Journal of the American Academy of Religion LXIII/3

Eating and Fasting for God

in Sufi Tradition
Valerie J. Hoffman

EATING AND DRINKING IN THE QUR'AN AND HADITH

ALTHOUGH THE QUR'AN contains few food laws and prohibitions, eating and drinking are mentioned with remarkable frequency in the Muslims' sacred scripture. A prominent theme of
the Qur'an is that God's goodness is evident through His provision
for humanity, that the various ways that God provides sustenance
for people and animals are "signs" of His existence that should
cause the thoughtful person to believe in Him and be grateful. People are repeatedly urged in the Qur'an to consider how God has
provided them with animals (5:4, 16:5, 22:28, 22:36, 23:21, 36:723, 40:79), fruits (23:19, 36:34-5), grains (10:24, 32:27, 36:33), and
even mastery over the seas (16:14, 35:12) and encourages them
repeatedly to eat and drink of the good things God has provided
for them (2:168, 2:172, 5:88, 16:114, 20:81). Although a few of the
food prohibitions of the Jews are retained in Islamthe eating of
pork, carrion, blood, or any animal not slaughtered in the name of
God (5:3, 3:173, 6:121)-the Jews are criticized for imposing excessive restrictions on themselves even before the revelation of Mosaic
law (3:93), a possible reference to the custom of not eating thigh
meat around the hip socket (Gen. 32:32). The Qur'an says all the
food of the Jews and Christians is lawful to the Muslims, as is the
food of the Muslims lawful to them (5:5). Gratitude (shukr) to God
for His provision is one of the main characteristics of the faithful,
while unbelievers are characterized, in the typical Qur'anic literary
style of assonance and antithetic parallelism, by ingratitude (kufr).
Nonetheless, this encouragement to eat should not be taken to
excess (7:31), and during the month of Ramadan a fast from food,
drink and sexual intercourse was commanded during the daylight

Valerie J. Hoffman is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.

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hours. By custom, this fast is broken at sunset with nightly feasting and ritual food offerings to the poor; mosques become places
of charity, feeding, and eating. The wanton pursuit of the
pleasures of eating is one of the marks of the heedless unbelievers,
who "eat like cattle" (15:3, 47:12, 77:46) and will be shocked when
the judgment of God suddenly breaks out upon them.
Those who believe in God are also described as those who feed
the poor and encourage others to do so as well (22:28, 22:36, 76:8,
89:18), while those whose end is hellfire are those who fail to do
this (69:33-4, 107:3). Echoing Luke 12:16-21, the Qur'an tells stories of the folly of owners of vineyards who take pride in their
wealth, have no consideration of God, and conspire to keep their
goods for themselves and not share them with the poor (18:32-44,
68:17-33). Modern advocates of "Islamic economics" have concluded that the Qur'an forbids the "hoarding" of wealth, and
requires that any surplus be shared. According to the Qur'an,
wrongdoers not only indulge in gluttony, but are said to "eat" (i.e.,
consume) wealth in a wrongful manner (2:188, 3:130, 4:2, 4:29,
9:34, 89:19). An integral part of the message of all the prophets in
the Qur'an is an exhortation to be grateful for God's provision of
sustenance, and to share a portion of it with the needy. Those who
question why they should feed the poor when God would have provided them sustenance if He had so desired are castigated as deviating from the straight path (36:47). Feeding a poor person is so
meritorious that it can be used as expiation for failure to observe
the fast of Ramadan or for breaking the taboo on hunting during
the pilgrimage (2:184, 5:95).
Watt has speculated that the heavy emphasis of the Qur'anic
message on the necessity of feeding the poor derived from Muhammad's concern with the breakdown of nomadic values, which
imposed corporate responsibility for the care of the poor, weak and
defenseless, in the new and prosperous mercantile center in which
he lived. If Watt is right, Muhammad was preaching a socialist
message in a newly capitalistic environment, but far from being a
revolutionary, he was trying to revive traditional values of corporate responsibility and hospitality that were still recognized but
often neglected.
Undoubtedly another consideration lay in the prominence
given to God as provider. Humans fail to recognize God's sovereignty over their affairs, according to the Qur'an. They congratulate themselves when things go well, failing to realize that their

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sustenance is God's provision. The requirement to be generous

