SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI

of religion who, among the nomadic Somali communities, act

as the teachers of Islam and the guardians of Muslim

orthodoxi. Lewis describes the position of the wadaad

and the Sufi communities in the Somali society as

follows:l

It is probably through the wadaad

who issue from the JA.tv1A.cAH communities

that Sufism exerts its greatest in-

fluence in Somali social structure.

The parent communities themselves

are essentially centres of mystical

devotion and have produced a con-

siderable Arab-Somali religious

literature written mainly in Arabic.
As I have mentioned earlier, the principal aim of Sufism
is the love of God and union with Him. According to
the Sufi doctrine, spiritual love embraces every faculty

and marks each one of them with the seal of Divine Unity.

In consequence of this strong passion, the Somali Sufis

who yearn for the union with God compose mystical poems

which deal with the theme of spiritual love in Arabic.

To the Somali. Sufis, if one loves God, it follows that

one also loves God's Messenger and His pious servants.

51.

The Messenger of God is regarded as the Divine Mercy which

has been granted to the world (RAI;IMATUN LILCALAMIN). As

for His pious servants, the friends of God or saints

(AWLIYA~) in Sufi parlance, they are the representatives

of the Proph'et who carryon his mystical function> The

Prophet said, 'Men of religion are the inheritors of the

Prophe~.,2 Consequently, the Somali mystics seek love of

God, the love of the Prophet and the love of the saint~.

The behaviour of the Prophet and the saints has become

a good example for the Sufi shaikhs to emulat~. Since it

is recounted in the Islamic tradition that the pious men

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