Malamatiyya - Malamatis Sufi

  Camuflage 2 - by Liu Bolin

EN INGLÉS:

The Malāmatiyya (ملاميه) or Malamatis are a Sufi (Muslim mystic) group that was active in 8th-century Samanid Iran (Encyclopædia Britannica). Believing in the value of self-blame, that piety should be a private matter, and that being held in good esteem would lead to worldly attachment, they concealed their knowledge and made sure their faults would be known, reminding them of their imperfection (Encyclopædia Britannica).

The Arabic word malāma (ملامه) means "to blame". According to Annemarie Schimmel, "the Malāmatīs deliberately tried to draw the contempt of the world upon themselves by committing unseemly, even unlawful, actions, but they preserved perfect purity of thought and loved God without second thought" (Schimmel 86).

Schimmel goes on to relate a story illustrative of such actions: "One of them was hailed by a large crowd when he entered a town; they tried to accompany the great saint; but on the road he publicly started urinating in an unlawful way so that all of them left him and no longer believed in his high spiritual rank" (quoted in Schimmel 86).

In fact, the Malāmatīs are considered, by one of the better known Sufi Masters, Ibn al-'Arabi, as the ultimate Sufis, people whose deep inward piety is concealed not only from the eyes of men but ultimately from themselves, the attachment to the perception of one's own piety constituting a formidable barrier to genuine self-realisation. The Malamati is one for whom the doctrine of "spiritual states" is fraught with subtle deceptions of the most despicable kind; he despises personal piety, not because he is focused on the perceptions or reactions of people, but as a consistent involuntary witness of his own "pious hypocrisy". God in turn wishes to keep him preserved and sheltered in divine occultation. The nature of this sheltering may be occasioned by a "public fall from grace" or a scandal that involves public opprobrium.
Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malamatiyya 


EN ESPAÑOL:

La mística musulmana experimentó durante el siglo IX la aparición de conceptos y actitudes que dieron forma a un nuevo planteamiento en relación con la manera de afrontar y recorrer el camino espiritual. A esta actitud, que tiene su origen geográfico en el este de Irán y se extendería con fuerza trascendiendo fronteras, se la ha denominado desde su origen con el nombrede "el sendero de la culpa".

Sus representantes, los malamatiyya, proceden de Nishapur, capital de la provincia de Jorasán, cuyo esplendor intelectual y espiritual comenzó entonces a rivalizar con el de Bagdad.  Los malamatiyya, comenzaron por evitar distinguirse externamente de los demás musulmanes, nada de vestimentas especiales, mantos blancos ni túnicas de parches que pudieran atraer la atención sobre ellos. Nada de devociones aparentes o excesivas que pudieran constituir una ostentación al ser hechas en público. Y, sobre todo, una gran desconfianza en lo concerniente al significado de las experiencias interiores y de los signos aparentemente milagrosos o carismáticos que, para ellos, no prueban nada en relación con el progreso del buscador. 
Ver referencia bibliográfica en: http://www.alfaomega.es/index.php?mdl=item&id=9788487354199