T. E. Lawrence and S. A. – The Puzzle Solved Betty McKenzie 2002

The Way of the Sufi

A new piece of the puzzle fits perfectly.

In poring through such books as I could even faintly understand, trying to find Arabic words beginning with S and A, I came across information on the basic structure of the Arabic language (the "purest" and the only uncorrupted, I read, among all the Semitic languages), namely that its vocabulary is built around tri-consonantal roots, each root having a group of derivatory words. (Note, this is also discussed in Idries Shah's book, The Sufis.) I began to wonder whether SPW (which TE frequently called his book) itself had a tri-consonantal significance. I also idly pondered, somewhat sadly at first, the fact that in his dedication TE had used only two letters instead of three, and that moreover one of them was not a consonant but a vowel. However, I quickly told myself that of course the letters had to be exactly what they were -- S.A. -- precisely because of all the things they stood for. Then, crashing through my head came the astonishing knowledge of where the connection lay, between S.A. and the tri-consonant root. I had also picked up, in my Arabic perusings, the fact that while the future tense in Arabic is formed by adding "sa" (sa + the imperfect), the actual word for future in Arabic is "sawfa", which does have three consonants -- soad, wao, fa -- and the even more astonishing realization that these are precisely the consonants identified by Idries Shah as the true reason for the name Sufi being chosen to designate these people -- the Arabic letters for S-U-F being this same soad, wao, fa, and these three Arabic consonants being the ones the Sufis sound to produce the appropriate mentation to create the state of mind for creative thinking/meditation. (For exact statements by Idries Shah, see his preface to his book, The Way of the Sufi. I could hardly believe this significance I had uncovered in S.A. I had already begun to consider that T.E.'s whole approach to life, as detailed in the five key chapters of SPW, seemed to fit the Sufi picture -- and here was my confirmation that I was for sure on the right track. Moreover, S.A. could now clearly also stand for Sufi Adjab (secret language). The Sufis lean heavily for secret language on the tri-consonantal relationships, and here was S.A. also becoming a tri-consonantal (secretly hidden!) designation, seguing over into soad, wao, fa.

Of these letters, Idries Shah, currently the best known writer on the Sufi, in his book, The Way of the Sufi, Part One, "The Study of Sufism in the West," discusses the specific meaning of these letters in the Sufi name itself. He debunks the effort by certain western would-be experts to explain the derivation of the word "Sufi" on an etymological basis, e.g., "Sophos" in the sense of theosophist, or the Arabic word "suf" meaning wool, since certain Muslim ascetics, "in imitation of Christian hermits, clad themselves in coarse woollen garb as a sign of penitence and renunciation of worldly vanities." Shah provides the facts as follows:

Now the name is important as an introduction to the ideas, as

we shall see in a moment. Meanwhile let us look at its associations.

The Sufis claim that a certain kind of mental and other activity can

produce, under special conditions and with particular efforts, what is

termed a higher working of the mind, leading to special perceptions

whose appartus is latent in the ordinary man. Sufism is therefore the

transcending of ordinary limitations.

After some additional debunking, he then continues:

But acquaintanceship with Sufis, let alone almost any degree of

access to their practices and oral traditions, could easily have resolved

any seeming contradiction between the existence of a word and its

having no ready etymological derivation. The answer is that the Sufis

regard the sounds of the letters S, U, F (in Arabic the signs for Soad,

Wao, Fa) as significant, in this same order of use, in their effect upon

human mentation.

The Sufis are, therefore, 'the people of SSSUUUFFF'.

In summary, then, the cryptic arrows pointing to S.A. thus seem to me to come perfectly clear: S.A. gives us "sa," which is added to form the future tense in Arabic; this leads us into "sawfa," the Arabic word for "the future"; this word is spelled by the Arabic signs for "soad, wao, fa," i.e., S,U,F -- which Idries Shah gives us as the derivation for the term "Sufi." Knowing Lawrence and his love of puzzles and enigmas, he would have laughed with delight for sure at this one. Moreover, the use of initials in itself is an almost essential ingredient of things Sufi. So is the use of cyphers. So is declining to supply an index to a book. (Both Idries Shah and T.E.L. himself on this subject. His brother added the index to Seven Pillars after T.E.'s death -- T.E. himself did not include one.) There are many other Sufi references -- Lawrence's frequent references to the wool garments of the British soldier (himself, when in his native British attire). A reference in the key chapter of S.P.. "Myself," to "coaling steamers near Port Said," a splinter offshoot of the Sufis also being known as the "Coalmen" (i.e., he could have considered himself a splinter offshoot); his references to "people like us" in connection with "friends" -- again archtypical Sufi terminology. References to "the path" (key Sufi terminology) including his comment on the writing of SPW "By putting all the troubles and dilemmas on paper, I hoped to work out my path again, and satisfy myself how wrong, or how right, I had been" (see my Chapter III on "The Effort" approx. page 25) – there are additional references to "the path" from his chapter on "Myself." Also see the letter to Kennington re his drawing, the reference to the "little bit of land behind the palm tree, leading to the sword, which felt peaceful," with regard to the tremendous significance of the palm tree in the Sufi way (see Idries Shah writings). It is odd that Kennington should have picked up, in drawing, on so much of Lawrence's thinking -- little piece of land, behind the palm tree, leading to the sword, that felt peaceful. I.e., that it was Carchemish that led to the Arabian campaign, etc., etc., etc. Further re the four meanings -- Lawrence asks if Kennington thought of these.