with that sustenance is undoubtedly at least partly to force people
to recognize God's sovereignty and generosity; human gratitude
entails human generosity in turn.
The Qur'anic preoccupation with food and feeding goes beyond
discussions of human sustenance and charity. Images of food and
drink appear prominently in Qur'anic descriptions of the Garden
of Paradise and of Hellfire. The believers who are rewarded in the
Garden eat abundant fruit and are served non-intoxicating drinks
(43:73). They drink from rivers of water, rivers of milk that does
not go sour, delicious wine, and clarified honey (47:15). On the
other hand, those who conceal God's revealed truth or treat it
lightly, trying to derive some financial gain from it, "eat nothing
but fire into their bellies" (2:174). The wrongdoers in Hellfire have
only filth (69:36) and thorns (88:6) and food that chokes (73:13).
They fill their bellies from the tree of Zaqqm, which grows in the
bottom of hell and produces fruit like the heads of demons (37:6266). They drink boiling water, which tears apart their bowels
(37:67, 47:15).
Hadth literature, which records reports concerning all that
Muhammad said and did, in implausibly minute detail, records
what various Companions of the Prophet saw him eat on various
occasions, and what his favorite dish was. The overall attitude of
Hadth is that the Muslims should be neither too worldly nor too
other-worldly: they should take, in the words of one hadth, from
both this world and the next. To a group of three men who were
unimpressed with Muhammad's spiritual observancesone
abstained from sleep in order to pray, the second fasted continuously, and the third remained celibateMuhammad issued this
rebuke: "I dread God more than you and revere him more, but I
fast and I break the fast; I pray and I sleep too, and I marry women.
Whosoever turns away from my practice [sunna] is none of mine"
(Williams: 61-62). In another hadth, Muhammad says that the
best fast is one that is regularly broken, so that the body would
neither suffer ill-health nor become so accustomed to fasting that it
no longer feels hunger.
Other traditions depict Muhammad as enduring such hunger,
even at the height of his success as a commander, that he tied a
stone against his stomach. In the Qur'an itself there are indications that Muhammad was criticized by his contemporaries for eating, drinking, and walking in the markets like an ordinary person.

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More spectacular feats were apparently expected of someone making a prophetic claim: perhaps eating special heavenly foods, flying
through the air, or having an angel accompany him (23:33, 25:7).
The Qur'an assures its listeners that other prophets also ate ordinary food (25:20). It is ironic, therefore, that other traditions
developed depicting Muhammad as engaging in continuous fasts,
fasts that his Companions were unable to imitate. When they
spoke of their impotence to Muhammad, he replied, "I am not like
one of you. I spend the night with my Lord, and He gives me food
and drink." Sufi tradition interpreted this to mean that he was
given the food and drink of the people of Paradise. The legends of
Muhammad's Ascension through the seven heavens to an audience
before the Throne of God include his being offered a choice of
wine, milk, or honey (Jeffery: 38). His choice of milk is commended by the angel Gabriel, who tells him that this milk symbolizes the disposition (fitra) of his community, who are described in
the Qur'an as "in the middle," or "well-balanced" (2:143). Islam is
described in the Qur'an as the religion of innate human nature
(30:30), which is somehow symbolized in this story by milk.
There is one other legend about the Prophet with interesting
food imagery. According to Ibn Sa'd, author of an early biographical dictionary, the Angel Gabriel gave the Prophet a heavenly morsel which granted him the sexual potency of forty men, enabling
him to satisfy all of his wives (perhaps as many as twelve women)
in a single night (VIII: 139). While contemporary Muslims are usually embarrassed by such stories, and dismiss them as foolish
fabrications of a superstitious community that wrongly regarded
Muhammad as "superlative in everything, including the lusts of
this world" (Haykal: 289), some Sufis see this story as evidence of
Muhammad's superior spiritual strength, for the truly spiritual person is able to have complete mastery over the body, and can either
prolong sexual arousal at will or entirely eliminate it. But as we
will see, in Sufi tradition it is not only heavenly morsels that arouse
sexual desire, for the consumption of any food to the point of satiation is linked to the arousal of passions. Perhaps what distinguishes this heavenly morsel from ordinary food is not only that it
produced an ability to sustain arousal for a superhuman duration,
but that it was able to do so when consumed in such minute
quantity.

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ATTITUDES TOWARD FOOD IN SUFI TRADITION

Sufism began as a pious reaction against the growing worldliness of Muslims in the second half of the seventh century C.E.,
accompanied by an avoidance of government officials and rich
people, who were likely to be corrupted by their power and wealth.
It had its antecedents in people like Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari and
Salman al-Fris in the days of the Prophet, who belonged to a
group known as ahi al-suffa, "people of the bench," for their habit
of remaining in the mosque and spending their days and nights in
pious devotions. They embraced a lifestyle of poverty and abstinence from fleshly pleasures, and Abu Dharr was banned from
Medina during the Caliphate of 'Uthmn (644-56) for his advocacy
of a doctrine that denied the sincerity of the faith of any Muslim
who possessed houses, fields, or gold. Sufism developed into a
full-fledged mysticism in the late eighth and early ninth centuries,
but the asceticism of the early Sufis remained an integral part of
Sufi life.
After the initial confession of sin and repentance from all deeds
that would compromise the journey to God, the Sufi's major preoccupation is with crushing one's passions, fighting, as the Sufis say,
against one's own soul. According to Hadth, the Prophet said,
"We have returned from the lesser jihad (warfare) to the greater
jihad." This "greater jihad" is the struggle to purify the soul of all
forms of evil and negligence, for, in the words of one modern Sufi,
"it is the soul that veils us from the vision of the truth and incites
us to acts of disobedience and attachment to lust and material
things. By such things we become heavy and cannot enter the
world of the spirit to see the beauty and light of the Truth" (Mhir:
23). Sufis believe that the spirit's origin is divine, and by its very
nature yearns to return to its heavenly home; but the soul is of
earthly origin, and pulls the spirit back to earth.
A time-honored method of training the soul is to resist its
desires through fasting and other forms of asceticism. The earliest
Sufis practiced almost incredible feats of self-denial, shunning all
forms of luxury, eating the barest minimum necessary to keep
alive, avoiding sleep (a mark of "heedlessness"), and spending their
nights in devotion and self-examination. Hasan al-Basr (d. 728),
one of the most famous of the stern early ascetics, likened the
world to a snake, "smooth to the touch, but its venom kills" (Williams: 111). Another famous representative of early Sufism,
Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 776 or 790), said that one must embrace

