Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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M. D’Ohsson, in his celebrated work on the Ottoman Empire, traces the origin of the order of faqīrs to the time of Muḥammad himself:—

“In the first year of the Hijrah, forty-five citizens of Makkah joined themselves to as many others of al-Madīnah. They took an oath of fidelity to the doctrines of their Prophet, and formed a sect or fraternity, the object of which was to establish among themselves a community of property, and to perform every day certain religious practices in a spirit of penitence and mortification. To distinguish themselves from other Muḥammadans, they took the name of Sūfīs. [SUFIISM.] This name, which later was attributed to the most zealous partizans of Islām, is the same still in use to indicate any Musulmān who retires from the world to study, to lead a life of pious contemplation, and to follow the most painful exercises of an exaggerated devotion. To the name of Sūfī they added also that of faqīr, because their maxim was to renounce the goods of the earth, and to live in an entire abnegation of all worldly enjoyments, following thereby the words of the Prophet, al-faqru fak͟hrī, or ‘Poverty is my pride.’ Following their example, Abū Bakr and ʿAlī established, even during the life-time of the Prophet and under his own eyes, religious orders, over which each presided, with Ẕikrs or peculiar religious exercises, established by them separately, and a vow taken by each of the voluntary disciples forming them. On his decease, Abū Bakr made over his office of president to one Salmānu ʾl-Fārisī, and ʿAlī to al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and each of these charges were consecrated under the title K͟halīfah, or successor. The two first successors followed the example of the K͟halīfahs of Islām, and transmitted it to their successors, and these in turn to others, the most aged and venerable of their fraternity. Some among them, led by the delirium of the imagination, wandered away from the primitive rules of their society, and converted, from time to time, these fraternities into a multitude of religious orders.