The Seven Pillars title itself, which in view of all the other relevances must surely relate to the Seven Nafs of Sufism. The emphasis on finding the near divine love, also in the chapter on Myself -- his later remark to Lady Astor re "love carnal" vs. "love rarified," which relates to the Sufi thesis that, colloquially, "love makes the world go 'round." Further, Lawrence once told a friend, late in his life, that he regarded Jesus of Nazareth as the greatest man that ever lived -- and according, again, to Idries Shah, "Jesus is said to stand, in a sense, at the head of the Sufis." (The Way of the Sufi, page ll4.) And the influence of Jesus on Lawrence's life is enormously clear in the five key chapters of the Seven Pillars which end with the chapter on Myself. The contributors to the book, The T. E. Lawrence Puzzle, and in particular John Mack in his great book, A Prince of Our Disorder, have done a superb job of studying, analyzing and writing of Lawrence's sense of affinity with Jesus as defined in these five chapters. I had reached many of the same conclusions, and can only say now how grateful I am to these great researchers for their fine work.

The obsession with initials, in the true Sufi style, relates not only to S.A. itself, but to Lawrence's preference to be called simply "T.E." (the three-letter code, T.E.L., later T.E.S. -- i.e., tri-consonantal) -- his constant reference to his Seven Pillars of Wisdom as "S.P.W." -- and certainly to the key letter he wrote to Robert Graves, which Graves failed to pick up on but which actually gave him the name of S.A. (See my Chapter Two on his telling Graves to be sure to see and talk to "Mrs. Fontana . . . . . a very special person with the gift of feeling." (S.P.W. -- Seven Pillars of Wisdom -- the "gift" which is that crucial last word in the dedication.)

This chapter will cite the five chapters of the Seven Pillars which he said were the key to the cypher, especially the chapter titled "Myself" -- my assessment of which these were (from Oxford draft into Subscribers Edition) and how this was later confirmed by researchers who were allowed access to material which I was denied. Especially emphasize his aim which I pulled out of the chapter on Myself concerning "minting" himself into "love rarified" -- I have some very good material already written up on this in the old version of the book. From there move into The Way of the Sufi and the love rarified, and his hopes for himself and his future life on this score. (Then in the final chapter of this, my book, I detail how I believe he achieved all this.)

Also in this chapter, further explanation of the "Einstein prediction" -- the relativity concept with reference to the Sufi way.

The following are notes or direct quotes from Idries Shah. First, herewith from The Sufis. (In page references, “GI” indicates Robert Graves' introduction; “AP” indicated Author's Preface; “A”, Annotations.) Later, from The Way of the Sufi.

vii GI “(The Sufis) believe Sufism to be the secret teaching within all religions.”

“They even dislike being given any inclusive name which might force them into doctrinal conformity.”

"We friends" or "people like us" is how they refer to themselves, and they recognize one another by certain natural gifts, habits, qualities of thought.

viii GI “Their most obvious impact on civilization was made between the eighth and eighteenth centuries A.D.”

“Their mutual recognition cannot be explained in ordinary moral or psychological terms -- whoever understands it is himself a Sufi.”

“To be "in the world, but not of it," free from ambition, greed, intellectual pride, blind obedience to custom, or awe of persons higher in rank -- that is the Sufi's ideal.” (Note, "the ideal standard. How better describe Lawrence?)

“The individual devotee is offered a ‘secret garden’ for the growth of his understanding, but never required to become a monk, nun or hermit . . . and he thereafter claims to be enlightened by actual experience.” (The Mint!)