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hardship, self-abasement, strenuous effort, sleeplessness, and poverty, ever anticipating death and judgment, in order to attain righteousness (Qushayr n.d.:13). Early Sufis embraced poverty to such
an extent that "the poor man" (faqr in Arabic, darwsh in Persian)
became synonomous with the Sufi, and the term remains in use
today. When Abu Yazd al-Bistm (d. 874), famous for traveling
the heights of mystical knowledge, was asked how he had reached
such heights, he replied, "With a hungry stomach and a naked
body" (Qushayr n.d.: 23). Abu Hamid al-Ghazl (d. 1111), who
advocated moderation and practicality in religious practices and
helped to bring Sufism into the mainstream of Islamic spirituality,
nonetheless insisted that the way to travel on the path of God is
through fasting, night vigils, sleeplessness, and renunciation of
wealth (Smith: 93-4).
The spiritual benefits of fasting are numerous. One is the humbling effect of hunger. In one anecdote of Abu Yazd al-Bistm, he
was asked why he praised hunger so highly. He replied, "Because
if Pharaoh (the epitome of arrogant pride in the Qur'an) had been
hungry, he would not have said, am your Supreme Lord' (Qur'an
79:24), and if Korah (Qur'an 28:76-82) had been hungry, he would
not have been rebellious" (Hujwr: 347-8).
Fasting is described as the major tool believers have against
Satan, for, according to a hadth, "Satan runs in the veins of the
children of Adam; narrow his passage by hunger." One early Sufi
said, "Satan is terrified of the shadow of one who conquers the
passions of the world" (Qushayr 1990: 82). Ghazl clarifies that
it is when we eat that Satan enters our bloodstreama perspective
that is given more credibility when we consider the fact that it was
by persuading Adam and Eve to eat that Satan caused their expulsion from Paradise. Fasting, therefore, is "a fortress and a paradise" for the "friends of God," who has granted them this method
to repel the guile and trickery of Satan (1:303-4). Abu -Najb alSuhraward (d. 1168), author of a popular handbook on Sufi etiquette, reports that "the Prophet rebuked a man who burped in his
presence, saying: Those of you who are the most sated in this
world will be the most hungry on the day of resurrection"
(Suhraward: 59). Hujwr (d. ca. 1071), author of the first Persian
manual on Sufism, says that Sahl al-Tustari (d. 896) regarded eating to the point of satiation as so dangerous that he said, "In my
judgment, a belly full of wine [which is categorically prohibited in
Islam] is better than one full of lawful food." When asked to

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471

explain his statement, he replied, "When a man's belly is filled

with wine, his intellect is stupefied and the flame of lust is
quenched, and people are secure from his hand and tongue; but
when his belly is filled with lawful food he desires foolishness, and
his lust waxes great and his lower soul rises to seek her pleasures."
The connection between eating and sexual desire is such that
in a hadth the Prophet recommends fasting for those who are
unable to marry, for "fasting is a form of castration" (Ghazl,
11:28). Hujwr comments, "Nothing is more hurtful to a novice in
Sufism than eating too much" (Hujwr: 347-8). Sahl al-Tustari is
also quoted as saying, "When God most High created the world,
He placed sin and ignorance within satisfaction of the appetite and
knowledge and wisdom within hunger." Qushayr (d. 1072),
author of one of the most widely-used manuals on Sufism in
Arabic, comments, "When Sahl b. 'Abdallah hungered, he was powerful, and whenever he ate, he became weak" (Qushayr 1990: 8081). Qushayr also quotes Yahy b. Mu'dh as saying, "Hunger is a
light, and filling one's stomach is a fire. Passion is like firewood
from which fire arises, never to subside until it consumes its
owner" (Qushayr 1990: 81).
We get a glimpse of the severity of fasting practiced by early
Sufis in a saying of Abu 'Uthmn al-Maghrib: "The one devoted to
the Lord eats only every forty days, and the one devoted to the
Eternal eats only every eighty days." Another Sufi commented, "If
the Sufi says after five days (of fasting), am hungry,' then send
him to the marketplace to earn something" (Qushayr 1990: 81-2)
that is, he is unworthy to live the Sufi life. Sahl al-Tustar was
asked, "What do you say of the man who eats once a day?" He
replied, "It is the eating of the believers"that is, of the average
faithful but non-Sufi Muslim. "And three times a day?" He
retorted, "Tell your people to build you a trough!" (Qushayr 1990:
81).
One benefit of fasting is that it produces patience. Ghazh
pieces together two hadths, one that says fasting is half of
patience, and the other that patience is half of faith, to conclude
that one-quarter of the practice of faith in God is fasting (1:303).
Eventually, however, the mystic who has succeeded in annihilating
his soul in God may reach a point where, like the Prophet, his
worship becomes his food and drink (Hujwr: 303), or, as
Rzbihn Baql (d. 1209) said concerning a saint who fasted in
contemplation for seventy days, "In this state food comes to him

