Maryamiyya Order

The Maryamiyya Order is a tariqa or Sufi order founded by Sheikh Isa Nur ad-Din–Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998). It is a branch of the Shadhiliyya-Darqawiyya-Alawiyya order, with communities in Europe, the Americas and the Islamic world. Its doctrine is based on what it understands to be the universal truths of pure esoterism, and its method conforms to the essential elements of the Sufi path.

Founding
Frithjof Schuon was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1907. Raised as a Protestant before becoming a Catholic at the age of 14, he was sensitive from an early age to diverse expressions of the sacred. His father passed on to him not only an admiration for Eastern wisdoms, Islam and the North American Indians, but also a love of the Virgin Mary.

He was 16 when he discovered the writings of René Guénon. These confirmed and helped to structure his own convictions. In 1931, he began to correspond with Guénon, who advised him to turn to Islam and Sufism. At the end of 1932, Schuon traveled to Mostaganem, Algeria, where he entered Islam, receiving the name Isa. He spent nearly four months in the zawiya of Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi, who initiated him into Sufism and gave to him the additional name of Nur ad-Din.

Three years later, he returned to Mostaganem where, he reports, Sheikh Adda Ben Tounes, successor to Sheikh al-Alawi, conferred upon him the function of muqaddam, authorizing him to initiate aspirants into the Alawi order. Returning to Europe, he established zawiyas in Switzerland and France, composed mostly of fellow readers of Guénon. At the end of 1936, Schuon awoke one morning with the certainty of having been invested with the function of spiritual master or Sufi sheikh. Several of those close to him reported dreams they had experienced the same night, confirming this new function. As each Sufi sheikh is independent, Schuon's group became an autonomous branch of the Tariqa Alawiyya.

Doctrine and Method
Every spiritual path comprises a doctrine and a method. Those of the Maryamiyya Order may be summed up in two words: religio perennis (perennial religion). This religio is neither a religion among others, nor a religion superior to others, rather it constitutes the timeless, primordial and universal essence of all religions; it is quintessential esoterism, both doctrinal and methodical. The Maryamiyya's doctrine is thus based on pure metaphysics–above all, discernment between the absolute Principle and its manifestation. Its method for spiritual realization is based essentially upon prayer, especially invocatory prayer accompanied by meditation, and the practice of virtue. However, according to Schuon, this realization cannot be actualized independently of a revealed religion. While all religions provide this possibility,  Schuon considers that "Islam possesses an essentiality, simplicity, and universality that renders it particularly apt to convey a direct manifestation of the Religio perennis."

More specifically, the Maryami spiritual method is based on the central practices of Sufism, starting with the ritual prayer (salah), the invocation of the Divine Name (dhikr Allah) and the individual retreat (khalwa). Originally for the benefit of his Western disciples, Schuon focused on the essential and obligatory elements of Islamic law (sharia). He did so in part because he considered the full observance of the sharia by Westerners in the West to be unrealistic and also because, in line with other Sufi masters, he wanted the emphasis placed on the invocation of the Divine Name rather than on the accumulation of meritorious practices. Some of the modalities of this relaxation aroused opposition within and outside of the order.

Schuon expounds his perennialist philosophy in some twenty books, in which he highlights such essential necessities as prayer, virtue and beauty, along with the awareness of the maladies of modernism, which he contrasts with the traditional, God-centered mentality. "What distinguishes us above all–he says–from Muslims by birth or conversion–'psychologically' one might say–is that our mind is centered a priori on universal metaphysics (Advaita Vedanta, Shahadah, Risalat El-Ahadiyah) and the universal way of the Divine Name (japa yoga, nembutsu, dhikr, prayer of the heart)."

Growth
Schuon lived in relative anonymity. He was opposed to any proselytizing of his order, whose existence was known during his life only by word of mouth. As his writings attracted more and more seekers, communities of disciples formed in Europe, North and South America and the Islamic world. He directed them from Lausanne, Switzerland, from 1941 to 1980, and from Bloomington, Indiana, U.S., from 1980 until his death in 1998.

Although not directly affiliated with his Sufi order, Schuon had a number of followers from other religions, who shared the same perennialist perspective and followed the rites and invocatory practices of their own religion. Most of them adhered to Christianity, and a few to Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism.

Maryam
Schuon reported that in spring of 1965 he experienced the first of a series of visions of Mary (Maryam in Arabic), the mother of Jesus. The influence of this experience can be seen in his Arabic poetry, his paintings and his subsequent written work. He considered her to be his, as well as his order's, "spiritual protectress". In 1969, he added the name "Maryamiyya" to the denomination of his order, whose full name became Tariqa Shadhiliyya-Darqawiyya-Alawiyya-Maryamiyya. For him:

"the Virgin Mother, who–according to a symbolism common to Christianity and Islam–has suckled her children, the Prophets and sages, from the beginning and outside of time. [...] Mother of all the Prophets and matrix of all the sacred forms, she has her place of honor within Islam even while belonging a priori to Christianity; for this reason, she constitutes a kind of link between these two religions, whose common purpose is universalizing the monotheism of Israel. The Virgin Mary is not merely the embodiment of a particular mode of sanctity; she embodies sanctity as such. She is not one particular color or one particular perfume; she is colorless light and pure air. In her essence she is identified with merciful Infinitude, which–preceding all forms–overflows upon them all, embraces them all, and reintegrates them all."

North American Indians
Already present in his childhood, Schuon's admiration for the Native American world continued throughout his life. He spent the summers of 1959 and 1963 with his wife in the American West, where he forged ties with several tribal chiefs. The couple was adopted into the Sioux (Lakota) tribe in 1959 and into the Crow tribe in 1987.

After emigrating to the United States in 1980, Schuon was visited annually by Thomas Yellowtail, Crow medicine man and leader of the Crow Sun Dance. During several of these visits, Yellowtail taught Schuon and some of his followers several of his tribal dances and songs, which later led the Bloomington community to hold occasional "Indian Days".

Participating in Native American Indian dances has caused some controversy among Maryamis. Schuon clarified that these are only secular pow-wows, without any rite and thus without interference with the Sufi path. He further said that these meetings are optional and that they "are situated outside the practices of the Tariqah–they pertain, in sum, to our private life". More broadly, Schuon explained that "given that our perspective is essentialist, and therefore universalist and primordialist, it is entirely plausible that we have fraternal relationship with the world of the American Indians, which integrates Virgin Nature into religion; furthermore, it can give us–we who live in an unwholesome universe made of artificiality, ugliness, and pettiness–a refreshing breath of primordiality and grandeur."

In 1991, a former disciple accused Schuon of misconduct during an Indian Day. An investigation was launched, but the chief prosecutor concluded that "there is not a shred of evidence" and dismissed the case. The prosecutor issued an apology to Schuon, and the local press published an editorial entitled "Schuon case a travesty".

Succession
In 1992, at the age of 85, Schuon resigned as sheikh of the order. He did not name a successor and announced that the muqaddam of each zawiya would become independent, hence a khalifa (caliph). This in effect established multiple autonomous zawiyas. Schuon himself continued to lead the Bloomington community until the end of his life, and to provide advice to disciples from around the world who visited or wrote to him.