“The earliest known theory of conscious evolution is of Sufi origin but . . . it applies to the individual rather than to the race. The child's slow progress into manhood or womanhood figures as only a stage in his development of more spectacular powers for which the dynamic force is love.”

ix GI Enlightenment comes with love -- love in the poetic sense of perfect devotion to a Muse who, whatever apparent cruelties she may commit or however seemingly irrational her behavior, knows what she is doing. She seldom rewards her poet with any express sign of her favor, but confirms his devotion by its revivifying effect on him. . . . Ibn El-Arabi . . . Sufis Master Poet . . .

If I bow to her as is my duty

And if she never returns my salutation

Have I just cause for complaint?

Lovely woman feel no obligation.

Graves notes that parts of Europe fell strongly under Sufic influence as a result of the Crusades. (I add, and of course the earlier Arab infl.)

Ibn El-Arabi writes of himself:

I follow the religion of Love.

Now I am sometimes called

A Shepherd of gazelles [divine wisdom]

And now a Christian monk,

And now a Persian sage.

My beloved is Three --

Three yet only one;

Many things appear as three,

Which are no more than one.

Give her no name,

As if to limit one

At sight of whom

All limitation is confounded.

x GI The (Sufi) poets were the chief disseminators of Sufi thought, earned the same reverence as did the ollamhs, or master poets, of early medieval Ireland, and used a similar secret language of metaphorical reference and verbal cipher. Nizami the Persian Sufi writes: "Under the poet's tongue lies the key of the treasury. This language was a protection both against the vulgarizing or institutionalizing of a habit of thought only proper to those that understand it. . . Ibn El-Arabi, summoned before an Islamic inquisition at Aleppo to defend himself against charges of nonconformity, pleaded that his poems were metaphorical, the basic message being God's perfection of man through divine love. (WOW! Ibn El-Arabi re love in Aleppo. Divine love - love carnal, love divine. Cypher -- the key -- protection of privacy (not give myself entirely away). Oh Wow, what Lawrence reference.)

x, xi GI Graves equates "an ancient and familiar Western habit of thought with Sufic type thinking. Druid sacred plant, mistletoe = an emblem of Druid's way of thought -- a tree that is no tree, but fastens itself alike on oak, beech, pine, (etc., see whole quote). The symbolism is exact, if we can equate Druidic with Sufic thought, which is not planted like a tree, as religions are planted, but self-engrafted on a tree already in existence; it keeps green though the tree itself is asleep, in the sense that religions go dead by formalism; and the main motive power of its growth is love, not ordinary animal passion or domestic affection but a sudden surprising recognition of love so rare and high that the heart seems to sprout wings. (T.E.L's love rarified.)

xii GI Graves notes "the curiously Persian or Arabian forms of ninth-century Irish poems. Certainly a well-known ninth-century Celtic cross is distinguished by bearing the Arabic formula Bismillah er-Rahman, er-Rahim (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful) as proof that Sufism is consistent with both religions.

Healing, especially of psychosomatic disorders, is practiced by Sufis as a natural love duty (though not until they have studied for at least twelve years. The ollamhs were also healers and studied twelve years in their woodland schools.) The Sufi physician must not impose his own will on the patient, as most modern psychiatrists do; but having put him into deep hypnosis he must make him diagnose his own disorder and prescribe the cure. (Me: what Lawrence set out to do in his key chapters in SPW.)

xiii GI After their conquest by the Saracens beginning in the eighth century A.D., Spain and Sicily became centers of Moslem civilization renowned for religious austerity. The northern scholars who flocked there to buy Arabic works did not however demand orthodox Islamic doctrine but only Sufi literature. . . The songs of the troubadors -- the word is unconnected with trobar, "to find," but represents the Arabic root TRB, meaning "lutanist" -- are now authoritatively established as of Saracen origin.

. . . during the Crusades, the Knights Templars were accused of collaboration with Saracen Sufis.

xiv GI (Graves is here quoting a letter to him from Idries Shah): Sufis speak . . . of themselves as blind to things which are important to the unregenerate. Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to "things of the day" -- the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important -- and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That "mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment" is a commonplace of Sufi literature.” (See Lawrence's word from SPW on the dreamers of the night, and those of the day.)

xiv GI Graves also refers to Sufi's covert use of metaphor reassuring allies that one is one of their fraternity. Also states that many thousands of writers have made play with the associated meanings of Arabic roots. (It is amazing to me that, with all his intensive study of Lawrence, Graves never came up with any of this in relation to him.)

xv GI In the center stands a palm tree . . . The palm tree (NaKHL) is chosen because the triconsonantal root NKHL also means "a fine essence descending almost impalpably," such as the divine element baraka or "blessedness." Since the palm is a holy tree associated with birth among the Arabs, its appearance (on a coronation robe) means "Source of Blessedness." Moreover, the word for "palm tree" is tariqat, which is the Sufi technical term for "Being on the Path" -- that is to say, Sufism.