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

from the word stay with my Lord who feeds me and gives me to
drink' (Qur'an 26:79)" (Schimmel: 116).
Another aspect of the preference for fasting among early Sufis
was the cultivation of an attitude of absolute dependence on God
to provide for all one's needs (fawafefeu/), avoiding asking for provi
sion from others or working for a living or worrying about where
one's food would come from. This attitude is reflected in the
words of Hujwr's shaykh: "I am astonished at the imposter who
declares that he has renounced the world, and is anxious about a
morsel of food" (Hujwr: 348). Connected with this dependence
on God alone to provide for one's needs is a deep suspicion that
food given by other people could be "doubtful," that is, obtained
through possibly illicit means or paid for with money earned in a
dubious fashion. Suhraward wrote, "Sufis eat only food whose
source they know" (58). In this connection there is an interesting
story told by the Persian Sufi writer Fard al-Dn 'Attr (d. 1220)
about the famous early woman Sufi, Rbi'a al-'Adawiyya (d. 801).
One day Rbi'a's servant girl was making an onion stew; for it
was some days since they had cooked any food. Finding that she
needed some onions, she said, "I will ask of next door."
"Forty years now," Rbi'a replied, "I have had a covenant with
Almighty God not to ask for aught of any but He. Never mind the
onions."
Immediately a bird swooped down from the air with peeled
onions in its beak and dropped them into the pan.
"I am not sure this is not a trick," Rbi'a commented. And she
left the onion pulp alone, and ate nothing but bread (Attar: 44).
This story suggests the extraordinary wariness of early Sufis
regarding the provenance of their food. Hujwr and Ghazl cautioned that a Sufi should never accept the food of a rich man
(Hujwr: 349; Ghazl, 11:16-17, 18-19). A twentieth-century Sufi
in Egypt, Muhammad Ahmad Radwn, reflected this early attitude
when he refused to go to the homes of government officials and
declined to accept invitations to eat, cautioning that "most food
these days is doubtful" (Radwn: 104).
It is not just the quantity of food, but the type of food that
affects spiritual well-being. One of the expected charismata of the
saint, or friend of God, was the ability to tame wild animals and be
on friendly terms with them. In effect, the friend of God regains
the dominion over the animal kingdom for which humanity was
created when God made Adam His "viceroy" on earth (Qur'an

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473

2:30). In one of 'Attar's several anecdotes depicting Rbi'a al'Adawiyya besting Hasan al-Basr in sanctity, wisdom, and miracles, Hasan is frustrated that as Rbi'a walks in the mountains she
is surrounded by flocks of deer, mountain goats, ibexes and wild
asses, but when he approaches they flee. Rbi'a asks what he has
eaten that day. On hearing that he had eaten "a little onion pulp,"
she retorts, "You eat their fat. Why then should they not flee from
you?" (Attar: 44-5). Presumably it is not the onion that is problematic, but the fat in which it is fried.
The Sufi master Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240), in a manual on Sufi
retreat, cautions, "Be careful of your diet. It is better if your food
be nourishing but devoid of animal fat." 'Abd al-Karm al-Jl (d.
1423), in his commentary, explains that "animal fat strengthens
animality, and its principles will dominate the spiritual principles"
(Ibn al-'Arabi: 31, 81). Ghazl, however, cites Muhammad's preference for thard, a meat stew sopped with bread, and suggests that
the ideal meal to offer to guests should include meat (11:20).
Although Goldziher persuasively argued that much of the
worldly pragmatism of Hadth literature was a direct reaction
against the popular appeal of Sufi asceticism in the late eighth century, this same Hadth literature came to serve as the foundation of
Islamic law, and is fundamental to Sufi life because Sufis, more
than any other Muslims, wish to follow the model of the Prophet.
Ghazl's multi-volume Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihy* 'ulm
al-dn), a guide to the average Sufi on how to live a pious life, is
very heavily based on Hadth. Every detail of Muhammad's eating
habits is discussed, and its application to the life of people in
Ghazali's day is analyzed. Manners are described in the graphic
detail typical of Islamic law books. Meals are begun and ended
with prayers and pious recitations, transforming the taking of a
meal into a religious ritual when it is observed with proper etiquette. His description of proper manners in drinking is indicative
of the general tone of the book:
The correct way to drink is to take the cup with the right hand and
say, "In the name of God," and to sip, not gulp. The Messenger of
God, peace be upon him, said, "Sip water and do not gulp it, for
gulping hurts the liver." One should not drink standing up or
lying down, for the Messenger of God said, "It is prohibited to
drink standing up." It is also said that [on one occasion] the Messenger of God drank standing up, but perhaps he had an excuse.
One should be careful of the bottom of the cup so as not to let
anything drip out, and one should look into the cup before drink-

