes performed
vital religious and state functions.
Naturally, in the course of the playing out of infinite possibilities, there
did appear ascetic and monastic, life-denying tendencies among Sufis and
yogis. But on the whole, both Tantra and Islam are notable for their
life-affirming, nondualist spiritual paths. Most Sufis, as in the
Shâdhilî order, are people who live fully in the world and yet
live fully in the Sacred.
Both Sufism and Tantra share a vision of God experiencing God's Being
concretized, through us as us, the human form and heart being the
only vehicle capacious enough and refined enough to fully accommodate the
embodied Divine Consciousness. |
|