I came across
an interesting reference this week to the practice of vigils in The Hundred
Letters of the 13th- to 14th-century Indian Sufi, Makhdum
al-Mulk Sharafuddin b. Yahya Maneri. In Letter 28, Sharafuddin outlines what
should be the sufi’s daily routine of prayer, and having prescribed the
necessary prayers before the night’s sleep, he writes:
If he is
diligent, he can perform all these prayers; and he may also impose an added
religious duty on himself: ‘They forsake their beds, calling upon their Lord in
fear and in hope’ (Q32:16) rightly refers to those who are awake and watchful
between sunset and the first watch of the night….Also, to prevent sleep from
gaining mastery over him, let him rise at the end of the night’s rest, before
dawn breaks, and begin his work afresh—that is the time to beg for pardon, and
prayer is more profitable at this time than at night! If at the end of the
night he engages himself in the prayer throughout the night, he should seek God’s
pardon and recite the Quran. [1]
The quote
from Sura 32 caught my attention in particular, and it reminded me that there
was actually a very positive reference to Christian ascetics in the Qur’an (5:82-3)—
You are sure
to find that the most hostile to the believers are the Jews and those who
associate other deities with God; you are sure to find that the closest in
affection towards the believers are those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ for
there are among them people devoted to learning and ascetics. These people are
not given to arrogance, and when they listen to what has been sent down to the
Messenger, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears because they
recognize the Truth [in it]. [2]
But following
the reference to Sura 32 in The Study Quran, I found something even more
interesting. In context, the full statement covers ayat 15 and 16 and reads: ‘Truly
they believe in Our signs who when reminded of them fall prostrate and hymn the
praise of their Lord and do not wax arrogant, whose sides shun [their] beds,
calling upon their Lord out of fear and hope, and who spend from that which We
have provided for them.’ [3] Here is some of the comment appended to aya 16:
This verse
was reportedly revealed with regard to some Companions of the Prophet who would
stand in prayer from after the sunset prayer (maghrib) until the time of the
night prayer (‘isha’; W), while others say it refers to those who pray the
night vigil (tahajjud; W). Given that they shun [their] beds], the second
interpretation is more plausible….Al-Maybudi writes, ‘Sleeplessness and
wakefulness at night are the cause of nearness to the Truth and evidence of the
perfection of love, for the first degree of love is seeking conformity, and the
attribute of the Truth is that neither slumber overtakes Him nor sleep [2:255}.’
In this vein, the Prophet is reported to have said, ‘My eyes sleep, but my
heart waketh.’ (My). [4]
The reference
‘My’ is to the 11th- to 12th-century commentator, Rashīd al-Dīn al-Maybudī. He cites Q2:255, which closely
echoes Psalm 120:4 (LXX): ‘Behold, He shall not slumber nor shall He sleep, He
that keepeth Israel.’ But no source is provided beyond al-Maybudī
for the final quote attributed
to Muhammed. It is obviously closely akin to Song of Songs 5:2: ‘I sleep, but
my heart waketh.’
Coincidentally,
I came across another reference to what appears to be exactly the same saying
in one of Raficq Abdulla’s translations of Rumi. In Mathnavi II, 3547, the
speaker says:
The Prophet
said: ‘My eyes are sleeping but oh
My heart is alight with the Lord of us all.’
Your eyes may be open but your heart is sleeping,
My eyes are closed, but my waking heart stands erect
Dawn-fresh before the threshold with its own wakefulness. [5]
[1]
Sharafuddin Maneri, The Hundred Letters, trans. Paul Jackson, SJ, The Classics
of Western Spirituality (NY: Paulist, 1980), p. 113.
[2] The Qur’an,
trans. M.A.S. Abedel Haleem (Oxford: Oxford U, 2010), pp. 75-6.
[3] The Study
Quran: A New Translation and Commentary, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al. (NY:
HarperOne, 2015), p. 1013.
[4] Ibid., p.
1013, n. 16.
[5] Words of
Paradise: Selected Poems of Rumi, New Interpretations by Raficq Abdulla (NY:
Barnes & Noble, 2006), p. 49.