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ing and not burp or breathe into it. One should remove it from his
mouth with praise to God and return it to its place invoking God's
name. The Messenger of God used to say after drinking, "Praise be
to God who made it sweet and fresh by His mercy and not salty
and hot by our sins" . . . . One should drink in three breaths, praising God at the end and invoking God's name at the beginning. At
the end of the first breath one should say, "Praise be to God;" at
the end of the second, one should add, "Lord of all being;" at the
end of the third, one should add, "The Compassionate, the
Merciful." There are about twenty rules of etiqette concerning eating and drinking indicated by the anecdotes of the pious early
Muslims (11:7-8).
Hadth literature encapsulates an attitude toward eating and
hospitality that reflects ancient Arabian values. Ghazl devotes far
more space to the virtues of offering food, and the manner to offer
and receive it, than he does to the virtues of fasting. Typical among
the many hadths he cites are these: "There is no good in one who
does not offer hospitality." "Among the things which expiate sins
and increase in rank are offering food and praying at night while
people are sleeping." When Muhammad was asked to define faith,
he replied, "To offer food and give the greeting of peace." Feeding
people and speaking a good word are equated in another hadth
with an acceptable pilgrimage. As Ghazl says, there are countless
anecdotes of the early pious Muslims on the virtues of offering hospitality and feeding the poor (Ghazl, 11:16). Nonetheless,
Suhraward instructed Sufis not to feed each other, or to urge each
other to eat, "except the shaykh, who may say so to those below his
rank in order to cheer them up and encourage them to overcome
their shyness" (Suhraward: 57).
One saying gives instructions on the appropriate way to deal
with different types of people: "If the poor (fuqar') come to you,
give them food. If scholars of the Law come to you, ask them a
question. If Qur'an reciters come to you, lead them to the niche
pointing the way to Mecca" (Ghazl, 11:15). While feeding the
poor is naturally meritorious, the Qur'anic term for the destitute is
miskxn, whereas faqr (pi. fuqar') typically means not a person
who is destitute, but one who embraces a lifestyle of povertya
Sufi. If this is what is meant in this sayingand given the context
of various categories of religious functionaries, this is plausiblethen there is an actual connection between Sufis and the offering
of food, which appears somewhat ironic in view of the ascetic origins of the movement. However, Sufis regarded each others as

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brothers in a manner distinct from the common run of Muslims,

and both Hujwr and Ghazl speak of the blessings to be obtained
from eating with one's Sufi brethren. Furthermore, Ghazali says,
"feeding a pious man strengthens him for obedience, but feeding a
depraved man strengthens him for depravity" (17).
Although Sufis of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and later
continue to caution against the dangers of excessive eating, they
seem to be equally concerned with the dangers of excessive fasting
and sleeplessness. Ibn al-'Arabi cautions disciples against both
satiation and excessive hunger. "Keep your constitution in balance, for if dryness is excessive, it leads to corrupt imaginings and
long, delirious ravings" (31). Hujwr says that Abu Dharr al-Ghiffar's wife complained to Salman al-Fris that her husband neither
ate by day nor slept by night. Salman told her to fetch some food
and told Abu Dharr to eat, "since this fasting is not incumbent on
you." Ab Dharr complied. At night Salman begged him to sleep,
saying, "your body and your wife have a claim upon you, as well as
your Lord." When Ab Dharr consulted the Prophet on the matter,
he agreed with Salman. Hujwr comments, "Inasmuch as Ab
Dharr had renounced his selfish pleasures, Salman persuaded him
to gratify them." This, he says, is a sound principle: "So long as
anyone perseveres in a selfish demand, his friend ought to resist it,
but when he renounces it, then his friend ought to satisfy it" (344).
What is dangerous to a novice in the Sufi path does not hold the
same danger for the adept.
Despite the virtues of fasting, Ghazl says that one should not
refuse an invitation to eat because one is fasting. "If it makes your
brother happy for you to break your fast, you should break it, and
your reward is greater than the reward of your fast, if your intention is to make your brother happy." He quotes the Prophet's
younger cousin, Ibn 'Abbs, as saying, "One of the best good deeds
is to honor those with whom you are sitting by breaking the fast.
Breaking the fast with this intention is an act of worship and good
etiquette, and its reward is greater than the reward of fasting." A
guest who refuses to break a fast should be offered perfume,
incense, and good conversation (18).
Qushayr tells the story of a young man who was fasting and
refused to break his fast to eat with Abu Yazd al-Bistm and two
other shaykhs, although they promised him the spiritual reward of
a month's or a year's fasting for the blessing of sharing this meal
with him. The young man's failure to obey the desires of his spiri-

