SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI

IV

Presentation

In my arrangement of the material presented in this
thesis I have been influenced by the traditional approach
among the Somali adherents of the QADIRIYYAH Sufi Order.
Their devotions are classified and have a hierarchical
order. As Shariif Caydaruus (CAYDARDS 1955, p. 220)
points out, Sufi poems are sung at Remembrance (DHIKR)

meetings in the order symbolized by the four Arabic

letters used in the principal name for 'God' in Arabic

(ALLAH): ALIF, LAM, LAM, and HA? •^1 Each of these letters

represents the following types of poems:

ALIF: , p oems concerning Go:d.

The first LAM: those in praise of the Prophet.

The second LAM: , those in praise of the Sufi saints.

HR: miscellaneous didactic and exhortative poems

(mainly inspired by the devotional and

eschatological literature in Islam).

Thus, the thematic arrangement of the poems in Part

Three of this thesis follows the order of the letters in

the Divine Name ALLAH which, according to Sufis, embraces

all that 'is' from the Absolute down to the smallest grain

of dus't.

I am aware, however, of the fact that in a number of

these poems there is an overlapping of themes and that

my classification is not absolutely rigid. In assigning

a poem to one of the four groups, I made my own ad hoc

judgement as to what would be its predominant theme in

20.