On either side of the palm a tiger is shown dragging down a camel. NMR is the Arabic root for "tiger," and JML for "camel." Thus the NMR overcomes the JML. But NMR also stands for "woolen garment" and for "unimpaired honor;" and since "Sufi" can mean "clad in wool," and since unimpaired honor is, with love, one of the two main pillars of Sufism, "Sufi" can be substituted for tiger. SPW -- ". . .the citadel of my integrity was irrevocably lost."

xv-xvi GI That absorption with the theme of love leads to ecstasy, all Sufis know. But whereas Christian mystics regard ecstasy as a union with God, and therefore the height of religious attainment, Sufis admit its value only if the devotee can afterward return to the world and live in a manner consonant with his experience. Western literature has been profoundly affected by the theme of man's spiritual tempering through love . . spread by Sufi scholars, best-known l2th century Averro‘s (Ibn Rushd) who transformed Christian scholastic thought. (Cf Ch on Myself, and The Mint. TEL wanted to be "an ordinary man.")

xviii GI Jewish Sufic sage, Avicebron, has been established as the vital influence behind St. Francis of Assisi's founding of the Franciscan Order, which Friar Roger Bacon joined in l247. A passage from one of Bacon's Latin works refers to the Sufic evolutionary theory, and says: . . . the generality of students are ignorant of all that depends upon it, as regards the generation of animate things, of plants and beasts, and men.

The Moslem Sufis were fortunate enough to protect themselves against charges of heresy by the efforts of El-Ghazali (l058-llll) . . . high doctrinal authority in Islam. (TEL's camel's name was Ghazala.) Nevertheless they were frequently the victims of pogroms in less enlightened regions, and were forced to adopt secret passwords, grips, and other ruses . . . In the west, Sufi thought continued to be a secret force running parallel to orthodox Christianity. (SECRETS, SECRETS, SECRETS.) Yet the Sufic works of Ghazali were cited by writers of immense prestige at the Christian universities.

This chapter also deals with Lawrence's achievement, during his years in the RAF, of the goals he set himself to reach via his enlistment. (Caenobite man.) I plan to begin that with a background review of the major religio-philosophical influences operative in his childhood and youth and his concern with concepts of "failure" and "freedom." Then, through material drawn from The Mint and from his letters during his first few years in the RAF and the tanks, I shall go into the evidences I see of his recovery from the devastations of Deraa and from his own subsequent self-condemnation (including resolution of the attitude toward sexual-physical "lust" and the children on whom it confers the "doubtful gift" of life); the successful effort to break the colossal will; finally his emergence into peace with himself, and his attendant decision to entertain the idea of ultimately identifying S.A. for readers of the future.

His "program" seems to me to give clear evidence of the Sufi influence. The Sufi l2 years, his l2 years in the RAF. The lay monk -- in monastery but returning to the world. There is SPW as "cypher". Note on Port Said -- "coaling steamers at Port Said" (his first moment in Arab world) with "others like myself" (a Sufi term -- others like us) -- the real taste of freedom (spiritual freedom? from the earlier influences -- suddenly comes clear?) (This is in his chapter on "Myself" which he calls "the key to it all.") The 7 pillars of wisdom -- the Sufi 7 nafs (the seven levels man must go through to attain the ideal, some of which Lawrence had already accomplished by the time of his birthday in Bair chapter -- the others to be achieved in his again Sufi-like l2 years of mint-ing in the RAF). The growing trend toward use of initials (including SA of course), then there is the "sacred palm tree" -- the Path -- the "way."

The Sufis p. 353. ". . .the Sufi moves among the incredible complex of actions and happenings in a state of inner awareness of their meaning." TEL had (in SP) a sense of many meanings in impact on him of the Arab campaign experience -- an "inner awareness."

Did Liddell Hart or Graves ever mention any clues about this in their biographies? I think not. Liddell Hart's essay in the "By His Friends" book, especially re TE & freedom, certainly cites Sufi philosophy characteristics of TE though not identifying them as such. Graves even wrote the preface to Idries Shah's book, "The Sufis" -- and Graves knew TE's bent toward initials and letter combos, and knew re the tri-consonantal meanings in Arabic tongue -- knew TE's talk about keys and cyphers, and the degree of importance of these in Sufi wisdom -- and knew TE's fascination with middle ages, e.g., troubadours, where Arab influence was so powerful -- incredible to me that Graves didn't pick up on all these various clues.