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tual superiors caused him to fall out of God's favor, become a thief,
and lose his hand, the legal punishment for theft (Qushayr n.d.:
259). This anecdote is intended to warn disciples of the dangers of
disobedience to their shaykh or other spiritual superiors, but it
also reflects the notion that food offered by a saint carries the
saint's barakaa spiritual force generally perceived as beneficial,
though it may harm a person who fails to give a saint due respect.
In Sufi ethics, no act is of neutral value, though it may be neutral in strictly legal terms. The Sufi should consider not only
whether a particular act is permissible, but whether it is helpful.
As Hujwr wrote, "The seeker of God, as he walks, should know at
each step he makes whether that step is against God or of God"
(349-50). Ever since Rbi'a walked through the streets of Basra
with a bucket of water and a torch, saying she wished to extinguish
the fires of Hell and burn the Garden of Paradise so the true lovers
of God would be revealed, Sufis have insisted that what matters is
not the act but the intention with which it is done. Whether eating
or fasting, all must be done for the sake of God aloneto use a
Qur'anic phrase, desiring nothing but the face of God. It is not
eating that harms, but eating with the goal of satisfying one's own
desires. Suhraward wrote that there is a special dispensation
(rukhsa) for a Sufi to eat tasty food, but only between periods of
hunger and exertion (77). He even wrote that there is a special
dispensation to "plunder the food which is scattered at banquets.
One should, however, do so without gluttony and with the intention of delighting the host. A Hadth quotes the Prophet as saying:
only forbade you to plunder armies but I did not forbid you to
plunder banquets' " (81).
The Shdhiliyya, a Sufi Order that follows the teachings of the
North African Sufi, Abu -Hasan al-Shdhil (d. 1258), was originally a middle-class Order that departed from earlier tradition by
encouraging its followers to work for a living and dress well rather
than (at times hypocritically) advertising their poverty. Shdhil
intepreted poverty in a spiritual sense, allowing a person to be
"poor toward God," i.e., recognizing his need for God, without
renunciation of all material things. Later Sufis in the eastern part
of the Muslim world likewise often felt that "the soul-dog is better
when its mouth is shut by throwing a morsel into it" (Schimmel:
117).

Hoffman Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradition

477

SUFISM AND FOOD IN MODERN EGYPT

Sufism developed gradually from a movement of extreme asceticism to a movement of broad social appeal with an increasingly
pragmatic attitude toward the practice of basic Sufi disciplines and
devotions within the context of everyday life. Very few studies have
been done of modern Sufism, which is generally regarded as a degradation of the earlier, "pure" Sufism of the eighth through twelfth
centuries. However, my fieldwork among Sufis in contemporary
Egypt1 reveals some very interesting aspects of the role that food
plays in Sufi life in that country today.
Any equation of modern Egyptian Sufism with asceticism is
likely to prompt cynical laughter from anyone acquainted with the
social reality of today's Sufis. Today the majority of Sufis work,
and although Sufism continues to draw primarily from the lower
classes, many Sufis have prominent positions in society and are
quite wealthy. Most contemporary Egyptian Sufi Orders follow the
philosophy of the Shdhiliyya and permit, even encourage, the pursuit of a livelihood in the job market. As one well-known writer
said, "This world is an opportunity for worship. . . The Sufi works
only that he may worship in everything he does, including working
for a living" (Nawfal: 73). Another Sufi emphasizes that renunciation of the world occurs in the heart, not "with the hand," and that
physical renunciation of the world is useless if love for the things of
the world remains in the heart (Mhir: 21). One modern Sufi
Order in Egypt insists that seclusion should be "of the heart, not
the body," and their charter says, "Much fasting and hunger and
much sleeplessness and dhikr2 will lead to dullness of the brain
and will create mental illness or disturbance in mind" (Gilsenan:
120).
Sufis who dress in colorful rags, shun regular employment, and
live off the charity of others, may still be seen at the celebrations of
saints' days (mouids), but their lifestyle is not highly regarded even
in most Sufi circles. They epitomize the "dervishism" that many
l
l conducted my fieldwork among the Sufis of Egypt from October 1987 through April
1989 The first year offieldworkwas funded by a grant from Fulbnght's Islamic Civilization
program My book, Sufism, Mystics and Saints in Modern Egypt, is forthcoming with the
University of South Carolina Press It is being published in October 1995
2
Dhikr literally means "remembrance" or "recollection " It is a ritual of recollection of
some of the Most Beautiful Names of God, accompanied by movements, and possibly breath
control techniques and music, m order to heighten concentration Dhikr is the most important devotional tool used by the Sufis

478

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Sufis feel has given Sufism a bad name with today's educated middle class. Many Sufi shaykhs, however, neither live off the charity
of others nor work for a living. As Ahmad Radwn of Luxor (d.
1967) said, "Some people have cut off all means of subsistence and
their Lord has been their guarantor and has not left them to anyone
else. I am among these" (238).
Sufis insist that self-denial and crushing the passions are an
integral part of the Sufi path, even today. But rather than grieving
over their sins and denying themselves all pleasures, as the early
Sufis did, Sufis today in Egypt appear to delight in the assurance of
their relationship with God, and enjoy this relationship while functioning quite normally in the world. Rather than embracing hunger, Egyptian Sufis make the serving of food central to their
devotional life. Hospitality has long been a prominent feature of
Sufi life since the founding of Sufi retreat centersat least as early
as the eleventh centurythat regularly welcomed traveling Sufis.
This custom continues in Egypt today, where Sufi shaykhs or other
individuals establish what in Egypt are called shas, centers for
Sufi devotion, spiritual retreats, and hospitality. The importance
of hospitality is evident in the size of the tables built in concrete
into the courtyard of some shas, sometimes able to accommodate
a hundred diners at one sitting.
In Egypt today, Sufi hospitality and devotion often revolve
around the attendance of moulidssaint's day celebrations. Moulids celebrate the anniversary of the death of a saint, who can be
any man, woman or child thought to be particularly close to God.
The tombs of saints become shrines where pilgrims implore the
intercession of the saint or, more Islamically proper, implore God
by virtue of the baraka of the saint, for healing, the redress of
wrongs, help with exams, or simply for favor with God. There are
thousands of saints' tombs in Egypt, and moulids are celebrated
once a year at many of them. Not all saints are of equal importance, however, and the largest and most important moulids are
those celebrated in honor of members of the Prophet's family who
are buried in Egypt, as well as the great founders of major Sufi
Orders. The major moulids, like those of Husayn, the Prophet's
grandson, Sayyida Zaynab, the Prophet's granddaughter, 'Ali Zayn
al-'bidm, the Prophet's great grandson, Sayyida Nafsa, a greatgreat-great-great granddaughter of the Prophet, Ahmad al-Badawi
(d. 1276), founder of the Ahmadiyya Order, Ahmad al-Rif' (d.
1171), founder of the Rif'iyya, 'Abd al-Rahmn al-Qinw, a thir-

Hoffman: Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradition

479

teenth-century saint, and other great saints, are massive popular

nocturnal carnivals attracting as many as a million or more visitors, many of them traveling long distances. The celebration may
last as long as two or three weeks, with ever more activity building
to a fever pitch on the last, "great night." People come to the moulids to visit the tomb of the saint, partake of the baraka of the moulid, and perhaps to enjoy the many pleasures set up by merchants
for the moulids: booths selling special toys, mini amusement
parks, shooting games, roasted chick-peas, and the like. Some of
the moulids, like that of Ahmad al-Badawi in the town of Tanta in
the Delta, have become such economic affairs that their religious
significance becomes obscured by the secular pursuits.
For the Sufis, who consider themselves distinct from other Muslims by their devotion to the Prophet and his family, honoring the
major saints or lesser saints with whom one has a spiritual relationship by attending their moulids is both a spiritual duty and
vital to their spiritual life. Many of them set up hospitality stations
(khidma, pi. khidamt) in large canopied tents or simply on a cloth
spread out on the sidewalk, or in rented rooms in schools or other
public buildings. Even if they live in town, they may camp out as
close to the shrine as they are able, sleeping on the pavement for a
week or more, in order to honor the saint, perform the Sufi ritual of
dhikr, and offer hospitality to passers-by. Visitors are invited to
receive at least a drink, and often a meal as well. Such gifts, called
nafha, a term which means both "gift" and "fragrance," convey the
baraka of the saint to the one who receives them, and may not be
refused.
Many poor people gravitate to the moulids to take advantage of
the abundance of charity, and the eager rush of the crowd to a
large table where dinner had just been prepared at one khidma led
the shaykh whom I accompanied to joke, "The essence of Sufism is
food." But those who are wealthy likewise are eager to eat at the
moulids, because it is not the quality of the food that makes it
desirable, but the fact that it is offered at the moulid and bears the
baraka of the saint.
Moulids are a time of great sociability for the Sufis, who often
wander from one khidma to the next, greeting their "brethren" and
often partaking of food with them. Since the moulids are typically
all-night celebrations, they are physically demanding on those who
live a lifestyle of following the circuit of the major moulids. The
people who spend their lives in this way receive no monetary com-

480

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

pensation for their gifts, which are all given "for the face of God" or
"out of love for the ahi aVbayt (the family of the Prophet)." The
offering of hospitality, especially food and drink, which is so fundamental to traditional Arab culture, has been elevated to the status of a sacred act. It is an act of piety that has come to define the
Sufi lifestyle for many.
Ahmad Radwn of Luxor (d. 1967), a charismatic mystic who is
one of the most intriguing figures in twentieth-century Sufism, is
said to have cared nothing for his own sustenance, and happily
went without food for days at a time. Hundreds came to his sha to
eat, drink, sleep, and bask in the aura of holiness. "The people
knew no one equal to him in generosity in his day, and they found
no one equal to him in this. . . . He turned no beggar away. He gave
like one who has no fear of poverty, from all the wealth, food or
clothing that God gave him, so that visitors left dazed by meeting
him and by his generosity" (Radwan: 12). This description is similar to an account from the life of the Prophet, who, it is said, gave
so generously even to the most rude and demanding of people, that
one recipient of his generosity urged his countrymen to become
Muslims, "for Muhammad gives like one who has no fear of poverty" (Jeffery: 29).
Nonetheless, the norms of Egyptian hospitality may conflict at
times with the dictates of the Prophet, as one anecdote about
Radwn illustrates. It is said that on one occasion he sent away
large numbers of visitors from his sha without feeding them,
because, looking into their hearts with the insight of mystical
knowledge, he saw that they did not meet the stipulations set by
the Prophet, who said, "Do not befriend any one except a believer,
and do not let any one eat your food except a pious person." One
Sufi, writing of this incident said, "This caused some people to
oppose him and say that Ahmad Radwan throws people out of his
assembly and is harsh with some of those who come to him. If
those opponents had looked into the Book of God and understood
what is in it, they would know that this is a Muhammadan ethic,
and is the practical application of the Book of God and Sunna of
His Apostle" (Mhir: 174). Another version of this story indicates
an interesting struggle between his spiritual state (which can overcome rational thought) and the standards of hospitality dictated
by Egyptian culture: Radwan ordered his sons not to feed some
visitors, saying, "Away from me! You come only to eat!" Later he
asked his sons whether the visitors had been fed, and was

Hoffman: Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradition

481

chagrined to learn that they had not been offered any hospitality.
But when food was again set before them, his former state returned
to him and the food was ordered removed before the visitors could
eat it.
Although food may be offered either by a spiritual superior or
by a person of lower spiritual rank to a spiritual superior, the
meaning of the offering of food is interpreted according to the
larger context. Any food offered at a moulid carries the baraka of
the saint in whose name it is offered. When a shaykh offers food,
he is offering his own baraka, and blessing is conveyed to the person who eats. A devoted follower of a shaykh may even wish to eat
the shaykh's leftovers, or drink from the shaykh's cup. When a
shaykh accepts an invitation to eat at somebody's home, he brings
baraka to the house when he enters, and he honors the host by
partaking of his food. Hierarchy and submission are expressed
not by the mere act of offering food, but by the dispensation and
receiving of blessing.
The symbolism of drinking, especially of milk, is evident in the
language of the Sufis itself. The spiritual lineage or source of
teaching that one follows is popularly called one's mashrabliterally, the place where one drinks. Picturing one's shaykh as a
mother from whom one nurses and derives spiritual nourishment
is a traditional image that continues to be occasionally employed,
as when Shaykh Ahmad Ab'l-Hasan (d. 1994) described his discipleship with Ahmad Radwn: "I stayed with the shaykh, drawing
nourishment from his milk and being illuminated by his lights,
until he met the Highest Companion. . . . After the shaykh's passing, I felt as if I were an orphan. . . . "
Images of food and drink likewise figure in the visionary experiences that play such an important role in the lives of modern
Egyptian Sufis. Shaykh al-Hawri, a living shaykh, considers
himself the direct disciple of Abu -Hasan al-Shdhili, who died in
1258, because, in a vision when he was still young, Shdhili took
him on his lap and gave him a glass of milk, which signified spiritual adoption, and Shdhili has continued to instruct him through
visions. Ahmad Radwn also one time had a vision of the Prophet
in which he was given a glass of milk, indicating perhaps the transfer of spiritual knowledge and power, and when he woke up, the
glass of milk was still in his hand.
Even more extraordinary is an elaborate vision of Shaykh
Muhammad 'Uthmn al-Burhan of Sudan (d. 1983), who attained

482

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

an enormous following in Egypt. In this vision, Muhammad

'Uthmn receives his coronation as ghawthor, the term more typically used in Sufi tradition, the qutb"Axis" of the Age, the top
saint in the Sufi saintly hierarchy, the agent through whom all
blessings and spiritual gifts are bestowed on the earth. In this
vision, he was invited to a great banquet attended by all the
prophets and saints throughout the ages, as well as all his future
disciples, an immense crowd of millions. There he was commanded to eat all of the food on the table. It was a great table filled
with vegetables stuffed with the seven minerals. The meaning of
this, explains his lieutenant in Egypt, Shaykh Gaml al-Sanhri, "is
that the head must comprehend all that is in his kingdom."
Despite the very moderate attitude of many modern Sufis
toward fasting, there are a few who practice it in an extreme fashion. Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib (d. 1988), an old Sufi who lived
in Qurna, across the Nile from Luxor, was widely regarded in the
region as the ghawth of his day. His daily diet was restricted to a
few tablespoons of milk a day, and his body weakened to the point
that he could no longer support himself, and his skin was so delicate that he covered it with his sleeve before shaking the hands of
visitors. His poor diet undoubtedly directly contributed to his
death, but some Sufis considered his lifestyle appropriate for a
man of his age and spiritual seniority. They spoke with admiration of the fact that his bowel movements were so minimal as to be
almost non-existent. This indicated that the material dimension of
his body was diminishing, and he was becoming more "luminous,"
a metaphor for spirituality. His severe fasts, then, were a preparation for death. A body that is virtually immaterial and luminous
cannot decay, for light is incorruptibleand the incorruptibility of
the body is one of the characteristics of saints, whose exhumations
after many years often bring testimony that they are not really dead
but merely "sleeping" in their tombs.
In Sufi tradition, then, eating and drinking are never neutral
acts. Eating to satisfy one's appetites leaves one open to Satanic
insinuation, but eating for the sake of God can strengthen one for
worship. Fasting is a tool for training and subduing the soul, opening the spirit to God, and even, in modern Egypt, for reducing the
materiality of the body. But eating and drinking can also be sacred
acts, conveying spiritual power and blessing, or symbolizing spiritual adoption and discipleship, and the offering of food is elevated
to the status of a central act of Sufi devotion.

Hoffman: Eating and Fasting for God in Sufi Tradition

483

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